Sky Dancer

Chapter Fourteen

And all at once Arnie found himself being buffeted by huge gravitational forces. Some were pulling him one way. Others were pulling him another. Foolishly he tried to stabilise himself; he screamed as his damaged wing was pulled from its shoulder socket and he lost consciousness.

The Southern Cross winked out. Arnie’s body tumbled head over heels in a dizzying descent through a primeval sky. Planets whirled around like pinballs. Comets trailed fiery tails from north to south. Above him a worm hole opened, sucking him in. Regaining his senses slightly, Arnie was dimly aware of galaxies being born, of exploding supernovas and golden suns as he rolled and spiralled through a giant intergalactic hydroslide until there, in front of him, was the opening back to the future and his own universe.

Time was ticking past. Arnie saw the sun rising on the green globe of Earth below. It was bathed in auroras of beautiful light — and Arnie was falling again. Another portal opened and he fell through it. He had a minute to get through the inner lock and back into his own Time. On the other side, he saw the Cathedral of the Birds and the seabirds in suspended animation, stationary, in mid-air, frozen at the moment when he and Skylark had escaped them.

Time began to run again — and Arnie dived through. He was in the zone. Bones were spinning in the air. The entire cathedral was col-lapsing around him. Arnie fell through the inner lock onto the cavern floor. Seabirds were screaming all around him, their wings creating a huge turbulence. He put his hands to his head to protect himself and, closing his eyes, huddled into a ball.

The tumult settled. A huge cloud of dust rolled through the cavern. Arnie waited for the seabirds to shred him. But nothing happened. When he looked up, the seabirds had disappeared as if they had never been there at all. His feathers had moulted and he had turned back to his human form. He tried to move and knew he had a broken shoulder. He scrambled for his clothes, still lying where they’d fallen on the cave floor.

No time to waste, he thought. I’ve got to get help. I’ve got to get back to Hoki in Manu Valley. He stood up and blew some of the remaining feathers off his chest.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Somebody else shone a torch in his eyes. “Well, what have we here?” one of the rangers asked.

“Looks like a Kentucky fried chicken,” said the other.

“Nah, it’s Big Bird.”

“Whoever he is, all I can say is he’s in one big heap of trouble.”

When, later that afternoon, the telephone rang at Hoki and Bella’s house, Hoki answered it immediately. She’d been waiting.

“Good morning Ma’am,” she heard. “This is Sergeant Pilkington. I’m the duty officer at Nelson Police Station.”

Hoki dropped the receiver with fright. “Something’s happened. Something’s wrong.”

Bella hurried over. “Yes, Officer?” she asked.

“Would you know of a young man by the name of Piwaka?”

“You mean Arnie? He’s my nephew. Is he with you?”

“So you do know him?” Sergeant Pilkington sounded disappointed. “You can verify his identity?”

“Of course I can. What’s he done!”

“Well, Ma’am, the doctor’s with him. He’s got a dislocated shoulder and some other wounds that are being attended to. We’re holding him here for questioning. He’s being charged with trespassing on government property.”

“Is he all right?” Bella asked. “I would like to speak to him please.”

“Yes, well, hang on, I’ll put him on.” Bella heard muffled noises at the other end and then, thank God, Arnie was on the line.

“Arnie? Is that you, nephew? Did you do it? Were you able to get back in time to tell the manu whenua about the seabirds?”

“Yes, Auntie.”

Bella smiled with relief. “They did it, Sister!” she called. “They did it!”

Hoki gave a whoop and snatched the telephone from Bella. “Put Skylark on the phone, Nephew. I want to speak to her.”

“I can’t,” Arnie said.

“Why not! What’s happened to Skylark?”

“We had an accident. We were attacked and Skylark —”

“Please don’t say it, Arnie.” Hoki began to tremble. “Please tell me that Skylark made it home with you.”

“She’s still back there,” Arnie said. “And it’s all my fault. If we’d come back when we should have, we would both have made it. But I wanted to stay to help the manu whenua win their second battle with the seabirds. Then, when we were coming home, the winds took us right to the top of the Heavens.”

“Oh no.”

“Skylark got us down again but I lost my cool, Auntie. I really lost it. I was so glad to see the portal that I rushed to get there. That’s when the pouakai saw me and came after me. Skylark tried to save me and —”

“Yes, Arnie?”

“The pouakai got her.”

Mitch and Francis were on duty at the cliff face when Bella told them the news.

“Only Arnie got back? Not Skylark as well?” Mitch asked.

“No, Skylark didn’t make it,” Bella answered. “As for Arnie, I’m driving to Nelson to collect him. Will you two be all right while I’m away?”

Mitch turned to Francis. “You go with Bella. I can keep guard myself.” Then, quickly, so that Bella wouldn’t see his tears, he raised his rifle and began rapid firing at the seabirds. “Damn you,” he cried. “Damn you all to hell.”

Bella and Francis hit the road with Francis in the driver’s seat. Actually, Bella had wanted Hoki to make the trip but Hoki was too distraught, huddled in her chair and moaning to herself.

“Arnie blames himself, but I’m the one to blame,” she kept saying. “I shouldn’t have let Skylark go up north with him.”

“You weren’t to know they’d both actually go through the portal,” Bella said. “They did that of their own choice and their own free will.”

“No, no, no,” Hoki wailed. “I could have stopped them. If I’d been there, none of this would have happened. If there was a price to pay, I should have paid it, not Skylark.”

“I will not have you talking like that, Sister,” Bella said. “You hear me? Do you hear me Hoki?”

The atmosphere in the car was tense. In an effort to break the silence and lighten the mood, Francis switched on the radio: Crowded House. But although he sang along with the lyrics, Bella clearly wasn’t up to it, so Francis switched the radio off. Anyhow, he had a question. “Auntie, what did Hoki mean when she talked about the price to pay?”

“You never want to take notice of everything that Hoki says,” Bella said, “but sometimes, when the gods have granted you something, a payment has to be made.”

“Skylark’s the payment?” Francis asked, shivering.

They arrived in Nelson. Bella had to post bail for Arnie before the police would release him into her custody. She was shocked at his appearance. He was trembling, feverish, and although his arm was in a sling and he managed a one-armed embrace, he wouldn’t look her in the eyes.

Immediately she had signed for him, Arnie began to go over and over his sorrow. “I shouldn’t have left Skylark there, Auntie. When the pouakai grabbed her and took her back to its nest, I didn’t go after her and save her. If I had been the one taken, that’s what she would have done. I failed her.”

“No,” Bella answered. “Don’t even go there, Nephew. Don’t blame yourself.”

“But I’ve got to get back there,” he yelled. “I have to try to save her!” He snatched the car keys from Francis, who’d been jiggling them nervously, and stormed toward the carpark.

“Stop him,” Bella said.

By the time she arrived at the carpark Francis and Arnie were fighting. Francis had managed to wrest the keys from him, but was nursing a bloodied lip after Arnie socked him in the mouth.

“He’s gone mad, Auntie,” Francis said, and threw the keys to Bella.

Eyes bulging, Arnie approached her and raised a fist. “Give me the keys, Auntie. Give me the goddam keys.”

“No. And if you hit me, I’ll hit you with my handbag.” Bella was cruel. She looked Arnie in the eyes and didn’t try to make it sound pretty. “Face facts, all right? Pray very hard that the pouakai broke Skylark’s neck as soon as it caught her.”

“No, Auntie.” Arnie lunged for the keys again. “Skylark may still be alive.”

“Not after all this time,” Bella said. “You mustn’t hope. Instead, you should pray that she had a quick death and not the slow death of being taken back to the nest and being eaten alive piece by piece, or being fed to the chicks. Do you know what the chicks will do with Skylark if she is in the nest? They’ll play with her at first, like a cat does a mouse.”

“She was alive when I saw her last. Even in the pouakai’s beak I could swear she was alive —”

But Bella was relentless.

“The chicks will think it’s great fun to have this screaming little plaything running around in their nest. After a while they’ll get bored — and one of them will accidentally jab her with its beak and taste her — mmm, yummy. It’ll jab her again. The other chicks will join in the fun. Then they’ll dismember Skylark a piece at a time. She may even remain conscious for a long while. Hers will not be an easy death.”

Such horror took Arnie over the brink. “No. No. So help me, Auntie, I’ll hit you if you don’t give me the keys. I’ve got to go back. I’ve got to.” Arnie gave a shuddering moan, his eyes rolled up and he collapsed, unconscious, into Bella’s arms.

By the time Bella, Francis and Arnie arrived back at Manu Valley, Arnie’s condition had worsened. He was drawn, shivering and incoherent. Immediately, Hoki put him to bed and gave him two sleeping pills. Even so, his mind was filled with images of Skylark being pecked at by ravenous chicks and he thrashed about on the pillow.

“Skylark! Save yourself! No, oh no —”

For a long time, Arnie lay sweating and screaming out Skylark’s name, over and over again. And every time he did it, Hoki was stabbed with remorse. Then gradually the sleeping pills took effect and he quietened down.

“You mustn’t keep on blaming yourself, Nephew,” Hoki whispered to him as he drifted off to sleep. “If anybody failed her, it was me. You two were just the messengers. I was the one who really should have delivered the message.”

When darkness fell, Arnie was still sleeping. Hoki prepared dinner for Bella, Mitch and Francis — corned beef and mashed potatoes, Mitch’s favourite. After dinner the men went to the bach. The women began to do the dishes. Bella could tell that Hoki had something on her mind. “Okay, Sister, spit it out. What’s eating you now.”

Hoki was in between washing and rinsing. “Cora is being brought out of her coma tomorrow. Somebody has to tell her about Skylark. Somebody has to tell her that Skylark is dead.”

“You sure pick your moment,” Bella said. “Well, don’t ask me to do it. That’s your job.”

Hoki was holding the remaining plate from the last lot they had bought at The Warehouse. “I can’t,” Hoki answered. “I loved her —”

“What about me? I loved Skylark too, you know. Just because the chips are down and the going is getting rough, don’t you start piking out on me now.”

Hoki was too busy blubbering to be able to answer.

“All right, then,” Bella said angrily. “I’ll do it.”

Just to make herself feel better, she grabbed the plate that Hoki was rinsing and threw it on the floor. After all, why should her sister always be the one to send plates to the great heaven for broken crockery in the sky?

The next morning, Bella dressed in her formal black dress and tied a black scarf around her head. Mitch and Francis were up at the ripped sky. Hoki was seeing to Arnie, giving him some soup.

“Everybody’s got somebody to get them through this,” Bella grumbled to herself, “and I’ve got nobody. Great.” She drove fast down Manu Valley and into Tuapa. “Ah well, better get it over with.” She had never felt so lonely in all her life.

Cora was lying in the bed, attached to monitoring equipment. Dr Goodwin and his team were there. So was Lucas, face wan with concern.

“Hello, Bella,” Dr Goodwin said. “We’re just about to bring Cora back to us, so you’re just in time. Isn’t Skylark with you?”

“No,” Bella said. She didn’t know what else to add. In silence she stood next to Lucas and waited.

“I’ve been coming to see Cora every day,” Lucas said. “I’ve been watching her while she’s sleeping. She’s so … beautiful.”

Bella looked at him. This was the time when Cora would spit out the poisoned apple. When Sleeping Beauty would awake. As for the rest — Lucas’s dreams and the restoration of happiness to the kingdom, well, life wasn’t that simple, was it?

Dr Goodwin began the induction procedure. He kept checking the monitoring equipment and Cora’s vital life signs. A few suspenseful moments passed, before he gave a grunt of satisfaction. “It shouldn’t take too long,” he said to Bella. “Will you be here when she recovers?”

“Yes,” Bella answered.

Dr Goodwin and his team left the room. After a few minutes, Lucas, too, left to go back to work at the garage. “Will you tell Cora I’ve been here? Tell her I’ll be back.” Twenty minutes later, Cora gave a deep indrawn breath. Her eyelids began to flicker. Bella took Cora’s right hand in hers, not for Cora’s comfort but for her own.

“Is that you, Hoki?” Cora murmured.

Cora’s forehead was beaded in sweat. Her eyes opened. She was trying to focus, looking around the room, and Bella thought she was looking for Skylark.

“Oh, hello Bella,” Cora said.

The moment Bella had been dreading had arrived. “You must be wondering why Skylark isn’t here with me,” Bella began. “Well —”

“Skylark? Skylark?” Cora was sighing. She started to form the words. “I know about Skylark. Of course she’s not here. She’s in that other place.”

Bella’s heart stood still. “That other place? What do you know?”

“I have a message.” Cora began coughing. “From Skylark.”

“A message?”

Cora’s voice was soft and calm. “She’s trapped in that other place. You know, that place where she and Arnie went. It’s big, dark and horrible. And a huge bird, it kind of looks like Godzilla, a giant ogre bird, has taken her to its nest. There are eggs there. Skylark’s all wet and shivering.”

“But she’s alive?”

“Yes. Her message is ‘Mum? Will you tell Hoki and Bella to send somebody to get me?’”

Bella gave a hoarse cry.

“I haven’t got a bloody clue what’s going on,” Cora said. “But when you see her will you tell her that —”

“That?”

“I know what she did for me. Tell her thank you and that —” Cora began to drift away into unconsciousness — “I love her.”

The pouakai clamped its jaws around Skylark. She kicked and screamed, trying to wriggle loose. “Let me go, you big bully —”

The pouakai was amused at first but then became irritated. It gave a sudden flick, not quite enough to break Skylark’s neck but enough to render her senseless, and she fainted.

Skylark had no idea how long she was unconscious. When she revived she was so disoriented she didn’t know whether she was dreaming or awake. Had she really become a bird and flown through the gateway all the way back through Time to help the manu whenua? Nah, get real. Surely, she was still dreaming.

“In which case,” Skylark said, “it’s time to wake up. On the count of three I’ll awake in Tuapa and I’ll make Mum a cup of coffee and —”

Skylark counted, one, two, three, but nothing happened. She went to pinch herself. Oh no, where were her hands and fingers? What was she doing with a beak, feathers and claws?

It was dark. It was raining. Lightning crackled overhead. At every flash her memory came back to her. The pouakai had captured her. It had brought her back to its nest on an island orbiting deep space. The nest was conical, as big as the Auckland Skytower, and attached to the inside of a volcanic rim. The pouakai had woven the nest out of thorny branches and plastered it over with mud.

“I’m not dreaming after all.” Skylark squinted her eyes and wiped the rain away. Where was the pouakai? Flying somewhere looking for other food? The lightning flashed even whiter and Skylark saw, far on the other side of the nest, three giant eggs.

The horror began to sink in. I’ve seen a movie like this, she thought. The pouakai is like the Mother Alien. Soon her eggs will hatch, crack apart, and horrible things with great big razor teeth, snapping jaws and dripping in goo will come out — and I’m their first meal.

Whimpering, Skylark scrabbled around looking for a way out. The sides of the nest were high and impenetrable and, when she tried to climb over them or even fly, she found that she had been tethered to the ground with a piece of twisted rope. After repeated attempts she fell back. She tried to climb again, grabbing at the mud plaster. The mud came away, revealing that skulls and bones of previous victims had been used to seal the nest. Screaming, Skylark scrambled away. Lightning forked overhead and she saw that the entire nest was latticed with bird bones. For a while she went completely berserk, pecking desperately at the rope, yanking at it with her beak and trying vainly to unpick the knot. She realised she was losing her head.

“Skylark O’Shea,” she said sternly to herself. “Calm down, get over yourself, and think this through. The worst case scenario is that you’ll die. Actually, you should be dead by now, but you’re not.” That thought made her feel better. “Where there’s hope there’s life,” she continued, echoing the kind of optimism she’d always scoffed at in her mother. “So although your situation is desperate, it’s not entirely hopeless … is it? Do you really intend being anyone’s dinner? No you don’t —”

The thought of her mother had jolted her. An idea slipped into her brain.

“I’m not going to give up without a fight,” she said.

She sent her message to Cora.

“So she’s alive —”

Overcome, Hoki swayed and her eyes filled with tears.

“Could be,” Bella answered. But she was having serious reservations about what Cora had told her. “Maybe Cora was just dreaming. Can we rely on what she saw or heard?”

“Yes,” Arnie yelled. “After all, I managed to get a message to Auntie Hoki from that place, so why can’t Skylark?”

Still feverish, he leapt out of bed and began pulling a shirt over his head and shoulder sling. He was hyper, going out of his tree, talking to Skylark as if she could hear him: “You have to hang in there, okay? I know how alone you feel. We’ve been through so much, so just hang on ’cause I’m on my way —”

Bella tried to restrain him. “Just where do you think you’re going?” she asked as he headed for the door.

“I’m on to it,” Arnie answered. “Don’t you see? I know the way. I’ve been before. I know where she is. I’ll go through the portal and —”

Bella looked at him as if he was crazy. “Haven’t you forgotten something?”

“Don’t try to stop me, Auntie,”

“The portal doesn’t exist any more, even if it did, how could you fly with your shoulder like that!”

Arnie’s face paled. He slumped against the door. “The portal is closed? What’s wrong with my shoulder?” His face became dark with despair. “There’s got to be another way in. We can’t just leave her there.”

A long silence fell. Then Hoki gave a deep gasp.

“What is it?” Arnie asked.

“Actually, there is another entrance to the past,” she said. “And there is another way of getting back, another way of putting this right.”

Bella froze. She folded her arms. “I don’t want you to talk about it or even think about it,” she said.

Arnie’s hopes mounted. “What is this other way?”

“Through the ripped sky, of course,” Hoki answered. “The same way as the seabirds have taken to get back to the past.”

“I’ll go that way then,” Arnie said.

Hoki shook her head. “I know you really want to go, Nephew, but you can’t. You haven’t got a chance. And there’s another problem.” She slid away and went to the sitting room. When she returned she held in her hands the Great Book of Birds. She opened it at Revelations Chapter Four Verse Six:

“Verily, all that is written will come to pass. The battle of the birds will be fought again. And the outcome will hang in the balance, and many birds on both sides shall perish or be sorely wounded in the fight. Then will be heard the voice of the Hokioi and her flight across the sky —”

With a cry of fear, Bella pushed the book out of Hoki’s hands and it fell to the floor.

“Forget what the book says,” she yelled. “The option you’re considering just won’t work, Hoki, and you know it. I refuse to discuss it with you.”

“You can’t bury your head in the sand like an ostrich,” Hoki answered. “Skylark has to be rescued and there’s only one way to do it.”

“Would someone explain what you two are talking about?” Arnie interrupted. But Bella and Hoki were too busy arguing to hear him.

“If there was a ninety-nine per cent chance that Skylark was still alive, yes,” Bella said. “But it’s been almost two days since Arnie last saw her. If she wasn’t dead then, she must as sure as eggs be dead now.”

“Listen to me, Sister,” Hoki insisted. “As long as that one per cent chance remains, we have to risk it. And the best chance we have to rescue Skylark lies with the flight of the Hokioi.”

“The Hokioi?” Arnie asked. Thank goodness his two old aunties heard him this time.

“In the old days,” Hoki explained, “when the Lord Tane made the Great Forest, not all the birds left the Heavens to come down to the Earth. Some stayed in the upper reaches of the Sky. They became birds of immense supernatural and psychic power. You encountered one of them when thermals carried you too high.”

“The pouakai —”

“The giant ogre birds, like the pouakai or his cousin the poua, circumnavigate the world,” Bella cut in. “Some of them have sworn eternal vengeance against man for what he has done to the world. If hungry or enraged, they have the awesome power to devastate entire territories. They prey on man and devour him wherever he settles.”

“This doesn’t explain the Hokioi,” Arnie said, his patience wearing thin.

“I’m coming to that,” Hoki continued. “The realm of the supernatural birds can only be negotiated safely by supernatural birds themselves. Whoever goes through the ripped sky has to be one of these birds, one who is not only able to survive the perilous winds and currents of space, but also has the leave of the manu Atua, the God birds, to whom the Lord Tane entrusted this realm. The Hokioi is one of these birds sanctioned to travel through the upper sky realm. It was known as the Spirit Messenger of the Gods and of Immortal Life.”

Arnie’s face set with determination. “Then we have to find this bird.”

Hoki looked at Arnie as if he was dumb.

“You’re looking at her,” she said.

Darkness, rain and forked lightning.

On an island rolling through deep space, Skylark was busy trying to break free of her tether. She was chattering away, talking to herself, and it helped her because it made her feel as if she wasn’t so alone. Mind you, some of her dialogue was inane, but who else was around to hear her? “No pain without gain,” she said as she hopped the length of her tether, her sharp eyes looking for some weakness, some flaw. She found one: a spot where the tether was frayed and most thin, connected by seven strands loosely bound together. “Aha! When one door closes another opens.” Oh, if only she had that penknife! There had to be something else she could use. She found it: the sharp edge of a long curved beak, the remnant of some earlier meal enjoyed by the pouakai. “Waste not, want not,” she said.

At the same time Skylark noticed a small subsidence in the floor of the nest. She hopped over to investigate: Yes! Scraping away with her tiny feet she saw that with a little bit of work she might be able to squeeze through.

If I can’t go over the top or sides, I’ll go through the bottom, Skylark thought to herself, but first things first. She went back to the curved beak and looked at it intensely. “I know you belonged to a bird which didn’t escape the pouakai,” she said. “Please help me to do what your owner couldn’t.”

Skylark took the beak in hers and began to saw. “Time to get down and dirty,” she said. Her progress was agonisingly slow. She had no idea how long it took her to cut through one of the strands. “Six to go —”

An ear-splitting shriek interrupted her work. She yelped and ran for cover. From out of the darkness came the pouakai. “Fee fi fo fum,” Skylark said. “I’d forgotten how gigantic you were.” As the pouakai circled the nest, Skylark saw a clutch of wriggling blindworms in her claws and remembered the dark uppermost Heavens. “So that’s your happy hunting ground.”

With a dizzying swoop, the pouakai glided down to the nest. She flapped her wings, causing a swirling whirlwind, stalled and landed. Brought back to reality, Skylark managed to saw through another strand. Five strands left. But she was as firmly tied as ever.

The pouakai released the blindworms into the nest. She didn’t bother to tether them as she had done Skylark. After all, they had no wings and they were blind. The pouakai cocked her head and checked out Skylark. She gave a low growl and opened her beak menacingly — and her breath was absolutely foul. “You need to see an orthodontist immediately,” Skylark said. The pouakai gave a menacing cluck, hiss and rattle.

Close up, she was terrifying. Her face was massive. The eyes were black slits surrounded by red orbs, like a devil’s, and surmounted by triangular patches of white. She had large ear orifices. Her razor-like beak was conspicuously long and covered with horny plates; at its base were quill-like whiskers. All this was surmounted by a crest of three crimson horns.

“Pretty, aren’t you?” Skylark murmured.

The pouakai seemed to be sensitive to aspersions about her looks. She opened her beak and gave Skylark a closeup of her sharp teeth.

Take a look, little one.

Skylark backed away. “Okay, okay, I get the message,” she said. Satisfied, the pouakai began to preen herself, as if she had all the time in the world. No reason to hurry.

Around the pouakai’s throat was a collar of bright red feathers. Her plumage, black and bronze, looked like reptilian scales, shaggy, falling down and around her monstrous body to muscular hindquarters. The wings were awesome, spreading out like knives, black-tipped as daggers and diaphanous as a bat’s. Her legs and feet were heavy and powerful. When she moved her tail swished, long and tapered like a dinosaur’s.

“You’re an alien queen all right,” Skylark said, a hint of admiration and awe in her voice. “No doubt about it.”

Skylark’s attention was taken by the blindworms. They knew they were in deep trouble. There were twelve of them, shining, luminous, wriggling and wrapping themselves around each other, trying to be the one in the middle.

Dear oh dear oh dear, my sisters, what have we come to? Dear oh dear oh dear, my brothers, is there no way to escape our unhappy fate?

“No,” Skylark sighed. “We’re all in the same basket.”

The blindworms heard Skylark and came sliding over to her, sniffing her with their nostrils.

You’re not one of us! What are you?

“Another burger for chicken dinner,” Skylark answered. “Something nice, warm and tasty for the pouakai’s little kiddies.”

Is it that bad, stranger?

“Yes,” Skylark answered, “and it’s just about to get a lot worse.”

From the corners of her eyes, she had picked up a slight movement. The pouakai noticed the movement too. With a cry of joy, she waddled over to the three eggs, the nest creaking and quaking at her footfalls. She inclined her head, listened and purred.

From one egg after another came a faint peeping. The first egg developed a hairline crack as the chick inside jabbed at the shell and prised it open. Stretching and cracking noises followed, and the chick emerged, squealing, as it broke through the albumen and blood of its amniotic fluid. The second chick came too, a nightmarish vision of pink pulsing flesh through wet congealed down. With a scream, the third chick smashed open its shell and fell out, bawling, thrashing its feet and wings. Eyes not quite open. Ugly as.

The blindworms went crazy. They smelt and heard the chicks and knew their goose was cooked.

Something is hungry, sisters. Something is squealing for food, brothers.

Sniffing the air, the baby chicks advanced on the blindworms. Skylark watched them coming and, seeing that they were only interested in the very interesting white wriggling worms, sidled away into the shadows. As for the blindworms, they acted as if they were rabbits and a python was in the room. They simply gave up.

Ah well. Ho hum. Fiddle dee dee. What goes around comes around.

They knew they were done for.

Watching from the sideline, the pouakai gave a lightning swift downward kick and decapitated one of the blindworms. Its stomach and guts cascaded in a steaming heap before the three chicks.

Yes, babies, food.

The chicks pounced on the dead blindworm and demolished it. Horrified, Skylark pressed herself further into the dark. Was that how she would be eaten? Whimpering, she began to saw again at the tether. Another strand snapped. Four to go.

The three chicks were yelping and screaming at the mother pouakai.

More, Mummy, more.

The pouakai shook her head. Nonchalantly, she picked one of the other blindworms up and threw it at the feet of her chicks.

Get your own dinner, children.

The chicks scrambled after the blindworm. They gave it some tentative pecks.

Mmmn, yummy.

In a frenzy, the chicks shredded the worm to pieces. The nest became a butchery site. The chicks exploded into violence, hissing, spitting, crashing and fighting each other over the other blindworms. Very soon, another six blindworms were massacred. Then one of the chicks saw Skylark.

What have we here? Dessert?

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

Back in Manu Valley, day had ended and Mitch and Francis had gone to Tuapa for the night. Hoki knocked on the door to Bella’s room. Bella had stormed off in anger, refusing to even think about Hoki going back to rescue Skylark. When she opened the door she was grim-faced.

“I should never have told you what I heard from Cora,” Bella said. “It’s only given you and Arnie false hope. Look at you both: away with the fairies. There’s another way. I’ll go. I’m stronger than you —”

“But when you change,” Hoki answered, “you’ll only change into a bellbird. I’m the one who will become the Hokioi. I’m the one whose name is imprinted with the genetic code of the Hokioi. I’m the one who can fly in the upper Heavens. It looks like all my pigeons have come home to roost, ne? I cannot escape my destiny. It’s already written, Sister. You and I always knew this day might come.”

“Not like this, though,” Bella said. “Not with this crazy brainless foolishness you seem insistent on carrying out. Look at you. A cripple who has to use walking sticks to get around.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“You’re so hopeless, Hoki,” Bella continued. “When it comes to physical things, you haven’t a show! If you can’t walk without aid, how are you going to be able to fly!”

“I know what you’re saying, but —”

“You’ve never been able to do anything right. Sometimes I wonder whether you know which side is up.”

“You don’t have to rub it in.”

“You’re dead in the water even before you start. No, Sister. No. I won’t let you do it. No.”

From his bedroom Arnie heard the two women arguing. He got up to find out what was happening and was just in time to see Hoki walking out of the house followed by an irate Bella.

“Does everything I say always go in one ear and out the other?” Bella yelled.

Arnie went after them.

Outside, the sky was already turning red from the sunset. Hoki had paused at the back of the house where there was an old armchair under some apple trees. Arnie caught up with his aunties there.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Hoki had that look on her face. “Bella has been trying to persuade me not to go,” she said, “but I have no alternative. I’m going.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m leaving right now.”

“Now?” asked Bella, taken aback. She looked at Arnie as if it were all his fault.

“By my calculations, the pouakai’s island is due to come orbiting back towards our planetary system tonight. I need to be waiting for it when it is closest to earth. If I miss it, there won’t be another chance for Skylark. It’s now or never.”

“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you,” Bella said, compressing her lips. “Well, go then.”

“No word of love, Sister? No word of good wishes?”

“Why should I waste my time wishing you well,” Bella shouted, “when all the odds about Skylark being alive and your chance to get her and return are so slim? She can’t have lasted this long. You’re going on a fool’s errand —”

“I’m not giving up until I see Skylark’s body,” Hoki answered. “If you won’t give me your blessing, I’ll go without it. Goodbye, Sister.”

She began to walk towards the cliff path. Bella turned her back and folded her arms.

“Aren’t you going to see her off?” Arnie asked.

“And condone this madness? No.”

“Hoki will be all right, won’t she?” Arnie persisted. “She and Skylark will get back, won’t they?” Waiting was a torture to his loving heart.

His question went right to the crux of the matter. Bella began to shake with emotion.

“Although the Great Book of Birds prophecies this flight,” she wept, “it ends at the point where Hoki begins her journey. It doesn’t tell us what happens next —”

“That settles it! I’m going, not her. Damn it, I’ll take her place.”

Bella slapped him hard. The welt reddened his cheeks. “Wake up, Nephew,” she screamed. “Nobody should go back there! Not even Hoki.”

Hoki was halfway up the cliff face. All around her the sky was deepening into crimson.

“Oh, how’s she going to get on?” Bella wailed. “I’m the one who has always done the dangerous stuff. I’m the one with the legs. She’s always been the scaredy-cat. And her sense of direction is hopeless! Even when there are signposts she often takes the wrong turning. I tell her to go left and she turns right. Sister! Sister! Wait!” Bella and Arnie started to run. Up and up they raced. The sun was going down into the sea. The dusk chorus was beginning. They were going to be too late. “Sister,” Bella cried again.

Hoki was standing at the edge of the cliff. She was chanting an incantation.

“E nga manu Atua o Te Wao Nui o Tane

Homai ki ahau te mana, te ihi, te wehi

Oh God birds of the Great Forest of Tane,

give me your strength, your dread, your powers …”

At her words, the manu whenua responded with a frenzied song. It came strange and wild from the north, south, east and west. It seemed to swirl around Hoki like a whirlwind.

“Equip me with strong wings for my journey

fighting claws, a fierce beak, acknowledge me

Let the Hokioi’s voice be heard again in the skies

The Spirit Messenger of the Gods themselves …”

The whirlwind and the birds’ chorus reached a crescendo. Bella and Arnie put their hands to their ears. Far to the north Birdy clutched her heart with anticipation, knowing something profound was happening. In the east, Joe felt the wind begin to blow and realised that the time had indeed come for the flight of the Hokioi. Down in the south, an image came into Lottie’s head of an old woman ready to embark on her last journey.

“For the last time,” Bella wept, “please don’t go, Sister.”

The birdsong stopped. Just like that.

In the Manu Valley, nothing except the wind. The sunset blossomed red and glorious, like a benediction.

“You’re such a softy,” Hoki said to Bella. “I knew you would come to say goodbye.” She gave a brave smile. Leaned forward. Gulped at the sight of the valley far below. “It’s sure a long way down,” she said.

Before Bella and Arnie could stop her Hoki stepped over the cliff and was falling. The wind was flapping at her black gown. Her black scarf came loose and fluttered away like a ribbon. She was holding on to her walking sticks for dear life.

“She’s going to kill herself,” Arnie cried out, alarmed.

The ground was rushing forward. “Heeelp —” Hoki screamed.

“Oh my giddy aunt!” Bella sighed. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted. “Open your wings, you stupid idiot!”

Arnie saw Hoki spread her arms. And that’s when it happened. All that was falling was Hoki’s clothes, shoes, scarf and walking sticks. But where was Hoki? Arnie heard a screech of triumph, and flying out of the neck of Hoki’s black gown came a gorgeous dark bird. The bird whistled and sang and soared in the morning currents.

“Is that Hoki?” Arnie asked.

“Yes,” Bella said. “Can’t you recognise her?”

Sure enough, when Arnie took a closer look he saw that one of the bird’s legs was withered.

Hoki began to dive bomb her audience, whistling and giggling at every pass. “I could get used to this!” She came in for a landing on Bella’s right shoulder, stalled, made contact, almost slipped off but managed to steady herself on her good foot. She began to preen Bella’s hair.

“Hmmn,” Hoki said. “Guess who didn’t wash behind her ears this morning.”

Bella reached up to Hoki and enclosed her in both hands. She brought Hoki face to face so that they were looking at each other eye to eye.

“Oh what’s the use,” Bella sighed. “You always do exactly what you want to! Are you ready for your great journey, Sister?”

“Yes,” Hoki warbled.

Bella was weeping, rubbing her cheeks against Hoki. “I love you, Sister.”

“Stop crying or else I’ll get too waterlogged to fly,” Hoki said.

Bella smiled sadly. “Now there’s an idea.” She kissed Hoki on the beak, took a deep breath, opened her arms and, shouting to split the sky, launched Hoki into the air. “Go now.”

Hoki flew up to the ripped sky, stilled, waited for her moment, then went in — and vanished.

Yes, darlings, the mother pouakai said, pudding.

Cheeping, stumbling, cawing and slashing at each other, the pouakai’s three chicks advanced on Skylark. But they were hesitant, because unlike the blindworms this strange bait darted across to the other side of the nest. “You bite me,” Skylark threatened, “and I’ll bite you right back.” The baby chicks looked up at the mother pouakai, puzzled. She purred to them.

Food is like that, children. Sometimes you have to catch it on the wing.

Reassured, they started to hunt Skylark again. “Stay away from me you skinheads,” she said. The baby chicks were thrilled at the fun of it all, especially when the strange bait again leapt over their heads and flew out of their reach. And when the strange bait did it a third time, they chortled with glee. What a great game this was.

It wasn’t a game to Skylark. Whimpering, with heart pounding, she resumed sawing at the tether. Another strand gave way. Three left. But how much time did she have left? In desperation, Skylark looked up at the mother pouakai. “If I promise not to eat another Kentucky fried chicken,” she asked, “will you let me go?”

The pouakai roared with anger.

“I didn’t think you would,” Skylark said.

Skylark wiped at her tear-stained face with a wing. The baby chicks were right on top of her now, glaring down. One of them made a sharp jab with its beak and Skylark yelled in pain.

“Do that again and I’ll sock you in the eye,” she yelled. The pouakai pushed the chicks forward irritably.

Why are you afraid, babies? It’s just a little brown bird.

The chicks advanced once more. Skylark tried to get away. The tether would not stretch any further. “This is it,” Skylark said to herself. “Bye bye world. Goodbye Mum.” She closed her eyes tight. Who wants to see Death approaching? As she did so, however, she seemed to see Cora tossing and turning in her hospital bed. And what was Cora saying to her?

“Skylark O’Shea, you’ve forgotten everything I’ve told you, haven’t you! A girl should never leave home without a Broadway tune in her purse. A show tune is just the thing when you’re in a jam! Whenever that happens, sing, Skylark, sing.”

Sing? What a joke. Or shall I give it a try anyway? Skylark thought.

She cleared her throat, opened her beak and remembered some of Cora’s dreadful Broadway show music.

“The hills are alive with the sound of music,

With songs they have sung for a thousand years …”

The notes were like a string of pearls, cascading across the velvet sky.I didn’t realise you had such a terrific voice, Arnie had said. The notes shone, gleaming with lustre and loveliness, carrolling out of that terrifying desolate place. When you open out the throttle Skylark, you can really soar. But was it working? No. The chicks were on top of Skylark again, and this time there would be no stopping them.

But what was this? The mother pouakai began a throbbing growl. The song seemed to have penetrated into the dark maze of her brain, whizzing across the synapses and short-circuiting all the usual connections until it hit the pleasure centre in the left hemisphere. There, a small explosion sent warm signals back to the mother pouakai. Her eyes widened with joy, she swatted her chicks away and peered down at this surprising little bird. Swaying to the song, she opened her mouth:

Da heels ar aloiv wiv da sarn or moozeec …

The voice was like a trumpet, brazen and baritonal, and so powerful that it knocked Skylark backwards. What had happened? Some long-ago writer had said something about music having the power to soothe the savage beast. Was that what was happening?

Yup and yessirree. “Oh Mum, it worked,” Skylark sobbed, frantic with relief. Bewitched by the beauty of Skylark’s voice, the mother pouakai gathered her chicks to her and prodded Skylark with a wicked claw.

More! More!

“So you want a monster karaoke sing-along, do you?” Skylark asked. “Okay, you’ve got it.”

With that, she began going through her repertoire of show songs. From Sound of Music she went on to My Fair Lady. The chicks imitated their mother, bobbing their heads and swaying along with the words. It was weird. It was awful. Like the mother pouakai, they opened their throats, trying to imitate Skylark’s sounds. What came out was a cacophony of brays, yells, trills and howls.

“Orl oi wont ees a woom sumwear

far awoiy frum da coal noit ear …”

The mother pouakai gave a gasp, crowed with joy, decapitated one of the last remaining blindworms and fed it to the chicks.

Sweeties, aren’t you just clever little things?

Skylark took the opportunity to saw through the tether again. Only two more strands to go, and then a sudden dash for that hole in the nest, and —

She was exhausted, but she knew that if she stopped singing she was a goner. From My Fair Lady she went on to Oklahoma, thankful at last for her mother’s musical tastes. When the chips were down, Mum’s show songs were coming in handy after all.

Except that while Skylark knew the tunes, she didn’t know all the words. “Oh Mum, why didn’t I listen to you more closely when you were singing your songs? I promise you if I get out of this alive I’ll pay more attention and never laugh at you again.” Ah well, she’d just have to make up the lyrics.

Did the mother pouakai notice? A flicker of suspicion shone in her eyes, and she showed Skylark her fanged teeth.

Worse was to come. Skylark was ready to drop with fatigue and she was running out of tunes.

She had no choice but to repeat herself. The mother pouakai cuffed her sternly with her sharp claws — and, oh no, some of her high notes went sour, curdled and decidedly flat. The pouakai became very cross.

You’ll have to do better than that, dearie.

Quickly Skylark sawed through the last two strands of the tether. Just in time. The mother pouakai recognised “Do-re-mi”, and as everybody in the whole world knows, there are only so many repetitions of that song anybody can take. Ruthlessly and with glittering eyes, the pouakai nodded to her chicks.

Party’s over, babies. Go get her.

The chicks were ravenous. Hopping, snapping and half flying they rushed over to Skylark for the kill. With a cry, Skylark lunged out of their way. The tether snapped and she was free. The mother pouakai spread her wings to stop the little brown bird from gaining flight, and looked bewildered to find herself outwitted. Where had she gone?

There! Wriggling down through the floor of the nest.

I don’t think so, sweetheart.

The outraged pouakai started to demolish the nest. She elongated her neck, pulling the thatching of bones, mud and branches apart. At every beak thrust she got closer and closer to Skylark.

“Help!” Skylark cried. Screaming for her life, panting and crying, she burrowed further down. The thorns and protusions of the nest scratched at her, tearing her feathers and skin. But she kept on pushing deeper and deeper until she was falling out of the bottom of the nest. Seconds later, she hit a small outjutting ledge. The fall winded her but she managed to crawl into a small crack. Gasping for breath, she manoeuvred her-self inside. She heard the pouakai approaching. Maybe if she flattened herself against the wall, her protective colouration would save her from being seen.

No such luck. The pouakai’s very angry eye looked into the crack. Blinked.

Come out of there, you little bitch.

The pouakai’s wicked beak slashed back and forth, trying to winkle her out.

And Hoki was falling through a crimson sky.

Seizing the opportunity, a few seabirds sneaked through with her. As soon as they were on the other side, fierce revolving winds swept them down an elevator shaft to the world below. But Hoki was swept in another direction, into a part of the sky where water spouts were being created. The forces at work were cataclysmic, thunderous.

“I haven’t even got a pilot’s certificate, yet,” Hoki wailed.

The water spouts coiled and spiralled like liquid snakes across the sky. Every now and then, one would crash into another and a bigger water spout was formed from the collision. With alarm, Hoki saw two headed her way.

“Time to get out of here,” she yelled.

She snapped her wings close to her sides and plunged like a sky diver — she’d seen people doing it on television and hadn’t realised it was so much fun.

A few seconds later, all light disappeared. Hoki increased her wing surface, stabilised, and found herself approaching a gateway to a region of absolute and awful blackness. Her first test was about to begin.

“I am at the threshold of Te Kore, The Void,” she said to herself. “The place where all things began. The Great Abyss at the beginning of Time.”

The gateway was ebony. Carved spirals, black on black, covered the gateway with curvilinear petroglyphs. Hoki’s blood ran cold as she saw three awesome manu Atua, guardians of the gateway, coming to confront her.

Who are you, you who dares to trespass the highest Heavens? The three God birds were six storeys high, heavy bodied with contorted mask-like heads and three-digit hands and feet.

“I’m Hoki,” Hoki answered, scared as hell. “I’m fifty nine, my address is Post Office Box 2, Tuapa, my social security number is —”

The manu Atua computed Hoki’s response. Their faces swivelled towards her, examining her closely. Their paua eyes glowed with supernatural light, and Hoki knew that her answer wasn’t acceptable. But the God birds were forgiving.

The correct answer is that you are the Hokioi, the Spirit Messenger of the Gods. But we know you like to play tricks on us, favourite bird of Tane. Pass by.

“Sorry,” Hoki answered. “I won’t do it again.”

Bowing and scraping as she went through the gateway, Hoki dropped through Te Kore. How long her descent took her, she didn’t know. It could have taken a minute, a year, a thousand years, a million years. When you are negotiating a realm where there are no signposts to time or distance, Time itself ceases to exist. Hoki was so anxious to get to Skylark that even a minute of utter blackness was a minute too long.

Then Hoki saw a second gateway looming out of the darkness and knew that she had reached the threshold of Te Po, The Night. This time, the gateway was studded with geometric kowhaiwhai, abstract representations of the galaxies of the universe.

“Here we go again,” Hoki said as another three manu Atua came forward to mediate the threshold between one world and the next. They were glorious creatures of light. They had fabulous wings, webbed with astrological motifs — suns, moons, shooting stars — and, when they approached, Hoki was prepared.

“I am the Hokioi, the Spirit Messenger of the Gods,” Hoki intoned grandly. “By virtue of the powers vested in me, I bid you to let me pass.”

We know who you are, you who belongs to the Lord Tane, the three God birds answered, amused. But if you wish to pass by, even you must state the nature of your mission. Their voices contained the music of the spheres.

“The nature of my mission?” Hoki asked. “What is this? A quiz show? I am here to save Skylark. I haven’t got much time.”

The three manu Atua shimmered and scintillated, smiling among themselves. The Hokioi had always been short tempered. Then pass by, bird of the Lord Tane, you who determines the fate of all.

“Thank you,” Hoki answered. Goodness, this was worse than getting your eftpos number wrong at Big Save. She didn’t dare ask for Fly Buy points as she passed through the gateway.

And Hoki was dropping again, this time through Te Po. As she descended, she passed through the many gradations by which night became transformed into light. Aurora after aurora began to brighten the darkness until, with a triumphant flourish, the First Day dawned.

Again, Hoki didn’t know how long her descent was taking but she was really relieved when she saw the third gateway, standing on the horizon at the threshold of the dawn. After all, she hadn’t come for the view.

Hoki sent a prayer ahead of her. “Can you hear me, Skylark? I won’t be long now.”

The gateway was ablaze. It was golden, fiery, a living representation of Te Ra, the sun. Beyond it lay the twelve Heavens, Nga Rangi Tuhaha.

For the third time, Hoki sought permission from the manu Atua to pass. Their forms of pure light dazzled and blinded her.

“I am the Hokioi,” she said, “I am the bird of Tane, and I seek permission to cross your threshold on a matter of life or death.”

The three God birds blossomed with fiery sunspots and eruptions of flames. They seemed to be taking an agonisingly long time to consider Hoki’s request.

You speak truly, Spirit Messenger of the Gods, they said, finally, and their words were sad and inevitable. Whose life is to be saved?

Hoki’s mouth was dry. “The life of my niece,” she said.

The manu Atua twirled in a kaleidoscope of blazing, molten beauty.

And who will pay the price?

Hoki bowed her head. “I will.” There was nothing else to say, really. “Can I be on my way now?”

The God birds sighed with sadness. Yes, pass by, bird of the Lord Tane, and fulfil your destiny.

With gladness, Hoki soared through the gateway and sought a swift river of air that would take her south. Once in midstream, she searched ahead for her bearings. Oh, the sky was such a huge place with so many Heavens to it and so many unfamiliar constellations. But fate was on her side and guided her wings to a point where winds met, clashed and created huge turbulence. All of a sudden, elevator winds took her upward and she found herself in the realm of blindworms. She saw glowing eyes and spectral creepy-crawly shapes pressing in on her.

“Advance on me no further,” Hoki ordered. “I am the Hokioi —”

The bird of infrequent flight? We have not seen you, oh queen, not for a timeless Time. Let her pass, brothers. Let her go, sisters.

“Thank you,” Hoki said. All she wanted to do was get out of there. But then she heard one of the blindworms complain:

Boy, there’s sure been a lot of traffic coming through our skies lately.

Traffic?

Immediately Hoki put on the brakes. “What do you mean by that?”

Two birds have recently passed our way, the blindworm said. One of them was caught by the pouakai.

Hoki tried to still her thudding heart. “Is she still alive?”

Who knows? The pouakai herself has harvested our skies and taken some of our brothers to feed her chicks. The eggs have already hatched.

“Oh no,” Hoki answered. “I’d better get my skates on.”

She went absolutely vertical, hurtling downward through the blackness. What was a little vertigo when there was a matter of life or death to deal with? It seemed a thousand years went past before she emerged again into the light. But this time she knew she had made it.

“I’m here! I have reached the paepae o te Rangi,” she said. “I am at the edge of our universe.”

Before her eyes she saw the magnificence of the Earth’s planetary system, a place centred by a radiant sun and circled by familiar planets. She recognised Venus, Vega, Antares, Canopus and Orion’s Belt. Third planet out she saw the Earth, a beautiful green and blue orb with a circling moon. As the Earth revolved, she saw the sparkling corona called the Southern Cross.

Heart beating fast, Hoki dived for the Southern Cross. She was going so fast that she looked like a comet streaking through the stratosphere. When she arrived she stilled, staring squarely and intently deep into space. She was at the right coordinates, in the right quadrant.

“But have I come too late?” she agonised.

No. There was a rumble. A roar. From out of the menacing sea of the universe, where things go bump in the night, the volcanic island appeared, making its regular rotation from the dark side of the sun.

“Here we go.” Hoki beat her wings faster and faster. They blurred as she reached the same speed as the rotational circling of the volcanic island. As the island passed by, she hitched a ride. The centrifugal forces did the rest, pulling her in and then spitting her out.

Right below her was the pouakai’s nest. Three chicks were in it.

But where was the mother pouakai? There, at the base of the nest. It was trying to get at a tiny bird huddled in a small crack in the rocks. Hoki widened her irises and her long-range vision clicked in. The tiny bird was fighting back.

Skylark.

Hoki didn’t even take time to think. She opened her mouth and a tremendous screeching cry came from it.

“I am the Hokioi —”

Skylark had almost given up when the screeching cry split the heavens apart. Surprised, the pouakai, pulled her beak away.

Flying down through space, coming straight at her was a strange bird. The pouakai had never seen anything like it. But as soon as Skylark spotted the way the bird trailed its legs, as if it was lame, she knew it was Hoki. “Oh Hoki —”

Hoki flew around the pouakai’s head, trying to entice it away. But the pouakai was undeterred — it had the raptor’s advantage of size and strength, after all, so it bent again to rooting out its prey.

“Are you deaf?” Hoki screamed. “Did you not hear my name? I am the Spirit Messenger of the Gods.”

The pouakai roared in response.

Then go about delivering your messages. You have no business here.

“Oh no?” Hoki answered. “Watch this space.”

She flew up to the pouakai’s nest and disappeared over the rim. When she reappeared, she had one of the squawking chicks in her claws. Furious, the pouakai half scrambled, half flew towards her. Calmly, Hoki reversed out of the way. She and the pouakai eyeballed each other. The pouakai rattled and hissed.

Don’t even think of harming my child.

“You took one of mine,” Hoki said, “so I am taking one of yours. Don’t like it do you?” She indicated Skylark. “You wanna do a trade? Then back up. Back up, I say!”

The pouakai understood the deal and nodded.

Hoki turned to Skylark. “What are you like at the sprints, the hundred-yard dash?”

“Hopeless. Me and school sports never worked out.”

“Well, hitch up your skirts, girl,” Hoki said, “because I’m going to persuade the pouakai to follow me. I’ll use her chick to lure her as far away as I can from you. While I’m doing this, I want you to to fly as fast as you can to the place where the sky hangs down to the horizon. That is where the ripped sky is, at the paepae o te Rangi. We’re going out the way the seabirds came in.”

The plan confirmed, Hoki continued her reversing movement, the pouakai’s chick in her claws. The pouakai followed her. Across the sky they went, feinting, attacking, fending like boxers. The pouakai roared and hissed with anger, but Hoki kept her cool. From the corner of her left eye she saw a black hole forming. It began to swell, then widened below her, an inverted cone leading into infinity.

“Go, Skylark!” Weak and exhausted, Skylark crawled out of the crack in the volcano and began to fly in the direction of the ripped sky. Seeing this, the pouakai could not retain her rage.

We had an arrangement. Honour it now.

“Okay,” Hoki shrugged. She dropped the chick into the black hole. Screaming, the pouakai went after it, trying to save it before it disappeared forever.

My baby.

“That’ll keep her busy,” Hoki said. She tensed, wheeled and used a turbo-boost of speed to catch up with Skylark.

“I’d almost given up hope,” Skylark wept. She had crossed almost halfway to the ripped sky.

“You didn’t think I’d leave you out here all alone in the dark, did you? Hush, Skylark dear, don’t you cry. Switch your booster rockets on and let’s high tail it out of here.”

All of a sudden, Hoki heard a distant roar. The mother pouakai had rescued her chick and was placing it back into the nest.

“Don’t worry about her,” Hoki said. “She won’t be able to catch us up now.”

Oh yeah?

The pouakai had an ace up her sleeve. She did a curious thing. As the volcanic island revolved, she revolved with it, like a satellite orbiting the Earth.

“The pouakai is using the speed of the revolving island as a slingshot,” Hoki said, alarmed. “Once she reaches escape velocity, she’ll be able to catch us up.”

Sure enough, there was a series of loud reports as the pouakai broke free of the island and began to accelerate after them. So fast was her flight that she closed in very quickly on Skylark and Hoki. Her talons were braced for deadly duty.

Coming ready or not.

“Just keep on my left wing, Skylark,” Hoki yelled. “Conserve your strength. Glide along in my wake. Cruise in my slipstream. We’re almost there.”

Skylark was whimpering. Ahead was the vertical wind shaft leading to the ripped sky, so tantalisingly near. But the pouakai was crashing through the stars, roaring through meteor showers like a train, getting closer and closer.

Hoki took a gamble. Calibrated the distance. Stalled and sideslipped.

“What are you doing?” Skylark shouted as Hoki fell behind.

“Don’t worry about me. It’s you the pouakai’s after!”

Hoki was right. The pouakai wasn’t about to hunt another supernatural bird. It went for the easier catch. Ignoring Hoki, it grabbed for Skylark. Extended its neck. Snapped its jaws. Missed. Roared with rage as its quarry made it up the wind shaft.

I’m coming to get you.

That’s when Hoki made her move. “Not if I have anything to do with it,” she said. She knew she was no body match for the heavier bird, but as the pouakai went past her she threw all her strength into a powerful side thrust. “Yeeargh!” Body-slammed the bugger. Saw the pouakai’s look as it was pushed off course. Went for the slam dunk.

“Hhhuuuuhhh!” Excreted a stream of splashing and blinding shit into the pouakai’s eye.

Having bought valuable seconds before the pouakai could recover, Hoki sped up the wind shaft after Skylark. Not far above them was the jagged edge of the ripped sky.

“We’re going to make it!” Skylark cried.

But lumbering behind them came the pouakai.

“Go through,” Hoki shouted.

And Skylark fell through the ripped sky.

There was a crack as she did so. It scared the living daylights out of Bella. She fell against Arnie, who grabbed Francis and Mitch to keep his balance.

“What the heck is that —”

Mitch’s shotgun went boom, the bullet whizzing through the air, causing further confusion among the seabirds still trying to get in. To make things more puzzling, a little bird was trying to get out. When Arnie saw the bird coming through the rip, his heart leapt. But she was out of control, rolling over and over, trying to stabilise herself.

“Skylark, oh, Skylark —”

She was going too fast, in danger of going over the cliff. Arnie leapt for her and caught her. Skylark felt his warm hands around her. Saw the bright sunlight. Everything was a kaleidoscope of sky, sea and Manu Valley.

“Arnie —”

Dazed, Skylark looked up and into his eyes. Then the whole world began to whirl around.

“Put her on the ground,” Bella told Arnie. “Quickly!”

With awe, Bella, Arnie, Mitch and Francis watched as Skylark changed slowly back into her human form. Mitch and Francis stared open-mouthed at her transformation.

Skylark looked up at the ripped sky. “Where’s Hoki? She was right behind me.”

The sky bulged and the huge head of the mother pouakai came through the rip, blinked and looked around, surprised. She tried to push her way through.

What have we here?

“Holy smoke!” Mitch shouted.

Arnie’s wits were about him. He let the pouakai have it with both barrels. “Take that, you cyborg freak.”

Roaring with pain, the pouakai fell back through the rip. As she did so, she chomped on some of the seabirds and pulled them with her.

Bella shivered with anxiety. Where was Hoki? She closed her eyes. An image came to her of a small crippled bird buffeted by the currents of Time, trying to get the pouakai’s attention, trying to coax it away from the ripped sky.

“Here kitty kitty kitty,” Hoki called. “Come to Mama.”

The pouakai tried to clear her eyes. Tiny pellets of shot had lodged there like grit. When she saw Hoki she gave a snort of irritation.

Get a life.

After all, the pouakai had found a new paradise, a great new hunting ground. Lots of new food for its chicks. It tried to clamber back through, presenting Hoki with the unseemly sight of its posterior.

“What’s a girl to do?” Hoki asked herself. With a grimace of distaste — Hoki had always been fastidious — she closed her eyes, hoped that her tetanus shot would protect her, and bit the pouakai on the bum.

That did the trick. The pouakai fell back again, lost its balance and began to twist out of control down through the wind shaft. Roaring with rage, it locked on to Hoki and pulled her down with it.

Helplessly caught in the pouakai’s claws, Hoki didn’t have a chance to free herself until they had reached the lip of the universe. And was the mother pouakai angry? Was she what! Staggering in the air, fierce eyed, she looked at Hoki:

Whoever or whatever you are, I don’t give a shit. This time you’ve really pissed me off.

The pouakai attacked. Hoki sideslipped and followed with a sudden upswing and a hover.

“You want to mess with me?” Hoki asked, facing off. “Even on your best day you’re not as good as I am on my worst.”

Wings back-paddling, Hoki turned at right angles and beat across the universe, striking out for the higher thermals.

“I’ve got to keep in front of her,” she said to herself.

She dropped into a jetstream. Smaller and lighter, Hoki set a cracking pace with a fast deep-pumping wingbeat. Her short wings and long tail configuration, designed for speed and manoeuvrability, allowed her to keep just a little ahead of the pouakai, but it took all of her effort. The pouakai made a bone-cracking lunge, and managed to flick at her. The motion was devastating, and Hoki began to tumble out of control.

Is that your highest speed? the pouakai asked scornfully.

Luck was running out for Hoki. The pouakai closed on her, menacing, positioning itself for the kill. Hoki looked desperately for a way out. But she was in a No Exit street.

“Ah well, I’ve had a good life,” Hoki said. Far below was the green and blue orb of earth. “But I’m definitely not going to die out here in the universe,” she continued. “If I have to go, let it be in the embrace of Papatuanuku, the mother of us all.” Defiant to the last, she yelled at the pouakai. “If you want me so bad, then damn well come and get me.”

Proudly, Hoki tipped, felt the G-forces and let them pull her down. The speedometer went into the red. Reaching 200 kilometres an hour, she dived through the space. The pouakai dived after her. As for Hoki, she had decided that if she had to go, she’d make sure everybody knew about it.

“Hokiiii-oiii! Hokiii-oiii!”

She hurtled across the Heavens. She was the Bird of Destiny. She was the Bird of Fate. She hit the Earth’s stratosphere and her feathers warmed up and burst into flames. Behind her, the same thing was happening to the pouakai. From Earth, they looked like two meteors flaming across the sky, one small, the other large — and gaining.

“Hokiii-oiii! Hokiii-oiii!”

Below, the manu whenua heard the call of the Hokioi. They gathered around Te Arikinui Kotuku, Chieftain Kahu and all the birds of the paepae.

“Remember this day,” Kotuku said with awe. “On this day, after our second war with the seabirds, remember that you saw the Hokioi.”

The pouakai opened its jaws. It extended its neck. Hoki felt its hot and fetid breath. She waited for the pouakai’s beak to make its quick jab, slide through the intersection of bone and skull and impale her brains.

“Oh Lord Tane,” Hoki cried. “I offer my spirit up unto you. All I have ever wanted to do was to serve you in life and unto death. Receive me —”

In her last moments, Hoki thought of Skylark. She also thought of Bella, and wondered how her sister would get on without her.

“Goodbye, Sister.”

But something extraordinary happened. From everywhere in the upper sky came the manu Atua, the supernatural ones of the bird kingdom, God birds of indescribable magnificence. Some of them looked like immense flying dragons. Others like darkly gleaming bats with pearl-veined wings. Some were heavy-bodied, grotesque with mask-like heads and three-digit hands and feet. Others were beings of pure light, of such surpassing beauty, that they took Hoki’s breath away. As they hovered, they wove a screen of incredible brilliance around Hoki so that the pouakai could not get through to her.

But she is mine, the pouakai roared.

The manu Atua stilled, held court, made a collective decision. The pouakai waited for the affirmative. The manu Atua uttered judgement.

Foolish, arrogant pouakai, they said. This one is yours, you say?

The pouakai knew she was lost.

No, of all the Lord Tane’s creatures, this one above all others is his.

The manu Atua swirled in a gigantic carousel, faster and faster, individual birds blurring into one gigantic phoenix. Their wings touched. Lightning crackled, and a skein of death wove around the pouakai. She began to shudder and scream. The electric bolts pierced her carapace, sheeting and sizzling through every vein, reaching to her heart. A sudden discharge, and the pouakai exploded.

For a moment there was silence. Hoki dared not move. Dared not look up on the faces of the manu Atua. When the voices began to speak to her, she nodded in assent.

And now, you, bird of Tane, will you pay the price?

“No!”

On the other side of the sky, Bella heard the voices of the manu Atua. Then she saw Hoki in her mind’s eye. Sometimes Hoki was a bird with wings, sometimes an old woman stabilising herself on her walking sticks.

“Bella? Sister? Can you hear me?” Hoki’s voice whistled in Bella’s mind.

“Yes. And I can see you, Hoki.”

Hoki was hastening across the sky and up the wind shaft. “The manu Atua have agreed that the Great Division may stand. I have to close the ripped sky so that never again will it be challenged.”

“You know what this will mean?” Bella cried. Her voice was like a whirlwind screaming along the corridor of past and present.

“Yes,” Hoki said. “It’s the price, and the time has come to pay it.”

“I won’t let you,” Bella yelled.

At that moment Hoki herself appeared, darting through the ripped sky and fluttering over Bella’s head.

“Please don’t make this difficult for me,” she whistled.

Bella’s face began to stream with tears.

“Why are you crying?” Skylark asked, afraid.

“Hoki has to do her job,” Bella said. “She has to close the sky.”

Arnie, Mitch and Francis gathered around.

“So what’s the problem?” Skylark asked.

“She has to do it from the inside.”

And Hoki flew back to the ripped sky. She became a bird of blinding light and awesome beauty. Suddenly she extended her wings. Her feathered pinions struck at the top right and left edges of the rip. Flames burst out where the pinions had pierced through, soldering the bird firmly so that she could not move. At each strike Hoki arched her neck and crooned with pain.

“Sister —” Bella sobbed.

Hoki closed her eyes. Her head drooped with the exertion. Then she opened her eyes and smiled at Bella. “You know I have to do this. Maybe I’m not so hopeless, after all.”

She cried out again, a scream of anger, and she was an old woman balancing on her walking sticks in the middle of the air, trying to grab the edges of the sky with both hands. She took three deep breaths and, when she cried out again, she was a dazzling bird, pulsing with energy.

The bird began to move its wings, backwards and forwards, faster and faster. The valley filled with light and the roar of the wind. The air blurred.

With a roar, Hoki nailed it.

She began to pull the ripped sky together.

“What on earth was that!” Flora Cornish asked.

She heard a roar and ran outside the diner to see what was causing the commotion. She shaded her eyes and looked up in the direction of the noise. Some Korean sailors from the massage parlour joined her, and cowered in fright.

“It looks like something’s happening up at Manu Valley,” Lucas said. The noise had brought him out of his garage. He saw smoke and a mushroom cloud of dust hurtling into the air. “Maybe one of the road gangs is using some explosives to clear the bush.”

At Tuapa College, Ron Malcolm felt the ground tremble. Fearing an earthquake, he yelled out to his class, “Get under your desks!” The students screamed, but when there wasn’t a second shockwave they calmed down. “Sir, look —”

Ron saw a crack in the sky. He gasped in astonishment. How could that be? Then a bright light poured like molten silver into the rip. In that moment Ron thought he saw something incredible — an old woman, pulling at the sky with her hands. For a moment she seemed to falter in her task. Then, with another agonised cry, she flexed her feet, became incandescent, and pulled the seams together. The sky joined together with a roar.

Down in the main street, Flora Cornish shook her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them she knew she had been dreaming. This was Tuapa, as sleepy as ever. There above Manu Valley was the sky, as seamless as ever. Yet, when she blinked again the ripped sky stayed printed on her retina. And she knew she had heard somebody screaming and seen somebody dying. Her thoughts went to Hoki.

More people came out onto the street. They stood reassuring themselves for a few minutes. Old Mrs Barber said she had just put her washing on the line and was glad a thunderstorm wasn’t on its way. Harry Summers said that it must have been a freak local weather event, which he blamed on global warming. Lucas said he’d take the truck up the valley later to find out what it was.

The sun was hot and the sky was clear and it was good to have a bit of a chinwag. Suddenly, a strong hurricane-like wind began to blow from the Manu Valley. The air was filled with an unearthly silence.

The sun went out.

From the main road, the townspeople saw them coming. Seabirds were beating out of Manu Valley, retreating back to the sea.

Tears were streaming down Bella’s face. She looked up at Hoki. “I don’t want you to go, Sister. I don’t want you to do this. There must be another way.”

“No there isn’t. The sky must be closed forever.”

“Come through the sky,” Bella pleaded. “Let’s try to figure out how we can close it from the outside.”

“You know that can’t be done.”

“I’m giving you an order,” Bella yelled. “You just do as I say!”

“Please, Bella,” Hoki begged her. “You know I don’t want to leave you. But there’s no other way.” She began to weep. She had joined the sky with her wings but the seams at her feet were still opened. “Sister. Help me. My feet have no strength to pull the sky closed.”

Skylark and Arnie were hugging each other. “Don’t go, Auntie Hoki,” Arnie cried.

But Mitch and Francis knew this was the way it had to be. Mitch began a wild haka:

“Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora ka ora

It is death, it is death, it is life, it is life …”

That’s when Bella stepped forward. She took Hoki’s right foot and positioned it. Then she took Hoki’s withered left foot, kissed it, and put it into the sky’s left overlap.

Sighing to herself, Bella nodded. “Finish your job, Sister.”

With a hiss, Hoki struck at the right bottom seam. With another cry she struck again at the left bottom seam, her withered claw welding into the sky.

Shouting with rage, Hoki began to pull the bottom part of the rip together with her feet.

“Move, damn you,” she cried.

In her death throes she pulled the seams together.

The sky joined with a roar.

Chapter Fifteen

A week later.

In the bright summer sunlight, Tuapa looked the way it had always been. Flora Cornish opened her diner, as always, at five in the morning. Fishermen came in for a hot breakfast at six before heading for the harbour and setting out to sea. Around seven, the girls from the massage parlour ended their night shift and headed home to hit the sack. Lucas came roaring through the main street half an hour later to open his garage. Right on eight, Ron Malcolm clocked in at Tuapa College. The buses bringing rural students to school started to arrive at eight-thirty. Over at the medical centre, Dr Goodwin had started his morning rounds. Nothing about the tranquil scene would have suggested that anything out of the ordinary happened there. Nothing, that is, except for the splash of media excitement when Cora Edwards had fallen from the stage in Bye Bye Birdie. For one brief moment, Tuapa had its five minutes of fame. Now, it was back to normal.

Skylark snapped Cora’s big suitcase shut.

“How are you doing, Mum?” she asked.

Cora was in her usual muddled state. She sat in the middle of Bella and Hoki’s bach, trying to pack the other suitcase. She was taking back more clothes, personal toiletries and shoes than she had brought with her. Not only that but there were all the telegrams, letters and gifts received from fans and well-wishers.

“Why do you need them all?” Skylark sighed.

“Honey, I just can’t leave all these signs of affection behind. I have to answer every letter personally and, after all, they prove my fans still love me and that I am still a star. Just wait till my agent Harold gets a load of all of this. He’ll be on to South Pacific Pictures and I’ll be back at the top.”

Skylark smiled to herself. It was just great to see her mother on the way to recovery. Of course there was a long way to go, but Dr Goodwin had organised Cora to be admitted to a programme of drug rehabilitation when she returned to Auckland. It had also been good for Cora to have had her summer romance with Lucas. Now that she was leaving, however, he had realised that a bird in the hand was better than one who was flying away and had made up with Melissa.

“I’ll tell Bella you’re ready to go,” Skylark said.

“But I need you to help me!”

“No, Mum,” Skylark answered. “From now on, you must help yourself.”

She left the bach and knocked on the door of the homestead.

“Is anybody home?” Skylark called. When there was no answer, she walked in.

The house was quiet, shadowed. Once upon a time two sisters had grown up and lived in it; now only one sister lived there. The physical impact of the loss could be seen everywhere. Hoki had always been the one to keep the house tidy. Now, dishes were piled in the sink. Clothes were waiting to be washed. The sitting room was a mess. And Bella was drinking like a fish. Vodka bottles, gin bottles, beer bottles and whisky bottles were everywhere.

One room, Bella’s bedroom, however, was perfect: the bed was made up; everything was in place on the top of the bedside vanity. And why? Ever since Hoki’s death, Bella had taken to sleeping in her sister’s room, pulling the sheets and blankets around her as if that would help her get over her grieving.

Through the window, Skylark saw Bella silhouetted against the sky at the top of the cliff. She walked out into the sunlight and up the cliff path. Bella was looking out across Manu Valley to the sea. The forest was mysterious, shining with beauty. Far away, the sea was like a sparkling emerald.

Skylark took Bella’s right hand and kissed it. The old lady pulled her into an embrace. She reeked of alcohol.

“So I was the one after all,” Skylark began. “But why did Hoki have to die for me?”

“She did it gladly,” said Bella. “For you, me, everybody, the landbirds. She did it to keep the order of things.” She was trying to focus with her eyes. “Did you know I didn’t want her to go to rescue you?” she asked, slurring her words. “I thought that surely you must already be dead. But Hoki has always been so stubborn.” Bella let out a bellow of raucous laughter. “She knew it was her job, her responsibility. After all, you were her mokopuna. How could she leave you there! My sister Hoki had a long and wonderful life. Yours is just beginning.”

Skylark saw a seashag and, for a moment, felt a clutch of terror.

“Is it all over now?”

“Better be!” Bella laughed again. She swayed, made some drunken steps to the cliff edge and raised her fist to the world. “But the manu whenua face an even greater threat today than the seabirds ever posed. It comes from men now, you bloody buggers!” Bella pointed in the direction of the logging trucks. “I had another fight with the road builders today. Those beggars, they take liberties with us. They don’t only want what’s theirs. They want what’s ours too. Greedy. Like the seabirds, they eat everything up. When will it stop? Someone has to be around to tell them to stop. Me and Hoki may have been just a couple of crazy ladies to them, I know, but at least we drew the line. Someone always has to be here to draw the line. And the line, Skylark must be drawn at the valleys that are left to us. Someone has to keep the boundaries in place. Someone has to say no to the bulldozers. Someone has to drive them back to the sea. Someone has to say no to the pollution. Someone has to say yes to the Earth and the people of the Earth.”

Bella raised a defiant fist in the air. “I may be drunk,” she said, “but I’m not down for the count. The line will always be drawn here, Skylark. At Manu Valley.”

Then it was time to leave.

Skylark was wearing one of her favourite badges: Please Leave Me A Green And Peaceful Planet.

Bella had recovered somewhat from her drunken state and, shamefacedly, had put herself together to say goodbye to Cora. “Where the heck is that nephew of mine!” she scolded. “He knows you’re going north today.”

Skylark coloured. At first, on her return from the other side of the sky, things had been really good between her and Arnie. But, after a few days, he’d stopped coming up to Manu Valley to see her. He seemed embarrassed and withdrawn, offering excuses about how he was busy at the garage, as if he couldn’t get away quickly enough.

Well, Skylark thought, if he won’t come to me, I’ll go to him. “I’ll stop by the garage on the way out.”

Bella hugged Cora. “Your daughter, Skylark, she’s a wonderful girl.”

“She’s always been a good girl. I don’t know why she puts up with me.”

“You’re her mother. The only one she’s got.”

“Yes, well, some people don’t know when to give up, do they.”

“Will you be all right back up north by yourself?”

Cora gave Skylark a rueful look. “I guess I’ll have to be.” With that, Cora stepped into the ute.

Skylark drove down Manu Valley, and they were soon in Tuapa. She stopped outside Flora Cornish’s diner.

“I won’t be long,” Skylark said to Cora. “Why don’t you go and have a cup of coffee.”

If there was a problem with Arnie, Skylark wanted to have it out with nobody around. Her heart was beating nervously as she approached the garage. What if he wasn’t there?

He was. When he saw Skylark, his face fell. “So you’re on your way then.”

“Yes.”

“Well, thanks for coming around.”

Skylark wasn’t going to let him get away as easily as that. “Arnie, what’s wrong with you? I could never have done it without you. I thought I could, but I was wrong. You got me around the country, up to Parengarenga, down to Tauranga and across to Nelson. You came with me through the portal and I don’t know how I would have got on when I had to tell the Runanga a Manu about the seabirds. If you hadn’t been my warrior —”

Arnie had a spanner in his hand. At Skylark’s words he threw it across the garage. It clanged against the breakdown truck. He turned to face her and there were tears in his eyes. “Please don’t do this to me, Skylark. Please, just go, will you? I let you down. I mean, I was the one who left you there. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Skylark stared at Arnie. “Is that what all your silence is about?”

“Don’t you understand? I was supposed to look after you and I didn’t do my job. When we were flying in the upper Heavens, I lost it, and I went running across the sky, and that’s when the pouakai saw me. And you saved me. You! Some sidekick I turned out to be. Some intrepid hero —”

Skylark felt herself going numb. She didn’t know what to do. “Well, that’s that,” she said quietly. Then she put out her hand. “Would you like to give me the keys to your wagon?” she asked. “We left it at Wellington airport, remember?”

“My keys? What for?”

“Didn’t Mum tell you? I’m taking her across on the ferry as far as Wellington. While I’m there I thought I’d pick up your wagon and drive it back. That is, if you don’t mind. If you do, I’ll just catch a bus back.”

“You’re coming back? You’re not going away for good?”

“I thought you knew,” Skylark answered. “Didn’t Mum tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“You can’t trust her to do anything properly,” Skylark said crossly. “I told her she’s on her own now. I’ve got my own life to get on with. Do you remember what Lottie said? There are some things that you have no choice about. When Bella goes, who will look after Manu Valley? It’s going to have to be me. And you know what?” Skylark’s heart was beating fast.

“What?” Arnie asked.

Boy, he wasn’t making this easier. “After all we’d been through,” Skylark continued, “I was kind of hoping that —” She took a deep breath. How could she get it through his thick head! Then she thought she heard Te Arikinui Kotuku’s voice: This would be a good time to pretend, Skylark. Rolling her eyes with irritation, Skylark struck a pose and said in a girly voice:

“Arnie! Save me, save me, I’m so helpless!”

Arnie couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. “What did you say? I didn’t hear you!”

Skylark put her hands on her hips and wagged a finger at him. “You heard me. I’m not saying it again.”

“So is this the part where the hero gets the heroine?” Arnie asked. He strode over to her and took her in his arms.

“When who gets what?” Skylark was still trying to get over the shock of Arnie’s arms around her.

“Oops, I’ll rephrase that. When the heroine is lucky enough to get the hero?” He pulled her in to him. Tighter. Tighter.

“That’s better. Maybe.” Hmm. Arnie felt more muscly as a boy than as a bird.

“Good, that means we can — uh —”

“Uh? Can what?” Arnie’s eyes were confusing her, but Skylark wasn’t about to give up everything.

“You can kiss me, and now that we’ve destroyed the evil avian empire, we can ride off into the sunset.”

Skylark pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t push my luck if I was you,” she said.

Three days later, Bella awoke at 3 a.m. The curtains were billowing across her face like gossamer in the darkness. She knew something wonderful was going to happen.

She had been coming home in the afternoons to find berries on the floor and window sills. One night she dreamt of fluttering wings and feathers caressing her cheek.

“Uh oh,” Bella said. “Time to stop drinking and destroy the evidence.”

Over the following days, Bella tidied all the rooms, swept the floors, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen and washed the clothes. Most important of all, she made two trips to the dump to get rid of the vodka bottles. She bought some household deodorant and went around spraying it so that not one hint of alcohol lingered.

The seventh day.

Two in the morning. Bella couldn’t sleep. She put on her dressing gown, said her usual morning prayers, went down the hallway and looked accusingly at the kitchen. Hoki had always been the first to rise, make the breakfast and to call, “Sister? It’s time to get up.” Bella missed hearing her thump down to the kitchen on her walking sticks, thump, thump, thump.

Her eyes glistened at the memory. The house was so silent now.

Bella made a cup of tea and took it back to the bedroom. She was just about to get back into bed when she saw something strange lying on her pillow.

A feather.

Bella gave a gasp. She looked around the room. Went to the open window and looked out. She thought she saw a shape flitting its way up from the house, along the pathway to the clifftop.

“This is it,” Bella said. “The time has come.”

Heart beating fast, she pulled the quilt over her shoulders, shuffled her feet into her slippers until her big toes stuck out the holes in the front, and walked through the house and out the door.

The stars were sparkling like the eyes of Heaven. The moon was a crescent of beauty. The valley was rustling and sighing with the wind, alive and free from the caprice of man.

“Is anybody out here?” Bella called.

The wind was cold as she left the house and walked up the cliff path. She thought she heard someone chuckling, but realised it was only the distant sound of the waterfall. When she got to the halfway point where the old bench was, she sat down to rest. There, she saw another feather.

With a smile, Bella picked it up and continued up to the cliff top. She looked up at the night sky, and understood the enormity of the universe. She felt even lonelier, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

How long she slept, Bella never knew. It must have been at least an hour because her bones felt stiff. But she was woken by something falling on her head. At first she thought it was a twig; then she felt something else go plop and bounce off her hair.

Bella kept her eyes closed, not daring to hope. She could hear warbling and whistling in the air above her. When she could resist it no longer, she opened her eyes to see that the ground all around her was covered with berries.

“Are you awake now?” a voice said. “I’ve been using you for target practice for ages. You can sure sleep, Sister.”

Bella’s heart was really pounding now, and she had to take a deep breath to regain her composure. “So you’ve finally decided to come home, have you?” she asked.

“Yes,” the voice said. “I thought I’d better see how you were doing without me.”

“I knew it was you. Berries on the kitchen floor. Bird droppings all over the house.”

“Now there’s a thought.”

With that, there was a soft whirring of wings as a dark-plumaged bird flew out of the crimsoning sky and tried to settle on Bella’s head.

“Ouch!” Bella exclaimed.

“Oops,” Hoki said. “I’m still trying to get the hang of this.”

“So I can see.”

“My withered claw doesn’t help either.”

Bella put her hands up to steady her sister and, at the touch of feathers, her tears flowed like a stream.

“There, there, Sister,” Hoki warbled. “There, there.”

She hopped down onto Bella’s shoulder and nestled herself close to the crook of her neck, softly preening her sister’s hair and crooning a comforting song.

“Me he manu rere, aue,

Kua rere ti to moenga …”

“Just as well I’m waterproof,” Hoki said.

“I’ve missed you, Sister,” Bella answered.

“I’m sure,” Hoki said. “Nobody to order you around.”

“Nobody to growl.”

“Nobody to make breakfast for you.”

“Nobody to break any plates.”

“Nobody to talk to.”

“Nobody to dress you either, by the looks of it,” Hoki whistled. “You look dreadful.”

“You would too, if you had to do all the work by yourself. The place has been going to the dogs since you left.”

“I’ll say,” Hoki said. “You’ve been on a drinking binge, haven’t you! You were never good at cleaning up your vodka bottles. No amount of deodorant is going to get rid of the smell that quickly.”

“At least I tried to tidy up for you.”

“You should have spent more time on yourself! Look inside your ears! Atrocious. When was the last time you washed them? Forget about growing spuds in the paddock. In your ears would be better.”

Bella felt Hoki pecking her ears and then, hop, Hoki was back on top of her head again.

“The manu Atua were compassionate, Sister. They asked the Lord Tane to have mercy on me and he heard their plea. He allowed me to come back.”

“But as a bird?” Bella asked. “Did that have to be the price?”

“Be careful, Sister,” Hoki said. “One should never question the compassion of the gods.”

Bella nodded. “I’d much rather have you in my life, Hoki, than not in my life at all.”

There was a pause. “Are you sure?” She had a wicked gleam in her eyes. “This is going to be so much fun! I can sit here on your head all day while you work. I can perch on your shoulder whenever you go around the farm. And instead of breaking dishes when I’m mad at you, I’ll poop on you instead.”

“You wouldn’t dare. Just because you’re a bird, don’t think that you’ll be able to get away with anything.”

Hoki whistled and flew into the air. She executed a few fancy sideslips and tumbles before returning to Bella’s head. “That’s how I escaped the great pouakai,” she said. “By comparison, you’ll be a breeze! How’s Skylark?”

“She’s fine — and things seem to be developing between her and Arnie.”

“Oh no! Poor Skylark.”

“Poor Arnie, you mean!”

“But the good news is that she’ll be staying with me, here in Manu Valley. She wants to take over when I am gone. Meantime, you and me have to keep going on, Sister. As long as we keep paying the rates and keep a look out to repel all invaders —”

“I can be the scout for us,” Hoki said. “Nobody will know it’s me at all. Wheee!”

She did some somersaults in the air.

“Show-off,” Bella said.

“Will you get used to me like this?” Hoki asked, as she launched herself again into the air.

“No,” Bella answered, “but I suppose you can still help me in the valley even if you are a bird. And will you stop treating me as if I was an aircraft carrier?”

Whistling with delight, Hoki plummeted and circled around Bella, teasing her.

“Stop that,” Bella laughed. “If you don’t, I’ll put you in a cage.”

“This beats using walking sticks any day!”

Bella had a sudden memory of Hoki’s crutches leaning against the bedroom door. She closed her eyes with sadness.

“Don’t cry,” Hoki said. She fluttered herself against Bella’s cheeks.

“As long as you’re with me, I suppose that’s all that matters,” Bella answered.

Hoki made soft comforting noises. “Got you!” Bella yelled. She grabbed Hoki with both hands and imprisoned her, lowering her so that the two sisters were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Gee you’re cunning,” Hoki objected. She pecked at Bella’s fingers, trying to make her open her hands.

“Just so long as you know who’s going to be boss,” Bella said, giving Hoki a stern look. “Okay?”

“You were always a big bully,” Hoki answered. She cocked her head to one side and spat a seed into Bella’s face.

Startled, Bella opened her hands and Hoki flew free. “Let’s go home now,” she warbled. “I’m hungry. Got any worms for breakfast?”

Bella stood up and looked across Manu Valley. The bush clattered and sighed in anticipation of the dawn. Suddenly the thought came to her:

“Oh Lord Tane, most of your great forest has gone, the land has gone, and man whom you created has changed the order of things. Please bring to man the understanding that he needs to save himself and his world.”

The sky began to lighten, the sun’s first rays shimmering across the dome of Heaven. Then it struck the twin mountains.

Birdsong. The mara o Tane.

The birds of the forest strained their throats in celebration. The wild music was like small bells. The sounds, pure and full like those of a glass harmonica, rose in a crescendo of sweetness. It was a melodious chorus. A triumphal ode. A hymnal to Tane. A gloria to light.

Hoki flew back and landed on Bella’s head. “Oh, I’m going to ruin your reputation now!” she carolled. “The first time we go down to Tuapa I’m going with you. Everybody will say, ‘Look at that Maori lady with the bird on her head!’”

The birdsong swelled with indescribable beauty.

The dawn flooded across the sky.