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    Woman of a Thousand Secrets
    Woman of a Thousand Secrets
    Woman of a Thousand Secrets
    Ebook618 pages9 hours

    Woman of a Thousand Secrets

    By Barbara Wood

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Bestselling Author of The Blessing Stone and Daughter of the Sun

    She came to them from the sea, and to the sea they returned her. . . . A story of sacrifice and survival in the New World.

    Tonina lives an idyllic life on a small island in the Caribbean hundreds of years before Europeans discovered it. But she has always been an outsider among her people. Unlike them, Tonina is tall and lean and light skinned, and her origins remain a mystery. Her adoptive parents had found her floating in a basket in the sea—a sacrifice? A shipwreck? No one knows.

    When Tonina turns nineteen, her parents know she must return to the sea so that the gods don't become angry with the village for keeping something that is not theirs. Under the guise of finding a medicinal plant, they send Tonina to the mainland, a terrifying place she can't even imagine. They know, however, that they will never see her again. And here is where her adventure begins. It is a tale of survival and sacrifice, of luck, magic, intrigue, and danger, romance and betrayal, an epic filled with ancient lore, tales of bearded white men who sailed to this shore in giant ships, and discoveries of medicinal miracles in faraway places. But most of all, it's the story of one woman's quest to discover where—and to whom—she really belongs.

    This sweeping story of the undiscovered world before the time of Columbus is Barbara Wood at her very best.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 2, 2008
    ISBN9781429956345
    Woman of a Thousand Secrets
    Author

    Barbara Wood

    Barbara Wood is the author of Virgins in Paradise, Dreaming, and Green City in the Sun. She lives in Riverside, California.

    Read more from Barbara Wood

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    Reviews for Woman of a Thousand Secrets

    3.5/5

    22 ratings22 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Tonina came from the sea: a baby found floating in a basket: A "gift from the gods" her adoptive grandmother told her.

      She doesn't look like the other villagers of Pearl Island. She is tall, lean and light-skinned, and considered "ugly". Tonina longs to know where she comes from and what lies on the other side of the ocean, beyond her small island.

      A cruel trick leads Tonina away from the protective cove of her family to a new land: the land of the Maya, where she embarks on a quest to find a mysterious red flower with healing qualities. A flower that she believes will cure her ailing grandfather.

      Her quest leads her on an epic and dangerous adventure through the rain forests of the Yucatan, the jungles of Guatemala, and into the ancient land of Mexico. She encounters a new and different people and in so doing, discovers the mysteries of her past.
    • 5/5
      This book was engrossing, interesting and very well written on many levels. I loved the character development, drama, and the setting!!! I thought several times as I was reading... Hey, I have been to the ruins. She mentioned ( when I was on vacation with husband) and oh, it is the mayan people! and...I love books set in the past. I felt that the story ended well and I would love for there to be a second one!
    • 3/5
      This was a very enjoyable book by Barbara Woods, I have never read anything by this author so it is a nice surprise to find another author to look forward to reading. The author did a very good job writing about ancient Mayan culture and legends. This book made history interesting to me.
    • 3/5
      Having long been a fan of Ms Wood, I was thrilled to get this book from Early Reviewers. I enjoyed the story of Tonina very much and look forward to hopefully a sequel. I really liked the mayan history evoked into the book. Other than having a little too down pat ending I enjoyed the book and recommend it to historical fiction fans.
    • 3/5
      I love historical fiction and have enjoyed other works by the author so I expected to like this a great deal - unfortunately that was not the case. This novel includes dwarves, fortune telling, and gambling - all in an ancient Mayan setting - and it reads like a soap opera. This story was so bad I skimmed through the middle. The one redeeming factor was learning about the Mayan and early Aztec cultures - but the ridiculous storyline kept getting in the way. Disappointing.
    • 1/5
      My God, this was a terrible book. I got it from the Early Reviewers (thank you!), but I must have missed when I accidentally signed up to get this one. I couldn't finish it. The story is like a knock-off Clan of the Cave Bear/Ugly Duckling theme with romanticized, barely researched historical information thrown in. The writing style is like an overblown Harlequin romance. Too bad to suffer through, inflict on others, or let take up space on the shelf.
    • 4/5
      Having visited Tikal and Copan, I was excited by the central american setting of this book. We follow the main character Tonina, a woman who grew up on the islands but arrived as a baby with the dolphins from somewhere else, as she goes on a quest to find a rare flower that can heal her adopted father (which may or may not actually exist). Along the way we meet a colorful cast of characters including a one eyed dwarf, a shape shifter, two famous Mayan ballplayers, a 15 year old girl who looks like a grandmother and many more. I really enjoyed reading this - it was full of historical detail and the plot moves along in an engaging way. Recommended for fans of historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable enough read, but ultimately I found it slightly disappointing. The best part was the evocative setting: the characters journey through lush jungles and ruined cities in the time of the Maya. Unfortunately, though, the author wasn't content to let us experience this world through the eyes of the characters. We were constantly jerked back to a modern, European-based worldview by phrases like "Guama could not begin to guess that on this important day... the country of the goblet's origin was referring to this seasonal cycle as the Year of Our Lord 1323" or "the mountain town of Cuauhnahuac... which a future race of men would alter to Cuernevaca, deeming it more pronounceable". One of the worst interruptions came when a character saw a vast number of orange and black butterflies and interpreted it as an omen from the gods, "not knowing that she was witnessing the annual migration of a butterfly that would one day be called 'monarch,' and that these millions of butterflies had just ended a flight of three thousand miles, begun in the far north at a place someday to be called the Great Lakes." What bothered me most was how unnecessary this was; the reader is perfectly capable of recognizing a black and orange butterfly as a monarch, and the monarch's migrations are likewise fairly common knowledge. It was like the author had done her research and wanted to make sure everyone knew it, rather than letting her knowledge remain subtly in the background.The characters suffered from a certain lack of subtlety, too; the good guys are unfailingly honourable and the bad guy is completely delusional. The issues they faced were also fairly standard: people had to accept their true selves so that love could triumph in the face of adversity. The best way to describe my objection to this might be to say that it felt too much like a typical women's book.Still, despite focusing on the negatives here, I certainly don't regret the time spent on this book, and would consider reading another by the same author. It was worth it for the setting alone, and the storyline did hold my attention. So although it wasn't exceptional, it definitely wasn't a bad book either.
    • 4/5
      I received Woman of a Thousand Secrets by Barbara Wood through the Library Thing Early Reviewers. This novel rocked.SO, Woman of a Thousand Secrets is about Tonina, who lives on Pearl Island. She was found by a childless couple floating on the sea in a basket, who have raised her from infancy and loved her as their own, but realize that the islanders will never accept her. So they send her out to find a specific flower under the ruse that her grandfather (her adopted father) is sick and needs this flower to survive. This book takes place in Mexico/Central America in the 1300s. That’s the basis of the story.This book starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up until the last page. If you hate to know anything before you start reading a book, then that previous paragraph is probably more than enough for you, so don’t read on. But what I’m about to tell you does in no way spoil the book.Okay, so as Tonina is leaving Pearl Island, this one guy who hates her because she’s the best swimmer on the island AND she’s an outsider, decides he wants to kill her, but he ends up getting eaten by sharks, and then when Tonina gets to mainland, this dwarf with one eye rips her off but feels bad so returns what he stole and then plots how he will rip her off in the future, and there’s this other guy named Balam who has a gambling problem and he gets in a buttload of trouble which involves his friend, Kaan, and Kaan and Tonina kinda have a connection ’cause they look like each other so they’re probably from the same peeps somewhere and there’s just a whole heckuva lot of murder, deceit, plotting, revenge, love, loss, and all kinds of other heart-racing events. Whew! That was a lot to say in one breath.This book was so good I didn’t want to put it down…though I did start having issues with how things ended up working out a little too conveniently, and I’ll admit it brought the book down a bit in my rating. But it did satisfy my craving for justice and rightness and good things coming to good people and bad things coming to bad people, even if we have to wait a while for that stuff to happen.When I told a friend about this book, she said, Oh, like Clan of the Cave Bear. And I was like, Well, I don’t know, I haven’t read that book. So that’s that. BUT, if you like Clan of the Cave Bear, then I assume you’ll like this. Don’t worry! You need not fear for my soul, I have put Clan of the Cave Bear on my BookMooch wishlist, but I’m waiting for a really nice copy to become available.I highly recommend this book and I won’t hesitate to pick up other books by Barbara Wood.
    • 3/5
      Wood focused on a society far removed from the usual historical novel I read. While details of the Aztec life were interesting, they (and the accompanying explanations) got a little overdone. The story was at times a bit too magical-mystical for my taste, the plot a bit uneven and at times strained/melodramatic, and the characters, aside from Tonina, rather one-dimensional. I would probably try another book by this author, but it wouldn't be at the top of my TBR pile.
    • 4/5
      I just finished this book and really enjoyed it, after a slow start, but that may have been me and not the book! I enjoy reading about early people/tribes and this did not disappoint. This was the first book by Barbara Wood that I have read and I plan on reading some more. I enjoyed the diversity of the characters and the storyline. There were twists and turns and the ending was happy overall, but not mushy and unbelievable.
    • 3/5
      The books starts off fairly interesting but looses ground fairly fast. The main character Tonina is proably the only redeeming quality about the book. The travels to different countries and meeting so many different characters looses me. I enjoy historical novels but this was just slow moving and most of the time boring. Had a hard time finishing this book.
    • 4/5
      In Barbara Wood’s colorful followup to Daughter of the Sun (2007), an “island girl” from pre-Columbian times sets out on a quest which takes her from the burgeoning metropolis at Mayapan to the rainforest jungles of Tikal (modern-day Guatemala) and finally westward to the Mexican interior.Twenty-one years ago, an elderly couple living on Pearl Island, off the Cuban coast, took in a baby they found floating in a waterproof basket. Although tall, light-skinned Tonina enjoys swimming through the island’s gentle lagoons and is beloved by her adoptive grandparents, local men find her unattractive and are humiliated by her success in pearl diving. It becomes clear she’ll never fit into their society, so her grandmother, Guama, invents a story about her husband’s illness as a way of convincing her to leave voluntarily. Landing on a deserted beach after jealous rivals attack her party’s canoe, Tonina gathers up her travel pack containing food, medicine, coconut face paint, and a mysterious glass goblet and marches inland in search of the red healing flower that will cure her grandfather. During her adventure, she encounters many people, places, and customs she finds unfamiliar and exotic. Her search assumes near-religious proportions to some of the followers she attracts, among whom are the trader One Eye, a crafty dwarf, and H’meen, a young healer aged before her time. But none becomes as important to Tonina as Kaan, a ballplayer of common birth who disdains his outsider origins to gain acceptance by the Mayans. Kaan’s own sacred pilgrimage is destined to separate them eventually, yet he’s honor-bound to accompany her at first. There’s also an egomaniacal villain, of course, though he’s not nearly as well-rounded as the other characters.Tonina’s journey immerses readers in the diverse cultures of the place and period, and the plot develops organically out of Wood’s vividly rendered settings. The historical detail is woven smoothly into the story, for the most part. Some commentary meant to provide external context is distracting: for example, we’re told that in the land of the goblet’s origin, it’s the Year of Our Lord 1323, and that the islanders’ lives will change irrevocably 200 years hence. Because many such examples occur early on, the novel takes a little while to settle into, but it’s a fascinating journey from that point forward. Readers who picture pre-Columbian Mexico merely as a land of bloodthirsty sacrifices and magnificent stone ruins will see both of these, but will also discover much about politics, religious ceremonies, clothing, roads, dwellings, calendars, even sports. Wood makes clear that many different ethnic groups populated the region, though some shared a language or other customs. Many plot twists are completely unexpected; Tonina’s mission alters slightly at several points in the narrative. Some events can’t be explained by traditional Western reasoning, but feel appropriate to the setting. The novel has plenty of lively humor, too, particularly in a certain hammock scene.An absorbing, immensely enjoyable fictional travelogue through the lush scenery and multifaceted civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica, with, perhaps, room left for a sequel.
    • 4/5
      Set in the 14th Century, I would call this a historical romance, with an easy-to-follow story line. An Island girl, Tonina, in search of her true identity, meets her soulmate, but is also on a quest that keeps her from committing herself to him. Kaan, the love of her life, is also on a quest that likewise keeps him from commitment. The star-crossed would-be lovers are kept apart by these quests as well as ancient taboos. The ego-maniac villian, Balam, is jealous of them both for several reasons, and is out to destroy them both. As the story unfolds, a disastrous situation forces Tonina to marry someone other than Kaan. The two lovelorn main characters continue on their individual quests, while crossing paths constantly. Both Tonina and Kaan become idolized, each for separate reasons, and eventually lead their people, through adventure, war and famine to their final destination.I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even if the end may have been just a bit too mystical. I will definitely read more of Barbara Wood. If anyone would like me to send them this book, please contact me and we'll see what can be arranged.
    • 4/5
      I most liked the storyline of this book. It was interesting to read about characters and places from this time period and location. I actually learned quite a few interesting facts. The characters were strong/well-developed, each holding a very important place within the story. My only complaint would be that there were too many details, too many explainations which slowed the story down. Saying that... it would not deter me from reading another book that Barbara Wood wrote.
    • 4/5
      My memory of school learning on these ancient civilizations is pretty much nil. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the depiction of the Mayan and Aztec cultures and beliefs and the look into the lives of its citizens. Some of Balam’s antics seemed a bit overdone and the overall pace dragged on at the end. I also would have appreciated a map of some sort for this epic journey, not being familiar with the past or present day area.
    • 4/5
      Not having much knowledge about Central American geography, or history, or the mythology of the peoples native to that region, I can only assume that Barbara Wood has done her research. And if you want an easy-to-read primer on any of those subjects, this would be a great book to read.If you're looking for really great characters, though, this is probably not the book for you. For the first two-thirds of the book the two main characters go back and forth every few pages between "I can't wait to get away from" and "How can I possibly live without" the other. While the two of them are filled with angst, the third main character is constantly plotting their individual downfalls in the background. I couldn't help but think of him as a Mayan Wile E. Coyote, but I don't think Wood meant him to be so ridiculous.Still, the story's pretty good. I did want to find out what happened at the end. And I was pleased that Wood opted against wrapping everything with a pretty bow. It's a mostly happy ending, although not entirely, and I was particularly impressed with how she didn't answer every single question, but also didn't leave me with the feeling that there were a lot of loose ends.
    • 3/5
      Barbara Wood’s Woman of a Thousand Secrets is the story of a young misfit making her way through 14th century South America in search of her culture of origin. Plot elements and writing style reminded me of Clan of the Cave Bear and Pillars of the Earth, plus some elements of fantasy. As someone who knows little about this period in South American history, I enjoyed the portrayal of an ancient society.I planned on giving the novel 3.5 out of 5 stars for the first three-quarters of the book, losing points for one-dimensional antagonists (again, similar to Pillars of the Earth) and some repetitiveness. During the final quarter, Woods threw in a number of unnecessary and dramatic plot twists, and the story dragged on when it could have wrapped up satisfactorily 100 pages earlier. My final rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      This story showed some mild promise at its beginning – young island girl on a Pre-Columbian Caribbean island sent off on a bogus mission by her adopted grandparents in an effort to send her back to her true family. They do this because she has never fit in, is thought ugly by the other islanders, and they know she will be happier among her own kind. Tonina completely buys into the story she’s been told – she must go to “Mainland” in order to hunt down one particular red flower for its healing properties so that her grandfather, Huracan, can be cured of a fatal (and make believe) illness. On her travels, Tonina meets up with the amnesia afflicted, speechless, Brave Eagle (the name made me want to gag), a shape-shifter who, when he seemed to become superfluous to the story, conveniently turned into an eagle and flew away. Tonina hooks up with a one-eyed dwarf named – hold on to your hat – One Eye, a man of few scruples, but in the end turns out to have A-Heart-Of-Gold. (yawn). When Tonina and company reach the Mayan town of Mayapan, she becomes a bogus fortuneteller (at One-Eye’s behest) and the toast of the town. All the ‘in’ people in Mayapan want Tonina to cast fortunes exclusively for them –she is the new status symbol. Kaan and his reproductively challenged wife, Lady Jade Sky, are the lucky winners and Tonina, One-Eye and Brave Eagle go to live with them. Kaan is a superstar sports hero, a virtuoso of “The Game”, worshipped by all Mayapan even though he is of an inferior, non-Mayan background. Aided by One-Eye, Tonina spends her time in Mayapan obsessing about the whereabouts of the red flower and just itching to get her paws on it so that she can be on her way back to Pearl Island. There is murder in this book as well as betrayal, an endless trek through the jungles of Mexico and Central America, blossoming love (Kaan and Tonina’s love moved along with all the speed and grace of a cart with square wheels), rape and reunion as well as a fortuitous volcanic eruption. The trek through the jungle with its host of obsessive sports fans, misfits and general hangers-on is endless. There is lot of heading in first one direction and then another. With the exception of Tonina everyone else’s agenda seems to change frequently. Tonina remains fixated throughout by the red flower. I was surprised only once – by an unexpected killing and I was often – well not bored, exactly, but I was not wildly entertained by this book. Maybe it’s the hot weather. It could be. But I rather think it is that I never came to like either Tonina or Kaan and what use is a book where you don’t like the main protagonists? I couldn’t even like the villain of the piece – the disgraced Prince Balam – for he is the most disorganized, unfocused villain I’ve seen in a very long time. I suspect that there will be a sequel to this book for at the end of it Kaan and Tonina seem to have founded the Aztec Empire. I’m giving Woman of a Thousand Secrets three stars for the information about a culture that was unfamiliar to me. Zippedy doo-dah for the story.
    • 4/5
      Tonina hails from an island where she doesn't belong. Found in a basket plucked from the sea, she is raised by an elderly couple who recognize her many differences and send her on a concocted mission to find a healing flower. The real purpose for this mission is for Tonina to find her true people and homeland. As she travels across the sea and through the jungles of Central America, she encounters a strange speechless boy, a one-eyed dwarf, and a local hero named Kaan. When circumstances beyond their control force Kaan and Tonina to undertake a long arduous journey together, Tonina begins to learn that the question of her origins may be more complex than she has imagined. As the dangerous mission through the wilds continues, her group attracts a myriad of followers and she and her party encounter ancient tribes, abandoned religious ruins, and deadly enemies bent on destruction. Along with a set of breathtaking discoveries, Tonina discovers that one of her number will be an unlikely ally and friend, and this unexpected partnership may shape the course of her life, forever altering her destiny.The story of Tonina and her journey was an extremely interesting take on early Mayan and Aztec civilizations. From cultural adversities between tribes, to the religious aspects of the region, the book was an all-encompassing look at a part of world that doesn't get much notice. I found the level of detail of all aspects of the society very engrossing. The book had a directness in tone that made the information particularly entertaining, and although most of the people in the book were fictional, the society and some of the characters portrayed were not. I was amazed to learn of the advancement of the Mayan people in regards to everything from time calculation to cosmetic body enhancements. The religious beliefs of the Mayans and Aztecs were very similar to some of the fundamental truths of Western religion. Most of my enchantment with this book came from depth of the cultural detail and the ability of the author to convey this forgotten culture.This book was dense with characters, but never became confusing or crowded despite their colorful, in-depth portrayals. I particularly enjoyed the saucy character of One-Eye, the dwarf, and Ha'meen, the aging wizened child who oversaw the palace gardens. Although Tonina's character could be too naive and trusting at times, her intelligence and cleverness canceled out her other flaws. Throughout the story she was genuine and kind hearted, even when circumstances were against her. Only the character Brave Eagle (the speechless boy) seemed out of place. He, in my opinion, was underutilized in the story, and it was a bit confusing to finally see the worthiness of his character apart from being used as a plot contrivance.The first section of this book, which deals with Tonina's exodus from the island where she was raised, was the only shaky part of the story. It seemed rushed, and the circumstances of Tonina's alienation from the other island dwellers was never fully explained, except that she was different from them physically. I didn't really understand the hostility of some of the others on the island when they reacted to an ordinary occurrence and made it a source for anger and revenge. It was clear that Tonina needed to leave the island, but the catalyst for that conclusion seemed forced and unnatural. This, in my opinion, was the low spot in the book, and because of it, I found it harder to immerse myself in the story. The later sections were more engaging and believable and I found my interest in the story picked up after the first few chapters.Despite some minor setbacks with plot and character, this was ultimately an enjoyable book. I found it had an odd, irresistible pull to it, and I read along with fervor to find out what would happen next. There were many twists and turns to the tale that were both unexpected and fascinating, and this made up for the previous missteps. This book was an interesting departure from those that I normally read, and I would recommend it for those who would enjoy a peek into primitive Mayan and Aztec culture.
    • 4/5
      The year is 1323 and this historical novel begins on a small island off of the coast of Cuba called Pearl Island. Tonina is twenty-one years old and lives with her Grandparents, but she is not related to them. When she was a baby she was found floating in a watertight basket by the islanders and has been raised among them. Unfortunately, as much as her foster Grandparents love her they cannot protect her from being ostracised from the rest of the group because of her differences. They are short and dark-skinned, she is tall with golden skin and light hair. She will never find a mate on the island where she is considered ugly. So, in order to encourage her to leave the island, her Grandmother makes up a quest and sends her in search of a mythical healing red flower. Her journey will take her to mainland Central America and plunge her into the Mayan culture. She meets other travellers and forms friendships and bonds but always remembers her quest. Along with new friends and making some enemies, she travels in the ancient jungles and high mountains of Guatemala and Mexico. She survives many trials but along the way learns about her family and her heritage.I found the descriptions of Mayan cities and people fascinating. The myths of the cultures of the time, as described in the book, bear a striking resemblance to Christianity. It was interesting to read that an early group of people, before the time of Columbus, had myths including a legendary bearded white man whom they belived would return at the time of their greatest need. I really enjoyed this book, the first I have read by Barbara Wood. I look forward to reading more of her novels. Woman of a Thousand Secrets will be published in September, 2008 by St. Martin's Griffin.
    • 4/5
      Barbara Wood draws from myth and history as she tells the story of Tonina, a baby from the sea found by a childless Pearl Island couple who raise her knowing that someday she must return to her own people among the mainlanders. Her journey across water and land, the search for family, and the quest to discover a mysterious red flower that promises miraculous cures are woven through Tonina’s story as she changes from a near outcast to a strong, resourceful woman. Woods paints vivid, lush pictures of a time and place long since vanished but alive within the pages of this book where feathers dance, eagles soar, pyramids remain and the land holds many secrets. The supporting characters are strong females, wily profiteers, mythical mutes with godlike powers, people of the earth who can hear nature’s heartbeat and interpret the smallest changes in weather and plant life, sports stars with egos to match, families struggling to lift their children to a better life and those who have lost their families because of their own greed. History fans will once again find many facts and fascinating tidbits in Woods’ latest book. Central American lore, culture, history and geography are well traversed in Tonina’s story. The resourcefulness of the main character, the power of legend (and a few coincidences) and the path of the human heart lift this book to a must read category for fans of Woods work.

    Book preview

    Woman of a Thousand Secrets - Barbara Wood

    1

    Revenge was in Macu’s heart as he searched for the girl who had humiliated his brother.

    Pretending to be interested in her as a prospective bride, he asked about Tonina in the village and was told that she could be found on the beach of the western lagoon, where the pearl divers were hauling in their oyster catch for the day.

    Macu’s brother, who was at that moment on the other side of the island with their canoe, had begged Macu not to go. It was bad enough a girl had bested him in a swimming contest, but Macu exacting revenge would only make matters worse. "She is a better swimmer, Awak had said. You cannot beat her, Brother." But twenty-two-year-old Macu of nearby Half Moon Island was proud and vain and despised girls who thought they were better than men.

    Pearl Island was a small, verdant dot on the green sea off the western tip of a landmass that would one day be called Cuba, and it had only two accessible harbors: the western lagoon and a cove on the northern tip, where Macu and his friends had paddled their canoe between rocky shoals and made landfall on a tiny beach. From there, a trail led through dense trees and brush to a lively, bustling village where children played, women stirred cooking pots, and men toiled in tobacco-drying sheds.

    As Macu marched through the settlement and down to the beach, he was followed by an excited entourage. He ignored the chatter as he curled his hands into fists, vowing to exact revenge. He strode with a firm step across the hot white sand so that egrets and pelicans flew up out of his way, and men looked up, startled, from their work repairing canoes and fishing nets. Naked children digging for clams in the calm, warm surf of the peaceful lagoon watched in curiosity as the stranger marched past.

    Macu was dark brown, stocky and muscular, his nearly naked body scarred and tattooed with myriad symbols and decorations. His black hair hung long, indicating his unmarried state, and besides a loincloth made of woven palm fibers he wore numerous necklaces and protective amulets. That he was an outsider was evident by the clan tattoo on his forehead. The group that followed him beneath the warm tropical sun, traipsing over the wide swath of sand between the lime green lagoon and the lush inland jungle, was made up of the young men who had accompanied him from Half Moon Island and a few villagers who had abandoned their labors as they sensed an afternoon’s diversion.

    A man was showing interest in poor, plain Tonina!

    The pearl divers were clustered at the end of the beach where a rocky cliff rose against the sea. Ranging in age from twelve to twenty-three, the girls laughed and joked, their dark brown bodies glistening with seawater, as they unloaded nets of oysters from their canoes, piling the shells onto the cool sand beneath shady coconut palms. Although Macu had never met or seen the girl he had come to challenge, he was able to spot her at once. She isn’t beautiful, his brother had said. In fact, she’s homely. He had gone on to describe her, and now Macu’s eyes went straight to the grass-skirted girl called Tonina.

    His brother was right. Although Tonina’s hair was worn long and loose and decorated with many shells, and although her face and arms were painted with myriad white symbols and designs, she was not at all fetching. No wonder she was still unmarried. Everything about Tonina was wrong. Her coloring was too light, her hips too narrow, her waist too slender, and, by the gods, Awak had spoken the truth: The girl was tall. If Macu had not seen the swelling breasts, golden-skinned and still wet from her dive, he might have suspected she was a man.

    Macu raised a hand in friendly greeting and called, Hello!

    The girls turned and, taking stock of the attractive young man, immediately adopted flirtatious attitudes.

    Tonina paid no attention at first—young men never looked at her—until she realized in shock that the charming smile was directed at her. She wondered why, having no idea that he was the brother of a young man she had bested at swimming days ago.

    As Macu took the measure of this tall, plain girl, he thought of his cunning plan to get back at her for what she had done to Awak. A plan that involved the ghost of an ancient sea monster.

    All the nearby islands knew the legend of the beast that slept in a forbidden area of Pearl Island’s lagoon, near the opening in the barrier reef, where calm water met the choppy sea. It was said that the skeleton of an enormous sea monster occupied the ocean floor there, and that the monster’s ghost haunted the waters.

    No one swam there, ever.

    Because Macu had not grown up here, fear of the sea monster’s spirit had not been cultivated in him. But he knew that Tonina had lived her life hearing about the ghost and would be terrified to swim near it. Beneath the warm afternoon sun, as trade winds whispered through the swaying palm trees and gulls circled overhead, Macu played his role to perfection.

    Are you the one called Tonina? he asked.

    Tonina smiled shyly, unused to male attention. Boys did not like girls taller than themselves, but as Macu was of equal height, she decided he must not mind.

    As the pearl divers stood in a group around the two, their curiosity piqued, Macu introduced himself to Tonina and boasted about his skill and prowess at spearfishing, as was the custom when beginning a courtship. He exaggerated his accomplishments as he carefully laid his trap. The islands’ courting ritual involved each prospective partner proving himself or herself.

    Secretly pleased with his cleverness, Macu fixed his smiling eyes on Tonina as he said, Are you brave enough to swim with me to the haunted place and bring back one of the monster’s bones?

    Guama! There is a boy here from Half Moon Island. He is interested in Tonina!"

    Tonina’s grandmother, in the tobacco shed rolling leaves into cigars, looked up. What? A boy? Are you sure?

    They are at the lagoon. And he is challenging her to a contest!

    Guama blinked. A boy was interested in her granddaughter? Tonina was twenty-one years old and still unmarried. Every spring, when boys and men from other islands came to Pearl Island to select a bride, Tonina was always overlooked. So why was this boy from Half Moon Island suddenly showing such interest? Had the impossible finally happened?

    Guama prayed so. The girl must get married, otherwise what sort of life would she have? With no children to raise, no man to cook for, what use was a woman? Tonina was a fine pearl diver, one of the best, but pearl divers did not live long.

    As she followed the boy down to the beach, old Guama remembered the swimming contest a few days prior, when Tonina had bested all the boys, even though Guama was always telling her she must let the boys win. Unfortunately, Tonina was cursed with an ingrained honesty that wouldn’t allow her to cheat.

    What sort of contest? Guama asked now, suddenly suspicious.

    To swim out to the bones of the sea monster.

    Guay! the old woman cried, voicing her dismay with a word that, in the language of the islanders, conveyed pain, surprise, or distress. She broke into a sprint, running as fast as her ancient legs could go.

    To Macu’s shock, Tonina accepted his challenge.

    The onlookers gasped. Contests of depth and endurance were daily occurrences—deep water and fierce waves and rip currents did not daunt the islanders—but swimming into haunted waters was something else. Macu had been confident Tonina would refuse the contest, giving him the victory.

    But what Macu did not know was that Tonina was not afraid of sea monsters or their ghosts. Nothing in the ocean frightened her. Now he did not know what to do. With all eyes on him, Macu had to reach a swift decision. He could not back down on his own dare, and so he had to go through with a contest in which he had not expected to compete.

    His anger flared anew, but he kept it masked as he smiled and said, Very well!

    Tonina wore the grass skirt all island females wore once they began menstruating. She removed it now, leaving her in a simple cotton modesty apron hanging from a string around her waist. As she followed Macu into the surf, the crowd watched anxiously. No one had ever visited the bones of the monster. Would Macu and Tonina make it back alive?

    Guama arrived too late. She could only stand helplessly on the beach and watch the two plunge into the water and swim toward the reef.

    Guama’s white hair was combed back into an intricate knot and tied with palm-fiber string, but a few long wisps had escaped the knot and whipped about her face in the tropical breeze. Brushing the hair from her face, she kept her eyes on the swimmers, terrified that this was the final sign. The sign that she had been dreading for six days—ever since the dolphins arrived. And so she wondered now, not for the first time, if Tonina’s unmarried status was a message from the gods. That she was never meant to stay on Pearl Island.

    Was that why the gods had been so cruel to Tonina, Guama wondered. Was that why they had created her to be displeasing to a man’s eye? Although the girl laughed easily and possessed a warm, trusting spirit, there was her unfortunate golden coloring, long limbs, slender hips. Guama had tried over the years to conform her adopted granddaughter to the island’s beauty ideal, rubbing tobacco juice into her skin to darken it, fattening her on cassava root to make her plump. But the tan washed off and the fat melted from her lithe form. At each yearly wife-selecting barbicu men from the other islands always overlooked Tonina so that she still wore the cowry shell belt of maidenhood. A badge of honor for younger girls—the cowry belt symbolized the girl’s virgin state, not to be removed until the wedding night—there came a time when the purity belt became a badge of shame, as it was for Tonina, telling all the world that at the age of twenty-one she was still a virgin, that no man wanted her.

    Guama glanced up at the cliff rising above the lagoon and saw her husband at his post, reading the wind and sky and sea for signs of a huracán. An aged, potbellied man in a palm-fiber loincloth, his wrinkled nut-brown body painted with the symbols of his sacred calling, he was the most important man on the island, more important even than the chief.

    Since there was never any way of knowing when a huracán was coming, there was no way to prepare, to hide, and so such storms were known for wiping entire tribes out of existence. But Pearl Island had been blessed with a man who descended from a long line of storm-readers, who possessed the ability to sense a huracán far beyond the horizon, to know how strong it would be, to know when it would make landfall.

    Guama saw that her husband’s attention was not upon the horizon, but upon the young people below. And when she saw how intently he stared at Tonina, Guama knew it was because of the dolphins.

    Ever since the pair had been seen cavorting beyond the reef, Guama and Huracan had been watching for signs and omens to understand the wish of the gods. Did they want Tonina back? Had she been sent here only temporarily? And are they now, Guama wondered in sudden fear, about to take Tonina from us as she swims into the taboo water?

    The lagoon was deep and warm, with gentle currents, the water clear to the sandy bottom where spiny urchins and starfish dwelled. Tonina and Macu swam wordlessly side by side, the shore dropping behind and the great coral reef drawing near. The wave action grew stronger, and kelp beds now appeared. Spurred by anger, Macu pulled ahead, his mind working on ways to humiliate this girl who thought she was better than a man. He dived under the kelp to appear a moment later on the other side.

    Tonina stopped swimming and began to tread water as she watched him. She was recalling the many times Guama had advised her to let a boy win a competition. This time I shall do it, Tonina decided. She liked Macu’s smile, and felt a new flutter in her heart at the sudden attention from an attractive stranger. Perhaps, if she let him win, he would come back to Pearl Island and court her until they wed.

    And then she would be like everyone else, and accepted at last.

    Finally she dived, disappearing from view. But instead of swimming under the kelp bed toward the haunted water, she swam to a sunlit area of the coral reef that was alive with life.

    Here she swam with joy, joining the colorful schools of fish that darted this way and that. She floated over coral fans and sponge beds, smiling at a bright golden fish that glided by. Tonina was suddenly happy. The way Macu had looked at her, chosen her! An outcast all her life, shy about her plain looks, Tonina finally felt the joy of receiving a boy’s attention.

    Rolling onto her back in the placid water, she looked up at the surface where sunlight swirled and glittered. She would spend another moment here, then swim back to the other side of the kelp and surface before Macu, allowing him to be the winner of the contest.

    Macu had sucked lungfuls of air before executing a sharp downward dive. Now a world of wonder filled his eyes, as living coral danced and swayed in dappled sunlight and colorful fish flashed by. When he saw the massive skeleton ahead, faintly illuminated by sunlight filtering through the water, his bowels tightened. The monster really existed. And it was enormous! He cautiously swam closer. The spine of the giant creature lay on the sandy bottom and its ribs curved upward in queer shapes. Strangely, the bones were brown.

    His fear turning to curiosity, Macu swam down and placed his hands on a rib. It was made of wood!

    His eyes widened. This was no sea creature but a fantastically large canoe. But not a dugout, as the islanders’ canoes were. This vessel had been made from separate wooden planks pieced together, as he had seen in some war canoes. However, this was not of any island manufacture he was familiar with. Who had made it? When had it crashed on this reef?

    Something shimmered in the sand. It looked like a jellyfish, yet it was strangely shaped and appeared to be scored with bright green and blue scars. Plucking it up, Macu found the object was as hard as rock, yet transparent.

    His lungs tightened. It was time to surface. A current eddied around him, caught his body, and turned it in an arc so that he floated sideways to the boat. When he saw the fearsome head looming over him at the end of a long, arching neck, with open jaws displaying jagged teeth, Macu realized in fright that it was a sea monster after all.

    In sudden terror he frantically swam away, still clutching the object he had pulled from the sandy bottom, and in his panic swam blindly into the kelp bed. Flailing his arms and legs, his lungs fighting for air, his chest shooting with pain, he became trapped in the dense tangle of seaweed.

    From the beach, Guama watched, tense and anxious. How foolhardy of the boy to challenge Tonina to swim into taboo waters. And how naïve of Tonina to accept. Guama knew that her granddaughter feared nothing in the sea, and while it was true Tonina was under the special protection of dolphin spirits, surely there were limits.

    When she saw Tonina resurface at the edge of the kelp bed, Guama sighed with relief. But Macu had yet to surface. Time stretched, and then suddenly Tonina dived back under the kelp bed.

    She found Macu entangled and unconscious, floating with vacant, staring eyes, his hair streaming out and drifting gently on the current. Tonina dragged him to the surface, tearing him loose from the clinging leaves and tendrils, and swam back to shore, pulling him along.

    Guama was there to meet them, being experienced with drownings. As soon as others pulled Macu onto the sand, she dropped to her knees and placed her hands on his chest. He was not breathing but his heart was still beating. She rolled him onto his side and thumped his back. Then she pried his mouth open, tugged his jaw down, and thumped his back again. She called out the names of various gods, invoking their mercy and their power, while the group stood in anxious silence.

    The third thump made him cough. The fourth sent water spewing from his mouth, and he sputtered and hacked and fought for breath.

    As Macu’s friends lifted him to his feet, the others stepped back to make way for them to pass. It was a silent group that watched Macu stumble and stagger, aided by comrades, down the beach. And then the young islanders turned to stare at Tonina, who was herself heaving for breath, dripping with seawater.

    Slowly, they backed away from her. She had swum in taboo waters. The sea monster had tried to claim Macu, but Tonina had defied the monster.

    Guama watched in sadness as the islanders moved away from Tonina, tracing protective signs in the air, and the old woman knew this was the omen she had been watching for, to tell her that it was indeed time for the girl, this precious child who had brought joy to a childless couple, to leave Pearl Island.

    The others returned to the village while Tonina, as she had so many times over the years, disappeared into the jungle to be alone. The beach was growing cold with the setting sun, and Guama started to leave when her toe nudged something hard in the sand. She looked down and saw a dead jellyfish lying there, curled into a ball. She frowned. No, not a jellyfish. She picked it up and brushed it off.

    The object was still wet, which meant it must have come with Macu and the kelp. She had no idea what it was—hard, and yet not stone or clay, and transparent, with rich colors woven throughout so that it resembled a globule of petrified water with plant life imprisoned within. The shape, however, was familiar, for the object sat in her hand the way a drinking gourd did.

    Guama did not know that the wondrous transparent material was called glass, or that it had been hand-blown in a cold-climate land on the other side of the world, called Germany. She could not guess that the goblet had passed from owner to owner until it became the cherished possession of a red-bearded explorer who carried the drinking glass with him in his dragon-prowed ship to a new home called Vinland.

    Guama knew none of this, only that she had seen the strange vessel clutched in Macu’s hand when Tonina brought him ashore. And as everything happened for a reason—this Guama believed most deeply—she suspected that this curious object must somehow be tied to Tonina’s destiny. And so she would keep the goblet, to give to her granddaughter.

    But as she struck off toward the village, Guama sighed wistfully, because she was reminding herself for the hundredth time that the girl wasn’t really her granddaughter. She was no one’s granddaughter.

    Tonina wasn’t even human.

    2

    This was Tonina’s favorite place to be alone, a rocky cove of mangroves from where she could hear the whispering surf, the gentle shush of distant waves. Few ever visited this remote inlet that had no beach, and so it had become, over the years, Tonina’s private refuge.

    It was here, twenty-one years ago, that she had begun her life on Pearl Island.

    Guama’s husband, Huracan, high atop his lookout cliff, had spotted a pair of dolphins that seemed to be playing with something. A small brown thing bobbed between them as they flew up out of the water and then back down, crying and squeaking as if trying to get the storm-reader’s attention. He had hurried down to the water’s murky edge and watched as the dolphins guided the object closer to land and then, as if satisfied that the current would do the rest, leaped high out of the water, in perfect synchrony, splashed back in, and swam out to sea.

    As the object floated near and then was caught in gnarly mangrove roots, Huracan thought he heard an animal crying in pain. Wading out, he saw that the bobbing thing was a waterproof basket with a lid, and from within a creature wailed in distress. Caution made him leery, but curiosity drew him closer until he recognized the cry of a human infant.

    Carefully lifting the lid of the basket, he peered in and saw a baby with a scrunched, red face swaddled in embroidered cloth, bawling lustily. He had hurried into the village with his precious discovery, taking her straightaway to Guama, who would know what to do. Six babies she had brought into the world, and all six she had outlived. When the final remaining daughter died, Guama had wanted to sleep and never wake up. And then the tiny mewling creature had been placed in her arms and she had come to life.

    They named the baby Tonina, which in their language meant dolphin, and because she was not dark brown like the islanders but the color of golden sand, Huracan and Guama privately believed she was the offspring of a sea god. They also believed that the gods, in their compassion, had sent the baby to be a comfort to the pious couple in their old age.

    As the child grew, however, her strange physical appearance had made people wonder, and soon she became an outsider. Children had teased her cruelly, saying that she had been put on the sea because her family didn’t want an ugly baby.

    Mystery had always been part of her life. What, for example, was the meaning of the strange amulet that had been on a string around her neck when Huracan found her? Who had placed it there, to what people did it connect her? Long ago Guama had woven a little jacket of palm fibers, enclosing the amulet completely and sealing it, which meant that no one but Huracan and herself had seen it; not even Tonina had laid eyes upon it, although she had been told that the magic stone was a vibrant pink, and translucent when held to the sun, with magical symbols engraved upon it. Guama had told Tonina that she could uncover it when she felt the time was right. Tonina had been tempted many times to look inside, but had stopped. The talisman of rare material and strange engravings would only alienate her further, she realized, and make her even more of an outsider.

    Then there was the curious cloth swaddling her infant body—precious cotton, a rarity on the islands. Another connection to unknown people.

    She thought of Macu. Tonina had not so much fallen in love with him as with what he stood for: the belonging she had always dreamed of. Marrying Macu would give her a place in a tribe, it would connect her to other people, and she would no longer be alone.

    As she rose to her feet, her hand brushed the fiber thong that hung from her waist, strung with cowry shells, denoting her virginal state. The belt had been tied around her waist when she had begun menstruating, and it was to remain there until her wedding night, when it was the husband’s happy privilege to remove it.

    Lifting the string of cowries into the last light of day, Tonina sadly wondered if the belt was ever going to be removed.

    On the other side of the island, a silent and sullen group sat around a campfire, the flames illuminating the flat, dark brown faces of young men who tried to ignore the night’s darkness.

    A mystical event had taken place, involving sea monsters and near death, and each tried in his simple way to make sense of it. Macu had drowned. Tonina had pulled him to shore. And the old woman had smacked him back to life. Had the ghost of the sea monster tried to steal Macu’s soul? The young men were speechless in the face of such mystery.

    Macu himself, however, was not embroiled in the mystical complexities of near death and revival. He had come to Pearl Island to teach the girl a lesson and had ended up being humiliated.

    His thoughts were black all evening, as they had cooked and eaten their fish. With each bitter mouthful, the malignant thoughts in Macu’s mind flew to one conclusion: The girl must be punished.

    3

    Guama lifted the little ark from the rafter where it had been stored for twenty-one years and tenderly set it on the floor of the hut.

    It was time to say good-bye.

    The problem was, how to make Tonina leave Pearl Island?

    Guama knew she could order her to leave, but it would be an event of such sadness that it would be like a death. And what misery for the girl herself, paddling away from her beloved home, being cast out without fully understanding why, even though Guama would explain it was the will of the dolphin spirits.

    Guama decided that she needed to invent a reason for Tonina to go, one that would ease the pain of leaving.

    She looked down at the little basket that had sailed the seas, the folded cloth in it, and an idea came to her. A deception …

    The old woman shivered with fear. She knew that Pearl Island was not the limit of the world, nor even the center of it. To the north, east, and south, hundreds of islands dotted the sea. Many of her people had sailed to them. On those islands, people lived much as her own did with little difference in custom, language, or religion. To the west, however …

    She shivered again and said a silent prayer to Lokono, the Spirit of All.

    To the west lay something called Mainland because people said that it was not an island but a land that went on forever, with no ending. Some said there was a whole other world on that hidden side, where people lived in trees, or walked upside down, or gave birth through their mouths.

    While it was the sea gods who had brought Tonina to her, and while the superstitious and religious part of Guama believed the girl came from the gods, in her practical woman’s mind she knew Tonina had been born of a human mother. The amulet and swaddling cloth were proof of that. But why that mother had placed her baby in the care of the sea gods was a secret Guama could not fathom. Had the child been a sacrifice? And what, therefore, when Tonina went back, would happen to her?

    Would they sacrifice her a second time?

    Guama closed her eyes and silently prayed: Great Lokono, guide me.

    Guama, came a soft voice, and the old woman’s heart leaped, thinking the god had answered. But when she opened her eyes, she saw Tonina standing in the doorway.

    There you are! You know better than to be out at night, child, she said. No one ventured out after dark, when spirits and ghosts roamed the land.

    Tonina’s features were freshly painted, as all islanders’ were, with symbols and attractive designs, but it could not hide her homeliness. Yes, Guama thought in resignation, the gods had indeed created Tonina this way on purpose, so that she would not catch a man’s eye. This way, she was alone, and free to return to the sea.

    It was time to tell the lie. Your grandfather is ill. Gravely ill, Tonina, although he hides it from the others.

    Tonina looked around the spacious hut and saw, by torchlight, her grandfather slumbering in his hamac. Tonina’s eyes went round with fear. Is he dying?

    Guama lowered her voice. Not now, not today. He will enjoy good health until the day comes when he will not open his eyes again.

    Can you not cure him? Guama was famous for her knowledge of healing herbs and charms.

    We do not have the medicine on our island. But I have heard of a plant… a red flower with petals like this, and she formed a blossom with her hands, joining her wrists, fingers spread and curved, pointing to the floor.

    The flower does not grow upward, facing the sun, Guama said, but downward, facing the earth, like the red heliconia that grow on our island.

    Perhaps the flower grows in a tree? Tonina offered.

    Touched by Tonina’s eagerness to help, Guama’s throat tightened. Outside the hut, village life went on as usual—families gathered around fires, children running and playing near the light—while a fat moon sailed across the heavens. It is said that the petals contain powerful spirits that will heal any illness, cure any trouble.

    Where can this flower be found? Tonina asked.

    Mainland.

    Tonina fell silent. Mainland was something heard of only in myth and frightening stories. How shall we obtain it? she asked, imagining the chief selecting teams of strong oarsmen and sending them forth in the island’s sturdiest canoes.

    Guama took Tonina’s hands and said, You have seen the dolphins playing in the water beyond the reef?

    Tonina smiled. She had swum out to the pair, to speak to them and swim with them.

    They are not here by chance, Tonina. They bring a message: that you sail to Mainland, find the magic healing flower, and bring it back.

    Tonina stared at her in shock. Me, Grandmother? Are you sure?

    The message is clear.

    Guama fixed tired old eyes on the girl who stood a head taller, called ugly by others but whom Guama thought beautiful. After you return, you will be loved for what you did. Saving Huracan’s life means saving the people of the island, she said softly. This quest will be spoken of for years to come. Your name will be praised around every cook fire. This will be known as the Year Tonina Saved Pearl Island.

    This will be known as the Year Tonina Returned to the Sea.

    She reached up to touch the face of the girl she loved more than her own life, this child who had brought such joy into the days of a brokenhearted mother, and said, And then men will call you beautiful.

    Tonina tried not to show fear. Mainland! It terrified her to think of leaving Pearl Island, of traveling across the wide sea and setting foot in that unknown land. But Grandfather needed her.

    I will go, she said.

    Although Guama had known Tonina would accept the challenge, her heart dropped. She would forever remember this night as the worst in her life. As you know, the big storms rest between the winter solstice and the summer solstice. You must come back by then, Tonina. When we celebrate the spring equinox we shall begin to watch for your return before the big storms start again.

    As the winter solstice lay just one month away, Tonina felt sudden urgency. Squeezing the aged hands, she said with passion, I promise I will return with the healing flower. I shall pray to my dolphin spirits for help.

    Brother! Awak cried as he ran into the camp in the tiny cove, waking his friends. Something has happened!"

    They rubbed their eyes and listened as he told them of a magical red flower and Tonina’s mission to find it. They are gathering now at the lagoon; the great canoe is soon to depart.

    Macu saw his chance at once. He would show everyone who was superior. He was going to be the one to return with the magic flower. And his humiliation at the lagoon would be forgotten.

    As they would forget Tonina, who was not going to return at all.

    4

    Guama and Huracan kept their deception a secret, reasoning that, should their lie anger the gods, the punishment would be upon their heads alone.

    All the tribe was gathered in the dawn light to witness an event that would be spoken of for generations to come. The twenty men who had been selected to paddle the great canoe were excited about the adventure. This was not a mere island they were sailing to, but Mainland!

    When Huracan had pulled the basket from the shallows twenty-one years prior, he had studied the winds and the tides, and had determined that the little ark had been set upon the sea from the southern coast of Mainland, perhaps from a land called Quatemalan. He had decided that must be where Tonina came from, and so that was where she would find her people. Therefore that was where, he said, the flower grew.

    As they stood on the crowded beach in the early light, while women placed supplies in the large dugout canoe, Guama looked at the girl who had been delivered to them one miraculous day on the sea. From that moment, Guama thought, Tonina had never been far from water, never out of view of the ocean around them. The sea was in her veins. How would she survive on a land that never ended?

    The same frightening questions had occurred to Tonina. To go to a place where the sea could not be seen? She would not think of it, only the sacred task for which she had been chosen.

    As Huracan supervised the placement of food and water into the boat, he studied his granddaughter. Standing among the islanders, she looked less like one of this tribe and more like a stranger, as if the transformation had already begun.

    It was because of the clothes.

    As he tried to think of ways to keep Tonina safe once she was on Mainland, Huracan recalled a Taino trader who regularly visited Pearl Island to exchange cotton for pearls. The man had spoken of the strange customs on Mainland. They wear a lot of clothes, he had said, especially the women. Modest creatures. Bare breasts are taboo.

    This worried Huracan, as Tonina’s lack of attire would point her out as a foreigner, and who knew what those savages did to foreigners? Huracan had explained the problem to Guama, who had seen the solution in the palm-fiber hamacs the villagers slept in. Using sharp clamshells, she had cut and stitched two hamacs into a loose blouse that hung halfway down a hamac skirt. Behind Tonina’s back, the other women giggled, saying she looked like a giant fish trapped in a net.

    As Huracan watched the men load the canoe with sun-dried salt fish, jerked turtle meat, and hard cassava cakes, he recalled other tales the trader had told. They are not like us, those savages on Mainland. The men mutilate their genitals and call it a sign of bravery. They pierce their privates with thorns and fibers so that over the years their members grow pebbly and distorted.

    He pushed such unthinkable notions aside as he made sure the oarsmen were prepared for defense. The men of Pearl Island were not warriors and therefore their weapons were simple wooden spears and stone knives. Huracan saw that they added clubs and a few bows and arrows.

    Finally it was time for departure. Guama chanted prayers to Lokono as she painted protective symbols on Tonina’s face and arms. Then she gave her the vessel made of hard transparency.

    As she pressed Tonina’s fingers against the cold glass, Guama sensed the goblet’s strange power. Guama could not begin to guess that on this important day of Tonina’s departure from Pearl Island, the country of the goblet’s origin was referring to this seasonal cycle as the Year of Our Lord 1323. She did not know that, in that country on the other side of the eastern sea, pale-skinned men encased their bodies in chain mail and armor, the women in tight bodices and heavy gowns. Guama did not know of kings and armies that waged war with crossbows and war horses, that only one God was worshiped, and that two hundred years hence, those same pale-skinned people would come to Pearl Island and, in the name of their one God, change the islanders’ way of life forever.

    All Guama could say on this important day beside the sunlit lagoon was, This vessel came from the sea monster. It contains great power. Keep it with you, beloved granddaughter, and it will see that you come back to us safely. Guama’s voice broke as she spoke the lie, and she felt a sharp pain in her breast as she saw the loneliness of her life in the days to come.

    As Huracan pressed a small bag of pearls into Tonina’s hand, he looked deep into her eyes and said, You will see wondrous things on Mainland, Granddaughter. Towering hills called mountains, and streams that fall from them, called waterfalls. When you return, he said in a tight voice, you will tell us of all the wonderful things you have seen.

    I shall, Grandfather, Tonina said, excited, frightened, and wondering why Macu was not there to see her off. She embraced the sweet old couple whose white heads barely came to her shoulders.

    Before stepping into the canoe, Tonina bent and scooped up sand and put it in her little medicine pouch that also contained a small blue periwinkle and a dolphin’s tooth, powerful talismans that would connect her to this place.

    This I promise to you, dear Grandfather: I will find the flower and I will return so that you will live many more years to protect the people of this island from storms. I swear this vow upon the spirit of my dolphin totem.

    She looked at those standing around her and saw the looks of admiration on their faces. At long last, Tonina had a taste of belonging. When she brought back the healing flower, she would be accepted at last.

    As she embraced the others, saying good-bye, Huracan drew the chief oarsman, Yúo, aside and said quietly, I must now take you into a special confidence, Nephew. When you reach Mainland, set up camp on the beach the first night. While Tonina sleeps, you and your crew quickly carry the boat into the surf and set off at once for home.

    For a moment, Yúo looked surprised, and then, looking into his uncle’s eyes, he suddenly understood. Will she find her people? he asked softly, wondering what strange fate lay ahead for the girl.

    Huracan shook his head. I do not know. I have done my duty. She is in the hands of the gods now. Tonina’s time among us is at an end.

    As the canoe with its twenty oarsmen sailed through the break in the reef and out onto open sea, with Tonina kneeling in the prow, her face into the wind, Huracan turned his own face toward the east and caught his breath sharply.

    He had been so distracted by Tonina’s departure that he had not been about his daily duties as a storm-watcher. But he sensed now that a storm was gathering. A big storm. A terrible storm.

    He looked back at the small, frail canoe with its fragile cargo and realized in horror that he had no way of calling it back, no way of warning Tonina and the men.

    A hurricane was coming.

    BOOK

    ONE

    5

    Pearl Island slipped behind the horizon until the long dugout canoe, with twenty rowers, one captain, and one passenger, was alone on the high seas. No longer did seagulls follow them, no longer could the crashing surf be heard. The endless silence of the open ocean surrounded them, broken only by the rhythmic splash of oars into water. Kneeling in the prow, her face set toward the frightening west, Tonina squinted in the sunlight that glared off the surface of the choppy water.

    The sun beat down upon the backs of the rowers, while salt spray shot up to cool their faces. Oarsmen born and bred, Yúo and his men never knew such pleasure as when they raced a craft over the open sea. However, as Yúo struck the drumbeat for the oarsmen, he was filled with regret. Only he knew that the quest was a sham, that they were to abandon his uncle’s adopted granddaughter on Mainland.

    The great canoe, carved and painted with magic symbols and blessed by the Spirit of All, Lokono, had entered a body of water that had no name but which in a future time would be called the Yucatán Channel. Here, the winds came from the north, and because the wind was against the stream, the sea grew rough. But Yúo and his men were skilled and strong, and rowed swiftly through the choppy waves. Their vessel, hewn from a mighty tree and hollowed out with axes and fire, was sturdy and seaworthy and capable of traveling great distances. But rain squalls were a constant hazard in these waters, dark clouds producing short-lived blasts of high wind that demanded the rowers’ full attention, and so Yúo kept a keen watch on the sea from horizon to horizon.

    And suddenly he saw—

    His eyes widened. Another watercraft. Guay! he called out in alarm.

    The twenty rowers looked anxiously to the south. Was it a war canoe from Mainland? Tales about the ferocious Mayan warriors who prowled these waters came into mind as each man rowed with all his strength, eyes wide and focused on the approaching vessel.

    And then they realized in puzzlement that it had come from the direction of Pearl Island.

    When Tonina saw the captain of the smaller canoe, standing in the prow and waving, her heart leaped. Macu!

    The two islands of Pearl and Half Moon had been friends for so many years, trading goods and brides, that Macu knew the men in Tonina’s boat would not be expecting an attack. With his brother Awak and their friends lying low in the belly of their own vessel, leaving four rowers visible, Macu waved in a friendly fashion as they raced toward the other canoe. He gauged the wind and the current, and his vessel’s speed against that of the larger one. Just before they collided, he would give the signal for his men to jump up and send arrows and spears flying.

    Macu smiled. A perfect plan. Tonina’s twenty oarsmen would be dead before they even knew they were under attack. And Macu would deliver the lethal blow to the girl himself. After that, they would help themselves to the provisions in the other canoe, sink it, and head for Mainland where the magic flower awaited.

    Recognizing the young man in the rapidly approaching canoe, Yúo waved back. Tonina’s heart raced. Why was Macu here? Was he going to escort her to Mainland?

    When the smaller canoe was nearly upon them, Yúo gave the order for his men to raise oars. Macu grinned, and gave the secret signal for his hidden men to ready themselves.

    We come to wish you good luck! Macu shouted as his boat drew near.

    Thank you, Yúo called back, white teeth flashing in his dark brown face. May the gods bless us all on this journey.

    Both teams of oarsmen ceased rowing so that the day was silent, filled only with the sound of waves slapping the sides of the long narrow boats. As Macu’s canoe maneuvered alongside, close enough for a man to jump from one dugout to the other, he turned to give his crouched men the order to attack. But as he opened his mouth, he felt something sharp strike his thigh.

    He looked down in surprise. A burning arrow was lodged in his flesh.

    In the next instant, a hail of fire arrows rained down upon the smaller canoe. Macu’s men jumped up, retaliating with their own arrows and spears.

    Tonina watched in bewilderment as chaos erupted.

    She did not know that her grandmother had held a private conversation with Yúo before they set sail. I do not trust the boy named Macu. When Tonina saved his life, and his friends carried him from the beach, I saw him look back and give her the evil eye.

    We shall be prepared, Yúo had assured her. He knew what to do. With Tonina riding in the prow of the canoe, her attention focused upon western landfall, she would be unaware that at the back of her long vessel Yúo’s men were crouched in readiness to defend themselves with fire arrows. The arrows were coated with flammable sap and, ignited with embers placed on board for making camp on Mainland, they would be hard to douse once lodged in the other canoe.

    As Macu’s canoe had neared, Yúo had studied the boy’s stance, the nervous faces of his oarsmen, noting that there were only four rowers in a canoe outfitted for twelve. And then he had seen the crouched men. And so Yúo had been able to strike first.

    As small fires now broke out on Macu’s canoe, with men frantically scooping water from the sea to douse them, others leaped onto Tonina’s canoe with knives and axes. Suddenly men were fighting hand to hand, yelling, stabbing, punching. The canoe rocked dangerously. Tonina grabbed the sides and felt a shout tear from her throat.

    Smoke billowed from the smaller canoe as the ocean current tugged it away with the men stranded upon it, desperately fighting to extinguish the fires.

    Tonina saw Macu through the smoke, his face twisted in fury as he brought a club down upon Yúo’s head, cracking the skull. Huracan’s nephew dropped and Macu stepped over him, raising his club, to bash it down on another Pearl Islander’s head.

    Tonina watched in frozen horror as the hand-to-hand combat escalated, grew frenzied and brutal, the air filling with cries of pain. Bodies now floated in the rough water, crimson blood streaming in every direction.

    Tonina’s canoe continued to rock dangerously beneath the feet of so many fighting men. And then the unthinkable happened: The canoe tipped once more from one side to the other, and then it capsized completely, tumbling combatants and Tonina into the water.

    While she seized hold of her upturned dugout, the men frantically swam back to the smaller canoe, where the fires had been put out, scrambling up and over the sides, pulling up wounded comrades, and enemies, too, as men from both islands, forgetting the brief conflict, lifted one another into the

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