34
The Island Beyond the Mists

Only Lei did not sleep that night. She sat up beside Orpheus, silent and attentive, changing his dressings every hour, making him drink a decoction of boiled plants and roots that she had collected on Jahalod’s island.

At dawn she saw that he seemed more peaceful, and deduced that he was no longer suffering pain. The bleeding had stopped, the wound was clean, so Lei rubbed his face with marguerilla stalks, left the cabin and went on deck to greet the sunrise. The healers in her distant country thought that when a wounded or sick patient survived the first night it was a good sign, and you must pay your devotions to the natural world by giving thanks.

When she emerged from the hatch the deck was enveloped in an extraordinarily thick mist. She could hardly see her hand in front of her face. Lei took a few cautious steps, trying to reach the rail. It was cold. Moisture was already soaking into her clothes and making her teeth chatter.

It was useless leaning over the side of the ship; she couldn’t make anything out. The Fabula seemed to be wrapped in cotton wool. She would have to wait to pay her devotions to the sun.

Annoyed, Lei went back down to her cabin. Still shivering, she searched everywhere and finally found a dry blanket in a corner of her berth. She wrapped it around Orpheus. In his present state any chill could be fatal to him. Particularly since, as Lei had already noticed, the slightest draught seemed to give Orpheus a cold. Once she was reassured about her patient’s condition, she wondered how to cover herself. Most of their clothes had been spoilt in the baggage at the bottom of the ship’s hold. Then she saw the quartermaster’s jacket that she had taken off Orpheus the night before so that she could tend his wound. The thick canvas had a slit a dozen centimetres long where the sword had slashed it, and worst of all it was still badly bloodstained. But the air was suddenly so cold! Lei no longer hesitated; she put on the jacket, which was much too big for her, turned up the sleeves, and left the cabin again. Between decks, she saw Finopico. He was searching all the chests and crates.

‘It’s so cold!’ he was complaining. ‘Let’s get out of this cursed Archipelago as quickly as we can!’

When he saw Lei he calmed down. ‘How is Orpheus?’ he asked, still searching the chests.

‘He not so ill,’ said Lei. ‘Blood stop flowing. I think he live.’

‘For a Greenhorn, I must say he has guts,’ Finopico remarked. ‘And for a foreigner,’ he added, raising his head and smiling at Lei, ‘I must say you have guts too!’

‘Thank you!’ she murmured.

‘Ah, here we are!’ exclaimed Finopico, laying hands on a worsted jersey. He buried his nose in it, made a face, and then, shrugging his shoulders, put it on. Then he rubbed his arms vigorously before saying he would make some good hot soup for everyone.

‘I don’t know what in, seeing as all my pans went flying at the Archont or dropped into the sea, but I’ll find something. What filthy weather!’

As Lei was about to go up on deck again, Malva opened her cabin door and called to her. ‘What’s going on? I’m frozen!’

‘Mist,’ replied Lei, indicating the deck outside with her chin.

Malva joined her on the steps. Her lips were blue with cold. She asked how Orpheus was, and when Lei had reassured her, Malva smiled. But suddenly she looked annoyed.

‘Is that his jacket you’re wearing? Orpheus’s jacket?’

‘Oh … yes,’ said Lei. ‘I no find any warm thing to wear.’

Malva looked disapprovingly at her.

‘If you like, you take jacket,’ added Lei, annoyed. ‘I find something else.’

‘No,’ snapped Malva. ‘Keep it. I don’t want that jacket. Philomena always told me it’s unlucky to wear anything bloodstained.’

She turned on her heel and closed her cabin door crossly. Lei sighed, vaguely understanding why Malva was in a temper, but decided not to bother about it. Her main aim was to reassure herself that Babilas had taken the helm of the Fabula again. It was essential to be on their guard in this mist.

Up on deck the milky uniformity of the mist hovered heavy and silent. When she breathed in, air tasting and smelling of dead leaves seemed to trickle into her mouth and nostrils. Lei drew the jacket together over her breast and took a few steps towards the stern of the ship. She thought the deck was sloping slightly, and it struck her as odd. There was no wind, and so no reason for the ship to tilt.

Babilas wasn’t there. The tiller, still lashed into place, was taking them on course … all the same, Lei did not think this very prudent. She glanced first to port and then to starboard. At that moment she saw shadows through the curtain of mist.

Her heart sank as she went closer, squinting to see. No, it was not an illusion! There really was something there, very close to the ship! Had the Archont managed to follow them? She stood motionless, on guard. And suddenly the gap in the mist widened … to reveal an enormous rock. Lei went pale.

‘Reefs!’ she shouted.

She raced towards the hatch, catching her feet in the coiled ropes on deck as she ran.

‘Reefs! Reefs!’

All the other members of the crew except, of course, for Orpheus, heard her cries. Finopico and Babilas were the quickest to react. They came up through the hatch and found themselves face to face with Lei, who was still shouting at the top of her voice.

‘Brogsgin!’ she told Babilas in the language of Dunbraven.

The giant made straight for the tiller and freed it from its lashings, but when he tried to manoeuvre it he couldn’t.

‘Hufeneth gwar!’ he gasped.

‘What’s he saying?’ asked Finopico anxiously.

The twins, wrapped in blankets, had just emerged on deck with Malva. She had found an old knitted cardigan with holes in the elbows, and put it on over her jersey, but she was still shivering. She wished she had the oryak-skin coat that Uzmir had given her, but Temir-Gai’s preunuchs had taken it.

‘Tiller no respond!’ Lei translated, desperate.

They all ran to the ship’s rail, expecting to hear a crash and feel a violent shock.

It never came. The silence seemed to last for ever. They couldn’t even hear the familiar sound of the backwash of waves retreating from the reefs. Not a murmur, no sound of lapping water, nothing.

After a moment the seafarers relaxed. They exchanged baffled glances and then began searching the fog, which was still dispersing here and there.

‘There!’ cried Malva suddenly, leaning overboard. ‘Sand! There’s sand under the ship!’

The others leaned over the ship’s side too, and saw with amazement that she was right.

‘We ran ashore during the night!’ said Finopico. ‘The Fabula is stuck in the sand.’

At that moment a great swathe of mist drifted away to reveal the rocks, tall and dark, trickling with moisture. They were so close to the hull that it was a miracle the ship had avoided them.

‘Rocky cliffs, sand,’ murmured Malva. ‘This is another island in the Archipelago.’

The mist was parting into long wisps now, striping the scene with white. Trees appeared, then rows of neatly trimmed bushes and paved roads winding up the cliffside. This was not the work of nature; they had obviously come to an inhabited island.

‘Let’s go ashore,’ suggested Hob.

‘We ought to cut wood and make a fire,’ added Peppe. ‘If this goes on I shall die of cold.’

As he spoke, a ray of sunlight pierced the thick clouds. The passengers on the Fabula looked up at the sky. And suddenly the mists rose entirely, like a curtain rising in the theatre at the beginning of a show. And what a show!

The whole island was now revealed to the dazzled eyes of Malva and her companions. It was conical in shape, with the cone eroded at sea level and almost pointed at the top. It rose so high that the travellers had to crane their necks to see the summit. The rocky cliffs led to huge meadows full of flowers, then the meadows gave way to a ring of trees, and finally a town of red-brick houses rose in terraces to the peak of the island. Roads with low walls beside them criss-crossed each other, dividing up the landscape and making it look neat and well-ordered. Right at the top of the island, above the town and the sea, rose the tall shape of a lighthouse. It was like a candle on an enormous cake.

‘Kigchupen!’ said Babilas.

‘My word!’ exclaimed the twins in unison.

The incongruous beauty of the island took their breath away. In the sunlight the tiniest details stood out as if outlined by a fine brush: here a bed of mauve flowers, there a wash-house under a thatched roof, a freshly ploughed field, an ox-cart, animals in an enclosure, and higher up streets and squares with fountains in them.

‘The people of this island seem to be perfectly civilised,’ said Finopico happily. ‘They make use of every corner of their land.’

‘No doubt,’ said Malva, ‘but … where are they?’

‘They perhaps not like mist?’ suggested Lei.

‘It’s all gone now,’ Hob pointed out, letting his blanket drop at his feet.

Sure enough, the sun was gradually warming their bodies and cheering their minds.

‘It’s even getting hot,’ added Malva, with a pointed look at Lei, who had not taken off Orpheus’s jacket. Setting an example, she took off the moth-eaten cardigan she had found, but the daughter of Balmun paid her no attention. She stood there looking at the island.

‘I want explore,’ she said. ‘I certainly find more herbs here to treat Orpheus.’

‘You told me he was better,’ objected Malva.

‘Better, yes. But he not well yet. Good medicine need bromella leaves, buflon milk and scorpiphore shells. Maybe here …’

‘Let’s all go!’ suggested the twins. ‘Zeph can stay with the Captain.’

Malva, Babilas and Finopico still hesitated, though these shores seemed welcoming. Looking at the landscape, they felt an irresistible urge to walk beside the streams and wander through the meadows, to refresh themselves at the fountains, sit in front of the houses, lean against the low stone walls and warm themselves in the sun.

‘Come on!’ cried the twins impatiently. ‘What’s the risk? The inhabitants of this island must be nice people!’

‘Jahalod-Rin was a nice man too,’ Malva intervened. ‘Are you so bird-brained that you haven’t learnt your lesson from the last places we’ve visited?’

The twins sighed.

‘We’re not bird-brained,’ they pleaded, ‘but we’re tired of being suspicious all the time!’

‘We don’t necessarily have to have enemies everywhere in this Archipelago!’ said Peppe.

‘Catabea mentioned treasures,’ argued Hob. ‘If you ask me, this island is one of them. It reminds me a little of Galnicia.’

Suddenly Babilas pointed to the houses with their red-brick facades, and said something which Lei translated as, ‘See shutters! They opening!’

One by one, the houses were coming to life to greet the new day. It was impossible to see the faces of the inhabitants from the deck of the Fabula, but life was indeed beginning to stir in the town. Somewhere a bell rang, and the sound of wheels jolting over the paved roads could be heard.

‘I agree, there’s nothing wrong with this island,’ Finopico decided at last. ‘Let’s take advantage of this sunny spell and go ashore.’

They all decided to go, except Malva, who said she would rather stay on board.

‘I’ll keep an eye on the soup,’ she said, ‘and then if Orpheus wakes up he won’t be alone.’

She watched her companions climb down the rope ladder.

‘And don’t hang about!’ she advised them. ‘There are only five Stones left in the Nokros!’

Seabirds were soaring above the cliffs, now and then diving down to the crevices in the rocks where their chicks were nesting. A breeze had risen, and the temperature seemed all the more pleasant because a moment earlier they had all thought they were going to freeze where they stood.

Light at heart, Lei led her troop of explorers up a steep path and then along a road rising to the meadows. As she walked she looked at the verges of the road. Her expert eye found herbs, plants, roots and useful berries, and she got a good harvest. The pockets of her tunic were soon bulging.

‘Kinds I not know,’ she said out loud, ‘but I find out how mix them all. Knowledge of Balmun very great!’

They soon arrived near a paddock where animals were grazing. They were not goats, or sheep, or cows. Finopico stood by the fence, resting his elbows on it and searching his memory to decide whether he had ever seen such beasts before. They had short legs, and were stocky and muscular like little bulls, but without any horns. Long, hairy ears hung beside their wide, flat muzzles.

‘Never seen anything like them,’ the cook admitted at last, ‘but I wouldn’t mind trying a steak from one.’

They left the paddock and meadows behind and climbed on towards the town. As they passed through the forest, Lei picked a great many more mushrooms and fruits. The closer they came to the houses, the more noises they heard: little bells, shutters banging in the wind, voices answering each other. They stopped on the outskirts of the forest and waited.

There wasn’t a single inhabitant to be seen. The streets echoed with happy cries, the hammering of tools and merry laughter, but no old gossip, no craftsman, no child came to meet the new arrivals.

‘Perhaps they’re … well, very small?’ suggested Hob. ‘So small that we can’t see them?’

‘Don’t talk such nonsense,’ replied Finopico. ‘Their houses are the same size as ours. We must go closer, that’s all.’

He started along the first street, with Lei and Babilas. The noises sounded so close … all of a sudden a handcart came up in front of them. Lei uttered a cry. The cart stopped. Its two wooden handles remained in the air on their own, as if by magic. The cart was full of neatly tied bundles of firewood, but who or what was pulling it? There was no one in sight!

‘Hey!’ shouted Finopico. ‘Where are you?’

The handles of the cart immediately dropped to the paving stones with a clatter. There was a sound of running, and then a voice which came from nowhere, speaking a language that no one could understand … no one but Lei.

‘He go tell others!’ she translated in a voice quivering with emotion. ‘He say that … that saviours have come!’

‘Saviours?’ repeated Finopico.

‘But who was it?’ groaned the twins. ‘Who said that? Who was pulling the cart?’

Lei turned her pearl-like eyes on them and shook her head.

‘Lloedzar a smigoim,’ said Babilas. ‘Cnohmbelb brogez!’

‘And what about him?’ cried the twins in panic. ‘What’s he saying?’

‘Babilas think people here invisible,’ Lei translated.

She didn’t have to offer any more arguments to persuade her companions that Babilas was right. The street was soon full of murmurs. Under the frightened eyes of the five travellers, wicker baskets and wooden tubs floated through the air, while a small toy horse on wheels wheeled itself over the paving stones without anyone to push it. A pitchfork rose over the crowd of invisible people by itself. Peppe tugged Finopico’s sleeve.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ he begged.

‘Wait!’ said Lei. ‘These … these people means us no harm. Let me listen!’

The murmuring voices of the unseen men, women and children mingled, making a racket that echoed back from the walls of the houses. Lei frowned and tried to follow what they were all saying. She translated as she went along.

‘They say great epidemic strike their island once. No medicine … no one have cure.’

Suddenly a fabric ball rolled to the twins’ feet. They trembled. A moment later the ball rose from the ground and swayed back and forth under their noses.

‘Go away!’ moaned Peppe, pushing at the air in front of him. ‘Shoo! Shoo! I don’t want to play!’

A small voice gave some kind of reply.

‘Child say he never seen one of Living before,’ Lei translated.

‘One of the Living?’ asked Hob. ‘You mean … you mean we’re among the dead here?’

Lei nodded.

‘They ghosts of dead people. After epidemic, no survivors. They become Unseen. And they wait for saviours every day.’

Finopico turned pale. He flinched, protesting that he was no one’s saviour, only a cook, and he was going to get out of here straight away.

‘No,’ said Lei. ‘You wait a while!’

She questioned the empty air at length, receiving answers in the language of the Unseen. Meanwhile Babilas, the twins and Finopico remained in a group behind her, eyes wide with amazement. At last the daughter of Balmun turned round, smiling.

‘They want show us something. You come.’

‘What?’ gasped Finopico in strangled tones. ‘Go with them? Nothing doing!’

‘This island is accursed!’ added the twins. ‘Let’s get back to the ship!’

‘Why do we have to help these Unseen people?’ asked the cook, stepping back again. ‘They’re just air!’

Lei went up to him, fixing him with her blue gaze. ‘Catabea say we face our fears, and if not, we fail. Cannot refuse now. If you cowardly, you go. I help these people!’

‘Horch ghim!’ said Babilas, following Lei.

Finopico bit his lip and bent his head. He remembered the warnings that the Guardian of the Archipelago had given them. He sighed, grumbled a little, but finally agreed to follow the Unseen.

Beside him, Hob and Peppe had fallen silent. They walked on reluctantly, never sparing a glance for the squares, the fountains, the porches. The town which had looked to them so charming from a distance had really been frozen in death for years. It was a chilling idea.

The pitchfork, the tubs, the baskets, the fabric ball and the toy horse on wheels led the travellers right through the town along steep roads. At last they made their way round the lighthouse.

Now the five companions saw the other side of the island, its hidden face. The landscape here was nothing like what they had seen from the Fabula. The place was one vast graveyard, a field of desolation, full of brambles, littered with dry twigs, covered with grey dust. The graves, scattered all down the slope, were like black gashes in the middle of the wild grass.

Lei shuddered, thinking how terrible the epidemic must have been. Some of the graves were no larger than cradles. She felt her heart sink, her throat was dry, and she clenched her fists. Her whole being quivered with the long-ago grief of the mothers who had to lay their children in the earth, the distress of the men who had to dig their wives’ graves, and the indescribable sorrow of the last survivor. Alone on his island, he must have lain down in a hole to die like a dog.

Tears ran down Lei’s cheeks as the Unseen told her what they wanted. It was mad, senseless, terrifying, but if anyone could help them she, the daughter of Balmun, was the one to do it. She swore an oath in the language of the Unseen, and then turned to her companions.

‘I come back here tonight,’ she announced. ‘I repair what was broken. Thanks to knowledge of Balmun, I unite what was separated.’