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.They were heading toward one of her favorite spots, just off Elk.She’d told him it was approximately nine miles away and she’d held off working there so she could get a good harvest.The ride took about a half hour and she never asked him to move until they were coming up on the place.“The cemetery is just up there,” she said, gesturing with her chin, a frown of concentration on her face.“Sometimes I feel the spirits are looking out for me.”He no longer had her attention and he stepped back to give her room.“Is this dangerous?”“Well, if you don’t know what you’re doing,” she admitted.“You have to know how to maneuver in here.The floor beneath us is virtually a mountain range.You see there’s not much rock showing here.There’s a three-hundred-foot drop from the road up there.The rocks are real close to the edge but they extend out suddenly about a thousand feet into the ocean.”While she talked, she maneuvered the boat carefully along a hidden path.“The northern end of the mountain is totally under water.”He peered below them, and his heart leapt.He could see rocks on either side of the boat beneath the surface of the water.A few jutted out, but most seemed to be out of sight.As they moved closer, little islands appeared, nothing more than rocks protruding out of the sea.“I’ll go down about twenty feet, right off those rocks, but I have to come in bow to current, so I can go down the chain, otherwise the flow takes me and the urchins away from the boat.This way I can use the current to my advantage.”Each of the little coves formed shelters in the rocks.The stacks were dotted with seals basking along the low-tide rookies.The seals’ spotted silvery gray and dark brown coats gleamed in the early sun as the mammals rested with their large bodies sprawled out on the rocks.“Look at them all.They really are cute up this close, but bigger than I expected.”She laughed.“They’re not so cute if you dive in one of their channels between the rocks.They don’t like it and aren’t shy about letting you know.All of a sudden they have teeth and claws, and you just get out of their way.Most of the time, they rocket past you when you’re down there and you have to ignore them.Never share your catch or they won’t leave you alone—they can get aggressive.”Lev studied the seals.They suddenly looked a lot larger than they had a couple of seconds earlier.“How big are they?”She shrugged casually.“They reach five or six feet in length and can weigh up to three hundred pounds.Give them respect and you’ll be fine.” She gave him a small frown.“You aren’t diving, Lev.”“I know that, but maybe you shouldn’t dive here either.Aren’t there urchins on the other side of those rocks, away from their territory?”She nodded.“Actually, the front of the rock wall is covered with them.There’s a drop of about one hundred and twenty feet, but you can only harvest that spot in three foot swells and no duration.You have to stay buoyant at around thirty to forty feet, but it’s pretty dangerous, you can drop very quickly.”“Great.You’re using that word ‘dangerous’ quite a bit.”She shook her head, smiling in reassurance at him.“Here we’re protected from any big swells coming from the northwest.The big rocks there break up the string of swells.Of course, you have to contend with the current here.It’s like diving in a river.You don’t get the back and forth of the wave motion here.”She was so matter-of-fact, so completely confident, and more, she was eager to dive.He could feel her slipping away from him, her attention on her mistress.The sea was definitely calling to her.He knew she loved the water and diving was imperative to her well-being, but it suddenly seemed too dangerous to allow her to go alone.He’d never really experienced fear for anyone else before and it was damned uncomfortable.He’d certainly gone diving, numerous times, and was perfectly qualified, but she would balk.He was already getting a huge concession just to be on her boat.He wasn’t so impatient that he’d lose everything by pushing her too fast.Rikki didn’t like change.He’d brought about a lot of changes in her life and she was fragile.He knew the hold he had on her was every bit as fragile as her state of mind.“Tell me what a tender does,” he said.When she snapped him an impatient look, he tried a smile.“While you’re getting your gear.”She indicated for him to sit out of her way while she checked her gear again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]