The Islanders (11 page)

Fortunately, there has been no repetition of this in recent years. Glaund warships are constantly on station in the deep channels around Derril, and troop carriers come and go. The Faiand forces stay away from the area.

They too have their bases around the Archipelago. Neutrality is general but not yet universal.

The artist Dryd Bathurst was in residence in Derril City for a period. His gigantic oil painting entitled
Derril Nymphs in Succour
has never been placed on public display. It may be viewed strictly by appointment by accredited academics and art professionals. Information is available online, as are reproductions of certain details from the painting – the whole work is still considered too sexually explicit and debauched to be seen in one piece by the public. There are social reasons too: the families of the young models who so willingly posed for the artist are still reluctant to grant release of the images.

The building where Bathurst maintained his studio was demolished immediately after he left Derril, but there is a small and tasteful commemorative plaque on view in the public square opposite.

There are no shelterate or havenic laws, but because of Bathurst’s sojourn on the island the anti-importunation regulations are strict. No visas are required for visitors intending to inspect only the Covenant Memorials, but those people wishing a longer stay should enquire at their local Seigniory offces before setting out.

Currency: all accepted and converted at market rates. The Muriseayan thaler is the offcial currency.

Derril - Torquil

D
ARK
H
OME
/ H
ER
H
OME
/ E
VENING
W
IND

The largest island in the Torquil Group, also its administrative centre, D
ERRIL
traditionally depended on a mixed economy of farming and mining. In recent years the tourist trade and devotional pilgrimages have become the principal movers of the economy. In the case of tourism, certain recently lifted restrictions on travel (notably the erotomane laws) have opened up the whole Torquil Group to visitors. At the same time, the infux of pilgrims to Derril increases by several thousand people every year, and shows no sign of decline. The south-western area of the island, formerly given to arable farming, is now one of the most visited areas in the entire Archipelago.

Of the island patois names, the former, D
ARK
H
OME
, appears to be authentic and is mentioned in the historical record. The latter name, H
ER
H
OME
, is of more recent coinage and was taken up after the Manifestation. It seems that the formal name Derril also began to be used at that time, but we have been unable to trace any record of that.

The earlier name, Dark Home, came into use at the time the island was one of the main exporters of coal. The spills from the pits and the general discharge of smoke into the atmosphere led to many areas of the island being covered by a thin film of coal dust and tar. These spillages made Derril unattractive to visitors and unhealthy to residents, but strict pollution controls have been introduced all over the Archipelago. Because of them, the main island and some of the smaller ones adjacent to it, have been thoroughly decontaminated. Today, Derril is a pleasant, clean and healthy place to visit.

Mining activity, which was anyway confined to the northern part of the island, has now largely been discontinued, but local museums and visitor attractions are open all year round.

The west coast, which has magnificent rocky cliffs and wide sandy beaches, is a popular destination for vacationers. Inland, large areas of virgin forest are found. There is a danger zone on the eastern side, where Faiandland military forces manage a base. Because of constant training exercises, and trials of weaponry, we recommend tourists to stay away. In any event, the perimeter is patrolled day and night by armed guards, and there are abundant warning signs on every approach road.

Normal visitors need have no concerns about this base, provided they remain in known holiday areas. There are many facilities available for visitors to use, all of whom are allowed to travel to Derril by ferry, in the usual way.

It is important to remind intending visitors that before departure they should always check with their booking agent that they are travelling to the right place. The similarly named Torqui Group also contains an island called Derril, which is said by the people of Derril, Dark Home, to be an uninteresting and unattractive place. This is absurd, as Derril, Large Home, is unquestionably the birthplace of the Covenant. (See entry above.)

Even this historical fact has been challenged in the past by more extreme factions on Dark Home, or Her Home as these people prefer to call it. They also claim that Derril, Large Home, changed its name in recent times in an attempt to cash in on the Manifestation. Some of the more ultra-orthodox Derrilians even claim that Derril, Large Home, set up a Manifestation of its own, in an attempt to lure pilgrims.

This claim is probably based on the fact that Caurer, as a young woman, delivered a lecture at Derril University, Large Home.

Our gazetteer is not the place to attempt to mediate in an inter-island squabble that has been rumbling on for many years.

Private research suggests, incidentally, that the parvenu island is Derill, Sharp Rocks, in the Torquin Islands. (See entry above.) Until comparatively recently that Derill was called Osly, Steep Bank of Gravel. Not much is known about Derill/Osly. It is listed in the Muriseay Register as a Category C island, although no reason is given. Category C islands are in general either not open to visitors, are unpopulated, or are believed to be hazardous in some way.

Let us move on to the main feature of Derril, Her Home.

This island is unusual in that it is one of the comparatively few places in the Archipelago to have a civilian airport. It is situated on the south-western peninsula and was built because of the ever-increasing pressure on the port facilities in Derril Town. Access to the south-western peninsula overland from Derril Town is now barred to visitors, so that visitors to the C
AURER
S
HRINE
mostly arrive and depart by air. Specialist airline carriers have been set up around the Archipelago, and they provide a network of reliable routes for Caurer pilgrims.

The Caurer Shrine is open every day of the year and no appointments are necessary.

Arriving passengers at E. W. C
AURER
I
NTERNATIONAL
A
IRPORT
will be greeted by representatives of their tour operators, if they are travelling on one of the many available packages. If they are travelling independently they will find a number of efficient and inexpensive services available to them. Cars may be hired, buses leave for the Shrine at half-hourly intervals throughout the day, and there is a dedicated tram service whose route takes advantage of the many splendid views of the sea and adjacent islands.

Guides who speak most of the Archipelagian dialects are always on hand, and their fees are modest. There is hotel accommodation both at the airport and in the immediate vicinity of the Shrine. Pilgrims are recommended to stay at least one night when visiting the Shrine, or using one of the many healing institutes.

The story of the Manifestation is well known, but a brief factual summary of our own is something we believe we cannot avoid including here. As usual we leave readers to make up their own minds. Most of the pilgrims to Derril, Her Home, appear to accept it as literal truth.

In brief, two teenage girls, daughters of local farmers, are said to have gone missing during a particularly hot spell of summer weather. In the generally accepted version of the story both girls are described as entirely normal, but there is evidence that they suffered from learning difficulties. The older of the two had been lame since birth; the younger had endured a disfiguring skin infection all her life.

The names of these two unfortunates are not known for sure – their identity was concealed as a result of what happened to them. Local villages mounted a search for the girls as soon as they were missed, and the following day hundreds of volunteers from the locality joined the search. At first the families assumed the girls had wandered away from their home area and become lost, but as the hours of searching went by without result worse fears were aroused.

On the morning of the third day the girls suddenly returned, apparently unharmed. They had an unexpected story to relate. They said that while they were walking in a local gulley, which then as now was much overgrown with trees, they had come across a strange woman. She spoke to them gently and showed them many wonderful sights. They had walked with her and rested with her, and listened to stories of distant lands and miraculous events. At the end, when the woman suddenly left them, both girls discovered they had been cured of their ailments.

Later, when shown photographs by a reporter from a newspaper, the girls immediately identified the woman as Caurer. Neither of them had previously known anything about Caurer’s life or work, and recognized her only from their meeting with the apparition.

Because Caurer’s whereabouts at the time of the Manifestation were known exactly, and beyond a shadow of a doubt – she was delivering a series of lectures at the University of West Olldus, on the other side of the world from the Torquil Group – it was declared to be a miracle.

Caurer herself denied all knowledge of it. As the speculation grew, she refused to comment any further, beyond once more repeating her denial in the most forceful of terms.

Towards the end of her life, Caurer did reveal that at times when she was most in demand, she had occasionally used a physical double to stand in for her. This woman, a former journalist on the
Islander Daily Times
, was sent only when Caurer was not expected to speak, and merely added her presence to some occasion.

Researchers and witnesses soon produced a catalogue of past occasions when Caurer had been glimpsed only from afar, had been driven past in a vehicle, or had been seen standing on a podium, and when she had never spoken to anyone and refused all interviews. At the time, these occasions had added to her reputation for remoteness, and in many ways increased the curiosity about her. There had never been any suspicion of bilocation, though.

Caurer made this revelation on the occasion of the woman’s death: her name was Dant Willer and she had become a trusted assistant to Caurer for about five years. In answer to a question from a journalist, Caurer added that this woman was not with her in her home on Rawthersay at the time of the alleged Manifestation, but neither was she anywhere in the Torquil Group, and certainly not on Derril.

After Caurer’s own death an entry was found in her private diary, ridiculing the whole myth of a miraculous appearance on Derril, Dark Home, Her Home. The entry can be read in holograph in a display case at the C
AURER
F
OUNDATION’S
exhibition on Rawthersay, and of course the complete text of the diaries has been in print for several years. The entry about Derril appears in all editions.

The same entry gives the only known insight into Caurer’s attitude to the so-called Manifestation.

She asserts that the mystery of the young girls’ disappearance on Derril was easily explained and rational in every way. She points out that the older of the two gave birth to a child about nine months after the incident. Whoever this child was or whatever it grew up to become, he or she has never laid claim to divine parentage or supernatural powers and it seems overwhelmingly likely that the reasons behind its mother’s disappearance were of earthly origin.

However, by this time the Manifestation had become accepted as a true event by millions of people, and the astonishing growth of the miracle industry was in full swing.

As Caurer’s reputation has continued to grow after her death, two charitable bodies have emerged. Each of these, in their profoundly different ways, seeks to represent her posthumously. Unsurprisingly, they are embroiled in a deep, permanent and apparently insoluble feud over her.

On the one hand is the strictly secular Caurer Foundation. This is based in Rawthersay, Caurer’s home island, with administrative offices in the northern mainland city of Glaund. The Foundation was set up during Caurer’s lifetime, and is usually accepted as accurately reflecting the ideas and wishes of the great woman’s life, work and beliefs. About the alleged Manifestation on Derril, the Foundation’s official stance is as follows:

Caurer herself never visited Derril, Dark Home, Her Home. No one connected with her work ever visited Derril. The woman who sometimes stood in as her physical double never visited Derril. Caurer herself never claimed to have the power of miraculous healing, and although she kept an open mind on the subject she never discussed it or wrote about it. She certainly never claimed to have divine powers. She believed that the story of the Manifestation had been innocently or naïvely invented by the two girls as a way of explaining away some other activity, and that other people had seized on the event afterwards in an attempt to capitalize on her name.

The opposing position is held by the Caurer Shrine Trustees: