“How?” Tarek asked, awed. He held out a hand to the grand old creature, and it lowered its head.

“That thing’ll take off your hand,” Kanga warned.

“It won’t,” Tavi said, laughing. “We’re friends. She saved us once.”

Kanga’s mouth hung open. “Yeah. Right. Of course.”

Zulimaya was kneeling on the rocks, heedless of the waves washing past her legs. “Hail, great one! Such honor you give us!”

Pahtl sniffed. “It is only a big turtle.”

Tarek was heedless to all the chatter as the Old Woman bent her great head low and pushed it against his hand. As they touched, he once again had the dizzying sense of great age and vast intelligence. And… affection.

“Why do you care?” he whispered. “We are so small, so brief next to you.”

A rush of images hit him with the force of a chest-high wave. He saw human faces, glimpsed upward from beneath the surface of the water. It was the Old Woman’s perspective, but she was no larger than the biggest turtles the Catori sometimes caught during the floods. One of the faces looked like Tarek’s own, though it was hard to tell through the swirling water. Then a hand plunged into the water holding a sodden, red-stained bit of bread, and the young turtle snapped it up eagerly. Power surged through her as the blood in the bread filtered through her mouth and down her gullet. Scared and confused, the turtle darted away into the deeps, but the change inside her had already begun.

“It was me? Him? The other me?” Tarek asked. “He made you this way?”

The Old Woman voiced her clicking, throaty assent, and he saw other images of a man who looked just like him riding on her back, feeding her fish, racing her in some kind of great boat far larger than any Tarek had ever seen… too many images to track. They were friends. Like Pahtl and me.

His head swam, and he sat down hard on the rocks, breaking their bond of touch. No wonder she found us before. No wonder I can sense her so easily. The blood connection existed between us before I ever knew such a thing existed. He wanted to shake the long dead a’hau who wore his face so freely. How dare you change a creature you never even understood? Did you have any idea what you were doing?

His gaze fell on Pahtl, who had pulled half a fish from the pocket of his armpit and was chewing it contentedly. Quite likely he didn’t.

“You’re sure it’s not going to eat us?” Kanga murmured.

“Calm yourself,” Bachi said, giving a gravelly laugh. He was so entranced by the Old Woman he’d forgotten his despair, and apparently his fear of Kanga. “This isn’t even the strangest thing we’ve seen today.”

“Can you take us out of the Land?” Tarek asked the Old Woman. “Beyond the mists?”

She gave another great roar and swiveled her bulk expertly to come alongside the finger of stone.

Tarek grinned at his brother. “I found the other half of our bridge.”

Tavi laughed giddily. It was first unburdened smile Tarek had seen from the boy’s face in ages. He clambered down the rocks to climb onto the Old Woman’s broad back, favoring his hole-pocked leg. Tarek’s heart clenched as he saw the heavy limp in Tavi’s step, but he bit back his sorrow. He’s alive; that’s enough. We’re none of us whole anymore.

“Get on,” Tarek told the others. “She’s taking us across the water.”

Bachi blanched and so did Kanga.

“I’m not getting on that thing,” the hunter said.

Tarek pointed back up the stone pier. “You can go make friends with the frogs if you’d prefer.”

Kanga scowled, looking from the massive turtle to the mists behind them.

“Is it safe?” Bachi asked.

“Hold tight and you’ll be fine,” Tarek assured him. Bachi looked less than reassured, but he followed Tavi, inching his way down the rocks toward the great water beast.

Zulimaya stayed prostrate. “How can you think to ride her? We should not touch her. This is one of the Great Ones, for real and true. I am just the Shinsok slave girl.”

Tarek crouched by her and reached out, but then remembered her aversion to touch and pulled back. “She’s not some kind of god, she’s just very old. Ones Beneath, Great Ones, what does any of that even mean? I don’t know. Maybe she is great somehow. But, Zulimaya… you kind of are, too.”

She looked up, her usual glare firmly in place. “Do not mock me.”

“I mean it. You’ve survived with the Shinsok your whole life despite them hardly feeding you and beating you regularly. Then you left at the first opportunity, even when we told you not to, even when you had no idea how you’d survive. I watched you put an arrow in the largest beast I’ve ever seen – you didn’t even hesitate. You nearly killed the Catori’s best hunter with nothing but a bowstaff. You’ve been touched by moon magic and survived. You saved my life. I think you’ve done more impressive things than anyone I’ve ever met. If you weren’t my friend, I’d be terrified of you.”

A smile ghosted across her face.

“There is no Shinsok slave here,” Tarek said. “I see one of the great ones… that needs to ride on another one of the great ones if she wants to stay alive.”

Zulimaya sat up and considered him gravely. “I see why Pahtl stays with you. You are not smart, but sometimes you are not stupid.”

Tarek smiled. “Thank you.”

She stood. “Great One, may I touch you? I will be careful.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Tarek thought the great turtle’s croak of assent might have held a touch of laughter as she bowed her head.

Zulimaya paused as she passed him, a hint of approval showing through her granite gruffness. “It is good that you fear me. No man should be entirely sure of his friends.”

Tarek shook his head as she moved down the rocks onto the Old Woman. I think she just admitted that we’re friends. Bachi and Tavi shifted aside to make room for her at the crest of the turtle’s shell.

“Want me to carry you?” he asked Pahtl.

“No. Yes.” Pahtl sighed as he stood on his hind legs, reaching out for Tarek to pick him up. “There is no dignity in this.”

The otter’s head came to mid-chest as he wrapped his arms around the creature. Was he that big when we first met? He thought of the Old Woman of the Water. “You might get even bigger than you are,” he told Pahtl as he hefted him.

“Of course I will,” Pahtl said. “I am the best water person.”

He clambered onto the Old Woman as best he could with Pahtl in his arms. He found a relatively flat spot far forward on the shell, just behind the Old Woman’s neck. He’d get wet, but he wanted to be able to touch the Old Woman’s skin to communicate with her if necessary.

Bachi looked over at him and sighed noisily, averting his eyes. Tarek rolled his eyes and threw the corner of the cape over his lap. I wonder if all the Wobanu are so uptight about being naked.

Kanga stood on the rocks watching them, chewing his lip.

Tarek hated the very sight of him, but he knew he couldn’t leave the man behind. It was no different than letting Zulimaya hold the knife. “Now or never,” he called.

Kanga gritted his teeth, his head swiveling back and forth, looking from them to the land at the far end of the stone bridge. He looked as if he was contemplating cutting off his own finger. Finally, the big man gave a loud growl of frustration and clambered down the rocks. “Wormshit,” he said to no one in particular. “This entire day is wormshit.”

* * *

“A king?” Kanga scoffed. He was holding very tightly to where he sat upslope from Tarek. “I knew you when you were still shitting yourself, grub. If you’re some great a’hau then old Kotlan Three-Finger is the best hunter in the Land.”

Tarek flexed the two remaining fingers and thumb on his left hand, wincing at the pain of the deep cut he’d made to heal Tavi. The comparison to Kotlan hit a little too close to home now. “I’m just telling you what Xochil said. I’m not sure I believe it either.” He looked up at the Old Woman, pondering on the memories she’d shown him. “Though I’m beginning to wonder.”

“Don’t wonder,” Kanga said decisively. “A world with you in charge is no world worth living in.”

They had been on the water for a long time. Tarek guessed it had been at least four handspans. The mists were definitely brighter than they had been, making everything a murky white instead of a murky gray. His stomach grumbled, and he thought wistfully of his long-lost journey bag and the simple, filling mash it once held. How long has it been since I tasted the mash mamah used to help me make? His eyes wanted to slide shut out of sheer exhaustion, but he didn’t dare let himself sleep atop the Old Woman’s sloping shell. When Kanga had asked gruffly about how they’d gotten to this point, it was almost a relief to tell him the story, no matter how many snide interruptions the man made.

Tavi made a noise, and Tarek turned toward him rather than answer Kanga. His little brother was standing atop the peak of the shell, shading his eyes and balancing on his good leg as he looked forward. “I think I see something,” he said.

Tarek scrambled up beside him and stood. He peered out into the chaotic whiteness, straining his eyes.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Must have just been a swirl –”

The words died in his throat as a gust of wind blew the curtain of white aside, revealing a wash of gray and green.

“Land!” Tavi whooped. “We made it!”

Tarek stared ahead, disbelieving. The white rolled back in, making him doubt his senses, but once again the fog parted, giving hints of dappled green, and this time the veil pulled back even further. The mists were growing thin.

“We made it,” he breathed.

Tavi pulled Bachi to his feet and hugged him. Bachi kept swaying and reaching for the shell beneath him as if it were going to disappear.

The sun broke through overhead, warming Tarek’s skin for the first time in what felt like years. The mist broke into tatters, and suddenly, finally, Tarek couldn’t feel his missing fingers. It was almost a relief.

A sandy beach lay only an arrow’s flight away over the waves. It was a broad band of smooth, golden peace from which the foot of a mountain burst, scrubby trees clinging to its side. Up, up, up the craggy stones went, rising higher into the air than any peaks Tarek had ever seen. A cascading waterfall caught the sunlight and spun it into dazzling colors high above, and a small pool sparkled at the base of the rocks before wending its lazy way through the sand to the ocean. It looked like the end of a journey.

Tarek cast off his cape and handed it to Tavi. “Race you there,” he said to Pahtl.

“I will win!” the otter crowed, and they both jumped from the Old Woman’s back. The others squawked and hollered at them, but Tarek paid them no mind. We made it!

The water was bracingly cold, and it was hard to swim amid the swelling waves, but Tarek pressed on, throwing his body forward for the sheer joy of movement. Soon the swell of the ocean caught him and propelled him forward even faster, the tips of the waves breaking about his head and shoulders as they cast him at the sand. He staggered to his feet in waist-high water, laughing as Pahtl cavorted on shore.

“I win! I win!” the otter announced.

Tarek fell to his knees and threw his arms around him. “We all win.”

Pahtl nuzzled him. “You are not so stupid.”

The Old Woman reached the shallows and dug her massive flippers into the sand, pulling herself almost clear of the water so the others could dismount more easily.

“That wasn’t safe!” Bachi scolded as he stumbled in the loose sand. “There could be dangerous fish out there!”

“Shut your mouth, whiner,” Kanga said amiably. “They’re fine.”

Tavi limped over and threw the cape at Tarek. “Put your clothes on. You’re soaking.”

Tarek laughed and shook his hair at his brother, showering him with wetness. “I wonder if I can turn this into something a little more useful,” he said, eyeing the cape. “Bachi can hardly look at me.”

“Some others seem to have the opposite problem,” Tavi said archly, casting a meaningful glance at Zulimaya. She was indeed looking at them. She was too far off to hear what he’d said, but when she saw them looking back, she scowled.

“I doubt it,” Tarek said drily.

“I’m the smart one,” Tavi reminded him. “I’m telling you, she keeps looking.”

Tarek shook his head and strode back out into the water to face the Old Woman. “Thank you,” he said, reaching up to stroke the base of her neck. “You’re incredible. I will owe you always.”

This time the croak was definitely amused. Her powerful legs churned in the shallow water, and she surged out into the surf. Tarek waved and watched her until she was only a speck out on the water.

The others had gathered where the stream met the broad, deep pool at the base of the waterfall. They’d drunk their fill and were lazily washing faces and feet. Pahtl was splashing in the water right beneath the falls, floating on his back and luxuriating in the pounding water. Kanga stood awkwardly some distance apart from the others.

“We’ll need to find food,” he said, settling in next to Tavi.

“Fish tonight,” the boy muttered, soaking his ruined leg in the water and massaging the flesh. “Pahtl promised.”

“Tomorrow we find wood for a new bow,” Zulimaya informed him.

Tarek cast his gaze up the mountainside. “I don’t know the trees well in this terrain, but let’s look around. We might get lucky and find a good one.”

“And then?” Bachi said.

“And then I hunt food for you,” Zulimaya said.

“I mean, where do we go?”

“Anywhere we want,” Tarek said. “We wander where we please.” He pointed to the peaks high overhead. “I want to see if you’re telling the truth about snow.”

He climbed to his feet and meandered around the edge the pool. The others followed one by one, except for Kanga, and they all drank in the sight of Pahtl cavorting in the crystal waters, marveling as he darted after fish and turned in tight spirals through the depths.

“Nice spot,” said a gravelly voice off to Tarek’s left. “Not sure it’s worth coming this far, though.”

Cold gripped Tarek’s guts as he turned to find a robed, hooded figure slumped over a familiar staff as it sat and stared out at the water with them.