Shall we return and enjoy the fruits of their labor?”
“You really are terrible, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m hungry.” He takes my arm, and his voice is abruptly serious again. “Be cautious when you return home, young one. Change can be frightening, and fear makes people dangerous.”
We walk back along the edge of the water hole, and the two voices grow clearer. Wirrim and Kadee are telling a longer, more detailed version of the story of Koolkuna that I heard when I arrived. We stand at the perimeter of the circle of light and listen.
“Where were you?” Peree whispers in my ear, startling me.
“Talking with Nerang,” I whisper back. “Did I miss the offering?”
“Yeah. Lucky you.” He pauses. “I don’t know, feeding the Scourge. It’s disturbing.”
“I know.”
“You missed the blessing of the children, too,” he says. “They call them gurus, or something. It was strange, sort of the opposite of the Exchange.” One more difference between here and home.
I have renewed admiration for Wirrim and Kadee’s gifts as they tell the story of the early days of Koolkuna. I can feel the terror of the anuna as they escape the City and make the dangerous journey to their ancestral home, their fear slowly changing to relief as they realize what they’ve found in the Myuna: refuge, salvation, deliverance.
Peree slides his arm around my waist. Standing in the glow of the fire, with the soothing flow of the waterfall, surrounded by people who accept me despite my being a lorinya, and held by someone who cares for me, I feel secure. Not a common feeling for any Groundling. I want this for Calli, for Eland, for all my people.
Wirrim blesses the Feast, and a few moments later the music starts. The instruments and rhythms sound similar, but not quite the same as our own. All around us people begin to pair up.
Peree takes my hand. When he speaks, his voice is formal. “Fennel, would you like to dance?”
I smirk, and lower my voice, trying to imitate his melodic voice. “Groundlings and Lofties don’t dance together.”
“Why not?”
“Tradition, I guess.”
He pulls me close, his hands spread against my back, and he whispers in my ear. “To hell with tradition.”
Then he kisses me. A brief touch of his lips against mine, but enough to send lightning bolts streaking across my body. Before I can react, he spins me around and we’re off. I didn’t know the Lofties danced much, up in the tops of the greenhearts, but Peree clearly learned somewhere.
I can’t stop grinning. I finally got my dance.
Chapter Seventeen
Later, we escape the noise and the warm crush of twirling bodies. I barely had a break, dancing with Peree, Kora and Bega, even Konol and Nerang. My head spins a little from the wine, but otherwise I’m euphoric, holding Peree’s hand as he guides me out of the crowd.
“Take a walk with me?” he asks, when we reach the cooler air close to the water. I don’t care where we go, as long as it’s not to sleep. I don’t want the night to end. He whistles to the music as we stroll through the trees that surround the water hole. After passing a few other couples seeking solitude in the darkness, we’re alone.
“Nerang’s quite the dancer,” Peree says. “He’s full of surprises, isn’t he?”
I laugh, thinking about how he gets his meals. “Yeah, he is.”
“So what did you two talk about for so long?”
I hesitate. I don't want to ruin the mood. “Tomorrow.”
“What’s the plan?” he asks casually.
I fill him in on my conversation with Nerang. His offer surprises Peree, too, but the news that Kadee will take me back doesn’t.
“I asked her to be your guide,” he says.
“You did?”
“What did you think, that I’d let you go by yourself? Wandering through the caves or the forest all alone, when she knows exactly how to get there? What kind of Keeper do you think I am?”
“A devious one.”
“Well, you’re still going to have a tough job once you get there. Koolkuna will be about as real to our people as camels and cassowaries. But Nerang’s offer is generous.”
We amble down the path to the village, our hands still linked.
“Dark out here,” Peree says. He pulls me to a stop. “Wait, I want to try something.”
“What?”
“I want to feel what it’s like to be Sightless.”
“Close your eyes and you pretty much have it,” I joke.
“No, really. I’m going to walk for a while without looking where I’m going.”
“But you can open your eyes any time. That