Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy (29 page)

Aneela rode up
to the palace courtyard, passing numerous islanders. Wilhelmina stood, rubbing
her hands before her. Aneela dismounted and ran to her trusted maid.
“Wilhelmina, are you all right?”

“Yes, milady.
It’s just…I was so worried about you. And the people…they’re saying the dead
have risen from their graves. There have been several sightings.”

“I know.”
Aneela grabbed the maid’s shoulders firmly. “Have you seen Andor or my son?”

“Andor? Your
son?” She put a hand to her mouth. “No, milady, I haven’t seen them.”

Aneela turned
to her people, who were pouring into the courtyard. It devastated her that the
remaining islanders could all fit in this fairly small space, but the island
had been through much in the past year.

“People of
Dargo— No, this island will no longer be known by that name. From this day
forward, it will be called Rapatha.” She paused to let her people digest this
news. “Fellow Rapathians, the island is dying. It was wounded when the rock
fell from the sky. The island’s heart, Rapatha, will soon perish if she is not
saved.”

Right on cue,
the island shook violently, knocking a few people off his and her feet.

“What can we
do, milady?” a man asked from the crowd, returning to his feet.

“At this time,
nothing. Josh and…someone else are working to save her. I address you now to
give you a choice. Should they fail, the island will be destroyed. If you wish
it, you may leave the island.”

The crowd,
consisting of a little over twenty people, gasped. Aneela had expected that.

“Will you
leave, milady?” an old woman asked.

“No. I cannot.
My son is missing. Andor has taken him. If anyone has seen them, tell me now.”

No one spoke.

“As I thought,”
Aneela said sadly. “As to the news of the dead rising, it is true. It’s a side
effect of the damage done to Rapatha. The dead won’t harm you.”

Her words didn’t
comfort as well as she’d hoped.

“If you choose
to stay,” the man said, “we will stay too.”

Aneela nodded.
“Thank you.”

“And we’ll help
you find the prince,” the old woman said.

“I may know
where he is,” a male voice said from the back of the group.

People gasped
and backed away, allowing a dark figure to approach Aneela. She couldn’t quite
see his face, but the others seemed afraid of him. She heard a few murmurs of
“he has returned” and “the king lives.”

That last one
made Aneela’s heart race. She immediately thought of Rhys, having returned from
the dead. She ran toward the crowd, toward her husband. When she reached her
people, she came face to face with the figure.

She gasped. It
was the man from the hill, the one she’d thought looked familiar. He was still
dressed in his green burial robes, his long black hair pulled into a pony tail.
His face was painted half blue and half yellow, split right down the middle.

“Hello,
Aneela,” the man said.

“Hello,
Father.”

*
 
*
 
*

Andor stood on
the small second island, staring at the large cliffs that made up the coast of
Dargo Island. He held little Joshua in his arms. The baby hadn’t cried the
entire time he was in the man’s possession. It was quite impressive; he
would’ve made a good king.

Andor saw them
coming, dark shapes making their way from the main island in groups of three.
It appeared Aneela finally found him.

The boats
reached the small island’s shore and Aneela came running up the grassy hill
toward him. Her three remaining guards followed her, along with the human
doctor Shae. The dwarf was nowhere in sight.

There was
someone else behind the guards, someone familiar.

No, it couldn’t
be.

“King Taleeno!”
Andor called, trying to hide his surprise. “It’s nice to see you again. I see
even giants can’t keep you down.”

“It wasn’t the
giants that killed me,” Taleeno said. “It was Rockne. But you can rest assured
you
will die, either by my hands or by one of my people’s.”

“So sure of
yourself, aren’t you?” Andor kissed Joshua’s forehead. “Someone will definitely
die tonight.”

*
 
*
 
*

Astrid flew
toward the mountains, to the valley with the constantly frozen lake and the
entrance to the former giants’ kingdom. She didn’t know where everyone was, but
she remembered where they’d been going before she went off to tame the weather
over Dallas.

She flew
through the ice and down the hole in the ground far below. She found herself in
a large cavern filled with green and purple crystals. Between the large
stalactite and stalagmite stood a green figure glowing brightly.

“Rapatha?”
Astrid called. “Is that you?”

“Yes. You must
be Astrid.”

“I am.” She
flew up to Rapatha. “Where is everyone?”

“I don’t know.
I can’t sense them as well as I used to. I’m growing weaker.”

“Is anyone
helping you?”

“Yes. Josh and
Rockne went off to retrieve something that may help, but they haven’t returned.
May I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Are you…a
nature demon?”

“Yes. How did
you know?”

Astrid could
see a faint smile in the green light. “I used to be one too.”

“Really? What
happened?”

“I ran away. I
was afraid of the responsibility that would fall on me once my father perished.
That’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place.”

“Oh.” That
saddened Astrid. “Do you regret your decision?”

Rapatha was a
long time in replying, but she finally said, “No. I became a home for many lost
souls. I can ask for no greater joy.”

“I was born
here, you know,” Astrid said, wiping tears from her cheeks. “You’ve been my
home for all of my life. Thank you.”

“You’re
welcome, child.” Rapatha sighed. “Is it difficult? Being a nature demon, I
mean?”

Astrid
considered the question for a few seconds before saying, “Yes. But, like you, I
can think of no greater joy.”

Josh and Rockne
ran from the train after it entered the station and then mounted their horses.
They raced toward the mountains as the ground shook beneath them. Josh could
see the air grow orange in the distance to his left as lava erupted from cracks
in the earth. They were most definitely running out of time.

They grew closer
to the mountains. The horses panted and foamed at the mouth, but they kept
running. They were almost there.

Suddenly, a
crack opened directly in front of them. The horses tried to stop as lava shot
into the air. Josh flew off his mount, toward the geyser. The jar with
Rapatha’s essence was lost to him as he was engulfed in the fire.

*
 
*
 
*

The little
island shook. Andor spread his feet farther apart to keep from falling. Aneela
tried to approach but Andor suddenly flashed his knife before Joshua’s eyes.
She stopped in her tracks.

“I never asked
for any of this,” Andor told her. “I never asked for my son to be killed by
Dargo’s plague. What would you have done, Aneela, were you in my shoes?”

“I am in your
shoes. You have my son.”

He chuckled. “I
suppose you’re right. I never thought of it that way. You can’t possibly know
what it’s like to lose a child until you actually lose him.” He pressed the
knife against the baby’s throat. “After I released Dargo from his prison, he
did what he promised: He cured everyone of the plague. It was too late for my
son, though. If you’d listened to me when I
begged
you, Joffey would
still be alive.”

Andor spoke
quietly, refusing to yell and scream. Deep down, he knew this had more affect
than acting hysterical. He could see it on Aneela’s face.

“Nothing you do
or say will bring my son back. I will not live the rest of my life, however
long that is, knowing you and your family is safe and happy. You don’t deserve
that.”

With that, he
raised the knife high, preparing the strike Joshua. In that moment, he heard
Aneela and Shae scream. He saw, from the corner of his eye, the guards racing
toward him. But they would be too late.

The knife came
down, and everything seemed to slow down. Andor smiled down at the baby, and
the baby smiled up at him.

Before the
knife could strike Joshua’s heart, however, something erupted from the water
behind Andor and quickly snaked its way up the hill.

It was a hexl.
The dwarf, Victor, was riding it.

Someone ran up
to Andor while he was distracted and ripped the baby from his grip. He turned
and saw Aneela running backward, hugging her child to her. Andor raised the
knife once again and threw it at them as hard as he could.

The hexl
slithered between Andor and Aneela. The dwarf stood, his arms raised, and took
the knife into his chest. Aneela screamed as the dwarf fell to the ground. Even
in the chaos of the scene, Andor knew the knife had found Victor’s heart.

The dwarf was
dead.

*
 
*
 
*

“Josh!” Rockne
cried as he guided the horse away from the lava flow. He’d seen Josh vanish
into the geyser. If he’d been merely human, he would’ve been as good as dead.
But Josh was a nature demon now.

Or was he?

He’d been
wearing the necklace, trapping him in a solid body. Was he capable of being
killed?

“Josh!”

Nothing. No
reply, no sight of him. He had to be dead.

“I hear you,
old man!” a voice said from above.

Rockne looked
up and saw Josh floating there. He looked unscathed. The necklace was no longer
around his neck. “Thank goodness, Doctor. I feared the worst.”

“Keep fearing,”
Josh said. “Rapatha’s essence was destroyed.”

*
 
*
 
*

Josh flew down
to Rapatha’s cavern and saw Astrid floating before her. “When did you get
back?” he asked.

“A few minutes
ago,” Astrid replied. “Did you get what you needed to help Rapatha?”

Josh didn’t
know what to say. He floated next to her. “Yes, but it was destroyed. I
couldn’t do anything to stop it.” To Rapatha, he said, “I’m so sorry. We had
it, and now it’s gone.”

“It’s all
right, Josh. I thank you for trying.”

Josh couldn’t
help it. He cried. Astrid pulled his head to her shoulder and cried with him.
The cavern shook around them. Crystals from the ceiling rained down and crashed
in the garden below.

“Wait!” Josh
suddenly said, looking at Rapatha. “I met your father. He told me something,
about how I could help Astrid’s father. He told me I had to give my energy away
to something that’s the opposite of me. He called me a negative energy, that I
had to give it to a positive. Rapatha, I think you are that positive.”

“Josh,” Astrid
said, grabbing his arm, “what are you talking about?”

He could see
Astrid getting weak again, now that he lost the necklace and was leaching her.
“I have to give my energy to Rapatha.”

“What happens
to you, though?”

“I…I die.
Forever, this time.”

“Josh….” She
tried to speak, but couldn’t find the words.

“It’s all
right, Astrid. I’m ready. For real, this time.”

Tears spilled
from her eyes, but she nodded and let him go. Josh flew closer to Rapatha’s
light. He didn’t know quite what to do, but he’d seen enough movies and read
enough books to know sacrifices were usually as easy as just walking straight.

In this case,
he had to fly straight.

“Josh!” a voice
called from below.

He looked down
and saw Rockne waving. “Don’t try to talk me out of this, old man!”

“I won’t. I
knew you were special the moment I met you. So did Nalke, and my brother was a
smart man. We never doubted you, and you never disappointed. You’re a hero,
Josh.”

The words hit
Josh harder than anything before. He had taken so many lives he had no right
to, and the burden had weighed heavily on him. He thought sacrificing himself
to stop Dargo would make up for what he had done, but he ended up returning as
a nature demon and harming Nalke and Astrid in the process. In life and in
death, he harmed those around him.

But now he had
the chance to give life rather than take it. Rapatha was the only life form he
encountered that he couldn’t harm. He could only help.

“Thank you,
Rockne,” he called down to the wizard. To Astrid, he said, “Tell the others
I’ll miss them.”

To Rapatha, he
asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Josh. And
thank you.”

“Here goes
nothin’.”

He floated
toward Rapatha’s glowing embrace.

The little
island shook again, but this time it felt different. Aneela, holding Joshua
close to her, looked down at Victor’s body. The knife stuck out of his chest.
His eyes were open and unseeing.

The very air
pushed down on all of them as the island rose. Something strange was happening.

The sun was
rising in the distance, casting everything orange and purple. The hexl
slithered around aimlessly, so used to Victor’s guidance. Andor ran up to the
dwarf and retrieved his knife. Aneela’s three guards had been too distracted by
the island’s behavior to stop him.

Andor ran down
to the shore and looked down. The water’s edge was gone. Aneela looked about
herself and saw they were several feet in the air now.

The island was
flying.

*
 
*
 
*

Andor turned
back, looking panicked. He held the knife in front of him, breathing heavily.
Aneela, Shae, Taleeno and the guards watched him.

“I will not let
you take me!” he screamed at the group.

“You never had
that choice,” a voice whispered behind him.

An arm wrapped
around his chest and then he felt a hot pain in his back. Blood filled his
mouth suddenly. He felt something slice into his back, and then quickly get
pulled out. He turned and saw an unlikely sight.

Rhys, husband
to Aneela and king of the island, staring at him. The man grinned wickedly at
Andor as he backed away to rejoin his family. Andor stood there, on the edge of
the large drop, coughing up blood. He looked up the hill, behind everyone else.
Standing there was Joffey, his son.

“I can’t,
Joffey,” he whispered. “I won’t live without you.”

With that, he
fell backward. He fell for an eternity, toward the ocean far below. He never
felt the impact.

*
 
*
 
*

Aneela turned
around but saw no one behind her. The island continued to rise, higher and
higher. To Rhys, she said, “How did you get here?”

He pointed to
something. She saw a large rock formation joining the small island to the main
island. A land bridge. “I was swimming, but then the island started to rise. I
crossed that bridge the rest of the way.”

“And now we
must use it to get back,” Aneela finished. “Look.”

The bridge
started to crumble before her very eyes.

“Everyone,”
Rhys shouted, “get on the hexl!”

The giant weed
slithered toward them. Aneela, Taleeno and Rhys climbed on. Aneela told one of
the guards to grab Victor’s body. Together, the group rode the hexl as it
snaked its way across the land bridge toward the main island, which towered far
above. The bridge continued to crumble below them. The parts that connected to
the tiny island broke away. The island fell into the ocean.

The noise and
sights were almost too much for Aneela. She held tightly to Joshua as Rhys held
tightly to her from behind. Aneela didn’t know how they would get to the top of
the island from where they were now. Before today, she’d never known of the
land bridge’s existence. She also hadn’t known the island could
fly
.

They got closer
to the rock wall as chunks of earth rained down on them. Aneela grew more
nervous as they raced to the very solid wall.

“Hold on,
everyone!” Rhys shouted.

The hexl
drilled right into the rock wall, as only a hexl could. Aneela closed her eyes
as the brightness of the sun was replaced by darkness. The hexl tunneled
through the earth with eight bodies on its back.

Aneela counted
the seconds to distract from the claustrophobic darkness. Minutes later, they
emerged from the ground.

*
 
*
 
*

The people of
Rapatha Island gathered in the cemetery, working together to re-bury the bodies
that escaped from their graves. Victor was given a special mausoleum next to
Josh’s, due to his sacrifice to save the queen from Andor.

“Fellow
Rapathians!” Aneela said to her people from atop the hill, in front of the
mausoleums. “Once again, we have faced great challenges, and once again we
prevailed. Not all of us survived.

“We lost
friends, but their sacrifices saved us all. Josh Debelko, my son’s namesake, gave
himself to the island’s soul Rapatha. Had he not done so, we all would have
perished.

“Victor saved
me. I’d known him all my life. He was around when even my father was a child.
I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t know him as well as I should have.”

Aneela paused,
choking back tears. She saw Astrid floating next to Shae among the surviving
islanders.

There were so
few islanders left.

“We just faced
our greatest danger,” Aneela continued. “If we can survive this, we can survive
anything.”

The islanders
cheered.

“But, milady,”
a man called once the cheers died down. “Where are we?”

Aneela looked
around at their strange new surroundings. “It appears we’re in the clouds.”

The island had
reached the cloud cover after departing the sea, and no one had seen anything since.
No sky, no sun, no ground, nothing. It was like they were in limbo. No one
seemed worried, however, and Aneela was grateful for that. Wherever they were
going, she knew they would be all right.

*
 
*
 
*

People
everywhere watched the news footage of the large island floating in the sky.
Up, up, up it went, and it seemed it would never stop. Josh’s parents watched
with open mouths. Estevan, Josh’s best friend, cheered from his room in Fort
Worth, Texas. He didn’t know why he did so, but it felt right.

The news groups
broadcast this footage from aboard naval ships and helicopters. Everyone in the
world saw a gigantic waterfall suddenly appear, between the ships and the
island. As quickly as it appeared, it connected with the other side of the
ocean where the island had been. Water rushed in to fill the gap.

The island
continued to rise until it disappeared in the clouds.

*
 
*
 
*

Wesonger stood
at the edge of Lacey, his feet in the water, and stared out at the endless dark
ocean surrounding him. The stars were shining above, like usual. He truly was
alone in this town. He’d searched for nearly a day and found no one. They
must’ve died out long ago.

The curse of
being a life-sucking demon was that you usually outlived everyone who wasn’t a
life-sucking demon.

But now he had
no one and nothing, and he was fine with that. He was ready to die. But he
didn’t want to die alone.

Something in
the distance caught his attention, which was quite a feat because he was
surrounded by the brightest stars known to man. There was a light in the sky.
It broke through the cloud bank. Wesonger had to cover his eyes just to look at
it properly.

When his eyes
adjusted, he saw it was an island. It was bigger than the one on which he
stood, and it glowed from some inner light.

“Rapatha!” he
shouted, waving. “You really did turn into an island.”

Why she had
returned was beyond him, but he was grateful. He’d been alone for far too long.

Something
happened, something that had never happened during his stay in the town of
Lacey. The stars slowly vanished as the sun rose in the sky. The Land of
Constant Starlight would need a new name, it seemed.

*
 
*
 
*

Astrid sat in
the coffee shop, sipping her hot tea, and just people-watched. She was in
Dallas, watching her work, the snow, fall onto the streets. People piled in,
laughing and shaking it from their clothes. Astrid wore a turtleneck and brown
jacket, a white toboggan on her head.

She watched a
young couple sit together near the entrance. Seeing them made her think of
Josh. She missed him so much, and though they’d agreed to be only friends, she
wondered what it would’ve been like to date him. The first time she saw him, on
the island, he’d been so nervous. He had just started the job of guarding her
neighborhood, and he’d been ordered to keep her inside. This was back when
everyone thought her father was the bad guy instead of Rockne. All that time,
she could’ve been getting to know her father instead of hiding from him. All
those years wasted….

She tried not
to think of that. Thinking of what Rockne did to her, to everyone, made her
angry. Whenever she got angry, the weather got really bad. Right now, she
wanted everyone to enjoy the snow she made for them.

After finishing
her tea, she got up and left the shop. She aimlessly wandered the streets of
Dallas, trying to decide upon something to do. She’d already checked the
weather in the other parts of the world and everything was perfectly balanced.
She looked down at the green gem hanging from her neck. It really was a nifty
little charm, even if it came from the dreaded Dargonius.

After Rapatha
docked with the Land of Constant Starlight, Astrid had left to return to her
cloud palace. Though that strange land was in some weird part of the world no
one knew about, it was relatively easy to come and go. Mom did it, splitting
her time between Rapatha and Astrid’s home. Everyone else on Rapatha decided to
stay there, however. That strange land now experienced regular cycles of day
and night and was a much happier place than when Astrid first went there.

She returned to
her palace and went up to her father’s study. She missed him so much, and it
pained her to not be able to see him and practice weather control like they
used to. After finding out he was innocent of most of the crimes Rockne accused
him of, Astrid spent as much time with him as possible. Though it hadn’t been
much, it had been enough to realize he was a good man and that he loved her
very much.

Astrid turned
to leave the study when she suddenly remembered something.

When he was
alive, her father and Josh had gone to some nexus to talk with past nature
demons. Nalke had said only spirits could go there, and at the time, Astrid
hadn’t gone through the transformation. But now….

She tried to
think. She hadn’t gone through the journals like she was supposed to, so she
didn’t quite know everything there was to know about being a nature demon. She
grabbed a journal from a table and began reading. She knew nature demons went
to a nexus when they died, but she didn’t know how to get there. She didn’t
read for too long anything that didn’t mention the nexus.

When she
finally found something, she read carefully.

“‘Use the ashes
of the previous demon in order to establish a link.’”

She looked at
the urn she knew held Nalke’s ashes. She grabbed it and poured a little on the
floor, forming a small circle. She set the urn down and stood in the circle.
And then she waited.

For a moment,
nothing happened. And then the ashes lit up and she was transported.

Her senses were
assaulted. She couldn’t see or hear anything around her. She could barely open
her eyes due to the blinding brightness, and she heard a loud hum in the air.
She pressed her palms to her ears, but that only dulled the sound a little. All
of her skin felt really sensitive, so much so that even her clothes felt like
they were scraping her.

“Dad?” she
called out, though she could barely hear her own voice. A moment later, the
sensations died down enough for her to focus. She looked up and saw herself
surrounded by thick clouds. She felt like she was in a canyon. “Dad!” she
called again, but again she got no response.

Finally, she
heard a voice say, “Astrid?”

She smiled and
looked up, way, way up, to the very top. A face appeared out of the cloud wall,
a face she recognized. “Hey, Dad.”