They ignored my brash tone, gazing at the stone in awe. Refracted sunshine glowed blue across their faces.
“Tonight,” I repeated, my clam buckets thudding at the bottom of myva’a. I climbed in, throwing them a final glance, worried that they still hadn't acknowledged me.
“Tonight.”
7
The island woke to find the missing sailor the following morning.
Flesh white and bloated, he’d been spotted by the fishing boats on the eastern coastline, as far as he could have been from my house, the iron keys to the cargo hold still secure in his pocket.
I walked down to myva’a, deciding to paddle out to Neris Island early to thank the Naiads, but my footsteps slowed as I meandered through the grass, finding Kimo and his little sister plucking a chicken at the water’s edge. Annoyance danced under my skin.
Kimo’s family owned their own corner of the beach. He could pluck his chickens there, but feathers were a nuisance that no one enjoyed littering their shore, so whenever an islander killed a chicken, its plume ended up here.
“Don’t throw its head in the water,” I heard him chide the girl as I pushed myva’ainto the waves. “Juile sharks can smell chicken blood all the way from the Luaahi reef.” His eyes carved into my back, and even facing away from him, I knew he watched me warily.
Tall, slender, with glossy black hair, Kimo was a handsome islander. He’d caught the eye of my cousin Nola in the wet season, and a romance had sparked between them, though that had done nothing to help raise his low opinions of me.
I climbed in and set off without a word to either of them.
The Naiads weren’t on the beach when I arrived.
I waited for them as I watched the tide recede over rocks and sand. The palms swayed, long shadows swinging over my arms. Somewhere beyond the surf, a petrel called to its mate, the seabird’s voice high and strident. With a sigh, I filled my buckets with clams then weeded in my herb garden until the sun began to sink away. Uprooting a final vine from my turmeric, I stood, glaring into the horizon.
They weren’t coming.
Loading my buckets into myva’awith a heavy sigh, I cast off just as the first star winked into the pink sky.
Most days, I came and went only around low-tide, too aware of the danger swells posed for an ill-timed journey between islands. My mother had perished under an angry sea, after all. But the outrigger of myva’akept me afloat over the restless surf, and I knew how to turn into a wave. How to ride it as it propelled forward, oars steady under my grip. Flecks of salt spray cooled my neck, and I leaned into the force of the sea, basking in the ache between my shoulders, the burn across my chest as I flexed muscles I rarely had to use.
The surf brought me cleanly into Leihani at dusk, waves breaking as I rounded the corner of my own island. My private beach lay ahead in a small inlet stocked with sea weeds that danced under the surface. Hidden in the natural curve of the island, the reedy shallows sat protected from the crashing tide. Tired and sore, I jumped at the face that suddenly gazed up at me from the water as I neared the shoreline.
Kye stood alone, squatting to his shoulders in the soft waves and scrubbing himself with sand. He spied me and went still, his chin an inch over the surface. Golden-brown eyes darted to the beach and back to me. His burn had faded even more, barely discernible now. He’d come from the fishing boats. I knew because a long, slender fishing knife sat trapped between his white teeth, lips peeled back to avoid the steel blade.
I slowed my oars, gazing at him with surprise. Islanders might dump their waste along my father’s section of beach, but no one chose toswimhere.
“Hello again,” I said slowly, aiming myva’athrough the reeds. My gaze flicked to the pathway through the trees, making sure if anyone poked their head through, I’d remain hidden from their view. I didn’t need anyone catching me speaking alone with the Calderian.
He pulled the knife carefully from his mouth. “Who, me?” he asked somewhat sarcastically, pretending to cast his eyes around for the person I was actually speaking to.
I’d ignored him enough that I probably deserved such a greeting, though my teeth clenched slightly at his mockery. “Why are you here?” I asked as smoothly as I could manage.
Had someone sent him here as a joke? Were they trying to bait me by leaving the innocent foreign man within my grasp? Of all places, why was he scrubbing himself onmypatch of beach?
“I slipped in oil and needed to wash off. Your father had the boat drop me here.”
Oh.
“Well, you should probably hurry and finish so you can leave,” I said, dipping my oars back into the water. “My father means well, but no one would be happy to find you here.”
He tilted his head. “Why not?”
I blinked at him. How long had he been in Leihani? Two weeks? There was no possible way he didn’t already know theanswer to that question. I’d heard Kimo myself, warning him to steer clear of my part of the island.
It’s not safe for sailors here. That’s the witch’s garden.
I’d be shocked if there were a single islander who hadn’t cautioned Kye to stay away from me, except perhaps my father and Naheso.
