Isle of Gods I: Damek

by H. Lovelyn Bettison

  “I don’t know,” Marco said. “Maybe in the galley. How is our prisoner?"

  “They’re fine,” I said knowing full well that even if the ship made it through the storm without breaking into pieces Raul could try to make the girl walk the plank before our voyage was over.

  “They?” Marco asked, turning to Raul.

  “We have a stowaway,” Raul said without breaking his concentration. He looked through the glass at the swirl of wind and rain that made sky and sea nearly indistinguishable. “But none of that matters if we don’t make it through this storm.”

  “We’ll make it through, won’t we?” Marco asked me.

  I couldn’t tell if he was just looking for reassurance or if he was really expecting me to know. “I don’t know,” I said.

  Marco snorted. “You are the one who has all the visions. They didn’t tell you if we’d make it back?”

  “She never showed me the future. She only showed me how to get here. The rest was up to us.” Once we’d gotten Amara locked safely away in her cell the others wanted to go back to the island. Marco and Pete kept saying that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Louis had nervously paced the deck like the gravity of what we’d just done had finally hit him. Me and Raul had gotten what we’d come for though. One god was all we really needed. I didn’t know if we’d be able to keep more than one under control. We could’ve tried to find their treasure, but I thought that might be pushing our luck and I had to think about getting back home to Lourdes and Tati.

  For some reason, Raul agreed with me. I thought he might want to try to pillage the island, but he seemed to think that now that we knew the secret we could come back anytime. I was grateful for that because his decisions pulled the most weight. The others reluctantly agreed, but they were already planning a second, grander trip.

  The boat groaned under the force of the storm. A wall of water rose up before us tall enough to capsize a ship twice the size of Mimi. Raul’s eyes widened with fear. “We have to beat it,” he said suddenly.

  I looked at the vengeful mountain of water rearing up before us. Its glassy peaks ready to bury us as Raul pushed the throttle. The engine screamed and we went headlong into the wave. Mimi tipped back sending Marco and me careening out of our chairs, slamming our backs against the rear wall of the wheelhouse. My head hit the solid wall hard enough to knock any other man unconscious. Marco’s body lay limp against the wall. Raul held on with everything he had still pushing the throttle. At the point when I was sure we’d tip over, we crested the wave crashing up and over the other side into a valley of water. The victory was big, but the storm gave us no time to celebrate because after each triumph came another greater challenge. Marco regained consciousness as his body went sliding toward the front of the wheelhouse. He stopped himself from slamming against the front wall with his feet.

  The wheelhouse door fell open and I heard someone yell from outside. I turned to see Louis clinging onto the handrail his eyes closed against the wind. I leaped to my feet putting all of my focus into staying upright and moved toward the wheelhouse door. The boat tipped back again and I caught myself on the doorframe preventing myself from falling, and stretched my arm out, reaching for Louis. Once I felt his hand grab mine I leaned back, pulling him to safety inside. We fell to the floor in a heap.

  Louis had a gash across his forehead that was dripping blood. “We’re taking on water,” he said. “Pete has stopped it for now, but he doesn’t know how long the patch job will hold.”

  “We’re dead,” Marco said. He clung onto the base of the stool he’d been sitting on before the storm threw him to the ground.

  “No, we’re not,” I insisted. “As long as we’re still standing we can fight this thing.”

  “It’s a storm,” Marco said. “You don’t fight it. You survive. You ride it out.”

  “You may,” I said. “I fight. I fight until there is no fight left and even then I fight some more.”

  “And if we sink?” Marco said.

  “We fight even harder, but we won’t sink. Mimi will never sink.”

  Louis’s face quivered. “If the patch doesn’t hold the water will come in fast.”

  “It will hold. Pete does good work. That’s why he’s on this ship,” Raul said.

  Louis held onto the wall. His feet wide to hold himself upright, he took hold of his Sacred Circle pendant, held it skyward and began to pray. “To the gods of heaven and earth and wind and fire,” he began. “We seek mercy as we repent for our sinful ways.”

  I didn’t appreciate this at all mainly because I didn’t consider what I did sinful. She wanted to be taken. She showed me how to get there. If anyone was in the wrong here it was her. “Do you really think they’ll help us now?” I snapped. “After we’ve put one of them in a cage? We’d do better just to go down there and ask her to do something.” If I let her out of her cage she could save us. She was off the island that meant she could do anything. That’s what the Book of Gods said.

  They all turned and looked at me.

  “Good idea,” Marco said.

  “But I’d have to take her outside the ring of keeper stones. We could lose her altogether. Then all of this would have been for nothing.” I looked at Raul. “The storm is rough, but we’ve been through bad storms before. Mimi always holds together.”

  “You should go,” Louis said.

  I didn’t take orders from Louis. I waited for Raul. We all looked at him as he clenched the wheel with white-knuckled determination. He had spent most of his life trying to capture a god. Would he be willing to give that up to get through the storm? He swallowed hard. “We’ve never been through a storm this bad. We’re taking on water. Our odds are low and I have a responsibility to my crew to get you through this in one piece.” He sighed. “She wanted to come with us, she might stay on the ship even if given the opportunity to leave.” He paused. “Go. Maybe she’ll have mercy on us.”

  So I went.

  Chapter 13

  A deluge of seawater rushed down the ladder after me stinging my eyes and filling my nose. I closed the hatch door shutting out the chaos of the storm. Something was wrong. I didn’t need to ask because I felt it. A sweetness continued to hang in the damp stagnant air but beneath that was the alcoholic smell of decaying citrus. I stood still for a moment letting my eyes readjust to the dim light. Besides the puddle of water at the bottom of the ladder that I’d let in I saw no evidence of flooding. The hum of the forcefield pulsed slowly. It hadn’t done that before and I wondered if that meant it was losing power. “Is everybody all right down here?” I asked.

  “No,” Amara said. She sat on the floor at the front of her cell holding the bars. “Twee is ill.”

  As if on cue Twee began to moan. With the boat pitching every which way in the storm it took all of my concentration to remain upright. I approached the bars of Twee’s cell. She lay in the corner curled into a ball. I could barely see her in the shadows. “Please help me,” she called out. Her voice was so desperate that I knew I needed to do something quickly.

  I fumbled with the keys for a moment before I was able to unlock her cell. Once inside I crawled over to her trembling body and placed a hand on her shoulder. She was drenched through with sweat.

  “Ah,” she cried as if my touch hurt her.

  I jumped back remembering what had happened the last time I touched her, but this time there was no shock. “You’re in labor,” I said.

  Twee shook her head vehemently. “I can’t give birth here,” she said between her desperate pants for air.

  “I don’t want you to have this baby here either, but we don’t have any other choice.” I’d been with Lourdes when Tati was born, but we had doctors and were in the sterile environment of a hospital. I didn’t have to do anything but remind her to breathe and hold her hand. We didn’t have a doctor on board this ship. The closest we had was Louis who didn’t really count. Even if the likelihood of this baby being born whole was low, I wanted to give him the chanc
e everyone deserved.

  “I stopped having choices long ago,” Twee said. “Why should this be any different?” She yelled as she rolled onto her back. Her face was so twisted with pain that she almost didn’t look human. Great beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. Veins popped from her neck. When she opened her eyes they flashed to green and then to brown again as if possessed by a demonic spirit.

  “What’s happening?” Amara called out to me from the other side of the wall.

  “She’s in labor,” I said making sure I was speaking loud enough to be heard over the wind and the waves.

  Twee took hold of my forearm, her fingers digging into my flesh. “Please,” she said.

  I watched as her large round stomach began to contort as if hundreds of fists were inside her trying to punch their way out.

  “Help me,” she yelled raising up onto her elbows and looking at her own abdomen with the same horror I felt.

  Amara’s voice ripped through the terror. “Are we beyond the barrier rocks?” she asked.

  I couldn’t understand why she would care about such a thing at a time like this. “Yes,” I said.

  “How far?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Whatever was trying to get out of Twee had calmed. Her belly looked like a smooth dome again. She relaxed her grip on my arm. Tears slid from her eyes. “I’m dying,” she yelled. “You were wrong. I am dying.”

  “Not if I can help it,” I said, but she wasn’t talking to me. She was looking at the wall that separated her cell from Amara’s.

  “Death is not your destiny at this time,” Amara said.

  “You are wrong. You are always wrong.” Twee attempted to raise an angry fist in the air but could only pick it up inches from the floor because she was so weak from the pain. “I survived one shipwreck just to die in another.” The storm roared as if commenting on her anger. “I let them put this thing inside of me and now it’s like a race to see what will kill me first.” She looked at the wall waiting for Amara to say something, but Amara answered with silence. “I trusted you. I trusted all of you!” Twee lowered herself to the ground again. “Ahhhh.”

  “Get rid of those stones. I can’t do anything until they are gone,” Amara called out.

  She was right. That was why I came down to begin with. I stood up.

  “Don’t leave me,” Twee pleaded.

  “I’ll only be a minute. I have to let Amara out so she can help you.” I stood looking at the keeper stones that Raul had spent so much money. “What do I have to do?” I asked Amara.

  “Get them off the ship.”

  I got an empty box from the storeroom that was big enough to hold all of the keeper stones. Then I grabbed hold of the stone directly in front of me and twisted it counterclockwise. It popped off its base easily. I worked quickly, even though the floor beneath me was unsteady, taking all of the stones from their pillars and laying them in the box. Getting up the ladder with the box was a bit of a challenge because of the wild swaying of the boat. As the wind and waves pelted me I stumbled across the deck toward the railing sending the stones overboard. It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to think about what I was doing. Raul would be angry, but it was the only way.

  Empty-handed I headed back down the hatch. “They’re gone,” I said. When I looked at Amara’s cell she wasn’t there. The door was still closed and locked tight, but she had vanished. My heart stopped. “Amara?”

  “In here.” She was in Twee’s cell kneeling beside her. Amara put her hand on Twee’s stomach and it was as if a light passed through her. Twee’s body relaxed. “You will not die here. I have already told you that is not your destiny. I saw it in the seerstone. You will see your brother again. That is your destiny.”

  “But this thing will tear my body in half,” Twee said.

  “If Father thought that was the case he would’ve never allowed this to happen. You must know that already.” A softness came across Amara that I’d only seen in my visions. She was full of compassion.

  Twee nodded slowly. “Father loves me. He told me that I was special. That’s why I was chosen to carry the vessel. It was something that only I could do.”

  Amara smiled. “That is correct and now I will help you bring forth the vessel and with it a new age. That is what is meant to come to pass.”

  The boat pitched hard to the right and groaned like it was crying out.

  “I will take care of that.” Amara closed her eyes tightly and slowly the waters calmed. It was like the storm was lulled to sleep. The boat was still. It didn’t feel like we were on the water anymore. “Just until the infant comes,” she said to me. “I need the stillness to do this right.”

  “You stopped the storm?” I asked. With all that was going on with Twee I’d forgotten to ask her if she could do anything about the storm.

  She nodded and placed her hand on Twee’s stomach. “You must push,” she said.

  “I can’t.” Twee looked at me and then at Amara with fear in her eyes.

  “You must.”

  Twee reached out and took hold of the hem of Amara’s skirt and bore down as she cried out in pain. The rise of her belly seemed to move as she pushed.

  “Very good,” Amara said. “Now again.”

  Twee panted a few times before bearing down again. Again I could see the baby move downward.

  “Good,” Amara said. She moved her hand further down on Twee’s belly. “Again.”

  This time Twee shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Again,” Amara insisted and we waited, but Twee did nothing.

  “Please. I can’t. It will kill me.”

  “If you don’t push it will stay in you and that might kill you too.”

  Twee bore down again letting out a scream louder than any I’d heard in my life. Her stomach began to undulate roughly, her back arched up and her body convulsed. Her eyes flashed from brown to green and her head hung loosely as if she were too spent to hold it up any longer.

  Amara leaned forward pressing her full bodyweight into Twee’s stomach and a bright red mixture of blood and fluid burst from between Twee’s legs and puddled around us. Neither of us moved. We continued to kneel in the warm, thick fluid. Amara pushed again and the baby didn’t move. “She will not die,” she said to me as if saying it out loud would make it true.

  Amara shifted her position, inhaled deeply, and reached her hand up between Twee’s legs. When she’d caught hold of the infant she pulled it out by the head.

  I had expected tragedy as most of the births these days ended in despair, but this baby exceeded anything I could’ve imagined. It was unmoving. His legs were straight, the toes pointed. His arms were at his sides. His skin was the color of cement. I reached out to pick him up because Amara had abandoned him in the puddle while she wiped the sweat from Twee’s forehead. When I touched him he was stiff and cold like stone. “What is this?” I asked.

  Before Amara could answer Raul opened the hatch. “You did it!” he yelled. “The only problem is that we need to keep moving.”

  I looked up to see his worn black boots coming down the ladder. Through the hatch above him the sky was a clear blue. Not a trace of the storm remained. I stood as he reached the bottom of the ladder and stepped back to get out of the puddle of bodily fluids. Raul stormed into the cell and then stopped suddenly seeing the scene: Twee on the floor the stone infant lying between her legs. “What is this?” he asked, his voice tainted with disgust.

  Twee inhaled sharply as she opened her eyes.

  “You’re back,” Amara said.

  “I demand an answer!” Raul yelled. The veins in his forehead rose.

  “She gave birth,” I said.

  Raul narrowed his eyes at me as if he thought I must be stupid. “I can see that.”

  Twee sat up slowly. “It’s over?” she asked. She looked around at the puddle she was lying in. “Help me up. I don’t want to lie in this.”

  I stepped forward being careful not to
slip, hoisted her into my arms, and placed her on the hard cot at the far end of the cell. She pulled the rough gray blanket that lay on the cot over her.

  Amara picked up the infant and cradled him in her arms as if he were a living child. Raul stepped forward and reached out his hand to touch it. When he did he jumped backward. “What manner of abomination is this?” he asked.

  “He is the vessel of light,” Amara said.

  “He is dead,” Raul said. “It would be best to throw it overboard.”

  “He lives,” Amara said. “He just is not yet ready for this world. Just a little longer and he will emerge to save us all.” She turned to Twee. “Do you want to hold him?” she asked.

  Twee shook her head wearily. “I’ve spent long enough with that thing inside of me. I don’t even want to see it.”

  Raul turned his attention to Amara. “We’re at a standstill. We can’t afford to sit here forever,” he said. “You must release us. We are still and the storm doesn’t look like it will pass. We cannot stay here forever. We must get home.”

  “I have saved you,” Amara said. “This ship would have surely sunk if it stayed in the storm any longer. You wanted my help, did you not?”

  “We have to keep moving or we will run out of supplies.” Raul’s finger quivered with anger as he pointed it at her.

  “Did you not send Damek to get me to help earlier?” Amara asked.

  “This isn't the help I wanted. You have trapped us.” Raul shook with anger.

  I had to go see for myself. I hadn’t been above deck to see how the storm was cleared. As I climbed from the belly of the ship I couldn’t believe what I saw.

  Chapter 14

  Awe overtook me as I witnessed what should have been impossible. Amara hadn’t cleared the storm completely. Instead she’d made a safe space in the midst of it for us. It was as if the ship was covered by a giant invisible dome. The sky just above us was a bright clear blue. Not a single cloud could be seen. I walked over to the rail to look down at the water around us and it was as calm as the most tranquil lake. Only a few feet beyond the storm raged. Waves rose high into the air breaking and sliding down a wall that wasn’t really there. The black clouds pressed against an unseen barrier. From every angle water and wind pressed in but it could not penetrate the force that surrounded us. Whatever the force was that Amara was using to hold back the storm felt fragile. The ferocious waves were like wild tigers that could penetrate it at any moment devouring us all. I could not get enough of the scene, turning in every direction on the deck breathlessly taking it all in. One day I would tell this story to people, but my words would be too limited to do it justice. The gods really did have powers beyond anything we could imagine. I didn’t doubt that before, but now I had definite proof.