Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

“So what exactly is there?” Skylark asked.

“Why, the Cathedral of the Birds of course,” Lottie said. “I thought you knew. You don’t? Well, in the days when the manu whenua ruled the world, they were born, lived their lives and died in the Great Forest. At old age, when they felt Death approaching them, many of the birds would actually fly to particular places in the Great Forest to wait for His coming.” Lottie unrolled a topographical map and pointed out the location. “One such a spot is here. See how it’s adjacent to Nani Deedee’s land?

“Now, the place that I’m referring to is over 150,000 years old. It’s a secret location. The ground is porous limestone and, over the years, rain has carved out channels that lead to potholes and subterranean caverns. No wonder DOC went gaga when they saw it. Well, when the birds said their farewells to the world above and died, their bodies lay on the ground. When the rains came, they washed the bones down the limestone channels and into the labyrinth below. You must remember that we are talking about thousands of birds and millions of beautiful fragile bones. Eventually, all the bones piled higher and higher and collected in one giant amphitheatre. Nani Deedee described it to me once. When she shone her torchlight in that place the light shimmered on all those tiny bird skeletons and made it look like a giant cathedral. She thought it was a holy place. She told me that she was able to walk through it to a small circle at the very centre of the cathedral.”

Lottie’s eyes gleamed with awe. “That is where the Time Portal is.”

“Couldn’t I have walked there?” Skylark wailed.

“Not an option, sweetheart. You left no time for yourself. You’re jumping, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but you’ll just have to be very brave and suck on it.”

At that moment, the plane lurched. Lottie grabbed at the webbing that covered the interior fuselage to prevent her from falling. “Jeez, Quentin, can’t you keep the plane level?”

“Sorry c-cuz, but I’ve just had v-visual contact with the pursuit plane. From the l-look of it, I think W-Wayne’s on our case.”

“Get out of here,” Lottie yelled. “Dive, dive, dive!”

“Great,” Skylark muttered. “Now we’re turning into a submarine.”

The plane went into an almost vertical descent. The engines whined, and boxes, equipment, anything that wasn’t strapped down, came flying through the air. Down the plane went, through the clouds to the clear air below. Quentin levelled out.

“Do you think they saw us?” Arnie asked Lottie.

“I don’t think so,” Lottie answered.

Next moment there was another whining sound, and through the clouds came the pursuit aircraft. It drew level and the pilot looked across at Lottie and shook his finger at her. His voice came over Lottie’s headphones: “Betty Boop, you naughty, naughty girl, over.”

“Bloody Wayne,” Lottie said. She clambered back into the pilot’s seat.

“Turn back, Betty Boop, there’s a good little girl, over.”

Lottie blew Wayne a kiss — and made a rude gesture with her fingers.

“Like it or loathe it,” she said to herself. She banked the plane in a 30-degree turn away from the other aircraft.

“Wayne’s one of the conservation rangers. He likes to make my life a misery,” she explained. “He’s so into control and his ass is so tight he could crack walnuts with it. But he’s not getting me today. We’re heading for the clouds. Let’s try to lose him there.”

Skylark saw red. “Look, I’m perfectly willing to go through the Time Portal for Mum, but not this way. Arnie, call Hoki right now and tell her to get me there by some other route.”

But nobody was listening. Wayne had imitated Lottie’s strategem and was fast catching up. “Oh, Betty Boop,” he chortled. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Ahead were tall cirrus clouds. “He’s figured out your plan,” Arnie said to Lottie. “He’s trying to cut you off before you get there.”

“Not if I can help it,” Lottie answered. “When it comes to flying, Wayne’s just a wannabe.”

She pushed the plane to greater speed and they were in among the tall towering clouds, engaged in a hair-raising game of hide and seek. When the clouds thinned, sometimes Wayne would be there. Sometimes he would be flying parallel with them; sometimes he would be above them. He seemed to be teasing: Now you see me, now you don’t. Little did Wayne know that Lottie was playing for time.

“Come on, Betty Boop, stop shaking your booty and come out with your hands up in the air, over.”

Lottie had Wayne so caught up in the chase he did not realise that both planes had reached the area of the Cathedral of the Birds. Below, the landscape was filled with the Giant Forest. Right in the middle of it, a huge escarpment reared into the sky.

Quentin tapped Arnie’s shoulder and pointed out the plane’s window. “There it is!”

“We’re almost at the drop zone,” Lottie yelled. “See that river valley below? There’s a sandy spit at the river bend. See it, Arnie? That’s where I’ll be dropping both of you, okay? As soon as you’re on the ground, head for that white escarpment over there. Can you see it? The white cliff face?”

“Roger,” Arnie answered.

“What do you mean, Roger !” Skylark hissed. “I’m not jumping and that’s that!”

“The entrance to the Cathedral of the Birds is to the extreme right,” Lottie continued. “It’s a quarter of an hour climb.” She turned to Quentin. “Get Skylark and Arnie into their harness.”

Quentin started to fit Arnie’s harness and parachute to him; he also gave him a map, two torches, a compass and a pair of binoculars. Arnie, meanwhile, was helping Skylark put on her helmet. To continue distracting Skylark, Lottie asked, “Have you got your karanga ready?”

“My what?”

“You mean you haven’t been taught the karanga you’ll need when you meet the Runanga a Manu? You’d better be a fast learner. The karanga is the call you make as a sign that you come in peace. When you get to the other side, head for the brightest rainbow in the sky. It will show you the way to the twin mountains. Beneath the rainbow will be the sacred tree, the paepae. That’s where the Runanga a Manu will be waiting. When you see them that’s when you should begin your karanga. You must do this so that the manu whenua know you come in peace. Those birds have always been very territorial and their sentries will be on guard. If you don’t karanga to them, they’ll think you’re an enemy. Listen to me:

“Karanga mai ki o tatou te manu whenua e, karanga mai, karanga mai, karanga mai! Easy! Now you repeat after me —”

Lottie was diplomatic. “Well, those birds won’t understand your dialect, and your pronunciation is atrocious, but seeing as you’ll be coming from the future, it’ll all sound like double dutch to them anyway.”

Lottie had been flying the plane in slow figure eights. Now the pattern was getting tighter, more focused, moving closer and closer to the drop zone.

“One last thing,” Lottie said. “Whatever you do, when you go over to the other side, do not fly too high. Do not let the winds of the Heavens take you up into the uppermost reaches of the sky.”

“Why is that?” Skylark asked.

“It’s very simple,” Lottie explained. “When the Lord Tane pushed up the sky, he opened the gates of the Heavens so that the birds, the manu whenua and manu moana, could claim the world he had created for them —”

“Yes. The lords Punaweko and Hurumanu were made guardians.”

“Well —” Lottie shifted uneasily. “Some of the birds didn’t leave the sky. They stayed up there, in the uppermost reaches. They were manu Atua.”