The Wish Kin
Page 23
He continues his course, walks with the sea on his left, with Derry on his right. His heart pounds and swells, and he speaks now with fervour. Oh, Jeune! he cries. Only a little longer! Only a little longer and I will come for you, will find you. But I must fulfil my duties first as Cloud Drawer, here at the place of the Rekindling. Soon, though, the gathered Kin have told me. Soon I will be free to find you. If you could just speak to me, just whisper, it would not be so hard to bear. And he ends abruptly, sadly, missing Jeune in that sudden, unexpected way once again, in that way that is, strangely, more difficult at times than the missing of his father.
The sadness fills his chest, the pores on his skin ooze it. He shakes his limbs that he may loosen the gloom, turns his mind to things other. He considers all that has happened in the past year, and of everything that has been made plain. He has, of course, spoken to Jeune of all this. He has told her of the Clan’s underground industria, of the prisoners, the deluge and the escape. He has told her of how Lydia came close to drowning there in the flooded corridors, and how it was that their father was lost.
But there is more that he has told her, over which he has troubled greatly to find the words, even in the beauty of the Inner Speech. He has told her of how he first began to play with wisps of cloud in the sky, of how he sang to them, watched them blossom, swell. He has told her, with faults and stammers, of when he drew the cloud over the ocean, the very cloud that caused the deluge, and of how it was that he first realised he was the Cloud Drawer and so, in turn, a member of the Wish Kin. And more, of how when the prisoners were emerging from the darkness of cells into the raining light of the beach, many of them had begun to have their own realisation, their own slow and burgeoning awareness, so that now there was found not only the Cloud Drawer in Colm, the Rain Maker in Lydia, and the Fire Keeper in Moss, but there were Christian names too for the Storm Holder, the Sea Singer, the Wind Breather, the Sun Tender, the Earth Bearer, the Water Joiner, the River Bringer, the Tarn Catcher, the Plant Yielder, the Tree Watcher, the Wound Healer and the many other members of the Wish Kin that made their appearance daily. Still they were realising and still they were being named, this last by that member of the Wish Kin, the Name Giver. All of it happening slowly over time, and quietly, secretly, in the opening hearts of the Kin, many of whom had had little inkling of their gift, their place. So Colm has told only what has come to him, what has been given him, but told it he has to his love Jeune, and told it, he believes, faithfully.
Yesterday, he says, something wonderful. You remember I told you of the boy Brae, he who looked like the old man? He who gave Lydia and I the metal discs that hang about our necks? At midday, as we were sitting to eat, he arrived with his grandmother, Ailis, who declared him to us as the Wish Kin’s Metal Carrier! They told us of how he found seams of ore running across the desert. And even in the short time that he has been here, he has located a deposit of gold lying just outside Wonding! Who would have thought that anything of such beauty would come forth from the earth once again!
Colm is quiet, awed. The sound of the rising waves crashes anew into his thoughts. He thinks of Brae, thinks of how it was when he and Lydia met him so long ago now in the desert. He thinks of how Lydia was with the boy, and how the boy was with Lydia, thinks of how there was some sort of knowing between the two of them. There is much now about Lydia that makes sense in the light of her special place in the Wish Kin, not only as Rain Maker, but as one who has strong powers of Kin recognition, and of insight. Things like the way his sister dealt with the snake in the tunnel, the way she led the two of them from the fire at Nurrengar, the way she knew not to go down into Midgin. It seems to Colm that Lydia was always more aware than he was that there was a greater story unfolding, and more aware, too, of the part that she must play in it. And this with Brae? Is this something similar?
Another moment comes to his mind: when Lydia met Marla’s rat baby. Again, something of recognition, of knowing. But what was it that Lydia was recognising? He remembers Marla telling him there in the dark depths of her basement, the child Turi suckling at her breast, of how her baby was like a lucky charm, of how since his birth she had been able to feed and water her family, of how plants had grown where they had not for years. He ponders, Colm does, wonders. Brae with his knowing, his recognition, and he ends up being a member of the Wish Kin. Could this be the same for Turi as well?
A year, and Colm is different, he knows it. A year, and his life has changed. A year and the town has been graced, the state, the entire nation. It is good, all of it, though ever enmeshed in things still painful.
Father, Colm whispers. Oh, Father!
It is the small cloud ahead that answers him, that comforts him with its trueness and calm. He walks towards it, this thing of which he is in some strange way a part, and stops beneath it at the sea’s shallow edge. The cloud blossoms and fills, softens him, soothes him. He looks outwards and upwards, sees the warm whiteness of the cloud open and embrace, feels his heart heal a little more, quietly, in its dark hollow. The sun, gentle now and warm, filters through the cloud’s fair wisps and settles on his skin. The water washes in foaming frills about his feet, recedes, and the sand is left breathing through small bubbly holes emerging in the ocean’s wake.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM PAN MACMILLAN
Jack Heath
The Lab
Meet a 16-year-old superhuman: Agent Six of Hearts.
He is the strongest, fastest, most invincible agent in the Deck, a team of special agents fighting to uphold values in a city dominated by the company ChaoSonic.
But Six has a deadly secret. He is the product of an illegal genetic experiment by the Lab – a ruthless division of ChaoSonic.
When the Deck begins investigating the Lab, Six walks a tightrope between his two worlds, trying to keep his origins hidden from those around him. But then he meets Kyntak, a boy with the same designer DNA.
As Six’s life spirals out of control, he must face his most dangerous mission yet.
Jack Heath
Remote Control
Agent Six of Hearts – a 16-year-old superhuman – is on a mission.
Kyntak has been kidnapped.
A sinister new power is rising in the City.
Six is suspected of being a double agent.
The Deck has been put into lockdown by the Queen of Spades.
Who can Six trust? The mysterious girl who appears as his guardian angel? Or Retuni Lerke – the ‘father’ he has never known?
As the clock ticks steadily against Kyntak’s life, Six of Hearts is on the run: from his past, his fellow agents at the Deck, even his own DNA…
Laurine Croasdale
Surf School
Fifteen year old Tilly, Fran, Marlee and Pink are surfer girls – friends since their first surf lesson at the Diamond Beach Surf School run by Tilly’s dad, Phil.
Phil has big plans for the Surf School this year – until he is seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident. Tilly is determined to keep her dad’s business running and her friends want to help. But Marlee is training for the club surfing competition – determined to win a new board and beat the moody Kyle; Pink is hopelessly in love with a stranger in town; and Fran is stuck in the middle of her warring friends.
As the girls negotiate their friendships, disappointments and dreams, the summer is set to explode!
Shelley Birse
Blue Water High
It’s tough being the youngest member of the Solar Blue surfing academy.
It’s tough being friends and competitors at the same time.
But for 15-year-old Fly Watson, the adventure of her life has only just begun.
Blue Water High: the novelis based on the hugely popular children’s television series Blue Water High, which won ‘most outstanding children’s program’ at the 2006 Logie Awards. It’s the engrossing story of twelve months at the academy, seen through the eyes of Fly. Surfing is all Fly has ever wanted to do but, suddenly, there’s a whole lot more tha
t seems to be getting in the way – such as Heath, and some very buried demons that Fly is determined not to reveal.
And then there’s the one big question that haunts them all: who will qualify to surf the pro-circuit and win the one-year sponsorship contract?