“What are you saying?” he asked.
“When he is fully developed he will emerge from the hard shell he is in today.”
Slowly he released Twee’s arm and she fell to the floor. All of his attention was focused on the vessel. He reached out to touch it again and I searched his eyes for his intentions.
His face softened again and I knew he would do nothing to hurt it because he had realized its power. “You can hold it, if you like.” I passed the vessel to him.
He took the vessel gingerly in his arms. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“It is not for you to understand. When it is ready then everyone will understand. Now we only wait.” I watched him curiously. He was angry and full of threats, but I knew that they were only threats. He would never follow through with killing Twee or tossing the vessel overboard. He was capable of loving deeper than most mortals could ever imagine. That was why he was so full of sadness and anger. A series of emotions drifted across his face from fear to delight to wonder as he gazed down at the vessel.
“Will I ever see Irene again?” he asked.
“The vessel will not bring your wife back.”
He looked at Twee again and I could tell that he was trying to figure out what to do next. He reached down and grabbed Twee, looking deeply satisfied to have the vessel in one hand and Twee in the other. “You will give me back Irene or I will kill these two.”
I sat on the floor with my legs crossed looking up at him calmly. I knew he expected me to panic, but he had not clearly thought through his plan. As he tried to drag Twee through the hallway she dropped to her knees wailing. “Amara,” she yelled. “Don’t let him kill me. I’ve come too far. I have to see my brother.” Tears flowed down her face.
“Raul, you cannot threaten a god!” I yelled after him. “You know this already and still you try.”
He continued walking away from me with the vessel in one arm and dragging Twee behind him with the other. “You bring me Irene and they will live.”
“There is only one way you will ever see Irene again,” I said. I stood up and walked up the hall toward him.
“How?” He turned around.
“If you join her.”
He let go of Twee who rubbed her arm in the place where he’d grabbed her. “Go find Damek,” I said to her.
“But I don’t want to leave you,” she said.
“I am fine, Twee. Just get above deck and find Damek.” I approached the captain slowly as Twee scrambled to her feet and headed to the ladder. I watched while she ascended and as soon as she was out of sight I turned my attention back to the captain. “I know something about mortal ways and I know that when you are separated from someone you love you’ll do anything to see that soul again. You would break every law, risk life and limb, even try to capture a god.” I reached out slowly, taking the vessel from his arms. I cradled the child and looked down at its wide immobile face. His eyes were closed so peacefully. I wondered what might lie beneath this solid shell. I wondered what might happen when he was finally ready to hatch. Would he be the one to bring all of us together?
I looked into the captain’s eyes looking for the hope that most mortals still had deep inside. “You have not given up on Irene. This much I know. You will see her again. You will hold the one you love again, but I cannot bring her to you. You must go to her.”
His face was clear as if he finally understood what I meant.
“You must go to her unafraid, and she will welcome you with open arms.”
The captain seemed to be in a trance as I let my mind unwind. Letting go of the storm was like dropping a pebble off a cliff. I released control of it and as soon as I did the elements began to pound the boat mercilessly. I fell forward as the boat rose on the waves but was able to catch myself. The captain fell flat on his back, his head striking the floor with such force that I felt it vibrate beneath my feet. I bent down to look into his unfocused eyes. Blood streamed from a gash on his head. “I hope you’re ready,” I said to him as his eyes rolled back. His journey to be with his beloved again had already begun. I’d given him everything he wanted.
I stood slowly using the wall to balance. The vessel was heavy in my arms as I pushed my way along the wall walking up the hallway. Twee had left the hatch open when she went above deck and now water poured into the lower level of the boat. I slid down the wall and sat holding the vessel against my chest. The water was already a few inches deep. The storm was powerful, too powerful for this ship. It would sink, but I would live on because I was immortal. Twee had survived a shipwreck before and I made sure she would survive this one. As long as she stuck with Damek she would live. I just hoped she realized it.
I held the vessel of light into my chest. He was with me on this journey now. I began to focus all of my energy on Santali. I was close enough to feel her now. We would finally be reunited. I closed my eyes and as the boat rocked and groaned, its seams twisting and buckling under the force of the storm I remained calm and quiet. I felt like I was being pulled in all directions as if I might be ripped apart, but I wasn’t afraid because the wound inside of me would finally be filled. As the waves rose higher and higher above the ship, crashing down on it with so much weight and velocity, I left this place to reunite with my only friend.
Chapter 19
Moving from one place to another in the blink of an eye gave me a feeling like pinpricks all over my skin. The air rushed by my ears just as it did when I ran very fast. A high-pitched hum like a million cicadas calling at once replaced the roar of the waves. The air was forced from my lungs and I felt as if I was drowning for a moment. Clinging to the vessel, I clamped my eyes closed even tighter and trained my focus on Santali. I pictured her in my mind: her pale skin, the smattering of freckles on her cheeks, eyes like the ocean water, hair the color of sand.
The sound stopped and was replaced by the rise of voices. Panicked, they called out words I could not quite understand. There was a thud and then another followed by the sound of many feet running. Someone screamed and then a deeper voice spoke over all the others. My breathing was rapid. My heartbeat sped. Though I could not see them the panic of the mortals around me seeped into me. When I opened my eyes I expected to be surrounded by them, frightened, pointing at me and screaming in horror. That was not the case. I was alone in a room, sitting on the floor. I could feel their fear thick and fluid all round me. I could hear them calling out, but we were separated by the four walls that surrounded me.
The vessel lay in my lap, his warm energy flowing into my legs. I looked around to get my bearings. There was a bed directly in front of me. Its dark wooden headboard was pushed against the blue-and-white flowered wall. The navy-blue blanket gathered at the foot of the bed had a metallic sheen. A melon-sized indentation marked the large puffy white pillow at the head of the bed as if someone had just gotten up. I wondered if it was Santali. She was nearby. I could feel her presence. I could smell her like burnt sugar in the air. Maybe she’d been lying in that bed just moments before I arrived. If she had, where was she now? Was she one of the panicked voices I heard outside?
There were small wooden tables on each side of the bed. In the corner of the room closest to me two chairs covered with blue-and-white fabric sat at an angle facing each other, poised for conversation. The room was about the same size as the inside of one of our huts, but the large window that nearly completely covered the wall to my right let more light in than I was accustomed to seeing inside.
I realized that I was still clutching the vessel tightly to my chest. I relaxed my hold on him and looked down at his rough, still face. “I don’t know how yet, but you’re going to save us all,” I said to him. His weight shifted in my hands and I could feel him pulsate with life. Even in the few hours I’d had the vessel in my possession he seemed to be coming alive. The changes he made weren’t visible, they were more the way he felt and the increased movement and heat coming from him. He seemed more like a him than an it to me now. I wondered what
his name was and if he’d be with us always.
I knew I had to get him back to the island. The future of everyone depended on that. That was where he needed to be to come to life fully and hatch out of his stone shell. Father had already asked me to bring him back and I would do that just as soon as I could. First I needed to find Santali. I looked around the room for some clue about where she was. There was a black case open on the floor with clothes overflowing from it. Shoes were strewn about, some large and some small.
All of the walls were covered with a blue-and-white floral pattern. I wondered how long it took the mortals to paint such detailed designs on their walls, and if the paintings meant anything like the paintings on the walls in Father’s hut. I liked the repeated pattern of the blue flowers and swirls much better than the black scratches and smudges the elders put on Father’s walls.
Hanging on the painted walls were more large paintings covered in glass. One of the beach with a few wispy clouds in the sky and the waves gently rolling in. Above the bed was another picture. This one was of some fruit: an apple, an orange and some bananas sitting on a table next to a bowl. The painting was full of dark shadows that almost made the fruit look depressed. I imagined a mortal sitting studiously at a table painting. Did the sad apple or the melancholy banana have some meaning?
The noises outside the room had died down a bit. I could still hear single voices calling out, but it wasn’t the rising roar of fear that I had heard when I arrived. Slowly I stood, to look out the window. Maybe I would see Santali there.
There was muddy, churning water as far as my eyes could see. This certainly wasn’t what I expected, but the mortal world was so large that the other places must’ve looked different than this. I had pictured land very similar to ours on the island. Father once told me that we lived on the best island on the entire planet. At the time I didn’t believe him, but if this murky water was any indication of what the rest of the world was like, he was right.
Splintered wood was being carried by the waves into the tall structures the mortals must have lived in. The room that I was in was higher up than any room I’d ever been in before. The mortals stacked rooms on top of one another so they towered over the water like trees. Great boats like the one I’d left the island on leaned lazily on their sides in water too shallow to keep them upright. There were mortals in the water too. They held onto tree trunks and poles, letting out shrill cries each time their heads were above water. Some were lifeless, their limp bodies pushed and pulled easily by the sea. I saw men, women, and children struggling and I realized that what I was seeing wasn’t normal at all. The panic around me was because something extraordinary was happening that frightened each and every one of them. They were drowning in furious water. The waves had come up beyond where they should’ve been. A man with bright red blood streaming from his head swam desperately with a young child clinging to his neck crying. The terror emanating from them was so strong that I could even sense it in a room so high above the ground.
Just moments ago I’d stopped a great and powerful storm. I wondered if I had the ability to stop whatever this was too. I hadn’t been here before and did not know what the landscape was supposed to look like, but I thought it was safe to assume that the ocean had broken beyond its normal borders. The areas around these stacked-up rooms were most likely land not too long ago. How else would so many mortals be caught up in a powerful wave? I closed my eyes and started to focus on the sea and moving the water back to where it was supposed to be.
A sound broke my concentration and I turned to see Santali standing in the doorway with her hand over her mouth. She inhaled sharply, gasping. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I must have the wrong room.” Then she looked up at the door and then back to me with confusion growing on her face. “Wait a minute.” She looked to her left and then to her right. “Who are you?”
She hadn’t changed much. Her hair was a little bit shorter. Mortals obviously spent less time in the sun than we did because her face no longer had the golden glow it once did. She was pale and thinner than I remembered her.
“This isn’t your room,” she said. “I don’t know how you got in here, but they want all of us to stay in our rooms.”
“Who does?” I asked.
“The hotel.” She pointed with her right hand down the hall. “The security guard down there said that everyone should just return to their rooms.”
I didn’t know what a security guard or a hotel was but that didn’t really matter. All that really mattered was that I had just found Santali. “Come in. I’ve been waiting for you.” I stepped forward toward her.
“You have?” She took a step backward.
“Don’t you remember me?” I asked. I didn’t understand why she was looking at me like I was a stranger.
Her forehead creased with concern. “Do I know you?” she asked.
The question shattered my heart into a million pieces. “I’m your sister,” I said.
She bit her lip and took a few steps toward me letting the door close behind her. “That’s impossible. I don’t have any sisters.” She paused. “We look nothing alike.”
My dark skin and jet-black hair were the perfect contrast to her pale complexion. In the mortal world that mattered, but in our world it did not. “Yes, you do,” I said. “You have sisters and brothers, and we’ve all missed you very much.”
A tear ran from her crystal-blue eyes and then another and another. She used her hand to wipe them from her cheeks. “That’s impossible. I’ve been searching for so long. How did you find me here?”
“I don’t know what has happened to you, but I want you to know that you’re safe now. Come home with me. It might not be exactly what you want but everything will be different soon.” I took a few more steps toward her. “We won’t have to stay. I promise.”
She shook her head. “Why wouldn’t I want to stay?”
“I’m not sure. You never told me. You just vanished one day, but if I could guess I’d say it was for the same reason I don’t want stay.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because there is nothing for us there. This world, the one you’ve been living in is so much better.”
“Where is there? If I’m going to believe that we are really sisters you have to explain to me where we came from. Maybe then I will remember because right now I don’t.”
I took a deep breath and started walking toward her again. I had to get her to remember so she would go back with me.
She held out her palms. “Don’t come any closer,” she said. “I can’t believe this.” More tears streamed down her face. She sniffled. Then looking down at the vessel in my arms she asked, “What is that?”
“It’s difficult to explain now, but it will change everything.”
As we spoke I began to inch closer to her again. I took one tiny step at a time breathing steadily as if approaching a wild animal. I did not want to scare her off. I could see the fear in her eyes and the confusion spreading across her face. But I felt that if I could touch her I could help her remember. “You may have forgotten us but we have not forgotten you.” I reached out my hand and grabbed her forearm. She yanked it backward trying to pull away but stopped as I sent a wave of energy into her. I looked into her eyes trying to gauge what was happening. Everything began to fall into place. The sparks between us triggered something deep inside of her that helped her remember. Suddenly she knew.
“Sister,” she said, reaching out to embrace me.
We hugged. The vessel between us pressed into my rib cage and hers. We pulled away from each other. She wiped the tears from her eyes and sank onto the bed.
“I came to bring you back. You don’t belong here, not yet at least. Once the new age begins everything will be different.”
She shook her head. “I have a life here now. People will be hurt if I go. What about Robert?”
“Who is Robert?” I asked.
“My husband,” she said.
“Husband?” I didn’
t know it was possible for a mortal and immortal to marry. “How can this be?”
“It just is.”
“He’ll be fine,” I said. “Out here you have the power to make sure he’ll be fine.”
She laughed. “I have power?” She looked off into the distance for a moment. “I knew something was different. The hospital—” She sighed. “It all makes sense now.”
“Your mind is limitless,” I said. “You can do anything you believe.”
“Where were you when I needed you to remind me of who I was?” There was an ache in her voice.
“I’m here now.”
She nodded.
“Do what you need to do for Robert. Then we must go. The more time we waste the worse it is for everyone else.”
She nodded again and this time closed her eyes and seemed to be focusing on something. With her eyes clamped closed I watched her. Her breathing became a little more rapid. After only a few moments she was finished and opened her eyes again. “You’re right. He’ll be fine.”
I sat down on the bed next to her and placed my hand in hers. “We must go now.”
“I can’t leave him behind,” she said. “He’s been so good to me.”
“When this is finished you can go back. I promise.” I was making promises I wasn’t sure I could keep, but all of us needed to be on the island for the vessel to work.
“I’m ready then,” she said.
“Concentrate on the island. On the beach. That’s where we want to go.”
We both began to focus. It started again, the rushing wind pulling us home. It swirled around us until everything went black.
Chapter 20
The water was chest deep. I did a large wheezing inhale, filling my starved lungs with air. Waves splashed up around my shoulders, the water licking my skin. Suddenly I realized the vessel was in my arms below the surface. I didn’t know if he needed air or not so I lifted my arms above my head, pulling him out from beneath the sea. I looked around for Santali, worried that she had not returned with me. Twisting around I saw her standing in the water a few feet away with a troubled look on her face.
Isle of Gods II: Amara Page 11