chapter III
NWABA RETIRED TO RECOVER his strength, calling in one of his subordinates for the issuing of supplemental orders.
Losing the Bloodstone was intolerable. Worse, he had no one to blame. No one, that is, but the daughter of El who had instigated the deed. He was inwardly furious, but he held himself in check for now.
The lieutenant reported, something like respect and fear in his eyes. Mostly it was fear. Nwaba did not look at him as he issued the orders.
“One hundred more. Search the waters. Find them quickly and bring them here. Do not neglect the island; in fact, start there. Dismissed.”
Wordlessly, the lieutenant acknowledged the orders and left.
Nwaba could now soak in his regrets for a moment, awaiting the arrival of the Sword. Then things could change for the better.
False Bay, South Africa, present day
It was unbelievable that we had survived a plane crash. Crazy that sharks had killed all those demons. But it was absolutely insane to find land in the middle of the ocean. Ellie, since she was familiar with her home, led us onward.
“We’re just gonna take it nice and easy,” she said. “Sidestroke.”
“Where are we going? Aren’t we miles from shore?” I asked. I could see the lights of the city lining the edge of the bay all around us, but they were very distant. I guessed it would take days to swim the distance.
“No, we’re not far,” she said. “There’s a little rock up here called Seal Island. We can regroup there.”
We swam on through the darkness for a while.
“I’m assuming,” I said in between breaths, “they call it Seal Island because there’s seals there?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Cape fur seals. They like to hang out there. And that’s why there are so many sharks.”
Flabbergasted, I said, “Stupid seals. Why don’t they move on?”
Ellie was silent for a moment. “Well, I guess they really like it. Either that or they believe it belongs to them. That it’s rightfully theirs. And there’s lots of yummy fish here for them, too. So they endure the sharks.”
Got it. “Sometimes you need something bad enough that you gladly suffer the consequences, huh?”
“Sho,” she said. I guessed it was sort of slang for “totes,” or something, which made me miss my Kim. Poor Kim! Would I ever see her again? But I couldn’t allow myself to think too much; I had to be disciplined and concentrate on one thing at a time. That was really hard for me.
We swam on. The waves tossed us every which way, and prevailing currents did their worst as well, but we finally made landfall on the “rock.” I estimated it was about an hour after sunset.
Ellie hadn’t been kidding about the island being a “rock.” It wasn’t much more than that, about a city block in size. We had to fight the crashing waves, the slippery surface, the darkness, and the idiot seals as we clambered up. But we staked out a territory nevertheless, and eventually sat down. The ocean was inches away from us; Seal Island didn’t poke up out of the water by very much at all. But it was a resting place, for which I was very grateful.
Michael, thank God, was still alive. He was breathing, at least. We all three had to huddle together for warmth, soaked on the cold rock.
“So what do we do now?” I asked Ellie.
“Wait,” she said.
I checked on Michael’s condition about every fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, Ellie looked at the seals like she was hungry. So it seemed, in a way, that we had gone from bad to worse. Are we now prisoners on this little island?
Still no rescue boat, though in truth it probably hadn’t been that long, plus it was the middle of the night.
I was getting antsy for results. Michael’s condition wasn’t improving. I was glad he hadn’t gone hypothermic on me in the water, but it wasn’t like he was some kind of superhero—he needed professional medical help and I wasn’t that. I could barely keep him warm enough. And even if I could get him to a hospital, would they be able to save him? Did modern medicine have a cure for something that the Bloodstone had originally produced?
Most likely the answer was no, I had to admit it. A strong “no,” because stuff that happened to Michael and me was pretty much impossible, and that made it impossible to explain. But there might be a slim chance the doctors could at least treat the physiological parts of what ailed him. That meant, however, that they could only treat his body for symptoms, which wouldn’t be enough.
“Ellie,” I said, jittery with anticipation, “I need to do something.”
“Fine; get out that fancy Sword of yours and kill us a seal so we can cook it and eat already.”
“No, not that. I can’t just sit and wait for something to happen.” I pulled back the fabric of his shirt and looked at his wound. It was like some horrible shield, taking up his entire chest. It was beginning to harden, developing cracks. It looked like hard earth. I whimpered in despair for him; I didn’t know what to do.
“If I don’t do something about this, I’ll feel horrible forever.” That was the gist of it. I sounded like I was only really concerned about myself, and that just wasn’t true. “Els, I’ve gotta do something to help him.”
She looked up at me from her zoned-out stare for the first time. “I know what you’re thinking. But if Michael was still in any way connected with the Bloodstone, his wound would be healed. He is rejecting the healing. His mind and body are fighting the call, but it wants him and it will do whatever it takes to close the sale. So to speak. He has to give in to it if he wants to be healed.”
“What if he doesn’t…doesn’t give in?” I knew the answer, but I needed to hear it from her.
“He will die, girlie. The infection will keep spreading until he’s dead. I’m sorry.”
“But he’s alive right now. Michael is alive. I can help him—well—not me, but…but Kreios can. I need to find him! I’ve got to find him and bring him to Michael. He will know what to do.”
We had a moment then. She looked like she was thinking something over, something important. After a long awkward silence, she finally said, “Can you swim?”
“What, you’re asking me if I’m a good swimmer?”
“Yeah, girlie.”
“Well…if you don’t count that one time I almost drowned as a kid. And that other time I almost drowned because I died. Then, yes, I’m a great swimmer.”
“Champion. Get cracking then.” She pointed toward the lights on the horizon. “Right away.”
I jerked backward, momentarily shocked. “Dude. Who peed in your corn flakes?”
“Nobody. That’s the problem. When I don’t get enough to eat I get grouchy. If there were any corn flakes at all, soiled or not, I would’ve scarfed ‘em for sure.”
“Ew.”
She smirked but didn’t laugh. “Really, Airel. Sounds like you’ve made up your mind already anyway. It’s the only option you’ve got left here and there’s no time to argue. So you’d better get cracking, as I said.” She pointed again.
I took a deep breath and then let it out heavily, looking out into the dark waves. “Great. Just great.” Ellie looked fearful. What, is she scared of the water or something?
“You’re gonna wanna go starkers, trust me.”
“Starkers?”
“Nude,” she said.
“What?!”
“On a swim like that, clothes will needlessly tire you.”
“Huh, no way,” I said. “Not a chance.”
“Then at least you’d better get a running start, girlie. Otherwise the waves will smash you to bits against the rocks and it’ll hurt.”
“Gee thanks, Els.” I paused. “Hey. Look at me.”
“Yeah?”
“Will you please do all you can to help Michael?”
“I will. All I can.”
“Promise?”
She grasped my hand. “I promise, girlie. Now. Get the heck outta here.”
I shook my head. I looked at Michael. I knelt to his side and kissed his lips, struck by how weird it was to kiss someone when they didn’t reciprocate. This was nothing like I had imagined our lives would be; someone had thrown us a major curveball. It hurt more than I could bear—the idea of what might happen—but I couldn’t think of that right now.
As I knelt at his side I prayed desperately that I would see him again soon, alive and well; that this was not our final moment together. My eyes welled up with tears and I shook my head in disagreement. This is not the end.
I stood and said, “Goodbye,” and then took a running jump into the darkness.