Murel's skin shivered all down the length of her spine. I know, she said, accepting a second fish that had somehow appeared in the paw when the first one vanished.
Are we inside your city now? Didn't it get destroyed during the eruption?
No. Our city is designed to withstand the living force of the planet. To us and our habitat, volcanoes give life. And yes, you are safe in our city now.
She means their den, Sky said. The concept of a city was still not one he understood. Kilcoole was the biggest settlement on the northern pole of Petaybee and it was still little more than a Nakatira-cube-enhanced village. It is a big den.
Hundreds of holes. These deep sea otters are very big, so they cannot all fit in one hole.
Though the twins hadn't felt as if they were floating inside the room, it occurred to them that they were still in the depths of the sea and that water-or something similar-was all around them. It was very clear. All they had to do was to think about swimming and they could swim instead of staying on the floor. What was that all about?
The tall otter, who stood on her hind paws during their conversation, stepped aside, inviting them to leave their temporary harbor.
They were in the strange city they had seen only from the outside before. The multicolored lights streaming from the top of the tallest buildings to the bottom of those at sea floor level were less apparent inside, where you could only see a few at a time, glowing first in one place then another. They looked more random than they had from outside the protective bubble that cloaked the city in what seemed to be a protective force field. The first time the twins had seen it, Ronan tried to swim into the city from several angles but hadn't been able to get inside. Our security system, the tall otter explained, picking up his thought.
I didn't realize otters had them, Ronan said.
Most do not. You are bright youngsters. It will not have escaped your notice that we are rather more evolved than other varieties of otters.
What is evolved? Sky asked.
More developed, Murel told him, unsure how to further explain it with images he would understand. Like living in cities instead of regular dens.
Regular dens are nice, Sky said, puzzled. Otters can build new ones when they get messy or filled with water or if we want to go somewhere else.
But although making dens is natural for river and sky otters, Murel said, these otters use things that are not exactly natural.
Hah! Sky said. Sky otters fly in sky machines that are not exactly natural, and they still swim, walk, run, and slide. Sky otters are evolved too.
And evolving more all the time, Murel agreed. Besides, sky otters are real and I think this is all a dream. Ronan and I used to share dreams when we were little.
This can't be happening. Some of those other big otters are walking around the city and some of them are swimming. It doesn't make any sense. I fell asleep in the water and then I dreamed the orcas were after me and that this big waterspout pulled me away from them at the last minute and I thought I woke up, but I'm still dreaming, really.
If I'm in the dream too, Ronan replied, you're not going to believe me if I tell you this seems to be pretty real to me.
It is good that you feel that way, their hostess said. You will remember none of this when you return to the surface, so it will be much like a dream that way.
I didn't realize otters dreamed, Murel said.
Not to be left out, Sky said, Sky otters dream! then asked, What is dream?
Stories you see after you're asleep, Murel said.
Oh, yes, sky otters do that. So do river otters. I do not know about the sea otter cousins but if river otters dream, sky otters dream, and deep sea otters dream, then sea otters must dream too.
Ronan asked the tall otter, Do you have a name? And why do your people-otters, I mean-like living near volcanoes so much?
You may call me Kushtaka, she said. We live near volcanoes for the power of their life force, for the food they provide, and because we have always done so.
Kushtaka? Murel asked. But that's the name for- She decided against finishing the thought. Kushtaka was an archaic word brought to Petaybee by Eskimo and
Indian ancestors who believed there were whole communities of otters, called
Kushtaka, that could steal souls. If she had been in human form at that time, looking into this Kushtaka's cool appraising gaze would have sent goose bumps up her arms.
Yes? Kushtaka asked.
Er-it's another name we have for otters. Not specific otters, I mean, just otters in general. I thought deep sea otters, since you seem quite different from your smaller cousins, might be called something different. But then, you're the first one we've ever met so we have no way of knowing really.
She was aware that she was chattering on and on, her thoughts tumbling over each other to keep her real thoughts and fears from surfacing. She wanted to ask a lot of things, but she was afraid if she did and learned the answers to her questions, the deep sea otters wouldn't let her and Ronan leave. But then, well, Kushtaka had said they were going to wipe out the visitors' memories of this place. That was probably what had happened to Da's memories when they took care of him. Murel continued to feel very strongly that whatever these creatures were, they were not otters,
Petaybean or any other kind. She wanted to ask why they were pretending to be, but that was rude since it amounted to calling them liars.
You use geothermals to power all of this? Ronan asked, looking around at the towering spires, the spiraling towers, the domes, the thousands rather than hundreds of what certainly seemed to be entrances or doorways. Glancing back, he saw that the room they had been in, the one in which the wall had dissolved rather than a door opening, also appeared to have a hole-shaped doorway, which seemed odd. Many of the doorways seemed open to lots of traffic, with other large otters swimming or walking around the city, some carrying food items, some carrying other less easily identifiable objects.
Where do you live, Kushtaka? Murel asked. Although she didn't trust this creature, she felt they needed to make friends with her. After all, her folk had saved Da and now them. They certainly couldn't be evil. Do you have- She started to think "a mate," but then remembered that sea otters had casual mating habits so she continued, Any young still at home?
I have two young still living with me, she said. I did have a mate but he met with an accident and was killed. I do not intend to take another. Deep sea otters have their own mating customs, different from our smaller cousins.
Do deep sea otters ever mate with sky otters? Sky wanted to know. I have not mated yet, but soon I will need to do that and there are no other sky otters. I am the only one. Deep sea otters look interesting.
Kushtaka had no answer for a moment, then replied thoughtfully and with what
Murel thought was a hint of humor, You are small, we are large. It would not work.
Maybe a small deep sea otter? Sky suggested, undaunted, but then he swam forward and dived into another hole and said, Come and see this, river seals! Deep sea otters have strange hunting habits!
With assent from Kushtaka, they followed their friend into a chamber that had no ceiling and no floor but a flexible device floating in the middle. It was aimed downward, toward a broad rift in the sea's floor. Deep within it a volcanic vent emitted a cherry-red glow, but Murel thought that might be several leagues beneath them. Between them and the cherry glow, the rift blossomed with all sorts of plant and animal life.
Like a frog whipping out its tongue to catch a fly, the device shot forth a beam of light. Water wrapped around the beam, creating a waterspout, a concentrated whirlpool. The practical reason for this, when it wasn't being used for rescuing selkies, became clear when it swirled back into the room with its waters full of shellfish, seaweed, and the sort of plant life they had seen before near the undersea volcanoes.