The Incredible Tide Read Free Page A

you—” She paused, then said in a suddenly harsh voice, “We find it very strange that you managed to thrive where others would have died or gone mad. How did you do it?”
    Conan shrugged. “I did have some help, of course. Maybe it was a guardian spirit. I never saw him, but I certainly heard his voice—”
    â€œOh, rot!” the woman interrupted impatiently. “Next you’ll be telling us there’s a God.” She frowned. “It could be your diet. What have you been eating besides fish? Birds?”
    â€œWould you eat your friends?” Conan retorted.
    The captain growled, “Take him aboard and do your questioning later. We’ve wasted enough time here.”
    Conan started to back away, but the two younger men seized him. He shook them off angrily and sent them both sprawling with a display of strength he had not dreamed he possessed.
    â€œI’ll go with you,” he said. “But not until I’ve told my friends good-by.”
    He turned and bounded up the steps to the platform. As the circling birds closed in about him, he raised his hands to them and spoke to each in a voice that was no longer steady. “I—I must leave,” he said. “Maybe, someday, I’ll see you all again. Tikki—”
    Suddenly he snatched a curling yellow hair from his tangled mane, and swiftly wrapped and tied it about one of Tikki’s legs.
    â€œGo!” he urged. “Go back to Lanna.”
    When the bird finally understood, it rose, circled once, and began flying westward over the sea. Conan swallowed and watched it go, then went grimly down to face his captors.

2
    SECRET
    I N THE DIM KITCHEN OF HER GRANDFATHER’S COTTAGE at High Harbor, where so many young people had been flown before the Change, Lanna carefully sifted the meal she had ground and showed it to her aunt.
    â€œThis ought to be enough to feed everyone. Don’t you think so?”
    Mazal sniffed. “More than enough. If I had my way—”
    â€œYou’d probably poison the wretch,” Lanna said, smiling in spite of how she felt.
    â€œAnd would you blame me? Phah! That two-faced toad! And to think that we’ll have to sit here at the table with him, knowing what we know, and swallow all his lies. Honestly, why Shann ever invited him to supper—”
    â€œBut he almost had to, Mazal. You know that.”
    â€œOh, I suppose so. If we’re forced to trade with the New Order, we have to pretend to be friendly with them. But it burns me up—the whole thing, I mean. If Shann only knew the truth—”
    â€œBut he doesn’t. And we can’t tell him.”
    â€œI don’t know. I almost think we should tell him.”
    â€œBut Teacher said not to.”
    â€œYes, but that was before the trade ship came.” Mazal frowned at the peas she had picked and almost angrily began shelling them. “To think that we have to feed that creature—What’s his name?”
    â€œDyce. Commissioner Dyce. I know how you feel. He’s so—so demanding. You’d think he owns us, the way he acts.”
    â€œAnd he will,” Mazal snapped. “If these crazy young ones here let him. It frightens me. That’s why Shann should know the truth. After all, Teacher put him in charge here. As the only doctor, he shouldn’t have to be worried with it—he’s run ragged taking care of everyone. If we could just think of someone else—”
    â€œThere isn’t anyone else,” Lanna said quietly.
    â€œNo, I suppose not. No one that’s old enough and smart enough, that we could trust. It’s an awful situation. I wish I knew what to do.”
    They looked at each other almost in despair, the very slender, pale girl with the startlingly dark eyes, and the gaunt young redheaded woman who was her aunt. After five years of hardship the difference in their ages had ceased to matter, and their regard for