The Legend of Gazibe of Lyndas

A short story by Arjan Tupan

This short story is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). This basically means you can copy it and share it for free with friends, relatives and acquaintances as much as you like. But, you are not allowed to use it in any way to make money, unless you have written approval of the author.

The Legend of Gazibe of Lyndas

Somewhere in the Aegean Sea, hidden from plain sight in a naturally formed bay, lies the fisherman’s village of Lyndas. Because of it’s remoteness and natural protection, Lyndas was not much ruled by others through history. It never became an important port, but also never came under rule of foreign powers. The people of Lyndas liked it that way. Even their boats, with which they always caught enough fish to feed the villagers, never sailed with marks from their origin. So that if they were seen at sea, others would think they were from neighboring villages or countries. Because of the wars of others, sometimes they would lose a ship, but that was the price the Lyndasians were prepared to pay for their peace and anonymity.

Lyndas was governed by a council of wise men and women, presided over by one chosen from their midst. This time it was the matriarch of the village. Her father had presided over the council many years before her, and her grandmother years before that. The matriarch had four daughters, the youngest of which was Gazibe.

Gazibe was a very special child. From the moment she was born, it was obvious she could charm anybody. Her beautiful smile, her kind heart, her caramel light brown loving eyes, her voice of an angel; she could make the saddest man smile, the angriest man calm, and when she

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sang the fishermen of Lyndas would return home safe from the farthest places the wind and currents would take their ships. Gazibe gave love to the Lyndasians, and they loved her more than anything else. Thus, she became known as The Loved One.

Sometimes strangers would come to Lyndas, under the spell of her singing. For the sequestered people of Lyndas this posed a problem. The strangers that did not choose to stay voluntarily, would be captured, or killed. Never to be heard of again by their relatives in far away places. There were times that the strangers brought with them strange valuables like gold coins, jewelry and spices from far beyond the rocky islands in the Aegean Sea. These goods were donated to the community: jewelry for the women to wear on special celebrations; gold coins for the fishing fleet, because they came in contact with people who actually knew the value of them; and spices and other food for the inn-owners. But apart from this small benefit, both for the villagers as a community, as for Gazibe the Loved One, the necessary killings were an enormous burden. The community risked being discovered by search parties form trading city-states or relatives of wealthy explorers when they went missing. And as for Gazibe, her golden heart couldn’t bear having someone hurt because of her silk voice.

One day, a fishing boat that had sailed in the morning, came rushing back into the port before it was noon. They had

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seen a large fleet of war ships sailing under the same flag as a ship that had come in some months earlier and of which the captain and crew had wanted to leave. They now lay buried in the hills around the closest city state many miles to the east, brought there at the cover of night in their own ship that was stripped of any marks of origin and sank even further away. The large war ship fleet was on a search for them now, and had burnt and pillaged several coastal towns already. Within an hour two of the other three ships that had sailed west this morning were safely back in the harbor as well. The last one had sailed on eastward, to a special uninhabited islet. The people of Lyndas had a special signal for oncoming troubles. For the part of the fishing fleet that had sailed east, this signal meant to stay out, evade troubles if possible, and hope for the best. Coming back into the harbor would give its location away. Some ships would be able to find an escape route, but some, especially those that did not see the signal in time because they had gone too far out, would find themselves in trouble. This had happened before, but fortunately not too often. This time, the Lyndasians were lucky, all could evade the war fleet and the village stayed undiscovered. Some other towns and villages had a more unfortunate brush with faith those days.

After this, it was clear to the nice people of Lyndas that something had to be done about Gazibe. The risk of being discovered was getting too big, so the council had to take a decision. Marrying her off to a nobleman from another

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place was not an option. Although many of the strangers that were attracted by her singing and chose to stay in Lyndas knew of options, and were sure that many a powerful man would be happy to make Gazibe his wife, nobody thought it wise or desirable to see her leave Lyndas for good. Any other form of banning her would break too many hearts; such a thing was simply out of the question. They had tried many times to make her stop singing, but she loved it too much, as did everybody else. It would be hard on the Lyndasians to never hear that angelic voice again. The council deliberations went on for days, then weeks. Now and then interrupted by the fear and ecstasy instilled by a short burst of singing.

Then, one day, a fishing ship came back into the port after being out at sea for several days. It did not bring in fish, this time, because the mission was something else. The crew had found a small, uninhabited island, outside of the main sailing routes and not controlled by any known power in the region. On the island, there was a cave, that led to an underground hall and could be easily closed of with boulders. The island was less than half a day away by boat, and almost as unnoticeable as Lyndas itself. The crew of the ship had tested the cave, and hardly any sound came out. The council came up with a wise plan. Once a week, a ship would sail to what quickly became known as the Island of Song. Gazibe would be on board, as would a group of selected Lyndasians. She would sing in the underground

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hall for an hour, after which the group would return to Lyndas. Every time, a different group would go, so that every Lyndasian could enjoy the singing of Gazibe The Loved One. By staying on the island for only an hour, the risk of being discovered if an angelic tone would escape the cave was minimized. If a ship would come to look for where the heavenly sounds were coming from, the Lyndasians would have been gone from the island already, and because the singing would stop after an hour, they wouldn’t be able to pinpoint its location anyway.

Gazibe The Loved One, and all of the Lyndasians were very happy with this solution. As long as she lived, and that was an extraordinary long time, she would perform for a changing group of Lyndasians once a week. Gazibe was happy, and loved, and she made sure all the people of Lyndas felt so as well. When she finally drew her last breath, her spirit lived on in the dog packs of Lyndas and surroundings.

Even now, many centuries later, when you sail the Aegean Sea, and happen to pass the Island of Song at exactly the right moment, you can hear the sweet tones of Gazibes voice. Or if you happen to look into two caramel light brown eyes of a dog that asks for a little bit of love, and gives a lot in return, you know you’ve met the spirit of The Loved One.

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