Racing the Dark Read Free Page B

believe what had happened just a few hours ago-her decision to hide it already weighed heavily. She put both jewels in her deep pockets, tied on her sandals, and ran outside. The quicker she finished curing them, the quicker she could forget that the entire incident had ever happened.
    She ran over the hot sand to the shed where they kept the curing supplies. Her father sat inside, diligently working on one of his tortoise shell lutes. She groaned inwardly. How was she going to get him to leave?
    He looked up as she approached and smiled. "You look beautiful, Lana. Just like your mother did that day."
    Lana blushed. "Please, Papa!"
    "I guess you want to cure your jewel, don't you? Well, I'll leave you in peace. Just let me finish stringing this."
    Lana watched as he delicately pulled the shiny cured mandagah tail hair over the length of the tortoise shell. Making and playing instruments was her father's passion-any time he could spare from fishing was spent in this shed. On the days when Eala, one of the older divers, opened her large house to sell palm wine, he spent hours playing for her customers in the makeshift village watering hole. Lana's mother supported Kapa's passion for music, but Lana sometimes got the sense that Leilani wished her husband could have pursued a more profitable hobby. But Leilani always harvested the mandagah tail hairs that Kapa used to string his instruments. Once cured, they produced a sound finer than any other material. He sold a few every year during trading season, but they hardly earned enough money to justify all the time he spent making them. For her part, Lana didn't mind at all, because her father used his instruments to make beautiful music.

    Kapa ran his fingers experimentally over the strings. He closed his eyes as he listened to them reverberate inside the tortoise shell and smiled a little in satisfaction. Later he would place the sliders over the strings that would produce a wider range of notes.
    He stood up. "I'm going over to Eala's for a while."
    "I'll see you tonight, right?"
    He smiled. "Of course, how could I miss it? Congratulations on today, Lana. We are both ... your mother and I ... incredibly proud of you."
    Lana fiddled with her ear. "Silly parents. Now get going."
    Kapa laughed and left the shed.
    Lana shut the door carefully before she pulled out the two jewels. She laid them on a piece of dry canvas that she had spread out on the worktable. Then she hauled out a sack of heavy curing salt from one of the lower cabinets. Salt was best for curing mandagah jewels, but it had to be used carefully, because it was the worst of bad luck to drop any salt on the sand. After all, mandagah were freshwater fish, and even the smallest bit of salt could kill them. Kohaku, who had come to their little island from the great Kulanui on Essel, would call that sort of thinking "rustic superstition," but Lana was still superstitious enough to be careful. After all, it wasn't as though Kohaku would have to know. She cringed at the thought of his glare of withering condescension directed towards her. She thought he liked her-maybe even respected her. Well, she hoped, anyway. She bit back a sudden smile and shook her head. She hoped.
    Balancing the heavy bag precariously on one knee, Lana used her left hand to scoop out a handful of salt. That ought to be enough for both jewels. The rough white crystals were still cupped in her hand when she lost her balance and bumped into the worktable. She watched in horror as the red jewel began to roll off the canvas. If it hit the sand, the rotting process would start immediately, and she might not be able to salvage it. With a silent cry, she tossed her handful of salt to the sand and caught the jewel just before it rolled off the table.

    "Oh Kai ... water spirit, please, please don't pay any attention to this. It was just an accident. Please don't make the water salty!"
    She couldn't be sure if the spirit had heard her, but she couldn't let the