Shadows in the Cave by Meredith and Win Blevins

couldn’t be spotted.
    “See any sign of her?” said Aku.
    “No,” said Shonan. “I doubt we will.”
    “The huts on both sides of the eastern entrance are painted,” Shonan said.
    Aku looked carefully and saw that his father was sharp-eyed. He could see just an edge of painting on the side of the huts toward the entrance. It probably ornamented the doors. At least that’s the way his own tribe did things.
    “Those have got to be the huts of the peace chief and the war chief,” Shonan said.
    “The colors are yellow and blue,” said Aku. Among the Galayi, the peace chief’s ornamentation would have been white, the Red Chief’s red.
    Shonan’s voice had an edge. “They’re different from us.” He waited. “She’ll be in one of those huts, probably the war chief’s, whichever one that is. They’ll have her tied up and probably guarded.”
    Father and son had a tacit agreement to speak as if they were sure she was alive. Privately, each doubted it. They had no idea how many Earth days they’d been with the Little People.
    “What do you want to do?”
    “Find out which hut she’s in, tear her out, and go like hell.”
    Aku snatched his breath in.
    Shonan heard it and smiled. “In war, daring is everything.”
    Aku voiced the calm version of his thoughts. “Incredibly dangerous.”
    Shonan took his time answering. “If I watched my daughter die, I could not go on breathing the air of this world.”
    Aku nodded. He understood. “I have an idea. I’ll take my owl shape, fly down there, look and listen from the smoke holes, and find out what hut she’s in.”
    His father humphed. After a long while, he said, “Maybe.”
    Aku said nothing. He intended to do it, regardless.
    “Whatever, for today we just watch. Always learn everything you can about your enemy.” Shonan thought. “Tonight we move. Unless they bring her out.”
    Both of them pictured her being dragged to the sacred fire for the sacrifice.
    “And then?”
    Shonan smiled. “Then we will taste their blood, and they will taste ours.”
    All day they saw nothing that helped.
    In the twilight they sneaked carefully uphill to a cave they’d spotted. The Galayi liked to make camp in caves—the name of their tribe meant People of the Caves. They needed to make sure of a place where they could hide with their freed captive, and tie Tagu. They would have enough problems creeping into the village without him getting the dogs stirred up.
    Then they slipped down the hill toward the place the guards stationed themselves to watch the trail. Shonan wanted to kill the sentries. Why, Aku wasn’t sure. To ease his anger, probably.
    Aku told himself, It’s my job to help, and I have to share the risk . Nevertheless, as soon as the guards were taken care of, he would enter the village as an owl. He didn’t care whether his father liked it or not. Salya was his twin, and owls flew at night.
    Mere shadows in the twilight, sliding down from bush to bush, tree to tree, they saw an opportunity. Fifty steps above where the guards stood loomed a boulder with a split on the uphill side. Shonan nodded toward it, and Aku understood.Using the boulder for cover, they got to its back side, crawled into the split, climbed to the top, and looked down on the guards.
    The appearance of a luminous god could not have shocked them more. Even in the last of the light Aku could see her clearly. Lounging, chatting with the guards, laughing, sat Salya.
    For a long moment Aku felt like he’d turned, through and through, muscles, blood, and brain, into river ice.
    Shonan rose to let Salya and her companions see him. Then he climbed down the boulder and stepped toward them. He held his spear and club uncertainly, neither ready nor at rest.
    Aku slid down the boulder and followed his father. His legs were wobbly.
    Salya jumped up, ran, and flung herself into Shonan’s arms. “Ada, Ada, I’m so glad to see you. I was so scared.” “Ada” was a fond equivalent of