Free Through the Whirlpool by K. Eastkott Page B

actually see it yet, but he sensed it was close by. He took two steps forward, looked around, and this time he did see it. Partly hidden by two thick trunks on his left, it was growing a short distance farther down the slope, close to the edge of a small clearing. He laughed. It seemed so easy just to have stumbled on it like this, exactly as he saw it in his vision. Even though he had spent weeks in training classes in his village preparing for this part of the test, he had doubted it would ever work exactly as it was meant to. He half ran, half bounded down the slope and slapped his hands against the trunk, the trunk of his tree! He imagined he could feel an answering vibration through the wood, a kind of affirmation, saying, “That’s right, I’m yours. Let’s get to work!” He stood beside his trunk feeling awed, almost frightened. The first part of his ritual—of Shahee-faadaw, the sea-nomad-becoming—was a success.

Twili ght Crosser
 
    L ilac and tangerine clouds hung above the indigo sea. Taashou stood on a low promontory of rocks that extended westward into the lagoon, scanning the flashing breakers striking the reef, just visible in the fading light. She waited, noting the first, bright evening stars shining in the twilit canopy. Swarms of hazy constellations had begun to light the dark when her attention was grabbed by a massive shape moving beyond the surf.
    I await you.
    To show her position, she opened a tiny clay fire pot she had held concealed under her cloak. Before long, she discerned a figure swimming in through the lagoon. She turned and walked back along the rocks onto the beach, holding the lantern up to guide the swimmer in. Then she stood before the whispering tide, amid wrack and driftwood. The swimmer waded from the waves.
    Daako hn, at last we can talk!
    Taashou , it is good to see you again.
    I have a fire above.
    They walked up the sand arm in arm. While Taashou was wrapped tightly in her blue shahiroh’s cloak against the evening chill, Daakohn was dressed as before, in his close-fitting suit of what looked like kelp but hugged his body like supple leather. He did not seem to notice the cold, though when they came to the low fire laid in a sheltered lee of the beach, he squatted close and warmed himself as if he had spent an age exposed to the harshest elements.
    One can adjust and adapt to life in the depths, but nothing replaces a healthy blaze!
    I was thinking of you when I built it up.
    When alone, they always spoke in mind speech, swifter for communicating both thoughts and feelings though tricky to shield from prying attention.
    H ow are the candidates faring?
    They have just begun. Two are highly promising yet both troublesome in their way. I cannot work it out. I have decided to monitor them closely.
    No hurzjh-faadaw-oh among them?
    Do we need a hurzjh-faadaw-oh ?
    The imbalance in the rift will not heal itself. Since we last spoke , it has become worse. Now all the Shahee feel it. It affects the kree-eh the most. And when the kree-eh die, so does the ocean. Something must be done.
    Yet how can we know what? I will go myself. I have a better chance…
    You cannot, Taashou. You are old and have been too long a part of this world. You would not be able to cross.
    Then we will close it… if we can. I refuse to send an innocent into the twilight crossing, to exile them from everything they have known, their sense of belonging—forever—and even if they return, to spend what remains of their days like some cast-off piece, disconnected from tribe and culture…
    Like me? Knowledge has its own price, Taashou. I chose my destiny .
    You were seventeen. Yours was by accident, not design—you have said so yourself.
    Daakohn drew a burning stick from the fire and began to play with it in the night air, drawing patterns as if it were a wand.
    Still, we all choose, perhaps not our pasts but certainly our futures. The memories I love best from my former life… riding my mount like the