Repose and Rebellion

They carried the Nursemaid to her resting place in the island’s ancient burial grounds. Only a handful of passengers made the hike into the hills; most said their goodbyes at the trail head and stayed behind in the village to nurse their injuries. There were prayers but no tears, for she had lived a long life. They placed her body in one of a thousand caves, set her drinking jug beside her, filled to the brim with good wine, closed the opening of the cave with a stone slab, and headed back down to the village. All except for Hannu, that is. He lingered behind, pretending to arrange the wildflowers left in front of the tomb. Amaal could see that he was up to something, particularly when he gestured for her to stay. He checked to be sure everyone was gone, then, reaching up under his tunic, brought out…the Face of Melqart.

“Hannu!” Amaal whispered desperately. “What are you doing?”

“Killing two birds with one stone. Help me move this slab away!”

“Two birds—you and me! I will not help you!”

“Amaal, please. I promised Queen Elishat I would keep this mask safe for a thousand years. Do you seriously think anyone is going find it in this cave, one of a thousand on this teeny, tiny island in the middle of nowhere? The mask will be safe here forever…safer than if I carry it around with me!”

 Amaal remained unconvinced. She crossed her arms and slowly shook her head.

“Look at it this way,” he said, changing tack. “The Nursemaid looked after Acerbas when he was a boy and helped him grow into a great man, and a great Melqart, and now I’m leaving the Face of Melqart to watch over her in the afterworld.”

“All right, all right,” Amaal grumbled. She helped him roll the stone slab to the side. Hannu shimmied through the opening and returned a minute later clapping his hands clean.

“You need to tell the Queen,” she said firmly.

“I will, I will…” he said, rolling the slab back into place, “…after we’ve left Gozo.”

They walked down the hill, relieved of the thousand-year burden. The trail brought them to the edge of the last outcropping overlooking the village. What they saw on the beach below stopped them in their tracks. Everyone—the temple maidens, the sailors, the elites, all of the passengers, even some of the local fishermen and women, were holding hands and dancing in a long train that snaked along the shore, between the warming fires, and around the whole beach.

A voice from behind them called out, “You missed the fight!” It was the little priestess. She and the other children had climbed to the outcropping to see the dance from above.

Amaal watched the flow of happy dancers. “It doesn’t look like a fight to me.”

“It was a fight, but now they made up.”

“What were they fighting about?” Hannu asked.

The priestess reported verbatim and with dramatic effect.

“First, Bitias said it’s time to load the ships, and somebody said, ‘We don’t want to go!’ Then, somebody else said, ‘We’ll, we can’t stay here!’ Then somebody said, ‘I want to go home!’ And somebody else said, ‘Your ship is your home!’ And then somebody from the Sage said, ‘Our ship is gone!’ And somebody else said, ‘Our ships are your ships!’ Then somebody else said, ‘I don’t want to get on any ship!’ And somebody said, ‘What if there’s another storm?’ And one of the sailors said, ‘Stop complaining! We’ll get there!’ Then someone else said, ‘Yes, but where, where?’ Then someone started to cry, ‘We’re tired of sailing!’ And somebody else shouted, ‘We want to find our land!’ And then everybody started shouting, ‘Find our land! Find our land! Find our land!’

“Then Elishat came out, and she was angry. She said they were being childish. I didn’t like that because I am a child, and it’s not nice to say being childish as an insult. She said she warned them long ago that things might get difficult. She said, had they forgotten so soon? Had the storm knocked everything out of them? Were they such delicate flowers? She said the day might come when they looked back at this as the easy part, so they better get ready. I remember that part exactly because she pointed a finger at them. Then, she told them not to be discouraged. She said discouragement is our biggest enemy and we must fight it with determination.

“Then everybody was quiet, and she said, ‘Give me one more day. One day. Wherever we are in one day, there we will land and there we will stay.’ Then, everybody agreed and the temple maidens started this long dance and everybody held hands and followed them shouting, “One more day! One more day! One more day!”

“I’m sorry we missed it,” Hannu said.

“I’m glad we missed it,” said Amaal. “We could do with some peace and quiet around here.”

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