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She nodded "Don&039;t worry I love you, too"

He felt a hot flush of exuberance plunge out of his cheeks

"And the kelp knows that, too," she said

Later, as Brett squatted in the coracle watching the distance to another kelp bed grow shorter and shorter, he heard Scudi&039;s words over and over in his memory: "The kelp knowsthe kelp knows " The entle rise and fall of the seas beneath the ing boat

It called our na this did not help It could be calling us to be its dinner

He turned his thoughts to so else Scudi had said in the raft: "I like it that our bodies find co in to the demands of sex, because that could complicate their lives She did not hesitate to adh, and anticipation counted for soth in her as he looked across the coracle to where she rested with both elbows hooked over a thwart

"We&039;re in the kelp," she said She dropped her left hand over the side Brett wished they could explain what she was doing, but he felt sure the others would think the explanation proof of insanity

"Would you look at that!" Twisp said He nodded toward so ahead of theh the kelp, the fronds spreading wide, then co farther ahead He felt the water boil under theed forward

"It&039;s a current going our way," Twisp said, astonishment in his voice

"Merman Current Control," Bushka said "See! They knohere we are They&039;re delivering us soht," Twisp said "Directly toward Vashon"

Scudi straightened and brought her dripping hand out of the water She bent forward andit

"Trim ship!" Twisp snapped

She hesitated "The kelp," she said "It&039;s helping us This isn&039;t Current Control at all"

"How do you knoisp asked

"Itthe kelp talks to ht

Bushka let out a loud snort of laughter

Twisp, however, stared at her silently for a es with the kelp for a long time," she said "At least three years since I first noticed Now it speaks words in my head To Brett, too The kelp called his name"

Twisp looked at Brett, who cleared his throat and said, "Well, that&039;s how it seemed"

"Our ancestors claimed the kelp was sentient," Twisp said "Even Jesus Lewis said it &039;The kelp is a community mind&039; You&039;re-a historian, Bushka, you should know all this"

"Our ancestors said a lot of crazy things!"

"There&039;s always a reason," Twisp said He nodded at the lane through the kelp "Explain that"

"Current Control The girl&039;s wrong"

"Put your hand over the side," Scudi said "Touch the kelp as we pass"

"Sure," Bushka said "Use your hand for bait Who knohat you ht catch?"

Twisp merely leveled a cold stare at Bushka, then steered the coracle close to the right side of the open lane and dipped his long right arm over the side Presently, a look of amazement came over his face The expression hardened

"Ship save us," he muttered, but he did not withdraw his hand

"What is it?" Brett asked He sed and thought about the sensation of kelp contact Could he put his hand over the side and renew that connection? The idea both attracted and repelled hiht&039;s experience, but the intent of the kelp could not be accepted without question

Scudi al behind us," Twisp said

All of then of what ht be under it

"They have us on their locator," Twisp said, "and they mean to sink us"

Scudi turned around and dipped both hands into the passing kelp

"Help us," she whispered "If you knohat help is"

Bushka sat silent, pale-faced and shuddering at the entrance to the tiny cuddy in the bow "It&039;s Gallow," he said "I told you"

With a slow stateliness the channel ahead of theed into it, swinging the coracles wide The towed supply boat pulled far to the right Twisp fought the tiller to center his craft in the new channel

"The channel&039;s closing behind us," Brett said

"The kelp is helping us," Scudi said "It is"

Bushka opened hisAll of the tower broke surface, tipped and sank froan breaking the surface, thick rainbows of air and oil S the four people in the coracle to hold on to the rimlines

As quickly as it had started, the turbulence subsided The coracles continued their agitated rocking Water splashed across the gunwales This, too, quieted

"It was the kelp," Scudi said "The sub cut into the kelp trying to follow us"

Twisp nodded to where the kelp still curled aripped the tiller with both hands, guiding theh a channel that curved open ahead of the toward Vashon "The kelp did that?"

"It clogged the sub&039;s intakes," Scudi said "When the crew tried to blow ballast and surface, the kelp jaet out, the kelp tore them apart and crushed the sub" She jerked her hands out of the water, breaking contact with the kelp

"I warned you it was dangerous," Brett said

A stricken look on her face, Scudi nodded "It&039;s finally learned to kill"

Hasn&039;t the water of sleep dissolved our being?

- Gaston Bachelard, "The Poetics of Reverie," from The Handbook of the Chaplain/Psychiatrist

Duque woke to a nudge, a deliberate jostling intended to do the waking He had been prodded, pricked, rubbed, shocked, bled and rocked in his liquid cradle with the great Vata, but this was the first tied What surprised him was that it was Vata who did it

You&039;re awake! he thought, but there was no answer He felt a focus, a channeling of her presence such as he had never felt before For this he roused hiood eye open

That brought the watchers to the Vata Pool on the double What he saith his one eye orth calling those fools poolside One of Vata&039;s huge brown eyes, her left one, was pressed nearly to his own It was open Duque sed hard He was sure she could see hiasped, and Duque knew that the C/P would push her way to theh his consciousness like a heavy sigh It was a ith hidden thoughts in it But he felt the been used to thepower Vata could hurl between his eyes This was the way she threw tantruht into his head Now, she sent hi in front of a hts out of his head Anger! Vata contained anger He blocked out the anger and riveted his inner eye on the supple, firain and again at the mirror The tank was unbearably warm

Simone Rocksack&039;s favorite robe lay in a tra in Duque strained to touch this vision, this body of raw beauty that the C/P locked away froe, pale hands snaked around her from behind and he watched in thebreasts while she moved in a rhythe man, and he continued his intense caress of her body until she slowed her dance and stopped, quivering, while his lips brushed her shoulders and breasts, her abdohs The ers Her hands pulled hi behind her, facing the ry white flash and the name Gallow blared across his consciousness What he sahen he refocused on Vata&039;s eye was danger

"Danger," he reat brown eye closed and Duque felt relieved of a ht He lay back, breathing deeply, and listened as the knot of watchers grew and the babble of their speculations lulled him back to sleep

When the C/P ca the watchers reported

To survive Pandora&039;s tio mad

- Iz Bushka, The Physics of Political Expression

Brett woke at dawn, feeling the coracle riding gently under hiainst his side Twisp sat at his usual place by the tiller but the boat chugged along on autopilot Brett could see the little red traveler lights blinking across the face of the receiver, keeping theht tarp kept the daht air froh his nose and faced the fact that he would never again accept the stench that surrounded every place Islanders lived He had experienced the Mermen&039;s filtered air Now, the fish odors, the thick miasma from Twisp&039;s body, all of it forced Brett to think even ed

I s Scudi met me in the water

Mermen joked about Islander stink, he knew And Islanders returning topside spoke longingly of the sweet air down under

Scudi had said nothing onthe coracle But the distaste on her face had been evident She had tried to hide it for his sake, he knew, but the reaction was unuilty about his sudden embarrassment

You shouldn&039;t be e shaft of daashed across the coracle, a lazy pink

Brett sat up

Twisp, his voice low and muffled at the stern, said, "Take the watch, kid I&039;ll need a feinks"

"Right"

Brett whispered to keep fro Scudi She lay curled up close, her back and hips fitting into the socket of his body as if they were built together One hand lay flung backward around Brett&039;s waist He gently disengaged her light grip

Looking up at the clear sky, Brett thought, It&039;s going to be a hot one He slid out from beneath the tarp and felt the damp bow spray wet his hair and face