Temple Palace

Chapter 11: Tracer

The waves crashed through the rocks. Closer. Closer. Trey was mesmerized by the movement. He heard shouts and watched as the soldiers broke away and tried to run back to to the banks before the wave overtook them. It was useless, they were too far away.

Trey stared at the wave. It was over thirty paces high. Nothing could survive that.

On the bank Trey saw the Chief yell one more time, something that the crashing noise of the wave stole away. The Chief turned and retreated to safety. He left without a backwards glance to his son of ten years. The fact seemed inconsequential in the face of his imminent death.

Tek stood her ground beside him. The wave was closer now, close enough to smell the sharp fresh sent of seaweed.

Her small, soft hand clenched his. She put one hand on his cheek and turned his head around and down so that their faces were inches apart.

Don't let go, she mouthed at him. The roar was the only noise he could hear. Trust me.

In a show of rare emotion Tek stood up on her toes and rested her forehead against his. Trey's lungs burned from the salty air, his chest heaving, but she didn't move away. Her breathing was soft, controlled, calm. Sweet like peppermint candy. Sunshine.

The outer world was forgotten, nothing mattered anymore. He would die instantly when the waves hit.

Tek pulled back from the embrace, breathed in deeply.

She knelt down in the salt crystals and picked up a rock and started smashing at the crystal formations. They shattered easily. Using her hands she pushed them out of the way. Underneath was a brown wooden board, new and strong.

Wordlessly he helped her lift it up.

The waves were less than fifteen seconds away.

Tek pulled his face closer again. Lie underneath. Wait twenty seconds after it hits.

He nodded that he understood.

They lay down side by side in the soft sand the board had hidden and pulled it back over them like a blanket.

The wave hit. The power hit.

Most of it slid over the boards, moving on, speeding away. But salt water still got in, pulling at everything and making him wish he could plug his nose against the onslaught.

He lost count of the seconds.

The salt water cut into him like a million tiny pieces of glass.

Razor sharp butterfly wings.

A body covered with paper cuts.

The power didn't stop. It rushed by, pushing him into the ground and trying to rip him off it.

His lungs burned.

So much.

He thought he was beyond feeling, but maybe no.

Fingers in his hand wiggled. Tek giving the signal. She pulled him and and they slipped out from under the board. The power of the River Sea was less, smaller. But still strong, full of anger.

Out from the protection of the board crystals of salt ripped off the river bottom and swirled around in the water. One of them hit him in the head and he blacked out into darkness.

On the surface now Tek forced his mouth open and hit the poison water out of his mouth. He gagged and then sucked in the air.

They were still moving. The current pulled them north fast. The salt in the water held them on the surface as they moved forward.

Trey could see nothing of the banks on either side of him, only the speeding current as it ripped them in every direction, but mostly forward.

Tek had a death grip around his chest. One of her hands tangled in his hair. He took a deep breath in, tried to look around. They travelled faster than he ever could have on a horse. Tek was right, the water they were in would capsize a boat in seconds, rip apart the boards. He held on tighter.

Tek pressed her cheek to his. Their bodies tangled together and he realized that she wasn't flinching away from his touch anymore. The detail seemed unimportant now.

He began to fall in and out of consciousness as the River Sea carried him farther and farther away from the only place he had ever called home.