The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (25 page)

"Who?" asked Tendai.

"The Mellower's mother. I saw a letter once. I think I remember the address."

"You still need tickets," the conductor said.

"I'll get them." The old man dug in his pockets. "The whole system's gone to pot. Masks everywhere, grown men threatening children —"

"I'm only doing my job," said the conductor.

"Where's my money?" The old man patted his jacket and pants.

"You-told-me-to-carry-it," said the robot.

"Well, pay him, you bag of bolts! The whole system's crazy!"

"Thank you,
vababa"
Tendai said politely.

"Thank you, honored father." Rita poked Kuda, who added his response. The train rattled to a halt, and Tendai saw the word BORROWDALE. He quickly led the others to the platform.

"The subway's a disgrace," he heard the old man say as the door started to close.

"Disgrace," echoed the robot. The train disappeared down the tunnel.

"I don't want to spend a second down here," said Rita, but she only went a few steps before she collapsed. "Ohhh! I feel awful!" She fell to her knees and began to shake violently.

Tendai put his arm around her. "Please try to get up the stairs. I'll find help. I promise."

"Something smells nasty."

"Do you still have that bag of chicken droppings?"

"Oh,
no!
shrieked Rita. She found the bag in the top of her dress and flung it over the side of the platform. In a way, this heartened Tendai. It showed that the old Rita was still there under the sickness.

"Now climb the stairs," he said, "even if you have to go on hands and knees. You're too big for me to carry." Rita tried, but she was too ill. Tendai pulled Trashman by the hand and pointed at his sister. The man watched her with interest. After a moment, he got down on his hands and knees and began to shake, too. "No! No!" yelled Tendai.

In the end, Kuda got the point across. Tendai couldn't understand what the little boy said, but Trashman did. He hoisted Rita to his shoulders and trotted up the stairs.

Twenty-five

The digital clock over the subway read 2:20 when the taxi landed outside Resthaven Gate. Arm was the first one out, followed by Ear and Eye.

"Quiet, isn't it?" Eye remarked. Arm paid the driver, who took off at once.

"I hear footsteps," Ear said, extending his ears to full range. "Several people are walking along the subway platform down below. Now they've stopped."

"The subway doesn't concern us. We have to get through this gate." Arm leaned back to study the giant wall.

Eye whistled. "That thing goes up half a mile. Does anyone have a half-mile ladder?"

"I've got something better." Arm put on heavy gloves. He unpacked a coil of metal that twanged and glittered from a steel box in his backpack. "Triple-hardened titanium-molybdenum razor wire."

"I thought that stuff was illegal." Ear bent down to examine the coil. He was careful not to touch it.

"Mr. Thirsty just happened to have some in his cupboard," said Arm. "Next to the can opener, I suppose."

Arm threaded the razor wire into a long curved needle like the ones furniture makers used to sew upholstery. He inserted it into the crack of Resthaven Gate, worked it around until the tip emerged a few inches up and pulled the needle out. The razor wire was threaded around a lock. Arm sawed it back and forth. It made a high rasping sound like a cricket and sent a shower of metal fragments to glitter in the light Eye trained on the gate.

"I hear someone operating a candy machine in the subway," said Ear. "If you'd stop a minute, I could make out the voices."

"Will you stop nagging me?" cried Arm. "We're breaking the most sacred law in Harare.
Mwari
knows what will happen on the other side — and you keep going on about the subway. Pay attention!"

"Sorry!" Ear folded his ears until they looked like tightly closed rosebuds.

After a few moments, Arm apologized. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'm just worried. I'm only guessing Matsika wants us to do this."

"I hear they have a good job-training program in Waa Waa Prison," Eye said brightly.

Ear opened his ears a little to show he wasn't sulking. Arm quickly worked his way up the gate until he couldn't find any more locks. "I think that's it," he said, stowing the razor wire back in its box. Eye pushed on the gate. It hardly budged. In the end, all three of them had to struggle to force it open.

"I hear a train coming into the subway — sorry!" said Ear. He slipped through the opening after the other detectives and helped them close the gate.

They all stood for a long, long moment, lost in the beauty of Resthaven. "I never knew," began Eye, and fell silent because his voice seemed to boom in the quiet air. A path descended right at their feet to disappear under
msasa
trees.

Arm lacked the abilities of his comrades, but even he could hear and see the differences between the city and Monomatapa's country. The moon, suddenly large and impressive, dusted the shoal of trees covering the hillside below with a serene fire. The darkness beneath was that much more profound, and yet it wasn't threatening, as shadows were in the city. Far away, a stream pattered through reeds, while near at hand bush babies shrilled at the unwelcome presence of Ear, Eye and Arm. Nightjars, cousins to the owl, called from their sandy perches on the earth. A fruit bat gave a high
pinging cry as it left the branches of a wild
fig.

Here and there came impressions that Arm could not ever remember having and yet were printed on his being. His ancestors had walked in just such a valley. They had smelled the distant wood smoke and the pattering stream, the hint of
mutara,
the wild gardenia, on the breeze. Arm realized his face was wet with tears. He was glad it was too dark for the others to see them.

"It's so
right,"
whispered Eye in a suspiciously husky voice.

Arm heard Ear's ears rustle out to their full extent. For once he envied his ability to pick up the slightest sounds. Far away, a hum rose and fell in the darkness. It died away for a moment, then rose with more urgency.

"It's voices," Ear said.

"Villagers don't go out in the middle of the night," said Arm.

"Hell of an
ndaba
going on over there."

"Arguments?"

"I'll say. They seem to have discovered a witch."

"Maiwee.
Do you think it's the children?" Arm said.

Ear turned his head from side to side with that disturbing snakelike movement. "Everyone's
 
yelling.
  
I
 
can't
 
make
  
anything out."

Eye led the way along the path. They had to depend on him because Arm said a flashlight was too big a disruption for Resthaven. They stumbled and slid on loose stones. Once even Eye stubbed his toe on a rock. They came to a fork in the path, and Ear selected the one to the right.

"I can hear a fire," he said. "They're talking about burning the witch."

"What a time to be a bogeyman," muttered Arm. As they got closer, gleams of light shot between the trees and lit the path. When they were almost at the clearing, Ear, Eye and Arm glided into the shadows at the side to listen.

"She
let in those children," shrieked a gaunt man dressed in a bark loincloth. Arm noticed that he wore an
ndoro.
The spirit mediums in the villages did that, although the ones in the city had dropped the custom.
"She
was the gatekeeper. It was up to her to keep out evil, but she welcomed it in!"

"They have been expelled," said an old man who was as agitated as the other. Between them stood a large — Arm would have said
majestic
— woman clutching a tiny baby.

"As you say, Garikayi," said the Spirit Medium. "They have been expelled, but this witch has been carrying on her crimes for years. She devoured your children! Or turned them into bogeymen. For all we know, her misshapen zombies are creeping around the forest right now!"

If you only knew, thought Arm.

"Witchcraft is like an illness," said Garikayi wearily. "It can be cured."

"She polluted your junior wife!" The thin man strode over to a young woman crouched on the ground. She was weeping bitterly. He pulled her head back by the hair. "This one has given birth to twins. Your only heir is threatened. Think! You can't allow Myanda to live!"

"You can cast witchcraft out into a goat — or as many goats as you need. I want you to cure my elder wife." Garikayi stared at the thin man, and a message flashed between them. It didn't take special powers to read it:
If you want to keep your position as Spirit Medium, I believe we should come to an understanding.

As Arm looked around the clearing at the many villagers gathered there, he realized the outcome of the argument wasn't at all certain. Some people nodded in agreement with Garikayi, but just as many supported the Spirit Medium. Myanda stood, tall and dignified, at the center of the controversy. The infant whimpered faintly.

Myanda's courage impressed the detective, but the deciding factor was the baby. He didn't know what happened to unwanted twins, but it couldn't be good. Without allowing himself to think of the danger, Arm stepped into the clearing. Eye tried to grab him; Ear stifled a cry.

The effect on the villagers was instantaneous. Women screamed and fled into the shadows. The men tried to look brave, but first one and then another was overcome with panic and bolted from the firelight. Of the few left, several had wet loincloths. Arm smiled bitterly.

He knew what he looked like. He was six and a half feet tall and skinny as a rail. His arms and legs were much too long for a normal human. If he crooked his elbows and knees, he reminded people of one of the wall spiders that lurked in dark closets.

Arm crooked his elbows and knees. The Spirit Medium's eyes almost popped out of his head. Garikayi took a step backward, but he didn't run. He was utterly terrified and utterly courageous. Such a man might stare into the eyes of a lion that was about to devour him.

The young woman who had been weeping fled on hands and knees from the awful sight. When she reached the bushes, many hands reached out to help her on to safety.

Only Myanda gazed at Arm without a trace of fear. "Mother," said Arm. Myanda blinked, startled. "We have come, my brothers and I." He gestured back at the path. From the moan that escaped the Spirit Medium, he knew that Ear and Eye had entered the clearing. "We do not like it here. This man's courage is too strong." Arm pointed at Garikayi. Damned if he was going to give credit to the Spirit Medium. "We want to go outside, to find another village where people are easier to frighten. We don't want this man's spirit to chase us anymore."

"When we want to hurt someone, he makes us afraid," said Eye, joining in.

"Yeah, he's a real pest," Ear said.

"Don't overdo it," hissed Eye.

"We want to leave and take all the witchcraft away." Arm hunched down like a spider about to spring. The Spirit Medium flinched. "Come with us, Myanda!"

She suddenly woke up and looked at him in a most knowing way. "Me? Come with you? I hate witchcraft! Go away, you dirty zombies! Get out of Resthaven — and take this with you!" Myanda thrust the infant at Arm.

He backed away. "I don't want it!"

"Take it!" yelled the woman. She advanced, and Ear, Eye and Arm retreated until they were out of the clearing. "Take her, you fool," she whispered.

"Are you sure?" Arm said.

"I can't protect her." Myanda firmly placed the baby in Arm's hands and touched her cheek softly. "Her name's Sekai. I don't know how Matsika did this, but tell him thank you. His kids are outside. They can't have gone far."

The woman ran back to the clearing before Arm could react. "Augh! Augh!" she screamed. "The spirit of witchcraft is leaving me! Protect me! Don't let it come back!" She threw herself on the ground and rolled around in a most alarming way. She kicked her heels and bared her teeth. She pulled out clumps of hair.