Leave-Taking

Gaia knew it was the best thing for her, knew this was the only way she was ever going to leave. She knew it was for the best, but she couldn't help the fear that curled in her belly. She didn't want to do this all the time. She didn't think it could possibly end well. But where would she be if she didn't try something. She knew this could be her chance. Her chance to leave the island, see the world her father had hidden from her.

Her father had done it out of love. She knew it. It didn't make it any easier, though, knowing he had kept her trapped here for seventeen years. She had tried to run away three years ago, but she hadn't gotten far. Her father had sent Maude after her.

She'd made it to the ocean and been forced to turn around. For days after that, she had been angry with everyone at the manor. She hadn't spoken a word to her father for a week. She'd sent him messages through Maude, even though Maude had tried to get her to talk to him everyday. She'd always shaken her head and climbed into her favourite tree.

Gaia knew she was running away from the problem, that she should've talked to her father sooner, but she hadn't been ready. Her father had always limited her freedom and she wasn't going to let him take the little bit of control she still had away. She didn't want him to know the next step of her escape plan. She knew he would try to stop her.

She closed her eyes and let the sun soak into her skin. This was what she was going to miss. The sun beaming down, the beach, the water, the palm trees. But she needed to get out of here. She needed to be somewhere where she could make her own choices for her future. She didn't want the future her father was picking for her - had picked for her before she was born. The few hints about her mother she had told her this was why her mother had left. Her father hadn't given her any choice but to leave Gaia behind. Gaia knew her mother had tried to contact her over the years, but her father had always stopped the notes before she received them. It was why taking them had been the first successful part of her plan.

She had read the notes her mother had written several times. She was alive and living in Colmarci. She didn't know where Colmarci was or how to get there, but she had the name of a city, the name of a street, an apartment number and her mother's name. She was determined to take her opportunity and escape.

She lay back in the sand and felt the burn against her spine. She knew Maude was going to scold her for lying in the sand, but she didn't care. Soon she would be leaving Maude and her father in their closed-off world.

She closed her eyes and soaked up the sun and the feel of the hot sand at her back. She would miss this, but she was feeling more trapped than ever and if she was going to survive she was going to have to leave.

***

Dinner was the same as it was every night. Food Maude had foraged the island for and the fish Gaia had seen being killed at the water's edge that morning. She ate slowly, carefully, wanting to soak up the taste of fresh fish. Maybe there were things besides the view about this place she would miss, but she could feel herself going mad as the days and years passed, and she didn't think she was going to be able to stay for much longer. Sitting at the table where she'd eaten every meal of her life up until this point, she gritted her teeth, smiled, and replied to her father's questions.

He can't suspect anything, she thought. He can't know until I've left the island.

She knew it was more complicated than that. She would need a boat and someone to help her bows, but she caught the eye of Maude's son, Ciro, as he came in with a second platter of fish and she smiled. He ducked his head and placed the platter of fish before her father.

"He will work," she muttered.

Her father didn't even turn his head to look at her. He was busy slicing the fish.

She ate little that night. It wasn't because she wasn't hungry, she was distracted by her plans, trying to figure out precisely the right moment of the night to sneak out. Her bag was packed upstairs, and she was constantly planning in her head.

Her father left the table early that night. Something about some papers that needed sorting. She wasn't sure what papers could need sorting if her father hadn't left the island for at least twenty-five years, but him leaving gave her the chance to talk to Ciro. She stood and walked over to where Ciro was putting empty dishes on a tray. She put a hand on his and he looked up at her startled.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I only wanted to talk to you."

"Did you need something? I can get my mother."

"It was actually you I wanted to talk to." She looked around. "Would you mind coming to the terrace with me?"

Ciro shook his head and she led the way onto the terrace. She closed the doors. They were hardly ever closed, but she needed to make sure no one overheard her. If anyone other than Maude knew, they were going to tell her father and that was something she couldn't risk. Gaia wasn't even sure if she could trust Maude in this situation.

"I'm planning something," she said, "and I'm going to need your help."

***

Ciro was a help. He was constantly whispering little bits of her father's schedule to her in the corridors. She didn't how he was finding them, but he was and she was grateful he was finding a way to be so sneaky. She was prepared now. They each had a bag, there was a boat by the pier and there were oars hidden under her bed amongst the bow and arrows her father had taught her to use as a child. They were the last things she was going to pack. She wanted to minimize the potential for damage.

Gaia and Ciro made sure never to spend more than a couple minutes in each other's company, disguising their plans as requests she was making of the kitchen. She knew her father and Maude would try to stop them, would try and stop Ciro from going with her, stop her from going all together. They may have been master and servant, but they thought staying on the island was the best thing for her. She was tired of constantly feeling trapped. She had spent so long here that she knew every inch of the island. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be somewhere with excitement, where there were new places to explore and she wasn't being contained by anyone.

***

It was two days later and the middle of the night when Ciro knocked on her door. She called for him to come in.

"It's time," he whispered. "If you're serious about getting out, you're going to need to do it tonight."

"Why the rush?"

She was ready, of course she was, but there was an urgency in Ciro's voice that worried her.

""I think my mother and your father are planning something," Ciro replied. "I don't know what. I thought I was going to get caught so I left, but from the way they're whispering no one else knows what they're planning."

"They're planning something to keep me trapped here forever," said Gaia, pacing, "probably some sort of complex marriage arrangement."

"Then I think it's time I helped you find your mother."

"Are you sure you want this? You're not going to be able to turn back either."

Ciro shrugged. "I haven't been dreaming the way you have, but that doesn't mean I want to stay here forever either. I knew the whole island within a week."

She smiled. This was why she and Ciro had become friends in the first place. They had the same dreams even if they rarely talked about them.

"I'll meet you in the corridor."

Ciro nodded and she turned, throwing her sleeping clothes in a corner and digging out the baggy shirt and leggings she had hidden at the back of her closet. She changed and packed her bow and arrows into the bag. She felt shreds of embarrassment for stealing more arrows from her favourite of her father's guards, but she shook her head. She could contact him when she reached her mother. She could only hope Colmarci was far enough away from the island and the guard would hide her postmarked letter so her father would never guess where she was.

She met Ciro in the corridor. He was holding a torch. She closed the door behind her and blew out the torch that lit her door. They crept through the quiet palazzo. They didn't cross the courtyard that lay between her suite of chambers and the side entrance. They stuck to the shadows near the walls, not wanting the moon to give away their location.

They walked out the side entrance and along the beach until they reached the dock where Ciro had left the boat he had stolen from the guardhouse. It was camouflaged was leaves and branches.

"Sorry," he mouthed, but she only shrugged and helped Ciro clear enough of the debris that they could sit in the seats.

She paused as she reached for her oar. She looked up at the manor. The thin fabric floated in the nighttime air. The sky was clear. The stars she had seen her entire life glinted. She thought she had found the windows of her chambers, but she couldn't be sure. She would miss the near constant summer they enjoyed here, but ice and wind and snow would be worth it if this breakaway were successful.

"We need to leave now," said Ciro.

She nodded and grabbed her oar.

Together they rowed into the night with only the vaguest idea of where Colmarci lay.