“The colors of the African uplands are cool. Round, smoky blue hills dot the landscape like the bloom on ripe grapes and cast deep violet shadows over the blue-green grass. They blend with a marbling of white clouds by day and fall under a sparkling blanket at night. Yet beneath this soothing veneer is an underlayer of hot, red blood.”
-- The Traveler.

     Jade followed Madeline through a small gateway and pulled the brush back into place behind them. The goats paid no attention to their arrival and settled down on their knobby knees in the dirt. A few kids butted their mothers’ udders to be fed. Outside the boma, the sun sat low on the horizon and filled the sky with gorgeous splashes of scarlet and gold. Long shadows bathed the Kikuyu village and surrounding hills in cool, grape-blue shadows. Then, as the sunset plunged the world into darkness, they heard a scratching at the boma gate. Jade lowered her Winchester rifle when a voice from without called softly.

     “Memsabu, it is me.”

     “Jelani? What are you doing out there? I thought you went into a hut.” She trotted over to the entrance and pulled back the brush from the opening. “Come inside at once,” she ordered.

     Jelani slipped in through the opening, and Jade pushed the brush back into place. She took the boy by the shoulders and brought her face down to within an inch of his. “We must be silent,” she whispered. “When the hyena comes, it should only hear the goat outside.”

     Jelani nodded and tiptoed in front of Jade along the wall and away from the opening. A few goats trotted before them. A patch of white appeared dimly ahead, Madeline’s shirt. “Over here,” she whispered.

     They squatted down near her and peered through various gaps in the brush towards the stake that tethered the goat near the blind. Jade reckoned the distance to be about twenty yards, an easy shot.

     They moved farther aside and sat in the dark for nearly half an hour more before the moon rose overhead and washed the landscape with its iridescent glow. The bait had long since knelt down in the dirt with its head resting to one side, and Madeline had given up on kneeling in favor of sitting with her legs curled to the left. Jade shifted from one knee to the other until her wounded knee began to ache. She shifted again when she realized Jelani was not by her side. She looked for him and saw him standing at the gate trying to peer out. Before she could call him back, a mad cackling laugh erupted from outside the rear of the boma.

     The old nanny outside heard the eerie, wavering calls as well. It stood up and stomped its hooves nervously as its ears twitched from side to side, listening for danger. If another animal had entered the village, it kept itself out of sight. Jade took a deep breath, held it, and listened. Then she heard it, a soft scrabbling at the boma gate, right where Jelani stood.

     “Jelani,” she whispered, “get back now!”

     Madeline crept closer to her. “What is it?” she whispered.

     Jade didn’t reply. She shouldered her rifle, and steadied herself. Jelani started to back slowly away from the gate. His right hand clutched a slender object. It glinted in the moonlight, and Jade saw it was a knife. “Damn,” she muttered. Jelani seemed intent on becoming a warrior sooner than necessary.

     Suddenly the boma’s gate bowed inward with a groan and a crackling snap. The low head and high shoulders of the spotted hyena pushed through. Jade chambered a round and waited. The animal hesitated and sniffed the air. A shot now was impossible. Jelani stood in the way, and if Jade moved, the hyena might charge. Jade concentrated on keeping her breathing slow and regular and tried to ignore the intense throbbing pain in her knee.

     The powerful animal eyed Jelani and stalked into the boma towards him. Its massive jaws quivered slightly, glistening wet with saliva. The shorter hindquarters tensed themselves for the rush. Jade set her sites on the animal’s chest and shouted.

     “Jelani, run! Now!” She trusted in the immediate obedience of the boy who had learned to take orders, but she underestimated the predator’s speed and power. Jelani jumped out of the line of fire just as the hyena charged. The beast knocked the boy to the ground with a glancing blow from its massive shoulder. Jade saw her shot and squeezed the trigger as she exhaled. The animal yelped and leaped into the air.

     “Madeline, get Jelani,” ordered Jade. Madeline darted around the nervous, bleating goats and pulled the Kikuyu youth aside as the hyena bit its own shoulder to attack the source of its pain. Jade worked the lever smoothly, chambered another round, and waited for her opportunity.

     “Over here, you toto-eating monster,” she shouted. The hyena glared at her and presented its open chest to her sites. She fired again, and the hyena jerked, fell, and lay still. The sound of running feet came from the direction of the blind. Lord Colridge, Hascombe, and Thompson rushed from the blind into the boma, rifles ready.

     “Hold your fire. It’s dead,” Jade said and rose from her position. The pain in her knee disappeared. “Madeline, how’s the boy?”

     “He’s fine,” Madeline answered. “Just some scrapes.” She nodded to the hyena. “Are you sure it’s dead?” Jelani broke free of Madeline’s protective embrace and plunged his knife up to the hilt in the hyena’s throat.

     “It is now,” Jade said.

     “Bloody hell,” muttered Colridge. “The damned brute went for the boma goats after all.”

     “He went for Jelani,” said Jade.

     Neville squatted down beside the hyena and examined the body. “Marvelous shot, Miss Jade,” he said. “You went straight into the heart and . . . my word.”

     “What?” Jade knelt beside him.

     Hascombe leaned over her shoulder for a better look. “I don’t see . . .”

     Lord Colridge stood by Madeline and helped her to her feet. “Well, are you going to tell us what it is or are you all going to stammer like imbeciles?” he scolded.

     “You’ll want to see this for yourself, Miles,” said Hascombe.

     “See what?” demanded Madeline.

     “The fur’s been shaved into geometric patterns,” said Jade. “And there’s a bone knotted into the neck ruff.”

     “It is the sign of the laibon, Memsabu,” Jelani explained. “We killed his hyena.”

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