Juran nodded. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“We understand,” Juran replied.
Chaia glanced at his fellow gods again, then nodded.
The five glowing figures vanished.
But they did not fade from Auraya’s senses. She felt Huan, Lore, Yranna and Saru drift away. When they had gone she felt the lightest touch of Chaia’s mind before he, too, moved away.
“Auraya?”
She jumped and found Juran staring at her. “What is it?” he asked.
“The gods. I felt them arrive and leave.”
His eyebrows rose. “
“Yes. It was... strange.”
“Has this happened before?” Dyara asked.
Auraya shook her head. “It is a bit like this sense I have of my position in relation to the world. I can sense the magic around me.”
“And the gods are beings of magic,” Mairae said, nodding.
“Yes.”
The points of the Altar were hinging down toward the ground, but none of the others had begun to rise. Juran looked thoughtful and Dyara skeptical. Rian was scowling. As Auraya met his eyes his frown disappeared and he smiled - but it was forced.
“I am starting to expect these strange developments of yours, Auraya,” Juran said. He chuckled. “As soon as you work out what this one means, let me know. For now,” he glanced at each of the others, then stood up, “I suggest we return to our duties.”
Auraya rose with the others, but hung back as they filed down the Altar points to the dome floor. She glanced back and concentrated, but sensed nothing disturbing the magic within the Altar.
There were small fluctuations in the distribution of it around her, however. Turning away, she kept her mind on the magic around her as she followed her fellow White back to the Tower. She noticed that the variations in magic were more pronounced at its base. Dyara and Juran began discussing Genrian politics, but Auraya was too engrossed in what she was sensing to pay any attention.
They reached the Tower and moved inside. The fluctuations did not lessen or grow stronger, and she was about to bring her attention back to her companions when she sensed a sudden change.
They had reached the cage at the center of the hall. In this place magic was considerably diminished. She would not have noticed it, even if she had drawn magic to herself, as there was enough about to make most Gifts possible.
But it was definitely spread a little thin.
She opened her mouth to tell Juran, but caught Rian watching her. He gave her another forced smile.
Two giant elongated bowls bobbed in the water. They were made of wood, and it looked like tree trunks had been stripped of their branches and bark and set upright within the bowls. From the trunks hung a multitude of ropes, more beams of wood and what looked like large bundles of cloth.
“They’re ships, aren’t they?” Imi asked. “Father described them to me.”
Rissi gave her an odd look. “Boats. You’ve never seen boats or ships before, have you?”
“No.”
“If that’s where the sea bells are then the landwalkers have got to them first,” Rissi said, his disappointment obvious.
“That depends.”
“On what?” He turned to frown at her.
“If they’ve got them all yet. They wouldn’t still be here if they had, would they?”
Rissi looked thoughtful, but then he frowned and shook his head. “What are you saying? We sneak up and take a few? What if they see us? They’ll kill us.”
“Then we make sure they don’t see us.”
“But—”
She ducked under the surface and swam toward a rock that was closer to the boats. Coming up behind it, she carefully peered around at the landwalkers.
They were easier to see now. She watched them walking back and forth on what must be a flat floor just inside the bowl part of the boat. Ropes hung into the water.
She saw movement in the water - a landwalker’s head. He floated beside the boat and she heard a distant guttural voice. One of the landwalkers in the boat reached down. The swimmer held up a bag, which the other man hauled up to the deck. The light brown skin of the diver’s back disappeared as he dove beneath the water.
Rissi surfaced beside her.
“The sea bells must be there,” she told him. “They’re diving for them.”
“Which means we can’t sneak up on them,” he told her.
“Not now,” she said. “But they’ve got to stop some time. I’ve heard landwalkers can’t spend long in the water, or their skin goes bad.”
The landwalker’s head reappeared. He floated only a moment before diving again.
“They can’t hold their breath long, either,” Rissi murmured. “Although we can’t stay here long. It’ll take us hours to get back and I don’t want to swim in the dark.”
“The dark... we could wait until night then sneak up while they’re asleep,” Imi said, speaking her thoughts aloud.
“No! I’m in enough trouble already! If I’m not back by tonight my father won’t take me out with him ever again.”
She looked at Rissi, but decided taunting him about being scared of punishment wouldn’t change his mind. He was beyond bravado now.
Turning to regard the boat, she saw the swimmer climb wearily out of the water and another dive in to replace him. They were diving in shifts. There was no chance they’d take a rest and give her an opportunity to sneak in and take a few sea bells.
A splash near the boat drew the landwalkers’ attention. One pointed, and Imi saw a large arrow bird surface, a fish struggling in its beak. The bird tossed down its catch, then launched itself back into the air.
“A distraction,” she said. “We need to distract them.”
Rissi frowned. “How?”
“I don’t know. Got any ideas?”
He looked at the boats. “Do you think they’ve seen Elai before?”
“Probably not.”
“You could distract them while I get the sea bells.”
“Me? No. This was my idea.
“That’s not fair. What if they’ve got...”
“What?”
“Spears or something.”
