“I’ll get him for you, Clue. I swear it,” Cosmo said with conviction.
I turned to Tadashi. “Wait, aren’t you helping us?”
Tadashi’s face was set in stone.
“I will not risk myself or my men in freeing a criminal from a prison in which one of his supposed victims placed him. It is of no concern of mine. However, I will risk myself and my men to keep you safe. I believe your father would wish for you to be protected.”
I could tell by his expression, tone, and body language that there was nothing that I could say or do to change his mind. That Tadashi would let me down this way was brutal agony.
Turning to Cosmo, I said, “I’m ready when you are.”
Shaking his black head of hair and with adamant refusal in his stubborn glare, Cosmo said, “Fuck no. You’re staying here. I agree with Lord Tanaka. Your safety is all that matters to Winks. Don’t follow me. I’ll knock you on your ass if you do.” With that, Cosmo bowed to Lord Tanaka, and Dorian led him out of the penthouse.
“Return to bed. We must discuss additional security to guard against the Yokai.” When I attempted to argue with him, Lord Tanaka’s eyes seemed to light from within, and he growled at me.
I grumbled, “I’m going to get some coffee,” and took the lift down. I was sore everywhere.
Chapter Nine
I left the Wisteria and turned onto Swan Street where I entered a café and ordered a coffee. It wasn’t my fault if they assumed I had meant I was getting coffee from the hotel restaurant. There was only one entity who I thought might help me. I wondered what I could bring to her as a gift. Finishing my coffee, I went to 888 Honjo Street.
In the basement, I went to the area where Winks stored jewels. Peeking inside of various bags, I searched until I found a large blue sapphire. I secured it within one of my jacket’s pockets. Then, in Winks’ workroom, I took a blaster and stuck it into the back left side of my waistband where I could easily make a grab for it. Then, I carefully pulled the gauze from my nose, found the hidden door upstairs in the living room, and hurried through the tunnels.
When I arrived at the beach, I strolled toward the areas where I had encountered Palena in the past. “Palena, please come talk to me. I need your help.” I scanned the water and the beach for her. She was nowhere to be found. I sat on the sand and tried to think of my actions prior to our other meetings. I drew a blank. I pictured the ocean spirit’s blue hair and sparkling skin, and imagined her voice. “Palena, please. I need you.”
I heard someone behind me and scrambled to my feet hoping it was her. A calm deep voice said, “I prayed I would find you on the beach if I walked far enough.” I was shocked to find the young priest, with his black hair brushed back from his forehead and curling at his ears and neck from the salty air, here on my stretch of beach. I stared at him not knowing what to say. He smiled kindly at me, but his blue eyes began to be troubled. “Were you in an accident?”
Being hit purposely by a transport and punched in the face counted as an accident in my estimation, so I said, “Yes.” With my right hand, I gestured out at the waves. “Have you seen Palena? I desperately need her help.”
Frowning, Gregory, a priest of the Ocean Spirit, said, “No, I searched for you in the hope I might see her again.”
Disappointed, I sat again. With a rustle of fabric, Gregory sat beside me. Tilting his head toward me, he said, “May I help in any way?”
Giving a slightly insane laugh, I said, “Sure. Just take me to some shrine or temple where men can’t go that may or may not even be in this reality.”
Laughing, Gregory said, “Alright.” He stood and held his hand down to me.
“I’m not joking. My father’s life depends on me.”
“There is only one place of which I know that is impossible for men to enter. It is the Shrine of the Widowed Bride. I can take you there if you will trust me,” Gregory patiently said.
Hesitantly, I asked, “Why are you helping me?”
Gregory stared into my eyes. “It is my duty to come to the aid of my Goddess’ handmaiden. Please, allow me to be of service.” I gave Gregory my right hand, and his smile seemed genuine as he helped me to stand. “We will need a boat, but luckily, I know just the man to help us.”
Gregory and I walked along the beach to the marina. “How long have you served Palena?”
Staring off into the distance, Gregory said, “When I was a young boy, my friends and I snuck away from our studies to play in the ocean. While swimming not far from shore, I dove under to get a pretty shell near some rocks. My hand got stuck. Just as I was unable to resist taking a gasp of air which would have proven fatal, a woman more beautiful than anyone or anything I had ever seen swam beneath the waves to me. She freed me and took me to the surface. Her hair was bluer than the seas, and her lower half was like that of a fish. I have been hers since that day. My life belongs to the Goddess for it was she who preserved it.”
“She seems to be as benevolent as she is beautiful,” I whispered.
Our steps took us to the marina and an old but well-maintained fishing boat. Upon its deck sat an older man and woman who worked together while repairing a large fishing net. “Well, look what the tide washed up. Haven’t seen you in a moon,” said the man. “Who is your friend?” The man and woman were deeply tanned and wrinkled from the sun.
“This is Clue, an emissary of the Goddess of the Ocean Waves,” Gregory said.
“Looks a bit tumbled in a wave against a rocky bottom for an emissary,” the man said.
I laughed so hard that I had to bend over. “You’ve sure got that right, mister.”
The old woman held her hand out to help me board their boat.
“Can you sail us out to the Shrine of the Widowed Bride?” Gregory asked.
The woman made a tsk sound. “That’s a spooky place to be taking a young girl. Do her parents know where she is?”
Meeting her eyes, I said, “My Momma’s dead, and my father will be too if I don’t help him. I need to find something he left at that shrine. Will you please help me? I can compensate you for your time. Just tell me how much, and I’ll get it.”
Gregory clasped his hands before him, sighed, and furrowed his brow. “Father?”
Groaning as he stood, Gregory’s father said, “Alright, but I expect you to help me sail her. Your mother is tired.”
With a cocky grin that displayed a dimple in each cheek, Gregory said, “Aye, aye, Captain,” and began untying a thick rope from a metal thing on the dock. Seeing the question in my eyes, he whispered, “It’s a cleat.”
Pursing my lips, I gave a slow nod.
“It’ll be midmorning by the time we get there. Maybe we can catch some fish along the way. It’s been a hard month for your mother and me. You ever fished before, girl?”
Looking up in wonder at him as the boat moved out onto the water, I said, “No, sir. This is my first time to travel on a boat. There’s no ground under us. The water is our road. Weird.”
“Never been sailing?” Gregory’s mother asked, completely baffled by me.
“No, ma’am. I was born and raised on Eris Space Station. I’ve lived on Cassini for about a year. I’m still getting used to the sky and openness. It’s a novelty being outside and able to go anywhere without fear of running into a bulkhead.”
“Well, imagine that. I’ve never been off world and neither has my boy. It’ll take us a few hours to get there. How would you like to learn to fish along the way?”
“Is it hard?”
She simply smiled at me and handed me a sturdy stringed pole with a rubber handle on one end. Then, she jabbed a small fish onto a hook at the end of the line. I frowned at the poor silver fish with its round dead black eyes.
“There now. Watch me.”
She drew the pole back and then forward sending the line far out into the water. I attempted to mimic her actions, but the poor bait fish slapped me in the right cheek. I scrunched up my face and caught the cold wet slippery thing
with my left hand. Gregory and his parents laughed heartily. Sighing, I tried again managing to get the fish into the water. Suddenly, the pole almost jerked free from my hands.
“Something is trying to steal my pole! What do I do?”
Surprised, Gregory came over to help me. He took the pole and began making the line retract. Gregory struggled for a while. Then, his mother helped him with a large net to bring an ugly brown fish onto the deck.
“What is it?” I asked as Gregory took the hook from its mouth. The fish was kind of flat and was white on its other side.
“This is a halibut and really good for dinner. I’d say this one is about forty-four inches long and about thirty pounds. That was lucky of you, Clue.”
Scanning the water around us, I asked, “Was it?”
Gregory became thoughtful but began cleaning the fish which was gross. Then, his mother took it to her galley to cook. He washed the mess from the cleaning station out into the ocean.
“Thank you, Palena,” I whispered.
I watched as the ocean became a deeper shade of blue not unlike the sapphire I had hidden in my jacket to give to Palena. Gregory baited two heavier fishing poles, cast a line into the water and handed it to me. Then, he sent his own line out into the water. Gregory was really good at making it look graceful. After a few short minutes, a mighty tug on the line had me stumbling forward. Quickly, Gregory stuck his pole in a holder attached to the boat and took my rod from me while calling out to his father. The boat stopped.
After struggling for some time, the men brought a fish larger than me onto the deck. Gregory and his father had grins from ear to ear. Just as they had placed it within a tank of freezing ice and water under the deck, the second pole bent. Gregory’s father took it. His mother and I ate some of the halibut she had cooked and stayed out of the way. Before I had managed to finish what was on my plate, she refilled it. Eventually, a second fish almost identical to the first ended up in the tank.
“With these two tuna, our lives will be easier this winter. We’ll get at least ten thousand credits for the pair,” his father said.
After spraying their hands clean, Gregory and his father ate their dinner of fish while I watched his mother start the boat and continue taking us to our destination. Waves began to roll and toss the boat making me unsteady. “Why don’t you go sit down?” she suggested.
Taking her advice, I sat and squeezed my eyes shut. When we docked, I was relieved. Also, I was proud of myself for keeping the fish down.
Gregory jumped from the boat and onto an old rickety dock. I could see water through the shrunken, weathered boards. It was colder here at the island, and a chill swept over me.
“We’ll wait for you right here, son. This place gives your mother and me the creeps.”
“I can understand why,” Gregory said as he helped me onto the dock.
In the early predawn light, I could make out the large grey and black jagged rocks surrounding the island. As Gregory and I walked down the long pier, I noted the quiet desolation of the place that seemed to be inhabited only by scraggly trees. Stepping from the pier that had swayed slightly with the waves and onto solid ground, it took me a moment to feel my sense of balance return.
“What exactly is this place?”
Turning his head to the left to look back at me, Gregory explained the myth. “Long ago, a sailor and a young woman fell deeply in love, but there was another who loved her. His jealously of the sailor turned into a cold rage, and desperately he tried to win the woman for himself. However, his love was unrequited. The sailor and the woman married early one winter morning.
Unfortunately, a ship in distress sent up a flair not far from here. The sailor, along with every other able bodied man, raced their boats out to render aid. The crew of the sinking ship was rescued. As the boats returned to the harbor, the bride waited for her husband to return. He never came.
She took her father’s boat and sailed to this island to search for her love, but couldn’t find him. The jealous sailor followed her and tried to bring her back, but she vowed to remain on this island until her love returned to her. In a fit of rage, the man killed the virgin bride. Then, he vanished never to return.
Her father and a search party set out and found her lifeless and cold. In her honor, they built a shrine to honor the loyalty and devotion of the widowed virgin bride.
When the seasons change everywhere else, here it is always the same loneliness of winter like that of their wedding day.”
A deep sadness filled me upon hearing the tragic story. We began climbing steadily up. A large torii made of stone appeared at the highest point of the island. While trees stood sentinel all around, none obscured the view through the gateway and to the stretch of ground leading out to a precipice. I could hear waves crashing on the rocks below.
“How do I find what my father lost?”
Gregory clasped his hands before himself and shrugged. “I guess we can start looking, but we have to leave before the sun vanishes so father can steer us safely to open water.”
I nodded. Gregory began looking around under the scraggly trees and vegetation. I walked through the gateway of the shrine and drew in a breath at the lifting and dropping sensation, and loss of color and sound. A woman stood overlooking the precipice. She turned to gaze at me with eyes filled with such devastating sadness that I wiped tears from my own cheeks.
“Never before have I had a visitor. Who are you?” the woman asked. Through the grey, white, and black of her, I could see the ocean and realized she was a ghost.
“My name is Clue.”
Turning from me to gaze back out at the empty sea, she asked, “Why have you come?”
With careful steps, I approached the ghost standing a few feet behind her left shoulder. “My father lost the Eye of Kiyohime here. I need to find it, or the man holding him prisoner will kill both of us. He already tried to kill me.”
“I know where it lays. I will help you if you will help me.”
Wondering with what a ghost could possibly need help, but desperate I said, “It’s a deal. What can I help you with?”
The ghost raised her hand and pointed out to sea. Following her finger, I saw a man clinging to what was left of a sinking boat. “My love cannot come to me.”
Placing my hands to my cheeks in heart wrenching empathy, I said, “You’ve had to stare at each other all of this time, so close, but so far? How cruel and unfair. I’m so sorry.” My heart seemed to share her ache. “What should I do?”
With a misery tinged with hope, she said, “If you climb down, go to him, and take his hand, you can lead him to me. If you place our hands together, we will be free. However, what happens afterwards, I cannot say. We might vanish, and I would not be able to show you that which you seek. If I leave this spot, I will lose my love forever.”
With a thick voice and unshed tears in my eyes, I said, “I don’t care. I’ll help you anyway. I’ll try my best to bring him to you. I swear it.”
Terrified of the steep fall, I began making my way to the edge. I decided that since I would have to go into the water, I should leave my jacket behind. Carefully, I began my descent. The closer I got to the water, the slipperier the rocks and boulders got. It was even worse when I got to the water. Repeatedly, I slipped and fell banging my knees down against rocks as I began wading out to the ghostly sailor, who stared at me with a hopeful yet horrified fascination. The waves seemed to gently push me toward him. I could barely touch by the time I reached him. My teeth chattered from the frigid water.
“She says for me to take your hand, walk you to her, and place your hands together. Will you come with me?”
He nodded at me while holding her eyes with his. I reached out to him with my left hand. He took it holding onto me with the strength of a drowning man. I couldn’t feel his hand on mine in the expected way. Instead, it was as if freezing air gripped my hand. His touch was so cold that it hurt filling my arm with a stabbing pain up to my elbow. I spluttered o
n sea water and began trudging through the waves with the ghostly sailor in tow. However, now the waves seemed to be pushing us back to the shore. I wondered if Palena gave to us the helpful nudges.
Climbing up the rocky precipice while wet and with one hand was treacherous. I slipped and fell against the rocks crying out in pain, but I dared not let him go. Finally, I managed to crawl over the edge with the icy sailor’s hand in mine.
Staggering up to my feet, I saw the ghostly faces now transformed from torturous grief to blissful happiness from being so near to each other. I took the ghost bride’s hand and placed it atop the sailor’s. A forceful whump of sound and air flattened me to the ground and pushed me beneath the shrine.
“Clue!” Gregory yelled as he rushed to me. “You vanished and then reappeared as I watched! What happened?”
“Could you rub the feeling back into my left hand?” He understood me even though the right side of my face was pressed into the dirt. Gregory’s warm hands began to massage away the pins and needles that stabbed my left arm from within.
“How are you so cold? You were gone and then reappeared in the time it took me to run from that tree to here.”
I didn’t bother to try to see where he pointed. “That can’t be. I had to be gone for over an hour.”
As Gregory helped me to sit up, bright green grass grew underneath us quickly spreading across the island. At the same time, the trees sprouted leaves, grew buds, and flowered. Then, the flower petals matured and fell fluttering in a gentle breeze and blowing together to form a path. Gregory still held my hand. We stood together speechless. Our eyes met in wonder, and we followed the path. The trail of pink flowers led us downward. They ended at a pile of crumbled rocks.
Squatting down, I squinted into the crevices. That was when I spotted the dirty bag. Gregory helped me to move a couple of heavy rocks so that I could pull it out. Rain and sand had made a mess of the fabric. Untying the cord, I slid the large pink pearl out and onto my palm.
“Is that what I think it is?” Gregory asked.
Clue and The Shrine of the Widowed Bride (Clue Taylor Book 1) Page 10