Nirvana Effect by Craig Gehring Page A

as he moved .
    The crowd diverted from the fight for a moment.  They knelt, murmuring their god’s name.  The nearest to their Manassa had a similar reaction as the first man, shocked that they had not given their god the deserved respect as he’d approached.  They quickly restored a healthy distance from Manassa and his white servant.
    Both Dook and Tien glanced at the disturbance, but neither stopped circling.
    Dook lunged at Tien just as he returned his attention to the fight , but Tien managed to sidestep the blow in the nick of time and follow up with a lick of his own.  He drew blood on Dook’s dark arm.
    Weakened by the poison, Tien couldn’t follow through like he needed.  Dook quickly regained the initiative, swinging low to gash Tien’s shin with his left-handed knife.  Tien tripped backward, crying out in surprise.
    Dook charged in to make the kill.  Tien was too slow in getting up.  Several members of the tribe cried out.
    “ At’tan!  At’ta n! ” a deep, booming voice broke over the di n.  Dook stopped his charge quickly, as though he’d been expecting an interruption.  He looked up and then smiled.  Edward followed the path of his eyes to Nockwe, who looked tired more than anything else.  Dook sheathed his knives and walked away from Tien to the far end of the circle. 
    “Nockwe intercede s,” explained Mahana.
    “ Dook was planning this all along!” whispered Edward.
    “See!” shouted Dook to the tribe.  “See with your own eyes!  Nockwe and Tien work together to try to kill our god.”  Murmurs rippled through the crowd.  They did not believe his words, but there were doubts.  The Onge way was one of unwavering suspicion.
    “No mortal can kill our mighty god,” said Nockwe, slowly, using the same deliberate pace he’d used before to address the crowd.
    “And yet you are fool enough to try,” said Dook.
    “Your tongue is full of lies, Dook , but it will soon be cut out,” said Nockwe.
    Dook beckoned him with his hand and once again pulled out both daggers.  He was making quite a show.  Nockwe pulled out his own dagger, and they began to circle.
    Edward now studied Nockwe.  He could tell that Nockwe was moving heavily.  He was not in the same shape he’d been in when guiding Edward through th e jungle .  He looked weary and flat-footed.
    Edward was no student of war, but knew that the wrong time to be tired was with a maniac circling you with bloody daggers in his hands.
    Nockwe attacked repeatedly, striking at the snakelike Dook.  The chieftain’s aggression stretched to the point of incaution. 
    “Nockwe moves quickly.  He must not feel he can withstand a drawn-out battle,” commented Mahanta unnecessarily.
    Dook refused to engage him.  He dodged back at every st r ike, refraining from taking the easy opportunities presented by Nockwe’s over-extension. 
    By their shouts, Edward knew the crowd was rooting for Nockwe.  They wanted him to live.  Yet as the battle petered on, as Nockwe’s step further lost its spring, the natives tired as well.  Th ey took on the aspect of a crowd watch ing an inevitable train wreck.
    Mahanta’s explanation during their l ast talk echoed i n Edward’s mind .   If Dook becomes chieftain, he will not long remain so.  There will be many hungering for his blood, and many that would seek to take his place.  This is a wild variable that could result in both of our deaths and the loss of this discovery.  T he turmoil that will attain in the tribe will prevent any work from being done as chalk lines are drawn and neighbor fears neighbor until a new ruler rises.  I do not have the brute force to bring such a people in line without my chieftain.  Under trance I am near invincible, but I am not under trance at all hours of the day and night.
    Unless something drastic happened , Dook would kill Nockwe and become chieftain.  Dook will be chieftain today.   That calculation was a certainty in Edward’s mind.  Already,