Chapter 23 #2
It was coming from a tree . Though none of the surrounding plants showed even a drop of dew, this tree was so soaked with moisture that the dark wood
had grown spongy orange moss covering it in thick patches. Large ivory blossoms and broad cup-shaped leaves curled toward
the sky, perfectly positioned to capture rain and all brimming with water.
I did not hesitate. Weeping in gratitude, I whispered the name of my Lord and drank my fill. The water was deliciously cool,
sweet and restorative , racing through my body with the ease and happy delight wine had once done. Indeed, the relief was so immediate that it made
me dizzy. I reached out to steady myself against the tree trunk, inhaling deeply and closing my eyes.
When I opened them again, the world had changed.
It was as though the sun had broken through the clouds, though of course it had not—the sky was already clear. All the vibrant
colors were even more vivid, and yet now they didn’t seem so strange. It felt like they fit, like I fit, as though I’d previously been witnessing the island through the wrong eyes.
“Lack of water has made you a deranged poet,” I muttered, drinking from a second leaf. I plucked up a third and turned back
toward the beach. It really would be foolish not to salvage what I could of the broken platform before the tide went...
I froze. Rooting through the wooden planks was a purple cowlike creature. I say cow like because it was twice the size of a cow, covered in cheerful yellow spots, and had spiny, webbed fins protruding from its
humped back and broad sides. And the mysterious beach cow was not the only oddity—oh, no. The bright blue sea stars I had
spotted earlier were now... marching ? They cartwheeled across the sand in neat lines, shrieking as they raised minuscule spears of driftwood at a seagull in their
midst—no, not a seagull. What I had earlier thought was merely an odd-colored gull was now a flying lizard, squawking and
diving at the warring starfish.
I rubbed my eyes, but the bizarre scene did not change. Was I dreaming? Hallucinating? Dead?
“ Waqwaq! ”
I jumped at the cry coming from somewhere deep in the jungle. It sounded like a child’s hiccupping sob and was followed by
a loud thud, as though something heavy had fallen to the earth.
A bead of cold sweat—or possibly blood, considering my state—rolled down my spine. The sea cow was still rummaging through
the wreckage as though searching for treats. It let out a doleful moo and glanced up, gazing at me morosely. The water lapping
around its feet had turned choppy and opaque, a pink, jellyfish-like film floating on the surface.
I was still staring at the sea cow when the water attacked it.
The pink film surged upward, teeth and claws erupting from the surf to rip into the sea cow. The beast screamed, buckling
to its knees as blood and skin went flying. In seconds, the creature was nothing but guts and bits of bone, the watery pink
film still hanging in the air. It shifted, turning in my direction...
The floating jellyfish mooed, exactly like the creature it had turned to bloody mist.
I fled.
Heedless of whatever was waqwaq-ing in the jungle, I bolted into its depths, desperate to put distance between myself and the horror on the beach. I ran fast , faster than I ever had before, faster than I should have been capable, the forest floor zipping beneath my feet. Branches
and vines lashed at my face. I swung out an arm to knock one away, sending a sapling flying.
The jungle was so dense that in moments, every sign of the beach was gone. The sky as well, obscured by a leafy green canopy.
I stumbled into a dark glen and clutched my thighs, fighting for breath.
“ Waqwaq! ”
“Ahhh!” Recalling I had a weapon, I grabbed my khanjar and dropped into a fighting stance.
But there was no one there. A massive tree towered over me, its distant branches melting into an emerald gloom so dark it
looked like the night sky, its fruit twinkling as if they were stars. The tree was taller than any I had ever seen. Taller
than the mightiest minaret, taller than the mysterious pyramids outside Cairo. Its enormous trunk would have taken a hundred
men to encircle, a single one of its broad leaves providing cover for a human house.
Its size and magnificence were not what drew the eye and held it, however. What held it were the hundreds, nay thousands of humanoid creatures hanging from its leafy confines. They grew like blossoms, their heads tapered to sprout from unfurling
buds.
“ Waqwaq! ”
No sooner had the cry come a third time than one of the tree people fell, like overripe fruit giving away to gravity’s pull.
I cried out as it hurtled toward the ground, a distance surely nothing could survive. The undergrowth exploded in a burst
of dead leaves.
I froze, uncertain. But after some rustling, the tree person emerged unscathed. It was half my height and bald, its skin that
of moss-shrouded bark. It shook itself and seemed to catch sight of me. A mouth opened in what might have been a small, surprised
smile, revealing knobby teeth. It toddled forth, waving merrily.
Before I could decide whether to bolt again, the canopy broke open. A shaft of bright sunlight fell upon the newly fallen tree creature, illuminating it just in time for an enormous crimson bird to dive through and snatch up the little bark person in glittering talons.
I did not scream. I think I was too shocked to make a sound. You see one magical creature devoured by another, that is dreadful
enough. Two of them in a row and one must be in a nightmare. Yes, that was right. A nightmare. I had passed out while drifting
in the sea and none of this was real.
But nightmare or not, you better believe that when that bird shrieked again, I ran the fuck away.
Through the trees, leaping over broken logs spilling with maggots that sang like doves. Butterflies the size of platters and
hissing winged snakes lit as though fire flushed beneath their scales. A rush of wind briefly seized me, carding through my
hair with murmured sighs before flinging me into a bush with berries that burst and stung my skin. I picked myself up and
ran faster. Splinters of blue and amber were visible through the trees. Another section of beach was just ahead, hopefully
free of monstrous tidal creatures.
I burst out of the jungle and could have wept with gratitude. Not just a beach—a boat was drifting in the shallows, anchored by a golden filament. It was unlike any vessel I was familiar with, perfectly round
and constructed with shimmering reeds, bound like a basket. Fine silk pillows and woven rugs draped the interior and a great
sail of muslin floated like a cloud from a carved rosewood mast.
And people . Oh, God be praised! Two sailors reclined in the boat’s shade, one leaning over the side to chat with a maiden swimming in
the water. I staggered toward them.
The trio did not seem to notice. Judging from the smiles and tittering laughs, I was interrupting some sort of flirtation.
All three were well-formed and uncommonly beautiful.
One man might have been East African, dark-skinned and elegantly dressed in voluminous teal robes, fanning himself with the edge of his turban as he drank from a large silver seashell.
The second man was the same brown as myself.
.. although his exposed skin seemed to gleam as though gilded, and his hair, pulled into a topknot, was a fiery orange-streaked black.
The maiden was even stranger. Beautiful,
if pale. She moved with a willowy grace in the water, seaweed-green hair streaming around delicate shoulders.
But they were people—with a ship!—and that was all that mattered.
“Please,” I implored as I stumbled forward. “Help me!”
The trio started, the maiden leaping back with a splash, the sailor whirling around, and his fellow dropping his shell cup.
My mouth fell open. They were not people.
At least not as I knew people. The men’s eyes were bright gold and copper, their ears twisting away into points. The splashing girl had a tail , mirror bright and shaped like a whale’s.
I dropped to my knees, which in retrospect should have hurt like hell yet didn’t.
“What are you?” I cried in despair. “ WHERE AM I? ”
With a dolphin yelp, the mermaiden vanished beneath the glittering waves. The fire-haired man yelled after her in an incomprehensible,
musical language before turning back to me, aggravation clear in his metal-toned eyes.
But if I feared being punished for interrupting the amorous activities of magical beings, I need not have worried. The sailor
had no sooner sparked a flame in his hands (yes, in his very hands!) than he halted. He and his fellow’s otherworldly gazes
widened with fear at something beyond my shoulder. In a flash, they too were gone, their boat catching not a wave, but the
very wind, sailing into the air.
“No, wait!” I begged, splashing into the shallows after the ship. “Please!”
“Amina?” Raksh’s horribly familiar voice spoke up from behind me. “Is that you ?”