113 Iyomelka's Island
When Saan claimed her as his treasure, Ystya brightened with surprised delight and ran toward him. Excitement at the prospect of sailing away on the Al-Orizin glowed from her.
Despite her own promise, Iyomelka did not react well to Saan's request. The woman drew herself tall, and her skin and hair throbbed with all the power she had absorbed from the newly awakened spring. No one who saw it could doubt the magic the water contained. “How dare you!” Her eyes flashed, and a thunderstorm seemed to be building inside her. “I forbid you to take my daughter.”
As if he didn't notice the impending sorcerous explosion, Yal Dolicar burst out laughing. “Oh, I didn't expect that one, Captain! Remind me never to play xaries with you.”
“I learned by watching you, Yal Dolicar.” Saan faced the island witch with a roguish grin on his face. “We fixed your fountain, and you gave your word. You said I could choose any treasure I wanted. I choose Ystya.”
The older woman found no humor in the situation, and her voice was as sharp as the fin of a shark cutting through water. “You tricked me.” Her anger drew buzzing energy from the island itself. The water that bubbled from the fountain now frothed and gurgled.
Dark, unnatural thunderclouds began to brew overhead, knotting like black smoke, and a rumble penetrated the air. Lightning struck twice not far away, searing lances of white energy that threatened to move closer. The gathered crewmen looked terrified.
Equally furious and unafraid, Sikara Fyiri clutched her golden fern emblem. “What is this dark magic? I warned you about this woman, Captain! We must pray to Ondun immediately!”
Grigovar couldn't suppress a rude laugh at her comment. “I doubt that would help right now, Sikara. Haven't you been paying attention? Ondun's right there in the crystal box.”
“I refuse to believe it!”
Ystya clung to Saan's arm, her hopes dashed. “Be careful! She will destroy you and your ship, drown all your men. This can never be.”
With amazing speed, the water around the island grew gray and choppy, frothed with whitecaps. In the distance, anchored outside the reefs, the Al-Orizin rocked as the storms increased.
Saan wondered if there were any limits to the enchantment Iyomelka had summoned. He didn't doubt the seriousness of the threat, and he maintained his cool demeanor only with great difficulty. “There is no cause to threaten us, my Lady. We had an agreement, and the terms were perfectly clear. Why are you reacting this way?”
Nearby a lightning bolt struck a tall palm tree, shattering it into smoking splinters. The Uraban sailors gasped.
“You may not have my daughter. I will never release Ystya. Do not force me to summon havoc and sink your ship—like all the others.”
Despite the danger to the Al-Orizin and the crew, Saan faced the older woman with indignant anger. He was not used to being cheated. “So you will not abide by your own terms? You are breaking your word?”
Iyomelka forcibly pulled the girl away from Saan. “Choose something else, and I will not need to break my word.”
“You should be more careful when you make an agreement.” He didn't dare risk anymore. He believed in Iyomelka's powers. With false deference, he added, “All right, then—we choose all of the treasure instead. We will fill our longboats with it.” Saan stood firm, daring the island witch to deny him.
To his surprise, she agreed. “Take whatever you can carry aboard your boats, so long as you depart from here.”
Yal Dolicar applauded, as if he suspected this had been his captain's plan all along.
Saan tried to match the older woman's anger. “Very well, we will sail away with the first light of dawn, as the tide changes. I give you my word—and I don't give it lightly. All of us will be gone, and you need never see us again.” Lowering his head, Saan looked apologetically at the lovely Ystya. “I didn't think your mother would allow it, but I had to try. There is so much I could show you of the wide world.” The girl began to cry.
Turning away from the crestfallen look on Ystya's face, Saan called out to his crewmen, “You heard Lady Iyomelka—go load the longboats with treasure. There's plenty for every man. We have earned it… and there will be more when we find Terravitae!”
The sailors cheered, and Yal Dolicar and Grigovar led the group to the jungles and the waiting mounds of treasure.
Standing by the silvery pool and the crystalline coffin that held the old man's—Ondun's?—body, Iyomelka looked grudgingly satisfied. But her daughter broke away and ran back to Saan, who automatically folded her into his embrace.
A shadow fell over the clearing from dark clouds that thickened in the sky overhead. Pebbles on the ground vibrated, bouncing from tremors at the heart of the island. Iyomelka said, “Daughter, you will stay here, as I command.”
Saan clung to Ystya just a moment longer, before extricating himself. He kissed the girl on the forehead and rested his head briefly against hers to whisper in her ear, then stepped away. He held her at arm's length and said with great reluctance, “Go back to your mother.”
While Saan and his companions walked back to the beach, dragging armloads of treasure and then returning for more, the two women remained on the top of the hill, watching them. Ignoring them, Yal Dolicar and his fellow sailors loaded the longboats with treasure. The two craft rode very low in the water on the way back to the ship. From the rear of the second boat, Fyiri muttered a prayer and a curse, looking back at Iyomelka in the distance.
All the way to the Al-Orizin, Saan watched the coastline. Iyomelka and her daughter came to the shore to observe them, probably to make certain they stayed away, as promised. Saan waved, and Ystya waved back, but the island witch simply stood there, willing them to leave. Overhead, the storm clouds and the rumble of thunder circled the island like guardians.
Four hours before sunrise, in the dead of night Saan roused his crew and told them to prepare for departure. Aware of their captain's plan, the men moved quietly, setting the sails and making the ship ready. Grigovar lowered one of the empty longboats into the water again.
Yal Dolicar was delighted. “You continue to surprise me, Captain.”
Sen Sherufa, looking concerned, wished Saan well as he climbed down into the boat. With powerful strokes of the oars, he and Grigovar rowed toward the island, making barely a ripple or splash. By now, the big diver could find his way through the hazardous reefs even in darkness.
Saan had told Iyomelka that the Al-Orizin would sail at dawn, but he too could break promises. The island witch had changed the rules. He didn't feel any qualms about cheating her in return. Sitting eagerly up front, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he peered at the white strand of beach where he had hurriedly asked Ystya to meet him.
His heart leaped when he spotted a lithe figure there. The young woman rose at the longboat's approach and waved silently but excitedly.
Grigovar seemed amused. “She's waiting for you, Captain, just as you said.”
“Who could pass up a chance to go with me? Ystya will fit in the front seat right there.” He joked to distract himself from the nervous flutter in his stomach. “Remember, Iyomelka said we could take whatever we could carry in a longboat.”
Grigovar chuckled. “She does need to be more careful with her words.”
The young woman waded out into the water, eager to meet them. Saan leaned over and took her hands. Though she was smiling and breathless, he said, “Are you sure you want to do this? You can't ever go back.” His heart ached to see her exotic loveliness, her doelike innocence. How could even the Key to Creation be more beautiful? “Your mother will be terribly angry.”
“That is why I need to go, while I have the chance.” Ystya climbed into the boat, with Saan's help. “She killed my father. I'm not safe.”
Saan couldn't believe what he had heard. “What do you mean?”
In the moonlight, the girl told her story. “After my father found us on the island, we all lived together for countless centuries. I do not know why, but toward the end, my mother and father grew to loathe each other. One day my mother drowned him and dumped his body into the well. She had no regrets—until the magic faded and the spring dried up.”
Ystya lowered her head. “How long before my mother grows bored or impatient with me? I am no longer a child. Now that she has her power back, she could lash out and kill me, too.”
Saan put his arm around her. “I'll keep you safe.”
A troubled Grigovar stroked quietly and swiftly away from the island, past the underwater wrecks of other ships that had fallen victim to Iyomelka's storms and traps.
Back at the Al-Orizin, Sen Sherufa placed a blanket over the girl's shoulders and led her to a cabin, talking to her with soft reassurance. Saan issued hushed orders. “Weigh anchor, and let us be off.”
Catching the nighttime breeze, the Al-Orizin put a great distance between them and the island. By the time Iyomelka awakened and discovered what they had taken from her, the ship would be long gone.