“Why does this Shadow seek to destroy people and cities?” Falco asked.
“I don’t know that,” Kaia answered. “I hope to get some answers here.”
As they got closer, it was apparent that there were several islands making up Thera. The land, as was usual in this part of the world, was rugged and rocky. A group of white buildings clung to the cliff side that faced the sea, and the galley docked below them. The land that remained was the caldera, or lip of the ancient volcano, a long, curving, steep ridge.
“This way,” Kaia led the way off the ship, Cassius and Falco following. The few fisherman who were on the dock stared at them curiously as they went up a set of stairs cut into the rock itself. They said nothing, stepping back at Kaia’s approach.
A nervous Captain Fabatus immediately cast off and pulled out a safe distance from the land. Like any sailor, he felt safer on the water.
Kaia didn’t stop in the small town but kept going right through it and continuing upward. Falco was sweating heavily, and despite his training, he was slightly winded as they approached the top of the high cliff. He could see the general was struggling even more, but he knew that to offer help would be an insult. He was impressed with the woman’s conditioning as she hopped from step to step. He was grateful when they reached the top. They could look back and see their ship far below, like a toy floating in the water. But it was the view in front of them that had their focus.
The high land curved around left and right, surrounding the inner sea, broken in two places to touch the outer sea. In the center, two small islands poked above the water, a thin line of smoke drifting up from the larger of them.
“This was once all an island, and that” — Kaia pointed at the smoking island—“was a mountain in the center. It was called Palaia Kameni, or Old Burnt Island in your language. The other is Nea Kameni, New Burnt Island. That is where we must go.”
Falco felt uneasy. He looked over his shoulder toward the ocean. It was late afternoon, and the sun was going down. “We need to do whatever it is you want to do quickly,” he said.
Kaia also looked over her shoulder and nodded. “I feel it, too. Danger. But it’s a distance off.”
“But coming closer,” Falco said.
Without another word, Kaia began scrambling down the interior of the island toward the inner sea, following a narrow track that switched back and forth across the steep, rocky slope. Falco saw where she was headed: a small dock where a narrow boat was tied up. An old man was seated in the shadow of a large boulder, watching them approach.
Kaia raised her hand in greeting as they reached the dock. “I seek passage to Nea Kameni,” she said.
The old man peered at her with eyes cloudy with cataracts. He placed his hand on her forehead and remained still for several moments, then he nodded. He held out his hand, and Kaia slipped several gold pieces into it. The old man gave a toothless smile and pointed at the boat, still without saying a word. Kaia climbed into it, Falco and Cassius following.
“It seems as if we’ve paid for the service of the boat and not the man,” Cassius noted.
“He would take forever,” Falco said as he grabbed one of the oars, Kaia the other, and they began pulling.
“Talkative fellow,” Cassius noted, looking back as the old man went back to his place in the shadow of the boulder.
“He has no tongue,” Kai said. “He is the gatekeeper for the Akrotirian Oracle I was told of him. He brings the oracle food and water every morning, but he can never speak of what she tells him.”
“I have never heard of this oracle,” Cassius said. Falco could tell the general was uncomfortable sitting in the back of the boat and having a woman row.
“Few have,” Kaia granted. “She has a special power, as each oracle does. Hers does not involve the future but rather the past. Most people don’t care about the past, as it is over with, and they feel they cannot change it. Of course, many are fools to think the future is changeable also.”
“Are we fools then?” Falco asked.
“We might indeed be,” Kaia said, “but I do not think so. Fate is not all-powerful.”
“It has been in my life so far,” Falco argued.
“Perhaps,” Kaia allowed. “But many times, we make our own fate without knowing we do so.”
Falco thought of his inability to allow himself to die in the arena. He had always attributed that to his desire to remain alive to see his children, but they were dead now, and here he was on this strange quest. He could have easily refused the emperor and ended his misery with his head on the pike on the Imperial Palace wall.
Shrugging off these thoughts, Falco peered ahead and could make out a small, pebbled beach on the smaller island, with a cave right behind the beach. “If you cannot change the past, and you cannot change the future, what is the point of anything?” he asked.
“Because it is our fate?” Kaia said with a smile. “And there are some who say both can indeed be changed.”
General Cassius laughed. “A philosopher. They will argue you in circles so that you end with the same question you started with, but it will take you a week to get there.”
Falco wasn’t amused. “I do not care for fate. It has not been kind to me or those close to me.”
“Perhaps that will change,” Kaia said as she pulled her oar as they approached the beach.”
“I doubt it,” Falco said as the boat hit the pebbles. He jumped overboard and pulled the boat onto the beach.
Kaia immediately went toward the cave. The opening was fifteen feet wide by six feet high, and Falco bowed his head as they entered. There was a dim glow ahead and they all paused to allow their eyes to adjust.
A worn pathway went down the center of the cave and curved to the right toward the glow. Falco wondered how many generations of feet had shuffled along the path. As they went around the curve, they could see the glow came from a blue rock set in the center of the cavern about thirty feet in diameter. Falco had never seen such a stone. Across the stone from them was a figure wrapped in dark red robes, seated in a chair made of black stone.
“Welcome, travelers.” The voice was surprising, holding the vibrancy of youth, yet Falco could see the woman was very old as she pushed back her hood and revealed her lined face. “Have you come far?”
“From Delphi, Mother,” Kaia said.
A darkness crossed the old woman’s face. “My sister there is dead.”
“Ah!” Kaia staggered, and Falco helped her to the ground, where she sat, dazed. Then he stood by awkwardly and waited.
“There is not time to grieve,” The Akrotirian Oracle said.
“ I did not feel it,” Kaia said in a low voice, “but I feel it now.”
“There are some things it is best not to feel,” the Akrotirian Oracle said. “The emissaries of the Shadow found her and killed her. But it was you they were really searching for. My sister protected you from them and from feeling her death.”
Kaia looked up. “I thought the Shadow could not come out of the darkness.”
“You forget what you were told. Those who killed her were Valkyries. They had hard white skin that your blades” — she flicked a withered hand toward Cassius and Falco—“cannot penetrate. They always come in a fog that drifts over sea or land.”
Falco shifted his feet uneasily. If his steel would not work against things the old woman spoke of, then what hope was there?
“My oracle sent me here.” Kaia was gathering herself together.
“I know. It is time.”
“Why am I here?” Kaia asked.
“This was once one of the havens our ancestors sought after our home in Atlantis was destroyed by the Shadow. But almost two millennia ago, the Shadow reappeared off the coast. It was stopped at the last minute, but the island was destroyed. A few survived and hid in other lands. You and I, we come from the same line, from Pri Lo, the only surviving priestess. Many, many years ago, our line split, and mine came here to this island while yours went to Delphi. There are others of us, here and there around the world, although in many places the line has died out or been so diluted that a true Defender or oracle is born only rarely.”