"Nice to meet you, Ayla," said Raka, committing the girls' names and respective jewelry to memory.
"Good," said Grandpa Po, clapping his hands together. "Now you may go."
As much as they clearly enjoyed joking around with Grandpa Po, the twins were more than ready to leave. As soon as he gave them permission, Eenie and Ayla spun and scampered away from the house.
"Come on, Cryssa!" they said without looking back.
Raka shrugged and waved to Grandpa Po, then hurried out after the twins.
*****
Walking fast, sometimes running, the twins led Raka through the village without giving her much time to look around. Along the way, they quickly introduced her to people whom they passed, but they never stopped moving. Raka had the feeling that Eenie and Ayla were in a hurry to get somewhere, though they didn't seem to be in as much of a hurry to tell her where that might be.
Raka guessed that she would find out sooner or later, because the twins never stopped talking. As they rushed through the village, they chattered nonstop about boys, other girls (some friends, some not) and every single person they came across while leading Raka around.
"Oh, there's Deela!" said Eenie, waving at a girl sitting in front of a house some distance away. "Hey, Deela!"
Deela waved back. "Don't forget to take Cryssa to see the tree castle!" she shouted.
"We won't!" said Eenie.
Raka was walking between the twins, and Ayla leaned close to her as Eenie waved and shouted. "Deela's nice," said Ayla, "but don't get on her bad side! One time, she lied about this other girl, Listy, and got her in trouble because Listy liked the same boy as Deela."
Raka frowned and shook her head. "That's terrible," she said.
Ayla leaned closer and lowered her voice. "The boy liked Deela better than Listy," she said breathlessly, "but when he found out what Listy did, he stopped talking to her!"
"Wow!" said Raka, eyes wide with excitement...more because Eenie and Ayla's excitement was contagious than because the story was so fascinating. Though Raka had only known them a short time, she thought that the twins were great; none of the girls her age on Shark Island had been so full of energy and gossip...at least not around Raka.
"Do you like my necklace, Cryssa?" said Eenie, touching the colorful shells that hung from her throat. "I made it myself! Well, I didn't make the twine, but I gathered the shells and put holes in them and strung them together myself!"
"I love it," said Raka. "I've never seen such a pretty necklace."
Eenie smiled proudly, then shrugged. "It was easy," she said. "I can make one for you, too, if you want."
"Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that," said Raka.
"Then don't ask," Eenie said with a grin. "I'll do it anyway."
In a flash, the girls left the village and hurried along a path between lush, green banana trees. Bright feathered birds all the colors of the rainbow swooped and whirled among the fat, emerald leaves.
"There's Colo," said Ayla. Up ahead, a boy rounded a bend in the path, carrying bunches of bananas in both hands. "Hi, Colo!"
The boy looked older than any of them, but apparently wasn't old enough to wear the black Kee pendant that all the adults wore around their necks. His green eyes were brighter than any that Raka had yet seen on the island, and he had an easygoing, good-natured kind of smile. Raka remembered seeing him at the feast the night before but had not talked to him then.
"Hi, girls," said Colo, looking at Raka as he strolled toward them. "How do you like the island so far, Cryssa?"
"It's wonderful," said Raka, smiling back at him.
"We're showing her around," said Eenie, taking Raka's hand and hurrying her past Colo. "See you later!"
Colo had to step off the path when the girls squeezed by him. "Make sure you take her to see the crystal caves!" he said.
"We will," said Ayla. "Thanks, Colo!"
As soon as they made it around the bend, Eenie and Ayla both started giggling. Raka wasn't sure what was so funny, but she couldn't help laughing along with them.
" 'How do you like the island so far, Cryssa?' " Eenie said mockingly, repeating what Colo had said.
"He's so weird!" said Ayla.
"But cute," said Eenie. "And he likes you, Cryssa!"
"You think so?" said Raka. She looked back but had gone too far past the bend to see Colo.
"Uh-huh," said Eenie, giggling as she clutched Raka's arm. "It was like Ayla and I weren't even there!"
"I don't know," said Raka. "He seems nice, though."
"He kissed me once," said Ayla, grinning mischievously.
"Me, too!" said Eenie, and then she and her sister exploded in a fresh round of uncontrollable laughter.
Raka laughed, too. Her ordeal on the ocean seemed far away. For the first time in ages, she was having fun instead of worrying or struggling to survive. More than that, for the first time in her life, she was just goofing around with girls her own age...girls who treated her like a friend instead of a freak without gills or the daughter of the king of the Sharkites.
It was nothing at all like her life on Shark Island had been, and she loved every minute of it.
"Come on!" said Eenie when they left the grove of banana trees and reached the bank of a sparkling stream. "This way!"
Ayla put a finger to her lips. "And be quiet," she said, letting out a giggle in mid-whisper. "We don't want him to know we're here!"
Raka nodded. She tried her best to be quiet as she followed the twins, but it wasn't easy. The brush along the stream was up to her waist, and the leaves and branches rustled and cracked as she pushed through them.
Soon, the brush got even thicker, and the stream widened. The twins moved more slowly, crouching down, and Raka did the same.
Finally, Eenie and Ayla dropped down out of sight altogether. On hands and knees, they crawled a little further, then stopped. Carefully, Eenie pushed apart some leaves in front of her and peered out from the hiding place.
Eyes wide, she turned to Ayla and Raka and nodded slowly. "He's here," Eenie said in a whisper.
"Now you're going to see a really cute boy," said Ayla. Squeezing forward, she peeked through the leaves and sighed. "My future husband," she said wistfully.
"My future husband," said Eenie, giving Raka a knowing smile.
When the twins invited Raka to have a look, she wriggled between them and pushed aside the leaves. On the far side of a pool at the base of a misty waterfall, she saw a young man crouching on a big, smooth stone with a spear in his hand. He watched the water intently, following the movement of something under the surface...and then, suddenly, he jabbed the spear into the pool.
When he drew the spear out of the water, a gleaming, silver-skinned fish was twisting on the point of it.
"His name is Talis," said Ayla. "Isn't he handsome?"
"He just caught a fish," said Raka.
"Get out of the way, Raka," said Eenie. "I want to see."
Raka gave her a playful push. "But I'm not done yet," she said.
"Oh, yes you are!" said Eenie.
The next thing Raka knew, she, Eenie, and Ayla were wrestling and laughing in the brush. They ended up making so much noise that Talis called out to them, asking who was there.
Instead of answering, the girls scrambled out of the brush and ran off into the jungle, giggling all the way.
Before returning Raka to her Grandpa Po as they had promised, Eenie and Ayla took her to see three more boys. Raka never did get to see the crystal caves that day, or the tree castle or any of the island's other wonders that people had told her about.
But that was just fine with her. The tour of the island, as far as she was concerned, had been just perfect.
*****
Chapter Fifteen
"Sylva and Kee are the same," said Grandpa Po. "That is what we believe."
Raka nodded as she walked alongside him down the path. After eating lunch, the two of them had set out for the lagoon, where Grandpa Po said she would mee
t her Kee family.
"We look different," said Grandpa Po. "We can do different things. But neither Sylva nor Kee is any better or worse than the other. All the same, you see?"
"Yes," said Raka. A young man and woman waved at her as they passed, and Raka waved back with a smile.
"Sylva and Kee depend on each other to survive," said Grandpa Po. "They need each other. That is why we link our families together. We think of the Kee as we think of ourselves."
The talk of meeting her Kee family had Raka excited...and also troubled. She hesitated before telling Grandpa Po what was bothering her, then finally decided to get it out in the open. She felt like she could confide in him, so she did.
"On Shark Island," she said nervously, "we didn't call them Kee. We didn't join families with them."
Grandpa Po frowned and nodded. "I have heard that," he said seriously.
Raka drew in a deep breath and released it. She was getting to the part that most worried her. "The Sharkites eat the Kee," she said.
"This I know," said Grandpa Po.
Raka stopped walking, and so did her grandpa. "Do you think the Kee would still want me in their family," she said, "if they found out that I've eaten Kee, too?"
Grandpa Po stared at her gravely. "Raka," he said. "They already know."
"They know?" said Raka.
*****
"They know," said Grandpa Po, lightly touching her arm, "and they understand. They know that you didn't know any better. They know that no one taught you that what you did was wrong. They don't hold it against you."
Raka couldn't believe what she was hearing. The kind of forgiveness Grandpa Po was describing was unlike anything she had known on Shark Island.
"I'm ashamed," she said, looking down at the ground. "I've eaten Kee more times than I can remember. And my clothes are made of their skin."
"No need for shame," said Grandpa Po. "You were misled. It wasn't your fault.
"As for your clothes, I've arranged for new ones. Before we go to the lagoon, we're stopping by the home of Mana, the seamstress. She has a new dress ready for you, and she'll get rid of the Kee-skin you have on."
Raka's eyes brightened. "Really?" she said.
"The Kee are forgiving," said Grandpa Po, "but we must show them respect. Besides, that dress you have on has seen better days."
Raka looked down at the dress, which was filthy and torn, and nodded in agreement. She looked back up at her grandpa and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for understanding," she said. "Thank you for making me feel better."
"Just making up for lost time," said Grandpa Po. "All those years that we were apart. Fifteen years of lost time."
*****
As she and Grandpa Po stood on the shore of the lagoon, Raka couldn't stop admiring her new dress.
The material was light and soft to the touch. It was simply cut, falling straight from under her arms to just below her knees.
What stood out the most were the colors and designs printed on the material. The dress was all pink and white, covered with a pattern of flower blossoms like the one she had worn behind her ear at the feast.
Whenever she looked away and looked back at the dress, she felt as if she were seeing it for the first time. It felt magical, like something from a dream.
She had never seen such a dress on Shark Island, not even on Queen Perza. The people on Shark Island had all worn grayfish skins or animal skins without decoration of any kind. The only designs they had worn on their bodies were the swirling black tattoos inked into their flesh...and tattoos couldn't compare to the crowd of pink and white flowers on her dress.
Without a doubt, the new dress that Mana had given her was the prettiest thing that Raka had ever worn in her life.
She had a hard time taking her eyes off it, which was why she wasn't watching the lagoon when the Kee approached. She didn't look up until Grandpa Po nudged her with his elbow and pointed a bony finger at the water.
"Look there," he said. "Your family is coming."
A dozen Kee glided toward her from the center of the lagoon, gray backs glistening in the bright sunlight. Automatically, Raka scanned the group for Seek...then quickly realized that she couldn't tell the Kee apart from a distance. She realized that she might not be able to tell them apart close up, either; searching her mind for some unique feature of Seek's appearance, she could think of nothing that set him apart from other Kee except for his size. If he were in a group of Kee who were all the same size, Raka didn't think that she could pick him out from the others.
As the Kee sailed in, Grandpa Po waved his gnarled cane in the air to greet them. "Hello, my friends!" he said, hobbling a step forward.
The Kee at the head of the group raised his snout and splashed his tail in the water. "Hello, friend!" he said in a voice that was a bit lower than Seek's had been.
Grandpa Po clapped a hand on Raka's shoulder. "This is Cryssa," he said. "Daughter of Sho and Seela. Sister of Tulo. Grand-daughter of Po."
"I am your brother, Leed," said the Kee who had spoken first. "You have grown quite a bit since I last saw you."
For an instant, Raka was surprised to hear Leed say that he had seen her before. Sometimes, she still forgot that she had lived on the island as a baby before she was stolen away.
"It's good to have you with us again, Cryssa," said Leed. "It's good to have the family back together again."
"Thank you," said Raka, smiling...trying to get used to the fact that creatures she had once thought of as food considered her part of their family. "It's good to be back."
"Cryssa," said Leed. "Your sisters and cousins have presents for you."
As Raka looked over the group of Kee, she saw that some of them carried objects in their mouths. One of the Kee bobbed its snout in the air, showing off something that glittered in the sunlight.
Grandpa Po gave Raka a light push toward the water. "Go on," he said. "Go out and see what they've brought you."
Raka took two steps forward and stopped. She was surprised to realize that even after all the time she had spent in the ocean during her escape, she was still reluctant to enter the water. Even after she had ridden a speeding Kee through the waves, the fear that had always haunted her still lingered.
Raka's heart beat faster as she stared at the water's edge. She knew that she didn't have to go out very far, but she still had to fight the old fear.
She forced herself to take another step.
Taking a deep breath, she gathered her strength and willed herself to press onward. She knew that she could do it. She had spent days in a boat, after all, and she had once thought that she couldn't even do that. She had learned to hold her breath underwater like a Kee, which was something that she had never even dreamed of doing.
She only had to go out a little ways. It wasn't like the old days on Shark Island. It wasn't as if she were being hauled out against her will by King Ikaz as he tried to force her to love the water.
Suddenly, Raka froze. She thought of King Ikaz and the ocean and she froze.
A powerful feeling rushed up from deep inside her. Grandpa Po was saying something, but she didn't hear him.
She looked around at the water and the wall of rock surrounding the lagoon. A chill ran up her spine, and she shivered.
It all looked familiar. Not familiar because she had seen it the day before. Familiar because she had seen it long ago.
Years ago. It must have been years ago. How could she even remember that far back?
Maybe because what had happened had been so frightening, it had left a mark on even the mind of an infant. Enough of a mark that fifteen years later, Raka was still afraid of the water.
Suddenly, she understood.
"This is where they took me away," she said softly. "The Sharkites. Ikaz."
"What did you say, Cryssa?" said Grandpa Po, edging up behind her.
Tears rolled down her face. "This is where they took me into the sea," she said. "This is where it happened."
"You remember?" said Grandpa Po.
"This is why I've been afraid all these years," said Raka. "This is why. Ikaz always wondered why I was afraid, and this is why."
Grandpa Po stood beside her and said nothing.
"It was because of him," said Raka. The tears kept coming. "It was his fault all along, and he never knew it!"
*****
Chapter Sixteen
Little by little, as the weeks went by, Raka got used to life on the island of the Sylva and Kee. It didn't take long for her to start thinking of the island as her home; it was such a wonderful place, she was only too happy to put her old life on Shark Island behind her.
She even started to think of herself as Cryssa. It was hard not to, since that was what everyone called her. Also, the name "Raka" reminded her too much of Ikaz, and she wanted to get rid of every trace of him.
So she was Cryssa now. Cryssa of the pink and white dress. Cryssa, who took to wearing flowers in her hair as her mother had done. Cryssa, who spent her days exploring with Eenie and Ayla...and learning how to be a queen from Grandpa Po.
*****
On the day of her first Queen Lesson, Cryssa followed Grandpa Po to a thick grove of very tall, leafy trees. In the middle of the grove, Grandpa Po stopped and looked straight up.
When Cryssa followed his gaze, she saw the Tree Castle for the first time.
The castle sprawled across the tops of many trees, supported by stout branches and trunks. From below, it was impossible to get a clear view of its entirety through the surrounding leaves...but Cryssa caught glimpses of elaborate carvings on the wooden base of the structure.
Looking up, Grandpa Po stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. Directly above him, a square section of the base swung up and open. A moment later, a large basket dropped through the opening, suspended from ropes. Grandpa Po stepped aside as the basket slowly descended.
When the basket came to rest on the ground, Grandpa Po grinned and motioned for Cryssa to get in. After she had climbed inside, he handed her his gnarled cane and clambered in beside her.
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