The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (37 page)

"So, little goat. You think this is funny," hissed the Warthog, thrusting itself at Kuda. The boy impulsively grasped the tusks protruding from the mouth. He yanked the mask right off, and it clattered to the floor.

"Don't look behind a mask!"
the others shouted, swooping to retrieve it. They swiftly returned it to its owner, but in that instant, Tendai saw a human face. He had expected something horrible — a skull, perhaps, or a bundle of snakes. Instead, he saw a middle-aged man with sagging jowls and pouches under his eyes.

"You're people!" he cried.

"People, yes," said the Porcupine. "Without the Masks we are men, but with them we take on the powers of the spirit world. And the powers must be fed!"

"We're wasting time," the Warthog said.

Tendai and Rita were snatched up, and their hands were tied. Kuda was plucked from Trashman's arms. The man immediately tried to get him back. He was brought down with a rag soaked in chloroform, like the ones Knife and Fist used at Mbare Musika, and rolled into a corner. The Masks packed suitcases with the things they would need: herbs, dried animals, noxious oils and an assortment of knives.

"I recognize the Warthog," whispered Tendai to Rita. "It's Obambo Chivari, the Gondwannan Ambassador."

"Are you sure?" she whispered back.

"I saw him at the Starlight Room."

"I remember. He tripped the soup waiter as a joke — oh!"

"What is it?"

Rita nodded at the calendar. It was tacked among the dried creatures on the wall. A picture of Zimbabwe Ruins, with a knife driven through it, was at the top, but the days were crossed off in a perfectly orderly way. Tendai saw it was the day before his birthday.

"At midnight, you'll be fourteen," said Rita.

Tendai swallowed. So much time had passed! He saw himself on his last birthday, a spoiled, ignorant child.
 
He had got a model village kit and toy spear. Tendai flushed with embarrassment. Had he really been such a baby? And when he blew out the candles on the cake, hadn't he made a wish?
I
want an adventure.

"On your feet," said Obambo Chivari. They were led to a landing platform and put into a limo. The Masks prodded and pushed the She Elephant into another. Then they all took off into the night sky. The windows were shaded and the hoods decorated with flapping Gondwannan flags. These were embassy cars, and no traffic policeman would dare to stop them.

They raced through the Zimbabwe heavens, black on black, blaring sirens that meant "Make way! Or we'll run you down!" They sideswiped a taxi and sent it spinning almost out of control. The Masks crouched in their hideous disguises, hidden behind their tinted windows.

Tendai looked down on the beautiful crisscross of streets that made up his city. A year ago, he would merely have admired the view. Now he saw how fragile it all was, laid open to its enemies at its heart. He understood, as Rita and Kuda could not, what was involved in becoming a messenger to the Gondwannan spirit world. They had not listened to the conversation between Father and the martial arts instructor in the library so long ago.

Becoming a messenger meant death.

It meant dying in such pain that one's spirit was charged with dreadful energy. Only then could it gain the attention of the sluggish Gondwannan gods.

Tendai was terribly afraid. He saw how he had blundered — and taken Rita and Kuda with him — into one bad situation after another.
Just look how you behaved at Mbare Musika,
a voice inside his head told him.
You were supposed to take care of your siblings,
but no. You had to have fun.

And what about Dead Man's Vlei? Wasn't it you who gave up and Rita who kept fighting? In Resthaven, you basked in everyone's approval instead of finding a way home. Worst of all was how you behaved at Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham's. You should have confronted
her the minute you learned about her treachery.
You were afraid to. Admit it! That's why the She Elephant had time to find you. You were a baby last year, and you're still a baby
—

Stop it!
cried Tendai to all the thoughts crowding in on him.
I know what you are. Go back, you filthy Gondwannan spirits! I'm a Shona warrior. My
mutupo
is the lion; my
chidao
is the heart. Beware!

As he thought this, he remembered a poem the Mellower used to recite to them in the nursery. It was a traditional boast of a fighter before he went into battle. The Mellower strutted up and down, aiming punches at the shadows and scowling ferociously.

I am one for whom dangers are playthings!

One who empties men of their strength

As a nut from its shell.

The charms you use I chop up

For relish on my porridge.

Beware!

I am a deadly mamba,

Wrestler of leopards,

A hive of hornets,

A man among men!

The old war song filled Tendai's chest with warmth, radiating from the
ndoro
that still nestled under his shirt to his fingers and toes. The evil thoughts fled away like shadows from a bonfire. They were still out there, waiting for his courage to fail, but for the moment Tendai gave himself up to the feeling of strength.

The limos swooped down toward a private dock near the top of the Mile-High
-
Macllwaine. Tendai was amazed the Masks would hide in such a public place, but of course it wasn't public. It was the only spot in Zimbabwe beyond the reach of the law: the Gondwannan Embassy.

The dock wasn't very wide. Around the edge was a low railing, and beyond, the wind howled as tatters of cloud blew between the landing area and the great city of Harare. The She Elephant cursed as she was forced from her limo.

The dock was moving!

With a vast creaking, the Mile-High Macllwaine swayed like a huge flower on its stem. Slowly the dock crept forward and eclipsed a pattern of buildings far below. As the landing area creaked back, the buildings reappeared. The wind tore at the Masks' robes and fluttered the quills of the Porcupine. Tendai suddenly snaked out his foot and tripped the Warthog, who was grasping him by the arm. They went down together. The Warthog mask, perhaps weakened by Kuda's earlier assault, came off. It bowled over and over in the wind until it came to the railing and fell off.

A collective wail went up from the Masks. The Warthog tusks were outlined briefly against a patch of cloud in the dock lights. Then it was gone. "My power!" shrieked Obambo Chivari. He dragged Tendai to the railing, but the other Masks pulled them back.

"Don't be a fool!" shouted the Porcupine over the wind. "The boy will make an excellent messenger. The braver he is, the more force he will have when we break him down."

"Anyhow, you were going to be possessed by the Big-Head Spirit tonight," yelled the Baboon. Tendai's head was pulled back from the rail. He was shoved through a glass door and onto a Persian carpet in an astonishing room.

Gold-inlaid tables were crowded with jade and ivory statues of the most exquisite workmanship. Silk curtains decorated the walls. Fine furniture was draped with leopard and tiger skins, and real plastic bowls glittered with jewels.

"If you ask me, it's overdone," sniffed Rita. The Mask behind her gave her a shove. Kuda wandered up to one of the bowls and dug in his hands. Emerald, diamond and ruby necklaces draped over his stubby fingers. He put a large black pearl earring in his mouth, but Rita made him put it back. "You don't know where it's been," she said.

At the far end of the room was a black curtain. Obambo Chivari yanked it back to reveal the second half of the room. Gone were the carpets and golden tables. Gone were the exquisite works of art. Tendai saw a dull cement floor on which was bolted a chair. All around the walls and on the floor was the evidence of the lowest impulses to which humans could sink: one could not call the cruel remains of sacrifices bestial, for beasts have dignity. Whatever was twisted or diseased in the human soul was present in that room.

Rita turned away with a cry. She hid Kuda's face against her T-shirt. The She Elephant sank to her knees and gathered both children into a bear hug.

The thing that most commanded Tendai's attention lay against the far wall, beyond the chair. The lights of the first part of the room barely touched it. It was large and shifting, as though composed of shadow and the ominous stench that pervaded everything. Tendai walked toward it, hypnotized by its eerie presence.

"Don't," sobbed Rita.

It was a mask.

Twice as large as any of the others, it had a human face, but one so twisted with agony, it was unbearable to look at. The mouth was rimmed with many teeth. They were too small to have come from an adult human. The head was covered with scalps stitched together to form a wig. The cheeks were streaked with a sticky blackened substance. The eyes — were hollow. At least for the moment. But Tendai had the feeling that somewhere the Presence that inhabited the mask was prowling. It was waiting for the moment when it would take up residence. And then the eyes would open.

The hands of the Masks reached out to him from all sides and carried him to the chair in the middle of the room.

Thirty-seven

The wind struck them the instant they came onto the roof. Arm ducked and crawled along the cement on his hands and knees. Ear folded his ears. The traffic beacon at the top of a metal scaffold cast a fitful red light as it blinked on and off.

"Imagine changing
that
light bulb," shouted Ear over the howling wind.

"It looked so peaceful from inside," Arm shouted back. "This is a problem I hadn't expected."

"Are we — are we
moving?"
Ear flattened himself on the cold cement.

"Yes! The Mile-High Macllwaine is built to sway. It has something to do with structural stability. Nothing this tall can survive unless it bends in the wind."

"I'm going to be seasick."

Arm moved away from Ear along the platform. He was extremely glad he hadn't dined on garlic soup, curried prawns and avocado salad. After a few moments, Ear recovered. "The Gondwannan Embassy is over here," called Arm from the railing. He looked down the mile-long drop to Harare.

About sixty feet below was a landing dock.

Ear crept up behind. "If the building tips, won't we slide off?"

"We won't fit between the bars. Hold on to the railing like I do. Can you hear anything?"

"The building creaks. It's so strange. It sounds like the sailboat my father used to take out on Lake Kariba. I wish I was there now."

"Pay attention. I've got to know if anyone's in the embassy."

Ear extended his ears slightly, but the wind blew them shut. "I can hear dishes clinking in the Starlight Room. The cook just cut his thumb. He says —"

"Not there! Can't you open your ears more?"

"I'm afraid the wind will tear them." But Ear tried again. This time he heard a guard test the safety catch on his Soul Stealer outside the Gondwannan Embassy. "I don't think anyone's inside — whoa!" The building tilted, and Ear slid up against the railing. His feet went off the edge. He kicked wildly as he clawed his way back to safety.

"See? Your shoulders don't fit between the bars," said Arm.

“I'm going to be sick again."

Arm watched the clouds pass between them and the city. The wind was picking up: the Mile-High Macllwaine creaked back, and the landing dock jutted out slightly. If he climbed over the railing, he could almost slide down the side of the building to reach it. "I hear something whirring."

"It's only a taxi. Can we go inside now?" Ear said.

"The taxi stands are on the opposite side of the building. Isn't listening supposed to be your job?"

Ear miserably crawled back to the railing. He opened his ears slightly, backing them with his hands for protection. The dock lights came on.

"Well, well. Company's coming," said Arm. From the night sky came a cluster of black limos. They dipped through the rushing shreds of cloud, and the traffic beacon painted their windows red. The limos swooped in a tight pattern to settle on the Gondwannan landing dock. Arm pulled himself to a standing position and leaned over the railing. "Come up here."