The Games for Nihon (BOOK THREE)

Chapter 4 - The Lighthouse

The lighthouse was sticking out into the darkness like a luminous thumb, bleeding brightly into the ocean.

"Do you see the land behind the lighthouse?" Inaan asked.

Ami was the first to make out the solid shape on the farthest line of the horizon.

"Is that Dorian?" he asked.

Inaan nodded.

"But first, we are making a stop."

He turned to one of the disciples. There was always at least one of them around.

"I mean -, if - if we're allowed?"

The disciple looked back at him impassively and did not answer his question. She was a woman whose only distinctive feature were her amber-colored eyes that were deeper than any eyes they had ever looked into.

Inaan kept staring at her for a moment longer. Then he shrugged.

"I don't know what to make of them," he said, apparently unfazed that she could hear him. Probably, all of them could hear them even when they weren't standing right next to them. "Are we supposed to do what they say? But they don't talk. Or are they going to protect us in case of danger? I sure hope they'll be a bit more lively when that happens."

The disciple looked at him with her amber eyes and thought her thoughts in the privacy of her own mind. Nothing in her expression or body language was betraying what went on inside of her if there was anything going on at all.

"We'll find out, I guess," Sofia said. She looked at Orì for confirmation.

"Soon, you won't even notice that they are there."

"I don't know." Sofia seemed unconvinced. Ami and Inaan looked uncomfortable too.

"Believe me," Orì said. "They are like plants. After a while, you don't see them anymore."

"Moving plants," Inaan says. "Plants who can do more magic in the blink of an eye than I do in a whole day."

"Well. Yes," Orì admitted.

They burst out laughing. The disciple didn't move a muscle.

"What am I supposed to say," Orì said, gasping for air. "You think I have all the answers."

"You think you have all the answers," Sofia said, but it was meant in a nice way.

The ship was slowing down even though the waves kept crashing against the tiny island. It docked almost tentatively and stopped moving so that they could get off easily. It was as if the ship had a mind of its own, but it was Inaan who was guiding it.

The island the lighthouse was standing on barely deserved the name island. It was a cluster of rocks sticking out of the water. The lighthouse was the only structure that was built on it and there would not have been enough space for another.

"Inaan!" a squeaky yet piercing voice called from the top of the building.

Inaan shielded his eyes as he looked up. He waved excitedly.

"Nîm-Nîm! Don't come down. We'll come up."

"There's someone living here?" Sofia asked. She looked around. "How did he get here? There's no other ship, there's no -." She stopped herself, remembering that she had resolved not to ask stupid questions anymore.

"Oh, Sofia," Orì teased. Then she hurried after Inaan. She was always happy to meet new people, although, in her mind, it was them who had the pleasure to meet her.