Prologue

 

THE FIRST memory I have of my grandfather is of a moment that we share together.

I’m sitting on his knee looking out over the harbor. Grandpa is smoking a pipe. He points at the horizon. “Look, Walt. Our ships are out there. And one day, another even more beautiful ship will appear at the horizon. A mighty ship to take us all away.”

“Where to, Grandpa?” I ask curiously.

He remains quiet. “No one knows exactly,” he says at last, “but that doesn’t make it any less fantastic. One day, that ship will come in. And Annabelle will be on the prow with open arms, inviting us all to come on board.”

The Goddess with black hair waving in the wind, as portrayed on the biggest wall of our temple.

“Why don’t we sail to her ourselves?” I want to know.

“Because she promised she would come,” Grandpa replies. “And in that promise we trust. It’s only the Unbelievers who think they can do everything themselves. They have no faith in the Goddess.”

 

I was only five, but I still clearly remember feeling a cold shiver running through my body after hearing that last remark. Most children in Hope Harbor are scared of the stories their parents tell them about the Unbelievers: if you don’t visit the temple every week, they will get you in your sleep. If you don’t listen to the priests, they will send you out into the wilderness behind the Wall where the Unbelievers dwell, their robes of black and masks of horror a sure sign of their sinfulness. Once they sink their claws into you, there’s not a chance you will ever return.

But that was then.

I know better now – because I’ve been there, and yet I am still alive.

 

 

 

 

Part  1 - Ripples

 

 

 

 

1.

 

SHE MIGHT be gone, but I still know her.

“I remember my mother very clearly,” I tell Yorrick, glaring at him with as much confidence as I can muster.

 “I think you’ve just made it up,” Yorrick assures me. He’s my older, arrogant cousin. “You can’t possibly remember how she sang for you. You were only three.”

I’m sitting in the schoolyard eating an apple. Our classes have finished for the day, but Yorrick and I picked the school grounds to hang around and chat. His father won’t be home anytime soon, anyway.

“How would you know?” I mumble around a bite of apple.

“I know more than you,” Yorrick throws back. “I’ve already read ten books from my dad’s library.”

When Yorrick turns nineteen, he’s supposed to have read them all. Which means he’s in for quite a task in the year ahead, because the Bookkeeper’s library contains thirty-four books in total. Once he has read them all, he’s allowed to succeed his father as Bookkeeper of Hope Harbor.

I grumble inwardly, because Yorrick indeed knows more than I do. In fact, he knows more than everyone else our age. The education we get in school is mostly of a practical nature: how to repair houses and build new ones, construct a ship, grow vegetables and raise cattle. Of course, fishing skills are important too, and I’ve always found that more interesting than agriculture. Being able to find my own food in the wild gives me a sense of freedom and independence. Last year, I chose an elective about wild plants and berries. Apart from learning about survival, we study reading and writing, mathematics, and history mingled with religion. For us, the two go hand in hand. Nobody doubts Annabelle’s love for us, nor the important part she has played – and will still play – in our history.

At times I wonder what kind of information can be found in my Uncle Nathan’s library. The common people don’t get to hear all of it. The Bookkeeper and the priests have exclusive access to the books, so I don’t really know what kind of knowledge they contain.

“The books don’t tell us about that sort of thing,” I nevertheless protest. “They tell us how to make a living for ourselves so we’ll be ready when Annabelle’s Fleet arrives.”

Yorrick spits in the sand. “Yeah, and you know what else they contain? Maps of the sea around Tresco. Detailing all the currents. And there’s more.”

I dazedly blink my eyes. I’m pretty sure Yorrick isn’t supposed to tell me about this, but I don’t care – his words have piqued my curiosity. “So what else?”

My cousin bends closer to me. “The Other Side,” he whispers. “A different coastline than ours. And from the looks of it, it’s not actually that far away.”

That can’t be right. The townspeople of Hope Harbor all know the sea is too vast to cross. Occasionally, we do sail out beyond our fishing waters, but those weekly trips are meant to welcome the Fleet in case it shows up at the horizon. We always need to be ready.

“That’s impossible,” I say decidedly. “The World across the Waters is way too far. If it were as close to Tresco as you’re saying, someone would have sailed to the Other Side by now, right?”

Yorrick gives me a pondering look. “Well, maybe it’s about time someone tried,” he mumbles. “If you don’t, you’ll never find out.”

Just then, the school’s front door opens and out step three girls from the highest grade. Yorrick promptly sits up straight, rakes a hand through his brown hair and throws the girls his most winning smile. “Hello, ladies,” he calls out ebulliently. “Any plans this afternoon?”

All three girls giggle. Yorrick is quite the charmer. Next to him, I always feel tongue-tied, but I do pay close attention to his way with girls whenever he’s chatting with them and I’m just standing there like an idiot-sidekick. My older cousin is my biggest source of wisdom when it comes to situations like these.

“We’re going to the beach,” one of them announces. It’s Alisa with her blonde curls. “Are you guys coming?”

Yorrick elbows me in the ribs. “She’s inviting both of us, Walt. Come on, tag along.”

My face fills with color. “I can’t. I’m going to the temple with Grandpa Thomas this afternoon.”

“Oh please. You go there every Friday. Can’t you skip it for once?”

“No, actually, I can’t.”

Yorrick gets up. “Okay, your loss. I’m not saying no to three girls all to myself.” He winks and waves at me before turning around and following Alisa and her friends down the road.

Actually, I would have liked to join them, but today is a special day. Exactly forty years ago, Grandpa lost his first fiancée to the Unbelievers, and we are commemorating that fact together in the temple today.

I leave the schoolyard and turn left. The road leading to the temple goes steeply uphill, and soon I feel parched.  I take another apple out of my bag and eat the piece of fruit as I make my way toward Hope Harbor’s sanctuary.

Annabelle’s Temple is situated high atop Tresco’s steep cliffs. The antechamber overlooks the wild, wide sea. When the temple holds silent services, the inner sanctum is never entirely quiet – you can always hear the sea wind howling around the building, and it’s said that if you are lucky enough to get into a deep trance, you can even hear Annabelle’s voice on the wind.

Halfway through my ascent, I sit down on a bench at the side of the road, my gaze alighting on Hope Harbor below me. Hundreds of houses huddle together at the estuary of the river that originates in the mountains of Unbeliever territory and flows into the sea near our harbor. In the distance, I can see the green rooftop of Yorrick’s house – the Bookkeeper’s residence. My uncle governs our town, making sure no one is short of common commodities and everything runs like clockwork. People in our community contribute to tending the fires in the watchtowers, because most of us are scheduled for lighthouse shifts at least once a month. And all Hope Harborer with jobs remit part of their income to the temple so the priests can organize worship services for Annabelle and send ships containing votive offerings to her Realm.

Some gifts are also used to fund the building of new ships that will sail out to welcome her Fleet.

My father is superintendent to the shipbuilders. I’ve joined him on one of his welcoming ships sailing out when I was younger, but I turned out not to have his sea legs. In fact, I was pretty seasick. Maybe that was a slight disappointment to him, but he has never commented on it.

I squint my eyes at the horizon. Not too long ago, I firmly believed that the Fleet would one day appear at our shore, but lately, I’ve been wondering whether the story being told in the temple isn’t just a sop to keep us happy. I don’t discuss these worries with anyone: not with my dad and certainly not with Grandpa. Even Yorrick doesn’t know I have my doubts.

 Maybe we should just accept that this is our place in the world. Perhaps we are never meant to leave at all.