The Waterless Sea by Kate Constable Read Free Book Online Page A

one little gasping sob.
    â€˜You’ ll thank me for this one day, boy,’ hisses the man. Then he hits Mouse again, and he knows no more.

two
The Deadly Sands

    M ICA LEANED OVER the side of Fledgewing , staring through a narrow tube. Heben came up behind her. ‘What is that?’
    â€˜Trout made it. You can see far-off things like they was at the end of your hand. Here, look.’
    She passed him the tube and he stared through it. At once the faint line on the horizon, the shore of Merithuros, sprang into sharp focus. Heben could see the dunes, like frozen waves whose shape echoed the waves that curled onto the beach. He swung the tube back and forth. For as far as he could see, the desert stretched away, fold after fold.
    â€˜I thought Doryus were a bleak place,’ said Mica. ‘All rocks and little stunted slava bushes. But this –’ She shivered. ‘It’ s so dead. Don’ t nothin live there?’
    Heben stared at her in amazement. ‘The desert is filled with life. There are all manner of creatures: flocks of hegesi , and wasunti , the wild dogs. Snakes and lizards, and birds and little nadi –’ Seeing her blank look, he held his hands about one span apart. ‘Little burrowing creatures, about so big, with long snuffling noses. Every child in Merithuros, I think, has a nadu for a pet.’
    Halasaa stared toward the shore, his tattooed face difficult to read. So many creatures in such emptiness?
    Heben laughed. Their voyage had lasted a half turn of the moons, and he was becoming accustomed to Halasaa’ s silent speech, though it still startled him to hear that quiet voice inside his head.
    â€˜Wait, and I’ ll show you! The desert is far from empty. Not like this –’ He gestured with a grimace at the sea that lapped all around them.
    â€˜By the gods, you must be joking.’ Tonno, at the tiller, had been listening to their exchange. ‘Why, you can’ t put a bucket into the ocean without drawing out a dozen different kinds of fish and weed.’
    Mica said, ‘There’ s islands near Doryus where you can dive for shellfish, and there’ s gardens all across the bottom of the sea. There’ s beautiful corals taller’ n a man, and flowers bigger’ n your head.’
    â€˜You dive – into that?’
    Calwyn smiled. ‘You and I have something in common, Heben. We who were not raised by the shore have to learn not to fear the sea.’
    â€˜My people do not trust the ocean,’ he admitted.
    â€˜But Merithuros has ports, and traders, and fisher folk, same as every other land. Except Antaris,’ Mica said.
    â€˜Yes. But the coast-dwellers are not true Merithurans. Once they leave the desert life, once they leave the sands, they turn their backs on their true heritage. Criminals and outcasts work in the mines on the coast, and only misfits and orphans, people without family, live by the sea.’
    Calwyn shook her head. ‘Don’ t forget you’ re one of those orphans now,’ she reminded him.
    Half to herself, Mica sang a scrap of a song from her native island.
    â€˜From the river, the sea;
From the sea, the rains;
From the rains, the river. . .’
    Calwyn said, ‘The sea connects us all, it’ s the lifeblood of Tremaris. You will have to learn, as I did, to embrace the ocean, and not to be afraid of it.’
    Heben looked away. It was true, he had forgotten that he had no family now; he was no different from those outcasts he had always scorned and pitied.
    â€˜Ho, Mica!’ called Tonno. ‘Sing us a breeze, lass. This wind is slackening.’
    â€˜Are you sure we’ re far enough fromTeril? It would be a pity to be arrested as chanters at the very beginning of our quest!’
    Calwyn’ s tone was light, and Heben said with a slight bow, ‘My lady jokes, but I fear it is no joking matter. If anyone were to discover you were chanters, your fate