Free Gateway by Sharon Shinn Page B

Daiyu stepped in a particularly slimy patch and pitched to her knees. Kalen was beside her instantly, one hand on her arm. “Oops—are you all right?” he asked. She could tell he was trying not to laugh.
    She brought her left hand up in one smooth motion and clicked the copper bracelet around his wrist. “I’m fine,” she said sweetly.
    He stared at her in disbelief a moment before he burst into laughter. Then he stood up and yanked her to her feet, still laughing, and towed her back to solid ground so fast that she was practically stumbling behind him. They climbed out of the mud and a few feet up the stony slope, then Kalen dropped his burdens and turned back to face the river.
    “You ought to see them send the water back in,” he said.
    They settled beside each other on the incline. Kalen gave her his last strip of dried meat, and Daiyu washed it down with her final swallow of water. The small bells were still trilling out their aria of peril .It hadn’t been too hot that morning, but now the sun was beating down, and the humidity in the air was taking on an extra malevolence. Daiyu wiped her forehead with her sleeve and felt herself leave a smear of mud behind.
    Kalen pointed toward the bridge. “Watch,” he said.
    And then, as if raised in tandem by precision-trained teams, the three huge river gates began rising. As the barriers slowly ascended, water first began seeping out, then gurgling out, then pouring through in a great frothy frenzy, leaping and joyous as a fluid pack of hunting dogs. The sound buil tfrom a mild rumble, like a hundred faucets turned at full blast, to a whooshing roar as the greatest part of the pent-up water came gushing through. And then the noise became quieter, calmer, as the river found its level and the water slowly returned to normal.
    “Wow,” Daiyu said.
    “I know. I thought you’d like that,” he said.
    “Now can we get something else to eat?”

    They returned to the house for the noon meal and found Ombri before them, vague about how he had spent his morning. Aurora would be at Xiang’s until late, he informed them, but they could practice the tiaowu without her that night.
    “First I want to sort through Daiyu’s stones and take them in for scanning,” Kalen said.
    “We brought home bags of rocks, but I don’t know if any of mine are qiji stones,” Daiyu said. “Why do some of them feel funny?”
    She had the attention of both men. “Feel funny—in what way?” Ombri asked.
    She wrinkled her nose. “They thrum. Like there’s a really slight power current running through them.”
    Kalen was looking at Ombri, but Ombri was still watching Daiyu. “Most people can’t feel that,” the black man said. “I’m surprised you can.”
    “You know what she’s talking about?” Kalen demanded.
    Ombri nodded. “A qiji has a specific cellular makeup that vibrates at a slightly different level than most of the solid materials on Jia,” he said. “I can feel the difference. So can Daiyu, apparently.”
    “Oooooh, so those were qiji stones?” she said, reaching for her bag. “Let me see if I can find them again!”
    Daiyu dumped her bag out on the floor and then settled herself on the rug beside the loose stones. Kalen and Ombri sat across from her. She picked through every rock, culling out the ones that sent a faint skitter across her fingertips.
    “These two,” she said, handing them over to Ombri.
    His fingers closed over them and he nodded emphatically. “Oh, yes. Those are full of tremors.”
    Kalen took them from Ombri’s palm, furrowing his brow in concentration, then he sighed. “They just feel ordinary to me.”
    Ombri gestured at Kalen’s bag. “Let’s see if she can find any treasures in the stones you brought back.”
    She sorted more quickly through Kalen’s haul. “Only one, I think,” she said.
    Ombri took the stone from her hand and nodded. “Quite remarkable,” he said.
    “Still,” Daiyu said thoughtfully. “It’s not much of