“Just give me a moment. I’ve seen reef breeds here before.” Her burnt umber eyes sharpen to see what I can’t, deep beneath the water. Ailesse’s second grace bone, from a peregrine falcon, gives her keen vision.
The salt spray tingles my nose as I warily lean forward. A heady breeze tips my balance, and I scuffle back again. Ailesse holds steady, her body still as stone. I know that predatory, patient set of her jaw. She will wait like this—sometimes for hours—for what she wants. She was born to hunt. Her mother, Odiva, matrone of our famille, is our greatest huntress. Perhaps Ailesse’s father was a skilled soldier or a captain. Mine was probably a gardener or an apothecary, someone who healed or helped things grow. Paltry skills for a Leurress.
I shouldn’t wonder about our fathers. We’ll never know them. Odiva discourages our famille from speaking about dead amourés, the select men who perfectly complement our souls. We novices will have to make our own sacrifices one day, and it will be easier if we don’t grow attached to those destined to die.
“There!” Ailesse points to a darker spot of water, close to the cliff wall below us. I don’t see anything.
“Are you sure?”
She nods, flexing her hands in anticipation. “A tiger shark—a king predator! How fortunate is that? I was worried you’d have to dive in after me and scare away the other reef sharks attracted to the blood.” I swallow hard, imagining myself as bait. Gratefully, no creature will come near a tiger shark. Except Ailesse. She heaves a sigh of admiration. “Oh, Sabine, she’s beautiful—and large, even taller than a man.”
“She?” Ailesse may have far-reaching vision, but she can’t see through the shark to its underside.
“Only a female could be that magnificent.”
I scoff. “Says someone who has yet to meet her amouré.”
She smirks, ever amused by my cynicism. “If I get this bone, I’ll have all three and get to meet him on the next full moon.”
My smile wavers. Every Leurress must choose and obtain three grace bones in order to become a Ferrier. But that’s not the only requirement. It’s the thought of the final achievement that renders me silent. Ailesse speaks so casually about her rite of passage and the person she’ll have to kill—a human, not a creature who can’t scream when its life has ended. But her tolerance is natural; I’m the anomaly. I must accept, like the other Leurress do without flinching, that what we do is necessary, a price demanded by the gods for the safety of this world.
Ailesse rubs her palms on her dress. “I have to hurry. The shark is turning back for the mouth of the lagoon. I’ll never catch her if I have to fight against the current.” She points to a small, sandy beach below. “Meet me down there, all right? I’ll drag her to the shore when I’m finished.”
“Wait!” I catch her arm. “What will happen if you fail?” I sound like her mother, but it must be said. This is my friend’s life. This risk is different from those Ailesse has taken before. Maybe graces from a shark aren’t worth the danger. She could still choose a bone from another animal.
Her expression falls. I usually support her in everything. “I can take a shark. Most are docile unless threatened.”
“And a dive attack off a cliff isn’t threatening?”
“Better than a slow swim from the shore. I’d never gain any momentum on her.”
“That isn’t the point.”
Ailesse crosses her arms. “Our hunting should involve danger. That is the point. The animals with the best graces should be difficult to kill. Otherwise we’d all be wearing squirrel bones.”
A wall of hurt slams into me. My hand closes around the tiny skull resting above my heart. It hangs from a waxed cord, my only grace bone.
Ailesse’s eyes widen. “There’s nothing wrong with your bone,” she stammers, realizing her mistake. “I wasn’t making light of it. A fire salamander is worlds better than a rodent.”
I look down at my feet. “A salamander is even smaller than a rodent. Everyone knows it was an easy kill.”
Ailesse takes my hand and holds it for a long moment, even while her shark swims away. “It wasn’t easy for you.” Our toes are almost touching, her creamy skin against my olive. “Besides, a fire salamander has the gift to heal quickly. No other Leurress had the wisdom to obtain that grace before.”
She makes me sound so clever. The truth is Odiva was pressuring me to make my first kill, and out of desperation I chose what wouldn’t make me weep. I chose wrong. My eyes were red for days, and I couldn’t bear to touch the dead creature. Ailesse boiled the flesh off his bones and made my necklace for me. She suggested I use the vertebrae, but to her surprise, I chose the skull. It reminded me of the salamander’s life and personality the most. It was the best homage I could pay him. I couldn’t bring myself to carve any pretty designs onto the skull, and Ailesse never asked me why. She never makes me talk about anything I don’t want to.
I wipe my hand under my nose. “You better get your shark.” If anyone can do it, she can. I’ll stop fretting about the danger.
She smiles my favorite smile, the one that reveals all her teeth and makes me feel like life is one long adventure, large enough to keep even Ailesse satisfied.
She unstraps a spear from her back. We fashioned it from a sapling and her bone knife. Like all ritual weapons, it’s made from the bones of a stag to symbolize perpetual life. Ailesse backs up several steps and grips the spear’s shaft. With a running start, she launches herself off the cliff.
Her leap is tremendous. Her falcon’s wing bone can’t make her fly, but it definitely makes a jump impressive.
She shrieks in the thrill of the moment and brings her arms together, one hand over the other, to break the water. Her body aligns, her toes point, and she plunges in headfirst.
Her dive barely creates a splash. I creep closer to the edge of the cliff and squint, wishing for Ailesse’s vision. Won’t she come up for a breath? Maybe she means to strike the shark first. That would be the smartest way to catch it off guard.
I wait for her to emerge, and my heart thrums faster. I count each beat. Eight, nine . . . thirteen, fourteen . . . twenty-one, twenty-two . . . forty-seven . . .
Ailesse has two grace bones, the ibex and the falcon. Neither can help her hold her breath for long.
Sixty-three.
I crouch and lean over the edge. “Ailesse?” I shout.
The water stirs. Nothing surfaces.
Seventy-five.
My racing pulse can’t be keeping correct time. She hasn’t been down there this long. Maybe thirty seconds. Possibly forty.
Eighty-six.
“Ailesse!”
Ninety-two.
I watch for the blue water to turn bloodred. But whose blood will it be?
One hundred.
I curse all the gods’ names and throw myself off the cliff.
In my panic, I jump feetfirst. I quickly straighten my body and pull my flailing arms to my sides—almost. They still slap the water. I gasp with pain and release a spray of bubbles—air I need. I clamp my mouth shut and glance around me. The water is clear, but the salt stings my eyes; my salamander was a freshwater creature. I twist in a circle, searching for my friend. I hear a faint sound of struggle.