Trinka and the Thousand Talismans

by Christy Jones

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Going Home

  As Trinka watched the beautiful island she had made slip farther and farther from view as their ship sailed away, she felt a twinge of sadness. But she knew that staying there wouldn’t be the same with everyone gone―it was an empty place now.

  “Don’t worry,” Tarian had told her as they hugged good-bye. “I’m sure we’ll find a way to see each other again soon.”

  “Anybody who can create a whole island out of thin air should have no trouble making sure of that,” Kolinkar had laughed.

  And now her brother and sister-in-law, like everyone else, were back home where they belonged.

  Trinka’s attention turned back to the deck of the ship as Spigot and Spout skittered by, accidentally dousing the sailors again.

  “So,” Thork said as he wrung the water from his sweater. “What are you going to call your new island? We’ve got to put it on the charts, you know, so ships don’t run ashore on it.”

  “Strange color to the sea around it,” Matros remarked. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Sure enough, the water all around the island seemed to glow with a deep shade of purple, as if a bright red light were shining up through the dark blue waters.

  “That must be where I dropped the truthstone,” Bram came up behind Trinka and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t realize what I’d done until it was too late.”

  “That’s okay,” Trinka smiled. “I think we found a good place for it.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “So,” Vann persisted, “What’s the place to be called?”

  “I believe the proper term for such a thing is a Solidus,” Stanley the Whatler told them, in such a superior tone that no one questioned how he knew that.

  “Solidus. I like that,” Trinka answered quietly.

  “Come,” Bram said after a moment of quiet reflection. “Your mother wants to see you.” He pointed her toward the cargo hold.

  Trinka stepped into the low, cramped chamber and to her surprise, saw a large room stretching out in all directions, far beyond the normal boundaries of the ship. Plush pillows covered in rich, brightly colored fabrics lined the walls and floors, making it look as beautiful and comfortable as any bed on Apostrophe. Ashira leaned forward from reclining on the cushions, and held up a small, rectangular prism of helio blue that must have been the talisman Aunt Vashti used to make her terrace garden expand.

  “I thought as long as we have it, we might as well use it,” she said.

  Trinka’s eyes swept over the crimson cushions embroidered with beautiful, long-feathered blue birds, silken purple flowers, and dazzling rose-orange sunsets, sewn with sparkling golden threads and thousands of tiny jewels.

  Everything around her must remind her of home. Trinka swallowed hard.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be back home?” she blurted out.

  Her mother’s large, dark eyes blinked in surprise.

  “I mean, are you sure you wouldn’t rather be back in your palace in Apostrophe, instead of here with us?”

  “Trinka,” her mother answered, “Come sit down.”

  As Trinka sank down next to her on the pillows, she was finally able to do what she had been aching to for so long. She buried her face in her mother’s shoulder as her mother stroked her long, wind-tangled, dirty blonde hair. It felt so good not to be a stranger to her anymore.

  “My home’s not in a palace or in Apostrophe, or in Ellipsis. It’s where my family is.”

  “Which one? Us, or Aunt Vashti and—?”

  “You,” her mother answered firmly.

  “It must have been hard for you. Everything’s so different between Apostrophe and Brace and Ellipsis.”

  “Yes, it was hard leaving the family I grew up with to start my own family,” she admitted. “I haven’t always made the right choices, and when I have, I haven’t always made them in the right way. But there’s nowhere I would rather be than wherever you are, watching you grow up, and I’m sorry I’ve missed that, Trinka, so sorry. If I could go back and do it over again so that I never left you, I would. But now what’s happened has happened. All we can do is enjoy the time ahead.”

  Trinka looked up at her and smiled, and her mother laughed―oh, how good it was to hear her laugh―and held her tighter.

  The cargo hold door swung open, and Bram lowered himself inside.

  “Well, I see you’ve been redecorating.”

  “You don’t mind, do you Dad?” Trinka asked hurriedly.

  “No,” he said slowly. “It reminds me of the first time you came away to sea with me.” He reached over and squeezed Ashira’s hand. “It sure is good to see all my girls together again.”

  “Well, two of us,” Trinka said.

  “Nope, all of them,” Bram corrected. Annelise appeared behind him.

  “I thought you had to go back to school,” Trinka exclaimed.

  Annelise smiled. “I asked to take a leave of absence so I could spend some time with my family,” she said. “Besides, I have a message for you. Two messages, actually.”

  “What? From whom?” Trinka’s expression grew puzzled.

  “Well, why don’t you tell us about it on deck.” Bram suggested. “This old sailor can’t take too much more time below. Even in the company of such beautiful women,” he added jokingly.

  As the four of them stepped out on top of the ship, Trinka blinked at the light glinting off the waves. An especially rough wave hit the ship, sending Ashira and Annelise clinging to Bram for support.

  “Sorry, Trinkalassa, I only have two arms.” Bram laughed. Ashira and Annelise reached out to Trinka and, between them, grabbed both her hands. They held on to each other as the wind whipped their hair and the waves threatened to topple them over. As the ship steadied out again, they let go, and Annelise laughed more than Trinka had ever heard before as she struggled to keep her gleaming white robes straight and her light blonde hair smoothed in its usual place. Ashira and Bram were smiling at each other. Bram pulled his wife in closer and kissed her, and Trinka almost managed not to feel horribly embarrassed.

  Suddenly, another strong wave hit, and this time Trinka put her hand against the mast to keep her balance. Beneath her fingers, she noticed some writing that seemed much larger and deeper than any of the other letters. She tried to remember her reading skills and thought it spelled “hjem.”

  “It’s the name of the ship. We always write it in the Old Salt language,” Bram explained as he saw her looking at the marks. “Yem,” as he pronounced it, “means ‘home’.”

  Trinka felt a big breath free itself from her chest as she looked up at her father and smiled. For the first time, she really did feel like she had gone home, where she belonged. And it wasn’t a place, after all. It was with her family.

  “I almost forgot your messages,” Annelise told Trinka as the ship steadied. “Which do you want first, the one from Nikolay, or the one from Mrs. Swissle?”

  Trinka swallowed hard.

  “Nikolay.”

  Annelise handed over the strangest-looking jar Trinka had ever seen. Its base curved like a ball, then became a very narrow tube, then a ball again, then spiraled up the tightest pipe to the most elaborate stopper. Trinka untwisted the lid around and around and around, until the contents suddenly popped loose with an ear-piercing squeal, and a cloud of thought blasted her full force in the face, fizzing up her nose.

  “Do you like my new invention, Trinka?” the words rang into her mind, and she could picture her friend’s goofy grin. “Can’t say that any of the professors do. I sure wish you were here too. It’s no fun upsetting the balance of the universe all by myself.” The thoughts took on a more serious tone. “I’m glad you found your family, and I really hope you come back. Soon!”

  As the message wheezed and sputtered to a close, Trinka smiled.

  “Mrs. Swissle has a message for you too. She’s very upset about your missing so much school at the Elite
Academy.”

  “But I didn’t even get in,” Trinka protested.

  “You didn’t get in because Mrs. Swissle didn’t show the committee your answer―they only discovered it when storing all the results afterward.”

  “But it was only an empty jar.” Trinka thought back to the gangly, lopsided mess she had made of that glass container.

  “That’s what she thought at first, but here’s what they think about it now.” Annelise handed her a small glass. Trinka opened it and breathed in the thoughts.

  “So simple, so stunning,” Zelousha remarked. “At first it looks like a warped, defective, empty jar, manufactured entirely incorrectly, but when you look closely, you see the gentle curves where hands have gripped it, hoping, waiting… how it reaches taller, as if stretching openly toward the future…”

  “A beautiful, avant garde piece of art,” Melisande added. “It really captures the emotion of the person who created it, and allows the viewer to share in it, as if we’re right there in that moment too…”

  “Brilliant,” Qui pronounced. “It shows the uncertainty of life and one’s openness to receive it…”

  “None of us truly see every turn we are supposed to take in life,” Viellie added. “All we can do is trust that we’re on the way. Remarkable for a student to know that at such a young age.”

  Trinka looked up at Annelise in wonder.

  Her sister smiled and handed her an empty jar, the largest Trinka had ever seen. Grble would have fit into it easily.

  “Since you’re not at the academy, Mrs. Swissle wants an essay on where you’ve gone so far.”

  Trinka looked at the enormous jar and thought of all the places she had traveled, the unexpected twists and turns, the people she had met, the talismans she had been given, and all the events that never would have happened if things had gone “right” in the first place.

  She looked back at her older sister and grinned.

  “I think I can handle that.”

  THE END...

  coming soon

  Trinka and the Hundred Languages

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