I turn around, but the only part of the village I can see is the shadow of the new platform with the sleeping caveman inside.
“Goodbye,” I whisper. “Thanks for showing me what life can be.”
Then I lower the keel and hoist the sail.
22
- Crat'ax-
I wake up at sunrise, my dreams dark and full of dangers.
Callie is gone. At first I just rub my eyes and sigh, annoyed by the stench of splix that still permeates the air.
But she doesn’t return, and there are only night sounds outside.
Sitting up, I notice her dress that Carter’ez made, nicely folded on her side of the sleeping platform. The shell necklace is placed neatly on top of it.
Strange.
I get to my feet, unease tugging at my thoughts. Outside, there’s no sign of her in the pale strip of light where the sun will soon rise.
I walk quickly to Gren’ix’s farm. Nobody there. She’s not at the Circle. Drux’et is there, supposed to be on night watch, but he hasn’t seen her. Nor is she inside my old hut, but the scare up the three boys that have now made it theirs. “Look for Callie! Now!”
They run off.
I march quickly to the last place I can imagine her being, but the boat she built with the boys is gone.
Looking desperately around, my gaze catches on something that makes my blood run cold: The dragon’s cage looks like it was broken open. The top lid is lying askew, halfway in the water.
“Bradek tribe!” I yell as loudly as I can. “Wake up! Callie is gone! The dragon is gone!”
I run to my boat while sleepy heads poke out of huts. “What?”
“The dragon!” I yell. “Everyone out! Go! Go! Go!”
I jump into my boat and paddle over to the cage as fast as I can. And the dragon is gone. But there’s no sign of Callie.
For a long moment I freeze up, holding the oar in a limp hand. Did he take her?
Or… did they go together?
My whole body feels numb as I paddle to the edge of the bay and look desperately for the boat. But it’s nowhere to be seen, so I paddle up the stream until the current becomes too hard to work against. Then I drag the boat ashore and follow the river until it becomes unpassable by any boat, even a small canoe.
There’s no sign of Callie or the dragon or the boat.
That doesn’t really help. They may have dragged the boat with them, or the dragon smashed it and threw the pieces into the jungle. He was very strong.
I make my way back to the bay and paddle to the village. On the way I meet many canoes with angry men in them.
“We’ll find that dragon!” they call to me. “He won’t get far!”
“Don’t look for him!” I urge them. “Look for Callie!”
“They’ll be together,” they reply. “Both are Darkness! The dragon and the woman brought by the Plood!”
Back in the village, that’s what they all say.
“There was always a chance she was bad news,” Chief Brun'ax tells me in a soothing tone. “She was too good to be real. When she saw that our tribe didn’t descend into madness with her among us, she freed her friend and went on to some other tribe. Don’t fret, tribesman! Any man would be taken in by her.” He puts a hand on my shoulder.
