Racing the Dark Read online

  She pulled back the curtains and rolled out her sleeping mat.

  "Why does everything have to change?" she whispered to herself as she sat shivering on the floor.

  Three weeks later, the rains hadn't even paused. If anything, they had gotten stronger. Lana stared out her window, and barely registered the familiar wash of dread. The sun should have begun drying up her island by now. The houses, though designed for floods, wouldn't be able to hold up much longer in this kind of deluge. What if the rains never stopped and her island remained flooded forever? Okilani was right-something was happening. Something to do with the water spirit, maybe, but what?

  It was Kali's birthday. Lana had promised to visit, but she wondered how her parents would feel about her leaving in this kind of rain. The water had gotten too deep and choppy for all but the largest barges to work, but her family owned a small canoe that ought to get her there.

  She walked into the main room, and her father glanced up from his instrument.

  "You're not planning on going somewhere, are you?" he said.

  "It's Kali's birthday. I promised I'd visit."

  "How are you going to get there? Swimming?"

  "That little boat of ours."

  He frowned, then shrugged. "Just don't tell your mother. She'll be upset."

  Lana glanced at the kitchen where her mother was cooking. "All right. I'll be back soon."

  She tied her sandals and then put on her cloak. The boat was perched on the roof, tied down with rope that her father had fastened when the rains first started. She scrambled up the side of the house, almost slipping several times. The wood was soaked and slippery. The waterlogged knots were impossible to untie, so she reached into the pocket of her leibo and pulled out a small knife that she kept for diving emergencies. She cut one of the ropes and then let the boat slide off the roof and into the water. Then she positioned herself right above the tethered boat and slid down the roof herself. Once she was sitting in it fairly comfortably, she cut the second rope and took the paddle.

  It was slow going-it took her nearly forty-five minutes to reach Kali's house. She was soaked through by the time she began to see the brown blob of the house through the rain. It looked strange, though. More lopsided than she remembered. She paddled closer. It looked as though one of the supports had crumbled in the rain. Her chest tightened-was Kali's family okay? It must have happened recently, because as of last night she hadn't heard any news of people's houses collapsing. As she moved closer, she saw two figures huddled on the roof of the side that hadn't fallen. Lana felt a little relief-at least they had all gotten out.

  Then she realized that she couldn't see Kali.

  She paddled faster until she was about ten feet away from the house. Kali's parents were so agitated that she had to shout and wave her arms to get their attention.

  "Hey! What happened? Where's Kali?"

  "The whole thing went down a few minutes ago. We can't find her!" her father called. "We're afraid she got caught somewhere."

  The terror that had settled in Lana's stomach threatened to make her whole body numb.

  "She was in the house?"

  He held his wife while she began to sob. She wasn't a diver. They had probably tried looking for Kali and couldn't dive deeply enough.

  Lana pulled off her coat and shirt and took a deep breath. Then she jumped into the water. It was hard to see through the sediment and broken wood from the collapsed house, but she pushed her way through it ruthlessly, looking for any sign of her friend. She swam around the ruined supports, but didn't find a thing. Her hands were shaking. Where on earth would Kali be? She tried to picture their house in her mind. The kitchen was toward the right side-the part that hadn't collapsed. Kali's room was on the left side. Toward the back. Lana made her way to where the room might have fallen.

  There too, all she saw was a mess of scattered debris. Had Kali gotten pinned underneath it? She blew out the pressure in her ears and dove to the muddy bottom and looked up. In the middle of the mess of the collapse, she caught a glimpse of Kali's brown hair. It seemed bright, as though it was caught on a piece of sunlight. Had it stopped raining? Lana swam as close to her friend as she could. Kali was pinned underneath two large wooden beams. Lana bit her tongue to keep from crying out. Was she still alive? She shook Kali's limp hand and was incredibly relieved when it tightened a little around her own. How long had she been pinned here?

  Four minutes? Kali opened her eyes. They were frantic, but she seemed to smile a little when she saw Lana. Lana shook her head, trying to tell her to relax. She gripped the first beam-roughly as thick as her waist-and struggled to lift it. Although it should have been lighter under the water, it would hardly budge. She glanced at Kali. Her eyes looked familiar, and Lana realized it was because they reminded her of the eyes of the dying mandagah fish from her initiation. Renewed panic gave Lana the energy she needed to shove the beam off of Kali's body. She watched it fall and then felt her friend grip her hand. Kali's face was twisted in a grimace, as though she could barely suppress the pain. Lana's own thoughts felt burned through with fear. Was her best friend really going to die? She bit on her lip until she tasted blood, and started struggling with the second piece of wood. Kali suddenly gripped Lana's hand so hard she felt her bones grind against each other.

  She had the sudden impression that Kali wanted to say something, but of course she couldn't speak underwater. Instead, she bent Lana's head closer to hers, and kissed her gently on the forehead.

  How had she known? Then Kali gasped, and Lana realized that she had finally given into the temptation to suck water in the place of air. Lana pushed the second log off of Kali in one mighty heave and picked up her friend's limp form. She struggled through the maze of supports, back to the surface.

  It wasn't raining anymore, she noticed vaguely, even as she struggled to hold Kali's limp body above the water. She heard some cries and a splash behind her. Someone pulled Kali from her grip and onto a barge. She treaded water next to it, staring helplessly as Kali's father and one of the other men tried to breathe life back into her body. Was she dead? Lana didn't want to believe it, but she had understood that gesture. Yet how could Kali possibly have known? Lana was terrified-so scared that she could taste bile in her throat-that she had been given Kali's dying blessing. She heard Kali's mother, still on the roof, wailing. Her father was crying, too, but silent tears that seemed to fall from his eyes without him noticing.

  The second man who had been blowing air into her mouth stopped, and laid her head back down on the barge. Kali's mother let out a sound that made Lana's brain shiver. She jumped into the water. The water swelled and a little spilled over the top of the barge. Kali's hair floated and turned a strange, beautiful iridescent burgundy. Lana looked at the sky.

  The sun had come out.

  They held her funeral that same day at sunset-one of the first real sunsets in weeks. Already the water level was beginning to recede. It was as though Kali's death had been a sacrifice of appeasement to the water spirit. Maybe now things would go back to normal.

  She hadn't managed to cry yet. Not when they had told her that her best friend was dead, when she already knew. Not when her parents had finally heard the news and her mother had hugged her tightly. Not when she had tried to explain to Kali's mother why it had taken her too long-just seconds too long-to remove the logs that were pinning her daughter below the surface. Not even when she thought of how Kali had kissed her forehead right before she died.

  They held the funeral high in the great, sacred tree of the kukui groves. It was a place of high honor-normally, only elders and divers had funerals held there. Lana appreciated, vaguely, the honor they were giving Kali, who had been neither. But Lana knew how long Kali had stayed alive under the water. If she had wanted to be a diver, she would have been a fine one.

  Everyone who could leave their houses had come. They climbed up the tree silently, wearing their best clothes. Lana hadn't changed. She climbed the tree without a shi
rt, wearing the same leibo and sandals she had worn when she dove in after Kali earlier in the day. Every person brought a covered lamp, and as the crowd grew the great tree began to look mystically illuminated, as though there were hundreds of spirits gathering among them to see Kali away. Okilani and the other seven elders stood on the platform built in the middle of the upper regions of the tree. Kali's body lay there as well, naked except for three large leaves covering her torso. Lana had a good view because people seemed eager to let her through to the closest branches. She wondered what they had heard about her dive. She wondered if they blamed her for Kali's death.

  Her hands started trembling on the branches and she forced herself to stop. Okilani glanced at her from the platform with an expression of pure pity. Lana found herself growing angry. Why did everyone seem to pity her? She didn't deserve it. If anything, she deserved their blame. She hadn't been able to save Kali ...

  Okilani raised her hands and pounded her staff three times on the platform.

  "Tonight, we gather for the sending of Kali bei'Maiu. By rights, today should have been a celebration of her year beginning, but circumstances have proved otherwise. The changes that have affected us all have now taken one of us away. If there are any words of comfort I can offer tonight, it is that Kali, whose gentle spirit we all loved, will be in a place far away from the great changes I sense coming. Changes that may alter our way of life forever."

  Lana stared at Kali's face. What would she think of this? Would she find it funny, that everyone was according her such respect? She didn't really look dead. She looked like she would get up at any minute and sneak away with Lana, to go off and giggle in one of the tall trees while they ate oranges and threw away the peels. Could it really all be over?

  The elders moved around Kali's body so that Okilani stood by her head. The high elder took off her necklace and unstrung one of her jewels-the orange one, Lana saw. She placed it in the center of one of the palm fronds that covered Kali's body. Aya was next. She pulled a beautifully colored white jewel from her necklace and placed it on the second leaf. Lai'i, another elder, placed a blue one on the third leaf.

  Lana had only seen one of these rituals before in her life, when she was much younger. She stared, fascinated despite herself. When the jewels had been placed, the elders held hands and bowed their heads over her body. They chanted in unison, but Lana couldn't understand what they were saying. It sounded like her language, but some ancient, unfamiliar version of it. Lana felt a strange sense of a presence gathering as they chanted, and the air smelled thick, like it was about to rain. When she glanced at the sky, however, it was clear-the wisps of clouds she could see above the tree branches hardly looked like they could threaten any rain. She looked back at the elders. Their chanting grew more intense, and now Lana was sure she sensed something. It was a strange kind of power-it smelled like the sea, but also like the earth. If she had revealed the red jewel and they had initiated her into these rites, she may have known what they were doing. But as it was she could only sit and watch. It felt, though ... it felt as though they were calling an earth spirit. Maybe even the spirit of this tree. Earth spirits were one of the wild ones-the ones that humans had never tried to capture and control.

  With a shout, Okilani broke the circle, picked up her staff and pointed it at Kali's body. The air began to shimmer-like it does when you stare through the heat of a fire-and then Kali's body burst into flames.

  The flames were pure white, and they didn't spread to the wooden platform although there was nothing separating it from her body. Lana's fingers tightened around the branch she was holding. Kali was dead.

  "It's not your fault, Lana."

  Lana felt tears spring to her eyes. "It is. If I moved a little faster, I could have saved you." Then Lana realized who she was talking to. Kali was bathed in the crackling white light from the fire, but she still wore the clothes Lana had last seen her in.

  "You're ..." her voice came out in little more than a whisper.

  "I'm leaving soon. It wasn't your fault, Lana. The house had half-crushed me. I wouldn't have survived. I knew that."

  Tears were streaming down Lana's face, and she wiped them away furiously. "Is that why ... you ..."

  Kali smiled. "You're special, Lana. The mandagah see it, and now I've seen it too. There's something about you. Something that eases death."

  Lana was pretty sure that this was a quality she didn't need, but she just nodded.

  "You're marked," Kali said. She seemed to be fading. "I can see that now. It will be true for the rest of your life-but watch out for those who can see it. They'll want to find out why. They'll want to use you for it." Her voice even sounded distant.

  "K-Kali, please don't go!"

  Kali looked sad, but shook her head. "I have to. There's nowhere else."

  "What about our pact?"

  "Keep it for me, Lana."

  Kali waved, and then floated up the tree until she was in the highest branches. The sun sank below the horizon and she disappeared.

  Lana looked back at the fire. It had gone out. There weren't even ashes to indicate that Kali's body had been there-only the three mandagah jewels, untouched.

  People stared at Lana as she and her parents made their way down the tree. They knew she had been visited by Kali's spirit-they had heard her side of the conversation, after all. Lana tried not to look at Kali's parents, but she felt their accusing stares anyway. Why had Kali visited Lana and not her own parents? She didn't really know, but she felt guilty all the same. Kapa had tethered the canoe to the bottom of the tree. The three of them climbed inside and Kapa began to paddle home.

  Tears slid out of Lana's eyes and she couldn't seem to stop them. To her shame, some of the tears were for herself. Even if she had doubted it before, now she knew she was marked, and in a way she had never wanted. Something about her "eased death?" The very idea terrified her. How had this happened? All she had ever wanted to do was dive for mandagah fish and then travel with Kali. She had planned to find the Kulanui when she was older and learn all the magnificent useless things Kohaku so prized. How had all of her dreams been so ruined?

  Her father broke the silence. "I think we should leave," he said in a quiet but clear voice.

  Lana stared at his back through her tears. She felt her mother's hands tighten on her shoulders. Although she knew that she should still be supporting her mother on this issue, she found that she couldn't summon the energy. Suddenly, she realized that she didn't care anymore if they left or stayed.

  "I already told you," her mother said, "I won't leave. It's too much like running away."

  Her father turned around angrily. "Kali is dead. Do you want to wait for Lana's turn? Life on this island is dying, Lei. Even Okilani sees it. The skies might have parted now, but who knows what this terrible flooding has done to the island? It's not safe to be here anymore, and without the mandagah fish, I don't know why we would."

  "But this is my home ..." her mother sounded desperate.

  "Then make another home, with me in Essel. Don't you love me enough to do that, Lei?"

  When her mother just buried her head in her hands without replying, Lana was shocked enough to stop crying herself. What was happening to her family?

  Kapa said nothing more as they slowly made their way home.

  Leilani left an hour after they had returned home. Kapa refused to stop arguing that they should leave the island, and finally she had stormed out in disgust. It was a beautiful warm and clear night anyway, and she was relieved to be away from her frustrated husband. At first she was simply paddling aimlessly, but eventually she realized that she had made her way near Okilani's house. She smiled a little, despite everything. Somehow she always ended up here when her life started to overwhelm her. She pulled up to the base of the tree, tethered the boat, and climbed up the ladder. As she knocked on the door, she thought of traveling to a place where there weren't any ancient kukui trees with houses built into them and felt her chest constrict. Ho
w could Kapa ever consider leaving this place?

  Okilani opened the door.

  "Oh, Leilani. I thought I had heard someone in a boat. Come in."

  Leilani walked into the familiar house. She had been here countless times before to drink tea and talk with her mentor. She had always loved those moments.

  "It's a beautiful night, isn't it," Okilani said as they walked through the house. "Why don't we sit on the roof?"

  Leilani smiled and nodded. Okilani first went to the kitchen and took a pot of simmering tea off the fire and brought it up the stairs with two clay teacups. Okilani insisted on pouring them each a cup and settling into the chairs before she let Leilani speak.

  "So, what brings you here tonight? You look too worried for a social call."

  Leilani laughed. "You know me well."

  "I've known you since you were born, Lei. And tonight you look the way you did when your mother died. What's wrong?"

  Leilani took a long sip of the tea, ignoring the way it burned her tongue.

  "It's Kapa. He says he wants to leave the island and sell his instruments on Essel. He says that things have gotten too dangerous here and our way of life is dying. Without the mandagah fish, he says, there's no point in staying. And now poor Kali ... it just seemed to make him want to leave even more."

  "And how do you feel?" Okilani was staring up at the moon, sipping her tea.

  "I know I can't leave. I'm a diver and I have a duty to this island. Leaving now would just be running away, wouldn't it?"

  Okilani sighed. "Lei, I know this may be a hard thing for you to hear-and it's a hard thing for me to say-but I think it might actually be a good idea for you to leave. When these waters recede, I'm afraid we're going to discover that the only mandagah left are the ones we saved in the lake. There won't be any diving. Even the regular fish trade will be slow. Things are changing, and in a way, you may be safer on Essel. I can't leave-my soul as an elder is bound to this place. But you can leave, Lei. Let Kapa follow his dream, and let Lana put some distance between herself and what happened today."