Mangoes and Quince by Carol Field

Author:Carol Field
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781596917828
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Dear Maarten,

Oleena and I are the only survivors. The natives who remained were disoriented and bereft. They clung tightly to each other but soon they seemed like the limbs of a body whose heart had stopped beating. Once they saw their leader

drowned, they fled as quickly as they could find boats to carry them away.

And that leaves Oleena. The only way I can think to help her is to take her away from this island and stay with her until she is strong enough to return to life. For now she is neither wife nor widow, parent or child. She is a discard, a toy the world has tossed upon the seas to see if it can float. Her past is gone, her future dark and formless. How will she make a place within herself to rest and repair the damage?

Oleena has told me some of her story. She was born to a disgraced mother who was sent off to relatives in a distant town on the tip of the island of Sumatra to await her birth. When Oleena was born, she was given a second name that translates roughly to Fallen Moon. Oleena Fallen Moon, daughter of an unknown European who ran away and a woman who gave away her future by giving in to him.

It was the girl's fate to be deeply and mysteriously in touch with forces of darkness. By the time she was eight, whole colonies of butterflies collected around her face, a moving mask of fluttering yellow wings with a circle of black at each tip. People came to her with their dreams, and she saw meaning in them, could speak about the future.

Once she warned that a nearby town would be buried in lava from a quiescent volcano and those who trusted her vision were spared. Her reputation grew. She became known as the girl who saw into darkness and could cast it away with imprecations and wild movements. The village elders called her to become a priestess in temple ceremonies. People arrived to hear her sing in rich deep notes. She called evil spirits to her, gave them a home inside her so she could know and cast them out. More and more villagers entrusted her with their secrets.

And then one day a man came by sea. He too saw darkness and he too was fascinated by exorcism. But he needed to plunge into darkness, to dip hand and foot and heart and tongue into roiling seas and use the darkness as his way to transcendence. He slid into her spirit and hijacked it for his own, slid into her body and brought it to a pitch she had never known. She meant to cast out darkness but Anton - yes, it was he - invited it in.

She could neither resist nor tame him. She became his familiar, the wife of his spirit. In doing so, she left her mother and her home, and she gradually lost her gift for prophecy as she gave herself up to him.

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