Darkly Rising

by J. D. Matheny

  Darkly Rising

  Dark Island Series Book Three

  J. D. Matheny

  Copyright © 2017 by J. D. Matheny

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Acknowledgments

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  1

  The dark face loomed over her, growing closer with each passing second. She wanted to move, knew that she needed to move, but her body was resistant to her silent urges. Either her muscles weren’t functioning, or her feet were rooted somehow, she couldn’t be sure. What she was sure of was that death was approaching and she seemed incapable of fleeing before it.

  You gotta move, Sophie! It can’t end like this!

  Yet as she stared at the inky black whirlpool floating through the air toward her, she gradually lost all thoughts of self-preservation. She didn’t care what happened to her anymore, she just wanted to see. She wanted to know.

  There were answers in that swirling pit. The promise of them was filling her up inside, igniting her curiosity, and quelling her fears. All she had to do was remain still and wait. Fighting would do no good anyway, the figure before her promised that much.

  Daucina. He wasn’t just a figure, he was a God. A massive tower of overpowering strength and undeniable malice, with a purpose that was still a mystery to her. He wanted her, wanted to be with her, to couple with her.

  But why? The chief at the village said that Daucina tried to mate with the local women but was rarely successful in bringing forth an offspring, and on the rare occasion that it happened, they ‘took care of it’. Was that the purpose? To birth a young deity?

  But he was already with you, you know that. You had the dreams. Jacob told you the same thing. And you had a child.

  Kai.

  “Go away,” she mumbled. “Leave me alone. I don’t want you. I hate you.”

  She knew she did too, yet the words were spoken as an afterthought. As if she didn’t really care. The fight was gone from her.

  The face before her, if you could call it a face, moved ever closer. In a moment, she’d be close enough to kiss that twisting black hole where a face should be. Not that she wanted to. Did she? She didn’t know what she wanted anymore. The closer it got, the more confused and lost she was.

  Something squirmed in her lap, something warm and small. It was enough of a something to allow her to break her gaze from the hypnotic presence in front of her.

  Dragging her eyes downward she confronted the small being in her lap. For a moment, there was shock. Fright. Disgust. The thing was all fangs and claws, black skinned, with those same swirling vortexes for eyes. Slobber flung out from the corners of its mouth as it twisted and squirmed in anger or frustration. One little, clawed hand stretched up and groped at the front of her, located a breast, then clenched on to it with frightening strength. She gave out a yelp of pain and tried to pry the tiny hand away, but it was surprisingly strong.

  Using its grip to pull itself toward her, the thing nestled in close and brought its mouth to her breast eagerly. She seemed powerless to stop it, even as she watched the row of tiny fangs gnashing in anticipation of a feeding.

  When the mouth was only an inch away from her exposed nipple she finally broke free of her paralysis. She placed both hands on the sides of the thing’s head and pushed at it.

  “Get away from me you freak! You monster!”

  It took all her strength to keep the thing at bay as it tried relentlessly to press forward, it’s slavering mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

  Large, cold hands gripped her thighs. The enormous figure had been temporarily forgotten, but now it couldn’t be ignored. It was pushing her legs apart and moving in close to her. She felt its stiff erection sliding up her leg, cold and large.

  “NO!”

  She tried to kick out at it, but it was like striking at a stone wall. The tiny monster in her hands wriggled and pressed. The beast that was forcing itself on to her pushed forward.

  “NOOOO!!!”

  2

  Sophie’s eyes snapped open. All around her was the bright hot light of the sun and the brilliant blue hues of the seas. The roar of the boat’s engine hummed in her ears and the wind slapped playfully at her face.

  It was a dream. Just a dream. You’re OK.

  Was she OK, though? Would she ever be OK? She looked down at Kai, lying awake but very still in her lap, staring ever more into the soft flame of the lantern she’d brought from the island. His eyes were the deep shade of blue that all newborns seemed to possess, not unlike the sea around her. His small tuft of hair shot up in a dark puff from the center of his head. He looked happy and peaceful. Like a healthy little baby, not some squirming and ravenous monster.

  Just relax, you only drifted off for a moment, that’s all. No surprise, having a nightmare. Not after what you’ve just been through.

  Feeling slightly comforted by her rational minded pep talk, she settled a little further in to her seat and tried to relax once more.

  The boat ride to Kabara was, so far, uneventful, with little Kai staring fixedly at the old brass lantern the entire trip. It was also uncomfortable, but not in any physical sense. Old Noni, the Fijian witch woman, had seemed intent on watching Kai with her glinting coal eyes, as if he might suddenly spring horns and claws and leap at her, but now she simply gazed over the sparkly blue waters of the South Pacific in her own quiet thoughts.

  Sophie wanted to know what those thoughts were, but communication was out of the question with nobody available to translate. In fact, as much as she was curious about the strange fascination the old woman had with her baby, she was also scared to know what she might say if she could talk. After what they had just survived, just barely survived, she should be full of joy and relief, but she wasn’t. There was still a lingering sense of danger present in her heart and mind. As if the God figure Daucina hadn’t burst into a thousand pieces in front of her. It was as if he were still there, somehow.

  Sophie peered over the edge of the boat at the deep blue water, compelled to look for the eerie phosphorescent glow that she knew was one form that Daucina used. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was as it should be.

  On the surface, anyway. Beneath that, she wasn’t so sure.

  Thomas, her big brother, turned his attention from the sea and looked at her, picking up on her troubled expression. His eyebrows raised in a question, What’s wrong?

  She responded with a slight shrug of the shoulders and an apologetic
smile.

  Thomas doesn’t seem troubled, and he’s had half of his face destroyed. If he feels OK, then you should too, she thought to herself.

  Her eyes moved back to the baby, still smiling with rapt attention at the lantern, then to the old woman with her dark, wrinkled skin and her drab brown robes. If it wasn’t for Noni, they’d likely all be dead right now. She couldn’t forget that. Still, she felt like it was the old woman’s strange reaction to Kai that caused her to be on edge when she should finally be at peace. After the last crazy twenty-four hours, she deserved some peace. She didn’t want to think about murderous Gods, or lost spirits, or dead friends. She just wanted to not be scared and to not worry that something terrible was lurking around every corner.

  She wanted to smack the old woman for taking that sense of safety away from her. Nothing was wrong. If it weren’t for Noni’s reaction, she wouldn’t be thinking anything out of the ordinary.

  Wouldn’t you, though? Don’t you feel it? Just because the old witch was staring uncomfortably long at your baby doesn’t explain the way your nerves are on edge.

  She looked yet again at her child, this time focusing on the eyes. Closer and closer she bent, staring at the bright blue and the dark circle in the center. Part of her expected to see the black pupils moving in circles, like ink being sucked down a drain, but they remained the normal eyes of a young child. Innocent and awed.

  Sophie straightened back up, feeling silly. Sometimes troubles only exist where you make them, she told herself. No sense making trouble where none existed.

  Her eyes moved back over the edge of the boat and out to the open sea. Noni was staring back at her. Those dark eyes so bright with hidden knowledge. It wasn’t natural. Somebody her age should have dulled eyes. They should look like they are only half aware of what was going on. But that wasn’t the case with Noni. She looked as if she knew all the mysteries of the world. Strange and terrible things.

  Sophie stared back at the old woman, trying her best not to flinch. Under the scrutiny of that gaze she felt like she had committed a crime, some great atrocity that was unforgivable. She squirmed, suddenly uncomfortable. Kai’s pale, chubby legs dropped off her lap and bumped against Noni’s thin lap. Noni recoiled and jerked away, as if she’d be stung by a bee.

  Sophie grabbed up Kai and cradled him closer, giving the old woman a reproachful look.

  Noni scooted deeper into the side of the boat, creating as much space between them as possible, which wasn’t much.

  She’s just a peculiar old woman, don’t let it trouble you, Sophie thought to herself.

  Instead of lingering in her troubled thoughts and uncomfortable suspicions, she leaned back into her brother and stared out over the opposite side of the boat from where Noni huddled.

  Thomas wrapped a long, thick arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. She looked up at him, grateful for the comfort. He was staring down at Kai, a thin smile playing at the corner of his mouth, on the side that still worked. The other half of his mouth his still covered by the shirt that served as a makeshift bandage.

  That’s going to leave a horrible scar, Sophie thought. One that people will stare and wonder at. One that he’ll always carry. I guess I’ll carry my own scars too.

  3

  Lomate anchored the boat as close to shore as possible, right next to Tokalau village. The familiar scenes of their last visit played out now, just as before.

  A small group of men bathed a short distance off to their right. Children ran along the beach yelling and taunting each other. Huddled together in small groups of threes and fours were the women of the village, working away at their small projects while they talked and laughed with each other.

  Before she even had a chance to stand and stretch out, Noni was up and climbing over the side of the boat, gripping the ladder with thin, veiny hands. She plopped down into the shallow water, held up her robes to her waist, and moved toward the beach. Then she was off across the hot sand, striding into the village toward her small home.

  “Guess she’s had enough of us for one day.” Thomas was making a joke, though the laughter couldn’t play out on his hastily bandaged face.

  Sophie couldn’t find the humor in it. She only watched the old woman disappear between the small homes with a growing sense of foreboding. Sometimes, when you have a bad feeling, every detail takes on a menacing light. She hoped that what was happening now. That she was projecting her own fears into innocent and meaningless actions.

  Lomate killed the engine and got them anchored, then disappeared below deck for a minute. He returned with a sad look on his face.

  “We’ll let poor Sala rest. She has just lost her husband, I don’t think it necessary to rush her.” He stared at Sophie, a tentative smile playing out on his dark face. “Well, would you care to stretch your legs, Sophie? I think the villagers would like to have us for lunch. And Chief Josefa will want to speak with us about . . . about what happened.”

  His expression was almost fearful, as if he expected Sophie to yell at him. But she wasn’t angry, she was frightened.

  “You mean to stop here? Can’t we just be on our way? I really want to get back to the main island. I really need to be home.” She looked over at Thomas, her eyes begging for him to agree and demand they be off at once. “Don’t you think so, Thomas? Shouldn’t we get back as soon as possible?”

  “Yeah, we don’t need to linger long, sis. But Lomate’s right, we should speak to the Chief and thank him. He provided the boat, and the witch. And this.” He held the spiked club up. “It’s a family heirloom, I guess. I’m sure he’ll want it back.”

  With that, he climbed up over the edge of the boat and held his hands up for the baby. Sophie hesitated, then, thinking herself silly for being so skittish, handed Kai over to him. As soon as she did, he began to cry and wail in a pitifully small voice.

  “Here, take this.” She had grabbed the old lantern and was stretching it out for him. Thomas smirked but took it, after first tossing the club onto the sandy shore. As soon as it was in Kai’s sight again, he grew quiet at once.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. You got yourself a little pyro, sis.”

  Once they were all unloaded, they made their way slowly up the beach. The villagers stared at the small group as if they were fish that had just grown legs and were walking up on land for the first time. Then Sophie realized why. Thomas was battered and bruised, with a bloody shirt wrapped around his head, and Sophie was dirty and exhausted looking. They must look like they’d just survived a plane crash.

  Doing their best to ignore the stares, they made their way through the village and toward the Chief’s humble dwelling. Once they arrived, Chief Josefa was waiting for them, with the old Vuniduva witch woman standing at his side, glaring out at them. The Chief’s eyes looked troubled, but he tried to cover with a large, big-toothed smile.

  “Welcome back! I must say, I did not know if I would see either of you again. Then I would tell myself that I was being silly! That you were chasing after a fairy-tale, but here you are, with a small child that you didn’t have before, and my Vuniduva telling me a strange and terrible story.”

  He walked forward, his smile disappearing and deep lines springing up on his forehead. As he neared, his focus was solely on the small baby wrapped protectively in Thomas’s arms. He stopped a few feet away, looking at Kai from head to toe, as if the baby were another species that he hadn’t seen before. After a few moments of unabashed examination, he looked up Thomas, then at Sophie.

  “The Vuniduva tells me strange things.”

  Sophie waited for more, but nothing more came. It seemed that Chief Josefa wanted them to offer up their story before he explained what Noni had already told him. As tired as she was, Sophie decided the man was owed that much and the quickest way home was just to tell the story and be done with it.

  She didn’t leave much out, detailing the vision she’d had back home, waking up to her child missing from her belly. She tried her best to
ignore his shocked expression as she moved on to their trek through the jungle, seeing the spirits of his long dead ancestors, and Bolo coming to meet them. That part, the details of Bolo’s intentions to murder them, she downplayed as much as possible. Next, she spoke of Daucina himself, a real-life, physical creature, enormous in size and donning a crown of flames and a face made up of a whirling void. Then she detailed the battle that resulted in Bolo’s death and her brother’s grievous wounds. Then the end, the spirit absorbing Noni’s strange, yellow concoction and entering Daucina, which somehow acted as the fatal blow to the old God.

  When she finished, she felt as if a poisonous cloud had been expelled and hung now in the air around her. Its effect was seen on not only the Chief’s face, but those villagers that had gathered around to listen, which appeared to be all of them. They were lined up in a circle, surrounding them on all sides, each face a mask of silent terror.

  “So, it is true.” Chief Josefa’s voice was, for the first time, quiet and subdued. His attention was directed down at the baby again. “I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to believe that the old woman’s words were just another crazy story, like those she tells the children. Those children that aren’t too scared of her, anyway. But it must be true. There were stories of Daucina, passed down from father to father to father, but after many tellings it is difficult to believe. I’m afraid now, though, I must believe.” His look was sad and disturbed. His eyes flicked from Sophie back to Kai.