Orphans of the Tide #2 by Struan Murray

Author:Struan Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

LEILA’S DIARY

4,798 days aboard the Revival

Tonight I wandered through the Ark, clutching a blue orchid from the garden. On the Market Deck, I saw Aaron Sacco being thrown out of his bakery. A huge brute hobbled behind him on one wooden leg. The First Mate.

“Word is, you’re the Enemy’s Vessel,” he said.

“What?” said Sacco, lip trembling in horror. “No, that’s not true.”

The First Mate laughed. “Not what I heard. Heard you’ve been talking to it.”

“No, please.” Sacco got on his knees.

“Tell you what, give me all your grain, and your shop, and maybe I won’t tell anyone.”

I rolled up my sleeves, ready to march forward, but then the Ark-Captain strode out from nowhere, big and angry. He helped Sacco back into his shop, then pinned the First Mate against the wall.

“What are you doing?” the Ark-Captain spat.

“We need food,” said the First Mate.

“You can’t go around accusing people of being the Enemy’s Vessel! Things are bad enough as it is.”

“Whale girl,” whispered the First Mate.

The Ark-Captain turned and saw me. “On your way, Leila,” he said. There was a big vein on his forehead and I could tell he wasn’t messing around, so I ran off up toward the Sky Deck.

The sea was all silver in the moonlight, wind whistling in my ears. Gripping the rail, I edged down the stairs on the outside of the Ark, to the wooden platform where Blue Eyes had died. The Ark battered its way through the ocean.

I laid the orchid on the water’s surface, but the sea whisked it away before I had time to say the words I’d prepared. I bowed my head and said them anyway.

“I miss you, Blue Eyes. I don’t know what to do without you. I look after the garden, and the boy, only I don’t know what I can do to help him. And I’m worried about what’s happening on the Ark. Everyone’s turning against each other. When you were here, things were simpler. I don’t belong to anything anymore.”

I looked out at the horizon, waiting. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for, because I knew Blue Eyes was gone. And what else was there except the ocean and this horrible ship?

A jet of water sprayed high in the air.

A dark fin cleaved through distant waves, and my heart leapt. Then another fin, and another. I counted ten, then twenty.

“I heard them calling for him yesterday.”

I almost fell into the sea. Varu was standing at my side, smiling. I listened harder, over the crash of the sea. There was a faint song, made of clicks and chirrups. A song I recognized.

“Blue Eyes,” I said.

Varu nodded. “They’re his family, I think.”

“But Blue Eyes never had a family? He was alone when I found him.”

“They must have been separated by the Drowning.” Varu closed his eyes. Faint blue shapes swirled across his skin. “They’ve been searching for him a long time.”

Jets of water split the night air again. The song was sweet, and sorrowful.

“They must be so sad, to have come all this way for nothing.

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