“I am with her again now,” he said. His voice was a hoarse whisper. “Neptune has forgiven me. The curse is over. I am free to leave. This is the end of my journey.”
“No.” Aaron sobbed.
“Let me go,” Jeras said softly. “I am ready.” As he spoke, the hillside closed in. He was putting an arm around us both.
“I only just met you,” Aaron said. A tear streaked down his cheek.
“And you brought me peace at last,” Jeras replied. “Thank you. It’s down to you now. Both of you. Carry on the work you’ve started. Keep making things right. Promise me?”
“We promise,” we said together.
The soft grass around us fell slowly back into its place on the ground.
As it did, the movement in the hill in front of us slowed. The eyes closed for good, and the smile softened into stillness.
While Aaron stayed there, I stood up to collect armfuls of leaves and twigs.
Together, we laid them gently, carefully, on as much of the giant’s body as we could reach.
And then we stayed with him until the moving, the breathing, the life inside him finally stopped.
I stood up and reached for Aaron’s hand.
“I’m not going,” he said.
“We need to get back,” I said gently. “The others are waiting.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going,” he repeated. “I’m staying here.”
I knelt down beside him. His cheeks were streaked with tears. “Aaron, there’s nothing here now. He’s gone. There might be aftershocks — it’s too dangerous to stay.”
“Emily, think about it,” he said. “It’s not far from Halflight Castle, where I grew up. The only place I knew till last year. And since leaving there, if I’m honest, I’ve never truly felt like I belong.”
I tried to reply, but my throat felt clogged up. “Aaron, I don’t belong, either. Or I didn’t. You’re the only person who makes me feel like I belong anywhere.”
He shook his head. “No. You have your family. You have Shona.”
“You have your mom,” I said weakly.
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about that, too,” he said. “She’s coming with me. She belongs here. We both do. Emily, you know it’s true. My roots are here, my family.”
“But . . .”
“I can’t bear the thought of leaving you — but I have to do it. I have only just met Joel, Ella, and Saul, and yet I feel so close to them already. They feel like family. Emily, I want to be part of rebuilding this community.”
As he spoke, I could see it all. Those things he’d said when we had that argument, about it always having to be about me. Well, maybe some things had been about me. But this wasn’t one of them, and I had to accept what he was telling me.
“You’re right,” I said, my voice squeezing through the tears scratching at my throat. “It’s about you this time.”
He pulled me into a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered.
I held on to him and buried my tears in his shoulder. I had to let him go. He belonged here.
“But come back with us first,” I said when I could trust myself to speak again. “We’ll get your mom. We’ll talk to everyone. We’ll help you plan.”
Aaron nodded. “And you’ll visit?”
The rock twisted around in my throat, lodging itself even more firmly. “Of course I will,” I managed to squeeze out. “Just try to stop me.”
Eventually, Aaron pulled out of the hug and let go of me. He reached up to kiss the giant’s head. “See you soon,” he whispered.
Then he stood up and took my hand.
We walked back to the lake, swam across it, and trekked through the paths. Aaron and Joel talked excitedly all the way. I hung back, smiling as I listened to them and watched them.
“We’ll make this hill a special place,” Joel said.
“We could call it Giant’s Lair,” Aaron replied.
“We’ll rebuild the island,” Joel said.
“We’ll work with the people from Majesty Island to make it a place that people will visit from all over the world,” Aaron added.
“But on our terms,” Joel said.
“Absolutely,” Aaron replied.
“And we’ll have protected conservation areas and nature trails,” Joel went on. “We’ll rebuild this community.”
Aaron stopped walking and looked Joel in the eyes. “I will join you,” he said. “I will help you with it all. I will be part of the community.”
Joel looked back at Aaron and laughed. “You already are, brother,” he said, slapping him on the back and running off. “You already are.”
I smiled as I watched them chase each other down the track.
I could see it all. The new world that awaited this island was going to be incredible. It would never be a hidden, forgotten world again.
And so we headed back, and as the daylight faded, Shona, Aaron, and I said good-bye to Saul, Ella, and Joel, with hugs and thanks and promises of imminent reunions.
And then we joined the others at the boat that would take us away from here. The three of us swam along behind it as we slowly edged out of the bay.
Together, we floated on our backs, watching the island grow smaller and smaller and smaller, until it was just a speck on the horizon.
As we turned away from the island with a broken past and an uncertain future, there was one thing we knew for sure.
That no matter what lay ahead, the bonds of friendship would be as strong as the bonds of the tree-root bridges built generations ago.
They might stretch across chasms. They might even extend over oceans. But they would never, ever break.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2018 by Liz Kessler
Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Erin Farley
Cover illustration copyright © 2018 by Sarah Gibb
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Orion Children’s Books, a division of the Orion Publishing Group
First U.S. electronic edition 2018
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number pending
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Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Falls of Forgotten Island
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