Free Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson Page A

late to ask her now. Her mother looked as though she wanted to cry, but was keeping the tears back by sheer force of will. Lana turned away and found her eyes drawn out to the ocean. The death shrine was silhouetted against the edge of the ocean, as clearly visible as she had ever seen it.
    They slept on the barge for the next two weeks. She spent her nights shivering helplessly under thin blankets, wondering how much colder it could possibly get on the inner islands. Her parents had agreed that her father should go ahead with his instruments and supplies to Essel first, while they stayed behind in Okika City, the major port town on the eastern side of Okika Island. The cityisland of Essel was at least two weeks away by clipper from Okika. When they first pulled into the docks, Lana was amazed at the lack of sand. Narrow, cramped city streets butted right against the water, filled with more people than she had ever seen in her life, and everywhere she heard people shouting. Leilani looked dismayed as well, staring at the loud, dirty scene. And this was a small city? What on earth was Essel like? How could her father survive in a place like that?

    Lana supposed that she and her mother would have to find work somewhere, because her father would be taking most of their savings with him to Essel. When he had settled in they would be able to join him. It had sounded like a fine plan sitting on the barge on the way here, but now that she saw the kind of place they would have to live in, she wondered if they would have been better off staying on the island, no matter what kind of changes Okilani sensed coming.
    By that evening, Kapa had found them a place to stay-a small but fairly clean room on the top floor of a boarding house near the docks of the Eastern harbor. The smell of the salt water and dead fish was strong, and the wind blew it straight into the room, which probably made it cheaper than it would have been otherwise.
    Some of the despair that Lana had been feeling for the past few days changed into acute anxiety. She tried not to show it for the sake of her father, but she knew that Leilani felt it as well. She needed a chance to catch her breath, to adjust to what her life had become. She needed it, but she knew better than to expect it.
    "Good luck, Papa," Lana said after they had moved their belongings into the small room.
    He looked at her and then they hugged tightly. "Don't worry. In a month or two you'll be able to come to Essel, too. Everything will be fine."

    Lana smiled, because she knew that he expected it, but she doubted her father's assurance. Here, they were all out of their depth. She loved her gentle father, but she couldn't imagine how he or any of them would handle life on Essel.
    Leilani hugged her husband tightly. Her body was shaking, but she seemed to have managed to keep the tears back. Lana turned tactfully away and walked to the window as they said their goodbyes. The sun was setting over the harbor and the huge fishing vessels-larger than any she had ever seen-were all coming into port. Brawny sailors wearing strange, weather-stained clothing hauled huge nets of helplessly flopping fish off the boats and onto large carts. She saw women walking around as well, wearing brightly dyed loose pants and matching button-down shirts that flapped around their knees. They wore heavy socks with their sandals that would have been entirely too hot on her island, but seemed to be standard dress here. Lana was wearing a shirt, but it barely covered her belly button, and people had been staring at her and Leilani as they walked through the streets. Kohaku had told her that women on the inner islands rarely showed their breasts or wore short pants. On very formal occasions, he had said, women might wear a sheer top, but it was generally seen as a rustic practice. Just one more thing she would have to adjust to.
    "See you soon, Lana. I love you."
    She turned away from the window. "Goodbye, Papa."
    She and her