Nirvana Effect (44 page)

Ma
nassa
did not let up, refus
ing
to give the initiative.  His fists were easy to keep up with to Edward, who was also trancing, but anyone else would have said he’d sprouted eight arms - and Nockwe, too, with his blocking. 

Ma
nassa
moved
in close, his fists pounding into Nockwe’s chest.  Nockwe
fell backwards,
and
Ma
nassa
tried to kick him.  Nockwe
managed to grab his foot and twist it
.  Ma
nassa
went down and rolled out.  They
both bounced to their feet again.

One of Manassa’s priests
stepped into the ring slight
ly
, as though to move in front of Ma
nass
a.  Ma
nass
a waved him off, his eyes
still
locked on Nockwe.  Nockwe
charged leading
with his fists,
but just before he closed the distance Ma
nass
a let out a vicious jab with his foot. 
Edward
heard a rib crack. 
The blow propelled Nockwe backwards.  Manass
a followed it up with another flying kick straight at Nockwe’s head.  The chi
eftain only managed to avoid the
foot partially,
the brunt of the force sending
him down to the ground
once more
.

Had
Nockwe
not been trancing, that would have been the end of that duel, but instead
his reaction was merely a
savage yell.  It reminded Edward of the medicine man’s drone during the ritual.  There was torture in his voice.

Nockwe got up
.  H
is neck muscles tensed, his whole body flex
ed.
Sweat and blood shook
off his dark skin.  Nockwe charged
again
. 

Manass
a feinted to the right, but Nockwe read him, sending a vicious jab to the left the caught Ma
nass
a off guard.  Nockwe connected ten times in the space of seconds, sending Mahanta reeling back.  The bystanders had to scatter as the fight was propelled
into the crowd
.

Ma
nass
a buckled under the blows.  Nockwe was on top of him, whaling at him.

“NOCKWE!”  It was
that same priest yelling
.  He was standing where Callista had been.  Callista was gone.  The two bodies of her guards
lay in a pool of blood on the ground
. 
The priest held Bri’ley’na, Nockwe’s wife, with a knife to her neck. 
Bri’s
knife lay
bloodied on the ground beside the fallen guards
.
Bri shrieked, wriggling to get away.

Nockwe turned his head to look.  Ma
nassa
scrambled back
to the edge of the crowd. 

“Bri!”

“Your wife murdered two of the warriors!”

“Release her!” yelled Nockwe.  “I am your chieftain!  Do as I say!” he shouted. 
He had panic in his voice. 
The priest did not budge.  “Do you dare to defy me?  Do you dare to interrupt the challenge?”

“Don’t move, Nockwe!” the priest shouted.

Ma
nass
a gathered his breath.  “
Kill them
!” he shouted.  “They are traitors of our people, and no longer Onge.  They are white lovers.  Kill them!!!
  Then onto the boats before they stop us!
”
The crowd surged inward
.  Manassa
disappeared. 

Nockwe ran toward his wife
.

Edward couldn’t see the chieftain
anymore.  The crowd engulfed him.

Edward closed his eyes.  He had to stop the poison.  He had to get rid of it before the trance stopped.  He felt the after-pain starting to set in, and with it a gut-wrenching sort of suffocation.
  The nirvana effect was ending.

He
did not fear the
trampling feet of the tribe.  The poison might kill him first.

Nockwe ran with his wife
away from the shore
. 
In the chaos, Nockwe eluded the
Onge
.  A fight had broken out
by the firelight
.  Some were taking Nockwe’s side.

Nockwe held his wounded wife to him.
  The life was running out of her with every pulsing of her
veins
.

He sat down with her on his lap behind a lean-to.  There were boys running back and fo
rth, confused, but no one saw
the chieftain and his wife
.

“Bri…” said Nockwe.  “Bri…my angel, you are so strong.”

He stroked her hair for the last time.  Her eyes started to empty.  She managed a weak smile.  Pain
gripped her tense face
, but there was a smile.

“I love you, my chieftain.”  Two tears ran down her
cheeks
.  Life left her body.  He closed her body’s eyes. 

“So long, my love,” he said.  He held her tight.  He knew it was just a body, now, it was not Bri’ley’na, his beloved.  He knew she was gone now no matter how much he remembered her.  She had gone on to the
world after
.  He knew she would go to the heaven of warriors and hunters, even though she was female.  He would see her there.

He cried, though there was no time for it.  He gripped her body one last time, then laid her down under the lean-to.  She was a casualty of war, a war just begun.  There was no time for a burial.

For that, he hated Mahanta and his
wretched
priesthood even more.

Nockwe ran back into the crowd
for the white man
.  All were looking for
the chieftain
, but no one
saw him.  The fighting had moved even closer to the sea
.

In the confusion, Edward was left for dead.  He certainly looked dead.  He wasn’t
moving or even breathing for that matter
. 

James had grabbed him and heaved him up on his shoulder, running as fast as he could with Callista leading the way. 
Manassa had given no order about the whites, and no one seemed to be paying them any mind.
  The Onge’s attention was riveted closer to the shore, where the skiffs had run aground to pick up their passengers and where fighting was still raging on.

James
heaved Edward into the bed of the old red F-150 that had carried him in.  Callista got into the back with Edward,
lying
low so as not to be seen.
James
started driving.

No one
noticed
them as they pulled off
. 
James checked the rear view mirror.  He heard a thud and saw a blur of dark skin
.

A native had jumped onto the truck bed from out of nowhere. 
James slammed the brakes and leaned out of the window, frantically trying to see what was going on.  Callista waved him off.  It was that native that had saved Edward’s life.

James
punched the accelerator
.
  He didn’t want any more random natives joining them.  His passengers
bounced
violently in the truck bed, trying to hold on as best they could.

The headlights of a couple cars flicked on.  Maybe they were trying to follow them.  It didn’t matter – James had gotten some distance
.  The Ford would outpace th
ose cars on the rough terrain
.

Callista
checked Edward’s vitals. 

His pulse had slowed to almost
nothing
.  He
was
breathing, but just
barely
.  He looked as though he might be hibernating. 
Something was
terribly wrong.  She checked over his gunshot wound. 
He’d gotten hurt, but it wasn’t anything that should have sent him into shock
. 

Then she saw his right hand.  It was blue, as though the circulation hadn’t come to it in a while. 
H
is veins were discolored.

Poison?

She held his head in her hands.  There was nothing she could do except pray.  She was sure Edward could do a better job of it than her, but she would give it her best.  There was no harm in trying.

Edward was aware of nothing except his cells.  He could only
sense the burning of his cells
and the dying in his body.  And of course there was the
sensation
of his head in Callista’s hands.

The trance had stopped
.  It had run out.
B
ut then something had happened.

He had started it again.

It wasn’t the drug trance, it was something els
e, something born
of necessity
, the same sort of necessity that let him perceive that dart so clearly
.

As he’d forced himself to focus at Seacrest’s house, so did he force himself into trance now.  It was harder.  It took all of his will, and something more.  But he was doing it.  Having gone
to that state
many times, he
willed
himself to go there again.

He willed himself to live. 

The poison was everywhere in his body.

It was sending him into shock. 

He felt his body trying to neutralize it,
trying
to kill it off.  His vitals would give out before his immune system could work.

And yet he willed it.  He willed his heart to pump, his lungs to breathe, his vitals to continue, barely.

It was a weak poison.  It was biological.  It sent the whole body into shock, but it was dying.  His body
could handle it, if his body had time
.
  His kidneys were slowly neutralizing it, cleaning his blood.

He kept his body going.  He kept pushing
the blood through his veins.  He kept pumping the air through his lungs
. 

He
would
live.

These eyes will open.  I will see her.

He focused on her hands cradling his head.  He heard her praying.

Callista sponged Edward’s head with cool water.  She dipped her hand in the basin and splashed some on her face, herself.  She was tired.  She’d been at it for days.  She would not leave Edward’s side.

His breathing had grown stronger and more regular.  His heart was doing fine.  He would wake up, soon.  She wanted to be there when he woke up.  She didn’t want him to have the shock of wondering if she’
d survived the ordeal.  And she wanted to be the first to greet him back to the living.

James had rented an apartment near the doc
ks that overlooked the harbor.  Edward’s room had the best view.  James had taken to calling it the “sick room.”  Callista kept the windows open to keep the air fresh. 

She stretched and walked to the window.  The door clicked open behind her.

“
How is he doing?”  It was James.  He’d come up and check on her now and then.

“Fine,” she said.  A couple boats dear the docks almost hit one another.  She could hear the faint strains of a couple of the deckhands shouting
back and forth
.

“Yeah?  How are you doing?”

“He should wake up any time.  His vitals are strong.”  She turned around.  “Thank you for helping.  I don’t know why you are, but thank you.”

James rubbed his head.  He looked tired, too.  He leaned against the wall.  “Sure,” he said.

She took her seat by the bed.  James
had been looking at her and Edward but now was gazing out the window.

“Callista, do you mind my telling you something?” he asked after a long silence.

“No, I don’t think so.  No, I don’t mind,” she said.

He nodded.  “Well, I just want to thank you, too.  You see, well, I’m sure Edward will tell you all about it once he wakes up, but, well, you see, I’m not exactly good folk…”

“Nonsense, James, you’re…”

He waved down her protest.  “I’m not.  I’m a crook, really.  It’s why I’m on this island.  I used to doctor crooks, see. 
And it backfired.  It’s why I’m here.”  He sat down in the corner in one of the spare chairs.  “It’s why I’m here,” he repeated.  “And I’d gotten pretty low in my life, I mean real low.  And I met you, and I wanted to be with you, and so you inspired me to try to be something that I used to be a long, long time ago.  You reminded me.  So now I’m here, and it’s not too great a circumstance, but it’s better than where I was, in spite of everything.  So, thank you.  That’s all.”  He smiled.