“I don’t see anyone!” Tanny cried as the Pearl motored toward the beach. “Surely she could hear the engine!”
“Is this where you want to dump us?” Erutown growled, surveying the uprooted polly, the wind-depressed trunks of more, and the storm debris on the once white sands.
“Oh, you’ll be luxuriously situated, I assure you.” Lars said. Killashandra had decided that Lars and Erutown were in basic disagreement on too many counts. Lars was delighted to deposit the man out of the way for a while. “We’ve solar-power units for Theach’s equipment, all sorts of emergency camp gear, and plenty of food should you tire of the stuff the island and the sea provide.”
“And a hatchet, a knife, and a book of instructions?” Killashandra asked she was not above priming her surprise.
“There speaks the polly planter.” Grinning, Lars flipped the toggle to release the anchor, cut off the engine, and gestured Tanny overboard. He was halfway up the heights to the shelter before the others had made the beach.
“There’s no one here, Lars. Ye gods, what shall we do? There’s no one here!” Tanny screamed.
Consternation smoothed Lars’s features and he set off up the slope at speed. Killashandra followed at a more leisurely pace, wondering whether she would ease their fears. One look at the terror and hopelessness of Tanny’s face, and a second one at the shock on Lars’s eroded her need for revenge. Erutown and Theach were on the beach, out of hearing.
“You don’t know very much about crystal singers, do you, Lars . . .”
He swung around, stared at her, trying to assimilate her words. Tanny reached his conclusion first and sat heavily down among the storm-strewn polly fronds, his expression incredulous.
“ . . . If you thought I’d just sit here until it suited you to retrieve me.”
Chapter 14
Any discussion of that would have to be postponed. Theach and Erutown reached the height, looking about them for their fellow exile. Unable to look in Killashandra’s direction, Tanny shot one horrified glance at Lars as the latter smoothly invented a note that she had been removed from the island by a passing vessel. He even flourished a piece of paper from his pocket as he commented that he was glad she was safe.
“That tears it,” Erutown said gloomily. “We’ll all be in trouble.”
“I doubt it. A very good friend of ours skippered that ship,” Lars replied without a blink “She can’t go anywhere without my knowledge.” Tanny made a strangled sound and Killashandra grinned, choking on her laughter. “There’s nothing you could safely do without jeopardizing yourself at this point, Erutown. It isn’t as if you’ll be out of touch,” and Lars handed the man a small
but powerful handset. “The frequency to use for any contact is 103.4 megahertz. All right? You can listen in on any of the other channels but communicate only on the 103.4.”
Erutown agreed with ill grace, hefting the set doubtfully. With a sideways grin at Killashandra, Lars handed over hatchet, knife, and polly book.
“There now, you’re completely equipped,” Killashandra said cheerfully. “You’ll find that a polly island is quite restful.” She glanced maliciously at Tanny and Lars. “Everything you require – polly for food, fish in the lagoon for sport and a change of diet, and a fine reef to prevent the omnivorous from dining on you. You’re far better off than I was on my polly island, I assure you.” Tanny squirmed, noticeably discomfited.
“Oh, we’ll do fine, Carrigana.” Theach grinned as he began to unpack the solar reflectors.
Lars chuckled, linking his arm in hers, and swinging her down the slope to the beach.
“C’mon, Tanny, I want to be at the Bar Island before sundown.”
What with the routine necessary to up anchor and maneuver the Pearl through the one gap in the reef, there wasn’t time for discussions until they were once again under full sail and beating due north for the Bar Island.
“Tanny, I think you’d better go below,” Lars began, signaling Killashandra to join him in the cockpit. “What you don’t know won’t hurt you – ”
“Who says?” Tanny growled.
“Fix us some grub, will you? All this excitement gave me an appetite. So,” and once Tanny had slammed the hatch closed, Lars turned expectantly to Killashandra, “could I have some explanations?”
“I rather think a few are due me!”
Lars cocked an eyebrow, grinning sardonically at her. “Not when you must have figured out many of the answers already if you’re half as smart as I think you are.” Lars slid a finger across the scar on her arm, then he reached for her hand and held it up before her face, his thumb rubbing against the crystal scars. “ ‘I came from the City.’ Indeed!”
“Well, I did . . .” she said, deceptively meekly.
“Your best line, you witch, was the one about your having had no choice about coming to the islands!” Lars could not contain his mirth then and tilting his head back, roared with laughter.
“I wouldn’t laugh if I were you, Lars Dahl. You’re in an unenviable position in my files. “ She tried to sound severe but couldn’t.
His eyes were still brimming with humor when he abruptly switched mood. He touched the garland. “Yes, I am rather. And on Angel Island. For one thing, according to island tradition, this announces us handfasted for a year and a day.”
“I had guessed that the garlands signified more than your loving wish to adorn my person.” The words came out more facetiously than she meant for she ached with a genuine regret. Lars’s steady blue eyes caught her gaze and held it. He waited for her explanation.
“With all the will in the world to continue what we started, I don’t have a year and a day here, Lars Dahl.” The words left her mouth slowly, unwillingly. “As a crystal singer, I am compelled to return to Ballybran. Had I understood yesterday morning precisely what these blooms meant, I would not have accepted them. Thus does ignorance wound the giver. I am . . . tremendously attracted to you as a man, Lars Dahl. And in the light of what I have been told, heard, and overheard,” she gave him a faint smile, “I can even forgive you that idiotic abduction. In fact, it would have been far more humiliating for me to have been caught in a raid on a bootleg brewery. What you cannot know is that I wasn’t sent to Optheria merely to repair that organ – I am here as an impartial witness, to learn if restriction to this planet is popularly accepted.”
“Popularly accepted?” Lars lifted half out of the cockpit seat in reaction. “What a way to phrase it! It is the most singularly unpopular, repressive, frustrating, discouraging facet of the Optherian Charter. Do you know what our suicide rate is? Well, I can give you hard statistics on that. We made a study of the incidents and have copies of what notes have been left by the deceased. Nine out of ten cite the hopelessness and despair at having no place to go, nothing to do. If you’re lucky enough to be unemployed on Optheria, oh, you’re given food, shelter, clothing, and assigned stimulating community service to occupy you. Community service! – Trimming thorn hedges, tidying up hillsides, dusting boulders in the roadways, painting and repainting federal buildings, stuffing the faces and wiping the bottoms of the incontinent at both ends of life. Truly rewarding and fulfilling occupations for the intelligent and well educated failures that this planet throws upon the altar of the organ!”