Free Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson

don't want to ease death! I don't want to be marked!"
    Leilani looked at Lana in shock. She hadn't told them what Kali had spoken to her about during her passing. Was her daughter marked? Terror gripped her at the thought. It made sense-too much, in fact. She had always felt that something was special about Lana. But in times like these ... being marked could hardly mean Lana would have an easy life. If she was marked, there was no way Leilani could ever protect her.

    She shook her head. She could do nothing about that now. She put her arm around Lana's shoulders and helped her out of the chair.
    "Come on, let's go home."
    Lana overslept the next morning and woke up with a splitting headache. She staggered into the main room, and saw that it was bare except for the pile of neatly packed items in the center of the floor.
    "Your room is all that's left to pack up, Lana," Kapa said.
    She tried to think of some appropriate response to that, but ended up running outside and vomiting. After her mother had settled her stomach with some unidentifiable, but warm, drink and some breakfast, Lana managed to pull herself together enough to help pack her stuff. She took her two special mandagah jewels out of her chest. From now on, she supposed, she would have to keep them close by, for all they terrified her. Until her family settled down again, she had to make sure they were never lost. However much she had lost the morning Kali died, these jewels were the best reminders she would ever have of her old life. Nothing could change how much she loved diving, even if that path was closed to her now. For a moment, as she held the red jewel in her palm, she contemplated drawing back the curtains and showing it to her parents. But her mother had made a decision, and telling her now would only put their plans in question. Maybe one day, in some future she could hardly imagine, it would be possible to tell them. But for now ... she put the jewels into a smaller bag and stuffed that in her pocket.
    An hour later, they had loaded everything onto the barge and were ready to leave the only home she had ever known. It looked empty and soulless without their possessions-there was nothing left to remind her of her childhood, of her life there before her initiation.

    "Are you coming, Lana?" her father asked by the door.
    "Kapa! This may be the last time she'll ever see it again. 11
    Lana turned around and looked between her parents. Her chest ached, but it had ached steadily ever since Kali died, and she knew that there was nothing she could do about any of it.
    "It's all right," she said. "I'm ready. We can go."
    They left the island a little before noon, when the sun was bright enough to reflect off the floodwater in gold sparkles that made them all squint to see. Her father poled the barge slowly-the water had receded, but since they lived so close to the shore, it was still easy to maneuver onto the waterways that connected the islands.
    There was no one outside. The water was still except for the ripples from their barge. Lana sat in the back and stared silently at the kukui groves. The majestic trees were slowly fading into the distance as she looked-her last view of her home. She thought of how she and Kali had sat in their high branches only months ago, thinking of Kohaku and their future. She wondered what would happen to her now-what did being marked mean? Was she destined to be miserable for the rest of her life?
    Her mother knelt behind her and put her hand on her shoulder. Lana looked back at her for a moment, and then relaxed. At least she still had her mother. They watched the kukui groves together after that, and stared together at the distant, proud figure of Okilani, standing high in the branches of her tree as though it was her duty to witness their departure. Lana felt her mother's hand tighten on her shoulder. Would they ever see the elder again?
    She thought of the jewels in her pocket. Did Okilani know she was marked? It was too