*Isla*
“Well, who was it from?”
Poppy’s voice is too chipper for me. I’ve only just woken up from a long nap, and blinking a few times, I try to get my bearings, wondering what the hell she is talking about. Where is Maddox? I glance at the clock and see it’s almost 6:00. He’s usually done working by now.
“Isla?” Poppy is fluffing the pillows on the bed next to my head. Why is she in here? Did she wake me up? “You can’t sleep all day! I know you’re growing a human, but that requires food, too. You didn’t eat any lunch before you went to sleep. So why don’t you eat the snack I had the cook prepare while you tell me about the letter? I heard that King Maddox has had Seth in his office for a few hours, so who knows when he’ll be done.”
I sit up, feeling groggy. Whenever I don’t wake up naturally from a nap, I am always a grump. My stomach is rumbling, though, and when I glance over at the table, I see that Poppy has brought some of my favorites, including toast with cheese and sliced green apples.
Still rubbing my eyes, I wander to the bathroom, yawning, and then come back to the table. She’s straightened the bed; it looks like I never even laid down.
The toast is delicious, still warm. I eat a piece and a half while Poppy putters around. “Well?” she asks when I pause to take a drink of water. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“What question?” I honestly have no idea what she’s talking about.
“The letter,” she says again. I vaguely remember a similar question from earlier, now that she mentions it again. “Who was it from?”
“What letter? I don’t know what she’s talking about.”
Poppy sighs and looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “The letter I brought you when you got back from the doctor. The one that looked like it was a hundred years old.”
“Oh. Right.” Now, I am with her. She’d handed me that strange letter right before I went to sleep, and now it’s completely slipped my mind. It really didn’t seem important, only like a hassle of some sort, and I am not in the mood to open another can of worms. I can’t imagine anyone in the world who would need to contact me that I’d want to talk to anyway.
I shrug. “I didn’t open it.”
My maid’s eyes bulge slightly as her mouth drops open. “You didn’t even open it? Why not? Don’t you want to know what it is? Who it’s from?”
A wave of anxiety washes over me. Something about that letter seems ominous to me, and I can’t say exactly why that is. I don’t want to open it. I don’t even want to acknowledge its existence, though I can’t say exactly why.
“I don’t know, Poppy.” I take another bite of my food, but she’s making me lose my appetite, something that has been difficult this far into my pregnancy. “I just don’t want to think about it right now.”
Like most things, once Poppy has latched onto it, she won’t let it go. “Where is it?” she asks me, looking around the room. I wonder if part of her straightening up involved her actually looking for the letter.
I should probably just go ahead and open the damn thing in order to get her to let it go, but I’m almost as determined in my avoidance as she is in her insistence that it be opened. “In my nightstand drawer.” I glare at her for a second, daring her to walk over there and take it out of the drawer.
She holds my gaze for a long moment. When she turns, it’s to go dust my dresser. I almost laugh at her. She’s really trying to push my buttons now.
Without another word, I finish my snack and then go into the bathroom to freshen up a bit. I know it is killing Poppy not to get that letter out and read it, but I don’t think that she’ll do it.
When I return to the bedroom, she is reorganizing the books on the bookshelf, moving them around angrily.
“You are impossible,” I mutter to her as I cross the room to my bed.
“What?” she demands. “What did I do?”
I don’t even answer her because there’s no point in it. I’m going to have to read this letter, or she’s going to drive me insane. I’m not sure which is worse; reading a letter that might have a message in it that I don’t want to know about or having her hound me to death.
I take a seat on the edge of my bed and pull the letter out.
Studying it, a few things stand out to me again that I hadn’t noticed earlier. The postage stamp is strange. The text is in a different language. Also, there’s an odd ink stamp on it. I can’t read it. “Does that say Rudak?”
Why am I surprised that Poppy is right by my shoulder?
I turn the envelope a few times, trying to read it, but it’s faded. “I don’t know. What’s Rudak?”
“You really should look at a map sometime, girl. It’s an island near Maatua.”
My stomach twists up into a knot. “How do you know that? And don’t tell me you’ve been looking at a map.”
She snarls at me but then goes back to her normal expression. “No, that’s not how II know that, but I heard one of the delivery men talking about how he’d gotten some fruit from Rudak, and someone asked where that was. He says it’s one of the islands in the Sea of Moritzka, which is where Maatua is, right? So I looked it up, and it is.”
“So why would someone send me a letter from Rudak?” I look closely at the date on the letter. It was mailed to me over a year ago. The postage must be slow from the distant islands. It kind of looks to me like this letter has gotten lost in the mail and only just found its way to the post office in Willow pack. It’s a wonder they forwarded it here, rather than delivering it to my parents who probably would’ve opened it themselves or thrown it away.
“I guess we can open it and see,” Poppy prompts.
Again, I make a face at her, but I know she’s right. If I want to know who it’s from, I’m going to have to open the letter.
Carefully, I pull the top of the letter open, trying not to ruin the envelope at all in case we need to examine it later.
A piece of yellowed paper comes out. It’s folded so that I can’t see any of the writing until I unfold it. Neat, formal, cursive handwriting fills the page. The paper itself is smudged and dirty, and the corner is ripped off. It’s as if whoever wrote it had trouble finding a piece of paper.
My eyes trace down the paragraphs to the bottom. I’m not shocked when I see the signature.
With a sigh, I go back to the top and begin to read.
Dear Isla,
I hope that this letter finds you, and when it does, I hope it finds you well. You and your family have been off the letter for a number of years now, and if I know your parents, which I do, they probably haven’t told you much about Maatua, the place of your birth.
If you’ve heard anything at all about this place, you will know that it is cursed. Some say that I am the one who placed the curse. Others will tell you it is a witch who lives in the forest, one my husband, your uncle, paid to do so.
The truth is that neither of those things happened. I didn’t curse this land. Despite hating Antonio and wishing I’d never been brought here, Maatua was my home for many years. It is a special place, full of magic and wonder. Like the pool that brought us both back to life.
Do you remember? I’m guessing you do not.
Isla, your powers are greater than anyone will ever tell you. I need your help. You must return to Maatua and help me break the curse that has been plaguing this country all of these years. Only then will the great treasure of Maatua be released for the people to use to start over and prosper.
The treasure is hidden behind the waterfall, an enchantment binding it there. Together, the two of us can break the spell.
If you should run into Antony, you must know that he has been against me for all of these years, blaming me for the curse. It is his father’s doing. Do not listen to him. He can guide you back here, but please know, I mean you no harm. You were always a sweet girl, my darling Princess Tropicana. I hope to see you again soon.
Love,
Aunt Mary
I read the letter over twice, dumbfounded.
So many variations of the truth dance around in my mind. Who cursed the island? Was it the witch like Maddox told me or Aunt Mary, like Antonio seems to believe? Or was it someone else?
What is this treasure she’s speaking of? Maddox mentioned treasure seekers going there, but I just assumed he meant those looking for the royal coffers, not an actual treasure.
Would it be possible for me to go to the island and help Aunt Mary unlock the treasure so that Maatua can become a flourishing island once again? I had wanted to return just to lift the curse, but now there’s a promise of a better life for all involved.
“Well?” Poppy’s voice interrupts my thoughts. Obviously, she has read the letter, too. “That cousin of yours sure is a lying jackass.”
Of all of the things for her to say….
“I’m not sure who to believe,” I tell her. I fold the letter up and put it back in the envelope and then place it in my drawer. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t go anywhere. Not right now. It wouldn’t be safe for the baby.”
“Right.” Poppy sounds disappointed.
“Do you think I should go?” I ask her.
“I don’t know. It’s just… you seemed to want to go before.”
“But I was worried about the baby then, and now Mystica says he’ll be safe. I’ve waited this long. Why wouldn’t I wait a bit longer?” I argue.
“You’re not going to want to go once the baby is born. Then, you won’t want to go when he’s older because you’ll miss him. He won’t be able to go because of school. There will always be a reason not to go, if you let there be.” She shrugs, and I know that she’s right.
But now is not a good time to go, so I can’t risk it. I’ve made up my mind. End of discussion.
It’s a good place to end it, too, because just then my door opens, and Maddox walks in.
He is not going to find out about this letter.