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biting her bottom lip as she thought about how to explain this. Lily was very distracting; she was watching the exchange with the attentive eyes of a courtroom transcriber. “This necklace is special,” Annie said finally.
    â€œSpecial?”
    â€œIt has a lot of power.” Annie fingered it, remembering the day her grandmother had given it to her. “That is why it found its way to the Kaamo. It is a totem, and thus fits into their culture. Not in the west. I am not surprised it found its way to them.”
    Rain stared at her. He was trying to decide if she was serious, Annie supposed. I definitely don’t usually talk like that . “Thank you for getting it back, Rain,” she added.
    Then, as Lily’s mouth was opening to make her first contribution in minutes, a Eureka! thought struck Annie like lightning:
    â€œOh my God,” she cried, hand locking around the sapphire pendant so hard the chain slit her neck. “You found out what Sola is!”
    Rain’s silence was all the confirmation Annie needed. She dropped the sapphire and seized his elbow instead, leaping so high hors d’oeuvres nibblers turned to stare from the other side of the room. “Rain! Rain! Rain!”
    â€œShhhhh,” he hissed.
    â€œIf you don’t tell me right now you are mincemeat.” Annie squeezed the rock-hard bicep so firmly Rain’s lips twitched.
    His eyes darted back between the women, lingering on Lily. After a moment, Annie got the message.
    â€œLil, do you mind leaving us for a moment?” she said.
    â€œI have no idea what you’re talking about anyway.” Lily took off, winding around pillars and through the clusters of people stuffing their faces with catering snacks.
    Rain and Annie were alone.
    * * * *
    â€œSola is not what we thought,” Rain said.
    â€œIt’s not a totem?” Annie whispered. Annie and Rain had heard that word over and over again: Sola. Sola, Sola, Sola! It was the obsession of the Kaamo. Every time Annie eavesdropped on women dyeing skins, or men sharpening their spears by the river, she heard that word.
    Not even Paulo the guide, who was on Sivu because of the ease with which he picked up South Pacific languages, had been able to explain what it meant. Whatever ‘Sola’ was, it was sacred. It was so drenched in meaning and majesty that the Kaamo spoke about it only in hushed tones. Annie had not seen the proud, aggressive people speak of anything else with such reverence–not even the feats of their warriors. Asking about Sola had earned Annie outraged looks and subjections to stony silences. It even got her banished from a few huts.
    â€œSola,” Rain murmured. “Sola is their goddess.”
    Annie’s shoulders slumped in disappointment.
    â€œThat’s it?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThat’s what we expected,” Annie squeaked. “A goddess or maybe a very powerful totem. Like my sapphire.”
    â€œThere’s a bit of a twist. Annie,” Rain said. “Sola is a woman.”
    Annie listened, mouth dropping open, as Rain told the story. Twenty years ago, on the night their oldest tribeswoman died, a storm hit Sivu. It was so powerful the lightning zaps kept the Kaamo awake.
    â€œThey barely dared to glance out at the sky. The whole horizon lit up like it was midday. Then when the sun was about to rise, and the rain was dying down, a baby was born. They called her Sola.”
    Annie covered her mouth in horror as Rain described the slaughter that had followed. All the baby Kaamo girls born since the last orange moon were slaughtered: their feet were bound with grass to a rock each and the babies were dropped into the river. “Sola, the tribe reasoned, would not have any competitors.”
    The baby girl was now a woman. A woman so beautiful that Rain was not allowed to glimpse her.
    â€œDid you try?” Annie asked, knowing his style. He loved to sneak into near-sacred