The Waters Rising

by Sheri S. Tepper

  “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,

  Let love and beauty rapture bring . . .

  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

  Grass

  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

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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