Chapter 26: Rescue

I decided it was safe to blink to the beach.

I contacted Mia and told her to head there. I also contacted the Hoppers and asked them to coordinate with Mia and follow her. I felt a sudden urgency but didn’t know the reason. So I blinked to the beach.

I arrived with little fanfare. Blaine believed they had collected the magical items that the people on the ship had worn. I closed my eyes and sent out my senses to locate the items. I got a ping, turned, and headed in the direction.

Once in the tree line I stripped and stowed my clothes in my satchel that I still carted everywhere with me. I strapped it down and changed into wolf. I sniffed around and headed in the direction I’d gotten on the item.

I was deep in the forest when I picked up my first scent of humans. I found it odd, as I would have thought that I would have found them closer to the beach. I followed the scents and determined I was heading to the north. I heard water and angled towards it.

I was scrambling over the forested foothills of an old volcano that had formed this island. I stopped. Something didn’t feel right. I was sure I had felt a faint tremor. Then I smelt whiffs of sulphur. I lay flat on my belly and dropped my senses down into the earth.

Oh, shit! A massive big pocket of gas was building below, as it was being superheated by magma. The earth felt as if it was being squeezed below my belly. I frantically searched the earth, but the gas and magma had nowhere to go but up.

Small cracks were already forming in the mountain trying to relieve the pressure. The weakest point was the old cauldron. It was cracked and worn by water filling it and seeping into the mountain.

Over the last two thousand years, this world had gotten wetter as the atmosphere built and made it liveable for us. Lava often cools with cracks and bubbles. It lets the water seep down, and it opens them wider.

I knew the cauldron couldn’t contain what was to come. This Volcano was not just active it was ready to blow. The pressure required releasing. My best hope was to direct it to one side, but I had to locate the people first. I rose and set off as fast as I dared in the direction I believed they were.

I stopped when the scents became confusing. Many scents near the river. I cautiously peeked through the trees. Now I understood. They had burrowed into the mountain and used the river as their access to the sea.

I remembered crossing the river. The trees grew close to the banks, and any entrance into the mountain was well camouflaged by them. I don’t know if it was by intent or just circumstances. I suspected the first. The mermaids hadn’t wanted Tory to find them.

Six people were standing on the rocks tossing nets into the fast flowing water as it crashed against the rocks below them. The river bounded down from inside mountain to a small lake above us. It then overflowed over the rapids that the fish were trying to navigate in their effort to get to the lake.

I found this curious. If they were mermaids, why did they fish in this fashion and live this far from open water? I changed and redressed. I walked out of the forest and over to the people.

I suspected at least two generations. They were all adults, but two only looked eighteen or nineteen. The others were older but not significantly by face, more by action. Once we reach adulthood, it can be hard to tell our age as we age so slowly.

“Hello,” I called out in Keltrian as I approached.

One of the women turned and looked at me. I saw fear in her eyes. I held my hands out to my sides, “I have no intention of hurting you. I’ve come seeking the mermaids.”

She climbed back to the shore, and the others collected their nets to follow. She looked me up and down and harrumphed, “Little good that will do you, they are dying.”

“Then I need to see them now before they do. I’ve been sent to help them,” I told the woman. I watched as the others also made their way to us. They seemed more curious about seeing a stranger than fearful.

“Not much can help them. They are mad but refuse to remove the medallions,” the woman said taking a more aggressive stance. She seemed to think I wasn’t a threat. I got the impression she wasn’t happy about the mermaids either.

“Are you a child or a survivor from the Ship?” I asked. I noticed two of the other women glance at her. I’d seen Tory’s vids of the girls that swam away and these people were not them. I’d also seen the data of the missing women. The three younger people would be children I surmised.

“What do you know about the ship?” she asked belligerently.

“So did they find all the items from the six people that had been left on the ship before it crashed into the sea?” I asked.

“Six? No, the Old Mothers have a medallion each. They said that they were the only four magical items to be found,” she said. She wasn’t pleased about this either. I decided she wasn’t a happy woman.

The one of the three that I deemed an older child grabbed her head and groaned and then sunk to the ground and started throwing a fit. “By the Gods, not now,” the older woman swore.

I noticed they just moved away from the girl. I knelt down and placed my hands on her head. She arched up and then settled as she lost consciousness. I could feel the growths as Tory had feared.

I concentrated on where the gene should be in her DNA and said the spell that came to me on how to fix it. I then moved the data she had stored in the boney growths into other areas of her skull and shrank them. She should now be able to store any new information in her bones as I do.

Her eyelids fluttered open, and she looked at me. “Thank you, it’s gone, the pain is gone,” she said in wonderment.

“You should be fine now. Also, any children you have in the future will no longer be afflicted,” I told her as I helped her up. “How many of your people are suffering from the tumours?”

“Most of those that are around my age. We have lost most of the mothers oldest children. I’m one of their youngest, and those they birthed with the Keltrians are showing signs of the madness,” she told me.

I smiled, “No it’s not madness though it may appear so. Tory believes there was an error in their genetic makeup that causes the growths in their brains. As you can confirm, I can fix it. So how many of you are there?” I asked again.

“Fifty-six of us children, six of the people rescued from the ship and the four mothers,” she told me. The woman who I first spoke to wasn’t happy with her volunteering this information.

I turned to her, “Justina, I believe you were a mate of a woman called Janice. She will be delighted when I tell her that you are still alive, and didn’t get left behind,” I said to her. She gasped. I smiled gently.

I told the next oldest of the women, “We rescued eighty people from the ship six weeks ago. A woman called Blaine remembered meeting you, Donna. She is why I’m here looking for you and Tory’s missing children.”

She looked relieved that they hadn’t been forgotten. Even so, seventy-five years was a long time to wait for rescue. “Now I need to see the others and get you all off this island,” I told them.

“Why do we need to leave?” the one person in male form asked.

“Because that bloody volcano is set to blow her top,” I said.

“See,” the youngest woman, said. “I told you I’ve been feeling tremors for a week. It’s close isn’t?” she asked me.

“Yes, I can possibly direct the worst of the blast away from you but to be honest, the safest thing is to just get off the island. We can come back if you wish once she settles down,” I told them. ‘If there was anything left, ‘ I thought to myself.

Justina said, “Do you have hot running water where you wish to take us?”

I smiled, “Most definitely. I even have the best two Chefs’ you are ever likely to meet. They have learned how to make Kaliefan. Janice says it’s the best she has ever eaten.”

Justina chuckled and said, “Sold. How are we getting off this bloody rock?”

“Mia, my ship, is on her way. I have also asked the Hoppers to do an emergency flight over here. It will be a tight squeeze, but the sooner you’re off this island, the better. I suggest you tell your people to pack up and head out here. I’ll clear a large enough area to let the ships land and then come and see to the old mothers.”

They ran off to the caves to alert the others while I cleared a large enough area for Mia to land. I’d have got her to land on the nearest beach, but I didn’t feel I had that much time to get the people to walk to her. My medallion was warmer now than when I first arrived.