“Looks like the end of the road, guys” Raul said. “Let’s drop anchor here.”
Raul told Marco to stay with the ship as we lowered the rowboat into the water. I could feel the excitement building in my chest. I thought about the future and what this could mean for us. It had to be the Isle of Gods. There was nothing else it could be.
“All these years and I will finally get my revenge.” Raul dug his oar into the water with a determination like none I’d ever seen before.
We worked in unison, oars deep in the surf. The taste of success in our mouths, each of us put in all of our strength. I never considered myself much of a rower, but that day I could row with the best of them. We all could. We navigated those rocks with ease. Sweat poured from my forehead. Anticipation built inside of me like steam in a pressure cooker. It wouldn’t be long now. We reach the empty white sand beach, jumped into the water just over knee deep and quickly pulled the boat ashore. The water was unusually warm. The sand was so white and powdery fine that it was more like flour than sand. My wet pants clinging to my legs, I scanned the beach. It was deserted. Not a soul in sight. Standing there in the open I suddenly found myself wishing I had a weapon. We were exposed. If this was a trap we’d fallen into it and they would most definitely make their move at any moment.
Louis hung a length of rope over his shoulder. Pete had folded a burlap sack and shoved it into his pocket. Raul wore a knife with a twelve-inch blade on his belt. I carried nothing. Weapons were of no use against being that lived forever. We weren’t exactly prepared for a battle. Hopefully we wouldn’t be stumbling into one.
“Where are they?” Pete asked, scanning the beach.
“What did you think, they would run up to greet us?” Raul said.
Across the expanse of sand was a wall of thick trees. I imagined them hiding in the forest watching us. This was not what I expected. I took a few steps toward the trees. “They must be in there,” I said, raising my hand to point.
“But where are the cities? Where is the gold?” Pete used his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. There were still a few people looking for the island only because they thought the gods had a vast treasure at their fingertips. The rumors were so pervasive that even I’d wondered if they were true. This was our chance to find out. If we could get gold and precious stones along with one of the gods that would be even more fortunate than I’d originally anticipated.
“It must be in there.” I turned back to look at them all standing behind me in a row. It was there on the beach that I realized that we’d spent all this time trying to get to this island, but none of us had made a plan. We didn’t know what we would do next. How do you kidnap a god? Is that even possible? It was too late to think about that now. Here we were, four guys who never thought we’d really get here, and now that we had we weren’t sure what to do next. “Let’s go,” I said.
We ran for the trees, each realizing that we needed to take cover as soon as possible. We didn’t want them to know that we were there. They might’ve already known. We weren’t sure.
“Stop!” I raised my hand in the air and turned to face the others, putting my finger to my lips signaling them to be quiet.
Raul walked toward me, soft green moss cushioning his footsteps. “Where are they? You’re the one with the visions. You’re supposed to know where they are.”
I could see the fire in his eyes. This was his moment, the one he had been waiting for. I leaned in to him and whispered, “Quiet. I’m listening.” They all looked at me waiting. I was waiting too. I was waiting for the voice to guide me again, but she remained silent. I closed my eyes and listened closely. I waited to feel the push that I’d felt toward the water that night. Maybe another tiny shove would send me in the right direction.
Even with my eyes closed I could feel the others staring at me. The pressure to lead them to the gods was enormous. I was certain that all we needed to do was pick a direction and start walking. “This way,” I said, pointing up the trail in front of us. “This path is so well worn it must lead to the city.” It was a guess, but it made sense.
We hurried up the path. I led the way with Raul following closely behind. Pete and Louis scanned the trees as we walked, preparing to ward off an ambush. I think we all felt equal parts awe and disbelief. I couldn’t stop thinking about Lourdes and what she might say when I got home. I couldn’t stop thinking about finally being able to show her mother that I wasn’t the no-good bum she thought I was.
The moss and stones on the path were slick with moisture, making it difficult to keep our balance at times. The air was thick and damp. Sweat trickled down my body. I strained my ears listening to the sound of the wind in the trees, the chirp of birds, the songs of insects, and even the sound of my own heart. I was hoping to hear her voice. Then suddenly I thought I did.
A song glided on the wind into my ears. The voice was familiar. It was the voice that had seared itself into my brain. I stopped walking suddenly. “She’s close”" I whispered.
“How far?” Raul said.
“I’m not sure, but I can hear her.” I motioned to the trees to our left.
“We’ve got to hide. We need to sneak up on her,” Raul whispered.
We ducked into the trees, trusting that the scrubby underbrush would hide us. We crept forward as quietly as possible following the sound of her singing. The song was nothing I’d heard before.
I saw her first. She was kneeling on a patch of soft green moss. With a stick she wrote in the dirt in front of her. I could see her profile, her copper skin and long dark wavy hair. This was definitely the woman from my vision. As we got closer, she stopped singing for a moment, lifted her stick from the dirt, and sat still like a deer hoping to avoid death by freezing. In that moment I knew she knew we were there.
“Is that her?” Raul whispered in my ear.
I nodded.
He reached out his hand to Pete. "Give me the bag," he said.
I watched her the entire time, her head turned slightly in our direction, only for a moment before she resumed her song.
Raul took the bag in his hand and pulled the knife from the holster on his belt. He wiped the sweat from his eyes with his sleeve, took a deep breath, and lunged forward.
She didn’t struggle. Instead she sat still with the bag on her head, her breathing steady.
“I don’t think this is necessary,” I said. “She brought us here.” I looked down at her sitting on her legs. “Didn’t you?” I asked.
She chose to remain silent.
“We can’t risk anything,” Raul said. “She might try to warn the others.”
Even as they wrapped the rope around her wrists, I couldn’t believe it. We had done it.
She wanted to be taken, and we wanted to take her. As we carried her through the woods, down the beach, and into our boat I could feel the whole world opening up to us.
Part Two
“And when you can struggle alone no more come to me and I will show unto you the light hidden in the darkness. For there is light in all creation if you know where to look.” Book of Gods
Chapter10
I hadn’t spoken to her since we locked her in her cell. There wasn’t time, but with the storm approaching Raul’s orders gave me an excuse to see her again. She was fascinating and I hoped that one day she might answer all of my questions about life. I turned to make my way below deck. The ladder creaked under my weight as I descended. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the pale yellow light of the lamps on the walls. Below deck normally had the heavy dank smell of mold, but since we’d taken her aboard it smelled oddly sweet like caramelizing sugar. The scent reminded me of my grandmother’s house when I was a boy. It was the aroma of celebrations.
She sat with her back pressed against the bars and her knees pulled up to her chest. Her dress was still wet from when we dropped her into the surf on the beach. The coarse fabric clung to her back as she rocked slowly back and forth. Her black hair stuck to her neck, clumping
together in sections that looked like tentacles. The blanket we gave her lay in a heap on the floor a few feet away from her.
“It’s cold. You should cover up,” I called out as I walked toward her.
“You think that will hold me?” She turned to face me and motioned to one of the keeper stones. Her face was even more stunning than it had seemed in my visions. Her skin glowed with life. Her large dark eyes bore into me.
“Sure do,” I said, taking a few steps closer to her.
She shivered.
“You are cold.” I watched her shoulders rise and fall with each raspy breath. She seemed so fragile, even vulnerable. My heart ached with pity. “Well, if you are, the blanket is just next to you.”
Her presence made me feel as weak as a child. I wobbled on unsure legs and reached for the wall beside me to steady myself. She frightened me and drew me in all at once. What lay beneath that fragile exterior was a strength beyond anything we could ever understand. I’d dreamed of being in the room with such power all of my life.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“We’re heading into a storm.”
“I know.”
“The captain asked me to check on you.”
“Your captain is a fool who thinks he can rule the world.”
I said nothing. Raul was a fool sometimes, but I didn’t think he thought he could rule anything but this ship.
“He thinks that he can store a god in a box and that this will somehow make the world better. It will not. It will only send everything into chaos, but maybe that’s what all of you want. Life for a thief suddenly becomes much easier when humanity spirals out of control.”
“We are not thieves,” I corrected her.
She shrugged. “Kidnappers then.”
“You cannot kidnap someone who wants to be taken,” I said.
One corner of her mouth rose up in a wry half smile.
“We’re hunters,” I said.
She cackled. Her laugh sounded like a creaky door. It sent shivers down my spine. “Hunters? So you will stuff me and put me on the wall?”
“No,” I answered seriously even though it was clear she was joking.
“No,” she repeated, mocking my deep tone. “What is your plan for me then? Or do you even have a plan?”
“That’s not for me to decide.”
“Because you are not the captain even though you are smarter than the captain and stronger than the captain.”
I shrugged and looked to the ladder wondering if Raul would overhear her.
“You are a better hunter and a better sailor. Your heart is the sea and the sky. You dare to dream big.” She stopped and studied me with her eyes. “Raul is a small man with no vision. He doesn’t see the whole picture. He only sees what is right in front of him. He doesn’t understand the magnitude of what he has here in me. He only seeks revenge, but revenge is not possible in the way he thinks.”
“Not possible?” I asked.
She shifted, turning her body a bit to get a better look at me. “Not possible, impossible. What don’t you understand?”
“Nothing,” I said.
She scowled, deep lines forming between her eyebrows. “Everything.”
She was right, and it struck a chord. I wandered through life feeling as if my understanding of myself and others was much less than it should be. Even my own child puzzled me when I held her wriggling, crying body in my arms. “Why did you appear to me and show me how to get here?”
“You’ve had months to think about it and you have yet to figure it out? Maybe you are not as clever as I hoped.”
“What is your plan?” I asked, choosing to ignore her insult. “You’ve gone to all this trouble. You must have a plan.”
“Trouble?” She smirked. “Finding you has been a pleasure. Are you not enjoying our little adventure? Isn’t this where you expected it to lead?”
On the first day I saw her I had no idea what was in store for me. I had given up the sea and hunting the gods for good; when she dragged me back into this world. I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t come willingly. I only wanted to help and this seemed like the best way to do it.
“When you first saw me what did you think, Damek?” She moved forward, closer to the bars like she was deeply interested in what I would say.
“I didn’t know what to think.” I placed my hand on the wall to steady myself on the rocking ship.
“Were you afraid?” She smiled as if scaring me was her goal.
“Not really. I was more confused than anything.” I still remembered that day in the dining room as if it were yesterday, her face on the wall, the thumping of my heart, how everything seemed to slow down. “Why did you choose me?”
She shrugged. “It was not really a choice. You were the first one I found.”
I felt oddly disappointed. I liked the idea of being special, of being chosen. “What is your name?”
“Does it really matter?”
“To me it does.” I’d studied the Book of Gods all my life. I spent years analyzing passages hoping to find deeper hidden meaning in its words. I knew the names of all one hundred forty-seven gods that were mentioned in the book. Some were like lead characters in a play with arching story arcs. I knew those gods well from the book. Others were merely extras only mentioned in a sentence or two. Ever since I started seeing this woman I’d wondered who she was. I didn’t know if I really believed she was a god until we got to the island. Even when Lourdes seemed convinced, I didn’t believe it. Now that we had her in this electromagnetic cage I was sure she was.
“You mortals always want to name things.”
“Names are important. You know mine. Shouldn’t I know yours?”
“Amara,” she said, wrapping her arms around her knees.
As soon as she told me her name I knew who she was. “Number sixty-three.” In the front of each Book of Gods was a list written in fancy type with the name of every god. I used to study that list when I was younger. I memorized every name, assuming that they were all important even if there were no stories about them in the book itself. Her name was the sixty-third one on that list.
“That is correct.” She seemed pleased that I could remember her number so quickly.
“Why do you want to leave the island? Isn’t it paradise?”
She shrugged. “That’s what you heard?”
“That’s what they say.”
“Do you like stories?” she asked.
I nodded hoping that her story would tell me something I did not know.
She turned a bit more and pulled the blanket from the floor next to her, draping it over her shoulders. “Have you heard the story of Santali?”
I shook my head. “Number sixty-two.” Santali’s name appeared on the list of the gods just above hers, but I didn’t recall ever reading any story in the book mentioning the name.
“Good,” she said. “Santali was my friend.”
“You say was, but I thought the gods were immortal.”
Ignoring me, she continued. “She was never happy on the island. We used to sit on the cliffs looking out over the water and talk for hours about what life in the world might be like. We all knew about the lives you mortals live. Sometimes Father would gather us around and tell us stories about the mortal world. We were always fascinated by those stories, especially Santali. Think of the prospects of living in a tiny place forever, of knowing only the same few beings, of doing all of the same things over and over again for eternity. There is no progress anywhere on the island. There is no room for it. There are rules and laws. There are duties and assignments, but that isn’t all life has to offer. Some of us were curious about what mortal life might be like. You have so many choices and opportunities. There are so many things to experience and see.”
“But the gods have everything,” I interrupted.
“That’s what the books would have you believe, but everything ends up being the same as nothing in the end. She saw that so she made a plan to leave.
What hurt me most was that as close as we were she never once told me about it.
“As someone who has studied the gods which I know you are, you already know that we are bound by the laws of the universe and among those laws is the law that we cannot leave the island, but were you aware that there was a chink in this law?”
She waited for me to answer so I did. “I heard a rumor.”
“Oh, did you? Mortals and their rumors. You can never surprise them. You’re always speculating. That’s why I like your kind despite your foolishness.”
“Thank you,” I said, the sarcasm thick in my voice.
“Anyway, Santali knew this just as all of us did. We cannot leave the island of our own accord, but if we are taken off by someone else we could be granted freedom to move about the mortal world as we please. Doesn’t every living soul whether mortal or immortal long for freedom? Even the ones who pretend to be happy have a longing deep inside that they are not willing to face yet.” She paused and looked down for a moment as if thinking of someone specific. “So Santali put in motion a plan that would allow her to be caught. She had to make sure the right circumstances were in place to finally allow mortals to find our island and find a mortal that had the abilities to get to the island. She had to make sure they would capture only her and that capture was believable. It takes a lot of planning, does it not?”
I nodded again.
“You are such a good listener. So good to tell a story to. I haven’t had an audience as good as you in a long time.”
“Thank you.”
“The father of all of us both mortal and immortal, Eilim, watches the mortal world through a seerstone. You know this, right?”
I’d read about how Eilim watches over us many times. “Of course,” I said.
“Good. One day Santali told me that she sneaked into Father’s hut and used the stone. I was shocked because it is strictly forbidden for anyone to touch the stone besides him. She told me that when she looked into it she saw people like you going about their lives in this great big world. She asked me if I wanted to see and while I did, I said no because I was fearful of what might happen if Father found out. I was so fearful back then. I regret not going with her to look because I feel that if I had she might have included me in her plans. When she disappeared I was just as surprised as everyone else on the island. One day Santali didn’t show up at council and she wasn’t in any of her former places of solitude. We searched for her, but we could all feel the emptiness in our souls that let us know she was gone. I felt like a piece of me had been torn out and thrown into the wind. The pain was so great. I could only imagine how difficult it was for Father. He hid it well but we all knew he was deeply hurt. He walked around with slumped shoulders and dragging feet. Once our search was over we all had to accept the truth. She was gone. She’d done it. She’d escaped.”
Isle of Gods I: Damek Page 7