Under Azure Skies

Chapter 1 It was 1818. Somewhere in the South Pacific. Lucien sat with his back against a palm tree that curved over until the tips of its fronds almost kissed the topaz sea. The sun, burning white hot in a vast sky of bright blue, couldn’t find him beneath the corrugated trunk of the palm. It was a small mercy, but one for which he was no less grateful. The sun’s rays, made stronger and deadlier by the surrounding ocean, had turned his pale English skin to a darker hue, and had, at the same time, bleached his long, dark brown locks many shades lighter. Yet while these changes brought about by the sun were neither welcomed nor cursed, the stinging blisters that dotted his swollen lips caused nothing but misery. Accompanying them, although not so irritating, was the line of peeling skin that decorated the ridge of his nose. It had therefore become his custom to spend the middle of the day hiding, like a vampire, from the worst of the sun’s fury. “I don’t know,” he said, his eyes closed and his tone lethargic. Edgar, the man sprawled on his back beside him, stirred lazily. “What don’t you know?” Lucien’s head lolled from one shoulder to the other. “Why aren’t your lips afflicted as mine are? How is it the sun seems to bless you and torment me?” Edgar didn’t answer and Lucien was left to ponder the possibilities alone, eventually falling asleep to the rhythmic and calming sound of the waves gently lapping at the shore.