“Lok-i-xan,” said Abasio as cheerily as he could manage. “Justinian.” He noticed with dismay that most of his fellow revelers were edging toward the door.
“Everyone stay as you are,” said Lok-i-xan, waving the parasols away. “Someone offer me a cup.”
Someone quickly did so.
“We’re sorry to be so late,” Justinian said. “The doctors wanted to . . . congratulate us, and they did go on and on about it.” He came rather tentatively toward the buckets, putting his hand on the rim, just as Abasio had done. His fingers were seized. He smiled. His eyes filled with tears.
“Let us drink to the next generation,” said Abasio, raising his cup . . . mug . . . actually he wasn’t sure what it was usually used for. One of the stablemen had given it to him. It looked . . . veterinary. Silence threatened to fall heavily.
Blue said hastily, “I am reminded of a song.” He nudged Abasio, cleared his throat, and sang, quite tunefully:
Oh, evolution is the force
That pulls the culture wagon
But no one really knows, of course,
By which the what is draggin’.
Time sometimes runs from front to back
And sometimes even sidewise
And oceans have the liquid knack
Of daily running tidewise.
“Ti-i-idewi-i-ise,” echoed the two warriors, one of whom strummed an ondang as Blue continued:
Though who has tails, and wears them where,
Are matters that could lure us
With riddles so arcane and rare
That none would ever cure us . . .
Abasio patted his grandfather-in-law on the shoulder and, waving his glass—mug—whatever—joined in.
Let’s not waste life deciphering,
Let lore and logic scatter,
And fish tails will not matter
And fish tails will not matter.
No, fish tails will not matter!
“Fish tails will not matter,” echoed Lok-i-xan, who was very busy tickling one of the babies. “Such a big, strong boy . . .”
Abasio patted him on the shoulder again.
And Justinian, leaning over the other bucket, looked up with a glowing face. “Look, Abasio! Lok-i-xan! She has her grandmother’s eyes.”
About the Author
SHERI S. TEPPER is the author of several resoundingly acclaimed novels, including The Margarets, The Companions, The Visitor, The Fresco, Singer from the Sea, Six Moon Dance, The Family Tree, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, Shadow’s End, A Plague of Angels, Sideshow, and Beauty, which was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of Locus magazine. Tepper lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Also by Sheri S. Tepper
The Margarets
The Companions
The Visitor
The Fresco
Singer from the Sea
Six Moon Dance
The Family Tree
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall
Shadow’s End
A Plague of Angels
Sideshow
Raising the Stones
Beauty
The Gate to Women’s Country
After Long Silence
The Awakeners
Credits
Jacket illustration by John Picacio
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE WATERS RISING. Copyright © 2010 by Sheri S. Tepper. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Map by Tracy Pollock, Springer Cartographics LLC.
EPub Edition September 2010 ISBN: 9780062008732
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