Read Racing the Dark for Free Online

are probably expecting you home by now. See you tomorrow."
    Lana fled the classroom and scrambled down the tree before she allowed herself to relax. Her entire body was trembling. He had held her hand. He had stared into her eyes. He wanted her to go away with him. It was the happiest day of her life.
    She really did love Kohaku. She had realized it one morning less than a month after he arrived. He had been telling them about the great Essel wars that lasted for a century after the wind spirit broke free, and she had been suddenly gripped with astonishment that anyone could know so much, yet think so little of it. Even the most knowledgeable women on her island confined it to useful subjects, like diving or fishing or farming and trading. What possible purpose did the history of five century-old wars serve? He was so different from every other man in her experience-his clothes and manner of speech were only the most obvious. Sometimes she felt like just being in his presence was itself a trip across the earth.
    But now she felt agonized by the decision he had asked her to make. She couldn't tell anyone about their conversation-not Kali or her parents-because she was afraid of what they would say. She loved diving, no matter how dismissive Kohaku was of "rustic traditions." Besides, the rainy season was fast approaching, and then it would be virtually impossible to dive for the greater part of three months. She felt responsible, since she had so rapidly become one of the better divers, to find as many jewels as she could before the rains.

    During a sunset dive two weeks after her conversation with Kohaku, Lana was having little luck finding any fish at all. Tayi, one of the other divers, was combing the water with her, and they were swimming much farther out than normal and diving deeper than Okilani would have approved. They were about thirty feet underwater when a large eel slipped out from one of the reefs beside them. Its deep green skin and large mouth looked a little sinister, and Tayi hid behind Lana's back as it swam by.
    "It looks like Uncle Oha," Tayi said, using the hand signals all divers knew. Uncle Oha was a large man who spent most of his evenings drinking himself into a stupor at Eala's, but Lana felt warmly toward him because he loved listening to Kapa's music.
    The comparison was so appropriate that Lana burst out laughing. She started to panic when the burning water accidentally filled her lungs. She gnawed her lip and kicked to the surface, where the water was darker than it should have been, and cloudy. She floated while she hacked up what felt like half the ocean. What kind of a fool was she to laugh during a dive? The water left a funny taste in her mouth, though, and she realized that it was burning her throat more than it should. What on earth was that taste?
    Panic settled in her stomach, a fear so strong she knew she would never get it to leave.
    The water tasted, ever so faintly, of salt.
    The next day the rains started and the dives were called off. In fact, by the middle of the day the students were all sent home from school as well-they had to help their parents prepare their houses for the rains. Lana climbed on top of the roof with her father to cover the thatch with a stronger resin and larger palm fronds from the forest. They were soaked through by the time they came back inside, but at least the roof had stopped leaking. Her mother made them change their clothes before they sat down to dinner.

    It was a strange, silent meal. The only noise was the insistent sound of rain drumming against the roof of the house. In a few weeks, the whole island would start to flood, and people would have to take barges just to get from one house to another. She usually loved this time of year, but now all she could think of was the salty-tasting water. She stuffed the food into her mouth, but hardly tasted any of it.
    "Lana, aren't you going to say something?" Her mother sounded impatient.
    "Say