Through the Whirlpool Read Online Free Page B

closing her eyes. Her mind drifted back to that tunnel... It was all fading… the sun leaching out her strength. It didn ’t matter.
    “ Jade! What’s that?”
    Sitting up, she saw her mom squinting down at the water. The sun shining off the surface meant that all she could see was the sea’s green-gold glitter.
    “ What?” As her eyes adjusted, she discerned her brother having another go at riding a wave. Kyle was not paddling out far enough to catch them before they broke. Then he’d sit on his board waiting too long. The truth was his arms were way too short for him to get up a decent speed. She chuckled.
    “ Look!”
    She looked . “All I see is one really bad surfer. You know, Kyle just doesn’t have what it takes in the surfing department.”
    “ You weren’t so hot yourself when you were his age, Miss Superior. But I don’t mean Kyle. What’s that out there?”
    Now that her eyes had got used to the glare, Jade saw, beyond the breakers, what looked like a dark smudge on the water. It was moving, but not very fast. Could it be a school of fish? Or a… It didn’t look like any creature she recognized. The long, dark shape slid slowly, calmly, across the bay. Her mother’s voice was tense but calm:
    “ Come on, let’s get Kyle out of the water.”

Alo ne
 
    T he sky was aflame with gold, ruby red, and polished copper. Streaks of purple like the shreds of a king’s robe snagged the clouds, as if some titan-sized monarch, fleeing for his life, had left his riches strewn across the battlefield of his defeat. The endless sea reflected the sunset’s colors, and as hard as he scanned the horizon line, Kreh-ursh could see no break or cloud to indicate the land where his people’s village lay nestled in its protected bay.
    His body still rolled fr om the waves’ motion. Even here on the sand, he could sense the bottomless deep of the ocean below, hear whispering currents flowing all around. The solid shore pitched and dipped as if this island too were an enormous vessel, a thousand times larger, a million times older than the great canoe that had dropped him here just a short time ago.
    The landing was abrupt. That morning Kreh-ursh had wat ched the twin bluffs that harbored his home meld into the line of the coast. Eventually, even that verdant band had sunk below the horizon without a final farewell. Then only waves remained, heaving the canoe high, releasing it into their troughs.
    At that point the shahiroh had blindfolded him, depriving him of any chance to track their course. Soon he felt the canoe change direction. Though he tried to chart their course from the prevailing breeze and slap of waves against the hull, the regular stroke of the Shahees’ paddles put him off. Finally he gave up. They were heading generally east. He would have to plot his position afresh when they arrived. So he sat, blind and silent, allowing the ocean’s green music to soften the pain of leaving home, and seduce him with its whispered promises of adventure. Throughout the day they traveled, the Shahees’ paddles slicing a regular rhythm under a relentless sun.
    As they approached Zjhuud-geh, sighted late in the afternoon, with the sun sinking behind them, his blindfold was removed. Squinting, Kreh-ursh glanced back at Geh-meer, but she looked totally absorbed in herself. Then his attention was grabbed by the island as they skirted its reef in a wide circle. Huge rollers ripped themselves to silvery ribbons on its perimeter.
    Finally , the chief shahiroh called out a command, and the vessel turned and began to surf in on the back of a slow roller. A low hum arose fore and aft, resonating through the craft’s timbers, issuing from the mouths of Shahee and shahiroh. The entire vessel began to tingle, raising goose bumps up and down Kreh-ursh’s arms. All the Shahee strained their paddles into the water with more force than ever, pushing the great canoe ever harder and faster, straight toward the island. Just as it