Lalani of the Distant Sea: List 5

Rage, resentment, jealousy, and hatred are all that is left behind.

You find something good, and you mimic it. You are a sentient cloud, and a shape-shifter. You can change your appearance and your song.

“After the death of our menyoro, Drum and I shared the same thought. Each of us wished to humble ourselves and take the menyoro's place.”

The assembled men turned to one another, asking questions in a steady thrum: “What is this about?”

He felt every dark eye on him, even though he knew they were fixated on Maddux and Drum, trying to work out what was happening, just as he was.

“It’s not defeat,” Maddux said, over mixed cries of dissent and agreement.

Drum scanned the assembly. “I would never cower in the face of challenge.”

“Collective work means collective ruin. There must be one person to lead the village—a man who will demand obedience, skill, and achievement from all people. Even the women. You will do these things because you will be held accountable to me and my son. You will wake up each dawn with a sense of fear and accountability. That is how you build a strong community.”

It only felt that way because the hunger pangs were so palpable.

Her right leg straightened as she bent her left and instinctively threw the palms of her hands down to soften the fall, which happened with such momentum that it sent a sharp pain through her arms, and then she was sliding, although she wasn’t sure how because she didn’t remember a hill.

Her right leg straightened as she bent her left and instinctively threw the palms of her hands down to soften the fall, which happened with such momentum that it sent a sharp pain through her arms, and then she was sliding, although she wasn’t sure how because she didn’t remember a hill.

Lalani turned and saw the animal. It was swaddled in a white blanket.

l am a coward.
This was the mantra that ran through his mind.

You see colors of every shade and hue, all the complicated patterns of the leaves, and every ridge in the tree trunks, like stagnant waterfalls.

So you don't notice the blight on the pachenka tree.

The osabana was adequate at quenching Lalani's hunger, but it didn’t last forever.

Usoa didn’t seem to need much sustenance. She could go for long stretches without drinking, and if she became hungry, she simply pulled a stalk of grass out of the ground and ate it.

There was a moment, a fleeting moment, when she confused Usoa for Veyda.

He erected a gong near the central water pump, and Kul struck it each morning at dawn with a heavy gavel that sent a vibrating call through the village.

It hadn’t taken long for Hetsbi to discover that his teacher was a man of integrity and honor.

“I know enough of both to start instruction and recognize others who excel at it. I can catch fish and build a boat, but it won’t be the most fish or the best boat.”

Bai-Vinca towered over Lalani and Usoa. She could easily engulf them with her wings.

But Bai-Vinca’s throat was exposed, a soft and delicate gullet where Lalani sank her teeth and Usoa followed her lead.

The girls punched and bit and kicked, and soon Bai-Vinca’s squawks devolved into choked cries as they overpowered her.

Although Anya had two hands, two feet, ten fingers, and ten toes, she had an oddity that no one in Arkaley had ever seen: a small shell.

Only a charred pit remained—the place where the hearth had once been.

The shell served no purpose. So she climbed a cliff and threw it off. She watched it plummet to the rocky shore and crack in three pieces, and she’d never felt so triumphant or defiant in her life.

The man’s face tightened with horror. “Why would you do such a thing? That shell was part of you. It was meant to be revered and celebrated.”

“The villagers ridiculed me! They would not accept me with a shell,” Anya pleaded.

Maybe it was because of Drum. The way Drum pounded his heavy gavel against the gong and demanded that the people do more, more, more. The way he chastised the men and women, boys and girls, when they didn’t achieve his standards.

On this particular morning, he didn’t even wait for dawn. The villagers were bleary -eyed and sleepy.

He offered passing condolences to Esdel’s family—none of whom were there, as far as Hetsbi could tell—but quickly steered the conversation to his grand new idea: he wanted to use the wood from the boat to build a stately home for himself and Kul.

They gave you their shortcomings, and in the end it was too heavy, too much—you grew tired under the weight, and in your weakness they were able to lift you and toss you overboard, but your hair—your beautiful, beautiful hair, that your mother brushed for you before she died—caught on the boat and you refused to sink.

You have learned that perseverance is a necessity.

You have learned that compassion is life's greatest virtue.