Raven Stole the Moon (39 page)

Jenna stopped short with a gasp and David almost ran into her. He followed her sight line and saw what had surprised her. On the ground not more than a few feet away from them was a female kushtaka suckling her young. But the female wasn’t in otter form. Not quite. She was half otter, half human, a strange combination of skin and fur, with a human head and a large torso, but also with small arms and legs and eight nipples on her belly, at which five tiny fur balls sucked eagerly. Jenna and David stood and watched, Jenna in horror, David in awe. Neither had seen anything like it before.

David nudged Jenna to keep moving. He didn’t want the suckling kushtaka to notice them. They continued along the wall and around a large boulder, and then they stopped short again.

“Mommy?”

A little boy stood before them. It was Bobby.

Jenna didn’t say a word; she froze and looked down at Bobby. He was naked, but fully in his human form. Jenna wanted to go to him, but she held herself back. She was confused by everything she was seeing, and her confusion kept her from following her instinct as a mother.

“Hello, Bobby. I’m David.”

Bobby looked suspiciously at David and took a tentative step away from him.

“Don’t go, Bobby. We’re here to help you.”

Bobby looked to Jenna, who had retreated a little, not sure of what to do.

“Bobby, your mommy wants to help you. If you come with us, we can help you.”

David moved toward Bobby, reaching out his hand. Bobby looked nervously at David and then at Jenna.

“Tell him it’s okay,” David said to Jenna.

She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. She didn’t know what was happening and she wasn’t quite able to deal with it all.

“Jenna, tell him it’s okay to come with us.”

Jenna covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. What had become of her son? What was he?

“Jenna.”

But she wasn’t going to do it. She wasn’t helping. David had no other choice but to grab Bobby and take him forcibly. He lunged at the boy, but Bobby was much too fast for David. Bobby scampered away and disappeared into the cavern.

David straightened up and turned to Jenna.

“Jenna, you have to help me, here. You have to bring him to us so we can go.”

She was in shock, her eyes glazed over.

“Please. We’ve come so far. We can do it, Jenna. But you have to help.”

She nodded.

“Now call him.”

Softly, she called Bobby’s name. They waited. Nothing. Then, behind them, a small voice.

“Who is that man?”

They turned. Standing behind them was Bobby.

“Tell him who I am,” David said to Jenna.

She took a deep breath.

“He’s David. He’s here to help us,” she said.

“Ask him to come to you,” David instructed.

Jenna knelt down and held out her arms.

“Come here, Bobby.”

After a hesitation, Bobby went to Jenna. He allowed her to take his shoulders and pull him close. David moved toward them.

“Comfort him, Jenna. Tell him everything’s okay.”

She did. She held him. David put his hand on Bobby’s arm. And suddenly, Bobby shot away from them like a little wind sprite, vanishing before either of them could react.

They looked around the cavern for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s too suspicious,” David said. “He’ll never come with us.”

“So, what do we do?” Jenna asked.

David knew what they should do, but he didn’t know if Jenna could do it. They had to get out of there with Bobby, and they didn’t have a lot of time to try to explain to Bobby the situation. They had to get him out dead or alive, conscious or unconscious. It didn’t matter. Because Bobby was already dead.

“Jenna, we need to hurt him.”

“What?”

“He’s too fast for us. We need to slow him down. You have to call him to you and then you have to hurt him.”

Jenna stared at David, incredulous.

“No.”

“Jenna, he’s dead. He died two years ago. Anything you do to him now won’t hurt him because he’s already dead, understand?”

“No.”

David sighed. How could he ask her to do something like that? She was the boy’s mother. Her duty was to protect him from harm at all costs. How could she be convinced to cause the boy harm?

“Jenna, do you want to save Bobby’s soul?”

“I can’t hurt him.”

“Jenna, trust me. It’s the only way. If you don’t do it, then you and I will have to leave him here and he’ll be one of them forever.”

He paused to let it sink in. He wanted her to feel the full impact.

“That woman you saw over there with the otter pups? She was a person once. That’s what happens. Is that what you want for your son?”

With the faint light from the cavern entrance, David could see Jenna’s face. He could see her clench her teeth, her jaw bulge with effort. She nodded slightly. David picked up a rock the size of his hand.

“Take this. Call him to you. When he comes, hit him with it. You don’t have to kill him, just slow him down. We have to get him out of here or he’s here forever.”

Jenna took the rock. David slipped away into the darkness, hiding himself behind a boulder nearby.

Jenna set the rock down next to her. She knelt and called for Bobby. After a few moments, he appeared before her.

“Who is that man?” he asked.

“A friend of ours. He’s here to help us.”

“Help us what?”

“Help us leave. Don’t you want to leave, Bobby?”

“No, I want to stay.”

“Bobby, you don’t belong here. You belong with me, don’t you know that?”

He shook his head.

“Stay here, Mommy.”

“I can’t. I don’t belong here, and neither do you. Please, Bobby, come with me. It will be okay.”

“No.”

Jenna hung her head. She wanted to do it without hurting him, but she could see that it wouldn’t work. He wasn’t going to make it easy. David was right. She trusted David. She had to do what he said.

“Come give me a hug, baby.”

She held out her arms for Bobby. He went to her. She held him against her, hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back. Things had to be set right, Jenna knew. They were wrong. For the past two years everything was wrong; she had felt that deep down inside her. Now it all had to be set right. There was no other way.

She picked up the rock from the ground with her right hand, pushed Bobby away from herself slightly, and struck him on the temple solidly. One blow was all it took. The boy crumpled to the ground. Jenna looked down at Bobby, stunned at what she had done.

David was next to her immediately. He took off his shirt and wrapped it around Bobby, and then he picked up the limp boy.

“Let’s go,” he said, and he started toward the far end of the cavern. But Jenna didn’t follow him. She stayed where she was, on her knees, holding her rock. David looked back over his shoulder and paused. Jenna didn’t move. David took a few steps back to her.

“Jenna, you had to do it.”

Jenna looked up at David. Relentless David. Tireless David. The little man with the long hair who wouldn’t let her stop. She had to follow him. There was no other way to go.

They moved quickly and silently through the cavern, following the river. At a certain point, David noted that the river widened into a pool with still water. The water was clear, but the bottom of the pool was dark, so the effect was that of a mirror. There was no way of knowing how deep the pool was or what was beneath its surface.

Eventually the cavern narrowed and split in two. One leg followed the river down into darkness. The other leg slanted up sharply toward the light. That would lead to the surface. From where they were, twenty yards from the fork, they could see two adult kushtaka near the cave that led to the surface.

“How will we get by them?” Jenna asked.

“We’re going to walk,” David answered. “Now, listen, Jenna. Keep your mind clear. Don’t think any thoughts. Don’t say anything. If you do, they’ll be on us in a second. We have to be blank. We have to walk right by them as if we’re kushtaka going for some fresh air.”

“How do you know it will work?”

“I don’t.”

They walked toward the mouth of the cave. Out in plain sight, they felt naked and exposed. David especially, because he was carrying Bobby. They got closer to the kushtaka. So far, so good. No alarms. Nobody chasing them. The kushtaka guards didn’t even seem to notice them. The kushtaka were talking. Or, rather, communicating in some way. It wasn’t with words; it was with some strange sounds. They were large and intimidating. But David didn’t want to judge them. That would surely be a thought they could read. He hoped that Jenna would be cool through this, but then he stopped his thoughts. Clear mind. No thoughts about Jenna, about Bobby, about the kushtaka. No thoughts at all.

As they passed into the cave, one of the guards looked up. It looked right up at Jenna and David. And it did nothing. David and Jenna continued walking.

Once past the guards, David quickened the pace. They were close now, close to the mouth of the cave. They could see the daylight outside. The leaves of trees swaying in the breeze. The surface was only a few yards away.

Jenna moved close to David.

“Why didn’t they stop us?” Jenna asked.

David snapped his head around and glared at Jenna. She realized immediately what she had done. They both glanced back over their shoulders and saw the guards stand up and look at them. One of the kushtaka turned away, toward the cavern and let out a series of shrieks. The other kushtaka started coming toward David and Jenna, fast.

“Run,” David yelled, and they took off toward the surface. When they reached the mouth of the cave, David thrust Bobby’s limp body at Jenna.

“Take him. You have to run.”

“Where?”

“Keep your mind clear and concentrate. Look for a path through the woods. It’ll be a definite path. You’ll know it when you see it.”

The kushtaka guard was closing on them.

“Where does it lead?”

“To the Land of Dead Souls, where Bobby belongs.”

“No.”

“Jenna—”

“I want him to stay with me.”

David looked down into the cave. The kushtaka guard was almost on top of them.

“Jenna, you came here to rescue Bobby. You can’t rescue his body, but you
can
rescue his soul. Go. Please.”

“What about you?”

David didn’t answer. He turned and ran into the cave at full speed, tackling the kushtaka that was coming at him. They struggled. The kushtaka threw David to the ground. It straddled David and was about to strike him with its claw when David grabbed the knife from his belt and thrust it into the kushtaka under its arm. The kushtaka let out a piercing scream and fell over onto the dirt, writhing in pain. David called back to Jenna.

“Trust the woods, Jenna. Now, go. Run!”

She turned, and, with Bobby in her arms, she ran as fast as she could away from the cave. She ran through the forest without looking back, without thinking a thought. She didn’t need to think. Her body was on autopilot. She ran and ran until she was exhausted and had to stop to get her breath. She laid Bobby on the ground near the trunk of a fallen tree and then she sat down next to him. She had to rest. David would hold them off, she knew. At least for a little while. Long enough for her to collect herself. Questions kept surging through her head. Why? Where? But she fought them back. Now wasn’t the time for questions. She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked down at Bobby’s peaceful face. Whose world was she in, and would she ever get out? It all seemed like some kind of dream. Some kind of nightmare. But her thoughts didn’t matter. It was happening, and that was all. That was the only thing that mattered now.

D
AVID RAN DOWN
the cave and into the cavern. Adult kushtaka were coming from everywhere, but they seemed confused, undisciplined. They climbed out of holes in the walls and ran around scooping up their young and rushing them to safety. Everything seemed a little frantic, and that surprised David. He had expected them to be more like one cohesive unit. A group that had its standing orders and all thought alike. But it wasn’t so. They were much more like people than David had imagined.

That is, until the kushtaka shaman arrived. He was large, very much like a bear, and he commanded the attention of the others. They gathered around him and took on his sense of direction. A direction that led to David, standing in the mouth of the cave.

There were at least twenty man-sized kushtaka in a pack with the kushtaka shaman at the point. They stopped a few feet from David, and the kushtaka shaman stepped forward.

“Where are the woman and the boy?” he demanded. His voice was deep and heavy. It had weight, his voice, and seemed to press on David.

“Let them go and I will stay with you,” David answered.

The kushtaka shaman smiled.

“You will stay with us anyway.”

Then the kushtaka shaman barked at the others. Several of them attempted to move past David, but David held out his knife and blocked the way. They were going to chase after Jenna and Bobby, and David had to stop them or at least delay them.

The kushtaka hesitated. Their shaman barked again, this time more sternly. And suddenly all the kushtaka who stood before David transformed. They shrank in size, into otter form, and they shot past David so quickly he could do nothing to stop them.

“Shit,” David muttered, watching the kushtaka speed by him. They were far too fast for him. David was done for. How could he prevent the whole pack from chasing Jenna? Not by standing in their way with a knife, that was for sure. He would have to take more drastic action, have to really make a sacrifice. And so that’s what he did. With a yell, David charged the kushtaka shaman with his knife outstretched.

It was a ridiculous idea, David realized, as he was easily batted down by the kushtaka shaman. Brute force was not the way with these creatures. They had brute force on their side. He gathered himself from the ground and looked up at the kushtaka who were surrounding him. Another prison tube for David, no doubt. Darker and damper and, of course, deeper. They would probably keep him there until his mind snapped and his will was broken, and then they would begin the conversion. He would be eating raw fish for the rest of eternity. Not very appealing. But then David thought back to how he had gotten away from the kushtaka a little while ago. By being nothing. By not registering on their radar. Maybe there was still a chance. David jumped up and swung his knife around, forcing the kushtaka who encircled him back a few steps. If they wanted him, they were going to have to catch him.