Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(26) Nightcatcher

I ignore this. "So? Where now?"

"We need somewhere safe to sleep." He tips his chin at the darkness ahead. "There are sometimes caves in the Shalda"—something-something. Or Ki-something.

I cross my arms and wait. He's already near collapse with nerves and exhaustion, but he still manages to wilt another increment when he sees the look.

"Shalda-Ki-Te." He makes four signs: near-land, away from land, upper, and lower. "Ki and Ro, Te and Tu."

It's an ocean classification system. If I assume the modifiers can be applied to Shalda, Sami, and Karu in varying combination like I've seen him use, that means his people sliver the ocean into at least twelve different regions. And that's not even counting territories and landforms. Rashi help me, it's water. All deep, salty water. Though I guess not all of it is deep.

I test the system on the other mention I've seen of it. The Seers of the Shalda-Ki-Tu. If Ki is near land—apparently the seafloor counts—and Tu is lower, Shalda-Ki-Tu translates, as far as I'm concerned, to deep-mud-deeper. The bottom of the ocean. I guess that explains why a Karu queen found the Seers while travelling across the seafloor in pursuit of a giant clam demigod's song.

Taiki stops short of tapping me on the shoulder, gives me a nervous look, and beckons me instead. Good, another improvement. He's learning to treat me like a proper island sun-dancer; like someone who owes him nothing, and is letting him stick around when she could very well leave him to the Baria Kels instead. We sneak together across the plain, suddenly very exposed after the rocks of the canyon. I feel the change in the current before we reach the wall it's flowing down. Well, "wall" isn't really the best description. It's more like a hill, rugged and as packed with growths of strange life forms as the canyon was.

I poke my finger into a translucent, gaping, mouth-like thing on a fleshy stalk, and nearly wet myself as it clamps shut. It's as soft as fabric. I poke another stalked thing next, this one resplendent in long, feathery plumes like a miniature replica of a palm tree. Unlike a palm tree, the plumes move, scrunching in on themselves.

Taiki gives me a weary look. I interpret that as an ask to stop poking sea life, so I immediately look around for something else to poke. There's a nice, button-like space in the center of a nearby anemone. I stick a finger in it, then whip back as a blistering sting straps me across the back of the hand. The tentacles that brushed against me invert into a fat pillow like the thing has swallowed its own arms. I whip out my dagger and stab it. Taiki winces.

He can go suck on his own tail.

We wander the incline for a bit until Taiki finds the first cave. I'm not really helping him look. I approach the hole in the rock, but he has the nerve to hold out a hand to pause me. I'm tired and hungry and not in the mood to listen to anyone—let alone him—so I slap his arm down and shove past him. I'm met with teeth. Taiki drags me back as I flail, trying to stab the thing. I try to stab him instead. His hand closes on my wrist in a grip much stronger than I was anticipating. The next moment, I'm armlocked. Efficiently armlocked. I twist and spit like a wild thing.

Something slithers from the cave and into the darkness, and Taiki finally releases me. I spin around, but he jets out of reach and hovers there, glaring.

"You don't intrude on an eel's cave without asking permission," he signs.

"I do whatever I want."

I light my hands and swim into the cave with a lot less caution than I know I should be exercising. I don't care. I'm so caught up in my anger, I nearly run smack into a wall of jelly before I see what's ahead of me. I freeze in horror.