Demon's Arrow

by Rachel Devenish Ford

  “Things are happening,” he said finally. “There are new guests in the south wing.”

  Oh, Aria thought. That was all. Then why did Herrith turn pale and press a hand to his heart? She turned to him, seeing a significant look pass between him and the guard.

  “What is it, Uncle?” she asked.

  “I haven’t prepared enough sheets for the new guests,” he murmured. “Come child, let us go back to Lena. We’ll find her and ask for your cooking lesson.”

  As they walked back into the palace, Aria forgot all about the palace guard. She smiled at Lena vaguely, excited because they were going to learn about making the sweet pastries that Aria loved most for breakfast.

  Later, in the throne room, she blinked at her father as he praised her for something good she had done.

  “Did you do anything interesting today?” he asked. “Learn anything?”

  Aria thought about her mother and Herrith, and she leaned forward to tell her father that Herrith and her mother had been dearest of friends, but then Herrith moved and she saw his face under his hood, and a picture of Herrith dead on the floor suddenly presented itself to her. She sat back.

  “I made pastries with Lena,” she said.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Herrith settle back on his heels.

  Chapter 26

  Jabari watched Gavi across the low table as his brother addressed the room. Gavi had come to give the resistance members of the Circle an update on the palace. Days had gone by since they had arrived, days filled with ideas and plans for how to extricate Aria. Nothing had come up that made any sense, and Jabari grew frustrated. He had tried to talk to Isika in his mind, but she wasn’t within his reach somehow, and he didn’t know where she was anymore. He tapped his fingers on the table until a look from Ivy made him stop.

  Nearly everyone was there—Enfa the Karee warrior, Mara, the handful of laborers who were part of the resistance in some way Jabari didn’t understand, Jabari, Ivy, and Deto, of course. Herrith was late, so Gavi had started without him. Herrith was having more trouble getting around undetected, Gavi told them, and at a time when it was most important that he not be discovered. Children whispered and tumbled on cushions in the corner, their little legs flashing out of their tunics as they turned somersaults. Once in a while, one of the adults would turn and shush them, and they grew more quiet, only to increase volume gradually until they were shushed again.

  Jabari could tell that his brother wasn’t sleeping well. Gavi kept running his hands through his hair, which stood straight up from his head in blond stalks. His face was weary. He kept glancing at the door, as though he couldn’t bear to be away from the palace.

  “Aria comes back to herself sometimes, when she is with Herrith,” Gavi told them. “But the demon poison runs through her, gripping her, especially when she is with the king. She barely knows where she is, half the time. And he hit her, when she accidentally told him something that Herrith had told her.” Gavi clenched his fists.

  Jabari frowned, staring at his hands. How could they help her if she was under the king’s sway? He ran through ideas in his mind, but none were any good.

  “The most important thing is that we don’t get Herrith killed,” Gavi said. “He’s the only hope for Aria right now. She’s only clear-headed when she’s with him, and he’s the only protection she has in that court.”

  “And he is precious to us,” the old woman, Mara, added gently. Gavi flushed and nodded, his eyes darting to Jabari’s and then away.

  They continued to discuss ideas and Mara brought out some flatbread and spicy peas. Jabari had his mouth full when the rush of well-being swept over all of them and everyone relaxed visibly. Jabari swallowed his food and grinned. It was a sense of well being that he knew well. An Othra was somewhere nearby. Eemia must be back with news.

  But then there was a knock at the door.

  The old woman got up slowly just as Jabari heard a grumpy Othra voice in his head.

  Get up, lazy! She’s here!

  He leapt to his feet and past Mara, lunging for the door. Vaguely he heard the old woman cautioning him not to open the door until he knew who it was, but he ignored her and threw it open.

  Isika stood in the doorway. There was silence in the room. Jabari stared at her, holding his breath, unable to speak. She looked different, taller somehow, and she was flanked by two giant silver cats. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, and a brilliant smile split her face. He could feel by the ache in his cheeks that he was smiling too, though he could barely tell if his head was still attached to his body. Behind him was a flurry of words and bodies he barely heard or felt.

  “Let them in, Jabari!” Ivy said. “They’re going to attract attention, standing there at the doorway with those creatures.”

  He stood back to let them in. He reached out to touch Isika briefly on the arm as she passed by, and she smiled at him with her eyes as the familiar magical sparks leapt between them. As she went into the room, two more cats walked in behind her, making four. And there was Ben and Brigid, Olumi and Abbas.

  There were introductions all around. In the corner Abbas and Enfa embraced and she was wiping tears out of her eyes. Gavi, Ben, and Isika hugged and laughed.

  Jabari went to them and hugged Ben, bowed to Olumi, clapped Abbas on the back, and then turned to see Isika looking at him.

  “I wouldn’t have thought it possible,” she said, a glint in her eye. “But I actually missed you, Yab.”

  He grinned at her and gave her a hug, reluctantly letting her go.

  Mara fussed around them, urging everyone to sit. They all found stools, cushions, or places on the floor, and sat looking foolishly at one another, smiling and wiping away tears.

  “I thought you were dead,” Enfa told Abbas in a low voice.

  “You didn’t get my messages?” he asked.

  “I didn’t believe them. I couldn’t until I saw you.”

  Quiet descended in the little room, very full now. Jabari wondered where to start. There were those cats, but it seemed rude to start with them.

  “So . . . Isika, I take it you learned to hide yourself from your sister,” he said.

  Isika nodded. “Yes. The Karee healer taught me well.” She pointed her chin at the cats. “And they also could teach us things about how to hide ourselves. They can go unseen among people. Imagine how helpful that would be.”

  The silence was heavy with questions.

  “Would you . . . introduce us?” Ivy asked.

  “Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I’m used to them now. These are the Palipa. They are, um, well, quite attached to me.”

  “Of course they are,” Jabari said, breaking the tension, and everyone smiled. It wasn’t the first time that creatures had come out of nowhere to profess allegiance to Isika.

  “Yes, but they don’t listen to me,” Isika said, shooting a look at one of the cats, who turned her huge head and began licking one of her paws. “For example, I asked them not to come inside with me, since they can be . . . intimidating, but they wouldn’t listen. I tried to explain that they needed to request permission of the house owner, but they don’t understand ownership.”

  Isika looked at Jabari with a question in her eyes, and he nodded at Mara. Isika bowed her head in apology to the old woman, and Mara smiled gently, shaking her head and waving the apology away. Her eyes sparkled with tears.

  Then Herrith’s knock sounded at the door and he burst in as soon as one of the laborers opened it for him, heading straight for Isika and Ben. He knelt down before them, surprising everyone.

  “I have known you since you were born,” he said. “And long have I waited for this day.”

  Everyone was too keyed up to make more plans, so Gavi went back to the palace, and Ivy, Deto, Olumi, and Abbas went off to the home of one of the families to spend the night.

  Jabari, Isika, and Ben stayed with Mara and prepared to sleep. The cats finally stretched out along the wall when Isika told them to get out of the way. She h
ad to tell them three times.

  “You have an interesting relationship,” Jabari said under his breath, watching the heavy lidded stare the biggest cat gave her before rising slowly to move out of the way.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Isika muttered. Then she shook her head. “But they are valuable allies, and Olumi says I will need all I can get in this city.”

  This reminded Jabari that Isika was within reach of the Desert King, and he felt sick to his stomach. He had hoped so much to prevent this. Herrith lingered while Isika and Ben ate. Jabari noticed that neither Mara or Herrith could take their eyes off of Isika or Ben for very long.

  Also, Ben kept looking up with a puzzled look on his face, but he never said anything, so Jabari finally asked him about it.

  “Are you hearing something strange?”

  Ben took his time answering.

  “Yes, something like a mass of people, but I can’t figure it out. Maybe it’s just that I’ve never been in a city this size before.”

  As Herrith and Mara watched Isika and Ben, Jabari also stole glances at Isika. He had never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. The line of her neck. Her hands on the flatbread, scooping curry. She already looked like a queen, even sitting in this shack eating on the floor.

  She looked up and he looked away quickly.

  “You said you have known us since we were born?” Isika asked Herrith and Mara. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you. Can you tell me how you knew us?”

  The old woman smiled, then wiped at her eyes. “I was in the palace with Herrith’s father when your grandmother was first captured. I remember your mother as a little girl, then I remember her growing up to be Amani, a strong woman who was wedded to the king’s son against her will. When her husband became the king, she became more wary with you, trying to protect you, and she would often leave you with me when she went to visit the king. I took care of you often when you were a tiny thing.”

  Jabari would have given anything to wipe the sorrow away from Isika’s face.

  “But the king insisted on keeping Ben with the boy slaves. We still don’t know why,” Herrith said. “I tried to watch over Ben as Mara did over Isika, but I couldn’t watch all the time.”

  Ben nodded, his eyes on his hands. It struck Jabari then, just how hard it must be for Ben to come back to this city. He carried the memories of being a slave boy here, of being hit and afraid and unloved in this place. Jabari knew from past conversations that Isika’s memory of this city was very vague. Right now she was staring at Mara as though trying to remember her.

  She shook her head, looking disappointed, but Ben nodded suddenly.

  “Yes,” he said. “I remember both of your songs. They are as familiar to me as Isika’s, though it has been a long time since I heard them. Let your heart be comforted, Uncle. You did help me as a boy. I remember how soothing your song was, how I would try to sit as near to you as possible, especially in the king’s chambers.”

  Herrith’s face contorted, then he dashed tears away with the back of one hand.

  “I loved your mother more than life,” he said. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t do more to help her.”

  Isika sat back, watching the two of them. “I’m so surprised to find a resistance here,” she said. “I would never have expected it.”

  “That was the same way your grandmother felt when she came,” the old woman said. “Herrith’s father spent a long time trying to convince her of the resistance, of the people in this land who are loyal to Nenyi.”

  “I feel like everything is being turned upside down,” Isika said.

  “Yes, I do as well,” Jabari said.

  “You are very like your father in appearance,” the old woman told Isika suddenly. “But even more like your grandmother.”

  Isika turned her head to smile at Jabari, and he remembered the portrait of the stolen queen that had revealed Isika’s identity, back when none of them had known who she was. She did look very much like the queen.

  “Aria is more like your mother,” Herrith said. “And she is soft like Amani too, not as strong as you are.”

  “How is she?” Isika asked, leaning forward eagerly. “Do you see her every day?”

  As Herrith began to tell them of Aria’s condition, Jabari sat back against the wall and stared at the silver cats, sleeping now with light snores that drifted through the dark room.

  Something was bothering him and he tried to identify it. The other four talked for a long time, exchanging memories of Amani, and Jabari slowly understood what it was. Isika was part of Gariah as well as Maween. How could it be that the future queen of the Maweel had a history and tie to their enemies? The Maweel had always stayed pure and dedicated to Nenyi by keeping themselves away from the goddess worshipers and living the life they knew Nenyi wanted them to live. How could it be that Isika was the long-awaited child of the resistance? How could she be this part of the plan that the Circle had been forming all these years? It didn’t make sense. Jabari felt, as he often had since meeting Isika, that unwieldy assumptions were rearranging themselves in his head, and it was physically painful.

  Ben lifted his head again, looking off into the distance, cocking his head to one side and closing his eyes. He shook his head and returned to the conversation, then after a few moments, he did it again.

  “What is it, little brother?” Jabari asked him.

  He looked at Jabari, his face puzzled. “This sound. It’s unlike any other sound I have heard . . . a clamoring of music, different strands packed close together. I mean, this is a big city, bigger than Batta or Azariyah, but the songs are so strange, it might not only be the city.”

  “What do you think it is?” Isika asked. They were all paying close attention to Ben now.

  He shook his head, looking distressed, then reached out to grab Isika’s hand.

  “I will try to find out,” he told her. “Stay close to me. I will have to open up to the music and it might overwhelm me.”

  He closed his eyes and immediately gasped and shuddered. His eyes were closed, but emotions rippled over his face, and Jabari nearly reached out and shook him to make him come back as he saw extreme pain in Ben’s tightly gripped hands and strained forehead. Isika put her hands on either side of his forehead and his face eased a bit. After a few moments, he opened his eyes. They looked haunted.

  “It is not the city,” he said. “It is the missing Karee people. And many others, I think, from other lands. They are imprisoned here in Dhahara. Afraid—in pain. And I think I know where they are.”

  Chapter 27

  Isika wanted to go to the prisoners right away. Herrith thought they should wait.

  “Benayeem knows where they are now,” she told the older man, feeling panicked. “What if they are gone tomorrow? We can’t wait.”

  “It’s late, daughter, and the city isn’t safe at night.”

  Hera sat up and switched her tail back and forth, just enough for the five of them to notice her. Then Keethior pulled his head out from under his wing and and opened and closed his wings. Neither one of the ancients said anything, but the message was clear. They were perfectly capable of protecting Isika.

  Herrith sat wide-eyed for a few moments, then a smile spread across his elegant, wise face, transforming him. He shook his head.

  “You are not what I expected, daughter. Yes, then, let us go carefully. Mara, will you come?”

  “Of course I’m coming,” said the old woman, bustling around the room, extinguishing candles and gathering a wrap for herself. “After all these years, if you think I’m going to miss the first adventure with Amani’s daughter, you are not the sharpest twig on the branch.”

  Next to Isika, Jabari laughed. She smiled at him. He grinned back at her, then turned to Ben.

  “And you, little brother? Are you ready to lead us to these captives?”

  Isika felt a twinge. She had been thinking of her own desire to find the captives, not about Ben’s well-being. His face was weary w
ith pain, but he nodded.

  “Yes,” he said. “It’s better that we go now. I want to close the connection as soon as I can. They are too much for me.”

  They left the little house and silently crept into the night. Ben led the way, with Herrith beside him to make sure Ben’s intuition didn’t carry them down any lethal paths.

  “Down here in the lowest tier killers come out at night,” Herrith said. “They are desperate, addicted to the illegal juice of the night-blooming cactus, hungry, sometimes mad. Do you hear me, cats? Watch out for them.”

  Hera regarded Herrith through half-lidded eyes as though she didn’t appreciate orders, but she walked so close to Isika that Isika felt like she might fall over.

  I can’t walk if you are leaning on me like that.

  You heard the man. He is forceful and arrogant, but right.

  Just a tiny bit of space. You’re pushing me into the wall.

  The cat relented and Isika could walk upright again.

  Mara walked behind Ben and Herrith, which left Jabari and Isika to walk together. The other three cats walked behind them. Keethior flew overhead. And Isika could hear her horses and the Keerza in a far-off barn.

  As if he read her thoughts, Jabari said, “Is that Keerza that I hear? And your horses?”

  Isika nodded. “They joined us yesterday. There are many more Keerza waiting outside the walls of the city.”

  “How are the horses able to stand the poison around us? Even I have a difficult time with it. I feel as though I haven’t breathed properly in weeks.”

  Now that Isika thought about it, she felt it also. The air was hazy with poison. She felt a sharp longing for Maween and the clear air. For the market tree and the waterfall where she met with Nenyi.

  “The cats gave them some protection,” she said. “So the poison doesn’t reach them.”

  Jabari looked impressed. “Those are some helpful friends,” he said.

  “Yes,” Isika said. It all felt a bit dreamlike. The cats, the horses who wouldn’t leave her, and this place. She was in the last place she had ever expected to be, especially after the events of last year—the fire and her father’s words to her.