The Crystal Clipper (10 page)

Like a mighty beast slain by a hunter's shot, the Glass Snake lies lifeless on the Palace grounds. David and Saliana stand back, shuddering in awe at the events that have just occurred. Then, hesitantly, they move in unison toward the beast to fully take in its charred image, but it disintegrates into a gaseous fog. When it clears, Jaycina stands in the beast's place.

She has, indeed, changed. No more blood-red robe, ostentatious headdress, garish makeup or razor-like fingernails. This Jaycina wears a simple white sheath and a gracefully soft green cape. Her raven hair is braided gently with gold ribbons. And on her finger, the clear pyramid stone has turned the deep blue of a summer evening's sky.

Do David's eyes deceive him still? She is Jaycina, but is she? Saliana clings to David and he, in turn, holds fast to her.

“Don't be afraid, Saliana,” Jaycina says in a silken voice. “I'm not the Jaycina you once knew.”

“Which Jaycina are you now?” David asks suspiciously. “What kind of trick is this?

“No more tricks, my brave David Nickerson. No more deceit.”

She sounds sincere, reassuring, but David is not quite ready to accept her transformation. “How do we know you're not lying again?”

Jaycina nods with understanding. “Ask me anything and it shall be granted.”

“Judiah,” David says, motioning to the poor wretch suspended overhead. “Save him from the volcano.”

“As you wish.” Jaycina extends her hand and points the pyramid ring toward the Volcano. Instantly, the huge arc of electrical charges disappears. Falling, Judiah screams, but a surge of magnetic power pulls him swiftly toward the lodestone. Arms and legs spread-eagle, Judiah lands forcefully on the lodestone, then slithers to the ground.

“Judiah will need care, but he will live,” Jaycina observes.

“Not that he deserves it, the weasel,” Saliana comments with surprising candor.

“Have you another request, David?” Jaycina asks.

“Yes. Let Saliana and the Islanders go free.”

“Their freedom is not mine to give -”

“I thought so,” David jumps in sharply.

Jaycina continues, unperturbed, “They have but to believe they are free and be slaves no more. One day you will understand. And perhaps one day you will also find it in your heart to forgive.” She bows graciously to David and Saliana, then turns and walks nobly back toward the Palace, her image dissipating into the ether.

The morning sun is a warm glow in an Azure blue sky as David and Saliana cross over the Palace boundary and enter the dense forest of the Island. Lush groves have replaced the bramble, and mirrored pools of water give sanctuary to a plethora of birds and fish. Peacocks strut in rainbow-colored grandeur across the plush, emerald green carpets of grass.

“If I didn't know better, I'd say this was Paradise,” David says, awed by the miracle that turned the dark and foreboding island into an ethereal and vital wonderland.

“Paradise is where you are happiest, David,” Saliana says. “I suspect your Paradise lies back home with your family, and your Sally.”

David is wistful. “Yes, Sally. Will I ever find her, Saliana?”

“She is very close, David. Very close.”

David is silent a moment, then asks a question that has been burning inside him. “Is it true, Saliana? Can your music really give someone the gift of immortality?”

Saliana's eyes are filled with tenderness as she answers, “Only faith and love can give us eternal life, David. My music is the way I express faith and love to all who desire to listen.” She removes the Rose Crystal pendant from her neck and folds it into David's hand with her own. “For your Sally, when you find her.”

David leans forward to kiss her and she turns her face up to his invitingly. But their sweet union is interrupted by the shouts of an excited Ishtar running toward them.

“Saliana! Saliana,” Ishtar calls eagerly, gratefully, breathlessly.

“Father!” Saliana runs to Ishtar, embraces him, and weeps with him in happiness.

“Oh, dear daughter, I feared I might never see you again.”

“Father, did you have so little faith?”

“I am ashamed to confess it faltered, child, it faltered.”

“Ishtar. I'm so glad you're all right,” David greets him fondly.

Ishtar throws his arms around David in a bearish, fatherly hug. “My boy, I shall be forever grateful, forever in your debt.”

“You don't owe me anything, Ishtar. But maybe you can help me find the Moon Singer.”

“Find her?” Ishtar's laughs heartily. “David, my boy, she is not only found, but in full power, ready to set sail. Come, I'll show you.”

Quickly, the trio makes their way to the Island beach. The Moon Singer, in all her splendor, stands proud atop the tranquil ocean.

Ishtar gestures grandly toward the clipper ship. “There she is, David. Ready and waiting.”

David is ecstatic, but confused. “But, how did you get her moving? There was no power.”

“Not I, David. You did it. You and your little Singer crystal. I knew if you could get that ring on Jaycina's finger, everything would fall into place like a row of dominoes. I knew you'd remember the power that got you here in the first place, and use it well. When you aligned the Singer to the Volcano's energy flow - well, you should have seen it, my boy. An explosion of light like a flotilla of angels from heaven. In an instant, the Moon Singer regained her full power and order was restored to the universe.”

“And killed the Glass Snake,” David surmises.

“
Because
the Glass Snake was killed,” Ishtar explains. “The Snake was created by Jaycina's immoral use of the knowledge she possessed. You and your Singer restored wisdom and truth to the island, and evil is powerless in the light of Truth, my boy.”

“What will you and Saliana do now, Ishtar?”

Ishtar places his arm lovingly around Saliana's shoulder. “Try to rebuild our lives. Perhaps try to rebuild the City of Light for its true purpose. And perhaps this time Jaycina will unite with us instead of against us.”

Recalling the vision of Jaycina disappearing into nothingness, David questions Ishtar, “But how can she? Saliana and I both saw her completely fade away as though she never existed, like she was dead.”

“In a manner of speaking, she did die,” Ishtar says. “But if she truly atones for her past actions she will come back again.”

Saliana kisses David's cheek. “Good-bye, David. Your voyage home will be peaceful and all your dreams will come true.”

“Good-bye, Saliana. I'll never forget you.”

“You had better not,” she says, with a warm laugh.

David finds the clipper's dinghy on the beach and pushes it into the water. He jumps in and begins to row, with half-reluctant and half-determined strokes, to the Moon Singer. Ishtar and Saliana wave farewell from the shore. David waves back as bittersweet tears trickle down his face. He is going home, enriched by new friendships, but going home without Sally.

“Do you think David really knows the true power of his little Singer crystal, Father, that it was fashioned from the masthead of the Moon Singer?”

“No, not yet,” Ishtar replies. “But if he remembers what has happened here, some day he will understand why the Moon Singer came into his possession.”

“I think he will use the knowledge well,” Saliana says with certainty.

“Yes. But if it should fall into the wrong hands once he is back in his own world…”

“It won't, Father. You see, I gave David my Rose Crystal pendant.”

“Containing the music codes of the trinity?”

“Yes. The Crystal of Wisdom activated by the Rose Crystal's Love results in Truth - the only power that David will ever need in this or any world.”

“You are very unselfish, my daughter. And very wise. Now let us pray he acquires the third sacred artifact as well, the one that will let him unlock the codes.”

“If he has the courage to follow his destiny, he will.”

Steadily, the Moon Singer sails away, her white sails bursting full in the wind, her crystal masts glistening in the sun. David slips his hand into his vest pocket and retrieves the note Ishtar had given him just before he left the Island. He reads it with fascination:

“You asked how I knew, living in what appears to be a primitive society, about such things as electronics and forms of energy that only modern man can know of. How did the ancient Egyptians know about advanced engineering and architectural concepts, or the Atlantians progress to a sophisticated civilization worthy of legend and fascination.

“It is because nothing is new under the sun, not even knowledge. When we discover new facts, skills, and tools today, we are not just learning from our past but we are also remembering our future. For the past, present and future are all one.”

As David stands at the stern, an enormous wave rolls up and crests under the Moon Singer. The mystical ship takes flight, higher and higher into the endless reaches of the universe, and the deep blue ocean below becomes a slick sea of glass once again. Under its transparent reflection, the Island grows smaller and disappears, just as David's hometown did at the start of his voyage.

“I'll be back,” David vows, not knowing when or how, but knowing all the same.

Like an angel's serenade, Saliana's song echos all around, guiding David's voyage home on the Crystal Clipper:

“I know a place where the Moon Riders sail

On a translucent river of diamonds and pearls.

They journey through time,

Until time ceases moving,

Then float gently home on the soft wings of twilight.

Moon Singer, Moon Singer, take to the sea,

Fly on the wind where the sky used to be.

Moon Singer, Moon Singer, take me along.

Keep me safe in your light till I find my way home.”

Port Avalon

Harry Judd shifts uncomfortably on his feet, confronted by an authoritative Janice Cole requesting the official files for the sale of Fischbacher Shipping, Inc.

“I don't know, Miss Cole. I'm really not permitted to turn over any files to outside parties on any transaction.”

“I'm hardly an outside party, Harry. I'm not only Nathan's fiancée, I am his executive assistant with a seat on the Board.” Janice leans in toward him, speaking in a conspiratorial tone. “It wouldn't do to have any mistakes in these files when David Nickerson comes back again with his lawyers, would it?”

Judd retains his haughty stance, but his forehead is clammy with nervous sweat. “Let them come. I have nothing to hide. My hands are clean.”

“I want to be sure the
files
are clean, for Nathan's sake, and for yours. You understand, don't you, Harry? I promise I'll have them back to you in a few hours. And no one will know we had this little chat, will they?”

Judd draws himself up officiously. Recalcitrant at first, then yielding to the inevitable, he retrieves the file from his cabinet. He hands it rudely to Janice.

“Oh, and I'll take the other file, too, Harry. The one in your personal desk drawer?”

Judd opens his mouth to protest, but changes his mind. He stomps to his desk, pulls the file folder from the drawer and thrusts it at her. Janice snaps her briefcase closed with the files safely inside.

“Thank you, Harry. I'll put in a good word for you with Nathan.”

Back in her office, Janice scrutinizes every word, every clause in the sale papers, noticeably disturbed by what she sees. With each new revelation, she places her hand up to her mouth, her throat, her heart, as if to hold back the shock. After a long, intense moment of contemplation, she swivels around in her chair and gazes intently at Nathan's portrait on the wall.

“Oh, Nathan. How could you be so insidious, and yet so seductive? And how could I have been so blind?”

Janice holds up her hand and studies her diamond engagement ring. She removes it carefully and places it in a small
cloisonné
dish on her desk. With determination to stem the flow of tears, Janice begins to work on the files.

When early morning sun at last filters through the vertical blinds, Janice turns off the desk lamp. She heaves a sigh and leans back wearily in her chair. Just then, Nathan enters the office and is startled to find her already at work at her desk.

“God, Jan. What are you doing here so early? You look like – didn't you sleep well?”

“Actually, Nathan, I didn't sleep at all. I've been working all night on a rather important business deal.”

Nathan's brows form parentheses around suspicious eyes. “What deal?”

“Let's talk about it in your office. I think you'd better be sitting down for this.”

Nathan shrugs dismissively and turns on his heels, grumbling, “I don't know what this is about, but let's do it later.”

Janice follows him into his office and slams the door closed. “We'll do it now, Nathan. It's later than you think.”

Registering surprise at her demand, Nathan slowly lowers himself into his chair.

“Nathan, why do you want to marry me?”

“Oh, for Pete's – is that what this is about?” He laughs with a semblance of relief. “Because I love you. You know that.” The words are devoid of emotion.

“You love
me
, or my stock options?”

“Is this some sort of pre-wedding jitters? I'd never expect you to act so immaturely, Jan, like a blushing bride. Not at your age.”

“Thank you for reminding me that I'm old enough to know better. I had forgotten. I've been just like a dependent little girl. First on my father who sheltered me from all the realities of life. Then, dependent on you to take care of the business my family built and nurtured for more than a century, instead of having the courage to run it myself.”

“Run this business?” Nathan smirks, and laughs derisively. “You're a bright girl, Janice, but hardly the kind of woman who could manage a worldwide industry.”

“You mean I'm not like you, Nathan? A liar, a cheat, a fraud, a stock manipulator?”

Nathan's face turns gray, as though all the blood has been drained from his body. “What are you talking about?”

“This.” Janice thrusts a file folder at him. “This is what I'm talking about.”

Nathan's jaw stiffens and the blood returns to his face in a fury. “Where did you get this?”

“From your slimy cohort, Harry Judd. I overheard the two of you talking when you ordered Judd to hide the real file from David Nickerson, so he wouldn't know the truth about the sale.”

“What truth?” Nathan hedges. “It's a perfectly valid sale. None of that kid's business anyway.”

“And none of mine? Did you really think you could get away with it, Nathan? How long do you think it would be before I discovered that you used my stock options to perpetrate a phony deal?”

“You see what I mean, Jan? You're just not equipped to handle the intricacies of business. Once we're married, your stock options are as good as mine. So, no harm done.”

Janice throws her head back and emits a low growl of consternation. “You are amazing, Nathan. Truly amazing. How convenient you post-dated the sale just one day after our wedding was to take place.”

“What do you mean
was
to take place?”

“Let's make a deal, Nathan.” Janice hands him another file folder. “Let's open file Number Two.”