The Survivor (Eve Duncan #30)

“Maya,” Eve repeated. “That seems a good place to begin. Who is Maya and why are you under obligation?”

“Wait a minute.” Riley jumped to her feet, ran to the guest room Eve had given her, pulled out her computer, and brought it back out to the porch. “I came prepared. I remember how detail-oriented you are. Her name is Maya Fallon.” She brought up the document. “She’s twenty-eight years old, speaks fifteen languages, has medical and agricultural training, and is probably the sharpest and best-informed woman I’ve ever met except you. She’s also wonderfully charismatic if she makes the effort and can charm the birds from the trees. That’s how she’s managed to keep the Chinese and Indian diplomatic wolves from attacking since she inherited Palandan Island from Jann Lu when she was only sixteen.”

Eve was studying the photos of the tall, graceful-looking woman wearing boots, jeans, and a loose white shirt. She had brown eyes and a thick, single tawny braid that fell down her back; she was smiling gently at a young, sarong-clad woman. “I can see the charisma,” she said absently. “Very warm.” She looked up at Riley. “Back up. I’m already a little lost. Island? Jann Lu?”

Riley pointed to a sketch of a large island. “Palandan Island. Southeast Asia. It’s enormous and supports several different villages. It’s absolutely beautiful with several fruit groves and wonderful flowers and abundant wildlife. It rather reminded me of what Eden must have looked like.”

“Wait,” Eve said, staring at a map. “This is in the middle of the Himalayas?”

“Yes, believe it or not. It’s in the center of a large lake, nestled in the middle of a treacherous cluster of mountains. It’s difficult to reach, which is what has kept it protected from invaders for centuries. Its altitude and topography create several weather systems, all within a hundred miles or so. To approach the heart of the island, you move through forty miles of blizzard conditions. Then you reach a temperate zone, where most of the residents live. There you’ll actually find jungles.”

Eve shook her head. “Amazing.”

“There’s no place quite like it. It also connects with a mountain range that extends a good distance into the Himalayas. Maya is in control of both the island and mountain range. Jann Lu was the woman who was in charge of the island before Maya. She ran everything for over sixty-two years before she had a fall in the mountains. It wasn’t easy for a teenager like Maya to take over, but Jann Lu had prepared her and in no time the villagers looked upon her as leader.”

“She was a relative of this Jann Lu?” Eve asked.

Riley shook her head. “Jann Lu was only about four feet tall and was of Eurasian descent. You see what Maya looks like. I guess she appears more Nordic than anything else.”

“You didn’t ask Maya any questions about that?”

“Not about her heritage. That was discouraged. The people who live on Palandan Island are pretty much multiracial. They’ve welcomed immigrants over the centuries from practically every country in Asia and Europe.” She hesitated. “Though while I was there, I sometimes heard the villagers refer to Maya as the chosen one.”

“Weird.”

“Yeah, I thought so. For heaven’s sake, it’s not as if she’s the Dalai Lama. But in those Himalayan Mountains, anything can seem spiritual. They’re that close to heaven. But then there were all kinds of stories floating around among the villagers on the island and mountains. My father and I just accepted it. When you’ve spent your life chasing down a fairy tale like Helen of Troy, you get used to giving every story a grain of salt, but you never totally discount them.”

“Because they were all part of the dream?” Eve asked.

Riley nodded. “But not my particular dream. We came to Palandan Island because we’d heard some of the stories and thought why not? We’d already been traveling all over the world trying to locate Helen’s tomb. But we thought it was a little far-fetched for the cultures of Tibet, India, and China to have any connection to Helen of Troy. It turned out we were right. When we got there, we found that Helen wasn’t mentioned, and the legends were about an entirely different woman of power. So we thought we’d spend a week or so and then take off north to Azerbaijan. My father was annoyed and impatient and spent most of the time planning for that next journey.” She smiled. “Though I got a bit distracted.”

“That’s hard to believe considering how single-minded you are.”

“It was because I was suddenly dealing with a completely different subject than Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen had beauty and her own strengths, but she was nothing like Silvana. No comparison.”

“Silvana?”

“Most of the stories on the island were about Silvana Marcella, the purchaser and founder of Palandan Island. She lived during the height of the Roman Empire, and the more I heard about her, the more interested I became. Since I had nothing to do at the time, I started collecting the legends about Silvana. It amused Maya, and she even told me a few herself. I tried to interest my father, but by that time he’d become totally obsessed with Helen and was impatient with any other subject.” She smiled. “I understood. I only wish he could have seen your sculpture of her before he was killed. He always wanted it to be you who did the forensic work when we finally found Helen. That’s why I hunted you down and begged you to come with me when I knew I was close.”

“And wouldn’t let me say no,” Eve said dryly. “That’s why I can’t see you lolling on that island when you could have left and started north right away.”

“We needed to gather supplies,” Riley said defensively. “It was going to be a long trip to Azerbaijan.”

“And?” Eve probed.

“Palandan was fascinating.” Riley added, “And so was Maya Fallon. I’d never met anyone like her. She was treated almost like a queen by those islanders, and yet sometimes she seemed younger than me. I… liked her. I wanted to try to understand her.”

“And perhaps you were two young women who’d both had hard lives and yet were different enough that you were curious and wanted to explore each other.”

“It could be. And, as I said, the legends also intrigued me.” She grimaced as she took a sip of her wine. “Though it turned out that I almost waited too long to leave the island. I thought we were safe. The villagers all seemed friendly, and Maya couldn’t have been warmer… after she had our documents thoroughly checked and verified.”

“You weren’t safe?” Eve frowned. “This must be where the obligation comes in, right after the fact that this Maya might not have let you on the island if you didn’t have her version of a visa.”

“It wasn’t like that. It’s a wonderful place. They were kind to us. Since we were going to be on Palandan for such a short time, there was no reason why Maya would believe there was a threat to us.”

“But there was?”

“Maya had been having a problem for months with a scumbag, Aden Nadim, who had been poaching and raiding the natives living and working in the mountains. He must have thought our camp on the island was a richer target and decided to change his tactics and attack us. But Maya got word about it and sent some of her men to intercept them. She managed to get us off the island and on our way to Katmandu with enough supplies to get us to Azerbaijan. I didn’t find out until later from the Tibetan government that Maya had been with the men she’d sent after Nadim and been wounded. I felt terrible about it. I called her right away and told her that I knew I owed her and asked if there was anything I could do to repay her. She only laughed it off and said we’d been her responsibility since she’d permitted us on the island. She told me she hoped I’d have good luck at finding Helen, and if she changed her mind, she’d let me know.” She shrugged. “I hadn’t heard anything from her since that day. That was five years ago.”