World Whisperer

Chapter 4

After they arrived in Azariyah to find the elders gone, Isika went into some sort of fog. More than once, she found herself walking without knowing where she had come from or where she was going. Losing Herrith had been such a blow, but the discovery that Ikajo had sent his malice all the way to Isika"s home, that he had found and stolen their foster parents, was a terrible invasion. It echoed painfully around their little group of travelers and others in the city, bringing memories of their stolen queen to them. Queen Azariyah had never come home. Isika couldn"t let herself think about that.

She realized she had been holding herself together until she could get home to Auntie Teru and Uncle Dawit, dreaming of her bed and Auntie"s food and care, her firm, gentle hands on Isika"s head and shoulders. Isika wanted to tell them that she and Jabari were engaged and ask if they would please be the parents to bless the marriage? She had longed for her normal life, waking up knowing there was care in her home.

Immediately after Jerutha had met them on the road and told them the terrible news, chaos erupted in their exhausted traveling group, everyone shouting and asking questions.

It seemed that Ikajo hadn"t been willing to give up Aria without a last savage blow, a punishment so devious it took Isika"s breath away. She found she was nearly doubled over, and her guard, Nat, was holding her up.

"Ben!" Isika cried, and he knew what she needed.

"They are not dead," he said. "I sense their life, still."

Isika could breathe a little better after that, though when she realized they were at the palace steps, Isika didn"t remember getting there.

Pull yourself together, she told herself. She was a queen. She needed to help her people.

She surfaced from dread a little as Ibba and Kital ran down the palace steps, sobbing. They threw their arms around her, hugging her tightly and weeping. Isika felt such rage toward the Desert King at that moment that she could have gladly gone back in time and made the decision to kill him. What had she been thinking, letting him go? Would he ever let them be free?

Ibba told Isika that Jerutha and Mesu had moved in to live with them at the house since the day Auntie and Uncle had been taken. Isika could see the fear and sorrow in their faces. They had already lost so much and had said goodbye to Isika and Ben over and over again. The love of their foster parents had been holding them together, too.

Isika looked at them very seriously, holding their eyes with her own.

"Auntie Teru and Uncle Dawit are alive," she said, "and we will get them back."

"Do you promise?" Kital wailed. Isika"s youngest brother had been her little boy for the first four years of his life, but he had been Auntie"s boy for the last four. How could Isika promise such a thing? She still had no idea what had even happened. But this was no time for doubt.

"I promise," she said.

Somehow, Isika, Benayeem, and Jerutha managed to get the weeping children turned toward their house. Before she turned around, Isika turned to look at Jabari. Seeing his eyes, she remembered that his parents had disappeared too. Ivy was beside him, her eyes red. Her parents were gone as well. Oh, this was terrible. Just beyond, Isika saw Aria standing with her parents, and even though her heart cried out with longing, she didn"t begrudge her the reunion, even a little. It had been a long time coming.

"Let"s get food and rest," Isika told Jabari and Ivy. "I can"t even think right now. We will meet tomorrow. We will need to make a plan."

Jabari looked a little startled at the sudden parting, and Isika didn"t blame him. After this long, arduous journey, they were drifting off into separate homes with no parents to welcome them. But Isika was utterly overwhelmed. She could feel herself shutting down, and she knew that she needed food in her belly and a dark room, a soft bed. She also needed to try to calm her siblings.

I"m sorry, she told Jabari in their shared animal speech. I"ve got nothing left.

It"s okay. Sleep, dear one, Jabari said, nearly making her cry. Isika gave Jabari a look that she hoped communicated how much love she felt and walked toward the house with her little family.

The evening meal was already prepared, sitting on the kitchen counter in a group of covered pots. Isika looked at the food longingly but first dropped onto the seating area cushions with Ben, Ibba and Kital pressed on either side of them, a pile of siblings clinging to one another. Jerutha took Mesu into another room so Isika and Ben could talk with their little brother and sister.

More than once, Ibba and Kital went over the story of how they had woken up, and Auntie and Uncle were nowhere to be seen, and they went up to the hot pools to check there—hot pools? Isika wondered—but no one was there, and then they ran to the palace, and it was chaos because all four of the high elders had disappeared as well, and then they had run to Jerutha.

"Jerutha came and stayed with Mesu. And then Keethior came a few days ago and told us you were close. So we have been waiting for you," Ibba finished up.

Isika realized with a start that Ibba was growing up. She was nearly twelve now, with bright eyes and long arms and legs. She would never be as tall as Isika and Ben. Her younger sister had always been a little one. But she seemed very mature as she described how they had waited and tried to stay calm. It had taken Isika and Ben arriving without Teru and Dawit that had made them break down.

"We hoped they were with you," Ibba whispered.

"Please, can you find them?" Kital asked, his eyes welling with tears again.

"I can feel them," Ben said, reaching an arm around Kital. "I can tell they are somewhere. I just don"t know where."

Isika could tell when her young siblings started to relax. Their breathing slowed, and their intermittent sobs were farther and farther apart. She felt impossibly tired. She had traveled a long way and was now in a warm house with tired children in her arms, sinking into sleepiness. Jerutha laid the table, and they ate together. Ibba and Kital told Isika and Ben about Mesu and how the toddler was into everything now, running away whenever he thought he could get away with it. How they sometimes needed to chase him. The hollows under their eyes told Isika that there was more sorrow within, but for now, things were calm.

She told them to get into their sleeping clothes, and then they got into bed, and Isika sang to them. Ibba had begun sleeping in Kital"s bed after Auntie and Uncle disappeared. They lay curled together like puppies, and Isika sang until they drifted off.

She sat there watching them sleep for a long time, her mind going in circles as she thought about what had happened and what needed to be done. Finally, she roused herself. Missing people or no missing people, Isika needed sleep before she could figure out what to do, and she dragged herself off to her own bed and curled up under the soft blankets, diving down into sleep.

A knock sounded at the door early the next morning when Isika was breathing in the scent of her cup of spice tea. Ibba and Kital were asleep, and Jerutha was reading to Mesu in a rocking chair. Isika carried her cup to the front door to answer the knock, hoping with some absurdly optimistic part of her mind that Teru and Dawit were on the other side. It made no sense, she knew before she even swung the door all the way open. The door was never locked, and her foster parents wouldn"t knock. But she was still somehow disappointed when it turned out to be someone else.

Isika tried to fix her face to welcome the visitors—Aria"s Maweel parents—smiling because she hadn"t spoken to them for a long time, and they loved her sister.

"We know you"re very busy," Elba, Aria"s adoptive mother, said, "but we were wondering if you could come for an early breakfast at our house. We really want to offer our gratitude and know you have much to do, but we hoped an early breakfast wouldn"t take much time from your day. We don"t want our thanks to get lost amid everything happening now."

Isika thought it over. She felt the tightness of urgency, but she also knew this was part of the poison the Desert King wanted to inflict on her land with this last strike. When everything became about solving problems, and there was no time for celebration or gratitude, it meant he had achieved what he hoped—throwing disunity and chaos like a blanket over their community.

The meeting to discuss the next steps would happen later in the morning. Before that, Isika could spare time for breakfast with Aria"s parents. They asked her to bring Ben, Ibba, and Kital as well. "We"ll be there," she said and shut the door softly behind them as they walked down the path, hand in hand.

The meadow was bright with dew as they crossed it for the other side of the city where Aria lived. She greeted them at the door, throwing her arms around Kital and Ibba.

"I"m sorry I didn"t get a chance to talk to you yesterday," she told her younger siblings. In reality, Isika thought, Ibba and Kital barely knew Aria.

"You"ve been gone for so long," Kital said matter-of-factly. His fidgeting was the only sign that he was nervous.

"I know," Aria said, putting a gentle hand on his head. "We"ll have to spend lots of time together to make up for it."

Breakfast was delicious, and Isika soaked in a little of what she had been hoping for, coming home. Good food and conversation, warmth and light in the kitchen. Nothing could stop the longing she felt for Auntie Teru and Uncle Dawit, but part of her heart relaxed in the company of Aria"s parents.

Once everyone was full and leaning back in their seats, Elba and her husband looked at one another and then turned to Isika and Ben.

"We"ve never seen Aria like this in all our time of having her in our family," Elba said. "We feel like we"ve been missing out, all these years, knowing a girl who was only half herself. It is so much better than we could have imagined to have her with us, whole and well. We had nearly given up hope, and we want to thank you both."

Aria"s father nodded and cleared his throat. "Thank you for going to get her. For risking your lives. We can never repay you."

Isika started to interject, to say that they didn"t need to thank her. Aria was her sister, after all! But Ben glanced at her, and she stopped the words. She knew what he was thinking. This was like any work after getting rid of poison. Expressing gratitude was part of the healing. Aria"s parents needed to thank them.

"Please know that you are like family to us," he went on. "Our home is yours. Stay with us whenever you like, eat with us, be comfortable here."

Isika nodded after Aria"s father fell silent. "Thank you," she said. "It was an honor to help Aria return, but the Shaper restored her. We can never take credit for that. We are thankful that we saw it happen, that we can know our sister as she should be. You know I have always felt responsible for what happened. The arrow was meant for me. But it seems that Nenyi"s hands are full of new chances for good."

She smiled at Aria, reaching out to hold her sister"s hand. "I am thankful for a new chance to know my sister."

Time flew as they drank more tea around the table, talking and telling stories about their journey. Then it was time to leave the cozy house and walk up to the palace. Elba volunteered to walk Ibba and Kital home to Jerutha, so the older siblings headed across the meadow to the stone road.

One day, Isika thought as they walked up the palace steps, this would be her home. She still wasn"t ready to move in, though she was queen. She had wondered if it was time on the journey home, but she knew she couldn"t leave her home until Teru and Dawit returned.

I do love it, she thought as she crossed the threshold. She felt the familiar hum of welcome as the palace recognized her and settled its presence around her. Isika nodded at the palace guards as she walked down the long corridor with Ben and Aria at her side, aiming for the conference room. The room was arranged with long low cushions and mats, pillows, and low tables. It was a comfortable place to sit and decide on action plans, which they had needed to do so many times over the years since Isika had come. Enough is enough, she thought, angry and anxious all over again.

The absence of the four high elders pierced her again as she walked in. Her breath left her in a rush as she realized she needed to act as queen without the advice of the rulers who had taken care of Maween for decades. Even Teru was gone. But the people there—Jabari and Gavi, Nat, Brigid, Deto, and Ivy, a handful of rangers, Chimbu the trainer, Ben, and Aria— were looking to her to begin. So, Isika took a seat on her favorite red cushion and took a deep breath.

"I think we know," she started, looking at them all, "that this is far more dangerous than anything else we have encountered." She shifted as the others sent her looks of alarm. "I know that is saying a lot. Ikajo had Aria in his grasp, after all. That was dangerous in the extreme." Isika smiled at her sister. "But the elders know everything there is to know about Maweel, and we don"t know where they are. They know our ways and secrets, hiding places and treasury. Unknown people have them."

Isika could see that she had started her talk with a mistaken assumption--that the others had thought out this danger. Jabari and Gavi did not look surprised at this direction, but many of the others seemed taken aback at Isika"s words. "Very good," Isika could almost hear Ivram saying. "You are thinking like a queen." Get back here and help me, Isika hissed inwardly in response.

There was a knock at the door, and when Nat opened it, Olumi tumbled into the room, straightening himself out as he regained balance. The keeper of truth was slight of build, with woven locks that brushed the ground and a smattering of darker freckles across his brown face. He brushed his clothes off and grabbed a handful of his long locks, adjusting them behind him. Isika could have cheered. Ivy did cheer, and Jabari joined in.

"What under Nenyi"s skies?" Olumi asked, squinting at them.

“We need you, Olumi,” Isika said. "I think we"re just beginning to see how much we need your age and wisdom."

He snorted, taking a seat. "There are plenty of old people out there," he said. "Just find a few of them and bring them in here." But he gave Isika a small smile.

Once he was settled and they were all ready, Isika began again.

"Any thoughts so far?" she asked. "I just want to catch up with everyone before we make a plan."

"One thought I have," Benayeem said, "is that Jerutha is planning to join Abbas in the Desert City, which might affect what we do."

Isika nodded. That was true. Jerutha was helping to take care of Ibba and Kital at the moment. Without her, their situation would be really different.

"At some point, Aria will leave us as well," Olumi said.

Aria was nodding. "Time to go be the queen of my own lands," she said, laughing, but she widened her eyes to show them how strange the thought was to her.

"So, what do we do?" Jabari asked. "We need to find our elders."

They all started tossing ideas around, but no one came up with anything solid. They couldn"t go knocking on doors across the continent. Isika started to feel angry again. She could tell from the conversation that most of them were still exhausted, and she was furious at this intrusion into their lives. The Desert King had done an evil thing, taking their beloved elders.

She brought her focus back to the conversation to hear what Jabari was saying.

"I think we each need to think deeply about our own gifts and what we can offer. What things do we possess that could bring our elders back to us?" He paused, looking at Isika, who was close to tears. "We need time to think about possibilities. And rest. We need rest. I hear the hot pools are full again."

"How can we go to the hot pools when our parents are gone?" Ivy asked, her voice wobbling.

"It"s like everything else," Jabari said. "The Great Waste wants to steal our rest. We cannot allow Mugunta to do that. We have to trust that the Shaper is holding us now, looking after the elders. Ben says he can hear them still, so we know they are alive on the earth somewhere. Let"s trust that the Shaper has them."

Isika nodded, feeling the truth in his words along with her genuine need for rest.

"Let"s reconvene tomorrow morning. Then we will come up with a plan."