Sumo wrestlers? Jake ran other possibilities through his head, going over the other cultures he’d seen here. “Do you mean Sumerians?”
“I guess. Whatever. Heron tried to tell me about the game. Sounds sort of like polo. Anyway, he’s going to take me to one of his practices.” She waved to her guard, who waved back, wearing a goofy smile.
Jake finally backed away, giving up. “Then if you’re okay, I’ll just head out with Marika and Pindor myself.”
She shrugged, but an edge entered her voice. She stared hard at him. “Just make sure you know what you’re doing. Don’t get too distracted.”
He understood what she was implying. In other words, Don’t fool around…find a way home. And while he worked at doing that, Kady could continue to play Valkyrie-warrior Barbie.
As his sister returned to the others, Jake frowned at her back. Kady was leaving everything up to him, to figure out what was going on and how to get home.
But could he do that?
Dark words echoed in his head, reminding him he was running out of time.
He comes, he comes….
13
THE FIRST TRIBE
Back out on the street, Jake stood under the prow of the Viking warship. He faced Marika and Pindor. “What next?”
Jake had thought he would need the entire day just to pry Kady from underneath her bed. But that wasn’t the case. As usual, she was the center of attention. This both irritated and relieved him. He stood at the edge of the street, unsure what to do, where to begin his own investigations.
“We could show you more of Calypsos,” Marika answered.
“I say we go to the market,” Pindor said. He stared up at the sun and held a palm over his stomach. “I’m starving.”
“You just ate,” Marika said.
“That was forever ago.”
Marika rolled her eyes. “First, we’ll see as much of the city as we can.”
With Marika leading, they headed back out to the streets. Everywhere there seemed an excitement in the air, an electricity generated by all the bustle of the people and crackle of their shouts and laughter. Outside a Chinese pagoda, very young children were practicing with cymbals and horns.
“The Spring Equinox approaches swiftly,” Marika explained. “It comes in two days. The entire town celebrates with a great feast and party.”
“And it’s the day of the Olympiad!” Pindor added with a rare note of enthusiasm. “The final battle to decide which tribe will win the Eternal Torch for this year. See over here!”
Pindor hurried forward. A few families were picnicking in a small park outside the castle walls. Pindor ran past them toward a ledge that stuck out and offered a wide view. He pointed toward the north end of town.
A large stone stadium, like a miniature Roman coliseum, extended to the volcanic rim of the valley, one side carved into the steep ridge.
“We hold plays and shows over there, too,” Marika added. “It’s not all brawl and tussle.”
Movement to the right of the coliseum drew Jake’s attention. Cliff-dwelling homes had been dug into the ridgeline neighboring the stadium. From the highest level of the dwellings, a team of giant birds took flight and coursed out over the city in a strict V-shaped pattern.
“People of the Wind,” Marika said, watching alongside Jake. Her voice was full of wonder. “They’re the only ones who know how to tame the great winged raz. They raise them from hatchlings, bonding them to their youngest children. It is said they grow up closer than brothers and sisters.”
As the team flew past, Jake pictured the scout who had landed atop the tower, dressed all in leather with a crown of feathers. Of course, his tribe wouldn’t call themselves Indians or even Native Americans. Those were names placed upon them by outsiders.
Jake stared upward as the birds swept past, rising high on heated air from one of the volcanic vents. People of the Wind. The name was certainly fitting.
The three of them tracked the birds across the sky and over the castle. As they finally disappeared, Marika sagged. “It’s getting late. We should be getting home.”
Jake glanced back over to the cliffs, but a slide of shadows along the edge of the bushes caught his eye. A slow dark shape dashed across the rocky lookout, grabbed a bone left behind by one of the picnickers, and dove back toward the bushes. Then it suddenly froze at the edge and stared straight back at Jake.
Large feline eyes flashed golden in the slanting sunlight.
A Rhabdofelix! The same one Jake had set free. So she had escaped and found a place to hunt for scraps.
“Hey, look at—” Jake turned to show Marika, but the cat had vanished.
“What?” Pindor asked.
Jake shook his head and waved them onward. “Never mind.”
They circled the castle wall to the main gates. Pindor said his good-byes, leaving Marika and Jake to cross the courtyard and enter the castle keep.
Marika had gone silent, deep in her own thoughts, so Jake kept quiet while they climbed the tower. As they reached the landing, Marika keyed open the door to her home and finally spoke. “I wonder how Huntress Livia is—”
Jake gasped out loud, silencing her. As he stepped inside, he saw the room was not empty. A small boy, maybe a year younger than Jake, was setting a bowl of fruit on the table. Jake stared at the stranger. The other stared back—then quickly retreated to the narrow side door. He vanished through it, closing the door behind him. Jake caught a glimpse of tiny stairs beyond the door before it shut, like a secret servant’s stair.
Marika frowned at Jake’s stunned reaction. “That was Bach’uuk. He helps keep our home.”
Jake still pictured the stranger’s face. The boy had wide cheekbones and a prominent brow that stuck out from a sloped forehead, half hidden under lanky black hair. His blue eyes had locked upon Jake, almost as if in recognition, before he darted away.
But Jake had definitely recognized him…or at least he knew what tribe that boy belonged to. Jake was certain of it.
Bach’uuk was a Neanderthal.
“They call themselves the Ur,” Marika explained after guiding Jake to the table.
She urged him to sit down and showed him how to peel one of the fruits on the table. It looked like a banana, only it was shaped like a corkscrew. It took some care to peel it. She called it a kwarmabean, but it didn’t taste like a banana or a bean, more like an overripe peach.
Marika still wore a frown at Jake’s startled reaction and misunderstood it. “Fear not, the Ur may look strange, but they’re harmless and peaceful.”