'Face me or flee from me, I still bring death!' Melcorka shouted.
The Kalingos ran to the beach, dropping their weapons in their panic. Some of the Taino villagers followed, thrusting with their spears, killing or wounding a man here and there, shouting to encourage themselves and muster the courage to continue. Other Tainos retched at the sight of so much carnage, gagged at the stench of raw blood and closed their eyes as they saw once-bold Kalingo warriors writhing and screaming on the ground.
The Kalingo pirauas were pulled up beyond the high-tide mark on the beach, rank upon rank of long, lean piratical craft. The raiders ran to them, pushing the fragile boats into the pounding surf without looking back as Melcorka and the villagers harassed them, killing and maiming.
'Come back!' Melcorka yelled, as the surviving Kalingos paddled desperately away. 'I want to kill more of you.' Charging into the water, she slashed at a piraua, slicing through the hull so it split and the occupants tumbled out, to swim frantically to their colleagues for help. Melcorka watched as Kalingo warriors fought each other with the broad-bladed paddles, refusing to allow others on board their piraua as fear overcame friendship.
'Enough.' Bradan took hold of Melcorka's arm. 'You've killed enough.' He pulled her back as she swung at a final target. 'You don't kill for killing's sake.'
'Let go!' Melcorka pushed him away and dashed deeper into the sea for a final attack on a piraua.
'Melcorka!' Bradan followed, hauling her back, until she lifted Defender to threaten him.
'Melcorka!' Bradan had never seen such madness in her eyes. 'Enough! This is not like you!'
Melcorka nodded. 'Yes, enough.' She was panting, her face and body painted red with the blood of the men she had killed. 'They've learned.' Melcorka took a deep breath. 'I don't think they'll return to this island.'
'I think you are right.' Bradan looked around. Bodies, dead and dying, bobbed on the surface of the sea and the surf, once pristine yellow but now stained crimson with blood, carried yet more corpses onto the beach. Land crabs were already scuttling down from the trees to feast on the bodies.
'This is a beautiful place.' Bradan deliberately looked away from the beach, past the village to the verdant slopes that rose to a range of jungle-clad hills, gilded silver-grey with mist. 'Why does mankind spoil perfection with violence and killing?'
'Because human nature demands it.' Hadali had waded out to join them. Years had added lines of wisdom to her face and sadness to her eyes. 'Long ago, our people decided not to follow the path of violence, even though we knew our decision meant that the Kalingos would hunt us as prey.'
Like the rest of her people, Hadali was naked save for a twist of cloth around her loins. Melcorka tried to guess her age; anything from thirty-five to sixty, although the profound wisdom in her eyes argued for another couple of decades at least.
Hadali put a small hand on Melcorka's shoulder. 'You have done what you think is right, Melcorka of the Cenel Bearnas, but you cannot stay here any longer.'
Bradan sighed. 'I am called the Wanderer,' he said. 'I follow the road seeking knowledge and here, I have found wisdom and the most peaceful people I have ever seen.' He gestured to the Tainos who thronged the beach, shocked at the carnage.
'You defended us,' Hadali laid a small hand on Bradan's arm, 'and you saved our lives. If you had not been here, the Kalingos would have killed us all and eaten our flesh.'
'That is correct.' Bradan ducked under the surface of the sea to wash off the blood that covered him.
Hadali shook her head. 'Despite your help, in killing as you did, you broke our code and you must leave. Your presence as killers would pollute our village.'
Melcorka copied Bradan in washing off the blood. 'We saved all your lives,' she reminded Hadali.
'Sometimes, lives are not the most important things. Beliefs, morality and the human soul matter more. By encouraging our young men and woman to kill, you have damaged those parts of them that are vital to our culture.' Hadali sighed. 'These of my people who fought will have to endure weeks or months of purifying, before they can rejoin the community.'
'I see.' Bradan took hold of Melcorka's arm before she began to argue. 'It is never our intention to make a custom or to break a custom, so we will do as you wish.'
'We have a prophesy,' Hadali said, 'that sometime in the future, men with clothes will come to our lands and they will kill us all. We know that will happen and we accept that is our fate. Until then, we will live the way we have always lived, in peace and generosity.'
'It is a good way to live.' Melcorka cleaned the blade of Defender as she walked back to the beach. 'One day, humankind will learn to live in peace.' She indicated the carnage between the beach and the village. 'One day, good will vanquish evil. One day, there will be no need for people like me.'
Hadali followed, with a frown furrowing her brow. 'That day is far in the future, Swordswoman. Tell me about the Kalingo woman that did not run. What did she say to you?'
Melcorka checked Defender and returned the sword to her scabbard. 'She told me her name was Kanaima, and she tried to curse me.' Melcorka shrugged. 'I killed her before she finished the curse.'
Hadali's frown deepened. She sighed and shook her head. 'No, Melcorka, you did not kill her. You cannot kill a kanaima.' She stepped back. 'Kanaima was not her name. A kanaima is an evil spirit that enters people and makes them do terrible things, or turns them
