"Isika," Aria said, and her face crumpled. Isika walked over and took her sister in her arms. Aria was nearly as tall as she was. She laid her head on Isika's shoulder for a moment, then Benayeem joined them and put an arm around Aria, and Ibba threw her arms around Aria's legs. The four of them stood like that for a moment, and when Aria drew away, her face was shiny with tears.
She stared at each of them in turn, and Isika thought of how different they must look, four years after she had seen them last. Aria certainly looked different. She had been so small and thin when she was given over. Now she was strong and tall, muscles showing in the forearm that gripped her bow. Every year, Isika remembered Aria's birthday, hurt again by her loss. Isika knew Aria was eleven years old, and she would be twelve in a few months time.
"What… what are you doing here?" Aria asked. She looked confused and upset. A crowd had gathered, and the audience stretched to the nearby houses; dozens of people had moved onto their porches or the sides of the street to see what was going on.
"The Workers sent Kital out," Isika said. "We followed him."
"Kital?" she said, and Isika felt the blood leave her face again. She nearly stumbled. Aria didn't know who Kital was. She didn't know her brother existed, she had been sent away before he was born. The evil of what the Workers had done hit Isika in the gut like a fist.
"Oh, Aria," Ben said, beside her, and when she looked at him, his face was drawn and pinched. "He is our brother." Aria's face closed and she turned away.
"I don't… I don't want…" she said, her voice rising. She lifted one arm and waved it, pushing at the air, pushing them away. "This is… what is this?" Her voice broke. She turned to Jabari. "They can't be here. They cast me out."
Isika's heart felt the way it might if Aria shot her in the chest with her bow.
"Aria—" she said. "Please, we love you."
Jabari took over. "This is a lot all at once. I think we need to meet later to talk, give Aria time to recover." He turned to Aria. "I'll find someone to tell your parents."
Her parents? She had parents? Isika didn't want to lose sight of her sister, even for a moment. She protested. "No, I—"
"Isika, just listen," Jabari said. "Unless you want to put on a play, or do a dance, it would be better to talk later." Isika looked up and saw the hundreds of people watching them intently. She nodded numbly, stunned by the events of the day. She watched as the group of children her sister was with closed back around her and they walked away, whispering and huddling along the paving stones. Jabari started off in the opposite direction with Gavi, Ibba, and Ben, and with one last look, Isika followed. She wanted to race after Aria, to tell her NO! They were her family, not those strange people she was with. Didn't she know how much they had grieved for her? Didn't she know that it had taken their mother's life? But of course she couldn't know. Isika walked without seeing anything. She didn't know where Jabari and Gavi were taking them, and she almost didn't care.
"I should have known," she heard Jabari murmur to Gavi. "We were all so stunned when we rescued Aria from the boats, because she didn't look like a poison-lander. I should have known they were connected."
"I thought about it," Gavi said, squinting up at the canopy of branches that met over the road. "But I didn't want to say anything and raise false hope."
"You could have told me," Jabari grumbled. Gavi elbowed him and Jabari stuck out a foot and tripped his brother. Gavi stumbled and came up grinning. Isika watched their affection for one another, but it didn't make her feel better. Her stomach hurt as she thought about the separation of her family. Fathers, mothers, siblings, everyone torn apart.
After walking a short distance, they turned onto a street that climbed the hill behind the palace. It was another stone walkway that turned into wide steps at points where it became too steep for a road. Jabari turned in at a house that was plastered and painted a pale blue, the earth walls smooth and rippling along their surfaces, with square corners, holes cut into the earth for windows and along the top of the roof as decoration. Flowers lined the stone path to the front door, and as they approached, a couple around Jabari's parents' age walked out onto the porch to welcome the travelers. They had dark brown skin, the man with a beard and gray, grizzled hair, while the woman was plump and wore a tunic and pants and an apron.
"This is Dawit and Teru," Jabari said. "And these are the young ones, Isika, Benayeem, and Ibba."
"Come in, come in!" the woman said. She showed them into a cool room with a high ceiling. The inside of the house was white with painted flowers in bright colors along the tops of the walls and around the doorways. On one side of the room, a wooden table was set with a meal.
"I thought we would eat first and then you can all bathe," the woman said. "We've sent our niece out to get you some clothes—she has a great eye for beauty," she told Isika, putting a hand on her arm, "I thought it was best. I haven't shopped for a young person in a while."
Isika looked at Jabari with wide eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "What are we doing here?"
Jabari grimaced at Gavi. "I'm the worst at explaining things," he said, grinning. He took a breath. "This is your family." Isika's jaw dropped. "We give all the rescued ones a family," he went on. "Almost every couple in the city has taken in a rescued child. Ivram told us to put you here because Dawit and Teru have room for the three of you."
"But when did this happen?" Isika gasped. "How did you know?" She stared at the couple. "We don't even know how long we're going to be here."
Dawit laughed. "You must think we're mind readers. I'm a guard in the throne room. I approached Ivram immediately after you spoke with him, volunteering to take you three in. I passed you in the street in my hurry to tell my wife that you would arrive. She was over the moon. I know her well. She's been longing for family."
Isika stepped back to take a better look at the man who would so quickly agree to take care of them.
He spoke again. "The Desert King stole our son while he was seeking, three years ago." He put a hand over his face for a moment. When he looked at them again, his eyes were damp. "We have room in our home for you, and you can stay as long as you are in the city."
Tears sprang to Isika's eyes. She was stunned. Was there any end to the surprises in Maween? This place was so far beyond her imagining that she felt as though she had entered another world, not just another city.
"But what about your mother?" she asked, turning to the boys. "She wanted to have Ibba stay with her."
Gavi and Jabari exchanged glances. "We can work that out. Ibba could stay at the palace while we are gone and come back here once we're all back," Jabari answered. "Or maybe Mama will change her mind when she learns you've already been placed with a family." Isika touched the top of Ibba's head lightly. She was nervous about leaving her, but she didn't want to bring her tiny sister into more danger. She pushed the question out of her mind.
At the table, there were chairs for all of them. They sat and ate the soup Teru had prepared for them. Isika was ravenous and she ate quickly. The fish and potatoes of the morning were far away, a lifetime ago. Teru set an icy pitcher of fruit tea on the table and poured a cup for each of them. She had cups made of real glass, like the glass of window panes, and Isika picked one up and stared at it. Ibba leaned into her, tired and full. She gazed up at the glass Isika was holding and whispered something that Isika had to strain to hear.
"I didn't know there were so many beautiful things in the world," the little girl said, and Isika put an arm around her and squeezed. She felt the same way.
She looked around with more curiosity. They sat in a spacious, medium-sized room and near them were open double doors. Through the doors Isika saw a large courtyard sheltered by a lattice of wood overhead. Teru spotted Isika looking outside and suggested that they move to the courtyard.
They walked out with glasses of tea in their hands. In one corner, a shade cloth was tied to the wooden poles that crisscrossed overhead. Underneath, several swing chairs hung fro
m the rafters. Isika sat in one and it swayed gently back and forth. Plants in pots lined the walls of the courtyard, which transitioned into a garden filled with trees. It was the loveliest home Isika had ever seen. She looked at Ben, and he smiled at her. She smiled back, and they sat swinging in the chairs. Isika was silent, barely keeping herself awake. Jabari, Gavi, and Teru kept the conversation going, discussing what they had found on their seeking journey and the worry over the rescuers not returning when they should.
"When do you leave?" Teru asked, her voice sharp. Isika looked up and saw worry creasing her face. Was she already worrying about them?
"We leave in the morning," Jabari said. "At first light." Teru sighed, then nodded, clapping her hands and standing.
"If that's the case, you need to be prepared for a journey," she said. "Baths and clothes."
"And we need to go and see Aria," Ibba added. She paused for a minute. "I wish she could stay here with us."
Teru glanced at Dawit. "She's settled with her new family, sweetheart. But you should see each other all the time if you can."
"Yes," Isika said. Her voice shook slightly, but she steadied it. She wished she was already sitting with Aria. "I still don't understand why we had to put off talking to her," she said to Jabari.
He looked at her from his seat on a large pillow. "It was a shock, Isika. No other family has ever come back before. Aria has been raised to believe that you were gone forever."
Isika frowned. "Come with me," Teru said to her. "You're first."
Teru led Isika through the courtyard to a small room at the back of the house. Tiles covered the floor and walls. Isika blinked. She had never seen colors like these in a house before; purple, green, blue. On one side of the room, a fire crackled under a large steel cylinder, and in the center of the room, a deep cistern sank into the floor, lined with blue tiles. When Isika looked closer she saw metal pipes coming from one side of the cistern. Teru turned a handle on the pipes and steaming water flowed into the hole. Isika tried to keep her face still, but she wanted to shriek. Water that ran into the house? Was this what it meant to live in a city? Teru filled the basin nearly to the top. Isika undressed, then stepped down into the bath and sank under the warm water. Teru moved around the room, humming, gathering things that she brought to the side of the bath. She handed Isika a thick piece of soap. Isika soaped her body, feeling like a baby in a pail, like Kital being bathed on the back porch of the house in the Worker village.
"Down you go," Teru said, lightly touching Isika's hair, and Isika submerged her head in the water to get all of her thick hair wet. Her hair had always been hard to manage, but she had kept it long regardless, because her mother had liked it that way. It was tightly curled, wiry, and strong. Teru worked soap through it and rinsed it, then added oil, using a wide comb and her fingers to separate Isika's hair into sections and get all the tangles out. Tears came to Isika's eyes, both from the pulling on her scalp and the memory of her mother combing her hair this way when she was a small girl.
Teru finished with the comb and smoothed Isika's hair back from her forehead. She handed her a rough cloth.
"Give yourself a good scrub," she said. "I'll go see whether your clothes have arrived."
Isika used the cloth to scrub off days of grime that their brief swims in rivers and Lake Ayo hadn't been able to wash away. The soap smelled of oranges, and the citrus scent rose from the warm water. She rinsed herself under the water again, and when Teru bustled back into the room, Isika stepped into the bath sheet she held out for her.
"Here you are," Teru said. "My niece picked lovely things. I have travel clothes for tomorrow, but for your meeting with your sister, you should wear something nice."
Isika pulled a tunic over her head, this one a deep blue, shot through with silver thread. The pants were dark purple and reminded Isika of the Othra's wings. They felt like the softest clouds swirling around her as she walked the room, trying them out. She looked up and smiled at Teru, blinking back tears that pricked at her eyes.
"Thank you," she said, and Teru pulled her into a hug. The older woman smelled like flowers.
Teru dried Isika's hair and separated it into four braids; two that fell down her back, and two that swept away from her face and met at the crown of her head. Isika peered into the mirror Teru held out to her. She looked nothing like the girl who had lived with the Workers, wearing thick dresses and walking with her head down. Holding her arms over her head, the silky wide sleeves of her tunic falling down around her elbows, she turned in a circle. She looked beautiful, she thought, though there wasn't much that could be done for her face, the dark black of her eyebrows and the width of her mouth. But she grinned at herself in the mirror. She liked the new Isika.
When she went back into the courtyard, Jabari and Gavi were gone. Isika curled up on some cushions on the floor while Teru took care of the others, so contented and clean that she fell asleep.
CHAPTER 23
When Jabari arrived at Dawit's home to collect Isika and Ben, the house was silent. He stood in the doorway for a moment, peering in. Dusk was falling outside, but warm lamps shone in the room already, and he could make out the shapes of his three fellow travelers sleeping on cushions in the living space. He smiled.
"Teru Auntie," he called.
She came quickly, frowning at him. "They're sleeping, you'll wake them," she scolded.
"We have to wake them," he said. "Dinner at the palace."
"Surely you can let them sleep."
He smiled. "Sorry. They can sleep after the incredible feast that's been put together for them."
Teru made a noise that sounded strikingly like the clicking and scolding of the Othra, and Jabari ducked. She shook her head as she gestured for him to come in, bustling over to the sleeping kids and bent over one of them.
"It's time to go, Isika," she said. "Jabari is here to get you."
Isika sat up, looking sleepy, disoriented, and slightly grumpy. It was cute. Jabari grinned at her and she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Come on!" he said. "I'm waiting. Let's go sleepyheads!"
She stood slowly and brushed at her clothes. She looked radiant, brand new after such a long journey, her hair tied back in a way that emphasized the lovely lines of her face. For a moment he had to look away to catch his breath. He shook the feeling away, looking down at his own clothes. He had bathed and changed as well, he wore a white shirt that crossed diagonally over his chest and long black pants of stiff cloth. The palace barber had even visited, frowning at the state of his hair. He was clean and cut and pressed, just like Isika. He stood a little taller.
Isika tried to wake Ibba, but she muttered and frowned and refused to get up. Teru's face was so fierce that Jabari finally told them to leave her to sleep. Benayeem stood and clasped hands with Jabari. He looked good as well, dressed in different shades of green—stiff pants like the ones Jabari had on, and a bright green shirt. His hair was dark and curly against his head.
"We clean up well," Jabari said. "If I hadn't seen just how many twigs you can get stuck in your hair, Benayeem, I might even be intimidated."
Ben stretched and grinned. He took his sister's arm, and they walked to the doorway together.
"Don't keep them out late," Teru said sternly.
"I'll try," Jabari said. "But they're animals at a party." Teru swiped at him, but he evaded her and ducked out the doorway into the dusky evening. He took another look at the siblings as they left the house. He shook his head.
"You look as though you'd always lived here," he said, striding down the path so that they had to walk quickly to keep up. "Who on earth are you? I'd love to know."
"I'd love to know for once where we're going," Isika grumbled, and he slowed down to look at her.
"Oh, that. There's been a change of plans," he said. "My father has invited us all to eat at the palace, so we're meeting Aria there."
Isika stared at him.
"Do you really think the palace is a good place to tal
k with our sister for the first time in four years?"
"You already talked to her for the first time," Jabari said. "In front of a hundred strangers. But yes, I think it'll be okay. They'll give you a small table, curtained and out of the way. You'll have privacy to talk." He leaned over her. "I wrangled that for you with my palace connections."
"Great," Isika said. She was scowling at the ground.
"What?" Jabari asked, elbowing her. She turned the scowl on him, then it disappeared suddenly.
"Can you—" she hesitated. "Can you come with us? You know Aria. She'll feel better if you are there."
He looked at her and caught a little of how hard this day had been for her. "Sure," he said, and he slackened his pace so they could walk more easily. He reached out to pat her arm, and she shrugged him away. Ben chuckled.
"Just because she asked you for help doesn't mean that she wants to need your help," he said, and Jabari laughed under his breath. A smile flitted over Isika's face as well, so quickly he almost missed it.
They reached the palace before long, just as it was truly becoming dark. The palace was brilliant at night, lamps in the corners chasing the darkness away, and lanterns flanking the steps into the entryway. Candles lined the wall alcoves and the stairway railings, casting flickering light onto the carved and painted walls. They walked to the dining hall, a wide room with twenty tables piled with food in the center. Cushions and low tables were scattered around the edges of the room, and people stood and conversed with one another beside the tables or sat on the cushions, glasses in their hands.
A servant approached and held out a tray of glasses filled with juice that sparkled red when the light hit it. Jabari took two and handed one to Benayeem and one to Isika, then took one for himself. He took a sip of the fermented berry tea. It was sweet, sour, and bubbly, and he finished the glass in one long drink.
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