Nation

teeth.
    “Want to try it, sir? You’ve got the mouth for it!”
    “Ha! But not the legs! I did my bit, though. Last night I begged the gods to let you succeed!”
    “Well, have a rest tonight,” said Mau, “and I’ll go and lie in the muck without a prayer. And tomorrow I’ll get some sleep and you can pray to the gods to make it rain milk. I think you will find lying in the muck is more reliable.”
    “Are you trying to be smart, boy?”
    “Trying not to be dumb, sir.”
    “Games with words, boy, games with words. The gods are in everything we do. Who knows? Perhaps they see a use for your sorrowful blasphemy. You mentioned beer yesterday…,” he added hopefully.
    Mau smiled. “Do you know how to make beer?” he said.
    “No,” said Ataba. “I have always seen it as my duty to do the drinking part. Making beer is women’s business. The trouserman girl does not know how to make beer, no matter how much I shout at her.”
    “I’ll need all that is left,” said Mau firmly.
    “Oh, dear, are you sure?” said Ataba, his face falling.
    “I’m not going to try to suck milk out of a sober pig, sir.”
    “Ah yes,” said Ataba sadly. “Well, I shall pray…and for the milk, also.”
    It was time to go. Mau realized that he had just been putting things off. He should have been listening to himself; if you didn’t believe in prayer, then you had to believe in hard work. There was just enough time to make a dash and find a sow before they woke up. But the old man was still staring at the sky.
    “What are you looking for?” asked Mau.
    “Omens, portents, messages from the gods, demon boy.”
    Mau looked up. Only the star of Fire was visible this close to dawn. “Have you seen any?” he asked.
    “No, but it would be terrible to miss one, wouldn’t it?” said Ataba.
    “Was there one before the wave? Was there a message in the sky?”
    “Quite possibly, but we were not good enough to know what it meant.”
    “We would have, if they had shouted a warning. We’d have understood that! Why didn’t they just shout ?”
    “HELLO!” It was so loud it seemed to echo off the mountain.
    Mau felt the shock down his body, and then his brain cut in with: It came from the sea! There’s a light on the water! And it’s not Raiders, because they wouldn’t shout “Hello!”
    But the old man was on his feet, mouth open in a horrible grin. “Aha, you believed!” he crowed, waving a skinny finger at Mau. “Oh yes you did, just for a second! And you were fearful, and rightly so!”
    “There’s a canoe with a lobster-claw sail!” said Mau, trying to ignore him. “They’re coming around the point! Look, they even have a torch burning!”
    But Ataba hadn’t finished gloating. “For just one moment you—”
    “I don’t care! Come on! There’s more people !”
     
    The canoe was coming through the new gap in the reef. Mau made out two figures, still shadowy against the rising light, lowering the sail. The tide was right and the people knew what they were doing, because the craft slid easily into the lagoon, as if it were steering itself.
    It nudged the beach gently, and a young man jumped down and ran toward Mau.
    “Are there women here?” he said. “Please, my brother’s wife is going to have a baby!”
    “We have one woman, but she is sick.”
    “Can she sing the calling song?”
    Mau glanced at the Unknown Woman. He’d never heard a word from her, and he wasn’t at all sure she was right in the head.
    “I doubt it,” he said.
    The man sagged. He was young, only a few years older than Mau. “We were taking Cahle to the Women’s Place on the Overshoal Islands when the wave hit,” he said. “They’re gone. So many places have…gone. And we saw your smoke. Please, where is your chief?”
    “I’m here,” said Mau firmly. “Take her up to the Women’s Place. Ataba here will show you the way.” The old priest sniffed and scowled but didn’t argue.
    The young man stared at Mau. “ You are the chief? But you are just a boy!”
    “Not just. Not even. Not only. Who knows?” said Mau. “The wave came. These are new days. Who knows what we are? We survived, that’s all.” He paused, and thought: And we become what we have to be…. “There is a girl who can help you. I will send her up to the Women’s Place,” he said.
    “Thank you. It is going to be very soon! My name is Pilu. My brother is Milo.”
    “You mean the ghost girl?” hissed Ataba in Mau’s ear as the boy ran