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.”
“Manu Atua?”
“God birds,” Lottie said. She tried to say the words lightly, but her entire body language was squirming and wriggling in a very strange manner.
“Do I really want to hear this?” Skylark asked.
“The God birds were spirit birds. Their guardians were the lords Rakamaomao and Hurutearangi. They were mythical birds with marvellous powers and thus were exalted far above the ranks of the ordinary manu whenua and manu moana. Some were giant birds, like the poua or pouakai, able to circumnavigate the world and having the awesome power to devastate entire territories if they were hungry or if you made them really mad. Others were supernatural birds, like the manaia, and some were man-destroying birds.”
“You’re giving me nightmares,” Skylark answered.
“Then there was the Hokioi, Spirit Messenger of the Gods and of Immortal Life. The old-time Maori often heard this bird but never saw it. Whenever they heard its cry, ‘Hokiii-oiii! Hokiii-oiii!’, they knew it was a portent that something was going to happen. That the gods were going to intervene and change destiny.”
“So what’s the catch?” Skylark asked.
“Just don’t stray into their kingdom, that’s all. Just make sure the winds don’t take you up there and you’ll be all right. But if they do, pray hard.”
“Very hard,” Quentin added.
“You don’t have to frighten the life out of Skylark,” Arnie reproved.
“Above all, don’t go anywhere near the volcanic island where the giant pouakai lives. Otherwise, gotcha!”
“And if all else fails? “Skylark asked.
“Don’t look back, fly like hell and get the blazes out of there!”
Everything happened very quickly after that. First, Wayne finally realised he’d been duped. “Betty Boop! Betty Boop!” he called. “You are flying over government land and have no authorisation to enter this airspace, over. Leave the area immediately, over.” He broke into the vernacular. “What the bloody hell do you hope to achieve, anyway, Lottie? If you’re planning yet another unauthorised parachute jump into the area, I warn you we have two rangers posted on the ground and they have been ordered to go directly to the Cathedral of the Birds to prevent contamination.”
Lottie grabbed the microphone. “Oh, go bite your bum, Wayne,” she said. She turned to Skylark and Arnie. “You’ve got to get out now. You’ll find the entrance to the Cathedral of the Birds at the base of the escarpment.”
Skylark was still trying to evade the inevitable. She struggled with Arnie and Quentin as they tried to get the parachute harness around her. “No way. I am not going to be strapped to somebody as if I was a backpack and then jump out of this plane.”
“It’s not the b-back. It’s the f-front,” Quentin answered. He continued to clip Skylark to Arnie.
“Look at it this way, Skylark,” Lottie said. “It will be good practice for when you go through the portal.”
“What do you mean by that? Do you know something I don’t know? Are you in on it, Arnie?”
“In on what!” Arnie answered. “I’m just the sidekick remember?”
Then it was done. Skylark was harnessed to Arnie whether she liked it or not. Quentin pulled the exit door open. The wind rushed in. Cold. Frightening. Outside were all those clouds, all that empty sky — and the ground was sure a long way down.
“Betty Boop! Betty Boop! Do not attempt to land anybody on the ground!”
But Lottie wasn’t listening. “I forgot one other thing,” she said.
“I hate it when people say that,” Skylark answered.
Her heart was pounding with fear. Her mouth was dry. Arnie was pushing her ever so gently towards the centre of the open doorway. She was trying to get back into the plane.
“Don’t forget you’ve only got four days. You have to get through the Time Portal and come back before your time’s up, otherwise —”
“Otherwise?”
That’s when Arnie ever so gently butted Skylark. “Snuggle up and hold on tight,” he said. “It’s time to go.”
Next moment, Skylark was falling out of the plane, screaming.
All the way down Arnie was stoked, whooping with joy.
“Didn’t I tell you you’d love this?” he yelled.
Love this? Skylark was still screaming, and she was frightened to death because the ground was still a long way off. She hated Arnie as he guided them down to the landing zone, because being trussed up like this was like … like having … simulated sex. And even if Arnie was kind enough to take the brunt of the landing upon himself, rolling so that Skylark wouldn’t get hurt, she wasn’t in any mood to thank him for his kindness. She went ballistic.