Read Racing the Dark for Free Online Page B

floor.
    "Lana?" Okilani's face was unsurprised. "I had thought you might come here. Let's dry you off."
    Okilani left and came back a few moments later with two large towels. Lana wrapped them around herself gratefully and tried to stop shivering.
    "Well, come on, get away from the door at least. That's the coldest part of the house."
    Lana nodded and stood up. She walked with Okilani to another room that had shelves lined with books and comfortable-looking cushions on the floor. She took off her wet sandals before stepping inside. The room was warm-there were hot ashes in metal braziers on the floor, which she was careful to avoid.
    "Sit down," Okilani said, gesturing to one of the cushions. She sat down next to Lana. "Now, I imagine what brought you pounding on my door in the middle of a rainstorm was important, so we can skip formalities. What happened?"
    Now that she was sitting in Okilani's house, she began to wonder if she had not overreacted. How salty had the water been, after all? And how could spilling the salt possibly have caused it? She frowned and fought back her doubts. She knew as well as every other diver on her island that the mandagah were dying, and yesterday she had just discovered why.

    She clenched her fists. "I'm sorry for barging in like this ... I thought it was important. Yesterday I discovered ... I mean, by accident, of course, but ..."
    "What is it, Lana?"
    "The water ... it's salty. Tayi and I couldn't find any mandagah fish and were swimming much farther out than normal and she made me laugh and when I came back up to cough, I realized that the water was salty. And see ..." Lana blurted, unable to stop herself, "I think it may be my fault, because on my initiation, when I was curing the jewel, I accidentally dropped some salt. I said a prayer and I tried to clean it up, but maybe ..."
    "Are you sure you tasted salt, Lana?"
    Lana cringed and stared at the floor. "I'm sorry," she said.
    Okilani's eyes were grim but she still tried to smile reassuringly. "Don't worry, it's not your fault. I had suspected that might be what's happening, but the salt is still undetectable close to the island. Something like this ... it has nothing to do with whether or not you dropped the salt. This is something much bigger. I can't say I understand it yet, but I have sensed a change.
    "Our way of life may be ending, Lana. If the water continues to get salty, then all the mandagah will die."
    Despite the warmth of the room, Lana began to shiver again. Could the situation really be that serious? "But ... how could that possibly happen? The mandagah have lived here for thousands of years!"
    Okilani shrugged. "The spirits are restless. We may be at the beginning of some sort of upheaval. But I'm just an elder, not a diviner. I can't tell you what will happen to us."
    Lana felt like crying. Once again, divers would be forced to give up the ocean. Even now, in Okilani's warm room, she could smell the seaweed and the fishy bilge from the boats docked near her house. She wondered how all that could possibly end. She thought of Yaela, forced to leave the sea forever to offer herself as a sacrifice. All the years she had sung that song, she had never imagined that one day the words would describe her.

    Okilani's voice broke the long silence. "We may be able to save a few of them," she said.
    Lana looked at her. "How?"
    "Tomorrow ... we have to harvest the fish themselves, not the jewels. We still have the freshwater lake at the center of the island. A few of the mandagah may just be able to survive there. Maybe, in time, the water will return to normal and we can take them back to the sea."
    "Will that work?"
    "Who can say? But I think we should try."
    Okilani stared at Lana for a few long minutes. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me, Lana?" she asked.
    Lana stared at the glowing embers and tried not to cry as she kept her silence.
    The next morning, the divers assembled on the beach a few minutes before dawn and