Page 7

7

The pink sand squished between Rohan’s toes. Waves crashed, the foamy water stretching for his feet. Autumn’s cool temperatures made the water chillier, though it wouldn’t keep him out of the ocean. The sea was their main food source, but fishing wasn’t on his mind.

He paused and looked toward the horizon and the distant dark clouds. The winter storms didn’t usually hit for another few weeks, but they had been known to strike sooner. The winds were calm, but the waves were cresting. He made out the flash of lightning amid the approaching storm.

Kalyani came up beside him, her arms crossed as she faced the sea. Annoyance rolled off her. “ She’s not ready for travel.”

“ I lost days bringing her here to recover. The longer she’s away, the harder it’ll be for her to return without suspicion.” He jerked his chin toward the storm. “ And there’s that to consider.”

“ Shite ,” she mumbled. “ It’s too early.”

Rohan turned his head to her. “ It’s rare, but it does happen. We can’t afford to lose any more time. If that storm hits, we’ll be stuck here for days, and everything I’ve done will have been a waste.”

Kalyani shook her head and looked at the sky. “ She needs more time.”

“ She has tonight.”

His sister faced him, her arms dropping to her sides. Her gaze darted toward the water before returning to him. “ There isn’t any more left. You told me that the last time you dove.”

“ There is no more within reach .”

“ Nay . Absolutely not.” Kalyani shook her head. “ You can’t possibly think to go into the cave.”

Rohan looked at the rolling sea. He had already encountered the giant, speckled kythi once and barely came away with his life. The first Siguks to settle had accidentally discovered the red seaweed’s healing properties and used it for anything and everything after that. Until they realized it took generations for it to grow. By then, his people had almost completely wiped out the stores in the cove.

Now , the seaweed was only used in the direst of circumstances. Rohan had dove for it when their father fell and hit his head. He’d found some, but it wasn’t quite enough. He had dove for more and spotted it in the cave of a coral mound. When he swam closer to get a better look, he saw large clusters of it just inside the opening. When he went to cut some, the kythi charged him from the back of the cave, its elongated, dark-green-speckled body slicing through the water.

There were many predators in the ocean. Rohan knew better than to enter a cave without checking first, but he hadn’t been thinking about any of that at the time. He’d been surprised at the sight of the kythi and lost what little of the seaweed he’d gathered while trying to stay alive.

Searching the coral for the bits he had dropped had taken hours. Ultimately , he kept the cave and the seaweed a secret from everyone except Kalyani until he could round up enough divers to go after the kythi.

But that time had never come. His father died, and Rohan found himself trying to navigate the task of being a leader. He’d been grieving his father and settling into his new role when the abductions increased. Then , he’d focused on that. Now , he was back figuring out how to get into the cave without being killed by the eel.

He ran a hand down his face and blew out a breath. “ I need her healthy, Kal . I can get our people back. I can find Lata .”

“ You hope.”

The wind caught Kalyani’s words, snatching them away. But he still heard them. “ It’s all I have right now. Without it, I …” He looked away, fighting against a threatening swell of despair. He knew the impossibility of what he was attempting, but he had to try.

Kalyani touched his arm and moved closer. “ What do you need from me?”

“ Keep the elf company. I don’t trust her alone.”

“ Things might go better if you called her by her name.”

He gave his sister a hard glare.

She rolled her eyes. “ Fine . I’ll do that once we get the seaweed.”

“ We ?”

“ You don’t actually think I’m letting you go alone, do you?”

“ Kal ,” he began.

This time, she was the one who shot him a look. “ End of discussion. We do this together or not at all.”

“ Then we need to do it now before the light fades.”

She removed her shoes. Rohan let out a shrill whistle to catch the attention of a sentry at the bottom of the cliff. The guard whistled back, indicating that he understood Rohan was getting in the water. Rohan bent and grabbed the pole spear lying next to him. He straightened and found Kalyani without her headscarf, tying her curls back.

Once she nodded that she was ready, they walked into the water together. When the water hit her upper thighs, she dove beneath its depths. Rohan had seen her smile before she vanished under the sea. She broke the surface after a moment, wiping the water from her face as she turned to him. Kal was a better swimmer than he was. She was quick and agile and knew how to work the waves and currents like nothing he had ever seen before. He could mimic her, but he wasn’t nearly as good. It didn’t matter how many times she tried to teach him, it just wasn’t as natural for him as it was for her.

Rohan glanced at the storm once more. It looked bigger, the clouds angrier. He dove. The chilly water was like a slap to his face as he submerged himself. His body quickly grew accustomed as he swam deeper to look for predators.

Kalyani swam ahead of him, her arms at her sides as she fluidly kicked her legs behind her. She rolled onto her back to look at the surface before flipping again. His eyes scanned the ocean floor. The surface was kicking up and stirring the shallows, but it hadn’t reached the deeper depths so far. Brightly colored fish darted around him. Some small, a few large. The seabed dropped off quickly from the shore. It made for some dramatic waves and a diverse ecosystem, but it also meant the predators got closer than they would have if it had been a gradual slope.

His lungs burned. Rohan shot to the surface and sucked in a huge mouthful of air. He shook his head and slung hair from his face as he treaded water. Kalyani appeared a few moments later.

“ All clear,” she said.

He nodded. “ Same .”

“ Ready ?”

Rohan was far from ready, but that hadn’t stopped him before. “ See you down there.”

“ I have your back.”

He curved inward, going beneath the waves and using his arms to swim deeper. Usually , he had the pole spear strapped around him, but he wanted to be prepared. He looked to the side and saw that Kalyani was already below him. He headed toward the outer edge of the cove and swam faster, but he couldn’t catch her.

She reached it first. He shouted her name, but Kalyani couldn’t hear him. Thankfully , she didn’t go inside, only swam around it. He kicked his legs harder to reach her faster, his gaze locked on the entrance. Rohan tensed as he waited for the kythi to charge his sister. But nothing happened.

He was so worried about Kalyani that he swam straight into a rip current. It snatched him, dragging him away. Within moments, it flung him into the depths. When the current finally spit him out, he was far from shore. Rohan turned in a circle until he caught sight of the cliffs. He started swimming toward it, remaining parallel to the current so as not to get dragged back in.

Kalyani wouldn’t have seen what happened. She wouldn’t know that he wasn’t there. Nor did she have a weapon to fight the eel if it attacked. Rohan kept a steady rhythm of arm over arm as he swam. He might not be as quick as his sister, but he had endurance. That’s what he fell back on now.

He looked up every ten strokes to ensure that he was still headed in the right direction. He told himself not to worry. Kalyani was smart. And fast. Yet his mind played through his encounter with the eel, leaving a pit in his stomach.

He gauged his distance to the shore. He was still too far out. Kalyani would have to come up for air. She would look for him, surely. She would see him swimming back to her.

Please . Please . Please .

First their mother, then their father, then Lata’s abduction. Not Kalyani , too. Not yet.

He had never dealt with death well. His dad had counseled him on it after their mother’s passing, but it hadn’t done much good.

“ Death isn’t a personal assault on you, son. It is the way of things. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. To a bird, a tree. And us. Even the sun.”

But this was personal. Too much had been taken from him. Everyone had their breaking point. He was barely standing under the weight of it all as it was. One more thing, one more person taken, and he knew he would break.

Leaders were supposed to bend, not break. He was grasping at anything, desperate to find answers to his ever-mounting problems. Even though he knew there weren’t any answers. Few cared about the humans. And no one cared about the Siguks . He was on his own to find solutions in a world he didn’t fit into, with beings more powerful than him. The Wood Elf was that solution.

Rohan looked up and treaded water. He had covered a good distance without even knowing it, but he had swum slightly off course. He altered direction and swam to his right, getting closer to the outskirts of the cove. Then , he dove.

He scanned the area as he swam down, looking for Kalyani . Panic seized him when he couldn’t find her. He stopped, suspended in the water as he turned in a frantic circle. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He spun and saw his sister along the slope of the ocean floor. Beside her was the enormous kythi, moving in tandem with her.

Rohan readied the pole spear and took aim. That’s when he saw Kalyani’s hand resting on the kythi. He blinked hard to make sure he was seeing what he thought he saw. His sister turned in a wide circle with the kythi and then spotted him. She flashed Rohan a smile and pointed to the cave. The kythi looked his way but did nothing.

A million questions buzzed through Rohan’s head. He lowered the spear and swam to the cave. The red leaves of the seaweed plant swayed in the water as if beckoning him. His lungs were starting to hurt, and the pressure against his body was intense. He used the hand holding the pole to brace himself before leaning in and grabbing hold of a clump of the seaweed. He yanked, careful not to take too much.

He held his harvest firmly in his hand and turned to leave. Rohan saw his sister and the kythi to his right. He hesitated, but his lungs burned. He had no choice but to head to the surface. There , he waited for Kalyani . Minutes ticked by as he treaded water. Then he put his face under to look for her. He found her swimming toward him. Thankfully , the kythi was no longer with her.

“ What was that?” he asked when she surfaced.

“ I simply asked it to let us have some of the seaweed.”

He frowned. “ You what?”

“ I asked,” she repeated before swimming toward shore.

Rohan watched her for a heartbeat before following.