“You keep saying he saved her life, but she knows the coastline. She would’ve made her way into that cave for shelter.”
“She waded out into the water. He saved her from drowning herself.”
Her mind reeled. That couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. She’d known Giss was upset and in despair, but surely she wouldn’t have considered ending her own life.
“No,” she said, shaking her head, but as moments passed she thought back to that night. Deep down she’d known there was something terribly wrong. She’d wanted to believe that Giss had gone out to walk off her frustrations, but ignoring curfew? Why would she unless she didn’t ever intend to face the consequences of it?
“Yes. We saw her from the cliff. Wex called out to her to turn back when she climbed over the barrier. I don’t know if she heard him over the wind, but she didn’t turn back, even when the water was up to her chest and the waves were going over her head.”
Zawri grimaced.
“Larsinc never made a sound. He walked away from the edge of the cliff. I thought he was leaving her to kill herself, but I should have known better. He turned, sprinted to the edge, and leapt out. He dove into that churning sea, right into where the rip currents run. She was underwater by then. If not for the glow of her shift, he wouldn’t have found her. He fought the sea for her. It started to seem like they might both drown. Wex wanted to dive in to help, but I held him back. The lightning and wind had gotten too fierce. The waves had doubled in size, and the light was almost gone. Then we caught a glimpse of her shift when Linc lifted her over the barrier and set her on the shore. He saved her life. Don’t doubt it. He almost lost his own to do it.”
“Why do you think he did it?”
“He was raised from young as Ketturan. Males of that tribe will do anything to rescue a woman or child from death.”
“Even a foreign woman? One that’s a stranger?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s the rule of law, but he obviously couldn’t overcome his training. Before he saw her, he’d been saying we should shelter until the storm passed and finish our work after. Ketturans are sensible warriors; they’re well trained to survive on many planets. We—Canypscan—are much more impulsive.”
“You don’t seem impulsive.”
“By nature, I am. I’ve learned to overcome it. Mostly,” he added with a smile. “Hunting requires patience. It requires waiting for the best time to strike. I was lucky enough to have a Macon as a mentor. Canypscan don’t make good hunters normally. But he worked on me a long time.”
“How did you meet him?”
“He moved into my house.” Tok flashed a smile. “He was in love with my mother, so he moved in as a boarder. We needed the money and the meat, so even though he got in the way of some things, she would never ask him to go. He wasn’t her type and she told him that all the time. She liked wild, flashy men. Singers. Gamblers. Drunks. He was quiet. Not good-looking. It took him seven years to get her to be his girlfriend. But only two weeks to agree to marry him once she was.”
“Are they still together?”
He nodded.
“Do you and Wex take after your mother in terms of looks? Or your dad?”
“Both, I guess.”
“They were both very good-looking, I suppose?”
“I suppose.”
“No man waits seven years for a woman who’s not pretty.”
He shrugged. “She was pretty, but there were prettier. It was her voice that he couldn’t resist. The first time he saw her, he was in a bar where she was singing. And that was that. He introduced himself after she finished performing. She said she lived on another planet and would be going home in the morning. He came to Canypsco about three weeks later and never left. When she sang, either in the house or at a bar or party, he sat and listened for the duration. Still does.”
“What about your dad?”
He shrugged. “He’s out there somewhere. Left on a ship when we were young. I’ve tracked him down a couple of times to see that he’s alive. He is. Never a captain, but decent at piracy. Never been caught. Has a solid stash apparently. He’s smart about who he sails with.”
“He—he never came back to see you? Never sent money?”
“No.”
“Are you angry about that?”
He shook his head. “They fought a lot, drank a lot. He wasn’t good at fatherhood. That’s what he told us when he said goodbye. Things would go smoother if she was left to have her own way on everything. He was right.”
“Did you miss him?”
