The Shadows Below

Chapter Seventeen

Running in my dreams again. Marion, or as she was known when I met her, Princess of the fifth faction, Mayesa Dezante, is running alongside me. Thanks to the machinations of her aunt, I was compelled to protect her, animal instincts firing on all cylinders. Such a hateful woman. The jungles on her home island are thick and the path is narrow. Running side by side is difficult so at times she's behind and then in front.

The plane shudders as we're taking off, and she's silent behind me. I met her family and I knew what standards she was meant to emulate but for a few seconds, I saw the scared teenager under all the royalty bullshit.

I wake up and it's strange, being back on the island again, after so long away. I was only a few years older than Mayesa - Marion at the time but it was a dangerous place then, for me and her. Different reasons, obviously. It's still dangerous for her, one of the first things I learnt on arrival, the four other factions are still united against the fifth, now in tatters considering their jewel was banished and others are in hiding. I say in hiding, it's more house arrest.

It's been the longest since the island has known peace apparently, all that time we've been gone. My room is simple and comfortable, a dramatic change from the cell and the cold table, I still shudder from both.

The meeting room has the same tasteful aesthetic, with wooden floorboards and tall windows showing the view, bordered by screens. It's the presidential situation room but with a kinder paint job and a smaller team sitting in at the meeting.

'Ms Dziki, good morning.'

'Morning, Tazik.'

'Sleep well?'

'Perfectly.' No need to mention the old dreams. He's a young man, despite the history of this island being bloody and fractured, he's grown up during the peace and he doesn't need to know the horrors, especially the ones I saw.

I've been treated like a refugee since I first arrived here, they saw me and saw the marks and knew what had been done to me and I've been treated well, attending meetings and from there, working out my next move. Practically first-class accommodation. And considering I'm no longer a young woman but a grandmother tired of what it took to get back here, I appreciate every part of it.

Mayesa - Marion, has become a real monster in my world, her aunt would be proud of her. The apple did not fall far from the tree.

I knew she had started working at the Central Intelligence Agency, which was a perfectly respectable place to get a job. But when she came to see me that night and when I saw the look in her eyes when she saw my granddaughter, that told me all I needed to know. As long as she had Kasia in her sights, she wouldn't be safe. For whatever fucked up reason she saw me as the enemy, instead of her protector, the old anger of being banished, her family in ruins, she would make her move.

And I, as haunting as it was, would have to return here to see what could be done from this island. I missed my family so much but in doing what I had, I saw then that I had done exactly what my father had done, returning to Poland when he did, knowing what fate would await him there.

'Ms Dziki. Welcome.' I pull myself out of my memories and focus on the four seated at the table. They are doing me a courtesy, including me at the actual meetings. Instead, I could be given reports, passed along by Tazik, and wait a whole day for news.

A large table, the four factions each had a representative who spoke at these meetings and I was included, the meetings were about me, my family and what the fifth had done and was doing.

'Thank you. So, what progress?'

'As you know, we've tracked the fifth faction, once considered royal and your granddaughter.'