by C. C. York
"Girls go missing all the time. Most of them run off to Dvari or some other island for a tryst, come back impregnated, and then live out their miserable lives with their miserable Sub Tier kids at our generosity. We have significantly bigger work to focus on than the plight of a handful of wayward teens. Perimeter Patrol spotted a brood of Yurutec in the fields earlier. The guards killed a Garfu trying to ram our southern gate, and the Magarans have stopped their patrol of our western skies. A Perisien ship was spotted off the isle of---"
"One hundred and two," Alik dared to interrupt. "A hundred and two girls are missing before Shauna disappeared last night, and Goddesses know how many more were captured with her."
Firtina had few tells, but Alik knew the number surprised her when she looked down.
Alik pressed on, "And how do we hide that number? Shauna wasn't some Towner anymore. The daughter of a merchantress went missing the night before last in the Trades before moonrise. The court will begin to ask questions, and—"
"Enough." Firtina hissed through her teeth. Her right hand raised towards Alik, shaking. The glass orbs above them threatened to shatter from the growing flames inside, and Alik backed to the far wall with her hands above her head. She opened her eyes again when the glass did not break. Her mother's fist clenched at her side, and the fires in the orbs ahead dipped low again.
Firtina broke the tense silence. "I'll handle it the same way I handle everything in this Goddess-forsaken kingdom." She turned her back to Alik, pouring a glass of wine from a bottle at the far end with a flick of her wrist.
I have pushed her further than ever before, but I need her to say the words. "Does that mean you'll help me find Shauna?"
"I said I would deal with the missing girls," Firtina replied as the wine bottle slammed back down on the table. "My advisors will bring me up to speed on the others." Firtina dismissed her by pushing the doors open behind her with a flick of the wrist.
Alik didn't move. Tears threatened to overwhelm her lashes, and her hands still shook at her sides. This is my best friend. And the advisors haven't done a thing about the other missing girls.
She took a deep breath, speaking again before she lost her nerve. "I want to be in those meetings. I've been tracking this as well. I've even had some dreams about the girls missing in the Silos and--"
"And look what good that's done," Firtina said. Alik took several steps back as Firtina stalked towards her. Her Airwerk shoved Alik back in pace with each annunciation of her words.
"You've been following this, yet it's only escalated. You predicted this through your soothsaying, yet more have gone missing. You were seated next to an opportunity to stop it and did nothing, even for a person you claim is your best friend. I can't imagine what you'd provide further."
Alik cried out at the final hard push of air her mother shoved at her, her back slamming against the door jamb. The guard pulled her to stand as the doors crashed close behind them. Alik's chest constricted, and her rising panic threatened to overwhelm her senses.
She's right. I am no closer to finding out who is behind this than I was months ago when I first heard of the missing girls. I haven't helped any of them. Alik walked through the wide white stone hallways, noticing but not seeing anyone else. But did I really look? They are someone's best friend too. Someone's daughter, someone's sister. Tears fell down her cheeks as she turned into her study. I kept their names on a list, and I made a few inquiries, but did I do everything I could? I waited for Taavi to send out the Horde. I sat back while Damari's Eyes looked into this. And I assumed that would be enough. That I could go dancing and drink and have fun with my loved ones while these girls disappeared. I am done relying on my mother. On my brothers. And no one, not even Firtina Iktidar, will keep me from finding her.
She whispered, "I will find you, Shauna. I will find all you."
Elaine
Reiki and Kara, still dressed from romping through the streets, waited in the courtyard when Elaine and their parents rushed outside. Farisha whispered a prayer of thanks when she saw her children, and they each hugged their parents and Elaine. Fire flashed to life above Elaine's head so the cluster of neighbors could see the young woman sobbing by the fountain.
The cluster of lean-tos circled a wide fountain of Sulu, and stretched linen hung haphazardly between homes to provide communal shade during the heat of the day. The lean-tos supported each other like a circle of cards, and one could borrow spices by reaching a hand out the side if you were particularly long-limbed. The tight quarters never bothered Elaine much before, but she felt increasingly claustrophobic as Reiki whispered what he had learned.
Reiki looked around them and whispered, "She was out with a friend from around the bend for Hasateen. They were walking through the Trades, but the crowds were so thick they couldn't get to the main steps to get home, so they decided to cut down through the Silos instead."
At this, Farisha glanced at her husband, and he wrapped her closer to him, blocking Elaine's view.
"Were you with them?" She asked her children. Elaine shifted around the Hadishis so she could see Reiki and Kara.
"No, Maman, we were just coming back another way when we heard her cry out. Anyway, they were walking through the Silos when they thought a pack of animals was following them."
Farisha interrupted, skepticism in her voice, "In the middle of the Silos?"
"Yes, Maman. She said it sounded crazy, but that's what she heard. Barks and bird calls echoed all around the grain silos, and they couldn't tell which direction they were coming from, so she and her friend started running. She couldn't hear footsteps or see anyone, but she insists something gave chase. They held each other's hands and were almost to the end, but then her friend's hand was yanked away from her. She turned back to grab her, but her friend was gone."
"Did she see anyone then?"
Reiki rubbed his hand on the back of his neck and glanced back at the sobbing girl. "She said she saw a tall man, twice as tall as any Efendian, in a black cloak that covered his face."
The girl grabbed a woman's wrist closest to her, interrupting Reiki. "Edicisi! It was the Edicisi!" She screamed at the crowd, tears and snot running down her face. Several women consoling her raised their hands to their foreheads, palm facing out at her cry. They muttered a prayer to the air Goddess, Ruzgar, for protection.
Chills ran the length of Elaine's wiry body, and she stumbled at the sudden dizziness threatening to take her down to the cobblestones. Reiki grabbed her arm to steady her, but Elaine had an overwhelming urge to flee. Her chest felt too tight for her breath beating to get in, and she wondered if this is what a panic attack felt like. The girl's sobs echoed around the cluster. Elaine flinched at another scream about the Edicisi.
Farisha tugged her family towards their home. "Reiki, take Elai inside. They'll gather a search party, but you two need to eat something and sit for a moment if you intend to go with them."
The Hadishis sat Elaine at the kitchen table and took their respective seats around her. Everyone else acted like they couldn't hear the cries wafting through the flimsy door, but each one hit Elaine's brain like a hammer. Otum brought her a cup of water, and Kara folded her arms across her chest on the kitchen counter a step away to give her dad her stool. Elaine fumbled with a hole in the rattan stool she slumped on without looking at the eight eyes watching her intently now.
"Tell me what you feel like," Farisha said as she ran her cool, calloused hands on Elaine's face.
She huffed. "Little hot. I don't know what happened, but maybe it was the crowd? I just felt a little tight, you know? Like clausterish?" Elaine wrangled her mind into order. "I think I just need to lie down."
Otum nodded his head as Reiki stood to carry Elaine up the loft.
"I can walk. I'm not a baby." Elaine said, immediately regretting the sharp retort. "I'm sorry, Reiki. I don't know why I snapped. It wasn't kind of me." What is wrong with me? She thought as she fought off tears. I am going
crazy.
"Elai, how old are you?" Kara asked randomly from her kitchen counter perch.
"13."
"Do you have your monthly flows yet?" Elaine's eyes widened at Farisha's question. Flame engulfed her cheeks at the thought of discussing her period in front of the Hadishi men.
Kara laughed and shucked a leftover grain husk at Reiki. "Go with Bapa to see what they're doing for a search party."
Farisha interjected with a pointed look at Kara, "Otum, I need you with us tonight. Let the twins go in your stead."
He tried to argue, but Kara cut to the point. "You cannot work all day in the fields and then wander all night in the Silos on your legs. You'll do more harm than good, Bapa, and Maman needs you here. Reiki and I will not go off on our own tonight."
Kara and her mother looked at each other when the fabric door flapped at their exit, but Kara merely repeated Farisha's question to Elaine.
"Agh! No. I haven't. Is that what this is? I get hot when my period is about to happen?"
Farisha ignored Elaine's question with her own. "Did you feel dizzy a moment ago?" The mother and daughter passed a look between them at her nod.
"What?" Elaine snapped, again almost overcome with tears at her reaction. "Sorry."
Farisha waved her off. "We don't need to talk about your life before my children found you." Elaine flinched at the fear threatening to consume her at the memory, but Farisha wrapped her cool hands over Elaine's fists. "No child, we don't need to address that now. But we should talk about what happens to Efendian girls around your age."
Efendian girls? Kara's face told Elaine nothing, but Farisha's weathered eyes made her feel like her past was written down her nose at that moment.
"When a young Efendian woman is about to manifest-"
Kara laughed at the look of disgust on Elaine's face and interrupted her mother. "Let me, Maman. Let's not forget how you brought me flowers to the Trades on the day my Dua came. I thought I would die of embarrassment."
Farisha huffed and waved her daughter on.
Kara continued, "All Efendian women begin to show their talents around the same time they start their monthly courses. It usually takes a year for your Dua to settle, but within this time you'll know if you can work air, water, fire, or the ground, or a combination of them. In the beginning, though, you can get dizzy, get chills, or suddenly get hot. Some people faint the first few times they use their power. You're quick to get mad and then quick to cry, and you feel out of breath. Sometimes it only takes a couple of days after those symptoms appear for your Dua to begin to--," She dramatically lowered her voice to mock her mother, "manifest. Other times, it could take a few weeks."
Elaine stopped going to school regularly around her 10th birthday. Her parents said she was ill and needed to homeschool on account of the voices in her head. She was excited at first, thinking that her mother would spend more time with her. Elaine quickly realized it just meant reading a lot of textbooks she could barely fumble through while sitting alone in the kitchen.
I may not be the sharpest tack, but even I know where I'm from.
She mulled over her problem in her head and tried to find the best way to ask the next question. "You say this happens to Efendian girls...." Elaine diligently tore at the reed edges of her stool again. "What about girls not from Efendi? This happens to them too?"
"No. I imagine they have other telltale signs of their monthly courses, but only Efendian women have Dua," Farisha answered.
"So…how would someone find out if it's Dua or just a regular ol' period?" Elaine asked.
Kara said, "Usually girls spend some time with the matriarch of our cluster, Kanne Da'neen. She helps guide you through what the different werks feel like and can help you through those first infuriating weeks when you want to call your Dua but can't."
Farisha smiled and ran her hands down Elaine's tangled hair. "Maybe it's worth some time with her, just in case you aren't aware of your full bloodline."
Elaine tried not to think of her parents too much. They never thought of me when I lived underfoot; I can't imagine how few thoughts they give now that I'm gone. It only seems fair. But she thought back to her mother's cold green eyes and her daddy's murky black that never matched her own dark brown peepers. She always assumed they were terrible parents because they were simply terrible parents---the way some people were just short---but she let herself think a hope of something that hadn't ever occurred to her.
What if they weren't my real parents? What if I'm really from here? Maybe the voices I've been hearing are a sign that I'm about to get some magic of my own.
The prospect of having her own Dua and a place here in Efendi trilled through her bones. She grinned widely despite the headache splitting her brain apart, and her mind swam with possibilities.
"I think I'd like that," she answered. Farisha nodded and said she'd arrange a meeting the next day while Kara hopped down to join the search party gathering outside in the courtyard.
Elaine grinned her way to the loft ladder, excited to imagine all the magic she'd soon wield. She imagined all the ways she'd finally be able to protect herself and girls like her with Dua when she thought of another question. "Do the voices go away when your Dua hits?"
The Hadishi women paused.
Farisha shook her head and spoke low, "We don't hear any voices, child. Are you hearing anyone speak now?"
Elaine looked at the two quizzically. Technically, I don't hear anyone right now. Kara shook her head behind her mother, giving Elaine another nudge at a lie. "No, ma'am. Just thought I heard someone mention it in the Trades."
She turned and crawled up the loft ladder, wondering once more why the voices called only to her.
***
The next morning Elaine peeked over the loft's edge to hear Reiki's update from the search. He looked exhausted as he leaning over his cup of dark tea, whispering.
"Nothing. We split into groups of five and walked every inch of the Silos. No one saw anything, and there was nothing left behind."
Kara picked her head up off Otum's shoulder. "Girls went missing from almost all of the clusters, though. Twenty-three Towners were taken last night."
Farisha stifled a cry and muttered a prayer to Yapi. "I don't care if it is Hasateen," She said. "Neither of you is to go out past dark unless you are with a very large search party, and even then, no splitting off into groups smaller than four. Understood?"
Elaine thought the most telling sign of exhaustion was the fact that they simply nodded instead of arguing. Kara talked about the street festivals and dance parties of Hasateen ever since Elaine first arrived months ago. Elaine shuffled around noisier than necessary, and the family stopped whispering.
"Morning, Elai!" Otum said merrily. He put on his weathered reed hat and winced a little when he bent down to kiss his kids goodbye. Farisha and Kara shared another wordless look, and Reiki traded places with Elaine to sleep in the loft.
"Elai, I'm going to take you to Kanne Da'neen this morning for a couple hours. She's expecting us in the courtyard soon, but I need you to help me grab the grain bags first. Walk with me?" Kara asked.
The two took a skinny path behind the clusters, but Elaine frowned when Kara walked past the grain bags stored against the Perimeter Wall. The shadow of the massive umber stone wall cast her friend in gray light, but even this far down, Elaine felt the heat radiating from the fires hovering at the top of the wall. No guardswomen patrolled near their cluster or the next several clusters, but Reiki once pointed out how they changed guards to keep the fires burning high.
Kara stopped near an abandoned fire pit below a rudimentary carving of Ates in the Perimeter Wall. Kara was as tall as Reiki but with wild, short curls that she shuffled in agitation now. She knelt down, eye level with Elaine, and looked at her with a frankness that Elaine usually appreciated but was now a touch wary of.
"Kanne Da'neen is a good woman, kind and caring. But she is as superstitious a
s a lot of older Towners, so you have to be smart. When Reiki and I found you," Elaine studied her toes and tried to quell the panic rising when Kara put her hand on her shoulder. "No, Elai, it's ok. When we found you, do you remember what I told you?"
Elaine shuffled a pebble with her sandal and fiddled at a cuticle on her thumb. She remembered the dark shack and the sticky blood drying on her face. "You told me that I was safe and that I hit my head really bad."
"That's right. That's why you don't remember how you came here, and you need to keep not remembering when you're with Kanne Da'neen. Reiki and I made up some history for you so that our neighbors won't ask questions, but I don't know how long that will last. However, it's less important where you are from and more important that you never mention how you came here."
Elaine opened her mouth to fabricate a lie despite the memories flooding through her brain, but Kara shook her head.
"I love Reiki, but he's an idiot. He believes everyone is good and thinks that all of us should hold hands and sing together, which is why I have to watch his back. My parents are good people. They likely do not believe anything we told them, but they will never push you for the truth either. It's obvious to anyone that you were running from something, and they will always have a safe place for you."
Elaine shucked off a tear that fell out without warning. I figured I'd eventually have to tell her, but I didn't think it'd be so soon. I don't want the Hadishi's to kick me out. She began to think of the places she could hide in Efendi if it came to that, but Kara kept speaking.
"I can only protect you so much, Elai. If you want Efendi to be your home, you will have to be tough. Hold on to your story with your teeth, and do not let go no matter how much someone tugs."
"What happens if no Dua comes? What will they ask then?" Elaine asked.