Through the Whirlpool Read Free Page A

Kreh-ursh would rather perish than fail this test. His future, he knew, was with the Shahee, his people. Any other alternative was unthinkable.
    On the shingle above the high tide mark, a crowd had gathered. Kreh-ursh spied his parents and waved, then stopped, unsure if that seemed too childish for this moment. Then he saw her, another figure standing apart, her loneliness like a shout against the strong group feeling shared by the village. Their eyes met. She tried to smile, but merely prompted his own tears to swell. He swallowed, biting back guilt, rage, many things he could not express. However, he showed her, pulling the scarlet leather pouch from his tunic so the boy’s mother would know: Kaar-oh might yet complete sea-nomad-becoming, symbolically, if not in fact.
    “ It is time!”
    At the shahiroh’s cry, Kreh-ursh, Geh-meer, and the other candidates walked down to the water’s edge. The wet sand felt cold underfoot. The Shahee placed themselves on either side of the heavy vessel, and, as the shahiroh began to chant, they added their voices. Sacred syllables spilled into the crisp dawn. Energy rippled from the chanting sea callers to the great canoe and back again. Unseen currents hummed, reaching deep into the marrow of bones, yet uplifting, calling upon all those present to believe in the event about to begin: sea-nomad-becoming, the foremost rite of their tribe.
    The shahiroh scrambled aboard, calling the seven candidates after them, guiding each to a separate bench, isolated from their companions.
    Seaward, the sky was pale aquamarine torn with pink-tinted clouds. A marine bird screamed harshly. The Shahee began to heave at the canoe, which slid slowly out into the morning surf. This was a sight Kreh-ursh had often seen in the dawn, but always from the beach: sailors wading waist deep into the waves, spray cascading, drenching backs, shattering itself against the wooden hull.
    At another command, the Shahee scrambled aboard, and paddles were grabbed up with bangs and rattles. There was a sharp smack as fifty blades hit the water in unison. The heavy canoe reared against the breakers, straining for the open sea. Soon they were sliding between rocky headlands, leaving the enclosed harbor behind. As the canoe struggled to the top of the first long ocean swell, Kreh-ursh could not resist sending a silent farewell to his village, to his parents and friends... but especially to that woman alone on the shingle. The horizon, paling to celestial blue, was now glimmering white-gold, echoed by the rolling banks of kree-eh that sucked in the growing light, reflecting it back through the waves. Then a bright sliver of the sun’s disk slipped above the edge of the world. The great canoe, paddles flashing like fins, surged across the sea toward the sunrise.

Ren a
 
    “B een looking for you, Weasel!”
    As Jade jumped up to run, Rena dropped her board, and her weight crashed into Jade like a toppling tower of bricks. Jade struggled, yet the older girl had her, twisting an arm behind her back. Jade shrieked in pain.
    “ Come on, Weasel. Let’s go and have a talk back there in the dunes. Uufghh!” Kyle had swung his boogie board at her back.
    “ Stop it, bully!” He was hysterical, his voice high-pitched with fear.
    “ It’s okay, Kyle. We’re just playing.” The things you say. Rena ignored him then. Twisting Jade’s other arm behind her, she frog-marched her up the sand. Jade knew she was done for. The best she could hope would be to end up like Miguel, with a broken arm or worse. What an idiot! Why get on the unsociable side of someone with three times your killing power? If only she could teleport, find herself on a different planet. But they were closing on the dunes. She was in serious trouble. Teleporting did not exist. Soon Jade would not exist either. Kyle’s dumb screaming in her ears would be the final thing she ever heard.
    Then a piercing whistle ripped through the summer ’s day, knocking a couple