The Elementals Read Free Page B

setting sun, then turned grey, like a beached whale dying at the edge of the sea.
    As they ate their first meal on dry land, some people talked compulsively about their recent experience, retelling the boatbuilding and the battles and the flood, incidents which were already taking on a mythic quality in their minds. Others sat silently, simply trying to comprehend. Trying to realize that they were safe at last.
    Kesair was not so certain of their safety. Any sort of danger might await them on dry land, on what seemed to be a very large and unknown island. They could die a more horrible death in the jaws of wild beasts than they would have suffered by drowning in the sea.
    The next morning, Kesair organized work parties to build huts for the people and pens for the livestock. The men and women
were to be housed separately, for the time being, and as leader she ordered a hut built for herself alone.
    â€œWhy don’t we go farther inland?” Byth suggested.
    â€œNot yet. We don’t know what may be waiting for us. It’s better we stay here for a while until we are established and used to the place.”
    The truth was, she was reluctant to leave the sea. But she did not say this.
    They worked hard, bringing timber from the distant forest. They met no savage beasts, but twice they reported hearing a howling in the distance, as of wolves, and they were overjoyed to sight a herd of deer beyond the trees.
    The group settled into a domestic routine not unlike the one they had known before the catastrophe. “We’re lucky,” she told Byth, who had become the closest thing she had to a confidant. “Among us we have most of the skills we shall need. We can make our own tools and clothing, we can build and repair.”
    She set up her big loom in the lee of her hut, where the morning sun supplied a clear yellow light.
    Not everyone was ready to settle down. Some seemed devoted to grieving over what they had lost, hampering the work of the colony. Kesair learned she could rely on Elisbut, Fintan, Kerish, and the women called Ayn and Ramé to do what must be done, and enlisted them to help her encourage the others.
    On a chill, damp afternoon when rain blew in from the sea in curtains of silver, Fintan came to Kesair’s hut. He paused in the doorway, stooping, peering in, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the gloom. “Are you in here?” he asked uncertainly.
    â€œI am,” she said from a bed made of piled blankets. “I was just resting, listening to the rain.”
    Without waiting for an invitation, Fintan entered the hut. He gave off a smell of wind and water. “We need to talk.”
    â€œSit there.” The thought skittered across Kesair’s mind that she should offer him food, or drink, but she was a solitary creature by nature and had never practiced the skills of hospitality. “Help yourself to whatever you want,” she said lamely, making a vague gesture in the direction of her stores.
    â€œTalk is what I want, some sort of plan. We can’t just stay like this, Kesair. Winter is coming on, we probably need to go farther
inland to avoid the worst of the weather. We don’t even know how bad winter gets in this place.”
    â€œSo how do we know it might be milder inland?”
    â€œIt stands to reason. And there’s another thing …” His eyes were used to the dimness now. He could see her leaning on one elbow, watching him, her long legs stretched out beneath a blanket. Suddenly the hut seemed very small and intimate.
    â€œWhat?” she said.
    He swallowed. “We need to get on with our lives. We’ve been tiptoeing around this for weeks, but we must face the fact. As far as we know, we may be all that remains of the human race. If we don’t reproduce ourselves, it could be the end of mankind.
    â€œOf course, it could be too late already, I know that. But I feel an obligation to try …” He ground to a halt. She