Racing the Dark (24 page)

Pua stopped and then turned around slowly. The girl looked at her almost nervously, and Pua thought the expression made her look much younger. Even though she was much shorter and a bit heavier than her sister had been, something about her swarthy skin and oddly determined lips reminded Pua of Makani. Pua shook her head and looked at the necklace. To her surprise, it held an unusually large mandagah jewel-bright blue and hung on a seamless chain of riverweed.

Pua let out a small gasp and looked up at the girl. For the first time, she noticed another, older woman sitting in a chair quietly behind her, pretending to read a book while she studied Pua.

"Is that a mandagah jewel?" Pua asked the younger one. "Haven't the mandagah been killed off? I didn't even know they were still on the market."

The woman shrugged, seemingly regaining some of her composure. "It's a special jewel-harvested years ago, before the disasters."

Pua looked down and she noticed the girl's tough, worn leibo. It had been a long time since she had seen any, and she smiled softly. "You were a diver?" she asked.

"For a little while. Too little."

"My sister was a diver too," she said, but felt embarrassed when she realized that this girl could not have given it up out of choice, like Makani. She sighed. "I'm afraid I don't have nearly enough money for a beautiful jewel like that. But ... you're wearing a purple sash ... do you tell fortunes?"

The girl hesitated visibly and then nodded. "It doesn't always work, but if you want one I can try."

Pua laughed. "You won't make it too long out here if you're so honest. But don't worry, I'll pay you first."

The fortune-teller glanced briefly at the older woman. "Well ... how about one kala?" she suggested.

The price was so ludicrously low that Pua almost objected, but then shrugged and handed her the coin. It wasn't her responsibility if this young woman had no idea of how to handle herself on the streets. Besides, her demeanor made Pua think that she had something in mind other than money, which made this encounter all the more interesting. The girl pulled a small knife from the pocket of her leibo and gestured toward Pua to sit down on a straw stool. She then took a small bowl and poured some water from a half-filled gourd into it.

"If it works," she said to Pua as she sat down, "it may not say everything you want to hear. And it isn't always accurate-the future is pretty unpredictable, even in the best of times."

Pua nodded, truly surprised at her unprofessional honesty.

The girl swished the knife in the bowl a few times, absentmindedly slashing the water. "So, is there a part of the fortune you want me to focus on?" she asked.

Pua thought of Kai. "There is someone I ... love very much. I want to know if his mission will succeed. If I'll ever see him again."

"Well then, let's start." She spat into the water and muttered something under her breath. Suddenly the water seemed to solidify, letting the knife slice it like butter without immediately filling in the gap. It was a trick Pua had seen Kai do a thousand times, after his change, but she was shocked to see that this young woman was capable of it. Water clung to the knife. When the blade began to look blurry due to refracted light she pulled it out of the bowl and took Pua's hand.

"What's your name?" she asked softly.

"Pua ... bei'Polunu," she said, suddenly alarmed at the girl's intensity. She had never experienced a fortune quite like this before.

The girl turned Pua's palm outward and scored it with the water-encrusted knife. Water and blood mingled and poured back into the bowl. Something in the air around them had changed, just like the charge before Kai or his father said a geas.

As the water stays a step ahead of the river, so the spirit stays a step ahead of time. I ask the river-dancer to step ahead and look be hind for Pua bei'Polunu.

That was definitely a geas. Its delivery was a bit less sophisticated than what she was used to, but she had never imagined that street fortune-tellers knew such techniques. The girl was silent for a long time and then she began to speak.

"Many paths cross," she said slowly, as though she was repeating something whispered in her ear. "The one you love will not finish his journey. He will return, but the future is always uncertain. Always remember: everything ends. We all will die."

Pua waited for more, but she knew it was over when the water in the bowl slopped back into its original shape. The warm breeze off the bay suddenly felt frigid. She wished that she hadn't proposed a fortune telling-she knew with a dread certainty that this was real. The girl's hesitant half-predictions had not been the words of a charlatan.

The girl sighed and tossed the knife back in the bowl. "I'm so sorry," she said. "It was so vague ... it's a terrible time to tell fortunes." She looked up at Pua with a small smile. "Perhaps I should find another profession."

Pua smiled tentatively back. "Maybe you just need to learn how to make things up."

The girl laughed and reached for the necklace in her pocket. She held the beautiful blue jewel in her hand for a second and then handed it to Pua. "Here, take it. I'll give you a real good price for it-how's fifty kala? I'm traveling, actually, and if I get to Essel with that and they find out, I'll have to answer to the guild and I'd rather not have the hassle."

Pua took the necklace and fingered it gently. The riverweed was seamless. How could she give this beautiful object away for such a pittance? Even after paying off the guild, Pua knew she could get a hundred times more for this in Essel.

"It's a good luck charm, really," the girl said. "It works if you never take it off. It's especially attracted to you, for some reasonbetter for it to be with someone who can appreciate it than someone with a lot of money who will leave it to molder in a drawer."

"A good luck charm?" Pua said. It didn't feel very lucky, but the stone was so beautiful, and it reminded her of Makani.

"If you promise to never take it off, I'll give it to you for free."

Pua shook her head. "No, no. I'll pay you what I can. Thank you ... thank you for doing this for me."

The woman looked toward the ground suddenly, avoiding Pua's eyes as she gave her the money. The necklace felt familiar, as though it had always hung around her neck.

Maybe, she thought as she walked away from that young woman who reminded her so much of her sister, maybe it really is a good luck charm.

Lana felt sick to her stomach when she watched Pua leave. Though Akua had assured her that the necklace was harmless, lying about its true nature still felt wrong. But Akua looked satisfied, and the red jewel on the second string of riverweed around her neck hummed with a strange new energy that excited her. She tried to hide her confusion as she turned to face Akua, who was sitting with a book over her chest.

"That was good," she said. "Although I wouldn't have recommended telling her real fortune-they're too messy and depressing. No one wants to hear it." Akua looked at the sun and then clucked her tongue. "Your boat leaves this evening, we should be on our way.

Lana cleaned up slowly, wondering if Pua would ever know how they were now connected.

Lana's boat cast off at sunset, riding through the narrow strip that separated the bay from the ocean before unfurling its sails and setting off for Essel. If nothing untoward occurred, she would be seeing her parents in seven days. Just before she went below to get settled in her hammock, she noticed a woman about the same age as Pua vomiting weakly over the side of the boat. Her concerned husband finally had to carry her downstairs. The scene made her think a lot about Pua and the benign effect the necklace would have on her. That woman would probably be fine once she got on land, but would it really be okay for Lana to inflict that same kind of pain on Pua, who had no idea what she had agreed to by accepting the jewel? Lana looked at a fiery sunset, nearly the same color as the mandagah jewel hidden under her shirt, and wondered if it would be right for her to use the necklace, no matter what Akua said. Akua's moral compass seemed a little off, sometimes. But then, to have so much power at her fingertips!

I shouldn't use it.

But she wasn't sure if she would, regardless.

8

HE EVENING BEFORE THE SPIRIT SOLSTICE, Leilani took a broom outside their small shop and swept the first leaves of the changing season from the porch. She found that she enjoyed the different seasons on Essel, even though her favorite, the hot season, was criminally short. She especially loved when the leaves changed colors-it made the city look as though it had decorated itself in a profusion of gold, orange, and red specifically for the solstice. The air was warm this evening, but it had lost the muggy edge that had kept so many of Essel's residents in their houses the past month. She hoped sales would pick up when the weather cooled, as had been the trend for the past few years. Kapa had taken the downtime to work on a new kind of percussion instrument that he planned to present to the guild in a few weeks. Leilani had continued her diving lessons and helped around the shop, ticking off the days to when Lana would come home. It ought to be any day now-Lana's last letter had said she would take a ship from Ialo within a week. Leilani had cleaned Lana's room in preparation and bought enough food for a true solstice feast.

Leilani felt oddly nervous as she swept the porch, periodically squinting at the crowds for Lana. It had been so long since she had last seen her daughter, and she supposed she was afraid of discovering how much she had changed. No matter how often they exchanged letters, nothing was an adequate substitute for living with someone-sometimes Leilani thought that she had missed her daughter's whole childhood. She could hardly believe that Lana had turned eighteen-she was a true adult, ready to find a husband and have children of her own. Leilani couldn't help but wish that they could have been a real family, but if she had any regrets, she knew she deserved the blame.

Leilani picked up the broom and headed back inside. On the threshold a familiar voice made her freeze mid-step. She turned around and saw Lana, orange and blue shirttails flying, bounding across the road toward her. They hugged fiercely for a long time, and Leilani surreptitiously wiped a few tears from her eyes before they separated.