“So how have things been?” I asked, and Kalei and Ho‘ohuli exchanged nervous looks. I had been a little suspicious of them wanting to keep me hidden, especially when I first arrived at Kalei’s house for the potion. She looked like she had seen a ghost.
And, now, her face paled.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
Ho‘ohuli leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was an older man, with graying hair and wrinkles on the corners of his eyes. I trusted him with my life, as my father had done.
“Why didn’t you send for my father?” I asked Kalei. When she said she’d go to the palace, I thought she’d noise abroad that I was back. But it seemed all of this had been done in secret. And the fact that she’d closed the windows and the curtains meant… something was off.
Ho‘ohuli nodded to her. “He should hear it from you.”
“Keoki.” She began wringing her hands. “You’ve been gone for almost a year.”
“Months,” I said, hoping to correct her. She shook her head.
“But… I just turned into a frog a few days ago… I couldn’t have been gone that long…” The world started spinning.
“Your father… Uncle Kimo…” Kalei pursed her lips and looked down, water pooling in her eyes again.
Oh no.I could sense what she said before the words left her lips.
“He looked everywhere for you. The princess said that you just disappeared in the garden, and everyone in the kingdom has been terrified that there’s magic here… something we’re not used to, something that’s foreign to us…”
“But where’s my father?”
“He searched the entire island for you, and when he couldn’t find you, he left to get help from other kingdoms. And on his way back…”
Aulani sat forward, her eyes wide.
A tear fell down Kalei’s cheek. “The ship encountered a storm and your father didn’t survive.”
My father… lost. Gone. All air was sucked out of me. I stood and Aulani stood too.
“I didn’t want to tell you until I knew you were safe. But you need to know. Keoki, Uncle Kimo, your father is gone. Princess Cressida has taken over. She says no one can leave the kingdom. No one goes to the sea. Not anymore.”
Ho‘ohuli nodded. “It’s been a dictatorship.”
I stared at my hands, too stunned to speak, my fingers curling into fists.
Ezra…Aulani’s voice was gentle.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Kalei said. “But the palace is sealed like a fortress. People are scared. Some of the nobles have sided with her. Others are vanishing.”
Aulani’s breath caught and she put her hands over her mouth, shocked.
“I should’ve been there,” I said, rage building within me. “I should’ve been there. None of this would’ve happened–my father, Cressida–if I had justbeen there.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ho‘ohuli said. “Someone cursed you and–”
Cressida cursed you,Aulani cut in though the others couldn’t hear her.
“We can’t assume it was her,” I said aloud and Ho‘ohuli agreed, though he hadn’t heard Aulani’s thought. He knew what she assumed.
“It could have been anyone hidden in the garden that day.”
“How long ago did my father die?” I asked.
“A month or two after you disappeared,” Kalei answered. “The whole kingdom mourned for days, Keoki… both for you and for your father. It’s like a cloud has hung over Kaiora since you’ve both been gone. And with Lady Cressida on the throne, we’re all terrified. She’s brought in her own armies and powers, and nobody can get to the sea. Nobody can get out, while foreigners can come in.”
