Racing the Dark Read Online Free PDF

ask one of the elders. Her mother and another diver surfaced nearby.
    "Did you find something, Lana?" her mother asked, swimming closer.
    Lana nodded, and hoped that her face didn't show her agitation. She held the jewel out silently.

    Leilani and the other diver looked at each other. "That's amazing, Lana. Neither of us found a thing. You really do have a gift for diving."
    Lana blushed. "Just beginner's luck, I guess. Anyway, can you take this for now, Mama? I've got to get to school."
    Her mother took the jewel and put it in her pocket. "Sure. Hurry up-you might be late again."
    Lana nodded and swam back to shore.
    She had to run back home to get a shirt and grab her slate before sprinting to school. Although women on her island often went all day without shirts, at school it was required. Kohaku seemed to think that wearing shirts was more "cultured," whatever that meant. She usually changed out of her wet leibo, but this morning she didn't even have time for that. Their classroom was in one of the ancient kukui trees that grew on the east side of her island. She was almost five minutes late before she finally climbed up the ladder for class. Kali had saved the seat next to her, and Lana went straight to it, trying to make as little noise as possible. Of course, since her initiation she had been late to class nearly every day, so no one paid much attention anymore.
    "You find anything today?" Kali whispered as Lana knelt on the mat.
    Lana nodded. "Just one. It was white."
    "Wow. You really are good, you know. I heard Eala hasn't found anything in more than a week."
    "You too? I've just been lucky, that's all."
    "Lana, Kali!" Kohaku slammed his book shut with enough force that both of their heads snapped up. "If your conversation is so much more interesting than this class, perhaps you would prefer to continue it outside?"
    Lana's heart pounded painfully. She hated it when Kohaku rebuked her like this. She and Kali shook their heads mutely. Kohaku looked at Lana for a moment, smiled a little, and continued with his lecture.

    Today was geography. Though she had always dreamed of traveling when she got older, Lana found it difficult to stay awake. Her mandagah fish dreams had been keeping her up at night, and she and the other women had taken to doing longer and more demanding dives in the effort to find even the few jewels they had been able to harvest. She struggled to suppress her yawns as Kohaku patiently discussed the relationship of the inner spirit temples to the outer shrines. Although she missed a good deal of what he said because she kept nodding off, she gathered that Kohaku was talking about the climate of the islands being connected to the outer shrines. The duty of the hereditary guardians of the outer shrines was to keep the minor spirits within the cycle of their islands. This kept them away from the inner islands so they couldn't strengthen the great spirits bound there, and help them to break free. The concentration of minor spirits made the outer islands much warmer. Her island was always warm, but all of the islands got colder the closer they were to the center.
    She fell asleep after that, and Kali had to wake her up for lunch break.
    They climbed higher into the tree, as they always did during lunch, where they had a great view of the ocean. On clear days they could see the outline of the death shrine, although lately that sight had just made Lana feel like caterpillars were crawling in the pit of her stomach. The two girls perched in the branches and opened the lunches that they had brought from home.
    "I thought I was going to die in there, the way he kept rattling on about the spirits and the temples!" Kali leaned back on her branch and stretched out with a grimace.
    "I don't know. It seemed pretty interesting to me."
    "You were the one who fell asleep."
    "I've been ... kind of tired lately. Besides, don't you think it's so fascinating-the ice-mountains on the inner islands, the huge volcano on