Three Times Dead (12 page)

“I see what you mean, Ted,” a voice above me said.

I blinked. Henry’s face came into view. He smiled at me. “You’re back with us. Good, let’s get in the car. I’ve had enough of standing around.”

The two men helped me to my feet. Ted’s ute was beside us, on the side of the road, the back door open. There was no sign of the artillery and cavalry from my dream. Where I stood was a tarred road, not hastily dug trenches. The experience had left me drained. It seemed the closer I got to the source, the more energy it sucked from me.

I clambered onto the front bench seat, my skin clammy and my body aching.

“Can he stay at your place tonight, Ted?” Henry asked as the car pulled off onto the road. “He’ll need to rest.”

“Yes, he looks all done in. A good thing you asked me before you left to come for you later, I don’t think he’d have made it back in the shape he’s in.”

“I don’t think I could either,” Henry said, and laughed.

We returned to the farmhouse where Ted revived us both with more cups of tea. I was feeling awash with the stuff. Henry left and I helped Ted in his shed, where he was fixing a tractor. I wasn’t much good, really, as he often had to tell me two or three times what it was he wanted. And I couldn’t identify the tools. He asked for a wrench and I looked at him blankly. I didn’t have a clue. In the end he gave up on me and left me staring out of the open shed door as the sun slowly set to the west.

Ted had the TV on we while ate dinner, when the news came on. Suddenly a grainy CCTV picture came on the screen, and I immediately recognized Mitch as he stood in the store and raised the wheel spanner above his head. Scott stood just behind him, hopping from one foot to the other in eagerness. I stopped eating to stare at the screen.

“Police are seeking two suspects in an aggravated robbery which took place last night. Two youths entered a liquor store and beat the owner before making off with an amount of cash and goods. A car was seen leaving the scene. The owner of the liquor store is in a stable but serious condition in hospital. Police are following a number of leads.”

I pushed away my plate, unable to eat because of the rising nausea. I had been able to forget about the robbery for a while – the dreams had kept that memory at bay – and now I was made aware of how real this world actually was and that I could not remain in this safe haven forever.

“What’s the matter, Bevan? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Ted said, and then smiled as he realized what he had said. “Actually I guess you’ve been seeing ghosts all day.”

“I need some air,” I said as I stood up, the chair scraping against the wooden floor.

I walked out onto the driveway and shivered in the dark cold winter’s air. The sky was clear above me and the moon shone brightly. If I looked up the hill, I saw the spire of the church. There was no comfort in the sight, just confusion and uncertainty. Feeling chilled I returned inside, where the TV was now off and Peter and Ted were washing the dishes.

“Good way to get out of doing the dishes, townie,” Peter said as he threw me a tea towel.

“Sorry, just had to get out,” I said as I picked up a plate to dry. I wondered why they didn’t have a dishwasher.

The TV didn’t go back on. It appeared that they only put it on for the news. I was relieved. Ted went to the front room where he picked up a book and settled into an armchair.

“Peter, can you show Bevan your brother’s room?” he called out. “He can sleep in there tonight.”

“My brother is overseas on his OE,” Peter explained as he opened a door in the passage. “There are towels in the bathroom if you want a shower,” he called out. “We’re on tank water here, so make it a short one.”

In the bedroom, I eased my foot off and crawled on the floor to the passage. Peter came out of his room and looked down on me. It felt humiliating.

“Gramps used to crawl too,” Peter said. “But he had crutches as well – wait, I think they’re still in the cupboard.

He opened a hall cupboard and rummaged around inside it, coming out with a pair of wooden crutches.

“Would these help?” he asked.

“Thanks,” I said as I reached for them. Peter helped me to my feet and I tucked the padded crosspieces under my armpits.

“We’ll have that battery sorted tomorrow, eh?” Peter said as I swung myself forward.

“I hope so,” I said as went into the bathroom.

“Goodnight.” He closed the door. I wasn’t sure what he thought of me being around, but I had the impression that he didn’t want me there.

Later I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. There were no answers written there. Exhausted both mentally and physically, I closed my eyes and sank into sleep.

Haki found Reka in the Catholic mission house, which had been turned into a treatment house for the wounded. As he walked in, he heard a woman sobbing a tearful karakia as she farewelled a family member. Men, women and children lay on mats on the floor, some crying out in pain while others were silent, too badly wounded to make a sound.

He found Reka in a corner, her body cradling Toa and her face moist with the sweat of pain. Her leg was bandaged but still blood seeped through it. Toa lay quiet beside her, his face pale and his lips tinged blue.

He crouched down beside her and cupped her cheek. He was still under tapu, fresh from the battlefield, but there was no time for whakanoa.

“We have let the English
take
Ha
i
rini,” he said. “I go to Rewi at Wharepapa. I think from there we will join Tamahana at Maungatautari. You must go with your people south, where you will be safe.”

A tear sprang to her eyes as she rested a hand on Toa’s chest.

“I cannot walk,” she said. “And Toa is too ill. I will stay here. The English have promised that they will leave the people in the mission alone.”

“Their promises are worth little!” Haki spat.

“Still, they did not torch the churches,” she pointed out. “The people were safe inside.”

“I cannot leave you here.”

“Go, we will be safe. The Pakeha will come with their medicine and we will get well.”

“Battles are still being fought; it won’t be safe for me to come back for you until the war is over.”

She smiled as a tear ran down her face.

“I will wait here until you return. I promise, I will not leave this area until we are reunited. Go and fight the Pakeha, husband, take revenge for the death of my grandfather and my uncles and then come back for me. This will be my home till then.”

He leant down and kissed the salty tear on her cheek, then the forehead of his son, hearing the wheeze as Toa breathed – he had taken in too much of the smoke from the burning whare. He knew that Reka was right: neither of them would be able to travel.

“
Goodbye my love
,
until I see you again.
”

“We will see each other soon,” she said and again smiled, though tears swelled in her eyes.

To protect his breaking heart, Haki did not look back as he left the mission house.

When I got up the next morning, Henry was already at the kitchen table drinking coffee with Ted. There was no sign of Peter.

“Sleep well?” Ted asked as I headed to the kettle. I was familiar enough with the kitchen to find basic stuff. I spooned coffee powder into a mug and poured in hot water before adding the milk.

“Did the ancestors reveal more of the past?” Henry asked.

“Reka stayed here in Rangiaowhia after the battle,” I said as I sat at the table. “Her wound was bad and the baby was too sick. She didn’t leave with her people.”

“And Haki?”

“He was going to join Rewi and his men at Wharepapa village. He said he would come back for her as soon as it was safe to do so. Are there any more battles in this war?”

“Just one more, at Orakau, which is where I’m taking you today.”

“Do you have to?”

“You’ll not find the answers any other way,” Henry said, and I knew that he spoke the truth.

I didn’t feel like eating so I drank my coffee and listened to the men talking about local stuff. While I sat there, Peter came in with the newspaper rolled up in a plastic bag, which he placed on the table before heading towards the kettle.

“We’ll be off then, Ted,” Henry said as he pushed back the chair.

I drained the last of my coffee and followed him out. I wasn’t keen on this journey but I believed that I was getting close to some answers, so I got into Henry’s old car and leant back as we reversed out of the drive.

“We’re not going to walk this one?” I asked, as we turned right out of the drive.

“Too far,” Henry said.

He was right. It was 20 minutes before he pulled over, into a small lay-by next to a slight incline. We were on a rural road with empty fields around us, a farmhouse close by. I saw a monument just a short walk away.

“There was a pa on the hill here,” Henry said as we got out of the car. “But the road cuts through it now. No one would know that a battle took place here unless they stopped to look at the monument. This battle became known as Rewi’s Last Stand.

“So Haki could have been here?”

“Maybe, we may find out now that we are here, if past experience is anything to go by.” Henry looked at the landscape around us. “Rewi didn’t approve of this location, but once the decision had been made to build a pa here, he stayed. It was a bad decision, for the pa was quickly surrounded. The siege lasted for three days until the people inside ran out of water and ammunition. Then they made a break for it – some made it, some didn’t.”

I followed him up the slight slope towards the monument, which was a small obelisk on a plinth. Looking to my left I noticed the hill fell away to a grove of trees at the bottom, where there was probably a small stream. As we stood there, a camper van pulled into the lay-by where we had parked. I turned to Henry and opened my mouth to say that I wanted to leave, but the air wavered in front of my face, then he and the obelisk disappeared.

Haki thought the plan was absurd, but it was better than sitting inside the pa waiting for the soldiers to finish their pit. Even now the trench they had been digging – he knew they called it a sap – was almost at the edge of the pole fence that served as the palisade, and it would not be long before they swarmed along it and overran the pa.

It was time to go. They should have left in the night, but Rewi had been overruled by the other chiefs, and so they had stayed while their water and ammunition ran out. Haki checked the pouch in which he kept his rounds. Only ten, and most of those crudely made by the warriors in the centre of the pa.

He looked back at the north-west corner, where Matiu and a group of warriors were roaming up and down the fence, making it appear as if the whole force was there, waiting for the soldiers to complete the sap from which they would launch their attack. Beyond the fence, Haki saw the men on horses readying for the charge that would follow once the foot soldiers made a breach in the fence. It would not hold for long. It was not strong.

Close to where Haki stood, a child whimpered from within the tight knot of people around which the warriors had placed themselves. Its mother quietened it. Although they would not be able to move unseen, for the pa was well surrounded, they didn’t want the soldiers aware that they were about to break out.

In front of Haki, warriors worked swiftly and quietly at removing the palings of the fence, passing back the poles as they came out. Haki looked out, beyond the fence, to where they would advance. The way was clear, but that was deceptive for he knew that soldiers were hidden behind the ridge 200 yards from their perimeter.

The hole in the fence was completed and the order was given for the group to move forward, the best warriors in the front, the women and children in the middle and the rest of the warriors on the outside. The group moved as one out from the false protection of the pa and onto the ground beyond. Haki stayed close to Rewi to protect his chief.

They were unchallenged as they moved over the flat ground, drawing ever closer to the ridge. Haki glanced behind him and saw Matiu and some of the other warriors making their way across the trenches within the pa to the other side where they would exit and follow the group out. They were the vanguard and would protect the group from the back.

They were approaching the ridge. Haki held his musket in his hand, ready to fire, one of his precious rounds already in the barrel. Rewi had told them that the ammunition was so low that they were not to fire unless they were sure of their shot. Close to the ridge, Rewi indicated that they should prepare themselves.

Haki checked his musket again and then, at Rewi’s signal, charged with the rest of the warriors over the top of the ridge and down the other side, screaming as he went, the cries of the men around him so loud that they almost drowned out the sound of the soldiers’ guns as they fired. But they only managed one volley before the warriors were on them, firing on them and striking them with patu. A man ran towards Haki with his rifle lowered, his bayonet aimed at Haki’s stomach, but Haki fired and the man fell backwards, his battle cry dying on his lips. Another man rose from the ground just behind the fallen soldier, and Haki struck him with the mere, which came into his hand as if by magic. The man screamed, covered his face with his hands and reeled away, blood pouring from between his fingers.

Haki was running forward now and realised that he had broken through the cordon. Looking around him, he saw that most of the soldiers had turned aside in disarray, surprised and overwhelmed by the sudden attack.

“Make for the trees!” Rewi shouted, and Haki located him by his voice. Stepping over bodies, he made his way over to his chief.

“How many bullets have you got?” Rewi asked him.

“Nine,” Haki answered.

“Load and fire over there,” Rewi commanded him, indicating a knot of soldiers who appeared to be ready to charge them. “We need to keep the British at a distance so we can allow the women and children to escape.”

Haki looked towards the Punui River where the women and children were being shepherded away by a small band of men. He and the other warriors would have to stand fast to prevent the soldiers from descending on them.

He aimed and fired, satisfied that one of the soldiers swayed and fell. He did not think it was a mortal wound, but two men beside him gathered the fallen soldier in their arms and carried him away.

Once in the manuka trees, Rewi ordered that they break up into smaller parties so that they would be more difficult to pursue. The British army had now recovered from the surprise of the break out, and Haki saw men on horses coming around the sides of the deserted pa. A group of men called the Forest Rangers were gathering as well, and Haki knew that these men were vicious fighters.

Haki stayed close to Rewi as they moved through the bushes, hearing behind him the thud of the horses’ hooves. Some women and children had still not made it to the river. Warriors were hastily reloading their weapons as they moved, ready for the onslaught.

“Fire there,” Rewi ordered, and Haki aimed at one of the approaching cavalrymen. He fired but missed. Matiu headed towards him, his shotgun in his hand, raised as the first of the cavalry neared. Haki quickly reloaded and aimed at the seated figure on the horse, sweat running into his eyes. He fired and the man slumped down, his horse continuing to gallop as it swung away from the barrier of bushes. Somehow the injured man hung on as the horse moved, and he was lost from Haki’s sight.

“Thank you, brother,” Matiu said as he drew alongside. “Come, we must make for the river.”

The escapees had now broken up into smaller groups, the warriors trying to protect the slower women and children as they neared the river. The Pakeha forces were amongst the bushes now, firing and stabbing at those that they found. Haki saw Rewi ahead of him, close to the river, a knot of warriors protecting him from all sides.

He reloaded and turned to face the soldier he heard coming up behind him. Matiu was on Haki’s right, facing a challenge from a Forest Ranger who had appeared from behind a bush. The two of them were alone, separated from the rest of the group; they could rely only on themselves for defence.

Haki fired and the bullet struck the soldier on the arm, but it didn’t stop him; instead, he dropped to one knee and carefully aimed his rifle. Fumbling at his pouch, Haki hunted for a bullet but it slipped from his fingers. He heard the rifle fire and the bullet struck him in the chest, punching him backwards so that the sky swung over his head, and he hit the ground, landing on his back and looking up at the clouds. There was no pain at first, just a crushing sensation in his chest, as if a rock had landed on it. Then pain exploded like a fire, spreading outwards from his chest and engulfing him. He heard two shots in rapid succession, then it was quiet except for the buzz in his ears.

“Haki, Haki!” the voice was in the distance. He blinked and saw Matiu. His brother frowned. “You must get up, we must get to the river!”

It was hard to talk. There was blood in his mouth. “The soldiers?”

“Dead, I shot them both. Both barrels,” he said, waving the smoking shotgun over Haki so that he could see. “Come, we must go.”

Matiu put his hand under Haki’s shoulder and tried to lift him, but Haki cried out with pain. Each breath was agony. The weight on his chest grew heavier. Blood welled up inside his mouth. He was choking.

“Go,” he gasped.

“I’ll not go without you.”

“Leave me.”

Matiu sucked in his bottom lip and looked around. The battle raged elsewhere. Haki saw tears in his brother’s eyes.

“We fought well,” Matiu said.

Haki nodded. His spirit was separating from his body – he felt Hine-nui-te-po reaching out for him and could not deny her embrace.

“Reka,” he gasped. “Tell her …”

“I’ll tell her you died well. That you gave your life for your chief.”

Haki felt the mere in his hand, its presence giving him strength. He dragged his arm up so that the mere rested on his bloody chest.

“Give her this.”

“This treasure I will carry until I see her and tell her of your courage.”

“And love …”

He could not draw in another breath. There was too much blood, too much pain, too heavy a weight on his chest, and he stared upwards, past Matiu to the darkening sky above him. As if from a great distance, he heard Matiu mutter, “Farewell, brother,” before the sky turned completely black and he slipped into the dark night of death.