Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

For a moment, Skylark didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Of course!” Arnie yelled. “You’re still wearing Auntie Hoki’s pendant.”

May this claw protect you in whatever you do, Hoki said. Should you ever be in danger, let all feel my fury.

Yes , Skylark thought. She looked straight at Kahu. “The sign was given to us by Auntie Hoki and she’ll be really cross if you harm one feather of Arnie’s head. She gives protection to the hawk clan. I ask, in her name, that you grant us yours.”

Bewildered, Kahu backed off. He flew down to Tui, waiting on the papepae of the sacred tree. “Sir, I honour you as my leader but I am bound by the code of all hawks to honour those who bear the sign of the hawk. Ask me anything, but do not ask me to kill the strangers, because I cannot.”

“Should I send up another warrior to carry out the death sentence?” Tui asked the Runanga a Manu. “What say you?”

“If you do,” Kahu said, “I am bound by my code to fight on behalf of the strangers — and to the death.”

Tui’s beak fell open with astonishment. He looked at Te Arikinui Kotuku.

“Oh, why do men always turn to women when they can’t figure anything out for themselves?” Kotuku sighed. She stood on her beautiful long legs, struck a pose, and then plucked a green twig from the sacred tree.

“Take this leaf up to the strange chieftainess and her warrior,” she said.

Immediately there was a clamour from the Runanga a Manu. Thunderous cheers followed Chieftain Kahu as he mounted the sky.

“Do you come in peace?” Kahu asked the strangers.

Skylark looked at Arnie and nodded. “Yes,” he said.

“Then accept the token of peace,” Kahu answered.

He let the green twig fall from his claws. Despite his wounded wing, Arnie spilled, zoomed down, rolled under and, putting on a show, used his hind claw to snatch the twig a few centimetres from the ground.

The Runanga a Manu burst into thunderous applause and began a haka powhiri, a dance of welcome. “Toia mai,” they called, “te manu! Ki te urunga, te manu!” They watched as the strange chieftainess and her warrior, led in by Kahu, flew down to the sacred tree and took the branch reserved for visitors.

“Who taught you how to do all that warrior stuff?”

Skylark fluttered down to the paepae and Arnie followed her.

“I was the leader of the kapa haka group at Tuapa College,” Arnie answered. “We won the South Island secondary school championships. I’ve even got a trophy at home for being best haka captain.”

“And what was all that ‘I am knight to the Lady Skylark’ business?” Skylark regurgitated a seed and spat it at him. “Yeecch!”

“I had a teacher who believed that the world of birds was a world of chivalry. He showed me the formal ways the birds conducted their relationships. The way they do battle is long, elaborate and characterised by a great deal of knightly interplay. Their codes of honour are similar to the Knights of the Round Table at the court of King Arthur. When they mate, it’s like watching a courtly dance.”

“Don’t get carried away now,” Skylark interrupted. “What’s your point?”

“When in birdland —” Arnie shrugged — “do as the birds do.”

He noticed that the Runanga a Manu was quietening, settling down. In every branch, every chieftain and arikinui with the gift of flight was waiting, expectant. Down on the ground, the wingless birds settled themselves in the grass.

“So how are you going to do this, Skylark?” Arnie asked.

Skylark’s heart was beating fast. She should have been prepared for this, but now that the time had come for her to do what she’d come to do, all she wanted was get the blazes out of there. But that wouldn’t do her mother any good. She’d have to make her mind up — and fast. Already, Chieftain Tui had taken the branch reserved for speechmaking.

“Ki a korua, nga manuhiri,” Tui began. “Welcome, our visitors from afar. You say you have come to deliver us a message? Korero, korero, korero.”

“Yes,” the assembly chorused. “Speak, speak, speak.”

Tui flew back to his branch. With discomfort, Arnie realised that all the chieftains and arikinui were looking at him to respond. Would Skylark understand why?

“Do you want me to do the talking for you?” he asked Skylark. “It would be better if I did.”

But protocol was the least of Skylark’s concerns. She was in the spotlight, and it was time to act. She took a deep breath and opened her wings. “Here goes nothing,” she said. She looked at Arnie. “I’ll just have to wing it.”

With that, Skylark flew down and took her place, alone, on the branch reserved for speechmaking.

“E nga reo, nga manu, nga rangatira, tena koutou katoa,” she began.

Immediately there was a storm, a commotion. “Oh no,” Arnie groaned. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

“A woman standing to speak?” Chieftain Kea screamed, attacking the bark with his beak. “The stranger tramples on the kawa, the customary practices of the manu whenua.”

“Ae! Ae!” agreed Chieftain Kakapo. “Wring her neck! She tries to be a cock when she is only a hen!”

Skylark staggered under the weight of the tumult. Chieftain Kawau left his perch to attack her. “Our protocol is sacred! How dare you demean it.”

“Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger, “Skylark cried.

Seeing her so defenceless, Arnie flew down beside her, glaring, displaying his wings and strength, fighting Kawau off.

“ Kik-kik-kik-kik! Keep away. Kik-kik-kik-kik! ”

“I’m sorry, Arnie,” Skylark called. “I should have remembered —”

“That’s okay,” he replied. “But I’m afraid our credit rating just went down and our card is out of funds.”

A dark shadow cast itself across Arnie’s right shoulder. He was busy defending Skylark from Kawau but even so he tried to do a backward-kick boxing move he had learnt at the gym. Too late — a huge white kotuku landed on the branch. Her beak flashed like a razor. But what was this?

“Kra- aak ! Kra- aak !” Te Arikinui Kotuku screamed. “I give this child the cloak of aroha, the protection of my rank. She is waewae tapu. Her claws, while she is among us, are sacred. If any of you want to take issue with her, face me first and do so at your peril.”

Then another bird settled beside Skylark and Arnie. “Is Trouble your first name, boy?” Chieftain Kahu shouted.

He flapped for attention. “The child and her warrior are under my wing also. It was I who brought them in, and like Kotuku I give the child the dispensation to stand to speak.”

Neither Kotuku nor Kahu could stop the full fury of the Runanga a Manu. “The strange chieftainess must pay for her wilful transgression,” they cried. From all branches came whirring wings, fierce beaks, outstretched claws, all intent on punishing the interloper.

“No,” Kotuku repeated. “I tell you she is waewae tapu —”

Then it happened. Something shifted. Something changed. Skylark felt giddy, sick, as she was struck by the same overwhelming sense of physical assault she had experienced when the rainbow had turned to ashes. Her head was whirling with vertigo and she would have blacked out again, except that Arnie pulled her back from the brink of unconsciousness.

“Time has accelerated again, hasn’t it, Skylark?” he asked.

Skylark nodded, trying to recover.

“Yes, but this time it’s worse —”

She heard cries of alarm coming from the wingless chieftains at the base of the paepae. They were pointing at something moving up the cliff face toward the sacred tree. It was a strange creature such as none had ever seen before, neither real nor unreal, walking as if in a dream.