Below is an excerpt from Envoys, a fantasy novel for all ages written by local author, Giancarlo Diago Cevallos. The full novel is available for purchase by clicking here.
Once, on the cold icy shore, Taran as a child had sat for an hour just looking north. Straining his eyes. When asked why he did that, Taran explained to his mother that he wanted to see the Island. She had laughed, then apologized, and explained that the Island at the top of the world rested much too far away to see, even though the Ring was the closest landmass to it.
Taran had accepted that, but over passed time he missed the opportunity to make the long maritime pilgrimage north. Life had busied him, was all. And the chance had seemed lost forever when the Island had isolated itself. So Taran had received the news, as an adult, that the Island wanted nothing more to do with the world whose north pole it rested on.
So Taran had lived his life among his tribe, the Skulks. These rugged and hide-clad people lived on the Ring, either fighting or befriending other tribes.
For its part, the Ring was a circular landmass surrounding the Island. The coast was such a perfect curve, many assumed it to be carved, as if by some massive beast.
So Taran had lived. Sometimes in danger, often in happiness, always aging. As an old man, he was next in line to be chief, and had a large family.
Every Skulkian agreed Taran had been well blessed.
So it was that the rest of his life seemed set.
Taran had just one regret, that the Island had never opened again, and that no one ever knew why. Some brave Ring explorers had tried to reach it, just to be turned back by its human and inhuman inhabitants.
But then, strange light-skinned men came on galleons from far south. Envoys of the Astrian empire, they’d explained themselves to be. Their high-masted ships brought foreign language, foreign knowledge, and alien diseases.
As the Skulks began to grieve for their epidemic and diseased, the Astrians had already moved on, seeing nothing of worth in the Ring, and looking north.
Taran, even through his sadness at the loss of loved ones, felt a swelling in him. Was it joy? Excitement?! Not at becoming the chief, after the bed-ridden death of the last one.
But because after all these endless years, Taran would no longer be the gazer on a cold icy shore.
He would accompany Astria north and reach the Island.
The Saint, skipping across the waves, was one of the best of Astria’s fleet. Streaks of black and green and blue painted the sails and decks and hull. Two entwined anguilla eel statues rested on the bowsprit. Astria did not have a lot it could be proud of, but of this it was. Every Astrian knew how to swim before they could walk. And the pride of the sailors almost banished their homesickness.
Taran wondered sometimes if he stood out on deck. Among spiffy sailors, who spoke a language Taran had just recently learned, he wore furs and leathers. Still, Taran kept them on. His necklace always stayed on. The faded leather cord held two charms. A faded but sharp canine tooth the size of a pinky, and a small carving of two folded hands, fashioned from obsidian.
The ship made great progress north, faster than Taran had ever imagined the journey could be done. Within two days it could be reached. The Saint could reach the Island by nightfall. As they neared the north pole, everyone needed to wear thinner clothes, the climate warmed as they reached the Island.
Elsewhere on the ship, snuggled between scrolls and paper, captain Radial had a dilemma.
By then, Taran had learned how to speak Astrian while a few explorers had learned the Skulk language, but Radial still had plenty of problems going over translated reports and descriptions he’d stored in his cabin. When he stomped upstairs to confront Taran over them, the yellow feathers adorning Radial’s sweeping blue hat bounced above deck.
Radial found Taran looking out over the ocean with a nervous smile on his face. In response, Radial tried a smile too.
“Taran, all these descriptions from you,” which had been transcribed by Lunate, “How am I supposed to believe these…” the captain checked for the right term, hoping he got it right, “…beasts exist?”
Taran turned around, amused. “I thought you were an experienced sea captain. Don’t you have impressive animals and monsters in the rest of the world, too?”
“Well yes, but…” Over the course of his life, the captain had heard many tales of demons and monsters. One of his favorite tales came from a far off-land below the equator, of a demon with massive tusks and gray feet that could flatten men whole. They called it… an elephant. But the descriptions offered by Taran were so fantastical as to be mind-boggling. Not because they were unbelievable, as Radial knew the world was quite the big place with many mysteries, but because Radial’s crew would have no way to fight off such beasts if they threatened the ship.
“Take the rammer.” said Radial. “The form of a massive goat, but its charges tear down everything in front of it like massive gusts of wind. What happens if our crew meets one?”
“Be nice to it and leave it be.”
“But… Eh.” The captain did not like these tales, because these monsters seemed so strong as to not fit into his fantasies of trophies and fame back home. And besides, none of his crew possessed divine powers like his emperor back home did. He switched to a different tactic. “Have you ever seen a beast? Do none wander so close to the Ring?”
“No.” Taran didn’t elaborate, since it was a mystery even he didn’t quite know the answer to. Every tribe on the Ring held different myths to explain why animals that might as well be gods in their power only stayed around the Island and never strayed close to the Ring.
