Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

by Rebecca Roanhorse

“Who protects you?” he asked, not doubting her abilities but curious to hear her answer. It was brash, much like the captain herself. “The sea herself,” she said. “I am her daughter, and when I’m with my mother”—she exhaled gustily—“nobody fucks with her children.”

“Did you not hear, Xiala, that I am grandfather crow? You may study the stars, but I am made of the shadow between stars. Tell me what you see, and I will understand it.”

When he spoke, his voice was the sound of a thousand beating wings. “I am not the sea,” he said, “but I have children, too.”

“If you are neither man nor woman, what are you?” “A third gender, one I don’t believe you acknowledge here in this little backwater country. I am bayeki.