Silluka had been in the elder’s building in the town center before—everyone had. But it had been a long time since she had done so.

Hufi propelled her down the short hall, lined with benches, where people would wait to see the ones who led the Huaca.

“They’ve been here every day, these last few months, preparing for the migration, and testing anyone who wants.”

They were also, Silluka was sure, handling the business of the Huaca and answering questions and requests. It must take hours every day.

“Great,” she replied, trying to see Hufi over her shoulder. Root Grows Around The Rock kept her facing mostly forward. “I just have to show off a chayu, which I probably don’t know, and the ampuka, which I’ve never done, to elders who will see me as a drain on the Huaca. Easy.”

Hufi was silent, but kept pushing her toward the elder’s hall. Showing the ampuka—a connection with the Tiyus, Tiyas, and Tiyes—was required for anyone to be awarded a citizenry chit. If not, they became one of the undesirables. The strong survived in the Huaca, and the elders needed as many strong people as they could to help in the migration. Anyone without a chit—and that number was larger than those who had them—would be left to travel on their own, without any support from the elders. Some would surely make it to the next Huaca, inland. Maybe some would find a suitable home. There were undesirables on little farms along the coast, though they didn’t have the protection from the gods the Huaca did. Not many of them survived for long.

“Let me tidy my hair at least,” she said, before the big stone doors. They weren’t old. Nothing in the town was. The Huaca had moved here from nearer the coast around seventy years ago. The last Huaca was now part of a mountain range, or underwater, or something.

“Make it quick,” Tall Girl said. Silluka gave her a wink. If she hadn’t been restrained and about to meet the elders who had doomed her parents, she might have liked to get to know Tall Girl better.

“You’d be much prettier if you didn’t frown so much.” She fluffed her shoulder-length hair, then dragged her hand through it. It probably looked like a quirra had nested in it. A pair of grimy men, large and dirty, had chased her out of the last house she’d squatted in.

“Ready?” Hufi asked. He was actually being pretty decent about dragging her in front of the elders.

“Wish me luck,” she said, to silence, and pushed through the doors. Root Grows Around The Rock fell away as she left the patrol behind, not that there was anywhere to run in front of the elders.

Seven of the elders were here. Every citizen past the age of bodycasting in the town was technically an elder, but these were the ones who made the decisions for the Huaca this day. Four women and three men. None of them under sixty-five. The woman in the center looked like she might have been eighty or more.

Silluka didn’t know their names, except for Papaki, a retiring older man who had come to check on her and Ichu after their parents died. If she had been a citizen, or really, anyone who had a future in the Huaca, she might have paid attention to the others, but she’d been born with her stump, and it had been apparent her whole life she’d never be a citizen.

Except.

Except she was here now, and they were going to test her, and if she passed, they would give her a citizen chit.

And they were all staring at her stump, out on display.

“You have come to test for citizenship?” the old woman in the middle asked. A correction, then. This woman wasn’t staring at her stump. She was staring Silluka directly in the eyes.

“Yes, Elder.” Her voice was soft, subservient. That wouldn’t do. Silluka cleared her throat. “Yes. I have come to test for my citizen chit.” Louder. That was better. A few of the other elders smiled condescendingly. Not the one in the middle.

“Please.” The woman gestured to the stone-rimmed circle in the middle of the floor. All chayus were to be performed in the circle, and stepping out of it was an instant disqualification. “Can you give us Foam Tossed in the Waves?”

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Silluka’s jaw nearly dropped. For all her joking, that was one of the most difficult chayus to test on. It came from Dexterity stance, and used the legs and arms moving in different directions at the same time. Just the finger manipulations caused most to miss the ampuka.

“Perhaps something simpler for the girl in light of her situation and our need for more citizens, Elder Quilqi?” Elder Papaki suggested. “How about Tree in the Wind instead?”

Elder Quilqi shrugged, as if the difference was not something noticeable. “Acceptable. Tree in the Wind, then.”

Silluka blinked at the whiplash. If Foam Tossed in the Waves was one of the hardest chayus to summon the ampuka with, Tree in the Wind was one of the easiest. It started in Basic stance, and was used to strengthen the legs and stave off tiredness. It only used the shoulders, and the arms and hands didn’t even do anything. It was perhaps the only chayu she might be able to complete without her right forearm.

She could be a citizen.

Silluka stepped into the stone circle, planting her feet in Basic stance.

“Tree in the Wind, elders,” she said, and began.

She had performed the chayu before, but never actually committed to it. The few times she’d practiced it, she had stopped before the end, certain the ampuka wouldn’t show. Today she would give everything.

She swayed to one side, her arm and stump coming up only by movement of her shoulders, circling around in the front. The rest used her legs.

Each movement was deceptively simple, merely as if she were shifting her weight, but the precise tension of muscles was important. Her shoulders and hips had to be in the correct alignment all the time to make this chayu effective.

Silluka let her body recall where it was supposed to be. Her left foot slowly rose up, then set directly in front of the right. The slowness of the chayu was only offset by the length. This chayu lasted several minutes—longer than average. Nearly as long as the morning ritual.

Her right foot lifted to touch her left calf, where it would remain as she shifted her weight and pivoted.

That was when the earthquake struck.

Earthquakes were a common occurrence as the earth rose and shifted. With the approaching island—the reason the coast was turning into mountains—rumbles beneath the ground had become more prevalent over the last several years. Fortunately, the volcanoes were only to the south. This area was folding up like an accordion as the new island ground over theirs. Soon, the two landmasses would merge, with a range of mountains in between and, so their geologists predicted, water cycling down through the desert to the west, turning it fertile.

Most earthquakes were small, tamped down by Tiyu Tiksimuyu. Silluka tried not to wobble, tensing her calf muscles in rhythm with the rolling of the floor. The earthquake would pass in a moment. It was no effort to maintain her balance. Even the undesirables of the Huaca could keep upright when the earth shuddered beneath them.

Silluka’s right foot came down, her left lifting now to touch her right leg. The floor heaved and tilted toward the elders. She gritted her teeth and relaxed just slightly, moving with the floor. This was exactly the time to perform Tree in the Wind. This was what it was designed for. She would not fail.

“Tiyu Tiksimuyu, Uncle Earth, give us peace from the rolling land,” Elder Papaki called out. He rose from his seat enough to make the sign of the earth, a movement using arms and legs, the emblem of Tiyu Tiksimuyu, and call on the god.

The shape made by the passage of his limbs glowed brown in the air and the quake lessened, then stilled. Silluka paced through the next move, always smooth, always careful. Each muscle tensed only as much as needed to take her weight, then relaxed when not in use. She used only the minimal effort to capture the beauty of the chayu and connect with the ampuka.

Was that a gathering of energy within her? She only had six more moves, and the chayu was complete.

The next one was a step-step, right foot then left, the only quick movement in the chayu.

As her right foot was in the air, the ground roared and buckled, and the center of the stone center split with a crack. A block fell from the ceiling to her right, smashing into the floor.

“Tiyu Tiksimuyu save us!” several elders cried out at once.

Silluka stumbled, coming down heavily on her right foot, feeling it twist against the earth. The gathering feeling of the ampuka fled.

The trembling continued at a low pace and Silluka made a mockery of the remaining moves, barely finishing the chayu. She swallowed and looked up at the elders, coming back to rest in her Basic stance. Her eyes burned with the pain in her right foot and the shame of defeat, but she held her head high.

The others cast worried glances upward as the earth continued to rock in a low tremor, but Elder Quilqi stared dispassionately down at Silluka.

“I see no ampuka,” she said.

“Perhaps the girl might test again, because of the extenuating circumstances,” Elder Papaki suggested.

“One test per year. That is the rule,” Elder Quilqi said. There was no more argument. “She could come before us again, but I suspect the Huaca will have moved on by then.”

Silluka stared back, refusing to bend before the elder. She wouldn’t have taken the test again even if they had let her. Chayus required a whole body, every muscle exactly placed. She’d known that when she started. The earthquake was an excuse. She’d known she would never show the ampuka. She would never be a citizen, and when the Huaca fled this place as the growing mountains ripped it to shreds, she would be left behind with the others to make her own path.

“Thank you for the opportunity, elders,” she said, and limped away before they could catch the glint of a tear. The only way she would get away from the approaching island was through her own smarts.