Read an Excerpt
The Navigator's Dream, Volume 2
Gulftide
By Julia A. Turk
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Julia A. Turk
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-4747-7
Chapter One
Page of Pentacles – Rules Ten and Nine of Pentacles.
My Guide and I loaded my few belongings from the handcart into the punt moored by the wooden dock below Belvederes' tower. I observed that the tower actually blocked the way to the Lagoon, and that we must have exited by a back door in order to get down to the water. Had the tower grown bigger? Where was the path? Confused, I looked back and could just see the little manikins swaying in the wind. Twenty of them! I wondered what the twenty-first test would be and whether I would ever reach that point.
Having arranged everything in the waterproof boxes attached to the sides and bottom of the boat, with Joana the cricket in her place, my Guide pointed to the Castle of Earth and told me I would meet a young man there who was a Page at the castle. He would take me on my first adventure and it was important that I either vanquished or brought under control any puppets that I might encounter. I was extremely nervous, and was indignant that Paragutt had not come to accompany me, but for some reason all of the puppets were still hanging from the poles at the tower. It did seem unusual, for Paragutt and the others were always prompt when my moods came on. I wondered if they had become indifferent to my fate.
Nevertheless, I knew I must push off alone, and the old fellow untied the lines and gave the punt a shove out into the water. It floated off and the distance to the dock increased rapidly. I looked around for a pole, but could not see one. I panicked and yelled back to my Guide.
"Where's the pole? You forgot the pole! I don't have any way to direct the punt." I was on my feet, balancing as the boat rocked wildly.
A laugh came over the water. "You must find the pole. One of the objects you have stowed in the boat is the pole. All you have to do is find it, dip it in the water, and – there is your pole! Better hurry up and look for it before the tide sweeps you away."
H'm, I thought, so I'm in tidal waters from now on. When I had been on the river, at least I knew the flow was always in the same direction – downriver. It was typical of the old man to play a trick like this now. I hastily went through the boxes in the bottom of the punt, reasoning that the pole must be something that was long and thin. The distance between my boat and the shore was rapidly increasing, and the old man merely a dot on the horizon, yet his faint chuckle still echoed across the water. Desperately I turned to the final box and found the dead rattlesnake curled up. He was long and thin. I took him out and dangled his tail in the water and he seemed to smile at me. I felt a quiver run suddenly through his slack body, and he became rigid and began to elongate. His skin seemed to lose its sleekness and became woody and grainy. When he reached about ten feet, he stopped and said – for his head was still at the top of the pole – that he thanked me for releasing him from bondage and allowing him to be useful in his new life. I patted his neck and we poled off together, the Lagoon being relatively shallow across most of its width.
We approached the Castle of Earth, built of dark bricks made of clay baked in the sun, its somber rectangular turrets reared over square windows let into the walls. Around the outside of the castle wall was a group of small mud huts, and there was some sort of disturbance going on in the central square of this village. We pulled in and I let the rattlesnake lie down in the punt, where he coiled up for a snooze. Mooring the boat, I walked over to the huts, hearing the sound of voices raised in anger. A crowd was gathering around a young man dressed as a Page in knee-length russet pantaloons and a v-neck citrine blouse, cinched at the waist by a narrow belt. A short russet cape was around his shoulders and on it, the motif of a crossed spade and fork. He had a ruddy, strong face with bright hazel eyes and curly brown hair, and appeared to be a hard-working, conscientious person. He was ushering along a small herd of pigs, and seemed to be the butt of the villagers' wrath.
"Ignorant serf! You allowed those pigs to escape."
"You have not been watching our swine!"
"Foolhardy idiot – think you that our pigs are worth nothing?"
"You are to leave the village –go! GO! We have had enough of your dreaming."
These were some of the epithets thrown at him. Evidently, the Page had lost several pigs, and it appeared that pigs were very important here. I waited until he turned and, picking up his backpack, sadly made his way out of the village towards the shore with the four remaining pigs, dragging his wooden staff.
"Hello. Can I help you?" I asked, stepping forward.
He turned to me with relief. "Please take me away from here. I can't stand their ignorance any longer! I was studying and two of the pigs ran off. Now they are lost and it's not the first time this has happened. I've already lost eight other pigs, making a total of ten. They must be in the forest. Will you help me? Could we go there and try to find them? My name is Trid, by the way, and this is for you." He handed me a barred hawks feather and pointed to an area about a mile beyond the castle where the trees grew thickly down to the waters' edge.
"I can take you in the punt, and I see you have only four pigs left, so they will fit in too. Just mind they don't mess it up – it's new. Go ahead and jump in and the pigs should follow you."
I half-wished I hadn't offered the ride, as the bristly pigs, squealing and snuffling, slithered over the side of the punt, leaving a trail of mud and dead leaves, and milled about in the bottom. I picked up the snake, who stiffened himself again, and poled towards the wood, where we left the boat in dense reeds by the waters' edge.
Threading our way through some trees, we reached a small clearing where a gopher sat thoughtfully chewing. As we sat down for a rest, Trid told me his story. The Queen of the Castle of Earth had chosen him as a Page to serve at table, but, being ambitious, he had decided to study and learn to read and write so that he could become a Squire and eventually a Knight for the Kingdom of Earth. He also took part in weapons training, fighting with the club and pike, and was an expert with the slingshot. The peasants in the village, however, were uneducated and resented the fact that he had been singled out for favor. What is more, they relied on their pigs for their livelihood and assumed he was completely ignorant of their needs because he had let them escape. Trid told me that he had read the tea leaves and a dark stranger was supposed to help him.
That could be me, I thought. "What does the dark stranger have to do?"
"That person must prove that they can temper acquisition with cautious moderation," said the Page. "I'm not sure what it means."
It sounded like a mouthful. "Where did you hear that?"
"It was in the tea leaves. I don't know what it signifies." The Page went on. "I only know I need to find the ten missing pigs, and they're probably rooting for truffles in the forest."
A bluebird flew into view and perched for a moment on a twig nearby, then flew directly towards the forest and disappeared.
"There, that's a sign." I pointed rapidly in the direction of the forest. "That bird knows where the pigs are. We'll follow it, quickly now. Leave your backpack here and we'll pick it up later." I got up and ran towards the trees and Trid followed, hoping the bluebird had not vanished, and there it was, perched a little further on as if beckoning to us. We plunged deeper and deeper into the wood, pushing through dense brambles and undergrowth, the bird keeping just ahead and the four pigs rooting noisily beside us. After pressing on for a couple of hours, we came to a cliff in which was the dark entrance to a cave. The bluebird fluttered about at the mouth of the cave but wouldn't go in.
"This must be the spot," I volunteered. "The pigs should be in that cave. It's nearly sundown and they've gone in there for the night."
"Pigs don't have to go in when it gets dark," said my companion, as he tucked the bluebird inside his shirt, where it settled down. "But we'll go in anyway and see. These pigs look as if they know something's in there."
His four muddy pigs were already snuffling at the mouth of the cave as we began to climb over the rocks at the entrance, the four pigs hurrying just ahead of us. Soon total darkness swallowed us, and we crept along, feeling our way over the damp walls and following the direction the excited pigs had taken. The passage closed in as the cave narrowed down, and we were getting claustrophobic and almost ready to turn back, when ahead of us we heard snuffling and a couple of squeals of delight, that accompanied the patter of cloven hooves. Rounding a bend, we found a narrow band of evening sunlight filtering down from a hole in the ceiling of a large cave, illuminating the missing pigs. All ten of them were there, hunkered down in a pile, snorting and flapping their ears with pleasure as the remaining four joined them.
Trid was elated. "Wonderful! We've found them. Now at least I can return them to the village. They can find someone else to do their pig-herding in future."
"Not so fast!" A nebulous voice spoke from the shadowy nether regions of the cave, as a faint shimmering green light filtered up from behind the rocks. "You have entered the realm of Persephone, goddess of the underworld and pig-lover. Have you been negligent in the care of these pigs?"
The Page was taken aback. "I-I didn't mean t-to lose them," he stammered. "I wanted to learn to read and write."
"That is just an excuse. You were responsible for the pigs and now they have led you to my territory. Before I can allow you to return with them, you must pass a test, which I will give you both. Leave the pigs in my care and come to the back of the cave." Persephones' voice commanded.
We nervously moved towards the darkened part of the cave, and with a swish, the green light brightened, revealing a misty aperture that led us away from the forest into another world – a world I recognized – for there were Lance and Gwen, my parents, standing outside their house welcoming a group of guests who were emerging from several long limousines.
I walked up to them and hugged each of them. "Hello. I didn't expect to find you here! What's going on?"
My mother looked at me, her eyes sparkling. "It's so good to see you. We thought you were gone forever. We're having our first convention for venture capitalists here. It's such a beautiful setting. Since we've become philanthropists, we've been reaching out to find others to share and work with us to benefit villages threatened by poverty in Turkey."
"What a worthwhile cause!" I exclaimed, as the Page stared, fascinated, at their mansion. "May I introduce Trid, the Page of Pentacles," I turned towards him. "This is my mother Gwen and my father Lance who parented me in a previous life."
The Page bowed respectfully. "I am Trid of the Castle of Earth, pig herder and student of grammar." He held out a grubby paw, which my mother took in her white hand rather delicately.
"We are pleased to welcome you here. Are you going to join the venture capitalist convention?" She looked him up and down doubtfully. "Everyone here has to possess a fortune of at least one billion dollars......." Her voice faded away as she regarded Trids' ragged tunic and filthy leggings.
"Don't worry, mother." I reassured her. "We're just passing through on the test that Persephone has set us, for we can't get the pigs back from her unless we complete it. Actually, she didn't tell us what the test was." Here I paused, racking my brains for an answer.
Gwen looked somewhat confused. "Who is this Persephone woman? I haven't heard of her. How do pigs come into this?"
"We don't know any more than you do. Trid has to get his herd of pigs back to the village, though." I turned to the Page. "I think we should climb that cliff at the base of the lake over there and see what's at the top. Maybe we can find out. Come on."
We wandered through a magnificent garden, as Gwen showed us the great falls that plunged into their natural lake. The foaming water was filled with gold coins, which glittered and leaped as they fell showering into the lake, where a gardener in a boat was busying himself fishing loads of cash out of the water with a large net. I felt I recognized him, as he was quite tall, about seven feet, and had an extraordinarily long nose, but I wasn't sure.
"Where is the source of this wealth?" I asked my mother, looking up at the top of the falls as a thrill of excitement shot through me. "It must come from up there."
"We don't know and we don't ask," replied Gwen somewhat slyly. "Ever since we started to give money away, the gold coins have been falling faster and faster. Now we can afford to give much more than we gave before, and yet maintain a comfortable style of living."
"That's wonderful," I heard myself saying. "You have learned to temper acquisition with cautious moderation."
Where had I heard that before? I slid a glance at Trid, but he had become mesmerized by the sight of the money. "Let's find out where the coins are coming from."
The feeling of intense excitement continued to rush through me as we said goodbye to Gwen and set off up the cliff, which was quite a scramble. I left the Page behind as I sped from rock to rock in my eagerness, finding easy finger and toe holds, my anticipation growing as I thought of finding the source of all that money.
About half-way up the cliff I heard shallow panting behind me and, thinking it was my companion, turned around. Trid was resting further down the cliff, however, and between us a wizened gnome-like figure that I had not seen before clung to a rock just below me. I showed my astonishment.
"Who are you?" I exclaimed in surprise.
The creatures' narrow mouth opened and a thin stream of saliva dripped onto the rock. "I am Aquirot, your greedy self, and I am coming with you to find the gold that you desire." The horrible entity grinned, as a furtive look crossed its cracked features.
"I don't know you. Go away!" I said crossly. "I'm not intending to share my discovery with anyone. Except maybe Trid." I added reluctantly.
Aquirots' twisted mouth opened in a leer, revealing a complete set of gold dentures. "You'll have to share with me. You have no choice. I'm your greedy self, remember? As long as your desire for the gold exists, I will be with you, and I will demand my half." She, for I had discerned a female trait in the figure, crowed harshly and waggled scrawny ears, which glittered with golden rings of every shape and size.
Well, I decided, Aquirot would have to tag along, because I wasn't going to abandon my search for the source of the coins. As long as I wanted the gold, I understood that my greed would remain unabated. I called down to Trid. "Are you OK? We have a new companion for the trip, I'm afraid."
"Yes, I'm fine. I want to be with you for this adventure, no matter what. I'm not sure where the little woman came from but maybe you'll explain later. In the meantime, it's my duty to be vigilant and look after you for you are traveling in my card. And, after all, I'm enjoying acting as your escort!" Trid sounded very determined.
"Well, I'm sorry I took off so quickly up the cliff. I'm so used to doing things on my own I didn't realize you were being left behind." I shrugged off the feeling that he was keeping an eye on me, and the three of us climbed on, the scratching of Aquirots' claws on the rocks irritating me beyond belief.
We reached the top of the cliff and found ourselves in a bleak landscape, partly desert, where a few mesquite and cactus plants struggled for survival between some large boulders surrounding a great gleaming lake. The opalescent water seemed to flash blue, then green and gold, yet there was no visible sign of the gold coins that were spilling over the waterfall. I figured the money must be hidden in a current traveling below the opaque surface of the lake. The humps of several sandbanks showed above the water in some places, as laden barges with lateen sails drifted along the shore. In the distance, I could see a canal leading into the lake and above it, on a hillside dusted with scrubby plants, a small walled town clustered about two miles from the canal. Several truncated pyramids rose up by the water.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Navigator's Dream, Volume 2 by Julia A. Turk Copyright © 2012 by Julia A. Turk. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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