A Thousand Salt Kisses Forever (Third Book in Salt Kisses series)

You have to ask

I stared at him speechless.

"Starfish Island?" I gaped. "Made from -"

Llyr put his finger to my mouth. "Shh!" he laughed.

"But it's got earth and soil and trees and...stuff!" I argued.

"Yes, but underneath all of that, the whole base, right down to the seabed is pure-" Now I put a finger over his mouth. We laughed and he pulled me back down. "But even if it is, that still doesn't make any sense," I mused, resting my head back on his shoulder. "I mean, Jemima's been on the island and she still can't see you..."

"It doesn't work like that," he said, turning on his side so that we faced each other. "You need to live with the stone for quite some time, absorb its energies... Quintessence is ultimate knowledge; enlightenment, even, and nothing, therefore, is hidden from those who are empowered by it."

"Do people on the island have other powers, then?" I asked. This was after all supposed to be the mother of all rocks. Maybe we could all fly, and we didn't even know it.

"No," said Llyr. "Everything else requires a knowledge of the stone's existence. You can meditate with the stone, and when you are in a perfect relaxed state, that's when you can ask for blessings and special healing. There are other very powerful things you can do with Quintessence too, but it requires... alchemy."

"Crazy," I said, still dumbfounded. This invaluable stone, the fifth element itself - according to Aisling the sea shaman - was sitting there for all to see, just off the coast of Coney. At first, I felt tickles of amusement. The Timsahs had been dying to get their mitts on the gemstone, but they had no idea that it was in the shape of a big island. My island. But as I dwelled on this, my mirth evaporated. What if they did find out? What would they do?

"Ri's worried about this investigation, and what will happen if anybody discovers the truth about the island," whispered Llyr, reading my thoughts. "We have always been responsible with the stone, we do not let it corrupt us. But others...."

"Could gift themselves immortality?" I whispered, remembering Aisling speaking of such things. He had been deeply concerned that the Timsahs would make use of the stone in this way, becoming indestructible.

"It's possible," he whispered. "Through some kind of a darker practice."

I shuddered in his arms, I did not like to think of those monstrous mers and their magic tricks. I looked up at him. "What would they do to the island if they found out?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said softly. "But I don't think they would protect it like we have."

"Who else knows?" I asked, worriedly.

"It is only my mother, Ri, Aisling and I who know of its whereabouts. Tairise, The King of Evergreen, knows of its existence, but Ri will not tell him where it is."

"I bet that would have really ruffled his feathers," I giggled. These two kings were best friends, yet at the same time deeply suspicious of one another.

Llyr laughed too. "Yes, it is among many of the things that they bicker about. But it was Mother who found the stone. She was always drawn to the island, and one day, with the help of Aisling, she discovered why. There is a small opening, not far from your house. This is where you can access the core of the island, and be submerged by the Quintessence. For centuries after the discovery, we would go carefully and quietly to the isle and meditate with the rock. It is here we would ask for all our blessings, and often they would be delivered, one way or another."

"Like what?" I whispered.

"Well, around three centuries ago our kingdom was hit by fatal influenza, they call it the whale-flu as they believe it originated from the species. Anyway, my parents went to the rock to request a mass healing. I was just a babe and I too had the plague... and, sure enough in five moons, the tides brought some rare algae all the way from the Pacific. Everybody was horrified, they thought it a fatal toxin, a red tide of some sort. It made us all even worse at first, but in a few moons time, it completely cured everybody of the plague."