Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
TWENTY-FOUR DAYS LEFT
Itold Kiki everything, much to her despair, but we both vowed not to tell mother about the bargain. Instead, we waited until Keanu’s messenger arrived…
Part of me kept debating whether the whole thing was a nightmare, but when a young white man showed up on our shores in a large ship, with treasures one could only dream of, I knew I had, indeed, bargained with the dead.
And I’m dead for it, I thought as we approached Keanu’s kingdom.
Through his messenger, a captain by the name of Peter Wittingham, we found out that Keanu was the chief of the most coveted kingdom in all of O‘ahu island, ‘Anolani.
It boasted pristine, crystal-blue waters, lush forests, and mountain views that other kingdoms would die for.
Mother was coughing so severely, and she was so frail, she couldn’t grasp anything we told her.
“You’re marrying a king?” she asked between coughs. “How? When?”
Kiki and I exchanged looks, then I finally placed a cool cloth on mother’s forehead. “Don’t worry mother. All is well.”
Kiki added, “Kāne is looking out for us, mother.” And that was explanation enough for mother.
She relaxed and closed her eyes. I swallowed hard, knowing I would never explain it all to her. Especially not in this condition. Were she to learn my sin of not prostrating myself to the night marchers, she’d probably have a coughing fit.
Furthermore, if she found out I bargained with a night marcher, she’d have yet another coughing fit.
I hated leaving her in ignorance, but I wanted her to get better and heal more than anything else.
I also worried the journey would wear her out, but I lightened at the fact that once we reached the kingdom, we might find even better medical care for her here than in our little village.
My betrothal to Pulu was canceled, much to my relief. Peter met with the local chief and resolved all issues.
But my marriage to Keanu loomed ahead of me.
My emotions were like the pendulum of a clock, swinging back and forth.
I felt a mixture of relief and anxiety: relief that my family would be well cared for, but anxiety because I didn’t know if I could break Keanu’s curse in a month. And if I didn’t… well...
“Oli, look!” Kiki tore my thoughts away from my impending death. She grabbed my arm and pointed to a building in the distance.
A lump formed in my throat, and a heaviness settled in my stomach.
The palace. It was nestled into the mountainside, overlooking the beautiful white sandy beach below. I’d never seen a palace before, so the dark walls and pointed roofs looked truly grand and intriguing. Palm trees and forests grew around the palace, adding to its charm and grace.
“Welcome to your new home,” said Peter, approaching us as we stood overlooking the ship’s railings. Mother wanted to come out and see the kingdom, but she was too weak to rise from her bed. The doctor onboard warned Kiki and me that the voyage would significantly weaken mother’s already frail body.
“It’d be a miracle if she made the journey,” he confessed. I tried not to think too much about it. Mother would be fine, especially now that we were here.
We’re here. I sighed quietly in relief, though I still felt nervous…
“Our kingdom boasts the kindest people and the best kalo in all the islands.” Peter, or Captain Wittingham, said. He couldn’t have been much older than our age, with bright blue eyes and hair the color of dark sand.
Kiki and I had seen foreigners before, but not this close, so we couldn’t help but stare at him and the other foreigners aboard the ship sometimes.
Sure, we had adopted many of the foreigners’ ways, from the way we dressed to travel on the ships we sailed on, but we weren’t used to seeing so many of them.
It proved to me that Keanu’s kingdom was more involved with the outside world than ours.
In a way, it was intimidating. I felt so small in this new world…
and worse; I did not know what the arrangements for myself and my family would be like.
Would they stay with me in the palace? Would I stay in the palace?
It was still shocking to me that Keanu agreed to marry me, someone of the lowest status, and a woman that wasn’t even from his kingdom.
I did not expect any affection from him or for him.
This was just a bargain, yet I hoped I would have time to speak with Keanu about our arrangements.
Would I, at least, be able to spend time with my family?
Or was I expected to pretend to be his wife for a month?
And would he help me figure out a way to break his curse? Who was I kidding?
If he had time or care for me, he would have fetched me himself. Instead, he sent his captain, a man whom Kiki was staring at a little too much.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to a flat spot of land close to the edge of the beach. Peter rubbed his chin.
“I’m not sure. It was destroyed not long ago.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I studied the strange landscape. A bundle of rocks sat to the side, making me wonder if the site was once a heiau, or something like it. But a person had to be crazy to destroy a heiau, a sacred temple and worship site of the gods…
“You will love it here,” Peter said, distracting me from my thoughts. He seemed reserved, not out of shyness but out of caution. It seemed he studied Kiki and I as much as we studied him, debating if we could trust one another or not.
A blush touched Kiki’s cheeks anytime he spoke to us, and she averted her gaze.
I placed my hands on the railing. It wouldn’t be so bad if Kiki and Peter fell in love, would it? He was one of the chief’s captains, and thus could provide a comfortable life for Kiki. Maybe they could have the romantic relationship any girl would dream of.
A relationship I could only dream of. I shook my head. Being married to a man who loved me was not possible for me. Survival in the next month required me to use my intelligence and cleverness. Fantasies of a happy marriage were a luxury that I had no time for.
We arrived at the palace in a carriage. The palace was so fancy, I couldn’t take it all in.
While the outside of it was coated with gold embellishments and dark walls, the inside was even more extravagant.
I felt disoriented, as if I had crossed into another dimension and was completely out of place.
Peter, however, was kind enough to escort us to our quarters.
“The wedding will take place this evening,” he said before taking his leave. “Servants are ready to attend to you.” He addressed me at that point.
I gulped and nodded, not wanting my mother to see my nerves. She was too weary from the trip, and when I glanced at her, she coughed. It was an awful cough, and she tried to hide the blood in her handkerchief.
Kiki forced a smile too, but kept fidgeting with her hands. Our “quarters” comprised multiple rooms: a washroom, two bedrooms, and a grand view of the shore. Everything looked so fancy, I didn’t want to touch anything. What if I broke something, or my fingers left prints?
A large, gold-framed mirror sat on a vanity in the corner, and as I approached, I couldn’t help but feel self-conscious.
There I was, so plain and boring next to my gorgeous younger sister. It was hard not to feel embarrassed. Soon I would face Keanu, and we’d be married. He probably wanted to get it over with as much as I did.
Besides, the sooner we got the wedding over with, the sooner I could investigate how to break his curse.
I had no direction and no clues on where to start with curse-breaking.
Before I left my hometown, I went about the village asking the oldest and wisest people I knew about their knowledge of the night marchers.
But they had no answers for me. The night marchers were a mystery to them too.
Kiki gasped. “Look, Oli!” she hurried to another corner, dragging me with her. “Your wedding dress.”
I blinked. I was going to wear that? It was too shiny, too embellished with gems and beads, too white. It was anything but me. I was just a poor girl who spearfished to provide for her family.
What am I doing? I asked myself, wondering if I might speak with Keanu and put this whole thing off. But I had to marry him, because if I didn’t, we’d probably get shipped back home and I’d end up with a drunk fisherman for a husband…
I can’t afford that. Not when we were so close to providing a good life for my mother and sister. I gulped down my insecurities and embarrassment, forced a smile, and obeyed every order from the servants who entered.
Even though I felt vulnerable and embarrassed, especially when they scrubbed me from head to toe in the bath, I continued to tell myself that this would all be worth it, or so I hoped.
I never really imagined my wedding day, maybe because I knew my father would marry me off to someone I didn’t care for.
But the wedding I was in now, as the bride, was something straight out of a fairytale. The servants helped Kiki and mother prepare for the ceremony, then ushered them out, leaving me alone.
I stood in front of the mirror, trying to take in the stranger staring back at me.
The wedding dress was breathtaking and suffocating all at once.
The corset hugged my curves tightly, with a sweetheart neckline dipping just enough to hint at elegance rather than daring.
Delicate white lace crawled up my collarbones and over my shoulders, forming sheer sleeves that clung to my arms like the touch of an island breeze.
Every tug of the corset’s ribbons had drawn the fabric closer, molding it to me until it felt like a second skin.
The layers of heavy satin and tulle fanned out dramatically from my waist, pooling in a train so long it seemed to swallow the floor behind me.