I was lost in thought so it took me awhile to notice that someone was staring at me. A woman in a red robe with a wild curly mane of auburn hair and a smattering of freckles across her peach complexion was looking at me with intense green eyes. “You took Amara?” she asked.
“Yes and I’m sorry I did.” I put the last spoonful of porridge into my mouth.
“That matters not,” she said. “Did she speak to you?”
“Yeah.”
“What did she say?” The woman took a few steps closer to me.
“She said a lot of things.”
“Why did she leave?” She was sitting next to me now.
“I don’t know. I only know that she wanted to go. She appeared to me in visions and showed me how to get here.”
This seemed to interest the woman a lot. “That means she used the seerstone, but how?” She thought for a moment before speaking again. “Do you know where she was going? Where she is now?”
“She told me a story about Santali. Does that give you a clue?”
The gods had emerged from their huts to attend the council meeting. They looked at me with skeptical eyes as they passed me on their way into the meeting hut. Arms crossed, they whispered to each other. Hostility seemed to seep from them and I started to regret not leaving when I had the chance.
“Father will start the meeting soon. We should go inside,” the redhead said.
“Okay.” I thought for a moment. “What’s your name?”
“Aina,” she said.
“Number twelve,” I said.
“That doesn’t really matter.”
“But they list it in the front of the Book of Gods. It must matter.”
She scowled. “It doesn’t.” She looked at the others filing into the hut for a few moments. They all looked so different. They were every size, shape, and color, just like mortals were, but there were no children. I often wondered what the gods looked like because in the Book of Gods there were never any physical descriptions of them. I always thought they’d look like they were members of the same family. When Reznik came back from the island he described the gods as statuesque beings who were so dazzlingly beautiful that they were almost painful to look at. While most of them were quite lovely, I didn’t think they were any more exceptional than a particularly good-looking mortal. I felt no special draw to most of them. The only one so far that filled me with a feeling of sacred reverence was Herthe. Nothing about the others aroused any unusual feelings inside of me. That was disappointing. I expected to be mesmerized by them.
Aina leaned in close to me and whispered. “They all look like they want to take your life now, but don’t let that fool you. You’ll be approached by many who will ask you to take them from this island.”
“Why?”
“What good is living forever if you must spend all of eternity here? They all want to see the world. If they had the courage of Amara they would have called you here themselves.”
“You are gods. Can’t you do anything you want?” I asked.
Aina laughed. “I wish it were that simple.”
I looked up at the last few gods filing into the hut and wondered what their lives were like. “What about you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Me? I don’t want to leave just yet. I’ve got other plans.” She stood up. “The meeting is starting. Come with me.”
I stood, leaving my empty bowl on the log. I didn’t want to join the hostile crowd inside, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sit in a room with all of the gods including Eilim himself.
I followed Aina into the hut. Everyone sat on the floor in a large sloppy circle on the cushions I’d slept on the previous night. Aina and I sat near the door, which was fine by me because I was pretty sure I might need to make a break for it. They all talked to each other in hushed tones as they waited for the meeting to start. We’d only been sitting for a few minutes when the man who met Twee and me on the beach walked into the center of the circle. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back looking pensively at the floor as the room fell quiet.
“Who is that?” I leaned over to ask Aina.
“Father,” she whispered then held her finger to her mouth to tell me to be quiet.
Father? It was Eilim. The first of all the gods, the creator of all, the one we made offerings to, the one we prayed to. As a boy he was my favorite god to read about. He was strong and decisive. There was a brooding heaviness to everything he did. I should’ve known when I spoke to him last night by the way his voice resonated in my chest. He was the first god and to me often he seemed like the only one really worthy of the title.
“As all of you know, Twee returned to us last night without the vessel.” His speech was slow and steady. “Regardless, we are happy for her return. She has been with us for many years and it is with us that she belongs. We cannot deny that she has become one of us.”
Everyone sat quietly with their legs crossed in front of them listening to his words.
“You also know that Amara was taken from us. She is still missing and Twee has informed me that she is in possession of the vessel.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
“There is no need to worry because Amara understands the importance of the vessel for bringing in the new age more than any of us. She will not fail us.”
“He doesn’t know that,” Aina whispered to me.
He stopped speaking and looked in our direction as if he heard her. His stare was dark and cold. “Are you finished?” he asked Aina.
“For now,” she said.
“Damek come here.” He stuck out his hand and gestured for me to join him. The entire room turned to look at me as if they were one.
The gods in front of me slid out of my way making a clear path for me to the center of the circle. “This is Damek,” Eilim said, draping his arm around my shoulder. A strange combination of awe and horror pulsed through me. “The one who took Amara.”
The room erupted in anger.
“You must pay,” a voiced yelled.
“You have jeopardized all of us,” another yelled.
Eilim raised his hand above his head and the noise faded into silence again. “Many of you are angry because Amara is gone and with her the vessel. You are fearful of what this could mean for the future. What will become of us and humanity with both Amara and Santali free in the world? Can the planet even survive?” The crowd began to speak again.
“Quiet!” Herthe, who had been sitting on the floor behind Eilim, rose to her feet. “The New Age will come no matter what happens. We will continue to thrive, but we must have patience. Change is inevitable. It is imperative that we let this play out without anxiety or fear.”
Eilim removed his arm from my shoulder and stepped forward. “I do not think it is necessary to punish Damek for what he has done. He has already been through more than many mortals could endure.”
The crowd seemed to roar with anger. Some stood up raising their fists in the air.
“Enough,” Herthe yelled. “Enough.”
They both waited for the group to settle down again before continuing.
“Damek will live on the island with us for as long as he needs. Sometimes you may see him in the woods. He will not harm you.” Eilim looked at me and nodded once. I nodded in return to demonstrate my agreement. “Though I will not allow him to live in our village because in my eyes he is no better than a common thief, I forbid you to bring him any harm.”
Herthe reached over to me and squeezed my arm reassuringly. When I turned her eyes gleamed with confidence. “Though his choices were wrong he is part of us. Though he broke our rules we cannot blame him because he was influenced by Amara and many of you are acquainted with her powers of persuasion.”
Some in the crowd nodded in agreement.
Eilim turned around to face me. He looked at me with his dark eyes and said, “Damek, you are free to go.”
I stood still, my feet glued to the spot on the smooth black floor.
“Damek,” Herthe said.
I could not respond to either of them. I stood before the two most powerful beings in the world in a room full of the one hundred and forty-five most powerful beings in the world. They were giving me an order and I was not obeying. I couldn’t because my feet seemed to be rooted in place. Fear overwhelmed me and my body no longer obeyed simple commands.
“Damek!” Eilim’s voice cut through me bringing life back into my frozen muscles. As a child I’d pull the sheets from the clothesline and tie them around my neck. I’d pretend that I was a god and run as fast as I could, the dust and burrs gathering on the sheet dragging on the ground behind me. I knew then that I could run faster than anyone.
The room was awash in noise. “Go, go, go,” they all chanted in unison. The perfect cheer to start a race.
Eilim’s voice rose above them all. “Go now!”
I took off running as fast as I could, like I was a child running through a field with a freshly washed sheet stolen from the clothesline billowing behind me pretending to be a god. I ran across the soft grass and into the woods. The sharp stones and sticks on the forest floor cut into the soles of my feet as I fled leaving their chants behind me, but not unheard.
Chapter18
The loose robes they gave me to wear were not made for camping. The underbrush left cuts on my bare legs, and beads of blood oozed from the scratches on my calves staining the hem of the off-white garment. Thorns and jagged rocks sliced into my feet. As I left a bloody trail behind me I hoped there were no predatory animals on the island. Sleeping in the woods beneath the stars was fine as long as you did not have to worry about the possibility of awaking to the pain of razor-sharp teeth tearing into your flesh. As time passed I grew more and more confident that wouldn’t happen.
The trees on the island were large and looming. Some of them had gnarled trunks and scarred bark that looked like they’d withstood thousands or even millions of years. I wondered if any of these trees had been here since the beginning of time, their deep green glossy leaves dancing in the breeze feasting on sunshine year after year.
I was no trained outdoors man, but I had enough basic knowledge to stay alive. I knew never to drink standing water and how to start a fire. At first the only animals I saw on the island were the fish in the water and an array of colorful birds, but I knew the gods had gotten the hides I’d seen used as doors in the village from something. Then one day I saw a large boar, its sloped bristly back rising over the brush as it trotted through the forest. I stayed perfectly still and watched it, a solitary creature grunting as it went. I’d heard that they were aggressive animals and I didn’t want to take my chances with one.
Insects inched across the forest floor, some with dark plated bodies. Other insects flew and buzzed around my face as I tried to rest. Hairy spiders as big as my hand crept along on spindly legs searching for prey. Plump caterpillars munched on the abundant foliage. Many of the insects were much larger than what I was accustomed to seeing at home. They looked like they’d crawled out of a fairy tale book.
There were almost as many birds as insects. The most plentiful ones were small and covered in royal-blue feathers with fluffy black plumage on their heads that looked much like a winter hat. There were larger birds too that reminded me of the parrots and cockatoos we had in the mortal world.
I studied everything on the island committing it to memory preparing to write about it once I got home. How I wished I had a notebook and a pen with me.
Sometimes I would go up to the gods’ camp and watch them through the trees as they went about their daily business. I wanted so badly to see what the life of a god was like. How did they spend their time? What privileges did immortality give them? How were their lives superior to mine? What I saw was that they seemed no different than me and my family. Dare I even say that they seemed more ordinary than anyone I’d ever known. They went in pairs to forage for food in the woods. They seemed to eat roots, fruit, leaves, and flowers mostly. They built large fires near their meeting hut to cook on. After they ate their evening meals they would sit around the fire and tell stories and sing songs. They did a lot of chores, maintaining their huts, gathering firewood, weaving clothe. They would often separate into smaller groups and go off to have spirited debates about life, mortality, and immortality, and the meaning of all of this.
Some of them wore red robes during council meetings. The others showed the ones clothed in red respect by bowing their heads slightly when greeting them. The ones in the red seemed to walk taller than the rest. After observing them for only a week I had a better understanding of what Amara was trying to tell me. If I had to live their lives forever I would want desperately to leave the island too. Even in paradise the active mind longs for more.
I spent my first few days in the woods sleeping under the stars, but eventually decided that it would be better for me to find shelter. Rain would sometimes fall suddenly in the night. I found a cavity in a large rock near the beach where I slept. It wasn’t quite big enough for me to call a cave, but it did provide some shelter from the elements. I’d bury myself in a pile of leaves when I slept to stay hidden.
During the day I walked the perimeter of the island looking for some sign of a boat or ship, either one coming to the island or one that was already here. It was difficult for me to believe that the gods lived here all this time without a boat. I found nothing, not even a scrap from the shipwreck Twee and I arrived on.
I kept well out of sight of any of the gods even when I was spying on them. If I saw them coming my way I’d hide in the bushes until they’d gone. If they never saw me they wouldn’t have occasion to remember how angry they were about what they thought I’d done. Yes, I was a hunter of the gods, but I’d been doing that my whole life without success. The only reason I was able to be successful now was because Amara showed me how. In my mind they should’ve been angry at her, which I guess they were, but I had the misfortune of being the one here to absorb that anger. I wanted to avoid being their punching bag.
One day as I picked the fruit from a tall tree with low-hanging branches that had been my primary source of food for a few days, I heard a noise behind me. I knew I’d been found. I could feel their stare burrowing into my back. There was no use running. I turned around slowly and was relieved to see Twee standing there with my old clothes, my scuffed black work boots balanced on top.
“I thought you’d want these,” she said, holding the neatly folded pile out to me.
I looked down at the fruit in my arms before placing them on the ground. “Thank you,” I said. I was so happy to see a pair of pants again. It would be a relief to put them on, not to mention shoes. When I took the clothes from her I found a pair of light-tan leather sandals on the bottom of the pile. I held them up to her.
“I thought your boots looked too hot. Those should fit you.” She looked down at my battered feet. “How have you been doing out here alone?”
“I’m figuring things out,” I said. “Trying to think of a way off this island.” I didn’t wait to put on my old clothes that were now dry and clean. Twee averted her eyes as I pulled on my pants.
“I want to leave too,” she said.
“Again? I thought that you were back to stay.”
“I can’t stay here anymore. I need to find my brother. Do you have a plan?”
I nodded toward the edge of the woods in the direction I’d been walking for the last few days. “I worked my way around the perimeter of the island looking for a boat.”
“There isn’t one,” she said.
“I was starting to guess that. So it looks like I’ll have to build something. I don’t know if I can build something seaworthy without tools.”
We were standing in the forest at the edge of the beach. Twee walked down through the trees out onto the open sand. “I built a raft with fallen logs and vines. That’s all I had. That wouldn’t get us out of here though.”
The afternoon sun was blinding as it reflected up
from the white sand. I shielded my eyes and looked out to the horizon. I could see the storm not too far offshore. “That storm doesn’t seem to move. It’s always there.”
“It protects us from—”
“People like me,” I said.
Her lips curled into smile. “Yeah. People like you. It’s just one of the layers of protection Eilim has placed around the island.”
“Besides the door and the rocks.”
She nodded. “Of course Amara told you. How else would you have gotten here?”
“When does the door open again?”
“I don’t know,” Twee said.
“That’s not much help.” I thought for a moment. “Can you call someone to come here? You know, like Amara called me.”
“Appear in someone’s thoughts? If I could I would’ve done that years ago.” She paused for a moment. “Do you really think we need a ship to get out of here?”
“It looks like the only way. It will take days to get to any other land. Do you think Aina would help us?”
Twee laughed. “Aina? You don’t want to get her involved.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve seen her talking to the others in secret. It’s like she’s trying to start a revolution.”
“All the more reason why she’d help us.”
In the distance I saw three figures walking along the beach. “Who’s coming?”
“Elders,” she said. “They wear red.”
I stepped back into the cover of the trees. “I should go.”
“They won’t do anything to you.”
“Go talk to them,” I said. “Find out if anyone will help us.”
“I can’t just ask everyone for help. It is forbidden for any of us to leave.” She followed me into the trees. “I can ask Variel. We’re friends. She’s the one who helped me build the raft.”
“Good,” I said. “Ask her.”
Twee bit her lip and looked down at her feet.
“What’s wrong?”
Isle of Gods I: Damek Page 12