Exiled (16 page)

As the heat dissipated, it was replaced. It wasn’t the emptiness or pressure James had come to expect but desire. Desire to fulfill the destiny Luno had laid out for him. Not for Luno or the others trapped on The Never but for her. Just her. Her approval, her acceptance, her love. Kilani released her grip on his neck and let her hand fall from his chest. Despite his immediate longing for her touch, he felt invigorated. James wondered what she so longed for but knew she would tell him only when she was ready, if at all. On that day for the first time, James felt as if Kilani saw him as a man rather than just a boy.

A cry of “Land ho,” returned James to the present. In that simple phrase James realized there were only two true mariners aboard the ship. He was grateful to have William and Roger and understood why Luno kept them close in his council during the planning phase of the expedition. He had even allowed them to name the ship, which they called The Queen Mary, after their wives, both named Mary.

“Bring her about the western point and look for a suitable place to anchor,” Luno shouted from the bow. “Aye, aye, Capin’,” Roger shouted from behind the wheel.

Luno slowed the ship as it rounded the point. For the first time, James saw the second widow, which was tucked in just behind the first. The islands were close, easily within rowing distance, especially considering his newfound strength.

The water along the coasts of both widows was brilliant green. It gave way to a deep blue several hundred feet from shore. The sails slackened and the ship coasted toward where the blue and green waters met. The sail was quickly lowered and stowed while William positioned the boat for anchoring. James, Kilani, and Roger lowered the stone anchor. The line, made of woven iron-tree vines, went slack shortly after breaking the surface of the water.

“She’s not much deeper ’n the keel Capin’. Touch and go by the looks of it. Good thing we anchored here or she’d run aground for sure,” Roger shouted to Luno, who was gathering supplies from the hold.

They dropped the bow anchor for stability despite the lakestill waters. Once the dinghy was loaded with the necessary supplies, the crew made their way aboard and began to row to shore. Luno wasn’t entirely sure if leaving the ship unoccupied would be a wise idea because of the unpredictable weather, but it had calmed significantly. As the anchors had gained easy purchase on the sea floor, he decided having everyone search for running water would be the best use of manpower.

The small boat made landfall without incident. They pulled the boat ashore and lashed it to a tree. Luno quickly unrolled a map he’d drawn based on his observations from the mainland. The strange mist still hung over the island, making visibility inland poor at best.

“I had hoped we’d be able to see better once we’d made landfall,” Luno said, looking up from his map into the jungle in front of him. “Our only choice is to head inland. We shall cross north to south, coast to coast in an easterly direction. Kilani, I want you to lead. James, take the rear. Be on your guard, there’s no telling what may dwell inland. Let us make haste; midday approaches rapidly.”

The group moved quickly into the jungle. They were immediately enveloped in the mist, which reminded James of the London fogs at their worst. Though William was no more than ten paces in front of him, James could barely make out his back, and he couldn’t make out anyone else in the group at all.

The interior of the island was eerily silent. Even the footfalls of the group fell noiselessly. James could detect no elevation change as they carried on. It wasn’t long before they had crossed the small island and were on the southern shore. Other than the giant trees, which disappeared in the mist not far above their heads, they hadn’t seen much of anything. They quickly turned and made their way back into the jungle, this time on a northeasterly heading.

Not long after they plunged into the mist the group stopped. An earsplitting shriek broke the silence. James could hear the leaves in the trees above fluttering under the weight of something moving from branch to branch. The group formed a tight circle, each facing out and looking up into the mist in hopes of spotting whatever was moving. The sound above stopped as quickly as it started. Several leaves glided through the mist and fell to the ground around the group. After another moment of silence, Luno ordered them to press on. After a longer spell of walking, the group again stepped through the jungle onto the beach, this time northeast of their original position. The
Queen Mary
was still visible, anchored just offshore.

“We will make one more pass to the southern shore and one pass back to the north. If we don’t find anything, we will implement our contingency plan,” Luno said.

Each time the group stepped into the jungle, James felt increasingly uneasy. His senses were on high alert as, yet again, he stepped into the mist-shrouded forest. For the first time since their arrival on the first widow, James thought he could detect a slight rise in the elevation as they moved rapidly toward the center of the island. The rest of the group’s unease had heightened as well. So much so that when Kilani came to a stop, every member, save Luno, ran into the back of the person in front of them. James, who had been looking up into the canopy, walked into Roger and knocked him to the ground.

As he helped Roger to his feet, James realized the heavy mist had dissipated slightly. In front of him, Kilani, Luno, and William were staring at a tall stone structure blocking their path. It stretched high into the air. The top was wreathed by the dense canopy. The base was as wide as three horse-lengths. Its circular shape revealed no seams.

“Vat the ’ell es it, Capitan?” William asked.

“I don’t know,” Luno replied, slowly circumnavigating the base while carefully inspecting it. He stopped on the far side. Glyphs carved into the stone stretched in a straight line from the ground into the canopy.

“Do you recognize it?” James asked.

“No. I’ve never seen writing such as this,” Luno replied. “Strange,” James said as he inspected the black granite tower. “What, boy?” asked Luno.

“This is somehow familiar . . . like I’ve seen it before.”

“Impossible,” said Luno. “The stone appears to be of the same type of rock as the cave. Perhaps the familiarity comes from there?”

“Perhaps,” said James. His hand was buried deep inside the satchel slung over his shoulder. Between his thumb and index finger the cool steel of the key instantly reminded him of the unquestionable desire it had awakened.

Slowly, Luno extended his hand toward the tower. As it neared the stone, he could feel heat radiating from it. Luno paused before contacting the surface.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Kilani asked.

“Not at all,” Luno replied, mesmerized by the mysterious lettering. He lowered his hand and stepped back from the spire. Luno sensed importance in their discovery, but he couldn’t articulate where the feeling was coming from.

“We must get an accurate position. I feel we may need to return to this place and we won’t be able to find it unless we do so. James, Kilani, make your way north to the second widow as quickly as you can. As soon as I’ve got this mapped, we will continue our search for running water. We’ll meet you at our landing site before sundown.”

Overwhelmed by the desire to put as much distance between himself and the spire, James nodded and headed toward the northern end of the clearing. Kilani paused to have a word with Luno. From where James was standing, they appeared to be arguing, but he could not hear the exchange. James could tell by her expression that she wasn’t pleased with the outcome. “Everything okay?” James asked.

“Let us move with all haste,” she said and took off into the mist at a run. James hurried after. Several minutes had passed when the commotion in the mist-covered canopy above took up again. This time Kilani did not stop. Instead, she increased her speed. James kept close behind.

It didn’t take the pair long to reach the northern shore. They looked to the west. The coast curved slightly to the south, preventing them from seeing their landing point and the
Queen Mary
. Not wanting to waste a minute, they continued running along the shore. As they ran, James noticed numerous tracks in the sand. They started where the small waves rolled onto the shore and disappeared into the jungle. The majority were smaller than his own footprints. He did, however, spot two larger sets of tracks among the smaller tracks. Neither were identifiable.

The pair silently made their way to the dinghy without incident. They made quick progress across the channel and reached the shore of the second widow within an hour. They secured the small boat and moved down the shoreline to the east, parallel to the course they had just run on the first widow’s coast. Kilani had spotted cliffs on the far western side of the second widow. They made their way rapidly to where the shore turned sharply to the northeast.

James noticed similar-looking tracks in the sand: two pair of large tracks and countless smaller tracks. Based on his pace counting (a mapping trick Luno had taught him), they were approximately across from the tracks he’d spotted on the first widow. Underfoot the soft sand gave way to small stones. As they drew nearer to the southeastern point on the island, the size of the stones lining the shore gradually increased until James and Kilani were hopping from stone to stone. They had decided to avoid going into the jungle (and the mist) until they reached the cliffs.

The stones became boulders and spilled out into the sea as they reached the southwestern corner. James and Kilani looked up to the north, seeing the cliffs. Considering the lack of elevation change from the western side of the island to the eastern, James couldn’t understand how there were cliffs on this side of the island. By all logic they should be underwater. Knowing better than to question the rationality of
The Never
James followed Kilani as she made her way toward the cliffs.

Unlike the cliffs by Harbor Town, which were virtually smooth and perfectly vertical, these were choked by roots and vines and had numerous ledges and outcroppings. James and Kilani were reassured. Even in The Never, plants needed fresh water to survive.

Kilani grasped the nearest vine and began to climb. James followed closely. When they reached the first overhang Kilani paused.

“What is it?” James asked.

“Those plants,” she said, looking at the low-growing purple and white plants that were tucked into where the vertical face met the outcropping. “I’ve never seen them before.”

Before he could stop her, Kilani jumped from the vine to the ledge and carefully pulled one plant, roots and all from the rock. The long white roots reminded James of the guardian’s tendrils. She wound them around the base of the plant and gently placed it in her satchel. James knew they were in a hurry but decided not to rush her. He had long since suspected Kilani’s obsession with finding the local ingredients for transporting powder directly correlated with her desire to leave this place and return to . . . to something.

Without making eye contact, Kilani jumped from the ledge and grasped the vine above. She continued upward. Near the top, she paused again. James was about to insist that they keep moving when she spoke. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

“I hear nothing out of the ordinary,” James replied.

“I hear running water,” she said.

Without another word, she began moving across the cliff face, jumping from vine to vine. James followed though he questioned whether several of the vines would hold his weight. When she reached a leaf-covered protrusion, she paused. James froze as he gained purchase on the vine beside her. He listened. Sure enough, he could make out the faint trickle of water echoing through a cavern. Kilani removed her short sword from its sheath and began hacking at the vegetation covering the cliff face. As it fell away, a small shelf was revealed. James climbed until his head was even with the shelf. It stretched back two arm-lengths where a small opening, no higher than James’s forearm and no wider than his shoulders, continued into the cliffs.

Having learned from Luno, James removed a fire tree leaf from his satchel. He removed a second, which he kept tucked under his belt, and touched them together just above a small torch he’d also kept in his satchel. The leaves immediately ignited and fell in a ball of flame onto the sap-soaked torch. He extended his arm toward the opening and the light from the torch spilled inside. Kilani crouched, looking.

“It goes back for some distance,” she said.

“Can you tell if it opens up?” James asked.

“No. It curves to the left.”

James shifted the supplies that hung from his belt to his back for more freedom of movement and crouched. He peered inside and saw just what Kilani had described, and he could hear the sound of running water clearly. There was no doubt that inside was what they were looking for. Getting there would be another matter entirely.

“I may fit,” James said, measuring the opening with his hands. He looked at Kilani. She had already removed all of the supplies she had been carrying, save a small dagger, which she slid from her hip to the small of her back, and her own ready-made torch.

“I’ll go first to see if it widens,” she said already lying prone on the shelf and pulling herself toward the opening. After lighting her torch from James’s, she wriggled her way inside shifting her hips from side to side. Her bare feet—eternally dirty as none of The Never’s residents wore shoes—disappeared into the opening.

Several minutes passed as James watched her silhouette dance in front of the torch that lit her path. Soon the opening fell dark as she turned the corner. Minutes ticked by, each longer than the next. The rustling of her body shuffling along the stone floor ceased, and James’s pulse quickened. He called out to her. With each silent moment that passed James could feel his heart steadily making its way up into his throat. Finally she replied. The echo off the tunnel walls made deciphering the words difficult. James thought he made out the words “Come in.”

He quickly removed his gear, lashing it to the vine hanging over his head, and crawled toward the opening. He began moving into the narrow entrance, gripping his torch awkwardly. James had never liked tight spaces and this was no exception. He kept his arms in front of his body to narrow his shoulders enough to squeeze inside. Unfortunately this also reduced the leverage he could get and slowed his progress.