The Islanders

  However, by this time the Manifestation had become accepted as a true event by millions of people, and the astonishing growth of the miracle industry was in full swing.

  As Caurer’s reputation has continued to grow after her death, two charitable bodies have emerged. Each of these, in their profoundly different ways, seeks to represent her posthumously. Unsurprisingly, they are embroiled in a deep, permanent and apparently insoluble feud over her.

  On the one hand is the strictly secular Caurer Foundation. This is based in Rawthersay, Caurer’s home island, with administrative offices in the northern mainland city of Glaund. The Foundation was set up during Caurer’s lifetime, and is usually accepted as accurately reflecting the ideas and wishes of the great woman’s life, work and beliefs. About the alleged Manifestation on Derril, the Foundation’s official stance is as follows:

  Caurer herself never visited Derril, Dark Home, Her Home. No one connected with her work ever visited Derril. The woman who sometimes stood in as her physical double never visited Derril. Caurer herself never claimed to have the power of miraculous healing, and although she kept an open mind on the subject she never discussed it or wrote about it. She certainly never claimed to have divine powers. She believed that the story of the Manifestation had been innocently or naïvely invented by the two girls as a way of explaining away some other activity, and that other people had seized on the event afterwards in an attempt to capitalize on her name.

  The opposing position is held by the Caurer Shrine Trustees:

  They maintain that the Manifestation has been confirmed by elders of all the most important churches. Caurer has already been beatified and later is likely to be canonized. Her powers of healing have been demonstrated many times, both by people who have passed on Caurer’s original laying on of hands, and the beneficial effects of the waters that flow through the Caurer Gulley. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims confirm their lives have been changed for ever by a visit to the Shrine.

  The Shrine Trustees also accuse the Caurer Foundation of attempting to undermine the economy of Derril, and therefore of the Torquil Group as a whole. The Caurer pilgrims support more than twenty hotels all year round, have indirectly financed the installation of modern infrastructure throughout the islands, as well as creating jobs all over the Archipelago in the travel and airline industries.

  This gazetteer recommends non-pilgrim visitors to make their trips to Derril in the early spring or late autumn. The weather is at its best, and the island is less crowded than at other times.

  Currency: all Archipelagian currencies are accepted at the Shrine and at the related facilities in the neighbourhood. The currency used in Derril Town: Archipelagian simoleon, Muriseayan thaler, Aubracian talent.

  Intending non-pilgrim visitors to Derril are reminded of the confusion described above, and to take all necessary precautions. The usual inoculations for islands in the sub-tropical zone are not required, though. The island called Derril in the Torqui Group has strict havenic and anti-importunation regulations. On the contrary, on Derril, Dark Home, Her Home, importunation is freely bestowed.

  EMMERET

  ALL FREE

  EMMERET is a small island, still underpopulated, which suffered devastating bush fires a century ago. After the fires the main settlements and principal house were rebuilt, under Covenant regulations.

  There are few roads on Emmeret, but walking is pleasant and maps on sale in Emmeret Town show several recommended paths. The most frequented walk is the one from the port to UGGER PARK. Beyond the main landing point in Emmeret Town’s harbour a well signposted narrow track leads through open fields and young woodland to CHUD ROCK, the highest point on the island. Chud Rock is famous for its limestone caves, which are open to the public. Tour guides take visitors through a series of spectacular rock and stalactite formations. Expert cavers may also enter the system of potholes at Chud Rock.

  Beyond the Rock is Ugger Park, the seat of the Emmeret family, from whom have sprung several generations of important legislators. The fifteenth Seignior Emmeret was one of the drafters of the Covenant of Neutrality. The present Seignior Emmeret, the thirty-third, is normally absent. The house is at present closed to the public.

  The history of the Emmeret family reveals many examples of the sort of eccentricity often associated with long dynasties. The twelfth Seignior is said to have banned children from the house, the eighteenth to have insisted that all house-guests should be permanently naked, the nineteenth Seignior, son of the naturist lord, is notorious for the many weekends of debauchery he and a band of regular guests enjoyed at the house; the twentieth Seignior, the son of the debauchee, devoted his life to the cloth. The twenty-third Seignior was obsessed with gardens, and spent much of his life at the house, landscaping and re-landscaping the extensive grounds. The present Seignior is said to take his feudal responsibilities seriously, is a kind and generous man, but he is rarely seen on the island that bears his name. He attends once a year for the formal collection of tithes.

  During the thrall of the twenty-sixth Seignior Emmeret, Ugger Park was made into a haven for artists. Writers, painters, composers, musicians, sculptors, actors, dancers all made their long journeys across the Archipelago to take advantage of the liberal attitudes and free lifestyle they could luxuriously enjoy for weeks on end.

  Some of the most famous artists of the time were semi-permanent residents in the opulent surroundings. Notable amongst them was the Mesterlinian poet KAL KAPES who is said to have composed Elegy to Squandered Passion while staying at Ugger. A troupe of musicians, jugglers and illusionists travelled from the Qataari Peninsula and took up residence for several months. The world-renowned danseuse, Forssa Laajoki, then in the long afternoon of her miraculous career, over-indulged on the wine that was so freely available and eventually killed herself in a small room on the upper floor of the East Wing of Ugger. And the painter DRYD BATHURST stayed for nearly two years, the longest he is ever thought to have remained in one place.

  Bathurst’s well-liked epic landscape, The Wool-Combers’ Return, was painted on the rear terrace at Ugger Park, although all of the eucalyptus trees in the distance, depicted by Bathurst, were subsequently destroyed in the fires.

  Ugger Park was also the repository of one of Bathurst’s most famous but least seen masterpieces. Simply called The Shroud, the artist executed this oil in the weeks after he first arrived. By repute, it portrays the artist as an aquiline-featured youth, glowing with health and sexual allure. Those who were able to see it declared it to be a true likeness, and that although Bathurst idealized himself it was none the less a substantial work of art.

  Bathurst donated The Shroud in perpetuity to the Emmeret family on condition that it be kept in a closed room and never put on show to the public. The only people who were authorized to view the painting were members of the Emmeret family. With Bathurst’s agreement, the painting was hung in a small room high in the East Wing. This was in fact the room where Forssa Laajoki’s blood-soaked body was later found, on the floor in front of the portrait, the shaving razor still in her hand.

  Dryd Bathurst’s removal from Ugger House was sudden and sensational. His heroic painting, The Wool-Combers’ Return, had been hanging in the main banqueting hall of the house for several months, provoking much excitement and admiration from all who saw it. One of the qualities of the painting, Bathurst’s personal stamp, is the visual range it contains, from the vast sweep of landscape and sky, mighty storms and cataclysmic events, together with tiny details, almost photographically exact, worked with the exquisite accuracy of a miniaturist.

  Few of these details had ever been considered, in the context of the greater image. One evening, however, a guest of the twenty-sixth Seignior Emmeret, an art critic and commentator from a major heritage magazine, took a magnifying glass to the canvas. He looked intently at the detail, concentrating on a minute group of nature celebrants, cavorting and fornicating in the lush undergrowth. With great delicacy, considering the circumsta
nce, the art critic managed to wonder aloud at the likeness of two of these ravished nymphs to, respectively, Madama Seigniora Mezraa Emmeret, and her daughter, the pretty and nubile Cankiri Emmeret, then only fifteen.

  The twenty-sixth Seignior Emmeret was a man of calm disposition, and after a brief session of his own with the magnifying glass he left the party without saying anything. He was not seen again that night by his guests.

  Dryd Bathurst, who had been present throughout, later retired to his own chamber. Pulling back the sheets he discovered a forty-centimetre thryme, apparently not long dead. Serum was still oozing from its mandible. Bathurst also was not seen again that night, nor ever again, on Emmeret.

  Winters on Emmeret are warm; summers are hot. The ground is often parched by the sun. For unsurprising reasons the warnings about starting fires, and practical precautions against them, are evident all over the island. The humidity can be high in the hottest part of summer, but is normally at a fairly acceptable level. The many delightful beaches are open to the public but are an under-used resource. Visitors wishing to swim in the nude should exercise special care: the beaches were endowed by successive feudal Emmeret Seigniors, and have their own rules. On some beaches naturism is actively encouraged, but on other parts of the island it is severely frowned upon and there are penalties to be paid.

  The Bathurst painting The Wool-Combers’ Return is now on permanent display in the Covenant Memorial Gallery, on Derril. The painting is mounted at eye-level, so close examination of the canvas is not only possible, it is actively encouraged. However, whether it is because of time’s great blurring, or the attrition of so much close scrutiny, or merely the restorers’ art, the details that once alerted the twenty-sixth Seignior Emmeret to his house-guest’s waywardness are no longer unambiguous.

  In spite of Bathurst’s permanent gift of The Shroud to the Emmeret family, it did not remain long at Ugger House. The Seignior despatched it soon after Bathurst’s own departure, but it took several months for the emissary to catch up with the great artist. The meeting took place on the quiet island of Lillen-Cay, where Bathurst was enjoying a brief sabbatical. The transaction was swift: the painting was handed over to a member of Bathurst’s entourage, a receipt was obtained, and the emissary began his long journey back to Emmeret.

  Currency: Archipelagian simoleon, Aubracian talent.

  FELLENSTEL

  SPOILED SAND

  FELLENSTEL is a large island in the southern temperate zone, long and narrow, running west to east. A range of mountains, Dentres dos Ilôts, divides the island into three climatic zones.

  The southern coast is cool in summer, cold in winter, and troubled by sudden storms and unexpectedly powerful tidal flows. A brisk prevailing wind from the south-west, the HERBEAN BLACK SQUALL, brings sleet and rain, but ensures the southern faces of the mountains are always green and fertile. The Dentres range provides high alpine pasture, with deep winter snows and some winter sports activity. The northern side of the island, a broad coastal plain with several long sandy bays, enjoys a warm and stable climate: winters with a cool but pleasant rainy season, and a dry and sunny summer. Flowers and trees grow in profusion, the lush vegetation attracting holiday-makers all year round. The eastern promontory is a bird-watchers’ paradise.

  Although the principal economic feature of Fellenstel is tourism, there are many light industrial units in the small inland town of Juggre, providing employment for the local people and prosperity for the region.

  Intending visitors require a visa, which must be obtained locally before departure. Standard inoculations are mandatory. Visitors should also be advised that Fellenstel has strict erotomane laws in place. Random searches and gene testing at port of entry can cause delay and in some cases embarrassment if the paperwork is not correct. Our general advice to intending travellers is always either to heed local laws or choose another destination – Fellenstel is a perfect example of this. It is a veritable paradise in many ways, but it uses retributive justice and the penal system is harsh. Being a visitor to the island is not regarded as adequate mitigation.

  Tunnelling is prohibited throughout Fellenstel.

  The search for the killers of Commis began on Fellenstel. Two men and two women, known erotomanes, were believed to have disrupted the artiste’s performance when he was visiting Paneron. They also wrote negative reviews. How they were thought to have travelled halfway around the world to the scene of Commis’s death was never revealed, but within a few days they had been arrested and taken in for questioning. The discovery of negative reviews of other theatrical performances on their computer hardware only made their situation worse.

  They said nothing in answer to questions – the safest course of action given the harsh Fellenstel system of crime prevention and detection – and finally the policier were forced to release them. They remained under suspicion, however, and were unable to work for several months. Only once they had managed to leave Fellenstel were they able to resume their lives.

  Currency: Archipelagian simoleon, Aubracian talent.

  FERREDY ATOLL

  HANGING HEAD

  Dear Sir,

  I am twenty-one years old and I live on an island in the Ferredy group called Mill. I am here with my parents. I have just returned from university on Semell where I gained a First Class Honours degree in Island Literature.

  I wish to inform you that during my three years at the university we were given many modern novels to study, and amongst them was your book Terminality. I was impressed by this novel and wanted to know a lot more about the other books you might have written, who you were, and so on. I spent a great deal of time trying to track down some other of your books, but unfortunately not all were available on Semell. I managed in the end to borrow three more titles, all of them apparently from your early career.

  Let me tell you that I think they were very good. This led me to decide to specialize in your work, and my dissertation was on the subject of ‘literary stasis’, a phrase borrowed, of course, from your novel The Tour of Circles. I called my dissertation ‘The Enigma of Staying: Immobilization and the Static Values of Chaster Kammeston’.

  I know you must be busy and the last thing I want to do is interrupt your writing, but I do have a simple question I should like you to answer. I want to become a writer, a novelist, and I wondered if you have any advice you would be willing to give me?

  From a devoted admirer.

  Yours sincerely,

  M. Kaine

  Dear Sir,

  Thank you for your reply, which took ages to reach me. Living in the Ferredy Atoll has many disadvantages. I hope that the lateness of this letter does not make you think that I reacted badly to the advice you have given me.

  Let me assure you first of all that I have honoured your request and have destroyed your letter by burning it. No one else was allowed to read it. I am sure you have good reasons for wanting that, but I wish I could describe my feelings about having to burn something you had written. Every word you write is precious to me. But I respect your wishes.

  In answer to your question: yes, I did get hold of the books of yours I could not find at first. My tutor admires your novels and was able to lend me his copies of the ones I did not have. Regrettably I had to return them when I left university, but since I last wrote to you I have been searching the internet. The only copy I have so far managed to buy is a rather old and battered paperback of Escape to Nowhere. Clearly it has been read by many people before me, but I am extremely pleased to possess it. I have made a special protective cover for it. I have read it twice since it arrived here. I find it intriguing and beautiful. The end always makes me cry. I have a thousand questions I would love to ask you about it, but I don’t want to intrude on your time.

  Thank you for the advice you offered me about becoming a writer. I must say it was not quite what I was expecting, and to be honest with you I found it disappointing. I intend to carry on in spite of your warnings.

  May I ask: are you
working on a new book now?

  Yours sincerely,

  M. Kaine

  Dear Mr Kammeston,

  I am so excited with the news of your new book! I can hardly wait to read it. Later this year I am intending to visit some friends who live on Muriseay, and I hope I will be able to catch up with all the books I want to buy while I am there. The Ferredy Atoll has only one bookshop. It is on the far side of the lagoon from where I live and it is not exactly what I call a bookshop: it mostly sells magazines and a few best-selling romances, which are always a year or two old. Without the internet I don’t know what I would do, but even the online dealers seem not to have heard of your books.

  You say it will be another novel. May I dare to ask: is it another book in your ‘Inertia’ series? Can you tell me anything about it at all? I love everything you have written, but the Inertia books are special to me.

  You want to know why I live here on Mill, and what it is like. I live here because I was born here and so it is my home. My parents are both social anthropologists. They came to the Ferredy Atoll before I was born to study and work with the indigenous people here. The Atoll is more or less untouched by the modern world and many of the tribal customs are unique. My parents have made several films about the people and they have written textbooks about the aboriginal culture here. My mother retired several years ago and my father now works mostly as a consultant, but they both love this place and don’t want to leave.

  However, since I was at Semell Uni for three years, which gave me the opportunity to see many of the other islands while I was travelling around. I confess I am restless to see more. When I go to Muriseay I am hoping to take several detours to visit some of the other islands. I notice that your island of Piqay is not far from Muriseay, or at least it would take only a few days on the ferries to travel there. Ever since we have been in contact I have been wondering if I might call in at Piqay and perhaps visit you? I do not want to disturb your work or trouble you, so if it is inconvenient I will understand.