The Rings of Poseidon (15 page)

"Manjy seems to thinks it's reincarnation not
psychometry." Alan said.

"She seems pretty convinced," Frank
agreed.

"She believes in reincarnation anyway. That's
a head start on us," Alicia told him.

"You really going to try the ring?" Frank
asked.

"If Manjy gets a story from it I more or less
promised."

"I have a gut feeling you both will," said
Frank. "Logic says you're right about it being some kind of
psychometry, but I feel she's right."

"This could be interesting," said Alan. "I
think I'll join you this afternoon."

"If the ring is important, then perhaps the
amulet will prove to be important in some way as well," said
Frank.

The cabin door opened and Manjy came back in,
followed by the two female volunteers. "Hey, what did you want us
for?" asked the taller, more talkative one.

"Didn't Manjy explain, Carol?" asked
Alicia.

"Not a word."

"Ah! Well, we'd like you both to do something
silly, safe and simple for us." She turned to the cabinet and took
the ring out of the drawer where she had put it for
safekeeping.

"We'd like you to try this ring on as part of
an experiment." Carol took the ring and examined it.

"Go on," Alicia urged her, "It won't bite
you. It's the ring we found two days ago. We're trying to see what
we can find out about the ring and its owner."

Carol still hesitated for a moment before she
put it on, trying her little finger first and, when she found it
very loose, transferring it to her third finger. Manjy, Frank and
Alicia all waited, half expecting another story: it was with the
greatest difficulty that she kept up the pretence of an experiment
on the size of the ring.

"Of course we could do this much more
scientifically back at the University," said Alicia, "but we were
too curious to wait, which finger did you put on? Oh yes. Third
finger, right hand. Was it tight?"

"A bit. It needed to be about a size bigger
really." Carol replied.

"OK." said Alicia, trying to sound
businesslike as Carol tugged it off, "Give it to Peggy to try.
She's a bit smaller than you."

The smaller girl took the ring and slipped it
on. Again there was no response and again Alicia had to keep up the
pretend experiment. "How is it?" she asked.

"A good fit. Could be just a little too
large."

"Let's compare your hands," said Alicia,
holding their hands up against each other, "If one of you is just a
shade too big and one of you is just a shade too small, we have a
good idea of the size of the original owner. Games like this aren't
entirely without a point you know. Well, thanks a lot ladies."

"Mind if we get back to Trivial Pursuit?"
asked Carol.

"Nope I don't mind, you get back. We've done
for now," Alicia told her, "Thanks." She waited until the other two
had closed the door behind them.

"I'll strangle you." she said to Manjy, and
Frank laughed.

"Well she's made her point," said Frank. "If
psychometry was the answer you'd expect the girls to get some
response."

"She's made half of her point. She has to put
the ring on and get a response to convince me."

"I don't think we ought to do that without
Steve and Gill," said Manjy, "because they had the rest of the
story of the ring and it doesn't seem fair to leave them out
now."

"I guess we can wait a bit," admitted
Frank.

Alicia glanced at her watch. "They'll be back
any time now if the ferry was on time." she said. "Well have lunch
earlyish in case the weather fines up." She looked out briefly at
the steady rain. "If it doesn't clear up, Manjy can try the ring
this afternoon." As she spoke she looked out and watched the
Landrover as it squelched back into the field.

The ferry had brought in some mail as well as
the usual fresh supplies and developed photographs and the letters
were shared out. Frank's two had US. stamps; Manjy's was not in
English; Gill's was from her parents, Steve didn't have one at all
and Alicia had two - an official looking one with a typewritten
address and the University frank stamped on it, and one from home.
She opened and read the university one first.

"Professor Harrington's coming up to see how
we're getting on with the dig," she said, putting the letter on the
table. "I hope the weather clears up so he finds us busy."

"Does he say when he's coming?" asked
Steve.

"Not exactly, but it's soon."

"Well it's not to-day," said Steve, "because
there isn't another ferry 'till tomorrow. So let's finish trying on
the ring to-day in case he wants to take it away with him."

"Why should he want to do that?" asked
Alicia.

Steve, who had begun to open some cheese for
sandwiches, stopped and thought about it. "I don't know why I said
that. For a moment I just sort of 'knew' he would. Well, might. For
security perhaps. He might want to take all the small valuable
finds."

"Curious," said Alicia, but didn't elaborate.
"Well, we'll get on with lunch, then Manjy can try the ring."

"And don't forget your promise. If I do get a
reaction from the ring, you're next Alicia."

"I haven't forgotten."

"I'll help Steve with lunch. I can't wait to
continue the story," said Gill and opened the packets of soup
mix.

After the lunch Trivial Pursuit was resumed
and seemed to absorb all those not taken up with the ring, and so
it was that the six of them were left to themselves without effort
on their part.

"Right," said Manjy. "The other half of my
proof. Carol and Peggy didn't get any reaction this morning, but I
will. Let's have the ring."

"You're very sure of yourself," observed
Alicia, handing it to her.

"I am," said Manjy, "and maybe we'll get the
answer to the question of where it came from." She put it on the
first finger of her long, thin hand.

Chapter 12

Everything was black. So black that the
blackness was almost solid. Not just a total absence of light, but
a darkness as if there had never been light in the world. I
couldn't see my hand when I held it up, but it felt as if I still
had one.

I didn't think the fall had knocked me out,
even for a short time, just winded me. I moved my left arm and
flexed my left wrist and fingers. Apart from a stinging where I had
apparently scraped my hand against something, they seemed to be all
right. I did the same with the right and they seemed unharmed as
well. I made no move from where I was, but I tested each leg in
turn and satisfied myself that nothing was broken, then thought
about my predicament.

We had been playing ball against a sort of
natural cliff face, near my grandmother's home. The sun had begun
to sink towards setting, so we had not been up from rest long and
it was still very hot. Too hot to be playing ball, I suppose.
Anyway, my sister and I had been using a ball made of real sap,
which came by boat from the far continent years ago before the
island was destroyed. I had taken it from my father's possessions
when he wasn't looking, so when it disappeared amongst the rocks, I
had to find it and while I was looking I heard their voices in the
hot air. There were three men.

"That's her house over there," one of them
said.

"Right," said the one who seemed to be giving
the orders. "If she's not there we look for it and take it away
with us. We only kill her if she's there and resists."

"Are we going in now?" asked the third.

"Get your breath back and have a drink of
water," said the one in charge, "You might have to run if anyone
sees you."

They sat down by some rocks in the shade of a
carob tree.

I wriggled out of the rocks, taking care to
stay out of sight of the intruders and went to warn my grandmother,
for there was no house but hers and no one else around the men
might mean.

When I slipped into the two-roomed hut, she
was getting a meal ready. She listened as I told her of the
men.

"I don't know what they want but they're here
for something," I said.

"The ring. They've come for the ring. Well
they will not have it."

I had heard her speak of rings, though I
think there are now few left in the world and hers is the only one
I have never even seen. From a shelf she took a wooden box about
two hands square and one hand deep, better made than any other I
had seen.

"Give this to your mother," she said. "Tell
her to guard it well."

I took the box from her.

"You're a good boy, but don't get caught,"
she said.

The sun would still be sharp and bright on
the mountains. Trees grow on flatter land but the heights
themselves are rocky and bare, with no trees and just a few scrubby
bushes, thorns and the odd cactus plant. They are rugged and sharp
with deep, dark chasms and ravines cutting through the ranges,
where the sun only penetrates briefly at the height of the day.
It's not that the mountains are so high - the highest ones are only
just high enough to have snow on them in the less hot time of year
- but they are lonely, rough, arid and rocky, watered only by the
occasional river. Mind you, where there is water and the land is
flatter, things grow. Our group of houses is built into a very
steep hillside by a small lake where chirrimoyas thrive and I love
the fruit of the chirrimoya tree.

The mountains slope down to the sea in
places, ending in rocks and cliffs that jut and tumble out into the
water, which is usually a patch of vivid blue, about as far as you
can walk from our house before it gets too hot to walk.

My sister was still near the house and I
wondered whether the men were within sight of it as well. Standing
well back in the shadows I called her. I had the beginnings of an
idea. I opened the box. In it was my grandmother's ring and some
kind of necklace. It looked as if there had once been other rings
in the box, which supported my grandmother's story which I'll come
to later. Itza came up in answer to my call.

"I thought you went into the rocks to look
for the ball. You left me alone out there and it's not fair."

I answered in a lowish voice. "There are
three bad men out there want to steal from grandma. I want you to
take some things straight to mummy for safekeeping. Straight there,
you understand?"

She nodded.

"Now I'm going to try and make them follow me
away from the house."

I took the ring and the necklace from the
wooden box and gave them to Itza. She put them in her pocket.

I looked out into the sunlight but, although
I couldn't see the men, I knew more or less where they were because
I could see the tree beneath which they rested.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

Itza nodded again and I strode off in the
general direction of the men. I was level with them but more than
an arrow's shot away before they noticed the box.

"Hey! That looks like the ring box," cried
the one in charge and he yelled, "What are you carrying in that
box?"

"None of your business," I shouted back, and
began to run.

With shouts and general noise the other two
leapt to their feet and they all chased after me.

At first I followed a track and the ground,
though stony and rising steeply uphill, was even. I panted and
sweated but they were gaining on me, so I turned off amongst the
tumbled rocks, weaving and dodging. I did lose one of the men, but
the other two were still with me and one was closer than before. I
saw the dark opening of a narrow cave ahead and dived in.

"Where is the little brat? We can't have lost
him," I heard one of them say.

"Probably hiding in a cave or behind a rock.
He can't have gone far."

I edged further back into the shadows. The
cave was narrow and dark but showed no signs of ending yet, so I
inched still deeper, feeling my way into the obscurity offered by
the narrow cleft. Then with a sharp crack I fell amid a shower of
dirt and pebbles into the blackness.

The cave was utterly black. I felt carefully
all round to make sure there was something to lean back on, then
moved into a sitting position. I won't say I was all that
comfortable, but I felt better than I did before. The air was warm
and dry and, though it was still, it seemed wholesome enough to
breathe, which was just as well seeing as I had no choice. There
wasn't a sound: not the running of water, nor the dripping of
water; not the stirring of air or the wings of a bat. It was as if
all my senses except that of touch had been suspended by my
fall.

Perhaps they had. Perhaps I was already dead
and this was the afterlife. This didn't seem to be much of a fun
way to spend time after death. I could see why a person might want
another body! On the whole I concluded that I probably wasn't dead
yet. On the other hand, my position looked pretty serious.

From underneath and around me I amassed a
small pile of gravel and pebbles. The first pebble I threw landed a
couple of feet in front of me, I heard it chink. The next small
stone I threw a bit further - and nothing. There was silence and I
was about to throw another when there came a faint rattle beyond
and far below me. It shook me to discover there was a big drop just
alongside the spot where I had been lying and I used the remainder
of my pebbles establishing that I seemed to be high up on the side
of a very substantial cavern.

Outside Itza should have reached my mother
and she might be searching for me, or at least wondering where I
was. Against that, the three men would still be looking for me and
I didn't fancy my chances if they found me first.

The family would sit outside to eat just
before sunset and afterwards grandmother would probably tell her
story of how I come with a warning. Like as not she would go on yet
again about remembering when her grandmother had told her she had
come across the shorter crossing from the island itself before it
was destroyed, to settle somewhere west of here. Well, if she was
still alive she would.