Water splashed in Jessica’s face. With a jerk, she lifted her head off her knees.
And stared into a landscape cloaked in darkness. A small, red-tinged moon hung almost directly overhead, casting eerie golden light over the water. Beds of reeds showed up like patches of black.
Moonlight hit the beach barely a hundred metres ahead. Behind it, the cliff towered into the night sky, a wall of sheer rock turned dark brown in the reddish light. Bushes clung to the cliff face like bits of black cotton wool. To the right, a white cloud hung over a copse of trees, moving and billowing like a ghost. Thumps and hisses coming from that direction suggested there was a geyser behind the trees. Behind the boat, the marshland vanished in the darkness. Pinpricks of light shone on the island, now even furt
