Page 29

Chapter 29

Eleri

“A desalinization device?” I asked, excitement making my feet jump on the sandy floor.

“From many generations ago. I don’t know why they stopped using it. Maybe the sea buried it, and it was too much work to clean out.”

“Or only a few knew about it? Almost anything could’ve happened.”

“It became the stuff of legends, part of a broader story Madine would tell us. My father scoffed at the idea and told me we’d collected rainwater forever and that was good enough. But without water, we can’t maintain life here, let alone grow our population.”

“We should tell everyone,” I said. Maybe then we’d bring people to the island instead of sadly watching them leave.

“Let’s see if we can get the device working first.” He frowned as he studied each component, paying a lot of attention to the piping that left the last vat on the right.

“What should we do?” Returning to the drawings on the wall, I tapped my finger on the first. “We’ve got water in the biggest tub, and it shows a fire beneath it.”

“As you know, we boil water and collect the condensation to drink, leaving salt behind in the pan. This is the same theory only on a larger scale.”

“I’ll go get some of the wood I collected, and we’ll see if this baby works. If it doesn’t, we won’t disappoint anyone.” Except ourselves. I couldn’t imagine how wonderful it might be to have clear water all year round regardless of whether it rained or not.

“I’ll get wood,” he said. “Would you collect dry seaweed?”

“Sure.”

Outside, he loaded his arms with wood and carried it inside while I collected seaweed kindling.

We lit a fire beneath the biggest tub and stood back to watch what happened. It took some time, and lots of wood burned, but the water started steaming. The steam rose up into the hood over the tub and the trickle of water rang out as the condensation made its way down the metal pipe.

“It’s dripping into the second tub,” Odik shouted. He swooped me up and spun me around, giving me a big kiss before he placed my feet back on the sand. “It’s working. It’s working!”

“Let’s test it.” I went over to watch the condensation continue dripping, very slowly filling the second container.

Odik dipped his hand into the water and took a sip. He grinned my way. “It’s not salty.”

“Amazing. We can set up a system where we bring buckets of water from here to the surface.”

“I want to talk to Madine. One of her stories may contain another clue to what our ancestors did with the water. Carrying buckets is a lot of work, though I’ll do it rather than go without.”

“The water’s half gone from the first tub,” I pointed out.

“Then let’s refill it.” Odik cranked a handle on the wall near the tub, and water started gushing in from the sea, channeled through piping in the wall.

“This is ingenious. I can’t believe it was lost to your people.”

“ Our people, mate.” He put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. “This belongs to all of us.”

We loaded more wood beneath the cooking vat and returned to the top of the island. Not stopping, we rushed to the village, where we found orcs loading carts with their things.

“Ten,” Odik said in shock. He came to a stop and stared in dismay at his friends packing up to leave. “I thought three more were leaving, but never this many.”

“We’ve got to stop them.” I hurried forward, slowing before I reached them.

Trilden looked up from where he was tying a sack to his cart. “You can’t say anything that’ll change our minds. We can’t live like this. The city will give us a decent life.”

“It won’t be anything like the life you’ve had on the island,” Odik said.

“Sometimes a male has to give up things he loves to survive.”

“You don’t have to leave,” I said.

One of the males frowned, his hands stilling on chair he’d just loaded onto his cart.

“We found a way to create lots of clean water,” Odik said. “Actually, my mate discovered a way.” He tugged me against his side, putting his arm around my shoulders.

“That’s not possible,” Trilden said. “Believe me, if it was, I’d unload everything right now.”

“Then you’d better start unloading. Odik would never give anyone false hope.” We turned to find Madine joining us, moving slowly with the support of her cane. She looked between me and Odik. “What have you found?”

“Remember the story about our clan having more fresh water than we knew what to do with?” Odik asked.

“A story?” Trilden grumbled. “You think to hold us here with a tale?”

“Not every story is made up,” Madine said, stiffening. “Many tell of things in our past we don’t want to forget.”

“Eleri and I have found a way to remove the salt from sea water,” Odik said.

“We do this already.” Trilden braced Odik’s shoulders. “You’ve been an amazing caedos. The best this clan has seen in ages. No one cares for our people and our way of life more than you. But small pots of water boiling all day long to generate one cup to drink is not enough. I’m a farmer. You know this. But I can’t make the soil produce crops without more water than the rains deliver.”

He and I explained what we’d found.

“Wonderful.” Madine clapped her hands. “This changes everything.”

“Do your stories mention anything about how to bring the water to the top of the island?” I asked.

She frowned. “I don’t believe they do.”

“Let’s take a look at this,” Trilden said. “I’m willing to do that at least. Do I want to leave? No. Do I feel that I must? Yes.”

With some trepidation, we took them down to the cave, others joining in until we had a large crowd following us. We showed them the big pool refilled already and boiling, plus the hood and how the condensed water trickled into the second tub.

“Taste it,” Odik told those gathered around. “All of you.”

“It’s clean,” someone exclaimed.

“It tastes wonderful!”

Madine smiled and nodded. With her cane, she pointed to the piping leaving the second tub, feeding into the wall. “I assume this uses some kind of gravity system to bring the water to the surface.”

“The old pump near the center of town that has never worked,” Trilden said. “Do you think . . .” He shook his head. “It’s not possible, is it?”

“We should go find out,” I said with a grin.

We returned to the surface, Madine riding on Odik’s back because the climb was too steep. With lighter steps, we strode to the edge of town where it was clear there must’ve been large gardens long ago. Now only a few straggly vegetables have grown.

“It’s over here.” Trilden led everyone to the edge of the field and into the woods surrounding it. “I found it one day while looking for herbs, but as I said, it didn’t work, so I ignored it after that.” Bending down, he cleared away brush, revealing a pump like the one that brought sea water inside our homes. Straightening, he began lifting and dropping the lever. A hollow, gurgling sound rang out and Madine cheered.

“Will it work?” I asked Odik, leaning into his side.

He just shook his head, probably not wanting to say anything to jinx it.

Water gushed out of the pipe, splashing on the ground at Trilden’s feet.

“What does it taste like?” someone asked.

Trilden cupped some in his hands and took a long drink. “I’d say . . .” He shot me and Odik a grin. “I’d say it tastes like a good reason to stay on the island.”

Everyone around us cheered.