cliff of water, its face flecked with debris, and the air was filled with a rushing, stormy noise. He stopped, just for a heartbeat, looking up, unbelieving.
Then he swam. He made his strokes desperately now, working the water with his feet and arms. In the last moment, in the shade of the wave, he took a final gulp of air.
The wave slammed down and he was immersed, surrounded by rubbish, dead fish, seaweed, silt, bits of floating wood. He fought to stay upright, to kick towards the surface. But then a current grabbed him, incredibly strong, and he and the fish went plummeting down into the darker deep, incredibly fast and far. The water squeezed his chest and he lost his air, his last precious lungful bubbling before his face.
He slammed into the floor of the ocean. His leg twisted in mud and his head smashed against a rock. Through churned-up silt he saw his own blood, deep crimson red, clouding the water. He fought on, but his leg was a mass of pain when he tried to kick.
Now another current picked him up and hurled him away like a leaf in a breeze. Still he struggled.
But he had to breathe. The water forced its way into his throat and lungs, an agonising intrusion, and he convulsed.
It wasn’t death that he feared but the thought of all he had left undone. He had to get to the shore, to Ana.
But the darkness closed around him. Still struggling, he sank into the welcoming mud.
43
When Ana, Novu and Dreamer staggered to Arga’s parents’ house, Rute and Jaku were both inside. Lightning had followed them back from the beach, and when the three of them came in he jumped up at Ana, tail wagging in pleasure.
Jaku was stunned to see them. Their presence pushed back the nameless fears in his head, just a little.
But Rute continued preparing a fire in the hearth. She barely looked up. Since they had watched the sea take Josu, Jaku didn’t know what was going on in his wife’s mind.
Now Jaku took in the state of the three of them, Ice Dreamer draped over Novu, Ana clutching Dreamer’s baby. They were panting, soaked, battered, all of them smeared with blood and sea-bottom mud. Novu was all but naked, as if the clothes had been ripped off his back.
And his daughter was missing. Somehow he hadn’t seen it immediately. ‘Where’s Arga? Wasn’t she with you? You were going down to the sea—’
‘We got caught by the second wave,’ Ana said. ‘We hung on . . .’
Novu insisted, ‘We have to go on. All of us. Get to the high ground. As high as possible above the next wave.’
‘What next wave? Where’s Arga? ’ Jaku faced Ana. He wanted to shake her, but she held the baby close.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ana said, desolate. ‘She hurt her leg. I had the baby. I couldn’t carry Arga too—’
Rute, still working the fire as if this was a normal day, just a friendly visit, actually smiled. ‘Arga’s a strong swimmer. She’ll be all right in the sea.’
Ana said, ‘Rute. Aunt - you have to come with us. It might not be safe here.’
‘No, no, I’ve got this fire to build. Arga’s going to be cold and wet when she gets in. And hungry, mark my words. She takes a lot of feeding, that girl!’ She kept heaping up peat blocks, and she inspected a bowl of broth hanging on a rope from a house post.
Jaku touched Ana’s arm. ‘She’s been this way since the beach. At first she was all right - she reacted quicker than I did. But then the first wave came and took poor Josu, just like that. Since then she’s been like this.’
‘You have to come,’ Novu said grimly. ‘If the next wave is bigger than the second, as the second was bigger than the first—’
Jaku looked back at his wife, despairing, his head full of a formless anxiety over Arga. ‘It’s no use. Even if I tried to drag her we’d be too slow. We’re going to have to take our chances here. Who knows? Maybe there won’t be another wave.’
Ana’s eyes brimmed. ‘Oh, Jaku—’
‘Go.’ Go, he thought, before I begin to hate you for abandoning my daughter. ‘Take her, Novu.’
Novu nodded curtly. Still supporting Dreamer, he took firm hold of Ana’s arm and dragged her out of the house.
Lightning followed, wagging his tail, but then looked back at Jaku, obviously confused. Jaku made a sweeping gesture after Ana.