Chapters (34)
She could hear the voices gusting in from all over the island, but they didn’t pay any attention to her. Instead they seemed to concentrate around the ragged man, hissing and cooing to him. His face remained stock-still and expressionless even as the water in front of him began to eddy. The waves bubbled and coiled, and Luce could make out the flash of bright scales just below the surface. The whispering grew louder, bubbled like the water, then abruptly expired in a shrill hiss that sounded somehow like a command. There was a flash of leaping silver and translucent fins, and Luce couldn’t stifle a gasp. A large pink-silver fish crashed down hard just inches from the man’s feet. It beat its iridescent tail against the beach, its body arching and falling. The man bent and seized the fish with one hand then casually swung its head against the rocks, knocking it unconscious.
“Okay, already,” the ragged man said loudly, staring into the whispering air just ahead of him. “At least let me have some peace while I eat, all right?”
Luce’s tail gave an uncontrollable flip, sending up a shower of bright water, and a small sharp cry burst from her throat. The man didn’t seem to notice. He was already straggling away from her, up the hill and into the woods, small dislodged rocks skittering down the slope behind him. Luce watched helplessly as he left. There was obviously some unknown magic at work here, but beyond that she didn’t know what to think. After a while she saw a thin coil of smoke rising from the far side of the island and knew that the man was cooking his fish over an open flame.
There was something in the tone of those whispering voices that suggested faded memories, sleepless nights, and things lost forever. But the voices also suggested something more specific to Luce—or someone. The voices had seemed to be nudging at her, trying to recall someone to her. She just couldn’t quite tell who it was.
But the man’s voice had also seemed astonishingly similar to another voice Luce had once loved. And in his case she had no trouble recognizing whose it was.
He’d sounded exactly like her father.