Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(9) Taiki: Yaz

Ande has said we need allies, and there are people right here who I'm pretty sure will qualify. She's left me alone with them. Yaz watches me like she's waiting for me to either back out or rise to the challenge of answering her question. If her accent is to judge, she learned Eni-Karu somewhere along the island chain, and she's fluent in it. Even speaks it preferentially. Her mannerisms are also Karu, practiced and easy like she's spent years living among the coral people.

Which means she's like me.

I didn't think I would ever meet another Karu-Shalda. I think she's the only one here: among the other Kels in this pocket, only El sounds fluent in Eni-Karu, but he's Ashianti—I don't think knowing a language means as much in a city like Rapal. I suddenly, desperately want to confirm about Yaz, but if I'm going to expose myself in front of other Shalda people, I want to know what I'm getting into first.

"Can I ask a question first?" I say.

"Go for it."

"What's the Network?"

"Excellent question." Yaz nods around the room. "Us. Well, our people. Anyone with a fin in both the Shalda and sun-water categories. Most of us have an alliance of some kind: Ashianti-Glauclin-Tibur, Signal-Glauclin, Qiv-Burrower... you get the idea."

I keep trying to relax, and failing. My shoulders have started to ache from it. I knew the Ashianti and Glauclin clans were close, and I've heard about the Tiburs. I knew Keshko's people—the Qiv—were close with some kind of lower-water clan on the seamounts they both live around, but I didn't know it was the Burrowers. The Burrowers are Karu-Kels.

Yaz continues, "There's been... kind of an agreement across the ocean since the conflict started, between all the Network Kels. We're all stuck between sides, so we don't attack each other. No use fighting when we're all in the same position. So we've been meeting up all over the ocean, thanks to the Glauclins in particular. Pretty sure we all get news of developments in Rapal faster than anyone but the Alliance at this point. Helps keep us out of trouble. Or in it, as the case may be."

There's another question I want to ask, but I don't know if it's appropriate. I didn't know Yaz's people were stuck between sides like the Glauclins are, and it's hard to figure out her stance on things when there's so much I don't understand yet.

Yaz, though, is talkative. She taps the rocks for a moment, then shifts abruptly like she doesn't like to sit still. "So that's been going on ever since the conflicts started, what, two generations ago? The Glauclins and Ashianti have been at this alliance business longer than most of us, other than the Qiv and Burrowers. They go back millennia. Anyway. The rest of us have kind of joined in bits and pieces. Even the Signals aren't all on board yet, though I think most of the holdouts just don't want to be involved in the politics. Pretty independent in general. But hey, that's Signals for you. Fun times being Shalda but apparently vicious enough to be grouped in with sun-water hunting Kels."

She laughs, but my throat has tightened past the point of speaking. What she's saying is true, but she's treating it like it's no big deal. There aren't many hunting Shalda. Most are herders or foragers; we're not naturally armed like the Karu, and most of us aren't fast enough to take on big prey. We've always called that the business of surface Kels. And I know at least part of it is intentional.

The mid-water Shalda divide is part of our lore, if it can be called lore when it's only a few generations old. We used to compete with one another. Long ago, really, but it ramped up when food started to go scarce and the first tribes started disappearing. Some blamed each other. Some didn't care. Some were glad to claim the best surface grazing spots for themselves. It wasn't until the surface Kels started diving and the disappearances began to really thin our numbers that people realized we were up against something bigger.