Noelle of Nisos by Elsha Hawk (fiction book recommendations TXT) 📖

forbidden to leave the island worshiped its ruler underneath archways that screamed ‘foreign’.

The High Priestess was afraid of anything foreign. She held her followers closely to her by lying to them about the world. “This is the only land for miles and miles,”

she’d told his 5 year old cherubic face. “There is no other home. There are no pigs, cows, horses, camels, or any other animal of which you speak. They do not exist!”

She had forced him to clean the bath house, scrubbing the tiles for days on end until he stopped ‘telling stories’. His mother was so distraught that shortly after this, she’d left.

His father went to the temple for a week of soul cleansing from the distress and to await the results of the High Priestess’s divining. Being an oracle, she could just ask the gods where his wife had gone.
The neighbors promised his father would return good as new, but his eyes were blank and sad as he explained, “Your mother has joined the spirit world, Talon.”

The High Priestess stood looking over his shoulder and down her nose at Talon. “She dove into the sea and gave her life to Poseidon,”

she had added. “Her spirit dances with the goddesses above.”

But Talon knew better.

His mother had left a gift under his pillow. It was wrapped in a leather satchel decorated with shells. It was a book. Late at night he would burn a candle low reading, deciphering, and learning the secrets of his mother’s gift. She wanted him to find her and the book held the clues, he just knew it!

He’d researched for years, searching the temple library for images, words, symbols, that matched any in his secret book. But as he had always believed deep down, there were none. The book was alone; the only tie to another world. A world that held his mother. Knowing this, he could not worship in the temple. She, the High Priestess, was wrong. Seeing things through this light made the oppression of the islanders apparent. She was no leader. She was a tyrant.

But who would believe him?

Amos.

The two had stayed up late as was custom for bachelors on the eve of their wedding. Amos’s conversation kept going back to Noelle’s naked form in the bath next to his and Talon decided he’d had enough of that. He suggested a walk in the cool night air. The two ended up on the far side of the town where the beach turned rocky just before the cliffs took over the seascape. Climbing up onto a ledge to stare out at the vast sea, they hadn’t felt the ominously brisk August winds. Once they reached the summit and saw the angry sea, the dark clouds, and the pelting rain heading their way, they knew they had very little time to return home. They climbed down the cliff quickly, but the rain began in earnest before they even got halfway down and they were forced to take shelter in a crevasse. Sitting, they both barely fit inside, and often the wind would blow in a few drops onto them. These storms were ferocious but brief. They would wait it out. Boredom and darkness settled on them until they both fell asleep.

Hearing odd sounds below, Talon woke to catch glimpses of something big washed ashore below on the beach. It did not move, so he presumed it dead, but something else moved away from it. As he watched during flashes of lightning, it seemed to make a small shelter for itself.

Waking Amos, he decided to venture closer to it. Once on the beach, Amos ducked behind a rock, his morality holding him back. Talon bravely approached the beast. It was made of wood and hollow inside. Crawling about inside, he found some line, plenty of materials he’d never seen before, and some books. He grabbed them and rushed out to Amos.

Talon wanted to stay to see the thing in daylight, but Amos refused. He set off for home in the now gentler rain, as the lightning faded off into the distance. Talon dozed off back in the crevasse to await the sun.

He woke to the sounds of voices. Peering out from his small shelter, he was shocked at the number of people down below. He strained his eyes and ears for information. One voice echoing up from the rock face he knew well, the High Priestess. He silently watched as she ordered two people killed and his heart sank as the wooden vessel was dismantled. When he felt it was safe, he headed home.

Now here he was, having made a fantastic discovery that changes everything the islanders knew about the world, and Amos was getting married. It may be days before he can get Amos alone for any length of time to bring it up. He could hear the High Priestess saying the ancient words that created one harmonious life out of two. It sickened him to know that her voice was the same one that ordered the deaths of two people just hours before. Then the sound of a dish breaking as was custom for good luck.
So that was it.

Unable to deal with his disappointment here, he left the temple for the solitude of his room in the house he still shared with his father, who was at least literally blind.

Imprint

Publication Date: 09-18-2011

All Rights Reserved