Page 19 of Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

“Burian, this is Alexi, and he’s very sorry he knocked me off the dock. He’ll be coming to lunch with us today.”

“But—” began Burian.

“No buts. He’s hungry, and he’s coming to lunch.”

Burian grumbled something about stupid, soft-hearted humans and swam away, heading for the house. Nadya gave the harbormaster her best, most practiced smile. They had become close friends after her night in his house, and he checked on her often to be sure she was doing well with her new family.

“The arm is new,” he observed, sounding half-amazed and half-amused.

“The river gave it to me when I was going to fall off the dock,” said Nadya, holding up her right hand and turning it back and forth so he could see how perfect it was. “Do you think it’s going to stay?”

“Gifts from the river generally do,” said the harbormaster. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen one, but I wouldn’t worry about losing it.”

Nadya, who wasn’t worried, only curious, dimpled at him. “May we go?” she asked. “Alexi is hungry, and Burian is probably telling Inna some wild story by now.”

“You may go,” Ivan agreed, and watched as the children whirled and raced away, laughing between themselves.

Sometimes, he missed the resiliency of childhood more than words could say. But time was passing, and she wouldn’t be that resilient forever. He just had to hope that every time she fell, the river would be there to catch her.

10WHERE THE RIVER RUNS

TIME CONTINUED ON ITS WAYand in its way, passing for everyone at the same speed, swift and unstoppable as the River Wild itself. Alexi became a common sight in Inna’s kitchen; they might not be able to feed every hungry child in the city, or force every parent to become a better person than they were, but they could feed him, and that was better than nothing by such a measure as to be immeasurable. Nadya’s arm of River-water remained, as flexible and dexterous as any other human arm, and she accordingly spent more time on the fishing boats, no longer needing sticks to help her tie her knots.

She learned to catch small fish inside her palm and let them swim through the substance of her arm through the days, before releasing them back into the river. She found a tadpole, once, of the sort of frog that never grew larger than a grown man’s hand, and she kept it cradled in her arm as it grew, watching its slow metamorphosis until the day it pulled itself free and hopped away, needing her no longer. She learned.

She watched the way people reacted to her River-arm, the ones who saw it as a useful tool and the ones who saw it as some sort of repair to the substance of her self, and she cleaved closer to the former and let the latter drift away. There was nothing wrong with using useful tools, or with having only a single hand to your name. She was herself, either way. It was just that now she was the version of herself who carrieda river’s love close against her skin, who could be a home to fish and frogs.

And then came the morning when Burian came to her window, sticking his head inside before the rest of the house was awake. “Hey,” he said. “Hey, Nadya, hey.”

“What?” She rolled over in her hammock and sat up, wiping sleep from her eyes with both hands, a gesture that had developed so quickly and so naturally that anyone who hadn’t known her before her fall would never have guessed that her water arm was a recent development. She used it as naturally as she used her arm of flesh, and rarely seemed to mark the difference at all.

“I’ve just been to see Anna.”

Nadya sat up straighter. Anna saw to the health and care of all the turtles who chose to live within the city—and some of those who didn’t, who would still come to seek her out when they were hurt or sick or gravid and egg-bound. Even wild things can need care, and when lucky, they can seek it. Due to the damage to Burian’s shell, Anna had been leery of letting him leave the creche in the first place, and had monitored his growth ever since. “What did she say?”

“She says I’m strong enough to go to the surface,” he said, and then added, voice dipping so that it was almost shy, “She says I’m strong enough to ride.”

Nadya slid out of her hammock and rushed to the window, putting her hands on the edge and leaning out so that she and Burian were face-to-face. “Truly?”

“Truly. They’ll fit me for a saddle this afternoon, if you want them to.”

Nadya squealed and boosted herself out the window so she could wrap her arms around her friend’s neck and squeeze him to her. She would never have been able to embrace anormal turtle that way, but Burian was intelligent; he could speak, he could tell her if she was hurting him, and he quite enjoyed the attention.

When she let go, he ducked his head and said, “I’m sorry it’s taken so long. I’m sorry I can’t pull a boat like Vasyl can. I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be sorry about any of those things,” she said, cutting him off. “Who wants to spend their life on a fishing boat? The river called me, and that means the river wants me to see more than just the common currents. Riders get to explore and find things we don’t know about yet. You and I can go all the way to the Winsome if we want to, or to the Whimsy, or even to the Widdershins! We can see the whole world, and that’s better than a boat. I’d rather you than the strongest turtle in the whole world.”

“Really?”

“Really-really. You and me, Burian, we’re going to swim all the way to the sky.”

They went to Anna that afternoon to get Burian fitted with his saddle, which was braided rope and leather and stretched across his shell, tied at his belly. Only turtles who truly trusted their human companions to have their safety in mind agreed to be ridden; once the saddle was secured, the turtle couldn’t remove it on their own. It would have to be refitted as he grew, and he still had quite a bit of growing to do; river turtles could be so large that even the tallest man in the world couldn’t touch both sides of their shell at once, although it took them many, many years to reach that point. Burian would be small enough to be quick and agile for decades yet.

Most of the truly epic turtles swam away from the city, vanishing into the distant depths of Belyyreka, where their smaller relations couldn’t go. They lived so long that they saw the companions of their youth age and die while they went ever on, as enduring as the river. It ate at them, to be left so alone, and isolation seemed to be the best response.

Nadya found it all very sad. More than once, she had hugged Burian by the neck and whispered, “I won’t ever go away. I won’t ever leave you. We’ll find a way for me to live with you forever, and even when you get as big as a boat, I’ll still be bringing you biscuits and scolding you for sneaking up on me.”

“Lots of turtles get as big as boats,” said Burian.

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