Free Captive Moon by C. T. Adams, Cathy Clamp

battle in the court for nearly a year. The QC—the Queen’s Counsel—has been arguing the High Court for free claim to the property for the heir, which is me. But they couldn’t find me, and finally the justices said that if they couldn’t find an heir, the land would revert to the tribe.”

    “But now you’ve been found,” Antoine said quietly. “So what does that mean?”

    “Well, one of the blokes in the firm actually got on with the grandson of a tribal elder, who had been doing translations. After we talked, the barrister told him about me and what I hoped to do with the land. Daku talked to his granddad and they offered me a deal—if I would do a walkabout on the land as my grandfather had done, then they would withdraw their claim and I could build the clinic on the part of the land that isn’t sacred. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got until the next corroboree ceremony to do a walkabout and perform a bora initiation.”

    Tahira cocked her head and the glowing red coals made her hair shine the color of her animal. Antoine caught himself looking at the hair and her slimly muscled legs tucked up against her chest.

    “But a walkabout isn’t anything, is it? Doesn’t that just mean to wander around—sort of like a vacation?”

    “Yeah, that’d be right. Except it turns out that a walkabout used to have more of a meaning. I talked to Daku, and we nutted out what I had to do. I’ll be spending two weeks hunting and gathering on the land, dropped off without food or water. I can bring with me a boomerang, a kylie, and a woomera spear thrower for getting food and for protection. There’s a billabong on the property—that’s a small pond or watering hole—so I won’t have to dig, but I’ll have to make something to carry the water in. I got the impression that I had to make and decorate the tools myself. I have to walk the boundaries of the land and do meditations so the land will accept me. Daku said the elders will know if the land accepts me. Some sort of seer stuff, I suppose. I’m learning plenty about that rubbish from being around Antoine, so cheating won’t help any.”

    Tahira glanced at Antoine in surprise. He acknowledged the fact briefly with a nod of his head and then turned his attention back to Matty.

    Matty shrugged and readjusted his feet so his heels were against the table edge. Margo held her breath as the table moved slightly toward Antoine and Tahira’s side of the room. Antoine lifted his feet a fraction without anyone noticing, so his heels didn’t scratch the finish as the table moved. It was one thing to put Matty at ease by letting him put his feet on the furniture. It was another entirely to have to pay for the table if they ruined it.

    He noticed that Tahira was having a hard time taking her eyes off him since learning he was a seer. But she apparently was still listening, because she nodded and added, “Aborigines believe that land doesn’t belong to man—man belongs to the land. If the land rejects a person, he or she has to leave. Have you chosen a totem?”

    Matty shrugged. “Daku said that it will find me. Apparently, my grandfather’s totem was the carpet snake. No surprise, I guess. Both sides of my family are Sazi. We’re all snakes. But I didn’t get the right genes, so I’m just human. I’m not much into the ‘Earth Mother’ bit, but my uncle had survival training in Nasho, and taught me a thing or two, so no worries. It’s just the carving and decorating thingos that has me feeling a galah.”

    “A ‘galah’?” Margo asked.

    Matty turned his head back. “A bit of a fool. I’m studying hard how to make them, but I’ll be bloody amazed if any of the things I carve will actually work. I’ve built snares and have a knife, though. As you Sazi blokes say—I’ll live, even if I get my share of dingo breakfasts.”

    Tahira laughed. “I’ve actually heard of that one before! A yawn, a leak, and a long look around, but no