Dagon Rising(30)

Keoni shook his head. “I don’t. All I know is that the island’s natives think he sleeps beneath the island and that they’re protecting him.”

“Did your family ever speak of this when they related their oral history?”

“Yes,” Keoni said. He looked reflective. “I didn’t believe any of it. I don’t believe in any of the legends the natives of these islands hold to. Even those of my people. I’m a Pacific Island rarity—I don’t believe in the myths of my own people and I don’t believe in Christianity, which most of my people converted to many years ago.”

“You’re an atheist?” Susan asked.

“I guess. Come on. We should get moving again.”

He led them down the corridor once more.

“Why?” Susan asked.

“Why what?” Keoni’s tone was puzzled.

“Why are you an atheist?”

“Well, why not?” Keoni gestured ahead into the darkness as the tunnel began to slope slightly downward. “A god sleeping beneath the island that nobody’s ever seen? Come on! If I find that hard to believe, it’s kinda hard to believe in an old man that lives in the sky.”

Jennifer smiled. Ed chuckled. Even Susan and Wade grinned at Keoni’s matter-of-fact answer. “What else do you know about their beliefs?” Susan asked him.

Keoni shrugged. “That’s it, really. Just that they believed they were guardians to this island because they were protecting their god. They defended this island fiercely because of this belief. Drove off every invading war party from neighboring islands with a ruthlessness never seen, especially among my people. I have to be honest, I am surprised that they succeeded in keeping European settlers from colonizing this island.”

“They didn’t keep them away entirely,” Ed said.

“No, not entirely,” Keoni agreed. “But you’ll notice that this island is the least populated, not only among the natives, but among Europeans and other people. Much of that has to do with their ability to keep people away. In the old days they thwarted invasion through violence. Today, they use the power of persuasion.”

Jennifer chuckled. “You can say that again. First thing one of them told me was that if we didn’t leave right away we’d catch some awful disease and die, or the water was undrinkable or something.”

The others nodded. They’d all been told various stories about why the island was uninhabitable, everything from the more superstitious natives spiritual beliefs in their god, to one of the tribal elders explaining that the islands natural resources were actually poisonous to non-native people. He’d backed this up with a story that past research teams had either died on the island from poisonous snake and spider bites, to being carried away by a subset of the Naranuan tribe that was comprised of cannibals. The extreme weather on the island was unbearable, too. It was tropical, with the temperature never dipping below eighty degrees Fahrenheit even in the winter. The humidity was stifling. The storms that blew in from Southeast Asia were brutal. Typhoons were common and often flooded the island. Why would white people want to colonize Naranu?

“Well, the conditions here are trying, but the place is livable,” Ed said. He was looking at his surroundings, collecting his bearings. “I have to wonder, though, why they didn’t rise to defend the island when the Dark Ones arrived tonight?”

“Were they even aware of the Dark Ones presence here?” Wade asked. “And if so, have they fought the Dark Ones before?”

“Maybe,” Jennifer said. “Or perhaps they’ve coexisted with them all these years and have used this knowledge to keep other people away.”

Wade grinned. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It would explain those carvings on the western face of Mount Rigiri,” Susan murmured.

Mount Rigiri was the small mountain in the center of the island that had, thus far, lain unexplored to modern science until recently when a small team of scientists somehow managed to sneak on to the island and trek inland on an expedition. They’d alerted Susan’s team on the nearby island of Pohnpei of the findings. Susan had, in turn, called Ed in Hawaii. It was those phone calls that had opened the gates to the scientific community.

“Those carvings do bear an uncanny resemblance to the Dark Ones, don’t they?” Wade agreed.

Jennifer had only seen the photos, taken by the team who had made the initial discovery. She had yet to venture into the lush jungle to see for herself. She’d spent much of her time along the island’s south shore gathering specimens and venturing a little bit inland to explore a small lake where she’d discovered several new amphibian species. The animal and plant life on Naranu was simply amazing. Some of it was highly toxic—one of the natives had warned them of a giant orb-weaving spider that grew to the size of a dinner plate and possessed venom strong enough to kill a man within seconds—but thus far they had yet to run into anything truly dangerous. As professionals, they had all been extremely cautious. Jennifer had handled her specimens with gloves and had been careful to not allow skin contact with any of them, especially the frog specimen she’d found, which had resembled a poison arrow dart frog.