Sky Dancer

Chapter Six

For thousands of years the seabirds had been promised this dawn. They smothered the offshore islands and the ocean around it, waiting for Kawanatanga to appear on the ramparts of his island fortress and lead them to their deliverance.

“Ka-wana-tanga! Ka-wana-tanga! Ka-wana-tanga!”

There was a roar as, from out of the eye of destiny, Kawanatanga appeared. His plumage was like armour, flashing metallic in the early light. Some of his plumes were ornamental, glinting like knives. His head was crested and the red side panels of his face gave the appearance of an iron mask. Protruding from the mask was a long, sharply hooked bill.

He quivered and shrilled with anticipation. From generation to generation the legend had been passed of the time when seabirds fought landbirds, when the sky dripped blood and when — oh, shame of shames — the seabirds had retreated the sky of battle. Then had come the promise from Lord Tane to Karuhiruhi his ancestor, that the seabirds would be offered the opportunity of a second battle of the birds.

Kawanatanga flapped his wings for silence, and a hiss came up from the sea. All eyes looked to the east, to the rising sun.

“It comes,” Kawanatanga cried. He pointed to the horizon.

The dawn was there, travelling fast towards the land that the Lord Tane had made. Lo, it passed quickly over the offshore islands and made of the ocean surrounding it a simulacrum of another ocean in another Time — the sea of legend, the unholy Sea of White Feathers. But where was the open sky? In his impatience, Kawanatanga called out:

“Oh, Lord Tane, give unto us that which you promised.” The bitter bile of anger surged within his stomach. It was almost on his beak to curse the Lord Tane for not fulfilling his promise. However, Kawanatanga saw another conjunction had appeared. “The planet, Venus —”

Red as a ruby, Venus ascended in its heliacal rising. Like a baleful, angry eye it looked down on the earth. Its gaze struck the twin mountains and flared across the valley beneath. The words of anger stilled on Kawanatanga’s beak and he counted his lucky stars, because if the Lord Tane had heard them he might have penalised the seabirds for their arrogance.

The dawn was over. Venus disappeared. Kawanatanga saw something flickering red at the top of Manu Valley.

“The paepae,” he whispered in awe. “The holy tree of the landbirds. It is on fire —”

Suddenly, one of the branches of the holy tree sizzled like a match and lit a seam in the sky, burning it open. Behind it, Kawanatanga saw the dark tunnel back to the Beginning of All Things. He gave a cry of triumph. The air around the ocean erupted into a maelstrom of harsh squealing as seashags, mollymawks, fulmars, prions, shearwaters and petrels communicated the news to each other. Albatrosses swooped joyfully in the sky.

Huge, black and avenging, Kawanatanga stepped forward. “Today, the long-waited prophecy has come to pass,” he said. “Let us begin our great task.”

He took wing. Following him came the first wave of seabirds, silent, intent, beak ready, riding the thermals of the sun-warmed morning, ascending up to Manu Valley.

That same morning, Cora was front page news in the New Zealand Herald: Ex-tv Star, Cora Edwards, Falls From Stage

Below the headline was the dramatic photograph taken by the local reporter of an unconscious Cora being carried from Tuapa College in Lucas’s burly arms. The caption read:

Ex-television star, Cora Edwards, is reported to be in hospital following a dangerous fall. Ms Edwards, the popular weather girl on New Zealand television, was making her comeback to the stage in a local production of the American musical Bye Bye Birdie at Tuapa. During the performance, directed by well known director Ronnie Shore, she fell from the top of a staircase which had been constructed especially for her entrance number. Although Ms Edwards appeared to recover she later suffered a mysterious relapse. She was rushed to Southern Health’s regional centre at Tuapa this morning.

The story effectively put up a smoke screen against the real reason for Cora’s “mysterious relapse”. Bella had driven Skylark and Cora down to the centre earlier that morning. The surgeon on duty, Dr Goodwin, looked into Cora’s dilated pupils and immediately diagnosed the reason for her comatose state. His face was grim.

“What has she taken?”

Skylark showed him the almost empty bottle of pills. “A cocktail of speed and alcohol.”

“How many? What dosage?”

“I don’t know. She also took some before the show. There could have been other stuff she added to the mix. I wasn’t there to see.”

Dr Goodwin made some additional examinations, and noted the track marks on Cora’s arms. “She’s an habitual drug user? This has happened before, hasn’t it.”

“Yes. My mother was in rehab.”

Dr Goodwin swung into action. He sent the bottle of pills to the lab for analysis. He telephoned the rehab centre where Cora had been treated and asked them to send her medical details. Skylark started to panic when she saw a television news crew arriving. She put on her best little-daughter face.

“Please, doctor, if the news gets out why Mum’s really here, they’ll crucify her,” she said. “The judge was lenient the last time. He might not be so kind this time around. Won’t you help us?”

Dr Goodwin took stock of the situation. “Okay,” he nodded. “Let people believe what they’ve already read, shall we? If they think your mother’s condition is due to a concussion arising from a fall, so be it.”

By midday Tuapa was a-buzz with talk about Cora Edwards and her sensational accident in Bye Bye Birdie. Those who hadn’t been at the performance were furious to have missed out on a great event in Tuapa; goodness knows, the last time that anything of note had occurred was when Jackie Fraser had, at fifty-three, given birth to triplets. Those who, like Flora Cornish, had been there told and retold Cora’s fall as if it was a replay of a rugby game: the staircase (“It shouldn’t have been so high”), the fall (“It’s a lesson never to wear high-heeled boots”) and the shock as she fell (“We all screamed”). At least Flora’s version wasn’t as dramatic as Ronnie’s. Having initially thought badly of Cora for ruining his production, his unexpected elevation to “well-known director” status gave him a more significant spotlight.

“You know what it’s like in the theatre,” Ronnie said in a hastily arranged on-the-spot television interview. “Opening nights especially can be very stressful for everybody, cast and crew. But on this occasion there was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Something about interpolating Madonna into a musical about the 1960s. One should never tamper with the theatre. It only brings misfortune. When I saw Cora at the top of the staircase I just knew she would fall and when she did, right before my eyes, I knew …” The television cameras caught moisture in his eyes and trembling lips. “I knew it was all my fault. Because of me, my leading actress is in hospital, the dearest woman I ever knew …”

Up in Manu Valley, Hoki watched the interview with relief. The publicity diverted attention not only from Cora’s overdose.

“If they only knew,” Hoki said.

A bigger and more dramatic event was taking place away from the gaze of Tuapa township, away from the news media, in the ripped sky above Manu Valley.

Boom.

At every loud report of the shotguns the seabirds scattered. Kawanatanga urged them back to the attack. He wheeled like a dark nightmare. Not until all the seabirds were through the ripped sky would he too penetrate it.

Boom, boom. Bella and Skylark had returned from Tuapa Hospital and taken over from Hoki. They were firing the shotguns where the seabirds were blackest.

“How’s our ammunition holding out, sister?” Hoki asked.

”We’re fine for today but we’ll have to get supplies for tomorrow.”

“Is this the only way to stop them getting through?” Skylark asked.

“No,” Hoki said. She pointed further down Manu Valley. “I called on my hawk earlier this morning to help us. He and his eyrie are doing their best. In the old days the hawk ruled the skies. But today, with the majority of the Great Forest gone, their numbers are small.”

“So, really, it’s just us,” Skylark said. She did not see the look which passed between Bella and Hoki:

We must pray that Skylark divines the pattern and the part she has to play in it.

The seagulls regrouped, diving and cackling and trying to swoop past their guard. Skylark sighted and pressed the trigger of her shotgun.

At that moment, Arnie arrived. He clutched his chest dramatically. “You got me, Skylark!” he groaned.

“What a pity,” Skylark sighed. “Just a flesh wound.”

“Be like that,” he said. He greeted Bella and Hoki, and looked up at the ripped sky. “Bloody hell —”

High above his head something shimmered like a bizarre silver cross. The cross had been created when Cora’s match fizzed vertically up the sky and then horizontally to form a short crossbar. If you hadn’t known what it was, or known where to look, you’d have thought it was just a strange trick of light. However, every breeze or puff of wind opened the corners of the cross like flaps of a tent. That’s when you saw the other side of the sky. Black. Awful. A hole big enough to drive a car through. Whenever that happened, seabirds screamed and plummeted into it, pulled through by some centrifugal force, winking out. One moment there. Next moment gone.

“I guess seeing is believing,” Arnie said.

He stepped forward for a closer look and a sense of sickness and vertigo overwhelmed him. He was staring into a dark abyss. Far down was a kaleidoscope of seabirds — those which had managed to get past Bella, Hoki and Skylark — plummeting, stabbing and wheeling back to the beginning of Time.

“Even as I was driving up here and saw the seabirds coming up the valley I didn’t want to believe it. I still don’t want to believe it,” he said.

“You know about all this?” Skylark asked.

“Ever since I was a kid and used to live with Auntie Bella and Auntie Hoki,” he answered, as if that explained everything. “I used to think it was a fairytale — until now.”

“I should pinch you so that you’ll know you’re not dreaming,” Skylark said. She had meant it to sound like a joke but it came out mean, and Arnie glowered at her. Trying to patch things up, Skylark added lightly: “Come to think of it, you could pinch me too and we’d both know we’re wide awake.”

But it was too late. “I would be so into that,” Arnie said. He turned from her and opened the small backpack he had brought with him. Inside was some cordial and sandwiches.

“Thank you, Nephew,” Bella said, tucking in, trying to calm Skylark and Arnie down by acting normal. “This is hot work. What brings you up here?”

“The hospital has been trying to get Skylark all morning. Obviously you three have been too busy up here to hear the phone. I volunteered to come and pick her up.”

“Has something happened to Mum?” Skylark asked, her eyes pricking with tears. “Can you take me back with you now?”

“I might think about it,” Arnie answered.

Bella put down her sandwich and glared at Arnie. “That’s enough, Nephew. Can’t you see how worried Skylark is?”

Hoki saw her chance. “I’ll take you,” she said to Skylark. “We can have a good talk on the way. Can you and Arnie hold the fort, Sister dear?”

Hoki began to make her way down the cliff face. Skylark followed her. All this stuff was getting so hard to take and, halfway down the cliff, her anxieties about Cora made her stop for breath. Would Mum recover? If so, how long would it be before Mum’s next relapse? Was Mum involved somehow in all these weird prophecies about the birds? “Oh Mum,” Skylark wailed, “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

When Skylark and Hoki were out of earshot, Bella pulled Arnie’s ears.

“Ow! What was that for!”

“No wonder you can’t get a girlfriend,” Bella said.

“Are you belted in?” Hoki asked.

Skylark would have preferred to take the station-wagon, so that she could be in the driver’s seat. However, Hoki assumed they would go in her car, which had been specially configured so that she could drive with her withered leg. Hoki floored the accelerator with her good foot.

“Well, you want to get to Tuapa quick and smart, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I’ve never been driven before by a —” Oops.

“That’s the trouble with you and Arnie,” Hoki said. “Always shooting from the lip without thinking before you let fly.”

They left the homestead behind and drove down Manu Valley. Watching Hoki’s hands and feet flicking expertly from gear shift to accelerator pedal and clutch, Skylark marvelled yet again at this old woman who often appeared to be so fragile but was in reality stubborn, strong-minded and resourceful. Hoki seemed to know exactly what Skylark was thinking.

“People have always thought Bella was the stronger sister,” Hoki said, “just because she’s older than me. They look at me and all they see is that I’m smaller and I have a bad leg. But, you know, when you grow up with a leg like mine it makes you strong, not weak. Even Bella thinks she’s the stronger one, and sometimes it’s best for me to go along with her. But, you know, my sister cries at the drop of a hat, especially over her birds. They come to her with their broken wings or legs, and by the time she’s finished blubbering over them, they can’t fly because they’re so waterlogged. Bella’s the pushover, not me.”

Hoki pushed the car around an S-bend. Changed gear. Decelerated. Not even a tap of the brake to do it. Put her foot back on the accelerator. Eased the car back onto the straight.

“I’m really sorry,” Skylark began, “for what Mum did, causing that rip in the sky. She didn’t mean it.”

Hoki slammed on the brakes. They were at a break in the forest, where the trees thinned, and the road curved outwards. Skylark could see Tuapa below and the sparkling sea beyond. Above, like a disturbing dream, seabirds were ascending into the valley.

“You were supposed to stop it,” Hoki said to her. “You were supposed to stop the sky from opening. You didn’t even need to wave a wand or say abracadabra. All you had to do was stop your mother going up to the ancient tree and smoking a cigarette. Why didn’t you?”

Skylark stared at Hoki, angry. “Get out of my face,” she said. “Every time I say I’m sorry about something you or Bella take it as an excuse to get at me again.”

“I refuse to believe you’re not the chick,” Hoki said, pressing her attack. Her eyes were glowing, looking into Skylark, slipping into her brain searching for something. The old lady went from one memory to the next, opening one door after another, peering into the darkness of each memory. Trying to find something she could recognise. Skylark closed her eyes, pushed — and Hoki found herself being thrown out.

“Don’t do that again without asking my permission,” she glared. “Don’t blame me for what you’ve failed to do. If you want to stop what’s happening, go find a magic needle and sew the sky back together. You and Bella have been coming at me out of left field, throwing one whammy after another at me, and I’ve made it clear to you to back off.”

Hoki was so angry. She was angry at Skylark for talking to her like that. She was also angry with herself for choosing the wrong time and place to bring up the matter of who Skylark was supposed to be. How stupid, when the girl was so concerned about her mother.

“All right, Skylark dear,” Hoki said, patting her shoulder. “But I have to say this —”

“Give me a break —”

“You may not have any option, Skylark.” Hoki was hardhearted, for Skylark had to be confronted with it. “You may be between a rock and a hard place. We now have a new situation. You’re part of it, whether you like it or not.”

“You always talk in circles, Hoki.”

“The two events — the ripped sky and your mother’s hospitalisation — may be connected.”

“How!”

“You’ll have to figure that one out for yourself.”

Half an hour later, Skylark and Hoki arrived at the hospital. Skylark was dreading the worst. Why had Dr Goodwin called her so urgently?

“You go on, Skylark,” Hoki said as she parked the car, making a bigger space by pushing the car in front like Mr Bean.

Skylark walked quickly into the hospital, along the passageway to Cora’s suite. Cora’s bed was empty. Heart beating, Skylark ran back down the passage.

“Where’s my mother?” she asked.

The receptionist looked puzzled. She pursed her lips doubtfully at the badge Skylark was wearing: Why Should I Tidy My Bedroom When The Whole World’s A Mess?

“Oh, you mean Miss Edwards? She’s been taken to emergency.”

The receptionist pointed the way, and even though the signs on the door read Keep Out, Skylark barged right on in. She saw Cora and knew something was terribly wrong.

Cora was jerking like a puppet on strings. She was snapping her head backwards and forwards. The doctor and his nurses were holding her down.

“At last you’re here,” Dr Goodwin said when he saw Skylark. “We’ve been trying to get you all morning. Do you hold Power of Attorney?”

“Yes,” Skylark said. “What’s happening to my mother?” She was shivering. Trying not to show she was scared out of her wits.

“She’s in a critical condition,” Dr Goodwin said. “Her body is in overload. All the drugs she’s taken have pushed her to the point where her life signs are spiking. We’ve taken the temporary measure of stabilising her with sedatives that we hope won’t be adding to the problem. But what we really need to do is to induce a coma —”

At that moment, Cora gave a loud groan. Her eyelids flickered open, showing the whites of her eyes. The life systems supporting her went crazy. The whole room transformed itself into a frenzy of movement as the medical team tried to re-stabilise her.

“We’re losing her,” one of the nurses said.

“Do we have your permission?” Dr Goodwin asked. “We need to act now and put your mother under before she has another attack.”

“Isn’t that dangerous? No, I won’t let you do it.”

Doctor Goodwin gave Skylark a firm look. Like Hoki, he was brutal. “It’s your mother’s only chance. If you want her to live, consent. If you don’t … Either way, it’s your call.”

Was this what Hoki had meant about being between a rock and a hard place? Things were moving too quickly. But Skylark had to make a decision fast.

“If I do consent, will you be able to wake her up?”

“With your mother in a controlled sleep we’ll have a better chance of sorting out what the drugs she took are doing to her. Right now, they’re working on all her life-support systems and putting pressure on her heart.”

This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all. Skylark closed her eyes, hoped she was doing the right thing and made the call.

“Okay, I give my consent. Do it.”

After that, putting Cora into a deep sleep didn’t take long. When she saw how peacefully her mother rested, Skylark’s distress fell away. She stroked Cora’s hair. “In all the world, it’s just you and me,” she said.

Then it happened. A thought popped into Skylark’s head. One minute it was there, next minute it had gone. Her mouth dropped open and she looked across at Hoki.

“You’ve known all along, haven’t you?” she said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hoki answered, puzzled.

“The two events — the ripped sky and Cora’s coma — are related. Saving one will save the other.”

Skylark had reached the threshold. She stepped over it.

“Don’t you understand? Mum’s not going to come out of this. Not unless I go back in Time to ask the landbirds to forgive her for burning down their sacred tree.”

Chapter Seven

Kaa. Kaa.

The light was waning fast. Kawanatanga exhorted his troops to redouble their efforts. But every time they spilled air and closed wings to dive through the ripped sky, the old hen or the male chick who had arrived to help her let loose with the shotguns — and the formations broke up in terror.

“Kaa-kaa. Advance, you cowards.”

The sun was beginning to set. The moment it went down, the ripped sky disappeared before Kawanatanga’s very eyes.

Thwarted, Kawanatanga screamed his rage at his seabird army. “We will have to return tomorrow.” He turned away, flicking a wingtip, and at this signal the seabirds followed him down and out of Manu Valley.

Below him Kawanatanga saw a car returning from Tuapa. It was being driven by the other hen, the one with the withered claw, and in the passenger seat was the chick.

“She is still a threat to us,” he said to Karoro and Toroa. “Remain behind and keep watch on her.” Then he realised that unlike the two old hens, Skylark was not under the Lord Tane’s protection. He placed a bounty on Skylark. “Any gull who brings back her eyes will be richly rewarded.”

Kawanatanga could not contain his elation. He swooped down on the car. Flying level with it, he taunted Skylark with a message:

I’d watch my back if I were you.

“You have to do what?” Bella asked, when Skylark outlined her thoughts to her at dinner that evening.

“Don’t you see?” Skylark answered. “It makes perfect sense. My mother transgressed a Maori tapu and needs to be forgiven for it.”

“And you know tapu,” Hoki insisted. “You know how sacred the paepae was. You know that when a tapu is broken it must be put right.”

Bella looked darkly at Hoki. She had prepared a meal of bacon bones and puha. She banged the serving bowls down on the table and blessed the food. “We give thanks for the kai we share tonight. We also ask for rescue from the lame-brained ideas of a young girl who doesn’t know any better, and from a certain old lady who is egging her on. Amen.”

Hoki gave a gasp of anger, but Bella compressed her lips and began to dish out.

“You should be ashamed of yourself, Sister,” Bella continued. “Why are you encouraging Skylark to even think of such a thing?”

Stung, Skylark sprang to her own defence. “I’ve come to this understanding by myself,” she said. “And don’t think I am doing it for you and Hoki, either. If I don’t go, my mother won’t revive. The only ones who can give her forgiveness happen to be the Runanga a Manu.”

“It’s a crackpot idea,” Bella said. “It’s preposterous, and I won’t have a bar of it. Now let’s just forget the whole thing and eat. I’ve been looking forward to my dinner.”

Skylark was firm. “If I get there before the seabirds from the present arrive, I can tell the runanga they’re coming. That should make up for what Mum did.”

“Are you crazy or something!” Bella asked. “Just how do you think you can do that? It’s not like flying to Auckland. You‘re talking about doing the impossible. Where’s your time machine! Porangi, that’s what you are.” Bella looked at Hoki, expecting her to come around and help her out. But all Hoki said was:

“Sister, Skylark has divined the pattern and the part she has to play in it.”

Bella reached over the table and rapped Hoki on the head. “Knock, knock, is anybody home? You’re unbelievable, Hoki dear. I know we’re looking for a solution to our problem but this one is really dopey.”

“Oh, get over yourself, Bella,” Skylark interjected, not caring whether she was being rude or not. “Whether you like it is of no concern to me. I’ll save Mum, and while I’m at it fulfil your prophecy. I could kill two birds with one stone, right?”

Hoki winced. “Skylark, please watch your language.”

“All I want you two to do is figure how to get me back there,” Skylark persisted.

“I refuse to be a part of this,” Bella said, pushing her plate away. “And thank you both so much for spoiling my appetite.”

Skylark looked squarely at Hoki. “Looks like it’s up to you then,” she said.

After dinner Hoki made up the spare bed for Skylark. She was so cross with Bella that she didn’t help with the dishes and instead rocked and rocked on the old chair on the verandah. She looked up at the dark sky and into the immensity of the universe. Her mind was open and thoughts were whirling around in it.

“An answer to Skylark’s question must be found,” Hoki said to herself. “But where?”

All around, she heard the forest whispering, sneezing, seething. There was something so ecstatic about the night world, something slightly dangerous which thrilled her. People were so ignorant to think that everything went to sleep at night; the night forest was as alive as the day world.

Hoki heard Bella grumbling through the house, going from room to room and switching off the lights — including the verandah one. Bella was like that sometimes: grumpy, petty and mean. Sighing to herself, Hoki reached for her walking sticks. Making as much noise as possible, she clattered her way to the bathroom. There, she dropped the soap, scrubbing brush and nail scissors as she washed; then she got into her dressing gown. On the way to her room she stopped at Bella’s closed door and opened it. The interior was dark, but she knew that Bella was sitting up in the bed, glaring at her.

“When we were little girls,” Bella began, “I put two signs on that door. One was for Mum and Dad, saying Keep Out. The other was at little girl height: This Means You, Hoki. The bottom sign’s still there but obviously you never learned to read.”

“And you never learned that I grew up,” Hoki answered. “Isn’t it about time you raised the sign so that I can see it?” She felt her way in the darkness and tried to get into bed.

Bella swung a leg over, preventing her. “Oh no you don’t,” she said. “You’ve already ruined my dinner, you never even came to help me with the dishes, and since then you’ve been making enough ruckus to raise a ghost. I will not let you ruin my beauty sleep as well. So go away.”

“It’s too late,” Hoki said as she hopped over Bella’s leg. “And I’m not talking about my getting into bed either.”

Bella was rigid, her arms crossed. Hoki felt for them and tried to snuggle in under them, but Bella wasn’t budging.

Ah well, best to plough on regardless. “I feel so lonely, Sister dear,” Hoki said. “I don’t know where to turn, where to go, what to do. I feel so hopeless —”

“Oh, what’s the use,” Bella said. She pulled Hoki over and into her arms. Then, unexpectedly, she said, “You’ll find the answer. You always do.”

“So you’ve come around to Skylark’s and my way of thinking?” Hoki asked.

“Get real, Sister,” Bella growled. “It still sounds like a crazy idea. But the awful thing is that even dumb old me can see the logic and the pattern that is developing from it. Still, it’s not going to happen. Even you can’t do the impossible.”

“Oh can’t I?” Hoki said. She never liked it when Bella thought she knew better.

“No you can’t,” Bella replied. “Now snuggle up and go to sleep, and if I bite you during the night it’s only because I’ll be dreaming of bacon bones.”

The next morning, Bella wasn’t at all surprised to find the place in the bed empty beside her. When something was really bothering Hoki she was likely to stay up all night. Bella wandered into the sitting room and yup, there was Hoki flipping over the pages of the Great Book of Birds. Bella went into the kitchen, made a pot of tea and brought a cup back to Hoki.

“Please don’t tell me you’ve found a way of getting Skylark back in Time,” she said.

“No, I haven’t.” Hoki sipped her tea.

“Good,” Bella said. “So that’s that. Now everybody can wake up.”

Hoki gave a sly smile. “But the answer could be in the Apocrypha,” she said.

Skylark awoke to the sound of shotguns invading her dreams, but she wasn’t dreaming at all. Everything was as real as it had been yesterday and, from the sounds outside, the seabirds had come up the valley with the dawn and were attacking again. Quickly, she got out of bed and went to the window. Bella and Hoki were silhouetted against the sky, shooting into the sun. Gulls and terns squealed and fragmented around them.

Skylark got dressed and hurried down to the kitchen where Bella had left her some breakfast on the table. There was a note: Morena, Sleepyhead. Bring Some Fruit And Drink For Morning Tea.

Skylark filled two bottles with water and loaded her backpack with apples and bananas. Then she was out the door and off, walking quickly up the path.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked when she arrived at the cliff top. “Tomorrow, wake me.”

Bella grinned across at Hoki. “It’s the cavalry and I think she’s grumpy this morning.” She gave Skylark her shotgun while she had a drink of water.

“Hello Skylark,” Hoki said. “This might make you happier. Did I ever tell you that as well as the Great Book of Birds there is also an Apocrypha?”

Skylark’s mind went into overdrive. Part of her was excited. Part of her was really scared. What was she getting herself into?

“An extra volume? An additional testament?”

“Hoki thinks it will have instructions in it on how to build your time machine, “ Bella said with sarcasm.

“Whatever the case, we should consult it,” Skylark said. “It sounds like the only chance I’ve got.” She had no option, really. For Cora’s sake she had to follow the Mad Hatter down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.

“The problem is,” Hoki said, “me and Bella don’t have it. If you want to read it, you’ll have to go and see Birdy.” She looked at Bella. “Did you, by any chance, tell Skylark about Birdy?”

Bella shook her head.

Skylark hesitated. Sighted. Boom. “Will this get better or worse?”

“If we tell you,” Hoki continued, “we must have your word that you will keep everything you hear to yourself. Will you do that?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Okay,” Hoki answered. “Well, the thing is, Bella and I are not the only guardians. There are three other handmaidens of the Lord Tane. Birdy is one of them. Of course there were more in the old days when the Great Forest stretched from one end of the country to the other —”

Skylark sighed. Here we go again.

“To be brief,” Hoki said, seeing that look on Skylark’s face, “we are descended from the first handmaiden, Hana. Thousands of years ago, she appointed the sisterhood of handmaidens to take upon themselves the task to look after the forest, the birds of the forest and, in particular, the knowledge about the first battle of the birds and the prophecies surrounding it. All this knowledge was written into the Great Book of Birds. It was important to make sure that the story was preserved so that, when the time of the opening of the sky arrived, the handmaidens of this generation would know how to deal with it.”

“The sisterhood was the first ahi kaa,” Bella added. “The mission of keeping the lore of the Great Book of Birds alive was passed from one generation to the next, from mother to daughter. The First People honoured our roles in the tribe as priestesses of the Lord Tane. They came often to our fires to hear us read from the Great Book and to ask us to mediate on their behalf with Tane. We were respected and loved.”

“Then,” chimed in Hoki, “the pale Second People arrived in Aotearoa, and they brought a new way of looking at things. They had no use for the handmaidens of the Lord Tane. After all, we opposed everything they stood for. They brought in laws which proclaimed us as being tohunga makutu —”

“Witches,” Bella translated.

“Before the handmaidens knew it,” Hoki continued, “they found themselves outcasts and hunted down. It’s the old, old story. During the Land Wars, only a few of them survived and, therefore, only a few copies of the original Book of Birds as well.”

“Our great-great grandmother, Taraipene, was one of the survivors,” Bella said. “She fled into the remotest part of the southern forest. She passed down the knowledge to Kararaina, our great-grandmother, who, when the forest began to diminish, migrated to Manu Valley. Why this valley? Because she realised there were only a few generations to go before the prophecies in the Book would come to pass. She intuitively sensed it would happen here, where the ancient tree was.”

“Luckily for us, Kararaina also knew how to write,” Hoki said. “It was she who transcribed her copy of the original Book of Birds into ledger books. Before she died, she passed her role, and the books, on to Turitumanareti, our grandmother. Grandma married a rich Scotsman, Angus McKay, and he helped her maintain Manu Valley as Maori land before anybody else could chop it down or the Government confiscate it. Turitumanareti passed on the role of handmaiden of the Lord Tane to our mother, Jane, and when we were born Mum anointed us for the task. Basically, I’m the brains —”

“And I’m the brawn,” Bella continued.

“So Birdy is one of you?” Skylark said, before the story could make another loop.

“Yes,” Hoki answered. “But we haven’t seen her for years. Anyhow, Mum told us that the Apocrypha, the extra testament of the Great Book of Birds, is a northern tribal variant to ours. It was written by one of Birdy’s ancestresses, and that’s why it’s kept by her family and by Birdy in our generation.”

“She’s older than us,” Bella said. “But I got a postcard from her last Christmas, so she’s still alive. Trouble is, she lives up north at Parengarenga.”

“Way up there! That’s at the other end of the country.”

“Yes,” Hoki nodded. “If you want to see what’s in the Apocrypha you’ll have to go up there yourself.”

Skylark paused. “Let’s cut to the chase,” she said. “I know this is probably a stupid question, but you couldn’t text her to fax or email a copy to us?”

Hoki stared at Skylark with a look of horror. “No self-respecting handmaiden of Tane would ever stoop to such modern mumbo-jumbo!”

“I thought as much,” Skylark answered, “but one of these days, please put everything onto a floppy.” She had a second, suspicious, thought. “You’re not sending me on a wild goose chase, are you?”

“Well …” Bella pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t exactly say that Birdy is a goose.”

“The next question,” Hoki asked Bella at lunchtime, “is how does Skylark get to Parengarenga? It’s a day’s drive from here to the Picton ferry, and half a day by ferry to Wellington. She’ll be lucky if she can drive from Wellington up to Parengarenga in a day; more likely, it will take her a day and a night.”

“You’re right,” Bella nodded. “And we have another problem.” She pointed to Kawanatanga, Karoro and Toroa circling overhead. “I’ve been wondering why those big brutes are keeping a lookout. Now I know. Kawanatanga’s keeping his beady eyes on us. If Skylark leaves, he’ll suspect something. He knows she’s the one to watch.” Bella turned the problem over in her head. “There’s nothing else for it,” she said at last. “Skylark can’t go by herself. Someone will have to go with her.” She rolled her eyes and drummed her fingers on the table, waiting for Hoki to take the hint.

“Boy,” Hoki said, “you sure go straight to the point.”

“You know me, I don’t do subtle. It’s better that you go.”

“Because of my crippled leg you mean?”

“You know as well as I do,” Bella said, “that I’m stronger, I know more about shotguns than you do and it will be better if I stay here to stop the birds getting through.”

“But I’ve never set foot outside Tuapa. You and me, we’ve never spent a night away from each other.”

“This is no time to be sentimental,” Bella said. She pointed to the seabirds, giant waves coming in and over the top of them. “Their momentum is picking up. You’ve got to go with Skylark. It’ll make it safer and easier if there’s two to share the driving.”

Hoki bit her lip. “I feel as if I’m being bulldozed into this. Besides, you don’t even sound as if you’ll miss me.”

“I’ll miss you,” Bella insisted. “Anyhow, this was your own idea, wasn’t it? Who knows what problems might crop up on your way to Birdy’s. So there’s no option.” She was talking quickly. “Do you think you two can start tonight? Travelling fast, you could just catch the ferry tomorrow morning.”

“Will you really be able to manage?”

“I’ll be fine,” Bella said. “I’ll keep one of the shotguns. If things get worse, Arnie can help me. You’d better take the other shotgun with you. Just in case.”

By evening Skylark and Hoki were ready. Skylark was having an attack of the nerves and went around muttering to herself, “I can do this, I really can do this.”

As for Hoki, she was still reluctant. She had packed some food, drink and blankets into the car and stashed the shotgun and ammunition in the boot. But what really rankled was hearing Bella ring up Arnie and tell him to come to help her in the morning. “You can’t wait to get rid of me, can you,” Hoki said.

Just as they were ready to leave, Bella saw that Karoro and Toroa were still on patrol.

“How are you going to get out of Tuapa without being seen?” she asked.

“We’ve got it all worked out,” Skylark answered. “I need to say goodbye to Mum before I go, so the seabirds will think me and Hoki are just visiting her. By the time visiting hours are over, it’ll be pitch black. That’s when we’ll make our getaway. Our main problem will be when morning comes. We’ll be on the coast highway. It borders the sea and is in the seabirds’ territory. That’s when we’ll be most at risk. If the seabirds see us —”

“They won’t,” Bella assured her. “Now go, both of you, before I —” Her face was streaming with tears. She was trying to act tough, trying not to show Hoki that she really would miss her. She kissed Hoki and traced her face as if she would never see her again.

Hoki saw through it all. On the way down the valley, she found herself being troubled by Bella’s tears. The further she drove, the more worried she became. “My sister’s never been able to survive without me,” she muttered to Skylark. “She depends on me to make the breakfast. How’s she going to get on without me? I should never have agreed to leave her to deal with the seabirds by herself.”

“Then you should stay,” Skylark said. “I’ll go by myself. I’ll be okay.”

“With the seabirds trailing you?” Hoki answered. “I doubt it.” She pointed to Toroa and Karoro still shadowing them on their way to Tuapa. “Like you, Skylark, I’m also between the rock and the hard place.”

But not for nothing was Hoki the brains of the outfit. By the time she and Skylark had reached the town she had an idea:

“You go on in and see your mother. I need to fill up the car and then I have to see somebody. I’ll be back for you at closing time.”

Skylark followed the scent of roses along the corridor and up the lifts and, sure enough, at the end of the trail was Cora, surrounded by more flowers. Even Daddy darling had managed to remember to send something from him and Rhonda. And Lucas too.

Cora looked like Snow White lying on her funeral bier in the middle of the forest. Zac had given her a toxic apple; she had taken a bite. Now she lay waiting for the handsome prince to kiss her so that she could cough it up.

Skylark felt like crying. “Oh, Mum, why does there always have to be a handsome prince?” Then she heard somebody behind her, and turned to see Dr Goodwin. “How’s she doing, doctor?”

“We’re just going to have to wait and see. Her body and her mind need time to sort out what they need to do. Sometimes it’s better to let nature run its course.”

“When will you bring her out of her coma?”

“Once she stabilises and her life signs are out of the red, we’ll do it then.”

“When will that be?”

“Perhaps next week,” Dr Goodwin answered.

“I’m relying on you to do it,” Skylark said. “If you don’t, I’ll put you in a coma and, believe me, you won’t want to come back, because I’ll take that stethoscope around your neck and strangle you with it!”

Dr Goodwin took a step back, startled at Skylark’s outburst. Then he steadied himself and accepted Skylark’s challenge. “It should be successful. But just in case it isn’t, I’d better not wear my stethoscope, right?”

Skylark nodded. Next week. Time enough for her to do what she had to do and get back.

An hour later, a bell began to ring throughout the hospital to announce that visiting time was over. Hoki returned — and with her was Arnie.

“There’s been a change of plan,” Hoki said. “Arnie’s going with you as your sidekick, not me.”

“Oh no,” Skylark answered. “If you can’t come with me, I’ll go alone.”

“No you won’t, “Hoki said. “Arnie’s going with you and that’s that. As for me, I’ll return to Manu Valley to help my sister. It’s better this way.”

“You think I’m happy?” Arnie asked. He frowned, but Skylark could tell that Hoki had been priming him to expect a great adventure. From the glazed look on his face, Arnie had already entered action movie heaven.

“We’re going to deploy the old decoy trick,” Arnie said.

“What did I tell you?” Skylark asked Hoki. “We haven’t even left yet and already Arnie’s testosterone’s pumping.”

Arnie bristled but decided to let it pass.

“Hoki will go out the front to her car and the seabirds will think you’re both going back to the valley. As for you and me, we’ll sneak out the back way, hop into my wagon, and we’ll be away before they know it.”

“I saw that movie,” Skylark said. “But there’s one thing wrong with your plan.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my plan!”

“The seabirds will see that I’m not in the car with Hoki.”

Arnie coloured. Take that, pimple-brain, Skylark thought. “Arnie’s already thought that one through,” Hoki said. “For some strange reason, he has one of those life-sized girlie dolls in the garage.”

“It belongs to Lucas,” Arnie said quickly.

“Skylark, dear,” Hoki raised her voice. “You’re just going to have to grow up. You’re going to have to trust that other people know better than you do about what to do. You’re going to have to trust me, and Arnie. And you’re going to have to help me out. Just the thought of leaving Bella is making me feel bad. I’m not going to leave her in the lurch. Is that clear?”

“As a bell,” Skylark snapped, “but I still don’t like it.”

Hoki turned to Arnie. “Wait half an hour after I’m gone. When you think the coast is clear, move on out. Don’t put on your headlights until you reach the coast road. When you reach Picton, call me. Shall we synchronise our watches? Check our coordinates?” Hoki knew how to push all Arnie’s buttons.

“Okay, Auntie. Check.”

“One other thing,” Hoki added. She rummaged in her flax kit and, when she came up for air, she had a pendant in her hands. Attached to the cord was a bird claw. Hoki placed it around Skylark’s neck.

“What is it?” Skylark asked.

“Among all the birds of the land, hawks are the supreme diurnal birds of prey. They are totally fearless. They are also greatly loving of their young. The hen bird offers only the choicest pieces of prey to her young. Each chick is fed in turn. Each gets its share. Arnie already has a claw, and I give this one to you because I have such a claw.” Hoki lifted her skirt to show her withered foot. “As the hawk loves its children, I love you both. May this claw protect you in whatever you do. It can open flesh to the bone. Should you be in danger, let all beware of my fury.”

Skylark was still fuming about Arnie. “You planned this all along,” Skylark accused. “From the very first, you planned that Arnie would come with me. Well, I don’t —”

“Oh tough,” Hoki answered sharply. “Get over yourself.” Ignoring Skylark’s open-mouthed look, she grabbed her and kissed her on both cheeks. She would have done the same with Arnie, but he backed away.

“May the force be with you,” Hoki said to him as she left out the front door. “And with you too, Skylark dear.”

Skylark watched Hoki leave the hospital and walk to her car. She saw the plastic pumped-up doll on the passenger’s side and was disgusted. “It’s got blonde hair, mine is brown. And I hardly ever wear lipstick.”

“The birds won’t know the difference,” Arnie argued. “Don’t you think it’s an improvement on the original?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Skylark warned. “We haven’t even started on our trip.”

She watched Hoki drive the car out of the carpark.

Arnie was nervous, raring to go. But it wasn’t dark enough — and those strange, sinister seabird shadows were still gliding across the sky.

“We’ve got to keep to the plan,” Skylark answered. “Better to wait for complete darkness, otherwise we’re dead before we hit the highway.”

“But we’ve already left it late enough to catch the ferry, “Arnie argued. “Leave it any later and we may as well not go.”

Skylark kept a firm grip on the leash. Half an hour later, just as Arnie had reached the limit of his patience, she saw Karoro and Toroa abandon their watch. She gave Arnie the green light.

“Okay, we can go now,” she said.

“You just did that to show you’re the boss, didn’t you.”

They left by the back door and had their first argument about who would drive.

“It’s my wagon and I will drive,” Arnie said.

“And it’s my life and you’re supposed to ride shotgun.”

“Then lets toss a coin,” Arnie said.

“Heads,” Skylark answered.

Much to her anger, the coin came down tails.

“All that I will say,” she hissed as she got in the passenger’s side, “is that we the unwilling, led by the unknowing, will try to do the impossible for the ungrateful.” She slammed the door.

Meanwhile, Hoki had returned to Manu Valley. She carried Lucas’s doll into the spare bedroom and put it to bed. Bella, who had just settled down in her armchair and lined up three vodka shots, watched her agog. “You’re supposed to be on your way north,” she said.

“Arnie’s taken my place,” Hoki answered. “I should have known that as soon as my back was turned you’d hit the bottle.”

“Arnie’s gone with Skylark? You’ve got to be joking. They’ll kill each other.”

“No they won’t,” Hoki answered. “They’re only at each other’s throats because they don’t know each other. It’s better this way. They’ll be forced to talk, or go out of their minds with boredom. The talking will bring them closer together.”

“You hope.”

“As well as that,” Hoki continued, taking one of Bella’s vodka shots and slugging it to the back of her throat, “I just don’t have the physical strength and stamina for the journey; it’s for younger people to go on, not an old kuia like me. Arnie, he can roll with the punches.”

“What happens if there are any big problems?”

“They’re just going to have to sort it out themselves,” Hoki said. “I’m home, and I’m home to stay. I’m too old to change my habits. And you’ve become a habit. We’ve never been apart, Sister dear, never. I’m not about to start now.”

However, all that evening, Hoki tossed and turned with worry. She dreamt of skies black with gulls who had not been duped by the decoy routine. In her dreams she watched as the seabirds followed Skylark and Hoki out of Tuapa. They grouped above Arnie’s wagon, waiting until it had reached the highest bend of the mountain road.

Now. Now.

Horrified, Hoki watched as the seabirds stalled, closed their wings and stooped, uttering their wild hunting cries as they dived.

“No!” Hoki screamed. The seabirds attacked. They smashed themselves into the windows. They covered the entire ute with their wings, as if they were feeding on it. Blinded, Arnie took his foot off the accelerator, but it was too late. The ute smashed through the railing and began to fall over the cliff.

Falling. Falling. Then it hit the rocks and burst into flame.

Hoki woke up, sweating, and saw it was dawn. Dawn? She looked at the clock: five-thirty. The ferry was scheduled to leave at six. She banged on Bella’s door, but Bella was already up, washed and ready for the first watch. “I’ll go on up to the clifftop. Why don’t you wait for Arnie’s call? Didn’t you say he’d call when they reached Picton?”

Hoki waited by the telephone. Six o’clock came and went. In her mind’s eye, she saw the ferry breasting the sea, leaving Picton. She could hear the boom of Bella’s shotgun and the squealing cries of the gulls.

Six-thirty. Still no call. I should have gone, Hoki told herself. I shouldn’t have left the responsibility to Skylark and Arnie.

Seven o’clock. Seven-thirty. Hoki feared the worst. She had always had the gift of matakite, the second sight, seeing into the future. Perhaps what she had seen last night wasn’t a dream at all. Perhaps the police had already been called to investigate a ute, smashed on rocks pounded by the sea. They were already pulling out the bodies of a girl and a boy. Above the scene, Kawanatanga was watching. He turned to Hoki, laughing at her, and she put her hands up to her ears to close him out.

The telephone rang just after eight. For a moment Hoki was too frightened to pick it up, just in case it was the police to tell her the bad news. Just in case it was a doctor at a hospital to say Skylark and Arnie were in critical condition.

“Mother Ship, are you there, Mother Ship? Do you copy? Over.”

Hoki gave a cry of relief. “We copy, Arnie. Thank God you’re alive. I’ve been out of my mind with worry. How’s Skylark?”

“She’s okay. Do you want to speak to her?”

Hoki was so cross that Arnie could be so casual. “In a moment. So, you got out of Tuapa without being seen? How was the trip to Picton? Any problems?”

“No,” Arnie answered. “Sweet as. We hit some roadworks on the way, just before Kaikoura, and that slowed us down and —”

“Yes, I know,” Hoki said, “you’ve missed the ferry.”

“Missed the ferry?” Arnie sounded puzzled. “I thought we would too. But even when the time went past six Skylark insisted we press on. Nag nag nag.”

“Good on her!”

“And guess what, Auntie? The ferry had been delayed. Bad weather apparently. We just made it on time. We’re the last vehicle on board. The ferry’s leaving right now.”

“Now?”

At the other end of the telephone, Hoki heard the blast of the ship’s horn, so loud it set up a ringing in her ears. Skylark and Arnie must have been standing right next to it.

“Hoki? Are you there, Hoki? We’re on our way,” Skylark said.

Then Arnie was back on the line.

“Affirmative, Mother Ship. We have ignition.”

Chapter Eight

“Come on, Arnie,” Skylark yelled.

Once the wagon had been parked, Skylark raced to the ferry’s upper deck. Arnie hung back.

“What’s the problem?” Skylark asked.

Arnie was looking ahead at the sea. While the ferry was sheltered within Queen Charlotte Sound there was no problem. Out in the open water, the storm was waiting like a giant fist. “I should have realised,” he groaned, “that if the boat was delayed for so long conditions out there must be bad. That storm is really going to hammer the shit out of me.”

Sure enough, once the ferry entered Cook Strait the weather slammed it from all sides. It dipped and heaved; Arnie’s face turned an interesting shade of green, and he was promptly as sick as a dog. Other passengers were leaning over the rails or hastening below decks for help.

“I think I’ll join them,” Arnie said to Skylark. “Maybe they’ve got a nurse who can give me something.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Skylark asked, concerned.

“No,” Arnie scowled as he made his way below. “I’d prefer pro-fession-al help, thanks.”

“See if I care,” Skylark called after him. Besides, she couldn’t see what the problem was. She had always revelled in stormy weather, wild wind and sea, and was both amused and mystified to find herself almost alone on the upper deck. Only she and an old man tanked to the gills with gin had not fled the elements. The ship dipped, the spray flew up and Skylark and the old man stood at the railing, at ease out here in the open. Out here she was free, she could be herself, and she had space to think clearly about all that had happened to her and Cora. The cold wind and spray from the sea sharpened her understanding of what was important and what wasn’t.

“I love you, Mum!” Skylark shouted.

She had always squarely confronted her challenges. No matter what lay before her, she would face the future head on.

Quarter of an hour later the weather turned really nasty. The old man saluted and left, and Skylark was in good humour when she decided it was time to check on Arnie.

“Some hero you turned out to be,” she said when she found him, collapsed and ill on a lower deck with other hapless seafarers.

“Do me a favour,” Arnie moaned. “Next time you’re on deck can you fall overboard?”

“Hear, hear,” said another passenger.

“Would you like something from the dining room?” Skylark asked sweetly. “A triple cheese burger perhaps?” She turned to the room at large. “Anybody like a burger with the works followed by an ice cream sundae?”

There was a chorus of moans. Arnie looked at her wanly. “I’d ask you to have mercy, but I know you wouldn’t know how to.”

“Didn’t you know?” Skylark asked. “I’m hard-hearted, and I like myself this way.” Even as she said it, Skylark knew it wasn’t true. It was simply that she had learnt the art of the caustic rejoinder. Growing up in a society that favoured pretty over plain, and compliant over stroppy, she had honed her skills with the fast put-down; it was the only way to get people to back up, and back off, before they could get a chance to put her down. The big voice and big attitude just seemed to grow with it.

As Arnie’s seasickness worsened, however, Skylark’s belligerence lessened and she began to feel sorry for him. He might be a pint-sized no-brain jock in overalls, but you should be kind to dumb animals, she mediated with herself. Arnie was half lying back, but he looked uncomfortable. His brow was drenched with sweat, his hair was slicked down with perspiration, and he was breathing in an awful way. When the ferry made a sudden heave and Arnie moaned and joined the rush for the toilets, Skylark took a deep breath and made a decision:

“I will not play at nurse, nor will I be mother, but —”

While their owners were in the toilets, Skylark swiped some of the vacated pillows and made up Arnie a better resting pallet. She ignored the yelps of protests as the previous owners returned — after all, in a situation like this, it was the survival of the fittest — and when Arnie came back she accepted his moan of gratitude as thanks enough. Even so, he almost ruined it.

“How much are you charging me?” he asked.

“Nothing. But I’m driving when we get to Wellington.”

“Oh no you won’t,” Arnie said. “It’s my wagon, and it’s like your jersey. Anybody else who touches it gets wasted.”

Throughout the rest of the crossing Skylark got Arnie to sit up rather than lie down. She held a bowl to his mouth whenever he got sick, and rinsed it out in the loo. She wiped his face with a wet cloth. She urged him to drink water to prevent him from becoming dehydrated. She even made a trip to the dining room to get him some clear soup and, although he protested, held his head up and spooned it into him. But she left the best of her ministrations till last. When, thirty minutes out from Wellington, Arnie asked, “How much longer?” she said, “Only an hour to go.” The result was that when the ferry reached the calmer water of Wellington Heads, the earlier arrival made Arnie’s face clear with a joyous sense of relief. He smiled his thanks, and Skylark was surprised to see that one of his eyes was green, the other was brown. They gave his face an odd, appealing look.

Wellington was lashed with rain squalls that came up from the south and cracked across the city, stinging every exposed piece of skin. The wind rattled the high-rise buildings, and only a few stupid fools were out, poking vainly at the rain with broken umbrellas. The ferry docked, bumping into its moorings, and Skylark helped Arnie down to the car deck, ready to join the exodus of vehicles. Sheepishly, Arnie handed over the keys.

“I guess you’ll have to drive after all,” he said. No matter that the ship had docked, he was heaving back and forth just like the sea. He was also feeling drowsy from pills the nurse had given him to take just before landing. She’d handed him four, with the instructions to take one now and three later — but what the heck, he’d taken them all at the same time. After all, if one pill would get you better, four would do the job quicker, right?

“It’s four-wheel drive,” Arnie said as Skylark started the ute. “Can you manage? You’ll need to fill up soon. Ultimate unleaded, I don’t like any of the other brands. I think the oil’s okay but just watch the pressure. I’m sorry, Skylark, I feel like I’m letting you down.”

Skylark had wanted to drive this baby even since she’d seen it. She gave Arnie an evil smile. “You’re putting yourself into my hands? Heh heh heh —”

By the time the ferry doors opened, Arnie was out like a light. Skylark looked at her watch. It was just after eleven in the morning. Eight hours to Auckland. Another six to Parengarenga. Add another three or four hours for rest stops, lunch and dinner. If they drove through the night they’d make Parengarenga by the next morning. She gave the ute a touch of juice, took off the handbrake, added some acceleration and the ute leapt onto the dock.

“Kaa. Kaa.”

Seagulls swooped low across the windscreen, crying harshly. Skylark gave a gasp of fear. Her heart was racing. Had they seen her? No. Luckily, the windscreen was smattered with rain. She watched as a group of six chased a seventh away from a pie that somebody had thrown onto the ground. Then they returned and began fighting over the pie. Tearing at it with their sharp beaks. Raging at each other.

Skylark followed the exit signs out of the harbour. Not until then did she put the wipers on. The windscreen cleared and she was soon driving away from Wellington on the main highway north.

Hoki stood at the clifftop like a sentinel. All around, the seabirds were wheeling. Whenever they got too close she balanced on her walking sticks and raised the shotgun. “Think you can get past me?” she muttered. “Well think again.”

Boom. The force of the shot almost unbalanced her. She blew at the smoke issuing from the barrel. “Yessirree, the sheriff’s back in town.” She cast a particularly murderous glance at Kawanatanga. He was like a general overlooking the battlefield and marshalling his troops. She’d tried before to pop him off, but he was in a high-flying figure-eight pattern and always out of range.

“Too scared to come down to Momma?” Hoki asked, trying to take a bead on him. “Come closer, you big black brute, come to Auntie Hoki —”

Hoki let off a shot but it fell short. Kawanatanga arched his neck and shouted his mockery down upon her. He soared on the thermals, exhibiting the insolent strength of his scapulars. Watching him, Hoki found herself looking through the ripped sky to the blackness beneath; it was like an eye into the past, and she had to shake her head to clear her vision. She looked at her watch. It was coming on to midday and she was getting hungry.

Bella arrived with a basket containing some sandwiches and drink. She also had a strange piece of equipment with her — a long wooden rod, like a broom handle, with a notch at one end. She spread a blanket on the grass and invited Hoki to join her. If it hadn’t been for the screaming seagulls you would have thought that two old ladies were sitting down for a quiet picnic.

“I’ve just had the fright of my life,” Bella said.

Boom. She levelled the shotgun at the sky as some gulls tried to sneak past.

“What from, Sister dear?” Hoki asked.

“You should have told me you had sat that hideous doll in one of the armchairs in the sitting room. I thought we had a visitor.”

“I put Skylark’s dressing gown on it,” Hoki giggled. “Do you think it will fool the seabirds?”

“Let’s hope so,” Bella answered. “There were a few sitting on our telephone lines, looking in through the window. We’ve got to give Skylark and Arnie as much of a head start as possible. Once the seabirds find out she isn’t here, they may go after her.”

After lunch it was Bella’s turn on sentry duty, but Hoki decided to stay up on the cliff with her. “Who knows what booze you’ve got in your flask,” she joked.

“That means you’re spoiling my surprise,” Bella said. She stood, picked up the strange piece of equipment she had brought with her and began banging it into the ground. She placed Hoki’s shotgun in the cradle. “Even though you don’t deserve this,” she said, “given your crack about my flask, this will save you having to balance on your walking sticks. All you need to do is aim and pull the trigger.”

“Why, thank you, Sister dear,” Hoki answered. She had a practice, swinging the shotgun on its cradle and then: Boom.

What was that sound?

One moment Arnie was asleep, the next he was aware of someone singing. At first he thought it was birdsong but then he realised that this was only one voice and it wasn’t a bird. Slowly, he opened one eye and peeked out. Skylark was behind the wheel of his ute, earphones on her head, and she was singing along with a portable CD. She had put it on rather than the ute’s radio so she wouldn’t wake him, but had been carried away with the songs on the disc.

“The hills are alive with the sound of music …”

Arnie decided to play possum and just listen and watch for a while. It hadn’t occurred to him that Skylark would have such a gorgeous voice — light, bright and, when she opened out the throttle, man, could it soar? Could it what!

“I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night …”

The CD was a compilation of Broadway show tunes, which was not Arnie’s type of music at all. But for the first time he saw Skylark with her guard down. Sure, she wasn’t the slim type that he preferred but she had a really pretty face. Her skin was clear, her eyes sparkled and although her chin was as stubborn as, once you looked past her attitude you found a different girl.

Not for long. Right in the middle of the song Skylark saw that Arnie was awake, staring at her, and she stopped in mid-flight.

“I hate people watching me while I’m driving,” she said.

“No, don’t stop,” Arnie answered. “I didn’t realise you had such a terrific voice.”

Skylark didn’t know whether Arnie was being sarcastic or not. “Yes, well, the CD’s not mine. It’s Mum’s. Would you believe I’ve brought her music by mistake?”

“Well I think its great,” Arnie said. “Did you have lessons?”

“No,” Skylark answered, relaxing. “But when I was little and Mum and I used to go on long trips between one gig and another, she loved to have me sing in the car. ‘Sing, Skylark, sing,’ she used to say. She told me that it stopped her from falling asleep at the wheel.” Skylark smiled at the memory. “Mum used to say, ‘Skylark O’Shea, a girl should never leave home without a Broadway tune in her purse, just in case she meets an agent and has an audition on the spot! A show tune is just the thing when you’re feeling afraid or in a jam. Whenever that happens, sing, Skylark, sing.’”

Skylark gave an incredulous laugh at her own gullibility. Then she realised she had shown too much of herself. She looked ahead.

“We’ve reached Taihape,” she said. “And don’t think you can get around me so easily, just by being nice about my singing.”

“Already?” Arnie’s eyebrows arched with surprise. “Nice driving, Skylark.” Then, “I’m hungry,” he said. “I could eat a horse and drink a river dry. Let’s stop and have lunch when we hit the town.”

“You also need a visit to a bathroom,” Skylark said. “Your breath is so awful you could turn me to stone — and don’t be tempted to do it.”

Arnie could have given a smart reply but realised that he had turned the corner with Skylark. After all, she’d been nice to him during the Cook Strait crossing. If he was nice back, maybe they’d get along better. For the first time since they’d started the trip they’d been able to have a conversation — a short one, sure — without getting at each other’s throats. It was a start.

Skylark turned into a parking space. Arnie found a restaurant, and left Skylark to order food while he made a visit to the bathroom with a toothbrush, towel and soap. When he came back he was washed, brushed and combed, and Skylark had ordered herself a pie with peas and chips, washed down with coffee.

“What!” Skylark asked. She just knew, just knew that Arnie was going to criticise her selection. Well, she needed carbos, wanted carbos and was going to get carbos — and she just felt like a pie, thank you very much.

“I think I’ll have the same,” Arnie said, deciding to keep the peace, though what he really yearned for was a nice piece of lean steak, some salad and an energy drink to get his electrolyte levels back up. He took a bite out of the pie: “Mmm, good,” he lied. Somewhere over the next few days, he vowed, he’d just have to find a gym.

After lunch, Skylark visited the women’s room. She scrubbed her face till it shone, put her hair up in butterfly clips, sprayed some perfume in the air and stood under the mist. Arnie, waiting for her by the ute, was pleased she’d made the effort to look like — well, a person of her gender, for a change, but decided on balance not to say anything about it. Why tempt fate?

Skylark handed Arnie the keys. She too had done some thinking about having Arnie tagging along. She’d taken a reality check. They were stuck with each other. May as well try to get on, right?

“Thanks,” Arnie said. “Maybe you can take over once we get to Auckland.”

They hit the road. For a while they were silent, trying to figure out where to go next.

“Are you related to Hoki and Bella?” Skylark asked at last.

“Why do you ask?” Arnie answered. He was edgy, trying to be careful. If he started to talk, things might fall out that would get them arguing again. After all, it was obvious they were from different planets. She was a spoilt little know-everything girl who used her jersey, badges, mouth and attitude as weapons against the world. Did he want her to know him better?

Arnie decided to take the chance. “No,” he began. “I’m not related. I come from Invercargill. My Mum and Dad had nine of us. My Dad was seventeen when he met Mum. She was still at high school. His name’s George. Her name’s Anna. I suppose they were in love but I wasn’t around to see. By the time I arrived, number seven in the family, there wasn’t much love left. And both Dad and Mum were on the dole.”

“But there must have been something,” Skylark answered, trying to keep the small talk going. “After all, another two children came after you.”

“Yeah, well,” Arnie said, “having sex was a habit they couldn’t break.”

Small house. Nine kids. Mum and Dad out of work. In the lounge was a photograph of them on their wedding day; when Arnie compared them to the present-day parents he would ask himself: Where did those two bright eyed and handsome young kids go to? Who stole Dad away and substituted the fat, foul-mouthed, violent slob whose only object in life was to go out, get drunk, come back and take it out on the wife and kids? What happened to the shy girl called Anna who became a woman with a scowl, hipping the latest baby from room to room, scattering cigarette ash on the way?

“By the time I was born,” Arnie continued, “luckily my oldest sisters, Gina and Sophia, were bringing home a weekly paycheck from their checkout jobs. It was Gina really who brought me up; Mum and Dad were too zonked out to do it. In those days I was the runt of the litter. Dad used to call me Short Arse. At school I got the usual nicknames: Tiny, Squint, Midget, Munchkin. I guess that’s why I started to go to the gym. Build up some bulk. I think I was trying to compensate so that if anybody tried to put me down I could bop them one. Then Gina and Sophia got married and left home, so us younger kids started to be farmed out to foster parents.”

Some had been good. Some had been bad. One of the foster dads had tried to put his hands down Arnie’s pants and Arnie had smashed him. The foster dad denied it, got off, and Arnie began to receive a reputation as being difficult. Then, the usual story: he joined a gang of delinquents. Before you knew it, he was living under bridges, sniffing glue and breaking into houses and cars.

“That’s when Auntie Hoki and Auntie Bella came along,” Arnie said. “Social Welfare thought the best thing to do was to get me away from unsavoury influences. They got in contact with Dad’s tribe and Auntie Hoki and Auntie Bella said they’d take me in. That’s how I ended up in Tuapa. They turned me round. If it hadn’t been for them I don’t know where I’d be now. Probably in prison. I stayed with them while I finished college. Later, I found the job at Lucas’s garage and moved to my own place in town.”

Waiouru was ahead. The Army settlement looked like packing crates pushed accidentally out of a military transporter.

“Did Bella and Hoki tell you I joined the Army for a year?” Arnie asked. “We did everything. Running around playing soldiers. Building bridges. Going on route marches. Jumping out of helicopters. Tandem parachuting — wow, you’ve gotta try that sometime.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Arnie shrugged his shoulders, but secretly he was very pleased with himself. He’d been right: once you got past all Skylark’s defences — and, boy, was she ever rigged with booby traps, claymore mines and grenades that would go off at any false step — she was okay.

The Desert Road curved through the tussock. On the left side loomed three volcanic cones, their tops dusted with ice and snow. Clouds did conjuring tricks with the mountains, obscuring them one moment, revealing them the next.

Skylark was still curious. “What’s all this mother ship business you have going with Hoki?”

“When I was a kid,” Arnie answered, “Auntie Hoki took me to E.T. I’d never seen anything like it. Do you remember at the end when the mother ship comes to collect E.T.? Well, I started to call Auntie Hoki ‘Mother Ship’. It was just a game but it gave me a good feeling when I was young to think that if ever I was in trouble I could just phone home and Auntie Hoki would come to get me. Now I think Hoki and I still do it just to drive Auntie Bella crazy!”

The ute sped onward through the falling afternoon, skirting the bases of the mountains, pushing north.

Skylark and Arnie reached Auckland by nightfall. The Skytower was directly ahead, winking in the twilight sky. Downtown Auckland was buzzing with traffic and action. Arnie eased the ute through the streets.

“Decision time,” Arnie said. “We can either stop over and make for Parengarenga in the morning or we can have a dinner break, drive through the night and arrive at dawn.”

“We’d better keep to our timetable,” Skylark answered. “The sooner we get to Birdy’s the better. But do you mind if we detour to Mum’s place first? I’d like to pick up the mail and check any messages. We can shower and change there and, after that, I know a place where we can get great Indian food or, if you like, Thai.”

“Whatever,” Arnie said.

He followed Skylark’s directions to a block of high rises in fashionable Parnell. Yes, he thought, just the place for a television star like Cora Edwards.

Skylark brightened as she stepped out of the ute, opened the lobby door and looked in the mailbox. It was filled with cards and letters from well-wishers; Skylark imagined her mother’s delighted face when she opened them.

She led the way to the lift. A few seconds later, they were on the top floor. Skylark inserted the key, opened the door, switched on the light. Then she was wide-eyed, and backing away.

“He’s been back,” she said. “Zac’s been back.” Arnie pushed past her and charged into the apartment. “What the hell —” The place had been trashed. A psychopath had been on the rampage through it. In all the rooms, the curtains had been ripped. The couches in the sitting room had been slashed and the television set upended. The dining room was a wreck of broken mirrors and crystal. The kitchen was not much better: smashed crockery was strewn all over the floor. In the master bedroom Cora’s clothes had been heaped on the carpet. Someone had tried to put a match to them; if the match had taken, the whole place would have gone up in flames.

Arnie heard Skylark sob. She had paused in her bedroom. Her bed was a pincushion of hypodermic needles. The imagery was chilling. Zac had scrawled a message on the wall:

You’ll Get Yours, Girly.

Arnie went to comfort Skylark, but she stiffened and pushed him away. When she turned to him, Arnie saw that her mood had shifted.

“No,” Skylark said. Her eyes were blazing and she was icy calm. She walked to the telephone and dialled a number. “Hello? Is that the building supervisor?” She reported the condition of the apartment, issued instructions on having it cleaned up, the locks changed, having a police report done, and, under no circumstances, was Zac to be allowed back in. Then she turned and looked at Arnie. Her face was grim. Unblinking.

“I’ll get Zac if it’s the last thing I do,” she said.

Arnie saw that Skylark had again gone beyond his reach. She was so volatile, so reactive. In one second she had switched back on autopilot.

“This is what happens when you trust people,” she said. “They trash your lives. Mum and I have always looked after ourselves. We don’t need anybody else.”

Then Skylark looked straight through him. Her voice was chill. “Hoki had no business forcing you to come with me. What I have to do has absolutely nothing to do with you. You’re not involved. This is my business and I’m doing it for my mother. So, Arnie, thank you for bringing me this far, but I’m hiring a car for the rest of the trip. From here I go on alone. You go back to Tuapa where you’re needed.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Arnie answered.

“You’ve got no say in the matter,” Skylark screamed. She had learned that sometimes with stubborn people, adding volume to attitude often did the trick. Not today.

“Oh yes I have,” Arnie said. He had to think quick … Ah well, desperate people had to take desperate measures.

Before Skylark could stop him, he walked over to her backpack and took out her wallet. In it was her driver’s licence and credit cards.

“You won’t get far without these,” Arnie said.

Skylark went through the roof. That was foul play. Out of court.

“How dare you do that! Give them back. They’re mine, not yours!”

“No, Skylark. We’re sticking together and that’s that.” Arnie said, keeping his ground.

“You juvenile delinquent!” Skylark yelled. “I suppose you learned that little trick when you were living on the streets, right? Well, I can always get replacements.”

“And waste a day when you’re in such a hurry? I don’t think so.” Arnie was dancing out of her reach. Exhausting her. Skylark gave a loud wail and a last lunge and fell to the floor, hoping that Arnie would get close enough for her to grab.

“You’re not the only one who can be obstinate,” Arnie said. “Auntie Hoki didn’t force me. I wanted to come — and whether you like it or not, I’m riding shotgun to the end of the trail. So you have two options. You either come with me — or you come with me. What’s it to be?”

It was touch and go. Skylark was simmering; it was just as well she wasn’t a volcano. If she called the cops in, that would be the end of Arnie. But she didn’t. Phew. Instead, lips compressed, she stalked out of the apartment. Arnie couldn’t help but put a jaunty step or two into his walk.

“You think you’ve got one over me, don’t you,” Skylark said. “Well, I’m warning you, Arnie, you know zip. So don’t follow too close in my footsteps. I could step in something.”

Arnie drove all the way from Auckland. Once on the northern highway, the heavy traffic thinned out. By the time they passed Whangarei, where they filled the ute with petrol, they seemed to be the only people on the road.

“Do you want me to drive from here?” Skylark offered. She was still angry, but she could tell Arnie was getting tired. He might get careless and have an accident, and that wouldn’t do either of them any good.

“I’m okay, thanks,” Arnie said. “If I let you have the wheel, who knows, you might push me out of the ute and take off without me.” He wasn’t joking either.

“Why, Arnie.” Skylark fluttered her eyelashes. “The thought never even crossed my mind.”

“Yeah, and butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth,” Arnie answered.

The consequence was that Skylark stayed awake, fearing Arnie might go to sleep at the wheel. Her alertness saved them when a stray cow came looming out of the darkness. “Watch out!” she cried. Arnie wrenched the wheel to the left, touched the accelerator and zoomed out of the way. The cow’s huge eyes filled the windows and then slid to the left.

“I suppose you’ll still insist on the imposition of your male testosterone mentality in the matter of safe driving?” Skylark asked. She was seething. As for Arnie, he decided it best not to answer. Things were bad enough already. For the rest of the trip, they hardly spoke. They were like two angry children in a spaceship shooting its way through a galaxy full of stars.

Just before dawn, Skylark and Arnie reached the narrow road that threaded its way up the northernmost extremity of Aotearoa. Not long after that they drove into Te Hapua, home of the last pub, the last petrol pump and the last store in the north. Beyond was Parengarenga Harbour, the sand dunes like spellbinding mountains sloping into the sea. They still weren’t speaking to each other when Arnie saw a couple of locals riding horses down the main road and asked directions. “Could you tell us how to get to Birdy’s place?”

“Sure. Turn left at the next bend, go two ks on, and follow the road right down to the sea. When you can’t go any further, and you see a house, that’s Birdy’s.”

Arnie rapped on the door. There was a shuffling sound from inside. When the door opened, an old woman was standing there, looking at them. She was thin, wiry, with long grey hair tumbling down to her waist.

“You two look like something the cat’s dragged in.” Her eyes were bright and inquisitive, and she had a way of rocking her head back and forth as if she was looking for something.

Yes, Skylark thought, you’re Birdy all right.

“Of course I am,” Birdy answered, as if she had read Skylark’s mind. “And who are you?”

“My name’s Skylark,” Skylark said.

“Such a pretty bird. Introduced to Aotearoa in the 1860s, streaked brown and dark brown, eats insects, nests on the ground and has a beautiful song, yes, yes.” She turned to Arnie. “And you?”

“My name’s Arnie.”

“Arnie? Arnie? Are you a Pelecaniformes? Or an Apterygiformes! No, I don’t know the bird you’re named after. Come in, come in. You haven’t come to rob me, have you? There’s nothing left in the house anyhow.” Birdy ushered Skylark and Arnie in. “So why have you come to see me? Would you like some breakfast? How can I help you?”

“Hoki and Bella sent me,” Skylark said.

Birdy gasped. She rushed to a cabinet, opened it, rummaged and found some spectacles, and peered closely at Skylark. “You’re the chick! So you have appeared! I’m so happy, so happy.” With a sigh, Birdy hugged Skylark. “But why are you up here at Parengarenga?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Skylark said.

“Don’t you? Don’t you? But why don’t you know!”

“The Book of Birds only has some of the information. I’m here because you have the Apocrypha.”

“Do I?” Birdy cocked her head. “Do I? Of course you do, you silly old hen!” she chastised herself. “But first you two chicks will want to wash up! Have you been travelling all day and all night? Of course you have! There’s the bathroom. Here are the towels. Women first. And afterwards, we’ll have a breakfast of nice steamed mussels, cockles and seaweed tea! Doesn’t that sound scrumptious?”

“Scrumptious,” Skylark said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

A shower and change of clothes was just the thing to perk Skylark up. Hair wet, complexion shiny, she joined Birdy in the kitchen while Arnie took his turn to wash. By the time he came back, breakfast was ready.

“Hoe in! Eat the lot! The sea is bountiful!” Skylark didn’t think she’d be too keen on the kai Birdy dished up, but man oh man, was it sweet!

“Eat! Eat!” Birdy continued. She dashed backwards and forwards with bread, butter and more tea. “And while you’re hoeing in, I’ll go and get the Apocrypha.” She disappeared into the sitting room. Skylark heard her opening and closing drawers. “Where did you put it, you silly biddy! Not here? Maybe you left it in your bedroom or in the back shed? Maybe it’s been stolen! Well, if somebody stole it they better watch out. There’s a big hoodoo on the Apocrypha —”

Then there was a cry of joy.

“She’s found it,” Arnie said.

But when Birdy came to the kitchen she had other news. “I’ve been a forgetful hen! I haven’t got the Apocrypha.”

“You haven’t?” Skylark asked.

“No. I lent it to Joe.”

“Who’s Joe?”

“Don’t you know?” Birdy asked. “Joe lives near Tauranga.”

Halfway back down the island. A day’s travel away. Oh no, Skylark thought.

Birdy stared deep into Skylark’s eyes. “Don’t worry, dear, I can remember the part that involves me.” She closed her eyes and began to recite from memory:

“And the Lord Tane said, ‘Once the Sky has opened, then shalt the seabirds of that time to come be able to make pilgrimage back to the time that is and, in that time conjoined, the battle of the birds shalt be fought again.’ But hearing this, Te Arikinui Kotuku, on behalf of the Runanga a Manu, begged the Lord Tane, ‘Forgive us, oh Lord, our arrogance. Just as you have given unto the seabirds a second chance, give the same opportunity unto us also.’

“And the Lord Tane found forgiveness in his heart and said unto her: ‘What is done cannot be undone. The promise made to the seabirds is a promise I cannot take back. However, because of my love for you, my children of the Great Forest which bears my name, I will indeed give you what you wish. Hear me: I will send a deliverer, a chick of open heart and innocence, and in her wings she will hold your fate. You should look for her to appear at the same time as the sky opens unto the seabirds. She will be the one. And I will send her out unto the wilderness to be tested and, should she show courage and strength, then she will arrive out of the wilderness bearing claw, wing feather and —’”

Birdy opened her eyes and winked. She saw the necklet that Hoki had given Skylark. “I see you’ve got the claw. That’s a good start. You’ve come at just the right time to get the feather.”

Birdy was off, stepping quickly out of the house. With a laugh, Skylark and Arnie hastened after her. The sun had come up and the sky was a bright blue bowl. Birdy was already climbing the first sand dune.

“Come along! Come along! Don’t lag behind!”

The view from the sand dune took Skylark’s breath away. For as far as she could see, more dunes. The sun turned them all into dazzling walls of glass.

Birdy reached the edge of an area where strands of blue sea had made a system of intricate sand bars. “Come along, slow coaches!” she yelled. “Can’t keep up with an old cluck like me?”

Arnie held out his hand to Skylark — and she took it. Birdy was not far ahead of them now, wading across an estuarine stream.

That’s when Skylark saw the seabirds. Thousands and thousands of them dotted upon every patch of sand. Waiting.

Birdy stepped into their midst and some of them took wing. Skylark pushed Arnie’s hand away. Heart pounding, she began to run.

“No, Birdy, no.” The seabirds were hovering across the old woman. She was unaware of the danger, letting them come to rest on her outstretched arms. But as Skylark splashed across the estuary, Birdy called to her.

“Meet the Scolopacidae —”

What was this? The seabirds weren’t attacking Birdy at all. They were still sitting calmly on the sand bars or resting on her arm where she could stroke them.

“I thought they would kill you,” Skylark said, awed.

“These?” Birdy smiled. “Oh no, not these, not my godwits.”

“Godwits?” Arnie asked. “But aren’t they seabirds too?”

“Yes, yes,” Birdy nodded. Then: “Oh, I understand.” Her voice trilled with amusement. “In the time before Man, the Lord Tane gave the godwits special dispensation to be shorebirds rather than seabirds. They are Arctic waders who breed in the Northern Hemisphere but migrate south to Aotearoa to get away from the Arctic winter. It was Chief Kuaka, whose Maori name I carry, who obtained the permission. He said, ‘Because my species lives in Aotearoa for six months will you grant me the lease of special places where we might find safety and shelter?’ The Lord Tane said, ‘Yes,’ and leased them Rangaunu Harbour at the neck of Aupouri Peninsula and here, at Parengarenga Harbour.”

Skylark felt her body flood with relief. She watched as Birdy moved among the godwits, mottled grey and brown, patting and stroking their heads as she passed each one. Some were feeding at the edge of the tide, keeping up a continuous musical chatter. Many were in pairs, and Birdy looked at Skylark teasingly.

“I’m glad you’ve got a boyfriend too,” Birdy said.

Oo er. Arnie blushed and turned away.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Skylark said. “Apart from that he’s basically normal.”

“Well, whoever he is,” Birdy said, “both of you have arrived on a very special day. Around 10,000 godwits come to Aotearoa every year. One-tenth of them actually land here at Parengarenga. But leaving will be the kindest thing to happen to my darlings. It’s been a mean summer. The godwits are legally protected, but Parengarenga has become a killing field. People come to net and shoot the birds for food. A one-kilogram godwit primed to fly a long distance is the kind of bird most sought for the pot. There’s a black market in them; some birds are sold as far south as Auckland. Many of those who escape the poachers are inflicted with internal injuries and maimed wings and legs. Some are likely to ditch into the ocean on their way back to Siberia and Alaska, or not go at all. But they must get back to breed. They’ve had ideal conditions in the past couple of weeks. I’ve been trying to protect them so they can gain strength to begin their marathon journey. South-east winds will carry them up on the first leg into the western Pacific.

“I love my darlings. They are like a huge tribe. They travel together, they come together, they leave together. There is no other tribe quite like them. They have been massing to leave for days. And —” There was an excitement in the air. “Here comes the south-east wind.”

As if on some invisible command, the godwits lifted into the air. For a moment the whole world was filled with a mighty fluttering and whirring, and Skylark put her hands to her ears to minimise the sound. Powerful wings beat the air into a whirlwind.

Birdy began to sing a song of farewell. “Haere atu koutou nga kuaka, haere atu ki runga i te reo aroha —”

She almost disappeared in the snowstorm of feathers. “Farewell, godwits, go to your other home on the other side of the world. In the summer, return to me where I await your arrival again.”

The godwits flew in a compact flock, twisting and turning in unison, pouring out of the harbour. Beneath them, the old woman fell to the sand, weeping.

“Ah well,” Birdy said, “I’ve done my job for another year.” She picked up a feather left by one of the departing birds. “Oh yes, and you had better take this.”

She put the feather in Skylark’s hands. The godwits were a stain in the sky, disappearing over the horizon. “The feather comes from a strong bird, renowned for covering huge distances. It will hold you up even when you’re so tired you can’t go any further.”

Arnie watched Birdy give Skylark the feather. The whole scene of the godwits’ departure had affected him. Coming as he did from a broken family, he was particularly taken by Birdy’s remark that they were a huge tribe. They belonged. They paired. They had someone. He saw another feather on the ground, inspected it, and decided that if Skylark could have one he could too. He put it in his pocket.

“Now you’d better get on the road,” Birdy said. “When you get to Joe’s town, just ask at the hotel. Everybody knows Joe.”

Skylark was first back to the ute. What do you know — the keys were in the ignition and Arnie had put her wallet back into her backpack. Now why did he do that?

“You’re taking a big chance, aren’t you?” she said as he joined her.

“No,” he answered. “I’m counting on you to have enough common sense to realise that we need each other to get safely back to Manu Valley. For one thing, you can’t drive all the way by yourself.”

“Okay,” Skylark agreed. “But I wouldn’t be too cocky about it.” She jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Good,” said Arnie. His gamble had paid off. “But no funny business, right? I’m with you right up to the end credits, got it?”

“Right up to the moment when the hero rides off into the sunset with the girl?” Skylark tried not to sound too sarcastic.

“Something like that,”

“Well, you’ve just missed out on being stranded up here by that much,” Skylark said, eyeballing him, “so if you shut up now you may even escape with your life.”

Arnie nodded okay, but then remembered something. “I’d better tell Hoki and Bella not to expect us back so soon. They’ll want to know we’re making a detour.” He took out his cellphone and dialled Tuapa. “Hello? Is that you, Mother Ship? Do you copy? We’re just leaving Parengarenga. Birdy hasn’t got the Apocrypha. For some reason, she’s given Skylark a feather to go with your claw.”

“A feather? Why would Birdy want to do that? To go with my claw? Was I supposed to give Skylark the claw?” Hoki was bewildered and very worried. “So are you two coming home now?”

“No, we’re on our way to —”

Hoki felt a shiver of apprehension. She glanced out the window and saw Karoro and Toroa hunched on the telephone wires. The hairs on her neck began to prickle. The seabirds were listening in.

“Arnie, listen, I’m cutting the connection. Do you hear me?”

“What did you say, Auntie? Are you still there? We’re on our way to Tauranga. Apparently Joe has the Apocrypha and —”

Hoki slammed the telephone down. With a sick feeling, she saw Karoro and Toroa leaving the telephone line. As they did so, they flew past the window where Lucas’s doll was, seated and screeched with anger.

Foolish woman to think your deception would work.

Back in Parengarenga, Arnie stared at the cellphone, puzzled. Maybe his batteries were running low. He shrugged his shoulders and nodded at Skylark. Time to go.

“Goodbye, Birdy,” Skylark said.

“Goodbye to you,” Birdy answered. “Don’t be put off by Joe’s temper and grumpiness,” she said. “The bark is worse than the bite.” Skylark and Arnie pulled out, and Birdy waved. Then her face opened with joy and she cupped her hands and shouted: “Skylark! Skylark! Do you know what people call a whole lot of skylarks circling in the air? They call it an exaltation, dear, an exaltation!”

Skylark watched Birdy in the rear-vision mirror. The old woman waved and laughed and danced in the sun.

Chapter Nine

Kaa. Kaa.

Kawanatanga was on the rampage. On his way to the ripped sky, his squad had been attacked by the hawk clan and he had lost two of his best men. Then, as he was encouraging the seabirds to go through the opening he had inadvertently descended to the point where one of the old hens had almost shot him down. Now, Karoro and Toroa, charged with keeping the house of the two old hens under surveillance, had arrived with their intelligence.

“Sir,” Karoro said, “the young chick is not there. She is not in Manu Valley at all.”

Kawanatanga’s tail lifted with anger. His wings trembled as he raised each white plume at right angles. He threw back his head in a malevolent hiss. “Then what is that thing in the nestroom that you have been watching with such commitment and devotion?”

“My Lord, it is a scarecrow made of plastic.”

With a quick movement, Kawanatanga advanced on Karoro, extended his neck and caught the hapless bird by the throat. “So where is the chick then? Where is she?”

Toroa backed away, nervous. He tried to bluff his way through Kawanatanga’s anger. “My Lord, all is not lost. The good news is that while we were sitting on the telephone wires we overheard the old hen in conversation. The female chick has just left Parengarenga with a male chick companion. They are on their way to the one called Joe. The bad news is that the female chick has the claw and the feather —”

“The claw and the feather?” Kawanatanga shrilled. “But how can that be? All they need now is what Joe will give them and —”

The chick knew about the Apocrypha. If she had got that far, she could get further. “Our future is at risk,” Kawanatanga screamed. “As long as the slightest possibility exists that the chick might find a way to overturn what was promised us, she remains our greatest threat.” Kawanatanga arched his throat and flapped his wings, calling for his lieutenants to come to him. When they were assembled, he gave his commands. “You albatrosses, mollymawks, fulmars, petrels, prions, shearwaters, pelicans, gannets, boobies, skuas, gulls, terns and noddies all! Urge your troops through the ripped sky! Meanwhile, I must take my pursuit squad of seashags, fifty in all, northward, for we are in great danger from the chick. She must be stopped. Kill, kill, kill.”

Karoro and Toroa echoed Kawanatanga’s exhortations across the sky. Satisfied, Kawanatanga gathered his pursuit squad around him. “We fly northward on the next wind,” he said. “But first I want to leave a little message at the nest of the two old hens.”

Long after leaving Parengarenga, Skylark could still see Birdy dancing like a mote of sunlight. What did the old woman say a group of skylarks was? An exaltation, that was it.

Skylark liked that. It made her feel empowered. Humming to herself, she looked in her backpack for one of her badges: We Are All Clark Kent.

Arnie was still sleeping when they passed through Auckland. However, at the bottom of the Bombay Hills where the highway forked, he woke up, scratched his armpits and asked: “Do you feel like a break?”

Skylark eased the ute to a halt. She and Arnie swapped sides, and immediately she sensed his relief at being back behind the wheel. She couldn’t resist needling him. “I should have realised,” she said. “You’re a boy racer. You’ve never been driven by a girl before, have you.”

“Well …” Arnie shifted uneasily in his seat. “Actually, I’ve never let anybody drive Annabelle before.”

“Annabelle?”

“The name of my ute,” Arnie explained. “And before you accuse me of being sexist, Annabelle’s the full name of my mother.”

“You’ve made that up,” Skylark said, folding her arms.

“Why would I do that! If I’d known you wouldn’t believe me I would have brought along Mum’s birth certificate.”

It was happening again. When would Skylark get past all of her stuff. Arnie remembered how, when he was a boy and some other guy had you in an arm lock, you yelled “Pax” and you were released. Maybe it would also work with a girl. He slowed the ute down to a halt. “Look, we’ve already had enough fights getting this far. Are we going to fight the whole trip?”

Skylark stared out the window. What was it about Arnie that kept snapping her elastic? How could she even begin to tell him about why she kept pushing him — anybody — away? But she had to try, so that once and for all he would understand.

“Nobody knows what it was like for me when I was growing up,” she said. “I was an accident which wasn’t supposed to happen. Mum and Brad had fallen in love with the idea of having a baby, especially a little girl, but when I arrived I wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. What they wanted was some pretty little doll with a cute button nose that they could dress up and show off. But Mum grew to love me and I loved her back. Then Brad left her and I’ve been the head of the household ever since. I’ve had to look after my mother, stand her back up when she’s been let down by the series of himbos she’s had trashing her life.”

Arnie tried to calm her, but Skylark wouldn’t be stopped. “I was the little girl who, whenever we had games at school, would say, ‘Pick me! Pick me!’, but I was always the last chosen. So excuse me if I don’t like the world I live in, but I’ve always had to face it myself — and in my own way. For instance, I must have been around eight, I was walking home from school and I saw a man beating his dog. He was trying to make the dog jump up onto the back of a truck —”

The memory was as vivid as yesterday. The dog was a big, yellow mangy brute. No matter how hard the man pulled on its lead and yelled at it to jump, it dug in its heels. The man had a red face and fierce eyes, and he wrapped a belt around his fist and began to whip the dog with the buckle end. The dog yelped at the pain. Men and women passing by steered a wide berth. None came to the rescue. It was none of their business. And the man looked mean. But Skylark knew that what he was doing was wrong.

“After a while, I pulled at the man’s trousers for his attention and I said to him, ‘You’re not allowed to beat dogs.’ The words just came out of me. Well, he swore at me and continued to beat the dog, and it was whining and trying to get away from him by crawling underneath the truck —”

Why hadn’t anybody stopped the man? Skylark wondered. He was reaching underneath the truck, trying to pull the dog back out. And all the time he was swearing, “Come out, you bloody brute. You’d better come out or it will be the worse for you.” He yanked really hard, the dog squealed, and when it poked its head into the light, the man laid into it again.

“I said to the man, ‘If you continue to beat the dog I’ll report you to the SPCA.’ He got really angry at me for saying that but he didn’t take any notice. So I got my school pad out of my satchel —”

Skylark had walked around to the front of the truck and started to write its number plate in her pad. The man saw her. “Just what do you think you’re doing, you little bitch?” He started to walk towards her, his fist raised in the air. Skylark stood her ground.

“I said to him, ‘And you’re not allowed to hit little children either. So if you hit me, I’ll report you to the police.’”

By that time, a crowd had gathered. When the man saw it he left the dog in the street, jumped into his truck and drove away. Skylark took the dog home, cleaned it up and, when Cora arrived, demanded that they keep it. But its wounds were so grievous that it died within the week.

“Why are you telling me this?” Arnie asked.

“If you want to know what I’m like, this is what I’m like. I’ve always had to make up my own mind about what to do because I can’t trust other people to do what they should. I’ve always relied on myself, and I can get myself out of any problems that come my way. If I don’t, tough, I’m the only one who gets hurt. I do what I do and I don’t need anybody to help me, so the sooner you bail out the better because I don’t need you. I’m perfectly capable of handling things myself.”

Arnie was stumped. How could he get through or around Skylark’s defences? “I don’t get you, Skylark,” he began. “You think you’re on one side and you put everybody else on the opposite side. You seem to forget that I’m here, with you, in this ute, and we’re on this journey together. If I’d been there when that man was beating the dog, I would have stood up for you. I wouldn’t have let you face that man alone.”

“It’s a matter of trust,” Skylark answered.

“You don’t trust me?”

“I don’t know.”

Arnie started the engine. “Skylark, you’re so walled up you’re like a fortress. One of these days you’re going to have to let somebody, anybody, in.”

That same afternoon it was Bella’s turn to keep her and Hoki’s promise to Skylark that they would visit Cora every day. Just before she left Hoki on guard, she saw that their ammunition was running low. “While I’m down in Tuapa I’ll stock up,” she said to Hoki. “Are you sure you’ll be able to manage while I’m away?”

“Of course,” Hoki answered. “I may be hopeless but I’m not entirely useless.”

“I’ll only be a few hours,” Bella said.

She walked quickly down the cliff path. She grabbed her purse and flax kit from the house, pulled a comb through her thick hair, and went out to her car. A few moments later, she was roaring down Manu Valley towards Tuapa. The seabirds climbed past her, flying on the rising thermals in the opposite direction.

In that moment of vulnerability, Bella thought of her eldest sister, Agnes, six years older than Bella, eight years older than Hoki. She was as clear as day: Agnes, the beauty of the family, laughing, full of life.

From the beginning, Agnes had the world in her pocket. Mum and Dad adored her, she excelled at hockey and tennis, and had been dux of Tuapa College. “Is Agnes really your sister?” people asked the younger girls. Then, everything changed. Agnes fell in love with Darren, a Pakeha boy. “He’s just heavenly,” Agnes had told Bella and Hoki. “When we’re together my heart goes flip flop and I can’t help myself.” She used to make Bella and Hoki laugh as she pulled all the pillows off the bed and hugged them. The trouble was that although Darren may have made Agnes’s heart do gymnastics, he made no impression on Mum and Dad.

As she drove, Bella tried to recall Darren in her memory. All she could remember was that he had been a high school rugby player with a disarming grin and an easy smile, tucking Agnes under his arm as easily as if she had been a rugby ball. What she recalled most was Agnes’ insistence: “I love Darren and we want to be together and we don’t care what anybody else says.” They had been so young, so awfully young.

One night, Bella and Hoki were woken up by Agnes. “Sshhhh,” she said. “I don’t want to wake Mum and Dad up. Darren is waiting in the car. We’re running away together.” Agnes’ face was lit with love, so much love that it seemed to be giving her pain. “Isn’t that romantic? I’m sorry you won’t be able to be bridesmaids. Will you forgive me? I’ve come to say goodbye. I love you both. Don’t worry, though. One day I’ll be back.’

The next day, Dad had set out after the runaways. He found them in Christchurch, but Agnes refused to come back with him. The months drifted by. Rumours came back to Tuapa that Agnes was “in the family way”, then that Darren had taken off before the baby was born, and then that the baby had died at birth. “Come back to Tuapa, Agnes,” Mum had pleaded. But Agnes had said, “No.” Maybe she had been ashamed to come back. Or perhaps she had grown used to Christchurch. But whenever she spoke on the telephone to Bella and Hoki she would always say, “One day, my sisters, one day I’ll be back.”

It never happened. A year later, lovely, smiling Agnes had been killed in a car accident.

“Oh Agnes,” Bella said to herself. “If only you were home now. We really need you.”

In Tuapa, Bella bought two cases of ammunition from Harry Summers at the farming supplies store.

“Planning a war?” Harry quipped.

Bella looked at her watch. She was running late, but a promise was a promise. She swerved into the carpark, parked in a “Doctors Only” space and hurried into the hospital. When she reached Cora’s room she was surprised to find Lucas sitting by the bed, holding Cora’s hand. He looked up as Bella arrived.

“Do you think she’ll wake up?”

Bella didn’t know what to say. Cora was lying as still as death. Her face was waxen. She had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, and tubes coming out of the sleeve of her left arm.

“Of course she will,” Bella answered finally. She didn’t know why Lucas cared so much — or what his girlfriend Melissa would think. But that was really none of her business.

“Ah well,” Lucas said. “I’d better go. I’m on my lunch break. You wouldn’t happen to know where Arnie is, would you? He’s done a runner on me.”

“He didn’t tell you?” Bella answered. “He’s had to go up north. On family business.”

“Oh, so he’ll be coming back? Good.”

Lucas went out the door, Bella sat down in a chair and stroked Cora’s face. Cora’s skin was so cold, so alabaster. The only perceptive movements were the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed and, every now and then, the flicker of her eyelids as if she was dreaming. If she was, she was trapped there, searching for a door, a way out.

“Cora?” Bella began. “I know you can’t hear me, but don’t be afraid, dear. You must be patient and hold on. You have a lovely daughter in Skylark. She’s doing the best she can.”

It was time to go. Quickly, Bella stood up and kissed Cora on the forehead. On the way out she happened to glance at Cora’s chart at the foot of the bed: Cora Agnes Edwards nee Wipani Born Christchurch 1960

Bella closed the door behind her.

She left the hospital and headed back to Manu Valley at speed.

“I’ve stayed away too long,” she said to herself. The forest blurred around her, the sunlight slashing at the windscreen like a whip. She pushed the accelerator to the floor. In no time flat she reached the homestead, stepped out of the station-wagon and slammed the door. The silence became physical and hit her in the stomach.

Bella looked up to the clifftop. She couldn’t hear Hoki’s shotgun. She couldn’t see Hoki at all. Instead, at the summit, a cloud of seabirds was swooping and diving, raining like arrows through the rip in the sky.

“Oh no.”

Bella pulled the ammunition out of the wagon and yanked the top off one of the cases. She grabbed some boxes of shells and stuffed them in her jacket. Then she was on the run into the homestead to get her shotgun. Along the verandah she hurried, banging the door open with her shoulder.

She was surrounded with the sound of hissing.

Bella stepped back. Her blood ran cold with fear. The room was filled with black sea shags. They had smashed their way in through the windows. They were perched everywhere. On the sofas. On the table and chairs and the sideboard. The remains of Lucas’s doll, shredded, punctured, totally savaged, were scattered throughout the room. Standing on the doll’s head, claws dug deeply into its face was the black shag, Kawanatanga. The sight of him brought Bella to her senses and she pointed a finger at him.

“You are trespassing here,” Bella called. “The land to the landbirds, the sea to the seabirds. How dare you transgress my personal domain and soil my undefended nest. Go or face the wrath of the Lord Tane.”

Kawanatanga’s wings unfolded like a nightmare. He filled the room with his mocking sibilants:

The Lord Tane is on our side now. He has granted us dispensation to change the order of things if we can. Once we have the power, old hen, it will be only by our leave that you will live here.

Bella picked up a jug and threw it at Kawanatanga. It smashed, raining him with jagged pieces. His eyes widened and he stretched out his neck.

The threatening movement did not frighten Bella. “That may be,” she said, “but it has not yet come to pass. Until then the old order stands. Now get out, and take your dark minions from Hell with you.”

Kawanatanga stabbed at the air with his beak. There was a flurry of black wings as the seashags hopped up onto the window sills and out. The sun gleamed on their feathers as they ascended the currents.

Kawanatanga remained behind:

Enjoy your freedom while you have it.

Kawanatanga lifted and, as he beat past Bella, she felt his wingtips like sinister fingers caressing her face. She ran to the verandah to watch the squad of seashags, fifty in all, that were heading north.

“They know about Skylark,” Bella realised.

She heard Hoki’s scream curling down from the clifftop. Bella grabbed her shotgun and was on the run again. As she climbed the cliff path she was already loading and firing the weapon at random into the air. Bang. Reload. Bang. Reload. Bang. “Hoki, Sister, I’m coming —”

Hoki was lying on the grass. Seabirds were diving at her. She was fending them off with her walking sticks.

“Get away from her,” Bella yelled. She reloaded her shotgun. Bang. The seabirds scattered, turning away from the ripped sky. Just to make sure that they knew the boss had returned, Bella let off another shot. Bang. The sound reverberated across the sky like distant thunder.

“I’m sorry, Sister,” Hoki said. “The shotgun stopped working. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to fix it myself.” Her face was streaming with sweat.

“That doesn’t matter. At least you’re alive.”

Quickly, Bella picked up the shotgun. She inspected it, worked the bolt a couple of times and ejected the shellcase that had jammed inside the barrel. It was just a simple jam, easy to fix; she had shown Hoki hundreds of times. Hoki saw her sister’s look of frustration. “I’m sorry, Sister,” she wept. “I can’t even shoot straight. The sweat pours into my eyes, I can’t see anything and —”

“Don’t worry. No use crying over spilt milk. It’s all over now.”

But Bella remained worried. “We’ve got to get more help,” she said. “We can’t manage this by ourselves.”

With the darkness, the seabirds retreated and the sisters returned to the homestead. Bella had told Hoki about Kawanatanga’s visit but she was surprised by the depth of Hoki’s reaction.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Hoki moved through the room on her walking sticks, uncovering the memorabilia of their lives: the smashed photographs, glassware, family mementoes, woven rugs and cushions. Watching her, Bella thought about how Hoki had always been so sentimental, how small personal treasures had always mattered to her.

“Look what they did to your jug,” Hoki continued, picking up the pieces. “You always loved that jug!”

Oops, Bella thought. Did I? Ah well, let the seabirds take the blame.

“What are we going to do about that doll?” Bella asked.

Hoki poked at it with distaste. “Lucas can buy another one next time he goes to the sex shop,” she said.

They began to clear up the mess. They swept up the broken glass, removed the soiled covers from the sofas, took the carpets out onto the verandah and scrubbed the floor of bird dung.

“I’ll go and prepare dinner now,” Hoki said.

“While you’re doing that,” Bella answered, “I’ll make a list of the repairs. We’ll need a glazier to fix the windows. But there’s something more important to discuss.”

“I know I’m hopeless,” Hoki said, feeling sorry for herself.

“It’s not that. But we can’t carry on alone. We’ve managed all right so far, but —”

“But?” Hoki flared. Tears of humiliation stained her cheeks.

“Sister dear, we have to swallow our pride. Either you call Mitch, or I will.”

“Are you telling me how to do my job again?” Hoki asked.

Nevertheless she went to the phone and dialled a number.

“Hello? Is that you, Mitch? Good. How’s the fishing? Not too good? I’m sorry to hear that. Then maybe, if you and Francis don’t have anything on, could you come up to the valley and spare me and Bella some time? Thanks, Mitch. Yes, it’s about the seabirds. It’s really serious.”

Hoki put the phone down. “There,” she said to Bella. “Satisfied?” In a temper, she began to hit at her bad leg with a walking stick. Bella restrained her.

“All this is my fault,” Hoki wept. “Everything. And now Kawanatanga also knows where Skylark and Arnie are. I should have realised his spies were listening in. Sitting there, on the telephone lines. We’d better warn Arnie that the shags are coming.”

“I’ve already tried,” Bella answered. “I can’t get through. Arnie’s cellphone must be switched off or else they’re travelling in an area where it doesn’t work.”

“In that case,” Hoki said, “we must get a message to them through Joe. I’ll telephone in the morning.”

Dinner was a silent affair. Bella could see her sister was still hurting. Afterwards, Hoki cleared the dishes. She went to the bathroom, washed and got into her dressing gown. She was brushing her hair at the dresser when Bella came in.

“Here, let me do that,” Bella said.

“No, it’s all right,” Hoki answered. She was still feeling sorry for herself.

“I’ve always loved brushing your hair,” Bella said.

“Don’t tell lies. You were always so impatient. You used to pull the brush so hard it’s a wonder I have any hair left. I used to hate it when you —”

“Oh, shush,” Bella said. She took the brush and began to apply long strokes, watching Hoki’s long silver hair run through it like a river. How had she and Hoki grown so old so quickly? Here they were, still together, like lovers. “Mitch and Francis aren’t coming just because of you,” Bella said.

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“It’s the truth. I need their help too.”

“No,” Hoki said, biting her bottom lip. “It’s because I’m a cripple and I’m hopeless.”

Bella sighed with resignation. When Hoki was like this, it was better to let her sulk and get over it in her own time and in her own way.

Skylark and Arnie arrived at Whakatane. The town was chocka with boy racers dragging each other, burning rubber and doing wheelies down the main street.

“Can’t be much on television,” Arnie said.

“Coronation Street. Don’t you feel the call of the wild? Wouldn’t you like to show the locals what Annabelle is made of?”

“Sure,” Arnie said, “but we haven’t got the time.”

However, just to make sure that everybody knew they’d been paid a visit by the Black Knight, he gunned the motor and made smoke that gob-smacked even the locals. Satisfied, Arnie sashayed out of town and took the coast road to Joe’s small seaside settlement.

“So what now?” Skylark asked.

“Look for the hotel. Birdy said everybody knows Joe there.”

Skylark peered ahead. They passed a garage, a hardware store and a derelict movie theatre. The road took a fork down to a jetty poking out into the sea. At its end was the hotel, lights blazing.

“Maybe they’ll have rooms for the night,” Arnie said as they pulled up outside.

“If we find Joe, I’ll do the talking,” Skylark answered, putting on her jacket. “Got it?”

Arnie tried to think up a smart reply but thought better of it. “Okay, Skylark,” he said. “You’re coming across loud and clear. No static whatsoever.”

Skylark led the way. But as soon as they were through the door she knew she was in unfamiliar territory — and Arnie knew it too. The bar was crowded with locals, some women, mostly men.

“Which one do you think is Joe?” Skylark asked.

“You’re the boss,” Arnie answered, and he had the gall to look smug.

Skylark had a sinking feeling. Joe could be any one of the grizzled old-timers standing at the bar. Or he could be one of the blokes eating greasy food at tables scattered throughout the room. Off to one side, younger patrons were playing the pokie machines. In another room, Skylark could hear the click of billiard balls. Over everything came the sound of a rugby commentary from a massive television set installed above the bar. Obviously, the hotel was the only place of entertainment in town.

Strangers weren’t all that common in these parts. Skylark and Arnie’s appearance stopped all conversation, and all eyes swivelled to watch them as they paused in the doorway. Skylark wished she had worn one of her other badges: Are These Your Eyeballs? I Found Them In My Cleavage.

She pushed Arnie in front of her. “Ask about Joe,” she said.

“Huh? I’m the sidekick, remember?”

“I am the boss,” Skylark said, “and I’m giving you an order. Just do it. And while you’re about it order me a pie and chips and a Coke. I’m famished.”

Mumbling to himself, Arnie approached the bar. An elderly barman with a bad toupee eyed him up and down. “So what can I do for you, my little man?”

Arnie gritted his teeth. He never let anybody make cracks about his height. “Well, how about a lager for me and a Coke for my girl to start with, eh baldy?”

A collective gasp went up in the room. Obviously the matter of the barman’s head warmer was as sensitive an issue to him as height was to Arnie.

The man froze, gave Arnie the stare, and came back fast. “Coming up, Short Arse, and count yourself lucky you’re a stranger in this town and don’t know any better.” He poured the drinks.

So it was Short Arse now? Arnie smiled dangerously — and let the barman have it. “So, Bum Head,” he asked, “do you know where we can find Joe?”

The barman looked ready to jump across the bar and take Arnie on. Instead he gave an evil smile. “Joe? Now you’re really asking for trouble.” He turned and shouted through the swing doors behind the bar. “Joe? Hey Joe! There’s a boy out here asking for you. About your size, but he’s got more muscles than you and a mouth to go with it.”

“Is that so?” a voice answered. “This I gotta see.”

The swing doors burst open and Joe appeared.

“You’re Joe?” Skylark asked. She was big, butch and built like a brick shithouse. Her hair was cut in a crewcut and there was no doubting that her pecs, underneath her T-shirt, were just as spectacular as Arnie’s. She took one look at Skylark, her eyes swivelled to Arnie and, bullseye, she had his number.

“There’s only one place where you get a build like yours, boy,” Joe said, “and that’s the Army. A Company, B or C?”

“C for Charlie.”

“Bad answer,” Joe answered, flexing her biceps. “When I did my service, C didn’t stand for Charlie. It stood for a part of the female anatomy which, in deference to my sex and because there are ladies present, I shall not mention. Did you make corporal?”

“Yes.”

“Another bad answer,” Joe said. “I made sergeant, so next time you speak to me you’ll add a ‘sir’ to that as in ‘Yes sir!’ Got it?” She began to walk backwards and forwards in front of Arnie, cracking her knuckles. “Man, if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s corporals of any shape, size or colour. Especially when they come into my bar and badmouth my staff. But I’ll give you a break.” Joe planted her elbow on the bar and motioned to Arnie.

“Come on then, Corporal, make my day.”

“Sorry, I never arm wrestle with a woman,” Arnie said. But hell, how much aggro was a guy supposed to take? “However, in your case —” He began to pump his biceps.

Immediately there was a rush to watch — and the barman, always one to make an extra buck, called, “Come on, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!” Dollar notes came flying from all over the place. Even Skylark put a couple of bucks down.

“Is that all you’ve got to show me?” Joe sneered, one eye on Arnie’s bulging muscles. She gave a few pumps herself and the sleeves of her T-shirt rippled with the strain.

It was a battle of Titans. It was a battle of wills. Arnie kept a grim face and Joe bared her teeth. She forced his arm down to the bar but, at the last moment, Arnie forced her back. She pretended to be surprised and winked at him — and then spat him straight in the eye.

“Hey, ref!” one of the patrons called. “Foul play!”

“And here I was thinking you were a lady,” Arnie said.

Amid whistles, Arnie recovered. He forced Joe’s arm down to the bar. Closer. Closer. Almost there. He could see the sweat popping on Joe’s forehead as she tried to force his arm back.

“You may be strong for a woman,” Arnie said, “but you’re still just a pussy.”

That’s when Skylark kicked him. Hard.

“What the heck!” Startled, Arnie lost his concentration — and Joe took the advantage. With a loud grunt, she flipped Arnie’s arm down and won the bout. Immediately, there were cheers and the pounding of fists on the bar as the lucky punters jostled for their winnings.

Arnie glared at Skylark. “What did you do that for?”

“Two reasons,” Skylark answered. “The first is that you are a chauvinist pig. The second is —” she showed him her dollars — “I had a lot riding on you to lose, and I wanted to win my bet.”

“Thank you, Skylark, for your vote of confidence.”

“But the real reason is that we needed Joe to win so that she would be okay about helping us.”

“Helping you?” Joe asked, looking at Arnie. “Nobody’s helping anybody until they apologise to my barman.”

That’s when Skylark stepped in. “He’ll apologise,” she said to Joe. “Then you can tell me what’s in the Apocrypha.”

It was as easy as that. Joe’s eyes searched Skylark’s face and then probed into her.

“Apology accepted,” Joe said. She shook Arnie’s hand, and the bar patrons gave good-natured cheers. Then she turned back to Skylark. “You’ll both have to come home with me, which means you’ll have to stay the night. Meantime, you look like you could do with some food. How about some steak and eggs with a side salad. It’s on the house.” She slapped Arnie on the back. “That okay with you, Corporal?”

To be truthful, it was great to get some hot food. Afterwards, Skylark found herself ambushed by some raucous Maori women who rushed her off to the poker machines. From the corner of her eye she saw Arnie heading off with some of the younger blokes for a game of pool. He came over to her:

“Is that okay with you?” he asked.

“Sure,” Skylark nodded, “Go ahead.”

When closing time came, Baldy threw everybody out. Skylark and Arnie waited outside for Joe.

“Shall we follow you in our ute?” Arnie asked when she arrived.

Joe laughed. “Not unless it floats.” She pointed across the sea. Far in the distance, they could just make out the dark shape of an island. Above it, the Southern Cross. “That’s my home,” Joe continued. “Let’s vamoose.” She led the way along the jetty, and soon they were sliding across the dark ocean in Joe’s dinghy, aiming for the pointer star in the Cross’s constellation. The outboard motor churned a phosphorescent wake, put-putting a regular rhythm.

Joe ran the dinghy up a sheltered beach. She led Skylark and Arnie along a path, past a barn to a small house. Skylark was almost dead on her feet.

“Let’s get some shut-eye, shall we?” Joe said. “Leave the talk for the morning.” Her eyes twinkled. “But what’s the sleeping arrangements? I’ve got two spare bedrooms, but if you two are together you could have my double bed —”

Skylark cut her short. “That won’t be necessary, and I hope you don’t need me to elucidate.”

“Oops,” Joe said. “My mistake.”

Arnie blushed a deep and interesting shade of red.

The next morning, the sound of the telephone invaded Skylark’s dreams. It rang and rang, and Joe didn’t answer, so Skylark got out of bed, found the phone in the sitting room, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

It was too late. The caller — Hoki — put the telephone down. Kawanatanga and his cohorts, she knew, must be well on their way by now. They would have stopped over for the night at some cliff-face eyrie near Kaikoura. In the morning, with the whales spouting out to sea, they would have woken, fed and continued their mission. Already they were crossing Cook Strait, skimming the waves, their eyes flaring red with the dawn. Kaa. Kaa.

“How can I alert Skylark to the danger?” Hoki wailed.

Meantime, Skylark wandered into Joe’s empty kitchen. She opened the refrigerator. “Yecch,” she groaned. As she suspected, stock full with rabbit food, bunches of carrots, muscle-building stuff, energy drinks and not a carbohydrate or chocolate bar in sight.

Skylark helped herself to orange juice, looked out the kitchen window and saw Joe returning from the barn. Joe wore a T-shirt and track pants and was wiping her face with a towel. She smiled and waved. “Good morning,” she said. “Feel like breakfast?”

“Yes, thanks. Do you know where Arnie is?”

“Missing him already?” Joe winked. “We’ve been working out together. But he wanted to do some extra crunches and work on his abs, so I left him in the barn. It’s set up as my personal gym.”

Joe began to busy herself in the kitchen, preparing bacon and eggs. “So you’re the one we’ve all been waiting for.”

“I wish people wouldn’t keep saying that,” Skylark said. “When they do it’s like the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey comes booming out of stereo loudspeakers. I don’t know if I am or not.”

“You’d better be!” Joe smiled. “Or maybe you’re an egg a cuckoo has sneaked into the nest? Though I can see that Hoki gave you the claw. Did Birdy give you the feather?”

“This sounds like a shopping list,” Skylark groaned.

“Well,” Joe answered, “let’s see what is here to give you.” She went into the sitting room and opened the glass cabinet. Inside was a box, from which she took out a leather-bound book. “This is the Apocrypha,” she said. Her voice was hushed and awed. “I asked Birdy if I could borrow it because, as you know, all of us were waiting for you to appear, and I’m just new at this game and didn’t know how to prepare for it.”

“New?”

“It was my Auntie Ruth who was really the guardian of the birds in this area. This was her island.”

“That explains it,” Skylark answered. “I was wondering why you were so young and, well, different from Hoki, Bella and Birdy.”

Joe leafed through the Apocrypha. “Let’s see … you’ve got the claw and the feather and now … Ah! Here we are.” She traced some lines with her finger:

And the Lord Tane said unto Te Arikinui Kotuku:

“And the chick shall seek and be given claw, feather and beak, and these shall be given unto her by wise guardians of that time to come that I have earlier spoken of …”

Skylark tried not to sound grumpy. “You mean I’ve come all this way just to pick up a claw, feather and a beak?”

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Joe said, wagging a finger. “A claw is not just a claw. A feather is not just a feather. A beak is not just a beak. You diminish a thing’s mana, its prestige, when you consider it as such. It is connected to other things and, of itself, it represents a larger thing. Take a leaf of a tree, for instance: it represents the tree. Take a scale of a fish: it represents the fish. So too with a claw, feather and beak; they represent the birds that these things come from. But that is not where it stops. The bird represents a colony. It has a history and a place where it has been born, and where it lives and will die. It is connected to all that exists on the earth and in the universe. In the small thing is the genetic imprint of the larger thing. From it can be made a whole bird. You must revere the small things as well as the larger things. You must learn to see not just with your eyes but with your heart and intelligence.”

That’s telling me, Skylark thought.

At that moment, Arnie returned from his workout. “You should see some of the weightlifting gear Joe’s got in her barn!” Having got rid of the toxins of the past few days, he was feeling a very happy chappy indeed.

“You’d better hear all this too,” Joe said as she returned to the Apocrypha:

“Then shalt the chick have in her possession the three keys, beak, feather and claw, that wilt open the Time Portal for her own pilgrimage back to the time that is. But the portal will be opened for the space of seven moons only, counting from the first hour that the sky has opened, so should the chick not appear in time, then will the opportunity be lost. But if the chick goes through the portal, I, the Lord Tane, will grant her safe passage back to that time conjoined. And she will determine the outcome of the second battle of the birds —”

And the Runanga a Manu praised the Lord Tane for his mercy and they carried his words down from one beak to the next. Then came the arrival of Tane’s next great creation, Humankind, and Tane’s words were passed, in particular, to Hana, the first handmaiden of the Lord Tane, who could speak to the birds. It was Hana who set up the sisterhood of the handmaidens of Tane and bade that the Lord Tane’s words be placed in an apocrypha to be passed from handmaiden to successor. All were entreated to keep watch for the chick who would appear in the third year of the second millennium and to give her the keys to open the Time Portal.

Woe of woes, it is written that in the seventh generation a copy of the Apocrypha fell into the wings of the seashags so that they knew also of the chick’s predicted coming. They too passed the prediction down from one generation to the next so that they would be prepared for her, to kill her in order to confound the prophecy and opportunity the Lord Tane had given unto the Runanga a Manu.

And these are the words which have been passed down from generation to generation and even unto and throughout the times which have seen the coming of Tane’s other great creation: the wingless, beakless and clawless inferior being known as man.

Thus we continue to praise Tane at dawn and dusk unto the world’s end, and again we bow down to his holy name, Amen.

Joe closed the book. Skylark began to shiver. “Hey, Arnie, I’ve got a bounty on my head,” she said, trying to joke. She thought Arnie might make a smart crack but he didn’t. Instead, he put a reassuring hand on hers — and kept it there.

“Okay,” Joe said when breakfast was over, “two moons are already gone and the Time Portal is only open for another five days. Let’s go and get Skylark’s beak.” She strapped a Bowie knife to her left thigh and led the way out of the house and along the beach until they hit a track around the coast. Skylark saw a huge signpost, facing out to sea: Keep Out. Private Property. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted. All Animals Will Be ShotOn Sight.

“I give everybody due warning,” Joe said, “but do you think yachties and rich pleasure-boat owners take any notice? They’re a law unto themselves. Before you know it they’re anchoring off the island and darting over here on their zodiacs with their cat or pet dog, champagne and dinner. They have a great time littering my beach, and then they return to their boats — but, dear oh dear, did we leave our darling Moggie or Fido behind? Before you know it, Fido or dear little kitty has turned into a bird killer. And if it’s not a cat or a dog, it’s a rat that has snuck on board and then, when the boat’s at anchor, swum ashore. Once here, anything on four legs — actually, on two legs as well — can play havoc with the birds, especially ground birds.”

Joe took a track leading away from the coast. The island’s forest opened, allowing them to enter, and then closed behind them. They were surrounded by giant tree trunks, like the palisades of some forest fortress. Some of the trunks had flying buttresses. Others were wrapped around with vines and flowering supplejack in brilliant profusion. Between them grew huge tree ferns. Above, the sun filtered golden through the canopy, filling the dark spaces below with veiled light. Wherever the light fell it dazzled and glowed.

How had Hoki described the Great Forest? Like the Garden of Eden. The wonder of the southern world. The lungs of the earth. Even to stand in a remnant of that whole, on this island guarded by Joe, was to evoke the power of how the Great Forest must have been.

And truly, it was the kingdom of the birds. The canopy was alive, positively seething with kakariki, tui and other pigeon species. They set up a cacophony of musical whistles and high piping welcomes.

Kita-kita-kita-kita. Chichichi. Zweet zweet zwee.

Joe put her fingers to her lips and whistled and warbled back. The pigeons redoubled their efforts, and a competition ensued — at least that’s how it sounded to Skylark. Joe gave up with a laugh. “You guys are ganging up on me again.” The pigeons warbled and chortled and cooed.

Try-again, try-again, u-may be-be-be luck-ee ee ee.

“Would you believe,” Joe said, “that once upon a time I used to shoot pigeons? When I came out of the Army I lived on the mainland with my uncle. I was a crack shot, and he used to ask me to sneak over here to the island and pot him some pigeons: twelve bullets for twelve birds. He knew Auntie Ruth owned the island and was a guardian of Tane, but there was bad blood between them. I thought it was a huge joke, banging away at the birds and then getting away before she was able to catch me. When I got home I loved watching my uncle’s face as he counted the pigeons. ‘One, two, three, ten, eleven twelve … thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. Hey, girl, I only gave you twelve bullets! Where did you get the extra bullets from?’ Then I would tell him how I waited for two birds to come together and kiss — and that’s when I would pull the trigger.”

Joe’s smile turned to regret. “You know what stopped me in the end? Auntie Ruth set an old Maori ground trap for me. I put my foot in it and, next minute, I was dangling upside down from a tree. You know, when she saw it was me, she didn’t give me a growling or thrash me. Instead, she cried. She freed me, kissed me and let me go. But when she died, she took her revenge on me — she left me the island and the birds to look after. I’ve been paying penance for my pigeon-shooting days ever since.”

Joe struck inland. She came across a trap. Inspected it. The trap had not been sprung. Cleaned it with her Bowie knife. Set it again.

“How often do you check the traps?” Skylark asked.

“Once a week,” Joe said. “But actually, I can always tell if there is a predator around. The birds go into hiding. The forest becomes silent. Beware the forest where the birds do not sing.”

The track began to climb, but Joe took it at an easy clip.

“How are you doing?” Arnie asked Skylark. “It’s not too tiring for you, is it? All this climbing?”

“Too tiring?” Presumably Arnie was referring to her physical condition. Skylark was just about to cut him down — but instead bit back on herself. “No,” she answered. “But thanks for asking.”

They reached the very heart of the island. The forest was filled with flashes of red, like feathered lightning.

“We’re here,” Joe said. “Welcome to my kaka colony.”

The air was alive with birdsong:

Hail, guardian! You come with strangers! Welcome, waewae tapu! Welcome to the marae of nga kaka iwi.

The parrots filled the air with their glorious chattering. They were large, olive brown and green with red rump and abdomen. Their heads were topped with grey crowns. They seemed to have an enormous repertoire of conversational liquid songs, whistles and gliding soprano runs. In flight they flashed scarlet underwings, setting the forest on fire.

Skylark was entranced. She didn’t know what the kaka were doing, but they were either at very aggressive play or very subdued war. She gave a small scream as one of them flew down and landed on her shoulder. The weight surprised her.

Kra! Kra! Ka! And who is this? Pretty polly, pretty polly, polly wolly doodle.

“Meet Flash Harry,” Joe laughed. “He’s the most gregarious of the colony. Say hello to Skylark, Harry.”

Flash Harry hopped closer up Skylark’s shoulder. She gave a small squeal as he started to nip at her with his beak.

Hello darling. What brings a sweetie like you to this neck of the woods?

“He’s giving you love bites. Harry loves women.”

Flash Harry gave an appreciative whistle and wink.

“That was a wolf whistle!” Skylark gasped.

“Only a bird would get away with it,” Arnie whispered to Joe.

Suddenly another kaka came flying down from the trees. This one landed on Arnie’s shoulder. “Hey —”

“That’s Carmen,” Joe said. “She’s Flash Harry’s mate and she’s just reminding him that she can play the flirting game too.”

Skylark laughed. Carmen gave a delicious sigh as she nestled close in to Arnie’s shoulder, and that set Flash Harry off. He bristled with jealousy, and with a screech, pounced on Carmen. With a haughty flip she moved out of his reach. A flutter of wings and she was away, leading Flash Harry on a merry dance through the forest and delighting other kaka. They joined in the chase, chuckling, whistling, and sometimes breaking off from steady flight to tumble about in the air, looping the loop around each other.

“They’re so wonderful,” Skylark said.

“Well, if you lived with them all the time you mightn’t think so,” Joe answered. “Always carrying on and calling day and night. But they’re the very reason why Auntie Ruth set up this bird sanctuary in the first place. Did Hoki or Bella tell you how Man interrupted the Great Circle of life, death and renewal? How he chopped down the Great Forest or set fire to it so that he could create pastureland for his sheep and cattle, or create towns and cities to live in, or the highways between? How he brought with him the dog, feral cat, rat and other bird destroyers like the stoat and even the honey bee? The possum and the deer came with Man too, raking the barks of the trees with their claws and antlers. Sometimes Man introduced a new species to control an earlier species he had let loose in the wild. He totally ravaged the forest and changed forever the ecology for all the bird species. What is worse is that Man also shifted the balance in favour of the seabirds. Where he went he created the environment for seabirds to feed upon. Food dumps, rubbish pits, offal: there you will find the great gull scavengers. Because of Man they have increased in numbers, size and cruelty. And, you know, Man was so stupid when he tried to replace the great forest. He planted beech forest, which did not have the same vital food supplies for the landbirds. No wonder they declined so drastically.”

Joe’s voice was passionate. “This is why I live on this offshore island, Skylark. The forest on the island must be preserved because it is the only kind in which the kaka, as a colony, can survive. It provides them with the holes in the trunks where they can build their nests. The big trees also provide the kaka with an all-year-round variety of food — berries, shoots, nectar and the larvae of insects. When the giant trees decay and die, even in their death they attract the grubs of woodboring insects that sustain the kaka colony. The kaka love the wood-boring beetles. Only here has the Great Circle of Life been reinstated — life, death, renewal for the benefit of all. I must continue Auntie Ruth’s work and maintain the island’s ecology for as long as I can.”

Skylark pressed Joe’s hands. “You’ll do it,” she said.

Joe looked away, embarrassed. She began to scrape in the dirt.

“Whenever I find a dead kaka, I always bury the parrot. Somewhere here is Flash Harry’s father. Now he was a real Casanova. Ah, here we are.”

Joe picked up a skeletal frame. With delicate fingers, she detached its beak and intoned to its owner: “Your beak, old one, goes on a journey of its own now. Give to her who possesses it the power to split any branch, crush any seed, break any rock. Be proud that through it you will live again.”

Joe turned to Skylark. “Remember, Skylark, a beak is not just a —”

“Beak,” Skylark said. “Yes, I know.”

“It comes from a powerful bird with a double-jointed jaw. With a beak like this you will truly have the voice of leadership. It is also through the beak that a bird is able to breathe. A beak allows the bird to eat and drink. To sing, call, cry, warn in the night. And it is also strong enough to kill. All these things a claw and a feather cannot do.”

Joe looked at Arnie but winked at Skylark. “I suppose I’d better give your boyfriend one too. You never know.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“What’s wrong with you, boy?” Joe scolded. “Haven’t you heard of old Chinese proverb: ‘Bird in hand worth two in bush’?”

Joe gave a raucous laugh. The kaka colony caught her laughter in their wings and played a game of netball with it. Thrown like a ball, its sound ricocheted among them as they twisted, looped, chuckled and tumbled in the air.

He’s not her boyfriend! She’s not his girlfriend! Ha-ha-ha!

Led by Joe, Skylark and Arnie walked back towards the beach.

“This might sound like a dumb question,” Skylark asked Joe, “but after we leave you, do you know where we’re suppose to go?”

The sun skipped through the thinning canopy. “Why, you have to go to see Deedee,” Joe said, as if Skylark should know. “She’s the one who knows about the Time Portal. I only know about the beak.”

Through a gap in the trees Skylark saw a blaze of yellow sand. Further out, was the blinding blue of the sea. “And where does this Deedee live?”

“She’s down in Nelson. When you get there, ask for her at the Maori Language Centre right in the middle of the city. She teaches young Maori children the reo.”

Arnie groaned. “Another ferry crossing. Oh no,”

“And I suppose she’ll have the magic potion or spell or, hey, maybe she can dial up the Time Portal and ask the pizza boy to deliver it,” Skylark said. Joe led the way out of the forest, scrambling among the rocks down to the sand. Skylark was busy looking at her feet, trying not to trip. Arnie was behind.

“Skylark, do you always mock everything? I know you’re resistant to being told what to do and I can see that in you patience is not a virtue. But you’re just going to have to learn to hold your temper. Don’t be so reactive, and don’t bad-mouth everything just because you can’t understand it. The Apocrypha doesn’t tell how these things are done. Sometimes we have to work it out, try to solve the enigmas, find the answers to the puzzle.”

“My mother’s in a coma. I’m in a hurry.”

Joe wasn’t listening. Already she had reached the sand. “Nothing of importance ever comes quickly or easily. You’re not going to help your mother at all if you don’t do everything in the proper order. Hoki’s given you the claw, Birdy’s given you the feather, you’ve got the beak from me. With these you can go to the next level. But only Deedee can tell you how to get there.”

Just then Skylark felt something thump her hard on the back.

“Ouch,” Skylark laughed, assuming Arnie had tripped and put a hand out to steady himself. Then it happened again, hard, this time on her head. She put her arms in front of her, to protect her face, and the world became a crazy kaleidoscope of sky, sand and sea as she fell. But there was something else there too, something solid black in the centre of things, something which kept fragmenting, with pieces falling away —

Kaa. Kaa.

“No,” Skylark screamed. She remembered the first day at Tuapa when a big black bird had hit her. This time there were fifty seashags in a feathered mass of evil, their wings flaying the sky. Another seashag dived.

There she is, the chick! Attack! Kill her!

Arnie saw Kawanatanga falling on Skylark’s body. There had been no time to react. The attack had happened so quickly. He called out: “Joe —”

Joe turned to look. She saw Skylark on the ground, rolling, trying to rid herself of Kawanatanga. She looked up: “Jeez, where the hell did they come from?” She remembered her Army patrol drills. She had scouted too far ahead. In a crouch, she ran back to Arnie who managed to pull Kawanatanga away. But more and more seashags were diving and Joe caught a flash of Kawanatanga as he called out his commands.

Get the chick! She must be stopped! Kill her!

Joe reached for her Bowie knife. “Arnie, here —”

She sent the knife spinning through the air. Arnie caught it and, next moment, was slashing, slashing, slashing out at the seashags. The knife made contact. A seashag squealed and fell to the ground, wing severed from body. Another slash, and blood spouted as Arnie severed the head from another seashag.

“Get them off me! Get me away!” Skylark screamed

Joe hurled herself in, ripping through the birds, trying to disperse them.

“Get out of here, you seabirds,” she roared. But she knew that they were all powerless here on the sand. They were in the seabirds’ domain.

Vicious beaks were slashing at Skylark’s eyes, throat and ears. One lucky strike and they could get into her brain. Joe reached her and threw herself on top, protecting Skylark from the attack.

“When I give the word,” Joe yelled to Arnie, “pull Skylark out from under me. Make for the forest. That’s the only place she’ll be safe.”

“What about you?”

“That’s an order, Corporal. Do it now.”

Joe rolled, Arnie pulled and, with a cry of pain, Skylark was up on her knees and in Arnie’s arms. All around her the seabirds were flapping, and Kawanatanga was crying out in deafening anger. Arnie was beating a way through them. Skylark couldn’t see. When she went to clear her eyes her hands were red with blood oozing from her hairline. “Hurry Arnie,” she moaned. The forest seemed so far away.

They crossed from the sand into the rocks. Still the seashags pursued them. Arnie fell. We’re finished, Skylark thought. Arnie picked her up again, carrying her in his arms. Stumbling, almost tripping, he pushed himself up the rocks and fell with Skylark into the shade of the forest.

Kill the hen who guards this island. Kawanatanga’s fury knew no bounds as he directed his squad to rip Joe apart.

“You must go back,” Skylark said to Arnie. “You can’t leave Joe out there.”

Arnie bounded into the sunlight, yelling battle cries that he had last used in the Army. He reached Joe, and hoisted her in a fireman’s lift. As he clambered from the sand to the rocks, he saw Skylark coming to help him. She had a long branch in her hands and she swung it at the seashags like a baseball bat. “Take that you feathered freaks,” Skylark yelled. With her help Arnie and Joe reached the sanctuary of the forest.

“Thanks, Skylark,” Joe said. Blood was streaming from her wounds.

But what was this? The seashags had not stopped their attack.

Disobey the law! Cross over into the territory of the forest birds! Kill the chick! Kill her protectors too!

“We’re done for,” Arnie said as he turned to make a last-ditch stand.

However, behind him the forest ever so softly began to rustle. A wind seemed to be blowing through it. The wind became a veritable storm. It buffeted with battle cries, loud, strong and harsh. From out of the canopy came hundreds of brightly coloured birds. They had grey crowns and, as they glided down to join in the battle, their underwings flashed red.

“It’s the cavalry,” Skylark said.

The kaka colony, led by Flash Harry, came flying to the rescue.

Kra. Kra. Ka! Return to your domain, seashags. Tarry here at your own peril, for you are in the forest of the kaka, warriors of Tane.

Beaks ready, the kaka colony drove a wedge through the marauding seashags. Reluctant to give way, Kawanatanga ordered his birds to stand their ground. But the kaka were relentless in their attack. They entered into mid-air combat, tearing, slashing, showing no quarter.

“Skylark! Joe!” Arnie pulled the two women to safety as Kawanatanga and the seashags turned to combat their new foe.

With the kaka colony taking a rearguard action, Skylark, Arnie and Joe made their way back to the house. Luckily, Skylark’s injuries were superficial. She worked on Joe, whose wounds were more serious, then both worked on Arnie. He had two long rips in his shoulder, and Skylark blanched when she saw the makeshift way in which Joe sewed the flaps of skin together. “It isn’t pretty,” Joe said, surveying her handiwork. “But it does the job.”

Skylark went to the window. The seashags were hovering over the sea. “How are we going to be able to leave here?” she asked. “If we cross the sea we’ll be at their mercy.”

“You’ve got to complete your task,” Joe answered, “no matter what.”

“We’ll just have to wait for nightfall,” Arnie said.

“But we’ll lose a third day,” Skylark answered.

“It can’t be helped. We’ll have to drive by night. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to make the ferry sailing from Wellington tomorrow morning. Agreed?”

Even though she didn’t want to accept it, Skylark nodded. She started to rock and moan, and Joe recognised the symptoms. Delayed shock. “I’m putting you to bed,” she said. “You too, Corporal. You’ve both got to get some sleep, and that’s an order. I’ll wake you when it’s dusk.”

Skylark and Arnie put up only token resistance, and when Joe went to check on them ten minutes later, they were both asleep.

At mid-afternoon the telephone rang.

“Is that you, Joe?” Hoki asked. “I’ve been trying to get you all day. Are Skylark and Arnie with you? They must be warned. Kawanatanga is after them.”

“He’s already attacked,” Joe answered, “don’t worry, the kids are safe, but the seashags are still out there. They’ve got us pinned down. We’ve decided to wait for nightfall.”

“Good,” Hoki said. “So Skylark and Arnie will be on their way home?”

“No, they’re going to Deedee’s.”

“Deedee’s? What for!”

“Deedee’s the only one who knows about the Time Portal.”

Hoki became silent. “I didn’t realise all this would be so dangerous,” she said at last. “Had I known, I would have accompanied Skylark myself.”

“Arnie’s doing a good job,” Joe answered.

“Tell them I love them,” Hoki said. “I will pray that they have safe passage to Deedee’s.”

Joe put the telephone down and began preparing provisions for Skylark and Arnie’s journey. For the rest of the afternoon she sat looking out at Kawanatanga and his seashag squad. She thought of his threat to her kaka colony.

“You think I’m scared?” she muttered. “If it comes to a fight, let it be to the death.”

The dusk finally fell. With screams of fury, Kawanatanga searched for a place to settle for the night. Clouds broiled from the east, cutting off the light.

Joe woke Skylark and Arnie. “It’s time to go,” she said.

She led the way to the dinghy and was just about to start the motor when a grey and red shape came fluttering from the trees: Flash Harry. He circled the dinghy and landed on the seat next to Skylark. He pecked at her hands, forcing her to open them.

“What’s he doing?” Skylark laughed.

“He’s brought you a present,” Joe answered.

Flash Harry regurgitated some berries into Skylark’s hands.

Go well, Skylark. Fly well.

“You must have really made an impression on him,” Joe said. “They’re a gift. Some food for your journey.” She started the motor. The dinghy headed away from the island.

At the same time as Skylark and Arnie were leaving Joe’s island, Mitch Mahana and his son Francis, acting on Hoki’s summons, arrived in Manu Valley. The sun was setting when Mitch stepped out of the truck. He looked up at the ripped sky and the seabirds hovering around it, and gaped like a stunned mullet. Francis’s reaction was simpler.

“Holy shit,” he said.

“That’s our problem, our nemesis,” Hoki said. “Sunup to sundown the seabirds try to get through to the other side. They only break off their attacks when night comes.”

“The other side?” Mitch asked, his face wan with horror. “In God’s name, what’s on the other side?”

“The past,” Bella answered enigmatically, “and the future —”

“I don’t think I want to know,” Mitch shuddered. “It sounds like one of those movies Arnie likes. I watched Aliens with him once and I couldn’t sleep for weeks.”

“Dad only likes westerns,” Francis confided to Bella.

“Well, where do you want us to put our gear?” Mitch continued. “What time do you want me and Francis up there to do our job?” He had always been a straightforward man, preferring to live without knowing of life’s complexities.

“Could you move into the bach?” Bella asked. “You brought your rifles? If you two could take the first shift tomorrow that would give me and Hoki a chance to have a break. We’re really glad you’re here. With you two with us, the task of guarding the sky will be easier.”

Bella cooked dinner — a lovely piece of cod which Mitch and Francis had netted that very day. Soon after dinner, both men excused themselves. They had brought a portable television set with them and wanted to watch the All Blacks playing South Africa.

“I’ll do the dishes,” Hoki told Bella. “Why don’t you go with the men? It’ll do you good.”

When Bella returned a couple of hours later, she was very grumpy. Not only that, but some pretty interesting fumes, somewhere in the vicinity of vodka and whisky, were coming off of her.

“The All Blacks lost,” Bella said. “Me and Mitch placed some bets on them, but Francis won and cleaned us out.”

“Oh no,” Hoki answered. “How much did you lose?”

“Fifty matchsticks. It’s put me off my sleep.”

“You big spender,” Hoki said. “Well, you’ll just have to make the fire tomorrow by rubbing two sticks together.”

That night, however, Bella wasn’t the only one to toss and turn. Hoki knelt by her bed and said her prayers — she thought that her karakia would calm her, but it took a long time for her to get to sleep. Even when sleep finally came, somewhere in the dark morning hours, it brought with it a disturbing dream.

In her dream, Hoki seemed to be way above the earth. She was frightened at first but, when she began to float down, she was relieved. Gradually, she was able to touch the mountain tops with her toes and that made her feel much better. But what was that? Far ahead, two lights were piercing the darkness. She decided to take a closer look. She swooped down and saw that the lights were the headlights of a ute. She looked inside and, with delight, saw Skylark and Arnie.

Hello, you two, Hoki said. She tapped on the windows and then flew around to the windscreen. Arnie was driving. She yelled out a greeting but he didn’t seem to hear her, so she poked her tongue at him. Couldn’t he see her? She noticed he had bruises and stitches on his face.

Suddenly, Hoki heard the sounds of loud and menacing twittering. She stood on the bonnet of the ute, balancing herself on her walking sticks to see where the noise was coming from. Uh oh, the dawn had come up and, in the distance, she could see black shapes against the sky. They reminded her of the nasty flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.

I’d better take a look. Hoki braced and launched herself into the air. Over the ute’s roof she went, soaring up to the flying monkeys. As she got closer, the monkeys transformed themselves into black seashags. Kawanatanga was leading them, his eyes as red as a devil’s. With a scream, she went to attack him, but something strange happened. He didn’t seem to know she was there. Instead, Kawanatanga and his fleet flew straight through her as if she were a ghost. It was a weird feeling, and Hoki examined her body, looking for holes in herself.

Hoki turned and saw the night had ended. The sun was burning a line on the horizon, marking the coming of a new day. Arnie was way ahead but the black squad of seashags was closing in.

Oh no, this can’t be happening, Hoki thought. She saw that Kawanatanga had been joined by all the seabirds of the world. For as far as she could see, seabirds had come to block the way to Wellington. They had come across the sea, white feathers across blue ocean. They were sitting on the telegraph poles, fences, everywhere.

Gasping with fear, Hoki realised that Skylark and Arnie needed reinforcements. But where from? She concentrated very hard, and the answer came to her.

Come, manu whenua, Hoki called. Cleave a path for Skylark so that she might fulfil her destiny.

The wind began to stir. There was a cyclone as birds of the land heeded Hoki’s call: pigeons, thrushes, ducks, swans, quails, pheasants, waterfowls, parrots, stilts, kingfishers, cuckoos, doves, rollers all. Above the main body of birds, swifts volleyed across the sky on long scimitar-shaped wings. They were joined in their aerial acrobatics by the high-flying hawks and falcons. But their numbers were so small compared to the seabirds. Hoki’s heart went out to them as, with a great shrilling and whistling, they joined in battle with the seabirds. Even the humble sparrow was there, trying in his own way to help. The clamour shook Heaven, and Hoki put her hands up to her ears because of the din and closed her eyes because she was afraid to witness the outcome.

When Hoki opened her eyes, the dream had transformed itself. Well done, birds of the forest. The manu whenua had created enough of a diversion to allow Skylark and Arnie to pass through to Wellington. But not for long. As the ute approached Wellington Harbour, Hoki saw that Kawanatanga had resumed his relentless pursuit.

Skylark, beware the outstretched necks of the seashags.

Hoki’s dream exploded. She sat up, her heart pumping hard. She was so worried that it took her a long time to calm down. She went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. The pot was still warm, so Hoki knew Mitch and Bella had already left for the morning shift on the cliff top. There, Mitch was talking to Bella about the seabirds, the ripped sky — and Skylark. Sometimes he had an uncanny knack of asking the right question, of moving a piece of jigsaw puzzle into a place where it might fit.

“There’s one thing about Skylark I don‘t understand,” he said to Bella. “How come she’s the chick? She doesn’t even come from here.”

Bella didn’t take much notice of Mitch’s question at first. She aimed her shotgun at the sky and let off the first shot of the day. Bang. And the jigsaw piece clicked into place: Cora’s hospital chart.

Middle name Agnes. Born Christchurch 1960.

What was it about 1960 that bothered her? Then she realised: 1960 was the same year that her sister, Agnes, had left Tuapa.

“Arnie? Arnie, are you awake?”

Skylark was sitting in the driver’s seat. Arnie was dozing beside her. They’d made good time to Wellington, and through the windscreen they saw vehicles being marshalled to drive onto the ferry. The day was dark, miserable, and bucketing down with rain. Ahead of them lay the prospect of another wild Cook Strait crossing.

“What’s up?” Arnie asked, as he stirred.

“We’ll be driving onto the ferry soon. I was wondering if you would like a coffee or something. You really need something warm inside you.”

“Not if I’m going sailing I don’t,” Arnie said. “Look at the weather! Won’t it ever let up?”

“Maybe you should stay in Wellington,” Skylark suggested. “You could wait for tomorrow’s sailing.”

“And let you go on by yourself? No way.”

Secretly, Skylark was glad that Arnie felt that way. She’d grown used to his company. Even though she’d never admit it, it would have been difficult to get this far without him.

“Whether you like it or not, you’re still getting something into your stomach before we get on the ferry,” she said.

Skylark got out of the ute and ran to the terminal. Inside, all was bedlam. A number of sailings had been cancelled. Passengers were sitting on the floors as well as the seats. Arguing. Playing cards. Sleeping. Waiting. The only sign of liveliness came from a group of Swedish backpackers for whom this kind of weather was second nature.

Skylark picked her way through the crowd to the self-service food bar: pies, oily chips in cardboard canisters, sandwiches masquerading as BLTs and, aha, soup with toast.

“I’ll have your soup to go,” Skylark ordered. “Two black coffees as well. Oh yes, and three of those milk chocolate bars, thanks.”

The waitperson, who seemed to think she was working at some upmarket establishment, took Skylark’s money and began to service the order … and that’s when it happened. Something clicked and popped inside her head, as if someone was dialling long distance. The connection was made — and Skylark’s first thought was: Oh no, maybe I am the one after all.

As clear as day she saw Kawanatanga and his seashag squad, and they were closing in on Wellington Harbour. Then she heard Hoki’s voice:

Skylark, beware the outstretched necks of the seashags.

The warning sent Skylark staggering out of the terminal. She pushed past the people in the waiting line, almost tripped.

“But Miss, your order,” the waitperson called.

Skylark was already running fast. Out of the humid interior she went, into the rain. For a moment all was confusion. The noise, the traffic, the bustling port. Where was the ute?

Skylark heard the giant rear doors of the ferry open. A marshall came forward and began to wave the cars in. Skylark kept looking at the sky. So far it was clear. She reached the ute, swung herself in and started the engine.

“I thought you were getting us some food,” Arnie said.

“There was a queue,” Skylark answered. “I realised we’d be boarding soon. See? We’re moving.”

But why was it taking so long? Skylark had never been patient. Not only that, but her mind was ticking over all the variables. Arnie and ferries didn’t mix, check. Out here they were sitting ducks, check. But even when they boarded the seashags would know they were on the ferry, checkmate. She compressed her lips, nodded to herself and made a decision.

“Hold on tight, Arnie, we’re going to Plan B.”

“Get a grip, Skylark, there isn’t a Plan B. We have to get on the ferry.”

Skylark reversed. The truck behind her blared its horn as she bumped it. Arnie watched wide-eyed.

“Rubbish,” Skylark said. “There’s always a Plan B. Harrison Ford had one in Star Wars. Bruce Willis had one in The Fifth Element. How are we going to save the world from the Evil Empire without a Plan B? Let me think. Wasn’t Carrie Fisher in this same situation in Star Wars? When the Imperial Troops boarded her spaceship and they had her trapped at both ends of the corridor, what did she do?”

“She blasted a hole through the wall.”

“Why, Arnie.” Skylark smiled sweetly. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Next moment, Skylark had wrenched the steering wheel, this time bumping the car in front. She pulled out of the queue, made an illegal right turn and sped past the marshall. He waved desperately at her to stop. She saw a railway shunter coming towards her.

“Back up, Skylark! Back up,” Arnie yelled.

“Trust in the force,” Skylark answered. After all, there was plenty of room for her to squeeze through on the right of the train and — wasn’t that an exit coming up? Sure it was a one-way on-ramp, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Skylark touched the accelerator and roared up the on-ramp to the motorway. Now the problem was how to get into the correct citybound lane. No sweat. A couple of big bumps later, and Skylark had taken the ute across the median and pulled it into the line of traffic streaming into Wellington.

“Stop the ute,” Arnie roared. “Stop it right now. Now get out of the driver’s seat. Don’t even think of saying no. Just do it.” He was really angry, not to mention worried about his paintwork. “Now just tell me, Skylark, what is this all about?”

“I’ve already told you,” Skylark answered. “This is Plan B.”

Half an hour later, the ferry was ready for sailing. The marshall signalled the rear doors closed. All the vehicles were aboard. The ferry weighed anchor and headed out of the harbour. As it approached the heads, it began to pitch and yaw in the currents coming from the Straits. The captain, looking ahead, saw the white-tipped waves just waiting to have fun with his ship. “Tell the crew to prepare for a rough-weather running,” he said. “Better let the passengers know it’s not going to be an easy crossing.”

The open sea was a fist which hit the ferry hard. The ship shuddered, dipped, and mountainous waves sprayed across its bow. For a second it wallowed in a trough, until the next fist hit it again. Behind, the captain saw a huge black storm cloud approaching from the rear, broiling over the sea.

Approaching from the rear?

The storm cloud splintered, separated and fragmented. When the captain looked again he saw black seashags diving down upon his ship. As they hurtled lower, their leader, Kawanatanga, uttered his hunting cry.

Find the chick. Kill her. Do it now. Now.

The seashag squad entered the companionways, flying into the staterooms, along corridors and down stairways. There was pandemonium as passengers and seashags confronted each other. News broadcasts would later report that the incident was a freak occurrence to do with seabirds confused by the weather and trying to find shelter.

Where is she! She must be here. Find her.

Meantime, at Wellington Airport, the morning flight to Nelson took to the air. Arnie looked out of the window and saw the ferry ploughing its way through the waves below. He thanked his lucky stars for Skylark’s credit card.

“This is a great Plan B,” he said. “Thank you. Are you sure you don’t want the window seat?”

Skylark’s face was white and she was clutching the arms of her seat as if her life depended on it. “Please don’t make this any more difficult than it is,” she said. “Did I tell you that I hate flying?”

“So I guess,” Arnie said, “you wouldn’t want a triple cheeseburger followed by a chocolate ice cream sundae, would you?”

Skylark glared at him.

“Look, mate,” she hissed, “I’d quit while I was ahead if I was you.”

Chapter Ten

“You mean Deedee is dead?”

Skylark looked into the face of the kaumatua who greeted her at the Maori Language Centre where Joe had said they’d find Deedee. Behind him she could see a young teacher taking children in Maori language lessons.

“Ae, kua mate te koka,” the old man confirmed. “She died three weeks ago. We had a big tangi for her. She was well loved.”

“But she can’t be dead,” Skylark protested. She looked back at the street, where Arnie was waiting for her.

“The children, particularly, will miss her,” the kaumatua continued. “Although Deedee lived way up on the mountain tops, she never missed a day’s work teaching them to look after the forest and the birds she loved.” He gestured in the direction of Deedee’s mountains. The peaks were like arrows pointing at Heaven. “All that you see up there belonged to her,” he said. “The tribe is taking it over. After all these years of complaining about her sitting up there protecting the land, they’ve now realised that Deedee saved a valuable resource for us.”

“I’ve come so far,” Skylark said. “I’ve come all this way just to see her.” She felt as if a wall had arisen between her and where she should be going. There was no way around it, over it or under it. Nothing.

The old man tried to be sympathetic. “Were you a mokopuna of Deedee?” he asked.

“No,” Skylark answered. She saw the look of puzzlement in his face, but she didn’t want to explain. “Thank you for letting me know,” she said. She turned to leave, and as she did so the young teacher gave her a curious glance, her eyes widening.

Skylark went down to the taxi to tell Arnie the news. “Could you ring Hoki?” she asked.

Mitch answered the telephone. “Are you there, Mother Ship? Do you copy?” Mitch thought it was a kid playing jokes, and was about to hang up when Hoki walked in. She snatched the receiver from him.

“I copy, Arnie. What’s the matter?”

“Deedee is dead. She died three weeks ago.”

“Aue, te koka kua ngaro ki te Po,” Hoki wailed.

Now it was Skylark’s turn to grab the phone. “Hoki? Are you there?” she said. “I’m really sorry about Deedee, but Arnie and I have to keep going. Do you have any idea where we should go now, where we should look? I’ve got to find the Time Portal.”

Hoki calmed down. “Deedee may have left a message for you in her house up in the mountains,” she said. “Go up there and see if you can find it. If you can’t, search for the Time Portal itself.”

“What does it look like?” Skylark asked.

“How would I know!” Hoki answered. “A doorway, I suppose.”

Arnie shrugged his shoulders. “A doorway? What kind of doorway?”

Skylark was in no mood for questions. “Let’s just do it,” she answered.

She was halfway into the taxi when she heard a voice calling to her.

“Were you looking for Deedee?” The young teacher was standing on the steps with the kaumatua, who was looking somewhat abashed. “The kaumatua is getting forgetful in his old age,” the teacher said. “He was supposed to give you an urgent message from Lottie.”

“Lottie?”

“She’s Deedee’s granddaughter. She told us that a strange girl would come looking for the koka. That’s you, isn’t it! Lottie works at The Warehouse on the checkout. You’re to go there. She said to tell you to hurry. There’s not much time left.”

The Warehouse was really hopping. All end-of-season lines had been discounted up to 50 per cent, and the locals had come in searching for bargains in clothes, shoes, garden furniture and kitchenware. Six checkout lanes were operating.

“Which one do you think is Lottie?” Skylark asked.

“The one chewing the gum,” Arnie answered. He pointed to a big, boisterous girl with blonde highlights in her hair (and she had lots of hair), greasy lipsticked lips, and cleavage — and there was lots of that too.

Skylark’s eyes connected with Lottie’s and, from the girl’s reaction, she knew that Arnie was dead on target. Lottie put up her “Position Closed” sign, took off her smock and yelled out in a loud voice: “Jack? I’m taking my lunch break now.” No asking. Just an announcement. Take it or leave it.

“How did you know she was Lottie?” Skylark asked as Lottie shoved her way through the shoppers.

“Easy,” Arnie said. “Just look for the bossiest girl on the block and she’s bound to be one of you.”

Lottie was fumbling in her purse for her car keys. When she reached Skylark she introduced herself. “Hello, I’m Charlotte. People call me Lottie, but my enemies call me Charlie. I’m Nani Deedee’s mokopuna. I know who you are. I was expecting you three days ago. I must say you’re cutting it really fine.” She swept on past, and Skylark and Arnie followed her out to the car park. She fumbled in her purse again and brought out a cellphone. “So what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Skylark,” Skylark said.

“Cool,” Lottie said. She was walking a fast clip, noticed Arnie, punched in a number and waited for the connection. “And is he your —?”

Skylark wished people would stop asking about Arnie or assuming he was her boyfriend.

“No, he’s just a friend.”

“Is he going with you?”

Gosh, Lottie sure asked a heap of questions. “Um, I don’t know.”

Lottie aimed her key ring at her car and automatically unlocked it. “No,” she said as Arnie went to get in the front. “Back seat for you. Us girls in front.”

“What did I tell you?” Arnie said. “Bossy.”

Lottie’s call was connected. “Hello? Is that you Quentin? The girl’s arrived. She’s got a boyfriend with her. No, I didn’t know there would be two of them either. You’d better prepare two parachutes —”

Parachutes?

“We’ll be there in twenty minutes. See ya, babe.” Lottie flipped her cellphone off and stepped into her car. She reversed without looking in the rear-vision mirror and drove at speed out of the carpark. An outraged skateboarder managed to get out of the way just in time. “If you don’t like the way I drive, get off the pavement,” Lottie yelled.

Apparently Lottie only used the mirror to put on lipstick or to primp her hair. Once she had done that, however, she seemed to relax. “Ever since I took over as guardian from Nani Deedee,” she began, “my whole life has been like this! Rushing here. Rushing there. I didn’t want it and certainly wasn’t looking for it. Once upon a time I used to go clubbing on Mondays. What do I do now? I go up to Nani’s mountains and check up on her birds. I used to have a girls’ night out on Wednesdays — and last Wednesday we had some male strippers in town. But where was I? Working on a brief with my tribal elders to put a case to the courts on Nani’s land. Then last Saturday I had a hot date, but what happened? I was back up on Nani’s mountain again, playing nursemaid to some kiwi chicks. I tell you, my entire social life has been ruined. Ah well, I guess there are things you just have to do. It’s not anything I have any choice about. At least you’ve finally arrived and that’s the main thing.”

Lottie drove through a red light. “Why all the rush?”Skylark asked. She was feeling very nervous of this girl who, like Hoki, seemed to think she would do what they wanted her to do.

“You know about the Time Portal, don’t you? Well, the way it operates is not all that straightforward. In particular, there’s only certain times during the period when it’s open that you can actually go through. You can go through right now but I haven’t a clue how long it will stay that way! So my cousin Quentin has been on call to fly us to the portal as soon as you got here.

“Fly? But I hate flying. I’ve just got off one plane and I am not getting on another!”

“Nani Deedee made me swear on the Book of Birds that I would get you there so that you could go through —”

“Go through to where!” Skylark asked angrily.

Lottie rolled her eyes. “To the other side, of course! Haven’t you been properly briefed? Don’t you know anything?”

Lottie zoomed into the airport carpark. Immediately she was out of the car and walking fast.

Arnie took one look at Skylark’s face and tried not to laugh. She had finally met someone as stroppy as she was — and she didn’t like it one bit.

“Don’t just stand there,” Lottie yelled. She motioned to Skylark and Arnie to keep up. They crossed the carpark, went around the terminal and towards a small hangar: Nelson Air Charters. Inside were a helicopter and two small aeroplanes. A young man was waiting nervously beside one of them: a six-seater Piper Cherokee belonging to the local parachuting club with a cartoon character — Betty Boop — painted on the fuselage.

“Okay Quentin, rev her up!” Lottie called.

Quentin nodded at Skylark and shook Arnie’s hand. “Do you want me to s-suit them up f-first?” he stuttered.

“We’ll have to do it when we’re in the air.”

“Stop right there,” Skylark ordered. “I am not getting on that plane.”

“Of course you are, dear,” Lottie said. Before Skylark knew it, she had been pushed through a door and Lottie was buckling her in.

“Arnie? Arnie!” Skylark called. But he was too busy talking to Quentin and throwing equipment through the same door that Skylark had been pushed through, preventing her from getting out.

Then Arnie himself jumped in and closed the door. Next moment Lottie and Quentin had climbed into the pilot and co-pilot’s seats.

“You’re not going to fly this thing are you?” Skylark asked.

Lottie was too busy doing her pre-flight check to answer. Arnie was grinning like a cheshire cat. “Skylark,” he said, “you’re going to love this.”

“Get me out of here immediately.”

But it was too late. Lottie switched on the ignition. She had a brief conversation with Quentin and was very cross with him. “You did what!”

“Have a h-heart,” Quentin moaned. “You know what the p-procedures are. There was n-no w-way I could g-get out of filing a f-flight p-plan.”

“Why do you always have to d-do things by the b-book, Quentin?” Lottie asked. “What a pain in the butt. I told you to tell the tower that we were just going on a sightseeing flight.”

“Y-yeah, and they b-believed that the l-last time.”

The starter motor whined, the propellers began to turn, there was a small concussive sound, and the engine roared into action. Lottie eased the throttle, and the plane taxied forward, out of the hangar and into the daylight.

“Are you two belted in?” she asked. “Good.” She had her earphones on.

“Tower? This is Betty Boop, over. Request permission for takeoff, over.”

The tower came back. “Betty Boop, grateful you confirm your flight plan, over.”

“Tower, I have two American millionaires on board for sightseeing flight of Nelson City and surrounding environment, over. Request clearance for take off, over.”

“Betty Boop, the Department of Conservation has requested you be denied permission to take off until satisfaction of your intentions, over.”

Lottie sighed, rolled her eyes and elbowed Quentin in the ribs. “This is all your f-fault,” she said, as she headed the plane out onto the runway.

“Betty Boop! You have not been given permission for take off, over.”

“Thank you, Tower,” Lottie answered blissfully, as if she was just taking a walk in the park.

“Betty Boop! Return to the airport. Your take off has not, repeat not, been authorised, over.”

“Tower? Say again? Oh damn this radio, Quentin, I told you to fix it! Sorry, Tower, you’re breaking up, over.”

“Betty Boop! This will be your second violation in one month. Return immediately as requested to the airport, over.”

Lottie just kept on heading out to the runway. When she arrived she positioned the plane into the wind.

“Betty Boop, you are in violation of instructions, over. You run the risk of being grounded, over.”

“Tower? Tower? Proceeding to take off —”

Lottie revved the engine. The plane roared down the runway. As it took off, Lottie waved at the controllers in the tower. “And do have a nice day,” she said.

The plane leapt higher into the air. The earth receded, the clouds came closer. The plane reached cruising altitude. Lottie motioned to Quentin that he should take over piloting the plane. She clambered back to Skylark and Arnie.

“Right,” Lottie said. “Time to get you both suited up. Have you done any parachuting before?”

“Absolutely, positively, never,” Skylark said, “and I’m not about to start, so just get me back on the ground now.”

“You lucky girl, you,” Lottie said. “We’re offering you a free jump today. What about you, Arnie?”

“Yes, I got my certificate in the Army. For solo as well as tandem.”

Lottie’s eyes lit up. “Great, then you can do the jump with Skylark?”

“Well … yes.”

“Primo,” Lottie answered. “Here was I thinking I would have to take you both down myself. This really solves my problem — I’m expected back this afternoon to do our stocktake. Not to mention that I only got my hair done yesterday and helmets play havoc with the styling.”

“Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said?” Skylark yelled. “I know I’ve come all this way to go through the Time Portal but jumping out of a plane is not on the agenda and I’m not going to do it.”

“Of course you are,” Lottie answered.

“Oh no I’m not.”

“Oh yes you are.”

Skylark started to push Lottie away, but every time she pushed, Lottie pulled. Before Skylark knew it, one arm was in one sleeve, the other arm was in the second.

“What are you doing!” Skylark screamed. She kicked at Lottie, and one leg went into the jumpsuit. She kicked again and, oh, clever Lottie twisted, zipped and voilà!

“Done,” Lottie said. By magic, Skylark had been trussed up like a turkey.

Meanwhile, Arnie was really sparking, gung ho, loving every minute — and Skylark hated him for it. “I think you’ve met your match, Skylark,” he said.

“And I th-think you’re about to m-meet yours!” Quentin said to Lottie. “The tower has c-contacted the Department of C–Conservation. They’ve got a plane on the r-runway right n-now. They’re coming after us.”

Lottie clambered back into the pilot’s seat. “This is all your fault, Quentin.” she said.

Quentin let it pass. “The pursuit p-plane is in radio c-contact with us, Lottie. What do you want me to do?”

“Ignore them. Keep pretending that our radio is broken — and don’t forget to break it before we land! Otherwise we’ll really be in the proverbial.”

Skylark cast her eyes upward: If there is a God in Heaven …

“So what’s with the Department of Conservation?” Arnie asked. “Why would they try to stop this plane?”

“Well,” Lottie began, “what we’re planning to do is not exactly wrong, but it’s not exactly right either.”

“I gathered as much,” Arnie said.

“The fact is that where we’re going was once part of Nani Deedee’s land. But it was taken by DOC when some fool tribal elder blabbed about what was on it. They came to take a look and, next minute, Nani was slapped with a forced sale of the land when DOC brought in a new Act of Parliament which allowed them to do it. Some Act to do with historic places or antiquities, blah blah blah. Anyhow our lawyers are on to it, so the point of view I take is that the land is still ours, though DOC says it isn’t. Meantime, the police have put the land off limits until the matter is settled in the courts. No trespassers are allowed there. But I don’t consider myself a trespasser.”

“So what exactly is there?” Skylark asked.

“Why, the Cathedral of the Birds of course,” Lottie said. “I thought you knew. You don’t? Well, in the days when the manu whenua ruled the world, they were born, lived their lives and died in the Great Forest. At old age, when they felt Death approaching them, many of the birds would actually fly to particular places in the Great Forest to wait for His coming.” Lottie unrolled a topographical map and pointed out the location. “One such a spot is here. See how it’s adjacent to Nani Deedee’s land?

“Now, the place that I’m referring to is over 150,000 years old. It’s a secret location. The ground is porous limestone and, over the years, rain has carved out channels that lead to potholes and subterranean caverns. No wonder DOC went gaga when they saw it. Well, when the birds said their farewells to the world above and died, their bodies lay on the ground. When the rains came, they washed the bones down the limestone channels and into the labyrinth below. You must remember that we are talking about thousands of birds and millions of beautiful fragile bones. Eventually, all the bones piled higher and higher and collected in one giant amphitheatre. Nani Deedee described it to me once. When she shone her torchlight in that place the light shimmered on all those tiny bird skeletons and made it look like a giant cathedral. She thought it was a holy place. She told me that she was able to walk through it to a small circle at the very centre of the cathedral.”

Lottie’s eyes gleamed with awe. “That is where the Time Portal is.”

“Couldn’t I have walked there?” Skylark wailed.

“Not an option, sweetheart. You left no time for yourself. You’re jumping, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but you’ll just have to be very brave and suck on it.”

At that moment, the plane lurched. Lottie grabbed at the webbing that covered the interior fuselage to prevent her from falling. “Jeez, Quentin, can’t you keep the plane level?”

“Sorry c-cuz, but I’ve just had v-visual contact with the pursuit plane. From the l-look of it, I think W-Wayne’s on our case.”

“Get out of here,” Lottie yelled. “Dive, dive, dive!”

“Great,” Skylark muttered. “Now we’re turning into a submarine.”

The plane went into an almost vertical descent. The engines whined, and boxes, equipment, anything that wasn’t strapped down, came flying through the air. Down the plane went, through the clouds to the clear air below. Quentin levelled out.

“Do you think they saw us?” Arnie asked Lottie.

“I don’t think so,” Lottie answered.

Next moment there was another whining sound, and through the clouds came the pursuit aircraft. It drew level and the pilot looked across at Lottie and shook his finger at her. His voice came over Lottie’s headphones: “Betty Boop, you naughty, naughty girl, over.”

“Bloody Wayne,” Lottie said. She clambered back into the pilot’s seat.

“Turn back, Betty Boop, there’s a good little girl, over.”

Lottie blew Wayne a kiss — and made a rude gesture with her fingers.

“Like it or loathe it,” she said to herself. She banked the plane in a 30-degree turn away from the other aircraft.

“Wayne’s one of the conservation rangers. He likes to make my life a misery,” she explained. “He’s so into control and his ass is so tight he could crack walnuts with it. But he’s not getting me today. We’re heading for the clouds. Let’s try to lose him there.”

Skylark saw red. “Look, I’m perfectly willing to go through the Time Portal for Mum, but not this way. Arnie, call Hoki right now and tell her to get me there by some other route.”

But nobody was listening. Wayne had imitated Lottie’s strategem and was fast catching up. “Oh, Betty Boop,” he chortled. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Ahead were tall cirrus clouds. “He’s figured out your plan,” Arnie said to Lottie. “He’s trying to cut you off before you get there.”

“Not if I can help it,” Lottie answered. “When it comes to flying, Wayne’s just a wannabe.”

She pushed the plane to greater speed and they were in among the tall towering clouds, engaged in a hair-raising game of hide and seek. When the clouds thinned, sometimes Wayne would be there. Sometimes he would be flying parallel with them; sometimes he would be above them. He seemed to be teasing: Now you see me, now you don’t. Little did Wayne know that Lottie was playing for time.

“Come on, Betty Boop, stop shaking your booty and come out with your hands up in the air, over.”

Lottie had Wayne so caught up in the chase he did not realise that both planes had reached the area of the Cathedral of the Birds. Below, the landscape was filled with the Giant Forest. Right in the middle of it, a huge escarpment reared into the sky.

Quentin tapped Arnie’s shoulder and pointed out the plane’s window. “There it is!”

“We’re almost at the drop zone,” Lottie yelled. “See that river valley below? There’s a sandy spit at the river bend. See it, Arnie? That’s where I’ll be dropping both of you, okay? As soon as you’re on the ground, head for that white escarpment over there. Can you see it? The white cliff face?”

“Roger,” Arnie answered.

“What do you mean, Roger!” Skylark hissed. “I’m not jumping and that’s that!”

“The entrance to the Cathedral of the Birds is to the extreme right,” Lottie continued. “It’s a quarter of an hour climb.” She turned to Quentin. “Get Skylark and Arnie into their harness.”

Quentin started to fit Arnie’s harness and parachute to him; he also gave him a map, two torches, a compass and a pair of binoculars. Arnie, meanwhile, was helping Skylark put on her helmet. To continue distracting Skylark, Lottie asked, “Have you got your karanga ready?”

“My what?”

“You mean you haven’t been taught the karanga you’ll need when you meet the Runanga a Manu? You’d better be a fast learner. The karanga is the call you make as a sign that you come in peace. When you get to the other side, head for the brightest rainbow in the sky. It will show you the way to the twin mountains. Beneath the rainbow will be the sacred tree, the paepae. That’s where the Runanga a Manu will be waiting. When you see them that’s when you should begin your karanga. You must do this so that the manu whenua know you come in peace. Those birds have always been very territorial and their sentries will be on guard. If you don’t karanga to them, they’ll think you’re an enemy. Listen to me:

“Karanga mai ki o tatou te manu whenua e, karanga mai, karanga mai, karanga mai! Easy! Now you repeat after me —”

Lottie was diplomatic. “Well, those birds won’t understand your dialect, and your pronunciation is atrocious, but seeing as you’ll be coming from the future, it’ll all sound like double dutch to them anyway.”

Lottie had been flying the plane in slow figure eights. Now the pattern was getting tighter, more focused, moving closer and closer to the drop zone.

“One last thing,” Lottie said. “Whatever you do, when you go over to the other side, do not fly too high. Do not let the winds of the Heavens take you up into the uppermost reaches of the sky.”

“Why is that?” Skylark asked.

“It’s very simple,” Lottie explained. “When the Lord Tane pushed up the sky, he opened the gates of the Heavens so that the birds, the manu whenua and manu moana, could claim the world he had created for them —”

“Yes. The lords Punaweko and Hurumanu were made guardians.”

“Well —” Lottie shifted uneasily. “Some of the birds didn’t leave the sky. They stayed up there, in the uppermost reaches. They were manu Atua.”

“Manu Atua?”

“God birds,” Lottie said. She tried to say the words lightly, but her entire body language was squirming and wriggling in a very strange manner.

“Do I really want to hear this?” Skylark asked.

“The God birds were spirit birds. Their guardians were the lords Rakamaomao and Hurutearangi. They were mythical birds with marvellous powers and thus were exalted far above the ranks of the ordinary manu whenua and manu moana. Some were giant birds, like the poua or pouakai, able to circumnavigate the world and having the awesome power to devastate entire territories if they were hungry or if you made them really mad. Others were supernatural birds, like the manaia, and some were man-destroying birds.”

“You’re giving me nightmares,” Skylark answered.

“Then there was the Hokioi, Spirit Messenger of the Gods and of Immortal Life. The old-time Maori often heard this bird but never saw it. Whenever they heard its cry, ‘Hokiii-oiii! Hokiii-oiii!’, they knew it was a portent that something was going to happen. That the gods were going to intervene and change destiny.”

“So what’s the catch?” Skylark asked.

“Just don’t stray into their kingdom, that’s all. Just make sure the winds don’t take you up there and you’ll be all right. But if they do, pray hard.”

“Very hard,” Quentin added.

“You don’t have to frighten the life out of Skylark,” Arnie reproved.

“Above all, don’t go anywhere near the volcanic island where the giant pouakai lives. Otherwise, gotcha!”

“And if all else fails? “Skylark asked.

“Don’t look back, fly like hell and get the blazes out of there!”

Everything happened very quickly after that. First, Wayne finally realised he’d been duped. “Betty Boop! Betty Boop!” he called. “You are flying over government land and have no authorisation to enter this airspace, over. Leave the area immediately, over.” He broke into the vernacular. “What the bloody hell do you hope to achieve, anyway, Lottie? If you’re planning yet another unauthorised parachute jump into the area, I warn you we have two rangers posted on the ground and they have been ordered to go directly to the Cathedral of the Birds to prevent contamination.”

Lottie grabbed the microphone. “Oh, go bite your bum, Wayne,” she said. She turned to Skylark and Arnie. “You’ve got to get out now. You’ll find the entrance to the Cathedral of the Birds at the base of the escarpment.”

Skylark was still trying to evade the inevitable. She struggled with Arnie and Quentin as they tried to get the parachute harness around her. “No way. I am not going to be strapped to somebody as if I was a backpack and then jump out of this plane.”

“It’s not the b-back. It’s the f-front,” Quentin answered. He continued to clip Skylark to Arnie.

“Look at it this way, Skylark,” Lottie said. “It will be good practice for when you go through the portal.”

“What do you mean by that? Do you know something I don’t know? Are you in on it, Arnie?”

“In on what!” Arnie answered. “I’m just the sidekick remember?”

Then it was done. Skylark was harnessed to Arnie whether she liked it or not. Quentin pulled the exit door open. The wind rushed in. Cold. Frightening. Outside were all those clouds, all that empty sky — and the ground was sure a long way down.

“Betty Boop! Betty Boop! Do not attempt to land anybody on the ground!”

But Lottie wasn’t listening. “I forgot one other thing,” she said.

“I hate it when people say that,” Skylark answered.

Her heart was pounding with fear. Her mouth was dry. Arnie was pushing her ever so gently towards the centre of the open doorway. She was trying to get back into the plane.

“Don’t forget you’ve only got four days. You have to get through the Time Portal and come back before your time’s up, otherwise —”

“Otherwise?”

That’s when Arnie ever so gently butted Skylark. “Snuggle up and hold on tight,” he said. “It’s time to go.”

Next moment, Skylark was falling out of the plane, screaming.

All the way down Arnie was stoked, whooping with joy.

“Didn’t I tell you you’d love this?” he yelled.

Love this? Skylark was still screaming, and she was frightened to death because the ground was still a long way off. She hated Arnie as he guided them down to the landing zone, because being trussed up like this was like … like having … simulated sex. And even if Arnie was kind enough to take the brunt of the landing upon himself, rolling so that Skylark wouldn’t get hurt, she wasn’t in any mood to thank him for his kindness. She went ballistic.

“You did that on purpose, you terrorist,” Skylark screamed. “You pushed me out.”

“No I didn’t,” Arnie answered. He was standing, trying to unclip the parachute. He was in a self-congratulatory mood: he had managed to land the parachute smack dead centre of the sandy spit at the bend of the river. He unzipped his suit. He turned to Skylark and freed her of the harness.

Was she grateful? She rounded on him, made an almighty swing, and socked him one in the mouth.

“And what’s worse,” Skylark screamed, “you enjoyed every minute of it, didn’t you. You enjoyed humiliating me and having me close up and personal. Don’t try to say you didn’t. Well that’s as close as you’ll ever get, mister, so wipe that smirk off your face.”

Skylark was trying to stamp her feet out of the suit. She fell in a tangle. “Well, don’t just stand there, you ape! Make yourself useful and get me untangled.”

Nursing his jaw, Arnie played the gentleman. Skylark was still yelling at him and, when she was freed, stomped off down to the river’s edge to splash some water on her face.

“Skylark, we’re here,” Arnie said. “It was the only way to get here. You can scream all you like, but on a scale of one to ten you don’t even register on my radar.” He was already thinking ahead. He took the binoculars out of their pouch and swept the surrounding landscape. On their side of the river, everything was okay. But on the other? He swept the opposite terrain and saw the flash of the sun on something metallic. He focused. Coming down through the bush were the two rangers Wayne had mentioned.

By Arnie’s calculations, the rangers were ten minutes away from crossing the river — so he and Skylark were ten minutes ahead. Not much of a margin.

Arnie gave the binoculars to Skylark so that she could take a look. “We’d better get moving,” Arnie said.

It wasn’t all that difficult to find a way up the escarpment. Despite Skylark’s gloomy assumption that she would be pulling herself hand and foot up a steep cliff and hanging from a rope like in Vertical Limit, the opposite proved to be the case. Arnie scouted the area and found a path leading from the sandy spit up the face of the escarpment.

“The path is probably the original track to the cave,” he said. “Lottie’s Maori forebears must have used it when the land was owned by them. Then, when DOC took the land, this —” Arnie indicated the sandy spit — “was probably where they helicoptered in personnel and equipment. It’s the closest you can get to the cave. See? They’ve made an effort to widen the path.”

Skylark got over her temper tantrum. She followed Arnie as he led the way. The track ascended through scrubby bush. The river fell away to the left. Then the path made an abrupt turn up a spur, taking them at right angles away from the river. Five minutes later, the scenery transformed itself: breathtaking native forest shafted by dazzling sun surrounded them in an emerald world entirely made up of ferns. Tree ferns formed the canopy overhead. Smaller ferns were interlaced below them, glowing soft green. The grass beneath their feet was moss of the most delicate texture. Truly a lost world, a world that dreams were made of.

And there were birds everywhere. Piping in the ferns. Flitting through the sunlit interior. Singing, always singing.

Ke-eet, ke-eet. Kraak kraak kraak. Stit stit stit. Tweep, tw-eep, tw-eep, too too too! And who are you, too too too!

The path ascended to a ridge. When Skylark and Arnie reached the top, they took their bearings. Arnie noted that the land slipped away in a natural gradient towards a V-shaped trap below.

When it rained, Skylark remembered, the water must have washed all the bones of the birds down there.

Arnie was already descending into the trap. “We should strike the entrance of the cave soon,” he said.

Ye-es, too too too. Not far, not far. Hurry, hurry hurry twee twee twee.

Sure enough, five minutes later, Skylark and Arnie came across a barrier on the path: entrance prohibited. authorised personnel only beyond this point. Arnie stepped over the barrier. Skylark followed him. They came to another sign: don’t even think of going any further. They ignored it and rounded a bend.

“There it is,” Arnie said.

For a moment, Skylark didn’t know what to think. The entrance was to the left of the path. One slab of rock was cantilevered on top of another. The entrance was the gap between.

“Ah well,” Arnie said. “Here goes.” Before Skylark could stop him, he was on his back, edging his way into the gap, and letting out an ear-splitting scream.

“Arnie. Arnie!” Skylark yelled.

She scrabbled after him, pressing herself through the gap. Arnie was lying motionless on the floor of the cave.

“Oh, Arnie! Wake up. Please.”

Then Arnie began to shake. At first, Skylark thought he was in some sort of delirium. But Arnie couldn’t contain his laughter. “That was a dirty trick,” Skylark seethed.

“You must admit it worked. If I hadn’t done it, you’d still be outside deciding whether or not to follow me.”

Arnie dusted himself off, switched on his torch, and indicated to Skylark that she should switch on hers. Steps led down into the underground. “Let’s get going on our journey to the centre of the earth,” he said.

Arnie led the way down into the underworld. “I think we’re in the main channel,” he said. He had expected complete darkness. Instead, the entire descent was bathed in a bluish light. “Can you see, Skylark? Smaller channels are draining down into the channel from all sides. They must lead to potholes on the surface. The light is coming from them.”

“There’s glow worms down here too,” Skylark whispered, pointing to where the darkness was dotted with light like sparkling diamonds.

They continued the descent deep into the earth. Ahead, Skylark could see more light. But how could that be? Where would light come from at this depth? It was so powerful that Arnie’s profile was lit by it. Then Skylark felt a draught on her face, and knew that something wonderful was about to happen.

Arnie was caught in the same emotion. He grinned at her, and she grinned back. They took two more steps forward. Ahead, the channel opened up on both sides of them like a curtain. A rock jutted out.

“There it is, Skylark,” Arnie said, his voice hushed with awe. “The Cathedral of the Birds.”

Nani Deedee described it to me once, Lottie had said. The light shim-mering on all those millions of fragile bones. She thought she was in some holy place —

Skylark was overcome by what she saw before her. She and Arnie were in a huge underground amphitheatre that in darkness seemed to stretch on forever and ever. Right in the middle of it was a slender glittering tower. The tower was made entirely of delicate bones which, at the ceiling, twisted, curled, interlocked and splayed across the dome like thousands of angel wings. Each wing had begun its formation from one of the thousands of potholes feeding into the dome. The light, coming through the holes in the ceiling, glowed on the bones. Where the bones were moist with water seepage they sparkled, sending glittering flashes from bone to bone in a fascinating and ever-changing interplay of beauty.

That wasn’t all. Around the tower were smaller sculptures of extraordinary and unearthly beauty. They had been constructed from other bones that had either fallen from the central tower or, perhaps, from other potholes in the ceiling. Some seemed to be kneeling angels in prayer in that place. Others seemed to be flying figures reaching up to the light.

“Come on,” Arnie said. He took Skylark’s hand and they descended to the amphitheatre floor. Treading carefully, they made their way toward the central tower. The closer they got, the higher and larger it became. The light played and shimmered around it, on it and through it.

Suddenly the tower blazed and, in a chiaroscuro of brilliance, Skylark saw that at its base was a carving in the shape of a giant bird with wings outstretched, beak open in challenge and claws splayed ready for attack. It was as tall as she was.

As soon as she saw the symbol, Skylark knew what she had to do. For a moment she hesitated, both scared and shocked to know that she’d actually made it this far — and that this was only the beginning of her journey. “Oh Mum,” she whimpered. Then she took a deep breath, said a silent prayer and placed the feather which Birdy had given her on the left wing of the symbol. The beak from Joe, she put on the beak of the carved bird. She decided to leave the claw given to her by Hoki around her neck.

There was just one task left to do. Gently Skylark pushed Arnie away from the carving. “I think this is where I go on alone,” Skylark said.

“What?” Arnie asked. “No. I won’t let you.” He took a few steps back towards the carving.

“No, Arnie,” Skylark said. “There’s only room for one of us. Can’t you see?”

“Give a guy a break! How can you do what you have to do without me? We’ve come all this way together. I’ve grown used to you, can’t you see that? We’re a good team.” Arnie’s face was pale with anxiety. “I don’t care what you say,” he continued, compressing his lips. “I’m coming along as your co-pilot and that’s that. Just let anybody try to stop me.”

He came towards her but she pushed him hard and he fell back on the floor. “No, Arnie. Thank you for bringing me this far. But from here I’m flying solo.”

With that, Skylark stepped into the shape of the bird. At that moment torchlight flashed through the amphitheatre. “You aren’t going anywhere, Missy,” a voice said.

Up on the rock jutting out and overlooking the amphitheatre were the two rangers. They began to clamber down the stairway, making their way towards the base of the tower.

“That settles it,” Arnie said. He jumped into the bird shape, put his feather and beak alongside Skylark’s, stepped behind her and put his arms around her.

“What are you doing!” Skylark yelled. “Let me go!”

“I’ve got two choices. Either I stay here and get arrested or I go with you and take my chances wherever we end up. We’ve been tandem once. It can work again.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Skylark roared. “Once is enough.” She was trying everything to wriggle out of Arnie’s arms. Every time she wriggled his grip got tighter. “Wait up, Arnie, hang on a minute, let go of me —”

It was too late. Skylark felt dizzy. Her eyesight blurred. Her voice caught in her throat. For some strange reason the room seemed to be growing larger. And what was this? She seemed to be growing smaller. She tried to protest again but all that came out was a slight chirrup and flutter. The air shifted and next moment, Skylark found herself looking out of the rim of her right shoe. She let out a guffaw of laughter.

“Is that you, Arnie?”

Arnie’s overalls lay in a crumpled heap. There was a pecking movement from within. Then a face appeared — the face of a falcon. One eye was green, the other brown. Payback time.

“You should laugh,” Arnie said. “Look in a mirror.”

Skylark had a short crest and her coat was streaked brown and dark brown. Her underparts were buffy white, her breast was streaked brown, and her outer feathers were conspicuously white. She gave a short scream and discovered that her voice had changed into continuous liquid trills and runs. She had turned into a — well, a skylark.

The transformation had Arnie in fits of hysteria. He hopped out of his clothes and he just loved the way he looked. Hooked bill and grasping talons. Long and narrow wings. Overall plumage brown. He flexed his muscles and was thrilled to feel the powah. “Uh oh, trouble,” Arnie whistled.

The two rangers had arrived at the tower. When they spoke, their voices sounded huge. “Where the hell did they go?”

And there were other sounds too. New ones. Skylark’s new perceptions caught another presence coming into the caverns. Kawanatanga had finally caught up, and he was leading his seashag squad thundering into the amphitheatre.

“Arnie, quick, do something!” Skylark trilled.

Kawanatanga glided through the amphitheatre flicking at the fragile bones with contempt. The rangers watched, stunned. Kawanatanga saw Skylark and Arnie. He stalled and stretched out his neck.

Stop them! Kill the chick! Kill them both before they go through the Time Portal.

As for Arnie, what was he doing? He saw his cellphone, flew to it, and hopped out the number for Hoki and Bella.

“Mother Ship, I think we have lift-off.”

With a scream, Kawanatanga dived.

“Arnie!” Skylark yelled.

Arnie flapped his wings and enfolded Skylark in them. Just as Kawanatanga opened his beak to strike, the cathedral opened like a door. Something big and black, made up of trillions of whirling bones, came at Skylark and Arnie like a huge mouth, and swallowed them.

Kawanatanga howled his rage to the universe.

No. No. No.

In Manu Valley, Hoki ran to answer the telephone.

“Hello? Hello?”

All she could hear was a series of harsh squawks and whistles.

“Is anybody there?”

The telephone went dead. For a while, Hoki stood there, puzzled. Then she gasped, put the receiver down and took herself up to Bella, Mitch and Francis as fast as her walking sticks would let her.

“Bella! Arnie’s just called. I think he’s gone with Skylark.”

“How can Arnie go with her!”

“I don’t know,” Hoki answered. She gave an incredulous laugh. “But I think they’ve both gone through the Time Portal.”

Hoki stayed on the clifftop. She knew she was right about Arnie calling her. Just before dusk, she looked west and saw a black convoy coming across the twin mountains. It brought thoughts to her of Armageddon, of something apocalyptic, of a world that was about to descend into chaos. Hoki stepped forward:

“So, Kawanatanga, you’re back.”

With an angry scream, Kawanatanga circled the ripped sky.

We may not have been able to stop the chick on this side of the sky. But we will meet her on the other side. When we do, we promise you we shall spear her like a fish and shred her to pieces.

Hoki grabbed her shotgun and aimed for Kawanatanga. With contemptuous ease he twisted, stilled, dived and was in.

The sun fell into the sea. There was a sudden silver flash along the line where sky met ocean.