Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
The turtle lets out another burp of air and sinks into the water, just a little. I spread my feet to steady myself as she shifts, turning about in the shallow cove and then the powerful, sail-like flippers push off.
I float off on a turtle’s back, alone, into the wide open sea.
Chapter
Seventeen
VALI
Time passes slowly. Akara continues to swim, heading constantly in what feels like the same direction. For a long time, there’s nothing on the horizon but more endless blue, and it makes me nervous. Where is she going, exactly?
But then a thin needle appears on the horizon and grows steadily larger. As we approach, I can see it’s a lone tree, out in the middle of what feels like nowhere. A lone tree, and the tiniest slice of rocky, sandy shore.
And upon it? The familiar, greenish skin of one of the seakind.
“Ranan,” I breathe as Akara gets close enough that I can make out his collapsed form. I shield my eyes from the afternoon sunlight. He doesn’t stir as Akara pulls herself against the rocks and bellows again, loud and plaintive.
When she doesn’t move closer, I realize she can’t. Akara is meant for swimming and floating, and if she tries to get over those dagger-like rocks that line the shallows around the land-spit, she’ll end up stranding herself.
It’s up to me, then. I move to the edge of the turtle’s shell and jump into the shallow waters. There are schools of small fish here, and little crabs that scurry away when I splash down. I wade over to the tiny slice of shore, where the sand looks as if it’s mixed with stone, and the lone tree clings to the rocks, its roots like a gnarled hand gripping the land tight. There’s a few dark blobs scattered in the shadow that look like oversized nuts. If I were here alone, I’d be intrigued by this little bit of land in the midst of nowhere. For someone who has lived all her life on the outskirts of the same city, the openness here is unnerving and fascinating at the same time.
But Ranan comes first.
I scramble to his side, ignoring the sharp jabs of the rocks on the undersides of my bare feet. “Ranan!” I touch his throat, feeling for the pulse of his heartbeat, and I’m relieved to feel it thrumming underneath his greenish skin. He’s hot and dry, though, his skin burning under the endless sunlight. He needs water and shade. Did he pass out from exhaustion? Heat? I skim my gaze over him, looking for issues…and stop when I see one leg tucked under another. There’s a tourniquet tied around the calf of one leg, and it’s swaddled in what looks like strands of seaweed from the shallows.
The sand around him is dark with blood. How am I just now seeing this? I thought it was a shadow. My body clenched tight with fear, I reach down and brush some of the seaweed away. It’s even worse than I thought. His leg looks as if it’s been ripped at from the knee down, like a sleeve being torn from a dress. I can see bone. I can see loose flesh. And over all of it is sandy grit.
No wonder he’s fevered.
“We’re going to fix this,” I swear to the unconscious Ranan. I won’t allow myself to panic. He needs help, and I’m the only one that’s around, so it has to be me. I’m not much of a medic, but I’ve sewn up many torn robes. Hopefully I can start from there. Stopping the bleeding is the first issue.
I glance around the tiny land spit, but there’s no shelter except under the fronds of the lone tree. I eye my surroundings and then Akara’s empty back, thinking longingly of the shelter that is normally set up there. Ranan must have removed it when we went to the grotto. I should have considered this when I climbed on Akara’s back earlier, but I was too panicked. All I’ve got is my knife and my tunic.
It’ll have to do.
Eyeing my clothing, I decide Ranan needs it more than I do. I pull off my brand new tunic and slit up the sides of the careful stitches I’d made just days ago. With the fabric, I make a long length and then roll Ranan’s heavy, limp body onto the end of it. I use the fabric as a makeshift travois and drag him to the shade of the tree itself. The leaves protect from the worst of the sun, so I settle Ranan against the trunk of it and then get to work on cleaning his leg.
The sand is everywhere, which is annoying, but I can hopefully get most of it cleaned. I end up ripping the material of my tunic in half. Half of it remains under Ranan so he has a relatively dirt-free spot to lie down, and the other half I take down to the water’s edge with me, soaking it and then returning to his side with my streaming bundle. With the seawater, I rinse the sand away and carefully try to push the brutalized flesh back into place. It needs stitches, like a ripped sleeve would, but I don’t even have a needle and thread with me.