AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I had no choice but to accept this. It’s just a tattoo. I have no dark power.” I dared not move as I tried to explain myself, eyeing the tribe around me watching my every flinch.
“Come,” the old woman said sternly. I was startled by her sudden utterance of a word I understood. I shifted toward her, slowly, intrigued. She looked to the man to translate as I gave Clara a nod of reassurance.
“We have a legend here, that the sun and the moon were once mortals, trapped in a cave and both forged as a result of enduring the same darkness.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You, too, must not be overtaken by the shadows that bind you. The dark one who marked you can see us now. Even if we kill you, you’ve already revealed our existence. Soon the ships will come and the men will take what is not theirs. We must break the connection you share with your dark master so that we remain untraceable.”
“You can do that?”
“Only enough to blur the tether you hold to the darkness. And then you must leave immediately, so that you’re no longer a beacon for our location.”
The thought of muddling the connection Bastian held over me sounded like a deal far too great to be true, no matter what it entailed. I leaned in, desperate to know more, and wondering what it would require of me. It didn’t quite seem I would have a choice in the matter either way.
The man and elder woman spoke together, conversing back and forth before the elder addressed the tribe around her. Some shook their heads in disagreement, but others seemed to support what she was saying. Though they stood divided, the woman appeared to have made her decision.
“Sun,” she said simply.
The translator straightened his shoulders. “You will bear the sign of our sun to drown out the dark power in you. It will sustain you as long as you seek the light. But if you choose the darkness...if you give in to the tempest raging in your heart...it will fade and give you over to your own destruction.”
“You’re giving me a choice?”
“No, you give yourself a choice. To choose darkness or light. Already you’re tempted or you wouldn’t ask. You are willing to do whatever you have to do to find that which you seek. And you’ve let it consume you and define you. Let the sun’s light guide you. I will keep you from hardening your heart to the realities of those around you and from bringing harm to others in pursuit of freedom from your own pain.”
Her words pierced something in me. There was no more room for doubting. I was meant to find the fountain. To reunite with Katrina. And my only path there right now was through doing as these people demanded.
“I’ll take your symbol. I don’t seek to harm you. I just want to get home.” I offered a slight tilt of my head.
The woman spoke a word the man didn’t bother to translate. In an instant, one man and one woman from the circle surrounding us lunged forward and grabbed Clara, each of them holding an arm in restraint as Clara shouted obscenities in surprise. I flinched, but didn’t dare draw my weapon. I knew better than to leap to combat in defense. They weren’t hurting her, and I knew she’d be fine. I couldn’t risk losing any merit I sought to gain with the islanders.
A sharp point dug into my back. A knife or spear tip, I presumed. The man in front of me never took his harsh eyes from mine. “Remove all your weapons,” he ordered. “The Elder wants to speak to you alone first.”
I obliged, sliding my swords from their sheaths and laying my pistol at his feet. I couldn’t explain the feeling I had, but somehow I believed with my whole heart I would come out of this alive. Perhaps it was delusion or drunkenness, but my fear had subsided.
The man before me and the member at my back forced me along a break in the circle encompassing us, leading me down a well-worn path behind the elder woman. With my agreement made known, the elder woman led me away to a place where the forest grew thicker and the sound of trickling water became clearer.
When we were far enough away, the old woman turned to face me. I noticed she’d led me to a stream that snaked through the rich soil of this island, its trickling sound like delicate clattering cymbals amongst the night song of insects. When the woman broke the silence with her speech, I looked up, listening and intrigued as to why she brought me here.
She dipped a withered hand into the clear water, guiding my gaze to the stream bed below. Inlaid with veins of gold, it certainly caught my attention. No doubt this island would be ravaged for this gold if anyone knew of its existence.
I inched closer to take a better look. The woman motioned for me to sit down on the ground. I knelt beside the stream, the elder woman seated regally with hands now folded in her lap. She began to speak and the man stood over us, translating each phrase.
“When you take this mark, remember our legend. Both trapped by darkness in a cave, the sun fought it, and his light grew stronger. But the moon embraced it, so much that she was able to trick the darkness into letting them go. So when they escaped, the sun was devoted to her for the rest of time. They both escaped their prison, but the moon forever harbored a dark side that only the sun could keep at bay. That’s why we see her change each night. Her strength over the shadow waxes and wanes, but the sun’s light sustains her until one day when she will grow strong enough to overcome it.”
I let my gaze drift to the shimmering gold lines traced along the bottom of the crystal stream. The woman’s hand, gentle but firm, touched my face to turn my head back to her as she continued.
“I understand the sun’s power is great here. And you believe it protects your island.” I said, hoping to move this process along.
“Yes. So be like the sun.” The woman said this, instead of the man having to translate. She almost smiled with her eyes, though the rest of her face remained tight and emotionless.
“Now give her your arm.” The man’s voice boomed from above.
I slowly reached my arm forward, the woman began a low chant, humming to herself as she placed the tip of her finger in the water. The golden threads in the sediment began to glow, like warm light from the sun itself. It became like liquid, dribbling out from the cracks in which it rested and floating up in the water to meet the woman’s fingertip. She lifted her finger, taking the stream of floating molten gold with it, directing it like swirling smoke.
She guided it to my arm, hovering over the tattoo from Bastian, and then the molten gold took form, searing itself into my skin in the symbol of a sun. I expected it to burn immensely, but there was little more than a mild sting. It settled into my flesh, creating an inlay of gold that became just barely visible once it settled.
“This will keep him from being able to find me as easily?”
