Part 14
There hadn't seemed to be a whole lot of space on that tiny boat, barely the length of a school bus, but the main "deck" that extended from the stern to about the middle of the boat proved spacious enough for at least three to a side. Tony and Professor Silver sat on the bench next to me, while Derrick, Jordyn, and Alexandros sat opposite us. Kayce opted to take his seat on the open deck, over the doorway leading down to the lower cabin because, as he said, "I surf a lot in California and Hawaii--I'm kind of used to boats."
The wind was high and the steady putter of the motor soon faded into white noise as we cut through the water. There were a few small waves out in the open sea, but those just smacked our prow and peppered us with spray every so often.
"So Pris," Derrick began as we set off over the water, "what was that thing you and Kayce were talking about? The Micro-pantheon or whatever?"
Professor Silver raised an eyebrow. "That's an interesting concept; can't say I've ever heard of it."
Alexandros grinned widely as he stared right at me. "You know of the Microtheon? It is not very common knowledge."
I could feel my locket heating up against my throat again; what was it about this man that made me so unsettled? "Um, well, it's just a--" Why were words so hard all of a sudden? "It's an idea that quite a bit of the religious portion of Greek culture subscribed to: instead of worshipping the major gods that were the most common, the ones most other cultures knew about, they almost exclusively worshipped the minor gods attributed to any given situation."
"Yeah," Kayce chimed in, saving me from scrambling for words anymore. "Like instead of Poseidon, god of the sea, they might worship the gods of waves, wind, and fish."
Our captain chimed in from his position at the helm with a stream of excited Greek. Kayce's eyes widened.
"Oh, no way!" he gasped, as Alexandros conferred with the old man.
"What?" I asked. "Did you understand what he said?"
Kayce shook his head, "Not everything, but he mentioned something about Fourtouna and wind."
Alexandros turned his weird gaze on Kayce, I noticed, and said, "You are right, sir. He says that one of the deities worshipped at the temple on Fourtouna was a wind goddess of the Microtheon."
Derrick grinned and slapped his thigh. "Wow! That's more than Chelsea ever told us--I wonder if she knew about this Microtheon stuff. Say!" he snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "Do you think that's the real reason the Perrits didn't want her to go?" He snorted without waiting for an answer. "That whole business of we can't find it on a map so she can't go if we don't know where it is was just an excuse to take her off the trip, even though we all passed the exam fair and square!"
"I am begging your pardon, sir," Alexandros spoke up with a confused squint aimed at Derrick. "Who is this Chelsea? Why would they not find Fourtouna on the map?" He wagged his head. "I was not aware that the student team coming to assist the dig would be so woefully unprepared!"
I forgot all about how much I wanted to avoid Alexandros' attention as I rose to the defense of my friend. "We all tried!" I protested. "We spent two whole weeks trying to find as much information about the area as we could, but all the mentions of Fourtouna--or someplace nearby it, or like it--didn't come with any pictures, or the maps that we saw didn't really give any kind of specific location or dimensions, just described a certain area."
"See? Watch!" Derrick had his phone out, pulling up the maps app. It gave his location as somewhere just outside the Thessaloniki Airport. "What?" He cupped it in his hand and frantically swiped at the screen, but the view refused to update. "What's wrong with this thing?"
Jordyn grinned and wagged her head. "We're in the middle of water, dude--and you need a cell tower for service!"
"Be that as it may," I went on, "Chelsea tried to do as much research as she could, but a lot of stuff she found suddenly disappeared by the next day, and so we weren't able to find it again and confirm. We're not incompetent, and our apparent lack of preparation isn't intentional."
Kayce let one leg dangle alongside the door, while he propped his other knee up against his shoulder. "Seems kinda shady if you ask me," he muttered, looking very nervous and moody without his hoodie to hide within.
I nudged Tony next to me. "What do you think? Did Chelsea ever contact you between the time you were confirmed onto this trip, and the day we left?" I waited a few seconds, but Tony didn't move or make a sound. Was he relapsing again? "Tony?" I put a hand on his shoulder. "You all right, there?"
His whole body gave a sharp shudder, and he picked his head up. "Hm? What?" He looked over at me with a puzzled frown and rubbed his face. "Musta been sleeping, or something. Did you ask me something?"
Sleeping? Seriously? I rolled my eyes and shook my head as the mood around the boat deflated. "Never mind," I muttered.
Alexandros let out a low whistle. "Hey, students! If you look--" His eyes traveled from me to the opposite end of the bench, and his grin faded. He blinked once and dove for the doorway under Kayce's seat, giving us some privacy, I suppose.
Professor Silver leaned in, and beckoned all of us closer.
"All right, kids, let me make one thing very clear before we get to the island," he spoke in a low whisper, much darker in tone than the way he'd spoken to us before. "From now on, no one may mention Chelsea Perritt, the fact that she was originally selected for this trip, the circumstances of her cancellation, or any information she may have passed on to you."
Jordyn tilted her head. "Why not? What's so terrible about mentioning our classmate?"
I was surprised to see something close to a scowl on our good-natured chaperone's face. "Because it's distracting you all from the real reason you are here!"
Derrick snorted. "Real reason? Like we weren't selected based on educational merit? Isn't this field trip supposed to be an enrichment opportunity?"
My pulse pounded in my ears, as my locket heated up again. The trip is a cover, my mom had written. I slipped my hand into Tony's and looked right at Professor Silver and asked, "What is the real reason, if not that?" And why on earth were we supposed to hush up about Chelsea all of a sudden?
The chaperone didn't look at me. He was watching Jordyn play with a lock of her hair.
Tony gave a short cough. "We're learning about the methods and procedures of modern-day archaeology, and perhaps we are enriching our education," here he aimed a nod toward Derrick, "by learning hitherto unknown details about the ancient sect of worshippers, and what that can tell us about ancient Greek culture."
Professor Silver sat back and clapped a hand on his knee. "There! You see?" He gestured to all of us, and then pointed to Tony. "This kid gets it. Does that sound like something you all can get on board with?" He looked around the space, making eye contact with each of us.
"Yes," we muttered.
The captain began calling out something in Greek, gesturing to us and to the horizon. He turned to avoid a bank of curling waves, and a thin green line appeared at the edge where the water met the sky.
"Alexandros!" the captain called, and our guide emerged from the lower deck. They had a quick conversation, with the captain pointing at the green line getting thicker and more detailed.
Alexandros moved to the edge of the boat, and we all gathered around him, Derrick climbing up to the top deck beside Kayce to see better. "Is that Fourtouna?" he asked.
Our guide's wide grin returned, and he pointed. "That is Fourtouna! Take a good look--is this not what your maps showed?"
Jordyn squinted back and forth to what little we could see of the Macedonian coast, and the island's position. "It looks to be about the same place we were trying to preview--I don't see how an island that big could just not show up on the satellite maps!"
Kayce shielded his eyes with his hand as the island loomed closer. Now we could make out grey, rocky peaks, cliffs, and dense forests of very tall trees. "Maybe it's kind of like the way secure sites like military barracks and Air Force bases are digitally obscured, for privacy reasons?"
"Yeah right," I snorted. "Who would want to obscure an entire island?" I kept my tone as incredulous as possible, even while the small voice in my head reminded me, Perhaps it might be the work of a well-connected group of demon-worshippers wanting to keep their activity a secret.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I saw Alexandros staring directly at me, a strange gleam in his eyes. "I don't know why this island should be obscured. It is important work they do here."
The others started talking about theories as to what we would find, and what plans they had, so I could slip back into my seat without bothering anyone. I let my gaze wander out over the water. Fluffy clouds hung in the blue sky, the sun glittered warmly, and the waves curled and foamed around us. A breeze tickled my ear, and I raised my hand to brush aside the stray hairs. A movement on the water caught my eye, and I stopped to focus on it. A small white hand, sticking up over the edge of a wave. Was someone drowning? I kept watching, and another wave curled up, and at its crest, I saw a second hand.
That was a new one. The waves were literally, well, waving.
I blinked and shook my head, backing away to rejoin the others--and I nearly collided with something behind me. My reflexes kicked in and I tripped over my own feet, but when I looked up to figure out what had nearly caused me to fall on my butt, I didn't see anyone.
Well, not quite. I felt a warm breeze sort of hovering near my arm, and if I squinted really hard, I could make out the contours of a face in the air beside me. The longer I looked, the more I could see, over the shoulder and down to an arm brushing against my own. Slowly, holding the shape of the thing in my gaze, I lifted a hand toward it.
"Pris!" Tony materialized next to me, his face full of surprise and concern. "What are you doing back here?"
A blast of air knocked against the side of my head, but when I turned back, the person-like shape was gone.
"I was..." I closed my mouth again to work up some moisture on my dry tongue. A shiver ran down my spine, and I hugged my arms close to my chest. "It's a little cold out here."
Tony nodded toward the doorway to the lower deck. "It's pretty windy out here. Did you want to go down below? Derrick brought cards. We could play a game, if you want."
My skin tingled again, and I reached up to rub my fingers against the locket around my neck. So... I guess that means they're real then, I thought. A wind sprite stopping by to let me see them, and water sprites waving at me... When I turned back to look toward our destination again, Fourtouna loomed larger than ever.
I shrugged to Tony. "I guess we could."
He grinned and ducked down the stairs as I followed. The spacious cabin belowdecks was considerably warmer--but also musty-smelling because the warmth was only due to poor air circulation. Derrick sat at the table, shuffling his cards over and over, looking very bored.
"Hey," I said, sliding into the seat next to him. "Where are Kayce and Jordyn?"
Derrick set the deck on the table and shrugged. "Dunno... playing I Spy up top, I guess."
"Wanna play a game?" Tony asked, gesturing to the cards.
I waited till Derrick shrugged before picking up the deck. "How about a few rounds of gin rummy?"
He looked up at me and smiled. "Sure, I could use the distraction. Deal us in."
I shuffled once--and then gravity went absolutely haywire. The whole cabin gave a massive lurch to one side, sending my body shifting forward against the edge of the table. I put out my hands to steady myself, push away to give myself space, and it thrashed again, tilting toward the front of the boat, so that I leaned heavily toward Derrick.
"Augh!" Tony went sprawling over the empty seat next to him. "What the heck?"
BA-BOOM!
The crash of the world's largest bass drum drowned out every sound outside, and a thick staccato sustained over us. I heard screaming, and suddenly a knot of wet, frantic bodies hurtled through the small doorway into the cabin. Jordyn, Kayce, Professor Silver, and Alexandros came running in, almost completely drenched. The boat continued to jerk and tilt.
"What happened?" I asked.
Kayce ducked into the tiny bathroom for a towel, which he used to wipe his face before handing it to Jordyn. "Freak storm blew in out of nowhere!"
Jordyn lunged for her suitcase and pulled her rolled-up blanket out of the top. She threw it around herself and held it tight. "One second, we were basking in the sun, and the next..." she shivered and rubbed her face with the soft material. "Are we going to be okay?" She looked toward the two men in charge of our safety with nervous eyes.
"We'll be fine, our clothes will dry," Professor Silver reassured her. "I'm sure our captain knows what he's doing."
"Indeed," Alexandros confirmed. "Storms like this are not unusual on the Aegean Sea--though," he frowned. "We were not expecting such a dramatic turn in the weather so early in the day."
Instinctively, I reached up to finger my locket again. Mom is a wind goddess, and Dad is a god of sea storms, I thought. This is all just normal stuff for them. Did it mean they were here with us, if this storm happened so suddenly? All this time, I had assumed that the mysterious demon had gotten rid of them or captured them somewhere--but what if they weren't actually imprisoned, what if they had followed us, and were there on the island, waiting for me?
Derrick spoke up. "So, Alex," he fiddled with the cards in his hand as he spoke. "Tell me something: the island's name is Fourtouna right? What does that mean--is it, like fortune or something?"
Alexandros grinned and gave a light chuckle. "Ah, no--you are confusing it with another Mediterranean language, I think. In Italian, the word fortuna means fortune, but in Greek, the name fourtouna means storm."
Tony raised his hand. "Does it mean that maybe one of the gods they worshipped on the island could have been some kind of storm god?"
I pinched my locket between my fingers and thought about my parents as the boat tilted, twisted and jerked. Dad, with his kind eyes, his huge biker beard and the long hair...
"It is possible, though it's hard to say which one might have something to do with storms, or why there are two gods honored at the temple--typically the honor is reserved for one main god, and others are worshipped in conjunction with it, but to have a temple dedicated to both gods does mean that both of them could possibly have a connection to storms somehow."
Mom, with her gentle voice, her smooth, graceful movements, her refined style...
The noise faded, the boat slowly centered again, and my legs tingled at the sudden lack of movement. We all involuntarily stared out the window as a cascade of sunlight unfolded over the deck outside.
"Is it over?" Jordyn asked, tossing her blanket down on top of her suitcase.
"That fast?" Kayce chided. "There's something you don't see every day!"
We all bundled out of the cabin, and our captain grinned at us from under his soggy beard, and pointed a dripping hand toward the nose of the boat.
There, just the length of a football field away, was a sandy beach, with a dock extending from it that would be our landing point on the island of Fourtouna--the Island of Storms.
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