The Sceptre of Samnos

The Emerald Oracle - Part 2

      The only ship they could find that was going to the Lonely Isles any time in the near future was a small, dingy cargo hauler that compared not at all well with the Analiese, of which they had grown quite fond, and whose Captain was a surly, dislikeable fellow who charged double what Captain Waralee had. If there had been any choice they would have told him to get lost, but unfortunately there was no regular shipping between Mala and Greenwing Island and there was no telling how many weeks or months it might be before anyone else would be going that way. Fortunately, the trip was a short one, taking only three days, and they were able to put up with the smelly, unsanitary conditions for that long.

      It was with great relief that they stepped ashore on Greenwing Island, but they tried not to show it as they might be needing him later to take them back to the mainland again. He was the sort of man who would leave them stranded there forever for the slightest imagined insult, so they were as pleasant and polite as possible as they thanked him for the pleasant trip, and even complemented his cooking, even though it had been so greasy it had almost made them sick. "We knew this trip would be dangerous," muttered Shaun as they walked away, "but I was imagining monsters and outlaws, not terrible cooking." Diana giggled and agreed.

      The lonely Isles consisted of several hundred small islands, most of them nothing more than jagged rocks constantly lashed by the sea and inhabited only by gulls and foam lizards. Only a couple of dozen were large enough to have a carpet of grass and a few trees, and only six of them were inhabited. Even the largest, Gurney Island, had only half a dozen fishing villages, owing to most of its surface being under a curse dating back to the days of the Agglemonian Empire. It was the only island large enough to have a proper forest which, in the almost total absence of humanity, was inhabited by dangerous predators that had been largely driven out from the more densely populated parts of the world.

      The village of Stonall, where they landed, consisted of about fifty sturdy stone houses and a few larger, wooden buildings standing around the edge of a natural bay. A single road ran along the waterfront and led to the single other village on the other side of the island. In the centre of the island stood a single mountain, about five thousand feet high, upon whose bare rugged sides a few stunted shrubs grew. The air above them was filled with greenwing gulls, after which the island had been named, their glossy green wings gleaming in the light of the two suns. They flocked around the waterfront and covered the water like a feathery green and white carpet, scrabbling after the scraps the fishermen threw as they gutted their latest catch of fish.

      Several other islands were visible on the horizon, rugged dark shapes against which waves crashed and over which gulls flew. One in particular caught their attention, an island whose single peak was just barely visible on the horizon. "That must be Arn," said Shaun. "The island of the Oracle should be somewhere beyond it."

      They picked out a sailor, busy gutting fish, who turned his craggy, salt weathered face to regard them with dark, suspicious eyes as they approached. "Excuse me, sir," said Shaun, "I wonder if you could possibly take us to the Island of the Emerald Oracle. We'd pay you handsomely for your time."

      The grey bearded sailor burst out laughing. "You do be saying," he said, looking at them with well meaning amusement. "The Island of the Emerald Oracle, you be saying. Where you be hearing that old story?"

      "From a very reliable source," said Diana in annoyance, her hair streaming out behind her in the salty breeze that blew in from the sea. "It's a few miles beyond Arn. The reason you've never seen it is because it's invisible."

      "Well, I do be sorry to be disappointing you young people, but there be nothing there but rocks that'd be tearing the bottom out of any boat foolish enough to be getting too close."

      "We'd like to go and see for ourselves," said Shaun. "All we need is an honest sailor who wouldn't mind earning a bit of money to take us. If there's nothing there, the loss would all be ours. Come on, what have you got to lose?"

      "My boat, if I be getting too close to those rocks," said the sailor. "Be forgetting it."

      "Let's ask someone else," suggested Jerry. "One of them'll take us."

      "Oh no they won't," said the sailor, picking up another fish and slicing its belly open with a well practised flick of his knife. "There's not one of them'll be risking his boat on such a foolish, suicidal errand. My advice to you is to be giving up and going home. You won't be getting any further here."

      "This is ridiculous," said Diana. "Other people must come here from time to time to consult the Oracle. One of them must have confirmed it's existence to you. How can you live so close to such a wondrously magical place and not be aware of it?"

      "Other people do be coming now and again, it be true," agreed the sailor. "The Gods alone know how these stories be getting about. All of us who be living here be knowing that there be no Oracle, or if there is, it's not being here, but still they be coming. Why, just a few years ago this great powerful wizard be coming, saying that he had to be finding it for the good of all civilization. When none of us was agreeing to take him, he was buying a boat and going off by himself. He was never coming back. Very few of them be coming back, and all those who do be saying they were finding nothing."

      "A great powerful wizard?" asked Thomas thoughtfully. "I don't suppose you remember his name?"

      "It was beginning with a ‘Z', I think," said the sailor. "Zarkov or Zanadu or something."

      "Zebulon!" cried Lirenna excitedly.

      "Aye, that was his name," said the sailor. "I take it you be knowing him."

      "Not really," said Diana. "We knew of him. We thought he was dead."

      "Most likely he is," said the sailor. "He never be coming back. Most likely he be dying on the rocks."

      "Not Zebulon," said Diana firmly. "If he survived the Shadow, a few rocks wouldn't kill him. If he never came back, it's because he found what he was looking for and saw no reason to return."

      "You be living in a dream world," said the sailor in exasperation. "Now be getting away with you before I be getting angry."

      "No way!" said Diana, now more determined than ever. "If you won't take us, we'll buy a boat and go by ourselves, like Zebulon did."

      "What!" exclaimed Thomas in disbelief. "We can't afford to buy a boat! And even if we could, we can't sail it! Be reasonable, Di."

      "We can sail it," said Diana. "There's a large lake near our home where we used to sail when we were younger. We weren't the best sailors on the lake, but we knew how to handle a boat and it won't take us long to get into the swing of it again. As for affording it, we've accumulated quite a lot of money on our travels. I'm sure that if we put it all together we could make this gentleman a very tempting offer, and if he won't sell I'm sure someone will." She looked around and saw a small sail boat pulled high up the beach, just the right size for the six of them. “Does that belong to you? How much will you take for that fine vessel, sir?"

      "Be getting away with you!" said the sailor, now getting genuinely angry. "I be having enough of your nonsense. Be getting off with you before I be feeding you to the gulls."

         
      Seeing that he could not be persuaded, they left him, but Diana was serious about her intention to buy a boat and insisted that they empty their pockets and pool their money. It made a surprisingly large pile, they had forgotten quite how much they'd gotten from Vantarestin, the trogs in Dermakarak and the shologs on the island fish, but it took almost all of it to buy a mouldy old, barely seaworthy sail boat from an old fisherman who had retired a couple of years previously. Sharing out the pitiful remains of their once mighty fortune, they found that they were now almost broke. "The Oracle had just better be there, that's all," grumbled Shaun, feeling his flat pouch that, just a few minutes earlier, had bulged with silver and gold.

      "Stop grumbling," said Diana, glowing with excitement. "We're off on a great adventure, to see a marvel that few living people have ever seen before. Isn't that worth a little expense?"

      "Only if it really is where we think it is," said Shaun. "I shall be really annoyed if it isn't.”