Spear's Forgiveness: Spears Of The Lel'ult, #3 6m6b5n

Spear's Forgiveness

Spears of the Lel'ult, Volume 3

A. A. MacConnell

Published by A. A. MacConnell, 2021.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

SPEAR'S FORGIVENESS

First edition. July 20, 2021.

Copyright © 2021 A. A. MacConnell.

Written by A. A. MacConnell.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

The Fourth

Oringo

The Coast

Mirtuli

Fishing

Taken Alive

Difference

Negasi

Hidden Preparation

Seconmoy

The Search for the Beast

Disaster

The Protector of the Malausa

Defender

Adanech

Setting a Trap

Rip Tide

Spirit

Epilogue | Opening to Family

Also By A. A. MacConnell

About the Author

To everyone who tries, but sometimes messes up.

We can only take a breath and do better.

The Fourth

Lulu believed they spent more time in the Emperor’s Lake than they did in Hirka.

She and Lebna waited outside the Emperor’s house. The Lel’ult Talei and Adanech were inside, speaking with the Emperor. The Emperor’s spears waited with them, at their posts, probably wondering why Lulu and Lebna didn’t take a break while they had the chance. Lulu didn’t often wish to the Lel’ult inside the Emperor’s house. At least, for any reason other than to her. But today was different. She wanted to be in there to see the Emperor’s reaction. Lulu wanted to help, she wanted to explain that Talei’s plans were everyone’s desires, not just the Lel’ult’s.

Instead she had to wait. They could have waited anywhere else, but both she and her spear-brother preferred to do so right where they were. She hoped the Emperor’s spears were not offended, believing Lulu and Lebna didn’t find them capable of defending this place. It looked more likely they would be impressed by her and Lebna’s devotion.

“There is the possibility that the Emperor will want the beasts investigated, but not want the Lel’ult to head the expedition herself,” said Lebna.

Lulu made a face. “Do you have to get my hopes up and down at the same time?”

“I’m sorry. I only wanted you to keep that in mind.”

Lulu shook her head. Usually that would cause the beads in her hair to clack together, but they stayed silent in the long braid she had bound them with. She’d begun beading her hair a long time ago. Her first spear-brother ed her in that tradition. When he had died, she stopped adding more beads. This hair was her remembrance of him.

She had started doing the same for Lebna. He had great hair to work with, though she didn’t want to overdo it. The feather from the Eagle with the human hands was perhaps a better addition than anything she could offer.

“I can’t believe that’s all true, and it’s not like I disbelieve you,” said the spear standing outside the Emperor’s home. Her spear-brother stayed silent, but Lulu saw the interest in his eyes.

“It’s one of those things you can’t understand until you see,” Lulu said.

“And even then,” Lebna added.

Lulu studied the other pair. They looked good, evenly matched. She wondered who would win if she and Lebna sparred against them.

Lel’ult Talei’s father, the Lel’ul Yazid, had been widely known as having the best spears in the land. More talented warriors than his mother’s. Lulu had been included in that group, now serving his daughter. Yet it was a blanket statement. It didn’t mean a fight between her and this other spearwoman would be in her favour.

More than anything, Lulu wanted to prove herself. She knew it didn’t have anything to do with her. The Emperor’s choice right now rested solely on Talei’s words. It had nothing to do with her spears. If she felt like Talei could do this task, the Emperor would also trust her with the decision of who would accompany her. After everything they had gone through, Lulu knew she and Lebna would be chosen. Talei had made her confidence in them very clear.

“If she doesn’t want the Lel’ult to go,” Lulu continued, not wanting Lebna to think she sulked about it, “she would still send people. It’s not something she can afford to ignore.”

“If the Lel’ult asked us to go without her, with others, would you want to?”

Lebna’s question rankled. Lulu pulled her lips back in a grimace. “That’s a tough one. If she told us, we would go.”

“I know that. I asked if you would want to.”

Lulu sighed. “Of course. I want to go either way. But... I couldn’t leave her for any length of time. Adanech might be her best defender, but-”

“She always needs more than one.”

It wasn’t that they didn’t trust others. It was simply easier to feel Talei was protected well when Lulu had her own eyes on her. Lulu couldn’t imagine how the Emperor felt, only hearing about her people and her lands, hardly leaving

home to see any of it for herself these days. Even for the Lel’ult Talei, Lulu couldn’t imagine. She could go everywhere, see everything, but only one place at a time.

Lulu didn’t envy her at all.

The Emperor’s spears chuckled. Lulu glanced over. “Sorry,” said the woman, “but that is typical of you.”

Lulu grinned. “It is, isn’t it?”

There were dark reasons for that, but she wouldn’t broach it. Everyone knew what had happened to the Lel’ul. The truth had been out for some time.

“I have a feeling that wasn’t how you wanted to end that sentence,” said Lebna.

“Of course!” Lulu shouldered him. “I have the part of me that questions what I would do if she asked me to stay while other people handled the search. That would turn me crazy too! I haven’t stopped thinking about the Leopard since we left Badjeba. Not a single day has ed without her on my mind.”

Lebna nodded. He had thought as much about it as she had. Perhaps more. He did have a piece of the Eagle with him, after all, the white feather standing out in his hair and against his eyes.

But the Leopard was different. Unlike the Eagle who had struck at them all. Yigdu or not, human or not, the Leopard only wanted to hunt Yigdu. How much damage they had pressed upon her, only for the strange beast to notice and pull away, but never retaliate. Perhaps it was because Talei distracted her too much. The Leopard only cared about her, and before the Lel’ult, the Yigdu woman Zauditu who Lulu and Lebna protected.

It did not make sense. None of it. And waiting for someone else to find the answer for her didn’t sit well.

“If the Lel’ult cannot go, we will likely be sent,” Lebna continued. “Even as well as any of us might describe what happened, someone who hasn’t seen them like us, like the Lel’ult and Adanech, won’t be as prepared to catch sight of this fourth beast.”

Lulu nodded. “Exactly. Only the four of us saw the Eagle. Adanech and the Lel’ult saw the Jackal... along with those who live in the Basin. But only the two of them have seen all three of the known beasts.”

And they had proof of a fourth. A dark cavern wall with a destroyed mural. Not much to go on, but it was more than nothing. And Lulu was nothing if not curious. There was no way she could let this go on by without her. They waited.

As usual, the Lel’ult and the Emperor’s conversation took a long time.

Lebna and Lulu played a game of stones, which Lulu lost. She grumbled a bit, though mainly in jest. She would get their meal. If the others came out while she was gone, she would miss out on the initial declaration. Lebna said doing

something else would help her think less about it, but she noted he didn’t volunteer to go instead.

“Are you two hungry?” Lulu asked the other two spears.

“Yes,” said the man.

His spear-sister chuckled, nodding.

“Then I’ll be back with four bowls.”

Lulu rushed to get something prepared. Another gave her a choice of a proper midday meal and Lulu chose what would take the least amount of time to ready. While she offered to do more, the cooks waved her off. It was something Lulu had never gotten used to. Her position as the Lel’ult’s spear didn’t remove her use as a hunter or even another pair of hands in other places, just at the Emperor’s Lake. It perhaps said more about how they had to treat the Emperor’s spears. Lulu thought it made sense. As often as they were here she should have gotten used to it. She had not.

“Midday meal?”

Lulu turned to Yahim. The young Yigdu man had started growing facial hair, which he hadn’t let do so before now. She thought it became him, but at the same time wondered what had taken him so long to stop shaving his face smooth. “Yes.”

“Does that mean that Talei is out?”

The Yigdu of the Basin called her Talei, as she wasn’t their Lel’ult. Lulu was so used to Adanech being the only one to do so that only recently had she stopped hesitating when Yahim did so. Likely because she had spent a bit more time around the other Yigdu lately, especially Yahim. “No. She and the Emperor are still at it.”

Yahim sighed with a shake of his head. “I can’t believe it takes them so long to come up with a simple decision.”

“It’s less like a simple decision for the Emperor. She hasn’t seen it, has only heard about them from the Lel’ult. We saw a lot more of the Leopard and the Lel’ult won’t want to let someone else deal with it all. She’ll want to go.”

“Of course she will!” Yahim snorted. “There is a lot of things I don’t understand about how things work down here and that the heir has to get permission from your Emperor to check something out, something important, is another thing entirely.”

Lulu shrugged. “You know, even if they had already come up with a decision earlier, we wouldn’t be leaving today to go anywhere anyway.”

“I know that. Yet how much can we start to prepare today if we don’t know that we are going to the coast? It would be wasteful to begin only to find out that we aren’t.”

While Lulu nodded, another thought came to mind. Yahim wasn’t tied to the Lel’ult at all. “May I ask a question?”

“Go ahead, Lulu. I don’t tend to keep information to myself.”

“It’s more personal than that,” Lulu said, but took his permission. “Why is it that you stay so close to the Lel’ult all the time? You are the only one from the Basin who insists on going with the Lel’ult when she goes elsewhere. Oringo and the others tend to stay in Hirka, or let her know where else they may be staying. Yet you always come with when able to. It’s curious that you feel you can’t go if she does not.”

Yahim smirked. “It is because I have a very different view about what it means to be here in the south.”

The Emperor’s Lake was in the middle of the land, as far as Lulu’s mind associated it. Badjeba and the desert were past the drylands to the south. Yet this entire land was the south to someone from the Yigdu Basin. A place beyond the Arch, a place even more mysterious still to people - despite knowing others lived there - than the imable mountains to the west. Than the confusing desert to the south.

“How so?”

“The Second Husband and the others think it is their role to advise and to watch. But is that good enough? Perhaps not all Yigdu come under our Chieftain’s rule,

but they are still our responsibility as much as they are your Lel’ult’s. While I respect the decision they’ve made to stay and advise from one sole place, I don’t think they have placed enough importance on one thing.”

“What one thing was that?” Lulu could begin to smell the food.

Yahim looked at her, expression now neutral. “That Talei wasn’t raised in the Basin. Or with any other group of Yigdu. She was raised in a house, alone except for her mother and father. She needs more than the occasional advice. She needs someone around who knows the Yigdu tradition. Someone so she won’t insult everyone or make a fool of herself. Ancestors know that would ruin a lot of the progress we have all made over the years.”

It all made sense to Lulu, but for one thing. “You do do that, true. But not very nicely.”

Yahim smirked again. “She isn’t my Lel’ult. I don’t have to show that same sort of reverence as the rest of you do. She is a young woman who doesn’t know enough yet. And she doesn’t have power over me.”

“She has a little bit. She could always ask for us to drive you away if she finds you pushing it.”

He laughed. “Okay, that is true. But she wouldn’t do such a thing. She is not that kind of a woman.”

“No, she is not.” Sometimes Lulu thought Talei was a little too naive still, even after everything they had gone through. At the same time Lulu appreciated the optimism Talei refused to leave behind with childhood. Lulu wanted to be that optimistic as well. She strove for that.

It was important to her to be happy. For everyone to have the opportunity to be.

“Yet there would still be ways to push her to do that to someone. She wouldn’t do it for no reason, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t do it.”

Yahim thought about it for a moment. “You think so? That would be a good thing, if she could.”

The man Lulu had left her order with called out and Lulu went to grab the four bowls. Yahim followed, picking two of them up for her. “This for Talei and Adanech as well?”

“Actually, it is for the other two spears at the house. I wouldn’t want to prepare something that might get cold before they come out.”

He nodded, following her back to the Emperor’s house. As soon as the other buildings were out of the way so she could see the one by the water, Adanech came in view. She was tall enough to stand out in most crowds, let alone how she kept her head free of hair. Then there were the scars, coloured in blue, she had gotten as her punishment for killing the previous Lel’ult.

Lulu and Lebna had done similarly, but without as deep scars as Adanech’s punishment entailed. They had work to do and Adanech had spent so long recovering.

Adanech out of the house meant Talei would be too. Lulu rushed over, doing her best not to spill anything. She handed both bowls over to the other two guards before facing the other three. “Did I miss anything?”

“I said you would be back soon,” said Lebna. “The Lel’ult wanted to wait until you’d returned.”

Lulu grinned at Talei, who already could not contain her excitement. This told her all she needed to know. Talei had done it, she had convinced her grandmother to let her go. Or else she wouldn’t have waited. That Lulu was certain. Yet there had to be more details. Lulu wanted to hear it now.

Yahim handed a bowl to Lebna, but when he gave the last to Lulu she immediately handed it to Adanech before standing by Lebna. Adanech would need it after time with the Emperor. As did Talei, but she wouldn’t be able to do that and talk at the same time.

“We will go to the coast,” Talei announced.

Lulu rubbed her shoulder against Lebna’s, taking care not to jostle him too much.

“Grandmother agrees that we should look more into these beasts, especially that we are now about certain there are four of them.”

“Perhaps more importantly in her eyes, Talei should go to the coast because she has yet to travel out that way,” Adanech continued. “It gets many birds with one stone.”

“You come from the coast, don’t you Lulu?” Talei asked.

Lulu smiled. “I come from Mazundu, a small place on the coast. I can’t imagine us spending all that much time there, but we can definitely stop by.”

“What is the name of the biggest fishing town there?” Adanech asked after swallowing a mouthful of her food. “It’s a little further north.”

Of course Adanech would have known, somehow. “Mirtuli will definitely be the place we will need to stop at. If just because it’s a lot more likely if someone has seen something, they will have been in Mirtuli to talk about it. In sparser seasons for other towns, Mirtuli lets others come by to fish in the waters near them. They always have plenty.”

“Have you been?” asked Talei.

Lebna handed some food to Lulu, which she had begun, so she quickly swallowed to answer. “A couple times, when I was much younger. I think everyone who was born on the coast must have done so at least once. It’s where I

met Daudi, actually, before he came to live in Mazundu with us.”

Adanech raised an eyebrow. “I hadn’t heard that.”

“I was eight. We didn’t actually spend all that much time doing anything important for a few years.”

It used to hurt when Lulu spoke of her first spear-brother. It used to hurt a whole lot. Yet she had refused to let it stop her from talking about him and had pushed through it, as though it would make the feeling normal. Lulu had felt horrible, in so much pain for so long after his death (after the Lel’ul’s death, after Reem’s death), but she knew the ancestors would not want her to grieve for a successful ing. For one receiving their place in strengthening the world. She had to imagine Daudi still did as much in death as he had in life, even if she could no longer see the immediate effects of his actions.

“I can’t imagine that,” said Talei. “Not important?”

Lulu shrugged. “Well, not seriously enough. We will be heading out soon?”

“We’ll stop by Hirka and then head to the coast. If it is your suggestion, we should likely stop at Mirtuli as quickly as possible to see if we can find any information of the beast from anyone who might have seen her.”

“Very good!” Yahim clapped his hands together. “I have wanted to see the ocean!”

Lulu couldn’t miss the look on Talei’s face, as it struck her Yahim was there. She had done a good job ignoring him. Her Lel’ult cleared her throat before addressing him. “Are you certain you don’t want to remain in Hirka, Yahim? I believe Oringo must be back by now.”

The Yigdu man rolled his eyes. “Why does that mean I’d want to stay? The coast will be interesting, a very different kind of wet than the swamp.” With a shrug, he gave a smile to Lulu and Lebna before leaving.

Talei made a sound of frustration. Lulu and Lebna looked at each other.

Well, it wasn’t anything new.

Oringo

They spent a great deal of time travelling through Geresu. That was just how it was when the places the Lel’ult and the Emperor lived in had the forest between them.

The forest used to feel so special to Lulu. Now it seemed like any other part of the wilderness. Perhaps because, in her mind, it had become yet another part of a collective of the two villages. Just a small obstacle in the way. It took several days of travel, but with the party the Lel’ult took with her, there was little to fear from anything in these woods. Most animals wouldn’t bother them. They mainly kept watch for the ever decreasing amount of people who hated knowing the Emperor’s heir was born of a Yigdu woman - enough to attack. Lulu thought there should be many other ways to be constructive with such anger, but most wanted to kill Talei.

And failed. They always failed. Lulu was proud of that. No one had come close since Talei’s Yigdu coming of age trial took them to the Rwenyan Peaks. More danger had come from animals since then. The human handed beasts.

A mystery they would finally start to solve.

Geresu woods were as quiet and lively as ever. When the group stopped speaking the only sounds were birds above and the insects below, heard between footfalls muffled in the grasses under the trees. The flowers Lulu attempted to step around, despite how they cushioned her feet. Yet her soles were tough, able to handle any rock or stick she stepped upon. They all could. Even Talei, who still went with shoes most of the time, had developed more calluses of late.

It was the subtle changes. By now, Lulu had memorized where the trees were on

the shortest path between Hirka and the Emperor’s Lake. She knew which animals tended to be where and where each type of flower ended up growing. But when a branch broke? Where the bones of someone’s previous meal might have ended up? The constant little surprises keeping her on her toes. Which, in turn, made sure she was always acutely aware of their surroundings. If an assassin (or more) tried to get to the Lel’ult here, they would fail.

Lebna seemed more thoughtful than usual lately when they travelled through the forest, but Lulu left him to it. She knew better than to push him when she saw certain expressions. At least, not in front of everyone else.

Lulu wondered who Talei would choose to go with her to the coast. She knew she and Lebna were always in the selection, as was Adanech. That had been the case consistently since her Yigdu coming of age trial. Hasani had taken a lot of responsibilities lately with Bashiri, but Lulu didn’t know if it meant Talei would want them to come with or stay to watch over Hirka.

Once upon a time Lulu had wondered about her own placement. Then she had been made to defend the Lel’ul’s home, his woman and child inside unknown to her. Now Lulu followed his daughter and heir everywhere.

“Even when other places suffer from drought or flooding, Geresu always seems in harmony,” Adanech said.

That was exactly what Lulu was feeling, though the words had escaped her. “And is likely why it is in the centre of the land.”

“Does placement really hold that much importance?” Talei asked.

Adanech nodded.“It must hold some, for if it didn’t then we likely wouldn’t be headed to the fourth beast who happens to be at the last cardinal direction available for her to reside, away from the others.”

“What do you think they would do if all of them met each other?” Talei asked. “Do you think they’ve ever been in the same place?”

Lulu tried to imagine the Leopard and the Eagle in the same place at the same time and failed utterly.

“I find it hard to imagine,” Lebna said.

“Considering how the Jackal and the Leopard seem at odds with the places and the people they deal with, I can’t imagine a meeting between the two of them would go very well,” Adanech replied.

The rest agreed, even those who had only heard about most of them. Lulu knew most of the group had at least seen the Leopard from a distance, but fortunately hadn’t the opportunity to get close up.

“Let alone for anyone else who happened to be nearby at the time,” Yahim added.

Talei continued to speak of such things until their arrival in Hirka.

Hirka had been home to the Lel’ult for a long time. Lulu hadn’t come from here originally, neither had Adanech. Hirka always took in anyone who wanted to serve the Lel’ult - and before her the Lel’ul Yazid. It housed the Yigdu from beyond the Arch who had come south to advise the Emperor’s heir. Lulu had the feeling Talei would have preferred Yahim stayed with the rest of his people. That another would accompany her instead. But unlike his elders, Yahim didn’t want to remain in one place.

Lulu could understand the sentiment. Having been born and raised on Table Mountain, Yahim wanted to satiate his curiosity when it came to the lands to the south of the Arch. Not only the lands directly between there and Hirka, or there and the Emperor’s Lake.

“You’re making your way out already?”

The Yigdu woman, Zauditu, addressed her from beside Waseme’s hut. Lulu didn’t see Waseme or Imani, but assumed they were inside. “Not quite yet, but the Lel’ult doesn’t want to waste much time before setting out again. We got permission to look to the east.”

Zauditu made a face. “After seeing the Leopard, I can’t imagine why you are so eager to see another of those beasts.”

“Such things are probably more frightening the less you know about them. I’d rather know what is over there than know there is something there and not know what it is.”

Zauditu made another face, equally repulsed. Every expression the woman made was rather striking, but Lulu knew she was biased. She did have something for taller women. Though Zauditu wasn’t nearly muscled enough for Lulu’s preference, she had a different form of beauty Lulu couldn’t deny. Azmera was a lucky woman.

“Where is Azmera? Hunting?”

“Of course she is, she has to make her mark here. As much as we appreciate knowing that we can just be here, we aren’t going to let others carry our weight.”

“That’s why you got the offer,” Lulu said brightly. “And Imani?”

“Your... medicine woman? She is strict with them. Why is she not a Sayer?”

“Because there is no need for a Sayer with the Lel’ult here.” Lulu squatted down next to the woman. “Much like there is no Sayer in the Emperor’s Lake. The Emperor is there to speak for herself.”

“Yet they are all medicine women, yes?” Zauditu asked, pushing some of her hair out of her eyes.

“Yes. Sayers are medicine women. A village can have more than one medicine woman, but they can only have one Sayer, as you know.” That was the reason Imani had come with from Badjeba. They didn’t want to get in the way. Or perhaps they wanted to tend to people without the stress of taking charge of an

entire village.

“What about when the Lel’ult ascends?”

Lulu blinked. It wasn’t taboo to speak of this, but people didn’t tend to. Not since the last Lel’ul had died. People had discussed his becoming the Emperor a great deal. She wondered if Talei thought much about it. Lulu thought it morbid to suggest the Emperor’s death. The Emperor had probably brought it up with her already, she could only grow older.

“Hirka will select a Sayer.” Lulu shrugged. “And when the Lel’ult’s children grow and decide where they wish to settle, those Sayers will either live out their days as medicine women or move elsewhere when another town needs a Sayer. The Lel’ul selected Hirka and his daughter followed suit.”

“Then you will go to the Emperor’s Lake when she ascends?”

Lulu nodded. “Of course.”

“You won’t miss it here?”

“I definitely will. But Hirka isn’t that far away. I doubt the Lel’ult would avoid Hirka. This is her home, no matter where she ends up.”

A voice raised inside of Waseme’s hut. Both women turned. Lulu’s hair whipped

about and over her shoulder, resting in a tail there.

“Your medicine woman is a little scary.”

“Waseme isn’t normally like that,” Lulu assured her. “I think it’s her coming to with having a student. And not just any student, one who knows more than one might assume she would know.”

“I suppose as I’ve only known things as they were in Badjeba, that’s what I’m used to. Most medicine women are older? Like Imani’s grandmother was.”

“Most Sayers are, medicine women can come of any age. Yet older ones tend to know more, as practicing their trade for so many years have created such talented hands. I believe most begin young.”

“You would have to, yes?” Zauditu noticed some wood shavings on her tunic and brushed them off.

It made Lulu wonder what had happened to the town where the last Lel’ult lived. Lulu didn’t know where Masozi had lived before she started her crusade. Killing her brother. Lulu might have known back in the day, but had forgotten in the years since. All she ed about Masozi was how she fooled everyone into killing those they had called “Unclean”.

Yet there would be a Sayer there now. She wondered what those people thought of Masozi’s actions. Whether any of them were those Lulu and the other spears

had dispatched while defending Talei. Masozi must have had many ers in the town she had lived the longest. Right? Yet those in the Emperor’s Lake had known her as a child. Lulu hadn’t thought of that.

Then again, she didn’t want to think of Masozi anymore.

Imani came out, completely composed despite Waseme’s outburst, and Lulu knew at the least everything in Hirka everything was in good hands.

Lulu returned to her hut. She wasn’t particularly attached to it these days. It was a period of brief respite, contrasted to a time when her post was standing guard at the Lel’ul’s house. Since spending so much time travelling with the Lel’ult, Lulu didn’t feel the same sort of connection within these walls as she used to. She wondered if that was shallow of her.

Just to say she had, Lulu checked over her spear and her armor. Lulu stretched out, but while she had been told to rest and relax, she had too much energy to stay still for long. Walking didn’t cause her much exhaustion after all, and they hadn’t had a proper fight since Badjeba. Lulu was good to go.

Stepping back out, Lulu cast around to see where the most interaction was. She found it a few homes away, with Yahim. She gathered what was going on in a cursory glance. Yahim spoke with other Yigdu and while he knew them all, she only knew a couple. They had to have newly come from the Basin.

So Oringo was back. This had to have happened right after they returned, or Lulu would have noticed them before. Without hesitation, she went up the hill to the Lel’ult’s house.

Outside this building was probably the place Lulu was most familiar with. She had guarded these walls for several years. She would continue to do so as she was asked. A pair of spears stood outside, nodding toward her as she approached. Lulu was one of few who had permission to enter whenever she wished.

Lulu used to believe permission had been given only because Adanech wanted her and Lebna to train Talei - sneaking in during the night while the girl slept. Yet years later, Talei hadn’t taken the permission back. It was hard to say if it was because of naivete or because of trust. Maybe first as one, but now because the other. Lulu knew she had beyond proved herself to the young Lel’ult.

Once inside, Lulu was greeted with architecture as strange as ever to her. The house was unusual. It didn’t stand rounded, like any of the other huts in Hirka, the Emperor’s Lake, or any other town. The Emperor’s house by the Lake and this house were made with straight walls and many pillars to keep much larger and separate rooms ed. It was made with stone Lulu had never seen before and didn’t have a word to describe.

Adanech sat with her back against one of those pillars, next to the flap leading to Talei’s chambers. Her head tilted up upon Lulu’s arrival, first sharp, but then calm. “You look like you have something to say.”

“Yes. Is she already asleep?”

“Should be-”

They both first heard footsteps, before the heavy hide covering the door was pushed aside by Talei, as awake as ever.

“You two are as active as a raging river,” Adanech commented.

“Did you need something, Lulu?” Talei asked.

“I was going to leave the word with Adanech, but... Oringo is back from the north.”

Face brightening, Talei grabbed her spear and slung it on her back, heading for the door.

“Talei, surely this conversation could wait a little longer,” said Adanech, getting to her feet.

“If you need to rest, Adanech, you needn’t worry. Lulu will accompany me.”

That said, Talei left. Lulu mouthed an apology to Adanech before both followed their Lel’ult back down into Hirka.

Lulu thought of getting Lebna, but as he was the only one of them actually sleeping, she decided to not bother him. She would take care to pay explicit attention to relate everything to him afterward.

“Oringo might want to rest after his journey,” Adanech said, an expression on her face telling Lulu she should have determined that first. Lulu returned with a playful grimace.

“I won’t interrupt if he is resting,” Talei responded. They approached one of the northern Yigdu sitting outside Oringo’s hut. “Is the Second Husband still awake?”

“He was noting something down,” they said, “so he should still be awake. The journey was easy. None of us are very tired.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Talei reached to the door and rustled against the flap. “Oringo?”

“Ah, Talei. Come in.”

Talei threw the entrance aside and entered. Lulu could barely see Oringo from where she stood, as Adanech ed the Lel’ult. Oringo looked back out at her.

“Lulu, you may us as well, I assume?”

He left it to Talei, but Talei waved her in without hesitation. Lulu easily slid in and took her place next to Adanech.

“I hear your journey went well?” asked Talei. “How is your family?”

“Wonderful, just wonderful. Ata has started walking and is getting into all sorts of trouble.”

How many children could one woman handle? Lulu had to assume her other husbands picked up some of the weight, because she couldn’t imagine wanting to let a man like Oringo leave while having such a large family. It might take a village indeed, but it was nice to have certain people around.

“I have a feeling there is something else on your mind.”

Talei frowned. “There might be, but that isn’t to say I’m not interested in the Basin.”

“But I want to hear about this something else. Tell me what is on your mind, young Talei.”

Talei told him all about the Leopard and the cave they found in the desert. The evidence of a fourth beast with human hands which they assumed to be somewhere on, or maybe off, the coast. Oringo watched her, a wonderful audience. Though quiet, he paid rapt attention to every word, every motion. Lulu pitched in on occasion. Talei hadn’t had all the confrontations with the Leopard Lulu and Lebna had had, after all.

“Continuous surprises, you find,” he said. “The ancestors must indeed have a

plan for you, Talei. I’ve never known of such a string of coincidences. As no earthly being amongst us could know about these creatures, they must be guiding you.”

“As if I don’t have enough expected of me.” Talei let out a small breath of exasperation.

Lulu eyed her over. “Are you saying you wish someone else was asked to look out for these creatures?”

“That is not what I am saying. But it is true, isn’t it? It is more than just by pure chance that Adanech and I have seen three of these creatures so far. We must go and see the last of them. Even more than that, find if there is another place to find more notation about them.”

“Looking deliberately means taking charge of chance,” Oringo went on. “Strange that this land of yours is surrounded by such creatures. What is it about this home of yours that would have beings, likely considered unnatural to many, surrounding it so?”

That wasn’t a question Lulu expected. Lulu stared at Oringo, then toward Talei and Adanech, wondering if they might have an idea on the matter.

“We have asked these questions before,” Adanech started, “but considering the circumstances we should ask them again. What else is there about the Jackal that perhaps we didn’t speak of before? Out of the three we have seen, the Jackal is the most well known, especially by your people. Other than old marks in stone that won’t speak to most of us, your traditions are the closest things we have to

answers.”

Oringo frowned, leaning back with his hands pressed into the ground to prop himself up. “I can’t think of anything I haven’t said already about the Jackal. He is a simple creature, who makes sure the Basin is in balance. Unlike other jackals, I have never known him to eat meat, preferring simply to forage in the swamp most of the time he is awake. None of us, or other animals as far as I know, have ever been spooked by him. He pays us no mind, unless there is a problem. In which case, his attention tells us as much, even if there are no other signs.”

“Has he ever come up to the plateau?” Talei asked.

“Not in my lifetime, but I have heard he has done so in the past to protect us.”

Lulu worried at her lower lip. “That doesn’t seem like the other two at all. Not that we can say much about the Eagle’s habits, but the Leopard seemed to be on the move constantly.”

“We can say the Eagle wasn’t always in flight, or we would have noticed her sooner,” said Adanech.

Lulu nodded.

“And the Eagle hunted the gorilla,” Talei ed. “Or at least... picked them up.”

“While the Leopard was never close enough to the other animals in the desert for us to truly know how they would interact,” Adanech finished.

The four of them considered. “Have you ever known of anything like what was on the cave walls?” Lulu asked Oringo, which appeared to pull him out of some reverie.

“Hm? Ah, yes. Actually, I didn’t want to interrupt, but it did remind me of something.”

“Yes?” Talei tried not to shift closer. In some ways she was such a little girl. Lulu didn’t know whether to roll her eyes or smile.

“I once saw a picture of the Jackal carved on the wood of a tree. I don’t recall other images at the time, but it could have been I didn’t recognize them. It was during my coming of age trial.”

“You mentioned your trial before,” Adanech said. “How that helped you to find your place in the Basin. But you couldn’t find that tree again.”

“Yes. As well as I know the swamp now, when I returned to where I thought the tree stood, I never did find it. A vision the ancestors must have showed me, I often thought. But now there appears to be more to it than that.”

“If there is something near the Jackal and the Leopard, there might have been

something in the mountain as well,” Talei said. “But more than that, that must mean there is something for us to find in the east.”

Lulu smirked.“That might be a little less dangerous than seeking out some unknown creature with an unknown amount of aggression to any of us.”

“Yet the east is a vast coast,” Adanech said. “We can’t assume if we head due east from here that there will be something. Finding a hidden place is much harder than finding a living creature. A creature might move, but that’s what draws attention.”

Lulu clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Especially at the sizes they come in.”

“A place might move as well,” said Oringo. “As did that tree.”

“Or the entire desert,” Talei added. “We kept getting lost, unable to tell what direction was north. How much of that was confusion and how much of it was the desert changing around us? And not only because the Leopard moved the sands.”

Adanech frowned, but said nothing. Lulu thought she knew why. It was easier to think of a tree moving than an entire cavern system. Though Lulu could imagine the entrance covered in sand, then uncovered by the winds or the Leopard. The paths in the Rwenyan Peaks were confusing as well, though Lulu couldn’t come up with a reason to explain it. What if that was the case with the tree?

“We have to find something,” Lulu said. “Whether the beast or another place where those who came before marked down more information about them.”

“Exactly.” The Lel’ult stood back up. “We have to find something. That is what this journey is about. If the ancestors want me to learn something about these creatures, I will do so. Thank you for your time, Oringo, but I must get some rest. Can I ask more about your visit home before we leave?”

“Of course you can. I shall be here for a while, so anything else you need of me, do let me know.”

“You know your grandmother hopes that the journey is about meeting your people, right?” Adanech queried, nodding her head toward Oringo as she followed Talei out.

“It’s very much about that. Just like this is. How can I best protect my people with so many unknowns at the edges of our world?”

They left. Lulu should have done so as well, but instead she looked back at Oringo. “Can I have a moment more of your time?”

Oringo chuckled. “Of course.”

“I wanted to talk to you about Yahim.”

That didn’t come as a surprise to him. “Ah, yes. Go ahead.”

“He believes Talei should always have a Yigdu from the north around as an adviser, and plans to come with.” She leaned back against the wall, deciding tact wasn’t necessary. “But he doesn’t have to be nice about it because Talei isn’t his leader.”

Oringo sighed. “Yes, I’ve had that feeling for a while. It would be wrong of me to say that he has the wrong idea. Though I think it is less how he thinks. She doesn’t need an adviser to travel with her, she has plenty of those. He represents a greater portion of our people. It is good for Talei to have someone around who can tell her all we have missed teaching her - our culture and traditions are many, as are yours. Yahim is young, but he fulfills that role.”

“Meanwhile you have advice.” Even though she didn’t interact as much with him, Lulu had heard plenty of his words from Talei and Adanech. She knew his presence here to be invaluable to how Talei wanted to change the country.

“Of course I do. Most people do. Yet she asks it of me and I wouldn’t hide it from her.”

Lulu frowned, rocking back and forth on her heels for a moment. “Yahim doesn’t hide information from her. He always offers it.”

“That is good.”

“Very bluntly.”

“He could use more manners.” Oringo reached up and rubbed at his temple. “Yet it is hard to correct when I hardly see the evidence of it myself. From what I hear, he is like a different person around her, just to prove that point.”

“I could kick his ass when he does it, but I’m not sure the Lel’ult wants me to.”

He laughed. “No, I think not. That is not how most people learn a lesson, believe it or not. It is how they become subservient. It has the same outcome, but at very different costs. One is easier than the other. That is what makes people like Adanech so incredible.”

Lulu had always thought Adanech was incredible, but Oringo spoke of something else. She wondered what it was. Yet instead of asking, she nodded as though she understood. As much as she respected, looked up to, and loved Adanech... the woman did like to kick ass.

Only after leaving the hut did Lulu think about Adanech’s confrontation with Masozi again. Masozi had been the best spearwoman in the land, all on her own, at the time before her death. It wasn’t a surprise Adanech lost.

But what if that wasn’t the case at all? What if the only reason Adanech lost was because she wanted to make the woman it her faults with her own mouth, not with the trial by combat?

Lulu could believe it. Adanech was amazing.

She went to see if Lebna was awake.

The Coast

The Lel’ult’s party left Hirka a few days later. Four more and they reached the banks of Koembca which they would follow to the coast. Not too closely at the end, because of how marshy the ground would be, but that close to the coast there would be other towns to take them from the banks.

Leagues down the Koembca, Talei looked around and noted, “This is as far east as I’ve ever been.”

“Not quite,” Adanech said. “Kitar Helid is further east, but it is much further north.”

“Oh.”

“The furthest east we’ve been before was the grove by Kitar Helid,” Lulu told her. “I told you that if that ridge wasn’t there you could have seen the entirety of the coast from there.”

“Or if we’d had time to climb the trees.”

“We could all use a little more time,” Lebna agreed.

Lebna’s furthest point east came several days after the Lel’ult’s comment, and Adanech mentioned hers after in the weird way where she had to spend much more time clarifying it. She had been to the coast before, but so far up north it wasn’t nearly as east as here. Talei tried to recall the map of the lands in her

head, and during the nights when they settled down to rest, she sketched it out on the soft soil near the bank of the river. Everyone added to it as they recalled. Adjoa stared on in fascination, while Lulu and Tinotende debated the shape of the coast.

“What was it like, to be raised in a fishing village?” Talei asked. “Hunts must have been fish.”

“Mainly,” Lulu agreed. “Not always though. Mazundu sits near an offshoot of Koembca to the south. It’s a good place for spearfishing. Not as good as Mirtuli, but Mirtuli is perhaps the most plentiful fishing spots of anywhere.”

“You mentioned you were raised with the spear.” Talei took off her shoes.

Lulu nodded. “Exactly. Had the staff until I was given my first spearhead. Before I did spearwork, I helped fishing with nets. We caught quite a few off the river like that. Yet we can only do that during certain times of the year. When the water is high in the cold season, the fish manage to avoid the nets completely, so it is easier to take a boat offshore and catch them that way.”

“The ocean provides.”

Those were the words her parents instilled in her as a child. Lulu grinned at Lebna’s repetition of it. “Precisely.”

“That much access to water must be nice,” Talei said. “Not having to wait for the

rains during the hot season...”

Lulu shook her head. “It’s not as simple as that. You can’t drink seawater.”

Talei’s eyes widened. “What?”

“The water there is different than the water of the river,” Adanech told her. “One wouldn’t water plants with it either. It adds thirst instead of taking it away. People have gone mad from that.”

“It’s so strange think about how much water isn’t safe,” Lebna said, “but I was warned often of it when I was young. It is like how you check any standing water. You can’t always trust it.”

“But... so much water that is bad?” Talei looked confounded.

Yahim snorted. “I can’t believe you didn’t already know that. No one told you?”

Talei didn’t bother to respond, or show Yahim she had heard him. In her amazement, she stared eastward as though she might see the ocean from here.

“There is much to learn in the world,” Lebna said. “What is obvious to one isn’t always to another.”

“Still!” Yahim looked bewildered himself. “I lived in the Basin most of my life and even I heard about the sea and the madness that could overtake one.”

“What’s the best stance and way to hold a spear?” Hasani asked. He sat next to his spear-brother Bashiri with his spear in hand as he tended to it, the two of them ing the same stone back and forth to each other to use on their spearheads. “That is something the rest of us think constantly and find certain answers to be matter of fact. Is that something you can say?”

Yahim glanced over at him and then laughed. “I concede your point. I suppose there are subjects one assumes everyone should know, whether they directly experience it or not, but at the same time that is not always the truth.” And, despite his words, Yahim shifted his feet and bent his arms, as though he was holding a spear.

It wasn’t perfect, but more than Lulu expected. He had observed more than any of them thought he had about the spear.

Bashiri whistled. “Picking one up in your spare time?”

“Not in the slightest, I know where my strengths lie.”

“One’s strength lies where they put in the practice,” Adanech replied, but her words were subdued enough not to cut into the rest of the conversation.

“How closely have you been watching our practice?” Lulu asked him. “Or

should I ask how closely have you watched the Lel’ult? Keeping an eye on her seems more your prerogative. Learning spear stances seems more of a side effect.”

Yahim shrugged a shoulder. “Close enough to know that much, no more.”

Talei scowled at him, but only pulled her feet in closer to herself and said nothing.

“Though I’m not certain that is equitable,” Yahim went on. “Something that confronts us all, something in many tales, known of even if one doesn’t live by it... Both important, but both separate.”

Lulu caught Lebna giving Hasani a gesture, though she missed what it was. It must of had something to do with Bashiri putting his spear in Yahim’s hand to see his real stance. The Yigdu man kept trying to decline. Lulu sat down with Talei and Adanech.

“Ruffled your feathers, my Lel’ult?” Lulu asked her.

Talei let out a thin stream of air from between her teeth. “It shouldn’t bother me.”

“That he knows some about the spear, despite not ever wielding it?”

Talei chewed on her tongue for a moment before shaking her head vigorously. “No. That he pays such attention, but doesn’t care to learn.”

Lulu frowned. That didn’t seem like a reason to be annoyed. She met eyes with Adanech.

“It is good to know how someone else wields their weapon, even if you aren’t a master of it yourself,” Adanech said. “We’ve done the same up against other weapons ourselves.”

“I... I know that.” Talei didn’t sound satisfied.

Lulu put a hand on Talei’s shoulder.“It sounds more like you should be angry about his teasing.”

“He wasn’t teasing. He was honestly flabbergasted. And I don’t really care about that part. I do care that he seems so... flippant about the spear.”

That’s not how Lulu saw it at all, but Adanech gave her another look and Lulu decided she should drop it. For now, anyway. Whatever was between two of them would have to be worked out. On their own, she supposed. That was how the rest of them did, anyway.

Marula trees were not common. Lulu had heard a long time ago that they came from over the mountains to the west... or at least that was where the trees were most plentiful. Yet there was a patch of them right before the coast. Talei had

only had the fruit as a jam Mazundu’s Sayer had brought with her when accepting the girl as the Lel’ult. It had been a long time for Lulu as well.

“I can’t imagine why, it’s not... well...”

“Don’t like it, Lebna?” asked Adanech. They stopped in the shade of the trees, so no one complained as Lulu and Talei began to climb.

“Not so much. I Waseme making a drink of it once. Everyone else liked it, but I can’t say I agreed.”

“Some evil spirit must have overtaken you!” Hasani exclaimed. Bashiri smacked his shoulder. “That drink was amazing! The fruit though... less so without the proper preparation.”

“You are all crazy,” said Adanech. “Throw it down on their heads while you are up there!”

“Got it!” Lulu called back down with a laugh. She and Talei grinned as they reached the plentiful branches. “These are the good ones,” she pointed out to the Lel’ult.

Talei took one and immediately bit into it. “You’re crazy, Lebna!”

“Let’s not waste these by throwing them down on the others,” said Lulu. “You

wanted some, yes Adanech?”

“If you don’t bring some down for me, I’ll have to climb up after you.”

Both women in the tree laughed as they gathered more. “Adjoa?”

“I shall have one. Tinotende will have five.”

The others messed with each other, teasing, having a wonderful time while enjoying the breeze coming up from the coast. As Lulu gathered the fruit in her tunic, she pointed it out to Talei. “You can see where the river splits right there, yes? It goes straight south before spreading out into the sea. That’s where I am from.”

“Somehow that doesn’t seem all that far away at all!”

“In comparison to the mountains? Definitely not. The terrain is much easier and there are less dangers here. Though you can tell from the tree... this is where we will see some elephants, if they are in the area.”

Talei’s eyes went wide as she looked down at the tree. Lulu gestured for Talei to follow her down, pointing out the marks in the wood from larger yet careful beasts. “They like the fruit as well! Not the only ones. Proves that we have good taste and that Lebna and Hasani are crazy.”

When they climbed down and ed out the fruit to everyone who wanted them, Adanech eyed them over. “How did you both turn into such a mess?”

“Carrying down a bunch of fruit doesn’t come for free!” Talei said, just noticing how they had come away with a bit more tree and fruit than initially intended. Lulu didn’t mind at all.

“We’ll bathe tonight,” Lulu shrugged. “Worth it.”

She handed another to Adanech, who took and bit into it. “It is indeed.”

“As long as you all don’t attract the baboons, thinking you are giant fruits,” said Yahim. He barely caught the one Talei threw at him.

“Tried one before?” she asked.

“How could I? Not in the Basin. Apparently not in many places in your land either.”

Talei rolled her eyes, but as Yahim took a bite and looked rather surprised, Lulu decided the little stop was a success. Even if they had to clean off themselves and their clothes. It was good weather for it.

When they stopped in the evening, Adanech accompanied Lulu and Talei to the river. Koembca had enough calm offshoots so they need not worry about the

current. Lulu set her tunic to soak and then submerged herself in the water.

It didn’t take Lulu long to acclimatize to the temperature, rubbing the sticky juices from her skin. Surfacing long enough for a deep breath, Lulu dove down again. It felt wonderful. She moved away from the shore, less and less floating around her. Fish decided to leave them alone, but an occasional piece of something drifted by from upstream.

Lulu grabbed up at a piece of driftwood she had seen before descending. Likely signs of someone much further upstream, but not a problem right now.

The thought struck her and she couldn’t help herself. She let the water pull her in toward Talei, then pulled her Lel’ult down.

Talei struggled for a moment, but Lulu surfaced with her while laughing. The young woman spluttered and looked at her, surprised.

“What was that?”

Adanech laughed, sitting down at the edge. “Another training experience, it seems!”

Talei spluttered more and Lulu pulled her hair out of her face, smiling into Talei’s face. “I’m sorry, my Lel’ult, I couldn’t help myself.”

“What... what was that?” Talei still struggled to catch her breath.

“When I was younger, I’d do that all the time. Bigger pieces of wood though.”

“When you told me to keep an eye out for enemies in the water...” Talei shook her head. Lulu gave her a squeeze. She held on, only letting go when Talei’s pulse returned to normal.

Adanech placed her feet into the water and started to scrub at their clothing.

“The others are close enough, come on in and us,” said Talei. “It’s deliciously cold after the rest of the day.”

“I can tell,” Adanech said, nodding at her feet. Nevertheless, it didn’t long for her to take Talei up on the offer. Lulu didn’t miss how Adanech scanned their environment. Despite the others nearby, despite Adjoa or Lebna looking down over them. Adanech still had to confirm for herself no one could hide nearby, or there being a place to ambush from on the other bank. Finally Adanech satisfied herself, determining their spears close enough, and began to disrobe.

Lulu couldn’t help but compare the two. She started on Talei, who she had to ire putting on so much muscle over the years. It was one thing to think about it with her, considering when she had first met Talei she was still a child. It meant so much of the transformation had happened in front of her eyes. She could only imagine how it was for Adanech.

Adanech looked as gorgeous as ever, even with the blue scars which covered her entire body. Unlike Lulu and Talei, her body didn’t react the same way to the cold. Adanech said once nothing had felt the same as it did before she’d been scarred. Lulu knew she had some scars where feeling was more vacant than it was for the rest of her skin. To think so much of Adanech’s body couldn’t have the same feeling almost more than Lulu could bear. She could only hope it wasn’t nearly as bad as Adanech’s words had suggested.

“Lulu?”

“Yes, my Lel’ult?”

Talei wrung her hair out, looking thoughtful. “Why did you leave Mazundu? You speak of it so fondly.”

“Why did I leave?” It should have been a big one, something no one would forget. But there were so many little things. Lulu had a hard time recalling if there was a single grain of sand bigger than the others. “Daudi and I decided it was time is all. We wanted to do more with the spear than we could do there. We could perfect our fishing techniques, but there was more to it than that. Daudi and I wanted more. We were told to go to Hirka, where the best spears always went, because there we could hone our skill and become... well, better.”

That word was so entwined with Reem that Lulu could almost see her in her mind’s eye when she said it. Adanech smiled, which took the pressure Lulu didn’t even realize she had off her chest.

“I don’t think I’ve ever asked you much about Daudi.” After Talei said it, she

paused and smiled apologetically at Lulu. “Maybe because I didn’t know if it would be all right for me to do so. Or maybe because I didn’t know if it would make Lebna feel awkward.”

“I don’t think it would make him feel awkward,” said Lulu. “It better not. I talk to him about Daudi on occasion. And you can ask me about anything, my Lel’ult. Not because you are my Lel’ult, but because that’s perfectly all right by me either way.”

Lulu could speak all day about what someone did, but when thinking about how someone was? A different matter entirely. She gave herself time to consider her words by first picking through her teeth, making sure they were clean.

“Daudi was a boy in a man’s body, really,” she finally said. “Overly serious. When he was a boy, he always tried to act like a man. As a man, he often tried to act like an elder. It was like he was never satisfied with the level of experience he was at. It was rather silly. But... he always did his best. And if he couldn’t do something, he wouldn’t ask for someone else to do more. He would try to do it by himself anyway. I always had to balance that out.”

At Talei’s expression, Lulu laughed out loud before the other woman could ask more.

“What’s that for?” asked Adanech.

Lulu undid her hair. Her head felt heavy already, with the water creeping up into her locs. “Incredulous that I was the responsible one? Lebna certainly gives that impression more than I.”

“I wouldn’t say you aren’t responsible, not in the slightest,” Talei exclaimed.

“Levelheaded though.” Lulu’s smile kept up, because no matter what Talei thought about this she wouldn’t be offended. She couldn’t. Lulu knew who and what she was and she was at peace with it. “People often assumed that of Daudi too. I think a lot of people associate seriousness with levelheadedness.”

“I know I thought that,” Adanech itted. “At first. A level head goes a long way in impression. People assume a serious demeanor means one is thinking everything through.”

Adanech was more serious now than she used to be. Because Reem is gone, but even then Reem was the more upbeat one.Yet unlike with any of Lulu’s relationships, Adanech had obviously followed Reem’s lead. Despite being the more serious of the pair. There was something with how Reem exuded her energy in a softer way which gave her confidence loudly without being as brash as others might.

Though it had been brash in certain ways, Lulu had to it. Yet Reem didn’t remain in mind this time.

“I miss him,” Lulu said instead. “I miss him a lot. I know he does well as an ancestor. I appreciate all he did in life, and what he must be doing now. Being an ancestor definitely suits him.”

Adanech nodded. “I do too. I dream sometimes about your ambushes, you know.

Every way that you and he tried to get the drop on us.”

“And how Adanech came up with the idea for you and Lebna to train me by doing the same,” said Talei, looking a little tired at her own words. “In the middle of the night. Inconsistently.”

“If it’s always at the same time, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” said Lulu.

“I know!”

Lulu tousled Talei’s hair. The Lel’ult laughed and went back to cleaning out the dirt and juice from under her fingernails.

“I see a lot of how I used to be in Daudi, nowadays,” Adanech itted to her. “I also wanted to appear like I had more experience than I actually had. Because Reem was always a few steps ahead of me, no matter how hard I tried. I thought acting a bit differently might help bridge that gap. You think Daudi might have done the same? Be on even footing with you?”

Lulu’s lips parted. Some of her mind stuck on being unable to recall the last time she had heard Adanech willingly speak of Reem without someone else prompting her. Yet the way Talei spoke of the ambushes, it sounded as though Adanech had spoken of her to their Lel’ult.

Knowing that was such a relief. Lulu took a moment to splash some water in her face so she wouldn’t cry. It wouldn’t do, she couldn’t embarrass Adanech.

“Maybe. I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t think I was ahead of him. He had certain techniques he was better at, some I was... Let alone he was always a fair bit stronger than me.”

“Those ahead don’t often realize how far ahead they are of others, whether it is only by a bit or a great deal more.”

“I know what you’re trying to say, Adanech,” Talei said as she wrung out her hair.

“My Lel’ult, if you put down your own spearwork at this time... we will all be insulted,” said Lulu.

They finished scrubbing at their soaking clothes, then left the water to shrug on other clean hides. They wrung out their freshly cleaned hides so they wouldn’t put out the fire when hung over it. Lulu hadn’t felt so refreshed in a while and she knew it didn’t have much to do with the actual wash. They needed to have conversations like this more often, she decided.

It was nice to know Talei wasn’t the only one Adanech would open up to now.

Surayday was the first coastal village they entered. It was a quaint enough place, smaller than Mazundu. It would be absolutely dwarfed by Mirtuli. There was little to look at - little like might hide secrets about the human handed beasts. The coast here was smooth, only to get rocky and cavernous the further north they went. Talei spoke with the Sayer while the rest of them chatted up the locals. They found nothing related to their search through the interaction, but that was not the only reason for their stop.

The people here were pleased to see the Lel’ult, though at first were tentative. They didn’t look familiar with Yigdu, let alone with how the Lel’ult’s spears had marked themselves to show their loyalty. Because of this, Talei had them stay a few days rather than moving up to Mirtuli as soon as possible. Familiarize people with the sight and they could move on to learning about what was more important than blue markings.

Lebna and Lulu had a bow and arrow competition with a couple locals. They won, simply because Lebna could slaughter just about anything from any distance. Lulu hadn’t done badly, but she could have completely failed and Lebna still would have pulled them through. This won them small candies made by their competitors. Lulu had never tasted them before.

“They’re bitter,” she said to Lebna, “but I don’t want to take it out of my mouth.”

“The Lel’ult must try one of these,” Lebna agreed.

“Be careful, they melt easily,” said one of the women.

After the small detour from their true purpose, they said goodbyes to Surayday. Talei kept looking out to sea. Lulu mentioned how it could be difficult to make good progress on sand, then their conversation turned to how different the sand of the desert was from the sand of the beach. There was a lot to say about it. It started an argument between Yahim and Hasani on the subject. Lulu missed exactly what about and what stance each took.

“Never mind that,” Lulu said, taking Talei aside from the conversation. “In a little bit, you’ll be able to see Mirtuli.”

Talei brightened and stared off where Lulu gestured. Lebna chuckled. “That’s larger than I expected.”

“You can’t tell me that you can make that out from this distance,” Adanech said, completely surprised.

“If you don’t think that his eyesight is improving by the year, Adanech, I will eat all my hair.”

“Don’t eat your hair Lulu, it would take too long for you to grow back!”

Talei laughed at their exchange. “I’m jealous, Lebna. I get so excited to see these new places, yet you always see them first!”

“I would apologize, my Lel’ult, but I’ve never seen Mirtuli either. I can’t say I’m not excited.”

“We’ll all be there soon enough and it won’t matter who saw it first!” Lulu declared.

Lulu didn’t know if Mirtuli was bigger or smaller than she ed. There were so many huts, made and baked in clay, coloured in warmer colours but for

the beads strung up around the tops and between close buildings. Colours of the Lel’ult and the Emperor. Colours of the Yigdu.

ThatLulu knew hadn’t been there before. She was thrilled.

Many boats lie on the beach, down in the shallows of the rock. Some of the beach was still a smooth slope, but a good deal of it had rough cliffs overlooking those sands with thin trees packed tightly together, clumped up in many places. It did not hide Mirtuli from where they approached, but surrounded it to the north and some to the west. Some thinner lines of foliage trailed down in their direction.

It was a busy place, with both such plant life and with the people. Their party had been noticed and garnered the curiosity of the town, despite how it reached their midday meal. The people waiting to greet them looked ecstatic.

Then Lulu realized it was a mix of Yigdu and of the Emperor’s people. Not just both groups of people, but everyone mingled together.

“Adanech,” Talei whispered to her spear-sister. Adanech only nodded.

Lulu glanced at the rest of her party to see their reactions. She was happy to see not only was everyone appropriately impressed, but Yahim almost looked overly emotional. For someone so proudly Yigdu and abstaining from ever becoming one of the Lel’ult’s people, the mixture of the two and the allowance for them all to be? He desired it as much as any of them.

As one, the crowd spoke.“Welcome!”

Talei didhave tears in her eyes. And for the first time in what Lulu felt like was forever, there was no hesitation here. No one stood off to the side, in the background, looking suspicious. Everyone here was looking at their Lel’ult with absolute cheer.

Someplace where they were all welcome.

Talei and Adanech spoke with Mirtuli’s Sayer. Neither Lulu or Lebna wanted to stray too far away from the Sayer’s hut, but while many returned to work, enough of Mirtuli were happy to let Lulu and Lebna them, to speak while they all ate.

“I hadn’t heard much news from here,” Lebna itted, “so I didn’t know that things had turned out like this. How long has everyone been integrated?”

“The last couple years,” said one of the Yigdu, handing Lulu a drink. “There is always plenty to go around in Mirtuli. And everyone who lived here before was always happy to let us know it.”

“It took a while for everyone to come around,” itted another, unmarked by blue, “but when some Yigdu actually stopped by and didn’t keep their distance, it became much easier for us all to realize our foolishness. Our Sayer told us as much, but it is one thing to trust and another to believe. And trust as hard as we might, it is another thing to take it on faith and another to see something with your eyes.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Lulu agreed, raising her bowl up before sipping at it. It was rather fruity and she loved it. Not as good as the fruit of the marula, but that was hardly a fair comparison.

“We built our homes up there.” Another Yigdu gestured up north. Lulu could tell there was a gap between there and the rest of Mirtuli, but not a large one. It had probably started a bit bigger and was filling in over time. “And the more and more of us who show up, we all learn something.”

“Like how to fish?”

The group roared with laughter, something that dragged Lulu and Lebna’s mirth out too even though they didn’t know what was so funny about it. The goodwill here was so catching, so much like Hirka. Yet even Hirka wasn’t this integrated. They had the Yigdu who came from the north, of course, and now they had Zauditu living there, but other Yigdu living amongst them? Not yet, for whatever reason.

(Not whateverreason. Lulu was fairly certain she knew why. While it wasn’t nearly as many people as it used to be, there were quite a few who still wanted Talei out of the picture and other Yigdu wouldn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.)

Things weren’t perfect, Lulu wouldn’t claim that - especially not with the first impression - but it was doing well. Great, even.

Better.

Lebna and Lulu ate and chatted with Mirtuli. Eventually, Lebna prodded her shoulder. Talei and Adanech must have finished talking with Mirtuli’s Sayer. They made their excuses and returned to their Lel’ult.

The instant Talei had left the hut she stumbled into another conversation, though this time it was with a single Yigdu man. His blue markings were rampant on the left side of his body and much sparser on his right. Yet again, a unique pattern, the likes of which Lulu hadn’t seen before. That was the case every time she met a new Yigdu. She had gotten much better at differentiating those patterns.

“I’m glad to have finally made it here,” Talei was saying as the two of them approached. “And would love to hear anything it is that you have to say. I know we just arrived, but if you would like to speak with me now, I definitely don’t mind at all.”

“It’s not something I want to interrupt with,” the man said, glancing over at Lulu and Lebna before returning his attention solely on Talei. “I wanted to thank you again for-”

He looked back and Lulu couldn’t miss as his eyes stuck straight on her.

“Negasi?” Talei asked.

“Murderer.”

His words weren’t exclaimed. They were quiet, slipping out through his lips without him even realizing. Lulu stared back at him

It wasn’t something to take lightly, but Lulu had nothing to be defensive about. “Pardon? Have we met before?” She thought she would have ed a Yigdu with his markings, though she hadn’t always been as observant...

Negasi took a step back, eyes shifting back to the Lel’ult. “Lel’ult Talei, I...”

Talei’s eyes had widened considerably, but with a slight nudge from Adanech she had managed to calm her expression again. “Negasi, what did you say?”

Amber eyes fell earthward for a moment before they landed on Lulu’s visage once more. She could feel the rage in them. It served only to confuse her. His words did the same. “I could never forget those beads. I them so well. You were in Masozi’s party. You killed my family.”

In Masozi’s party.

Lulu had been a part of that. She couldn’t deny it. She had rounded up many Yigdu on her Lel’ult’s orders. The woman who had been the Lel’ult, before it was discovered she had killed the Lel’ul. Nothing to do with the Yigdu.

Before Lebna had slit her throat, saving Adanech and getting revenge for Reem and Daudi and all who had died because of her senseless rampage.

“Lulu did no such thing,” Lebna said. His shoulders had pulled back, but his hands were open at his sides. There was no point in getting aggressive.

“I it well. I was preparing for my coming of age trial when you caught up with us. Tell me truthfully you did not take part in... take part in that Cleansing.”

Lebna’s mouth stayed as shut as Lulu’s. Neither of them could deny it and they wouldn’t try to hide it either. What would it help if they did?

Talei stepped between them. “The Cleansing was a horrific event.”

She glanced at Lulu and Lebna, before fixing her gaze on Negasi. Adanech did not move, did not crowd the situation. Lulu knew Lebna wanted to take a step back, but didn’t. They let their Lel’ult take charge.

“It’s effects remain, as they will always. But no one who stands with me wants to destroy the Yigdu. The one at fault for those actions, for all our losses, was the last Lel’ult. Masozi has already had her punishment. We have all learnt much since then.”

Pulling Masozi off Azzah. Grabbing her spear from her hand. All their hands on one person. No matter how good a spearwoman Masozi was, she was unprepared for her entire party to ambush her, to stop her.

Lebna’s knife across her throat.

“Anyone who continues to commit such actions similar to the Cleansing are still at fault as well,” Talei went on. “But my spears are not those people.”

“But they were those people.”

“I hardly think anyone can claim a spotless past.”

Lulu didn’t know how the Lel’ult could say that, when she was certain Talei didn’t have any crime in her past at all.

Negasi wasn’t angry or hurt. He looked more bewildered than anything. “My Lel’ult. Is that good enough? Can someone forgive another for such terrible actions, just because they don’t do them again? Because they saythey won’t do so again?”

Lulu felt her breath hitch.

“I believe in them,” said Talei. “They’ve had plenty of time. If they were going to betray me, it wouldn’t be now. It wouldn’t have been ten seasons ago. It would have been earlier than that. There would be no point in waiting until now.”

“If I may.” Adanech’s voice cut through the tension like her spear. The one

which didn’t have a cover on the spearhead, unlike everyone else’s. “No one is a single thing. We all change.” Adanech looked down on Negasi, voice calm. “No one could serve the Lel’ult if they thought ill of her or of the Yigdu, no matter what happened before. You see how we mark ourselves now.”

She traced a finger down the inside of her right wrist. Lulu wondered how much she felt it.

“Once, I was disgusted by these marks. I was raised that way. I didn’t know any better and it was still no excuse for my actions. No, I did not take part in the Cleansing, though I would have thought I’d had every reason to when I believed Yigdu were at fault for the deaths of my friends. My family. But Talei saved me from that path. Taught me better. And now we protect her, so she can nurture an environment where people will always know better. So there is no excuse for notknowing better.”

Negasi looked away from her. Not intimidated or contrite, but needing a moment. Lulu noticed how quiet it had become, but she didn’t know if everyone had overheard the reason for this confrontation or not. She didn’t feel anyone’s glare, as if they wanted her gone, but she didn’t know. Had she missed it, because she was too busy watching the scene unfold in front of her?

In front, not with. She was an outsider in the conversation.

“That’s not good enough,” he said.

Lulu pushed past whatever had blocked her before. “I know my words-”

“Aren’t good enough?” Negasi interrupted her. If he had spoken angrily, or shouted, she might have continued. But the calm of his tone shut her up. He didn’t look at her, he looked back at Talei. “I’m sorry for bringing down the mood, my Lel’ult. But please. My word may be that of a stranger, but it comes from the most sincere place I have. Keep your eye open on any who have spilled the blood of Yigdu before. That’s not something that can be undone. How many of us are likely not even ancestors.”

He pressed a hand against his chest before turning and leaving. With him, he took Lulu’s peace of mind.

Mirtuli

Talei took in a deep breath and it came out ragged. When Lulu made herself look, she saw the Lel’ult was angry. She had stayed calm enough while outside, as the rest of the town around them returned to life. People who asked if everything was all right, some who tried to apologize for Negasi. The Sayer had then arrived and brought them to the hut prepared for the Lel’ult.

The Lel’ult stayed quiet until finally settling down inside. Lulu had wondered if she and Lebna should go, but when she met Adanech’s eyes, she realized if she tried Adanech would hunt her down.

“Stay calm, Talei. The people outside will hear you if you are too loud.”

Talei brought her hands up to her face, pressing her palms against her temples. “I know.”

“On the bright side, you have finally reached the point in life where I can tell you to be quiet, as opposed to speak up.”

Adanech’s words made Talei chuckle, before she slid her hands down against her eyelids. All four of them fell quiet.

“Did we kill anyone?” Lebna asked.

Lebna, who had never carried a spear before the Cleansing. Learnt it solely for that purpose. Lulu wondered if that should have happened. “We gathered them

up. That was what we were supposed to do. Only those who attacked us were to be retaliated. Those with blood on them.”

That wasn’t good enough. Lulu knew it, Lebna knew it. People retaliated because they had done nothing wrong. Because even those who were only caught would eventually be put to death. They were not innocent. They had known what Masozi would order done to the captives. Since the first time she had done it, they had known.

“Times have changed,” Adanech spoke up again, staring them down. “And so have you. Not a single person here is the same as we were in those days. We are better than that.”

Lulu sighed, leaning back against the wall. She could hear the town outside, still murmuring away. Had they returned back to their day? What had they heard? Did they think upon those times now?

She had never cared so much about what others thought. “I never thought about it.”

“Thought about?” Talei prompted.

Lulu’s lips tightened. “About those who survived. I mean, I thought about that. Just not those who were... who were so close, yet survived. That they would still be here. I never thought about what my actions meant beyond those I’d been at fault for... for destroying. I’ve spent my life since atoning for that, for what I know is wrong, in ways that I know would serve the ancestors better. Prove to them my change. But someone who has not only seen my actions, but was

wronged by them and still alive? It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, I said the wrong thing. Yet it’s different now. Seeing him. I didn’t recognize him. I was there at perhaps the worst moment of his life and I don’t even recognize him.”

Adanech wasn’t looking at her anymore. Lulu didn’t take it personally. She could see the similar thoughts running through her head. The three of them had been wrong. They had since learned, but for everything they had done before then? What would be enough to make up for such a thing? Could anything?

“I have to make it up to him.”

Adanech looked back at her. “Lulu... I wouldn’t. Because how. You shouldn’t...”

Her words failed her. Lulu smiled reassuringly. “Not blood for blood. I don’t want to do that. I’m not sure that would be enough either. There has to be something else.” Though for the life of her she wasn’t sure what that would be. How could she let Negasi know how much she knew she was wrong? How could she make it up, having been part of something which took so much away from him? From so many?

“I don’t think there is anything we can do to earn his forgiveness,” said Lebna. “We must move on and make better what we can.”

Lulu also knew this. Make up for taking away someone’s family? Someone’s peace? No. There was no way.

But she had to try.

Focusing on the task at hand was difficult, but Lulu managed without showing too much of her internal conflict on her face. No one had heard exactly what Negasi’s outburst was about, Lulu was certain. No matter how nice or accepting people would try to be after that revelation, it would be impossible for everyone to treat her as though nothing happened. Absolutely impossible.

It was strange Negasi hadn’t told everyone to drive them away. Then again, if he was truly so concerned for the Lel’ult, he wouldn’t want to be up in arms against her. It was just her, her and Lebna. Those who had participated in the Cleansing. Hasani. Bashiri. Tinotende.

Too many of them.

Talei needed them to focus. They had to find someone who had seen a creature with human hands. Or maybe had come across an ancient depiction of one. Lulu threw herself headlong into it. It was easier when establishing no one had overheard. No one else judged her. Despite her being a spear of the Lel’ult, a spear of the Lel’ul before her. As if people wouldn’t be able to make the connection.

Conversation flowed, but the only beast the people knew of was the Jackal. Surprisingly enough, she heard that from everyone, not only the Yigdu. The Yigdu had long since told the Mirtuli natives their stories about the Jackal, whether they had ever been north or no, directing Lulu and Lebna back to the Yigdu when asking for further information.

Lebna was quiet. Lulu occasionally bumped his shoulder with hers. She couldn’t make him feel better about what had happened, she could only be her. ive. They had done the same wrong thing. They would do better than it.

“Another creature like the Jackal?” The Yigdu woman they spoke to had her own spear at her back. It was much longer than Lulu or Lebna’s, more like Adanech’s, but for spearfishing. Lulu didn’t enough to know if that was specifically for fishing from the beach or if someone would fish by boat like that. The woman struck in a way that told Lulu much about her spear, even before she visibly saw that her spear was as taller as her as Talei’s was. She was probably close to the same age as well. “I can’t imagine. From what I hear, he’s the only one of his kind.”

“Never thought about why a jackal would turn out like that and not another beast?” Lulu asked. “Especially one in a swamp. I know lands beyond the Arch are strange and those I’ve spoken with about anything else don’t even know anything other than the Basin.”

The fisherwoman shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I’ve never been. I heard lots of tales about the place from my pops, but even he only heard stories about it from his older brother.”

“You’ve always lived down here then?”

“Nah. I lived up north, but closer to the coast than to the Arch. Could always see it. Always wondered what it would be like close to it. Then I did, a few years ago. It was fascinating. Didn’t go through to the Basin though. It’s almost all swampland, right? I wasn’t interested in that. Unless you tell me they have swamp fish. That I might want to see.”

The answers they had gotten were in that vein. At least the more they spoke the more Lebna came out of his low mood. The spear-siblings looked at each other and shrugged it off. Yet another conversation which, while interesting, didn’t get them any new information. Surely someone in Mirtuli had to know something, this was the heart of activity on the coast.

They took some drinks and sat down with Yahim under the shade between a few of the huts. “Having fun?” Lulu asked him, pushing her hair back from over her shoulder.

“Yes, actually. Though I wish luck had shone upon us to give someone here something useful to tell us about those beasts. I take it you haven’t had any luck.”

“The moment anyone does, we will all be there,” Lulu replied.

“People here are so open to the different things. It reminds me how all Badjeba did everything they could to bring in Yigdu culture into their union ceremony for Zauditu. At the same time, it is easy for someone to make a grand gesture like that if it is a one time thing. The little things that make up every day? That is almost meaningful, in my eyes, if as worthwhile.”

It was a struggle for Lebna to keep his voice calm. Lulu wanted to laugh. In that way, he was a bit like Daudi too. There were some people, young yet of age, who wanted to act as though they had been an adult for longer than they really had.

“It’s a connection, to be sure,” Lebna agreed.

Yahim grinned at him. “That’s the exact word I was looking for, Lebna. Everyone here has connected. This is the first place that has truly felt like it. Badjeba let one person in. Mirtuli has let them all.”

“Now if only we could also get our answers here, this place would be the best,” said Lulu. “Still. I’ll be always partial to Hirka.”

“Will you miss it when you have to live at the Emperor’s Lake?” Yahim sounded almost concerned, but she could see the curiosity on his face.

“A bit,” Lulu itted, glancing at Lebna. “You?”

“I will. Some of the best years of my life have been there. But there will be more at the Lake.”

Yahim considered the both of them. “There must be something inherent in a spear of the Lel’ult that requires one to be less connected with the ground they step on than the concept it enfolds.”

“You say that as though you haven’t once faltered out here,” Lulu said. “Even if you miss the Basin, you have never gone back. You have wandered with us for quite a while.”

“It is part of a greater purpose,” Yahim began, stopping as Talei and Adanech approached them. Adanech held a couple bowls of her own, handing one to Talei as she plopped down between Lulu and Lebna. They made room for her without thinking.

“Nothing more than the Jackal, hm?” Lulu asked. Their expressions confirmed her suspicions before either said anything.

“I suppose if anyone had heard of the Eagle or the Leopard before, perhaps we would have too and wouldn’t have been so surprised,” said Talei, “but that doesn’t seem right. How could the Jackal be the only known one?”

“People live in the Basin, but not in the desert,” Lulu provided.

“Why is that? Why didn’t people learn to deal with the desert like others did the Basin?”

“Desert is nothing like the swamp,” Yahim retorted, rolling his eyes. “You can’t make the comparison!”

Lulu had almost said something similar, but with much less nonchalance. Talei looked at Yahim for a moment before taking a drink.

“Or there are people living further in the desert that we don’t know about,” Lebna suggested. “We didn’t know people lived beyond the Arch for some time. No one had been up that way. At least, not that we knew about. No one who

publicly returned.”

“And there have been tales of the people who lived beyond the mountain, before the war,” Adanech said. “But when was the last time someone actually crossed the mountains? Those who live there won’t approach it.”

“It’s almost like they are your gatekeepers, not other people’s,” Yahim said.

Lulu wondered what it might mean. If someone wished to keep them in here. But that wasn’t true. The Leopard only wanted to keep the Yigdu from going south.

“Perhaps it would have been similar, if it had been the Yigdu in charge here rather than the rest of us,” said Lulu, “but we were here and our forebears treated them badly. Yigdu might have come from beyond the Arch, but we might have come from the desert. We simply do much better here than in the desert and no one pushed us back.”

“That’s a very interesting thought,” said Adanech.

“I like it,” said Talei, “but until we find more, we can only assume.”

“Once you find more, you’ll do more assuming,” said Yahim. “There is no way to find out enough to do more than assume.”

Adanech obviously wanted Talei to tell her to whack Yahim upside the head.

Lulu could see it in the way the right corner of her mouth pulled down for a moment and her eyes went between the two Yigdu. As Talei didn’t say anything, Adanech refrained from rolling her eyes and caught Lulu’s gaze at the last moment.

Lulu lowered her gaze, trying not to smile.

“With more known, we’ll have less ground to cover with our assumptions,” said Lebna. “It would be obvious if someone had seen a beast that shouldn’t have hands like ours. Especially if the creature is anywhere as big as the other three have been.”

“Should we bring up the Leopard or the Eagle as examples?” Lulu asked. “We haven’t yet, because we didn’t want to steer the conversation away.”

“Perhaps we should,” said Talei, “to see if it prompts a memory that might have slipped from their mind.”

Yahim put his hand up to interject, though didn’t speak until Talei had finished her thought. “I do not think that would be wise.”

Talei tried not to frown, but much like Adanech that corner of her mouth twitched downward. Lulu wished she could comment on it, but she kept it to herself. Yahim was being polite this time. “Why not?”

“Because you are looking for such a beast that might be here.” He pounded his

hand into his knee for emphasis. “Telling them about these beasts, one of which indiscriminately attacked you all? Suggesting that another is nearby? Perhaps everything is fine here, but some people aren’t going to take it as well. Even the Jackal, now well known to more than just the Yigdu, would cause people here to panic if they thought he was near. You have seen them all attack someone.”

“That might be true, but if there is a creature like that nearby then they would need to know. If we dredge some information out from somewhere and the beast turns up... shouldn’t they know?”

“I think so,” said Lulu.

“I beg to differ,” said Yahim, giving her an apologetic smile. “Worrying everyone for potentially nothing?”

Talei looked between them both and Lulu knew she would take her side on it, which was when Lebna spoke.

“Not yet then, my Lel’ult?” suggested Lebna. “We still have more people to ask, before we decide on mentioning that we are talking about this particular area, or mentioning the Leopard or Eagle.”

“Good sense,” Yahim said to Lebna.

In any other situation, that would seem fine. Or even an unintentional slight toward Lulu. But Talei pursed her lips and the two of them could have been

children.

Lulu looked at Adanech, who tapped a finger against the leather of her spear. Could clock him, out with a single swing, her body language said.

Once more, Lulu covered her laughter.

Lulu was good at talking with people. She could get into any conversation and turn it to what she needed it to be over time. The more casual the better. Not bringing up anything and just seeing if anyone had thought of more creatures like the Jackal was easy enough, but then she could make something else out of the dialogue. It only took Lulu wanting to.

It had been a long time since she had hung out fishers. It was comforting, but also reminded her Lebna was not Daudi. Still, she was glad he stood with her.

“There is a really good spot up the coast. Off the cape.” It was the same Yigdu woman who had spoken before. Lulu believed her name was Shauntia, from what others had said around her, but that could have been one of the other women’s names and she had picked the wrong one. She cared for her spear, as did the other fishers with her. The way they tended to things was the same as any other spear, but with more fish to clean off than the blood of other creatures. “During the high tide you can thrust down without even looking and usually hit something.”

“I heard that Mirtuli was the provider of the coast, but it is another thing to see it,” said Lebna. He smiled at Lulu. “It’s hard to think why anyone out here would live anywhere else.”

“I’ll let you know that Mazundu is wonderful,” Lulu said, pretending to be offended, but unable to keep the smile from her face, “it not being as easy a provider doesn’t mean anything.”

“I prefer the patch to the south of the land bridge,” another said. “As long as you don’t go too far, it’s all right to hit with the boat.”

“I swear, you are going to end up losing your boat one of these days.”

“I saw Negasi with a similar spear, does he fish with you too?” Lulu asked.

It was natural. She could tell she startled Lebna, but no one else thought anything of it. “He definitely fishes, but not with us.”

Another Yigdu spoke up. “He’s still a loner, despite all this time.”

“All this time?” Lebna asked, hesitant, as though he didn’t want this conversation to move forward.

Shauntia spoke again. “He didn’t come here with any of the rest of us. He showed up here on his own.”

“He’s been rather hesitant to us,” said another. “Not that he doesn’t interact

or that he ignores us, but he is more solitary than we are, for sure.”

“He’s just being polite.” A Yigdu man laughed. “He doesn’t want to do anything with us.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Shauntia tilted her head to the side and Lulu was struck by how much she looked like Talei. She wondered if the two might be related, though it wasn’t her place to suggest it. “He is someone who prefers more time to himself. If he didn’t want anything to do with us he would have found a better way at avoiding us all. He could have built his home further up the coast, not stayed in Mirtuli.”

There was something none of them were saying. Lulu knew what it was. The trauma of the Cleansing had affected them all, of course, but obviously Negasi more than the others here. Keeping people at a distance, while still wanting to be with his people. Was it that?

Lebna didn’t want her to keep talking about it, but Lulu couldn’t help it. “How did he end up here?”

“Coming of age trial,” Shauntia said. “That’s all I know about it. It brought him here and he’s been here ever since. It suits him well.”

“He’s the best fisherman out of all of us,” said the other Yigdu woman.“He can pull in a catch as large as the three of us in the same amount of time.”

“I’m beginning to get envious of your coming of age trials,” said Lulu. “From everyone I have spoken to about theirs they have gotten something very important from it. I wonder how much I could have learnt about myself at the time had I done the same.”

“I don’t see why you people don’t,” said the Yigdu man. “I know you have your hunt, which is all well and fine, but the trial gives you so much more to work with when determining your future.”

“The hunt is more of a present thing than one to determine the future,” Shauntia said.

Lebna shook his head. “If you can’t take care of yourself in the present, then there can be no future for you.”

“But one would hopefully be able to hunt and fend for themselves during their journey for the trial, yes?” Lulu elbowed him. “Most of the time people go on their own. They would have to do many hunts.”

“A great many of our traditions don’t oppose each other, do they?” asked Shauntia.

All five agreed. Shauntia invited Lulu and Lebna to her the next time her group went fishing. Lulu convinced Lebna to agree. After that, they went to check on the Lel’ult and other spears.

“I don’t want to be harsh, Lulu, but did you have to ask?”

She frowned, though not for long. The instant anyone greeted her she had to do the same with a smile. She loved being a new person in town. “I’m sorry, Lebna, but I can’t drop it. I have to do something. I know I can’t push and I know I can’t really apologize, but... There has to be something. Everything we’ve done so far? It’s been to make up for following Masozi in the first place. But to make up for something so personal?”

“I don’t think one could make up for that.” Lebna rubbed at his forehead, brushing his fingers against the Eagle’s feather in his hair as his hand dropped back to his side. “We can only make up for following. And we have been. We follow the Lel’ult.”

“Of course.”

The way Masozi made up for what she had done was with her own sacrifice. Blood for blood. Lulu didn’t want to become an ancestor yet, but was her blood sacrifice the only way to make things up to Negasi? Masozi had been a terrible person. She had taken them up north and then all the way back south to Hirka, chasing Azzah and Talei. To kill Talei. To kill a child.

Lulu was a part of that. How many people had died because of her? How many children had been put to death because she had helped capture them?

She had known what she had been doing. She had known.

Lulu wished she could ask how she had been caught up in it all in the first place, but she knew the answer. The day Daudi and her Lel’ul, as well as many others, had died was never far from her mind.

Fishing

Lulu ran.

Spear in hand, her quarry in her sights. She heard the ululations of other warriors. There were so many.

Some Yigdu had weapons. Some waited out in the brush, attacked those who walked by. Whether they would have done so before the Lel’ul’s death or not, she didn’t know. She only knew they had killed indiscriminately, much like they looked to have had done in Hirka. Lulu captured them, but if that proved to be too much trouble... she ran them through, like the other spears. No more deaths from the Unclean.

Some of the Yigdu hid, only striking out when someone came close to their shelter. Only when those with weapons came by. Some only struck when they were noticed, others did so beforehand. Preemptive. Lulu dealt with them all in the same way. The way she had been ordered to. They might know something. They obviously kept watch for some reason. They were perhaps a distraction, or a scout. Take them down, take them in.

Some of the Yigdu ran. They had no weapons. They had no intent to hurt. Lulu ran them down and pinned them until someone brought more rope to bind them. Pull them up by the arms and take them back for their questioning.

Lulu deflected a blow aimed at her side, the Yigdu in front of her still running as another man stepped out to club her. It was only a branch. Worn down from use as a club, but still only a branch. Lulu knocked him down, tripping him with a foot as he dodged her spear. She pressed the length of it horizontally against his throat as he tried to push her off, branch on the ground.

An arrow went over her head. Rope dropped at her feet and Masozi helped her tie the Unclean up.

“You are very quick on your feet, Lulu.” Those green eyes looked at her with warmth. “At every turn, you impress me.”

Lulu ducked her head. “Thank you, my Lel’ult.”

Getting to her feet, Masozi whistled sharply, summoning others to pick up the Yigdu they had downed. Some would be buried, others questioned. Lulu started to do as her Lel’ult bid when Masozi stopped her. “A moment. Show me your stance.”

Such interest in her was shocking. The Lel’ul gave it to his warriors, but he had given such to all his warriors. Masozi hadn’t had the time, if she was that sort of person at all. Lulu knew it was the time. There was none of it for extra attention right now, not when they were taking their revenge for the Lel’ul. She got into position, blood sticking to her spearhead, soaking into the leather at its haft.

Masozi looked her over, then reached to her forward hand, pushing her thumb to the side. “When you have to turn so fast, you want to make sure that you twist more with your arm than with your wrist. And especially not with your fingers. It is a quick shift, but use it well.”

Lulu smiled. “I will perfect that technique, my Lel’ult. Thank you.”

There was something off-putting about the blood on her spear. Because some of it was from people who had their backs to her as she stopped them in their tracks. Now with more knowledge, it was nauseating.

Masozi’s mask of bone held her hair back, giving her the air of a leader. One she shared with her brother and her mother. One Lulu hadn’t seen yet in Talei.

Lulu opened her eyes, furious. That had happened, she knew. She hadn’t wanted it to be true. She wanted to think about how Masozi always had them on the run, doing the wrong thing. How Lulu hadn’t felt included in a group. None of them had. All they had was the hunt of those they had been told had killed their family, killed their friends.

What she hadn’t needed to was when Masozi had been kind.

Helping Lulu with her stance. Patiently waiting while Lebna learnt his weapon. Lulu had wholeheartedly believed in what they were doing. It had been right. There was no questioning the Lel’ult Masozi’s actions. Not until she had seen Azzah, back in Hirka, speaking up against her, putting the pieces together.

But before then? It had been right. Her devastation over Daudi, the Lel’ul, Reem, and Azzah had taken her through her duty to Masozi straight to the belief all Yigdu were at fault. She ed Daudi and the Lel’ul’s bodies, she ed how they had buried them. She ed the last time she had seen her heroes, as Azzah carried Reem away into Geresu.

When the fury subsided and the situation felt wrong again, Lulu hadn’t seen a way to back out. Masozi had seemed so rational. No one had liked the Yigdu. They had only known them as the Unclean. Masozi had worked everything out.

Despite having been the one to kill the Lel’ul. And Daudi. And Reem. Masozi had killed them all and Lulu hadn’t suspected a single thing. Lulu wasn’t the only one fooled, she knew, but she had been the closest one to all those events and she had been completely taken in. She should have known better somehow.

Rolling out of bed, she went over to where Lebna slept and dropped down next to him. She lay on her back, arms folded over her chest as she stared up at the ceiling. Eventually her eyes slid down the wall to where their spears were propped. She liked to look at them next to each other.

“Lulu?” Lebna turned onto his back. “What’s up?”

“How do you think Masozi fooled us so well?”

He let out a deep breath. “Because we didn’t know any better. Because we couldn’t have imagined that our Lel’ul’s sister would have done such a thing to him, let alone her own people. Just to get rid of other people.”

“I ed how she helped me with my stances. She did that several times. She wanted me to be a better spearwoman... if just to carry out those...” Lulu swallowed, “terrible things.”

“She wasn’t only a villain. It’s easier to think about her in retrospect like that, but... it’s untrue. People act in more than one way. No one treats everything the same. And she treated us like warriors. Something you were and something I wanted to be.”

Lulu worried her lower lip. “Yet you knew. You were always... you had an idea.”

“We all did, but I wasn’t a warrior. Lulu, you can always measure someone based on how they treat people other than you. Even when they treat you well. And it was always strange to me that she treated us well and yet had us do such things when... when everything was confusing.”

“Couldn’t it be simple.”

“If only.”

There was more light outside, so they should have gotten up. Yet they both lay there, just for a little longer.

People were more than one thing. Of course they were.

After breakfast, the Lel’ult gave them permission to Shauntia’s hunt. Adjoa and Tinotende ed as well. While Mirtuli provided for itself well enough that the Lel’ult’s party didn’t take away from the people’s meals, Talei refused to receive hospitality without providing for herself. At the very least Talei had calmed to the point to allow her spears to act for her, as opposed to always

taking part herself. Talei had strange thoughts about what constituted as proper for the Emperor’s heir.

She was like her father in that way. Talei didn’t ask anything of someone if she couldn’t do it too, unless specifying that as the case. Her honesty was refreshing, especially after Masozi.

“It’s been forever since I’ve fished,” Lulu itted to Shauntia.

“I’m certain you won’t have lost the knack.” The Yigdu woman flipped her hair to the other side of her head as she looked at who all had come. “What about the rest of you?”

“Never by spear,” said Lebna.

“Agreed.” Tinotende nodded. “With net and line.”

“Only in ponds,” Adjoa said.

“Never,” said Yahim.

“Want to learn how to fish, hm?” Lulu nudged the Yigdu man with her elbow.

Yahim shrugged a shoulder. “There’s no point in not becoming familiar with it.”

“Ah, fresh meat!” Shauntia licked her lips and the other fishers laughed.

“We going to the cove?” Lulu asked her.

Shauntia nodded. “To the cove!”

It didn’t take long to reach the cove Shauntia spoke of. Longer than Lulu would have thought for fishing, but considering other hunts took longer to reach their planned prey’s grounds she couldn’t comment. The land stuck out into the waters a ways and the island floating on the horizon came into focus. Those from Mirtuli chose their favourite places to perch. Lulu looked to see what she could make of it, but figured she was inexperienced enough with the terrain that she would take the same help from Shauntia as everyone else.

It was different from the hunting Lulu had become more familiar with over recent years. Fishing was less stressful in its own way. They could talk and their prey might not be any the wiser. As long as one watched what they were doing.

“Don’t tense so much,” Lulu said to Lebna. “Think of it just like any other hunt. But instead of watching your prey for a while before striking, you have to catch sight of it and act immediately.”

Lebna nodded, attempting to do so.

“And don’t worry so much!” Shauntia called over. “There are always many who come up through here, so you will have plenty of chances to strike!”

Shauntia was right. When everything was ready, suddenly the surge of fish swimming through was amazing. Lulu had never known it to be so plentiful anywhere. It made it very easy for her to return to a stride similar to what she was capable of in her youth. Lebna took a little longer getting ready to strike, but with a few pointers he did well.

As it had to do with sight and accuracy, Lulu hadn’t had any doubts he would be good at this. Only more practice would make him better.

“You are a natural,” said Shauntia. “If you ever decide to turn your feelings toward the sea~”

Lulu laughed. “Trying to recruit?”

“He said he hadn’t done it before! If he’s already like this, I’d like to see him one day give Negasi a run for his money!”

“It’s not so bad, considering we are all already practiced with the spear,” Lebna reminded them.

“What is that island out there?” Yahim asked. It didn’t look like he had managed to spear anything yet, but Lulu hadn’t been paying him enough attention to know how many times he had struck into the water.

Lulu looked off at the island in question. The entire surface visible from here was covered in trees. If they could walk on water, it would probably only be a few hours to reach it. “Isn’t that Seconmoy?”

“You have it right,” said Shauntia. “Seconmoy is thebest fishing spot. It’s also perhaps the most tree filled place that somehow is as quiet as a... well, as a desert at times.”’

“That seems strange,” said Lebna.

“For many reasons,” Yahim agreed. “If it is so good, why have I not seen anyone take their boats out there?”

“I’ve also heard about the schools of fish that surround Seconmoy, all the way from Mazundu,” Lulu pitched in.

Shauntia made a face. “All boats taken there tend to run up against some rock or are capsized by a wave. It’s very hazardous over there. The ancestors must not want us upon the sea like that.”

That was too bad. Lulu thought the island was beautiful.

“Then how do you know that it is such a good fishing spot?” Yahim continued to question.

“Because of the sandbar.”

Lulu didn’t see it, but Lebna caught something when looking in that direction. “The tide goes down that much?”

“Oh, definitely.” Shauntia nodded. “During low tide we can walk over there. Stay for a couple of days and do some fishing, then return during another lull in the water. It’s how we know about the bad luck with the boats. As long as you can reach the island, you are safe until the land bridge surfaces, then you can come home. There’s nothing to worry about over there.”

“Other than losing their boat,” Lulu said.

Shauntia laughed. “Exactly! So we don’t take them out there anymore. There are other places if one wishes to skim the water for fish. But we are provided well enough in places like this one. Why go over there except when we want to catch enough for a celebration or the like?”

Yahim bit out a swear and Lulu caught as he pulled the spear he had been loaned out of the water with no fish on it.

“You need to react a little faster,” said Tinotende. “Too much time trying to determine how to strike once you’ve seen your target.”

Yahim sighed. “I... I can see that. Yes.” He shook his head. “I’m starting from

behind, here. I need more time.”

“Of course!” Lulu exclaimed. “So don’t worry too much about it.” She could tell he was going to, despite with the rest of them, they caught enough fish to make up for how much the Lel’ult’s party had eaten so far while in Mirtuli.

Lulu decided not to mention after his protests on the way to the coast, Yahim had finally developed interest in the spear.

Laughing, Lulu informed the other spears they would have to get used to the smell of fish on their weapons while in Mirtuli. The others hadn’t considered it. Hasani mentioned (when Adjoa couldn’t hear him), he would stick with a net or another spear if he was going with them next time.

“It’s not that bad, you just aren’t used to it,” said Lulu to them all.

“Not that bad?” Adjoa asked.

“You have gotten used to wild dog blood and guts on a spear, yes? It’s a different smell, that’s all.”

“A very different smell,” Tinotende said, “but I see what you mean.”

Lebna hadn’t minded and went to assist with cooking the midday meal. Things he used to do a lot more before becoming one of the Lel’ult’s spears. Lulu left

him to it, and went to check on Talei and Adanech.

It wasn’t hard to find them. Even if she wasn’t looking for Adanech’s taller stature, hearing Yahim’s voice would have drawn Lulu to the three of them sooner rather than later. Adanech looked ready to intervene, though waited on Talei’s word.

“That wouldn’t only be a request for forgiveness, you would have to make that up to him. Which is not something that you should do if you want to be seen as a competent ruler.”

“I can’t just know something that I don’t know!” Talei retorted hotly. Lulu could see she was trying to retract her irritation and speak with more calm, but Talei wasn’t doing that well. She also noted Yahim didn’t seem to point that part of it out as being a show for competency. “It’s not like my people aren’t aware of my sheltered childhood. My story is well known. I am perfectly fine with being called out on mistakes and being taught by them. They can teach me how it is I should be. I didn’t have that opportunity before.”

Yahim shook his head. “You are too optimistic, Talei. Not all your people will want to treat you like a child. You are a grown woman now.”

Lulu didn’t know if it was the look on Adanech’s face (which he suddenly caught) or if he noticed Lulu, but Yahim turned away.

“Keep that in mind, Talei. People won’t continue to excuse you. You are no longer the girl in your stories, you are the Lel’ult that stands in front of them.”

Without addressing either Adanech or Lulu, Yahim left.

“I feel like I stepped into a territory dispute I’m not involved in,” said Lulu. “Are you all right, my Lel’ult?”

Talei pursed her lips. “I’m... Is he right?”

Lulu’s lips parted. Thankfully for her, Adanech spoke first. “Yahim had one point. There are things you could have gotten away with as a child that you cannot now.”

“That doesn’t mean you were wrong, my Lel’ult,” Lulu pitched in. “Even if he wasn’t saying it in his bluntly rude way.”

Adanech shook her head. “No, you were not wrong. Being honest with your people is the best route to take.”

“You might get off on the wrong foot, but like you said, you can’t pretend to know something that you didn’t already know. That honesty of yours will bring others back around, even when your lack of knowledge is a problem.”

With a sigh, Talei reached up and slid her hair back, twisted locs falling back to the sides of her face. “I wish I could avoid putting my foot in it in the meantime. He’s right about that. I want to avoid that if at all possible. But... why does he treat me like this? He is so frustrating.”

“My Lel’ult? May I make a suggestion?”

Talei looked at Lulu and nodded. Lulu hoped she wouldn’t sound too patronizing, but there wasn’t anything else, or any other way, she could think of to say.

“You never tell him to stop.”

“Stop?” Talei asked.

“You never tell him to stop it. You reason with his arguments, convince him - or try to convince him - of what you are saying. But you never tell him to stop being such a dick about it.”

Adanech snorted. Talei’s lips twitched upward for a moment before she regained her composure. “But the point is to show him he is wrong, or that he is right. Telling him to present himself in one way or another doesn’t change any of that if he still has a worthy argument.”

“It’s not about that,” said Adanech.

Talei groaned, putting her hands through her hair again and pacing. If the conversation didn’t have anyone’s attention before, the Lel’ult pacing did. Lulu smiled and waved them off, which settled most curiosity.

Adanech smiled, looking at Lulu. “Thank you. It’s nice to have back up. Sometimes I’m not sure what I can do.”

It was a simple thing to say, and a simple conversation to continue, but Lulu took a moment to swallow back her immediate response. She could feel her heart press against her chest at that smile. Lulu would have given many things at that exact moment if she could have had the permission to reach out. To hold her.

Instead, she smiled back. That was acceptable.

Talei stopped pacing. “I need someone to disagree with me at times. Someone with the perspective of the Yigdu. Right or wrong. I need that.”

“Just because someone serves another leader doesn’t mean they don’t get to treat you with disrespect,” said Adanech.

And Yahim knew how to treat people with respect. He did with everyone else. Talei was the exception.

Lulu had trouble considering it in full. Probably because generally she liked Yahim. She thought he was entertaining and quite intelligent. But he was wrong in the way he treated the Lel’ult. And not because she was the Lel’ult. Because she was Talei and she deserved to be treated better, even when someone didn’t agree with how she did things.

Lulu decided Adanech was likely the only person to straddle the line between respect and calling Talei out the most appropriately. But she wasn’t Yigdu. Neither were her and Lebna. Yahim had made himself invaluable to her. Chasing him off would be a bad idea while other Yigdu didn’t travel with her. Lulu wondered how then it would be best to get the man to grow up a little and treat the Lel’ult not like a child.

If it had been anyone else, that would have been easy.

Politics.

Taken Alive

Lulu and Lebna watched the other spears help patch a roof. It was a good way of endearing Talei to the community. The other reason? Turning people’s attention away from the real reason they were here. Lulu wasn’t thinking much about it at the moment. All she thought about was how she saw Negasi across the way. He spoke with a couple of other fishers.

She considered ducking behind Lebna, but refrained. That would be childish. She wouldn’t act like she had done anything wrong. Not lately, anyway. It had been years ago, she was actively doing better. She hadn’t forgotten, she was making up for it.

Not good enough.

Lebna noticed her shifting, but Lulu smiled back to reassure him she would forget all about it. She wouldn’t stare. Her eyes trailed over to Negasi, hoping he wouldn’t look back, yes. But she wouldn’t stare. He wouldn’t look back.

Of course he did. Negasi met her eyes even as she averted them, the expression on his face making her want to not only hide, but cower. She stood her ground.

“Trying to ignore him now?” Lebna said, without moving his head at all. She had no doubt he still saw Negasi.

“I can’t, Lebna. Not completely.”

“I know. You can’t leave it alone. I understand why, even though I think it would be best if you put this to rest some other way.”

Lulu had to agree. It would be better if she could. But even if they left and she never saw Negasi again, this meeting would hang over both of their heads. She would always think of what she had done to him and he would be tortured by the knowledge she was alive and well, seemingly uncaring.

Because she cared, but he could not see it. How could she show him how much she cared?

...she was making this more about herself, but Lulu didn’t know what else to do.

“They were right about his solitary nature,” was all she said. When she looked up again, Negasi had wandered off. On his own, away from the rest of the town, from the rest of his people. It wasn’t only because the Lel’ult and her party, if the others were to be believed. “Why don’t you think he s the community? He wouldn’t stay here if he was against being with others who aren’t Yigdu, but even still there are plenty Yigdu here.”

“They made it sound like it is something he had gotten into the habit of after the Cleansing.”

They had, in a way, but... “You think he couldn’t find a single person to be alongside after that?”

Lebna placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it lightly. “No, but... He was on his way for his coming of age trial. Perhaps because of that he simply never looked. It brought him here, they said.”

It did, but there were other Yigdu here. Lulu couldn’t imagine what it would be like to stay so lonely. She thought about losing Daudi. If she had been alone after her spear-brother’s death, she might have gone crazy. She had needed people nearby. She opened her mouth to say so, but saw in Lebna’s eyes he knew.

“We know someone who needed to be alone after the loss of family.”

Lulu thought of Reem.

The last time Lulu had seen her, Reem was dead in Azzah’s arms. Azzah left Hirka. Alone. Claiming Reem was still alive, that she needed help. If there hadn’t been so many people to bury, Lulu would have gone after her sooner. There had been no way any of them would have thought Azzah wouldn’t return. That she would have gone so far away from Hirka into Geresu that they would never find her.

“If I talk to him, what should I say?”

Lebna sighed. “I don’t know. But I can’t go with you if you do. The both of us would be too much.”

Lulu nodded. He might not have called Lebna out on it, but Negasi had to know

of Lebna’s part. Or assumed it from his proximity to Lulu.

“But you shouldn’t face him alone either. I feel that would also go badly.”

“I can’t ask the Lel’ult though. They already had a confrontation about this and I would prefer him not think badly on her with... well, my pushing it.”

“There aren’t going to be many options of someone good to you for this,” Lebna reminded her.

“Perhaps not, but...” Lulu had a few thoughts on the matter, she just didn’t know which ones were good. The hut was finished and the group returned to the festival preparations. She could see Talei in the distance, being presented with costumes for the festival. All in her honour.

No, if Talei speaking up for Lulu before wasn’t good enough, bringing her wouldn’t help. Lulu would have to decide on someone else.

Talei waved her and Lebna over. They went to in the preparations as Hasani and Bashiri took up their post.

It was the Night of the Season, but even more Mirtuli wanted to properly celebrate the Lel’ult’s arrival on the coast. This was her first time and therefore this was needed to be the best display Mirtuli could show to her.

Their costumes were dyed in blues and bright reds, of hues only from the coast. The bonfire burned bright and the dances begun by those who knew every step by heart, surrounding a fire burning so brightly as the sky slowly darkened. The fish were prepared and cooked at the same time, while the season’s drink was ed around in bowls painted in the same bright red as the costumes.

The beating of the drums and the single flute screamed at Lulu to , but she was on watch. Not her time yet. She had offered, as well as Lebna, to take lookout first. They wanted to , of course, but there was so much happening tonight. They would make sure it ran smoothly. Nothing untoward had happened yet. Lulu didn’t think anything would, but refused to assume.

Her eyes wandered over the dance. The beginning of the ceremony completed, others ed in. Talei had been so excited to take part, she didn’t hesitate at all. The dances they had taught her inland did her well here. Lulu thought she was adorable in her reds, contrasting with the blue of her skin, nearing the flames with her hair twirling around. Adjoa danced nearby, her hair bound to the back of her head as she kept in front of the Lel’ult to show her the new steps. Talei’s mouth was open in a wide smile.

And then there was Adanech. She danced closest to the flame, no concerns about catching ablaze. She had no hair to swing about and the clothes she had donned for dancing kept straight to her body, around her waist and down her legs, around her neck.

Lulu couldn’t the last time she had seen Adanech dance. It had been a long time. Adanech danced as though there was nothing to hold back. She was covered in sweat in no time at all. It was like being in the middle of the morning workout with her spear - the spear still against her back, bound and not in the way. Adanech would never be without it. The spear was a part of her, more than any spear had been part of any other spear. Lulu had worked with her spear for years and she would never find herself as naturally a part of the spear as

Adanech was with Reem’s.

Lulu wasn’t jealous. It was simply another goal to strive toward. Adanech was beautiful. Perhaps not with her skin, as marred as it was, but even that changed nothing about her form. The confidence which shone through it, through every motion. Adanech was a woman of action.

Not the only one, but the most sturdy warrior Lulu had ever known. Gorgeous. And perfect there with Talei, her constant protector. Both for each other.

Lulu didn’t know if there was room in one’s heart for more than the amount of energy and love Adanech dedicated to Talei.

“Lulu.”

She pulled her attention away, looking at Lebna and following his gaze from there. Someone stood outside the circle, watching alongside others. That wasn’t attention worthy in its own right. Lulu might not have picked him out. But as Lebna did, she considered the man. That she didn’t recognize him was one thing. The other was what the man was looking at.

The Lel’ult. Most people were, it was not anything special to do so. Yet the intent look on the man’s face, not as content with the festivities as those around him, was another hint.

“Thoughts?” Lebna asked.

“Worth watching,” Lulu agreed. “Noise level?”

“They’d hear. Perhaps no one else could decipher it, but I’m not sure.”

Lulu decided to take the risk. Better they lose the person and Talei received warning than the opposite. Lulu put her own whistle out there. It caught up in the other whistles, claps, ululations, but was distinct enough for those who knew.

Adanech drew in closer to Talei. The Lel’ult, after a moment’s pause, kept dancing, angling herself closer to Adanech. Elsewhere, Lulu knew others were getting ready. She could see Hasani, wanting to draw close and ask specifics, but he stood his ground and watched. No one seemed any the wiser.

Talei took a moment to speak with someone before exiting the circle. The Sayer came up with a drink, which she took. The old woman offered one to Adanech, who also grabbed the bowl with one hand. She swallowed a mouthful and returned it to the woman. They spoke more, but Lulu returned her eye to the stranger. He still stood in the same spot, but with more people around him she lost confirmation of him fast. She squeezed Lebna’s arm. He nodded. He hadn’t lost .

Lulu examined their surroundings. None of the other spears whistled out, no one else had seen anything worth reporting. Adanech led Talei to the side. To anyone else, the Lel’ult needed a moment to catch her breath. More likely, Adanech and Talei wanted the assassin (if that truly was his role) to follow away from those still naive.

“Is he going to follow?” Lulu asked, still scanning the area for anything else.

“No.”

Lulu tensed, though those words should have settled her. “False alarm?”

“I don’t know. He’s leaving.”

Lebna started after the man and Lulu followed, both edging to the side as though they had another post. Lulu whistled again. Their target was on the move. Hopefully if there was only one dubious individuals, all the Lel’ult’s spears could keep an eye on this one. Lulu and Lebna would lose sight of him, no matter Lebna’s keen vision, because of the huts.

Lebna and Lulu sped up to circle the buildings, but Lulu didn’t see anything. That was more suspicious. “Unless he lives in one of those huts, he went fast,” she said.

“If he went fast, it’s likely he knew we were on to him.”

“Not everyone falls for the old ‘get the Lel’ult alone with only one of her guard’ trick.”

The spear-siblings searched the area, to see if the man was there acting nonchalant and they had overreacted. They didn’t find him. Hasani and Bashiri

moved in.

“Yigdu? Bright eyes with markings that looked like a hand print on his face?” Hasani asked.

Lulu knew he was Yigdu, but those specifics were beyond her. Clothes and hair would have been better identifiers. But Lebna nodded, because of course he had noticed something like that in the dim light.

“He left.” Bashiri pointed north out of the village. “We saw him leaving that way.”

“That’s more than suspicious,” Lulu agreed. “Lebna?” She knew what she would say, but wanted to hear if Lebna would say the same.

He nodded. “You let the Lel’ult know. Lulu and I are going after him, see where he’s going and if there are any others there.”

Exactly Lulu’s thought. The spear-brothers nodded, returning to the bonfire. Without much ado, Lulu and Lebna began their search.

It didn’t take long for Lebna to catch movement. They waited, out of sight, until he determined if the figure was human. When he nodded, they continued up the coast. The stretches of sand lessened until becoming a craggy edge, the like of which they had travelled up the other day alongside the fishers of Mirtuli. There were a few niches Shauntia had pointed out in this area. It made Lulu wonder if

this person had been here when they had been fishing. She hadn’t noticed.

Occasionally the man looked back, using the ancestors’ light alone to catch if someone followed. They definitely followed, but he wasn’t clever enough to catch them. He didn’t change his pace or his direction, as he might had if he had indeed noticed them and pretended not to. Lebna didn’t say anything. This was no trap. People like this wouldn’t want to waste an ambush on only the spears, after all. They would want to waste it on the Lel’ult.

Lulu would say “waste” because she didn’t think an ambush would work on Talei either. Not anymore.

“He’s heading down to the water’s edge.”

“That ought to be a pain on his feet.” Lulu knew how some of those rocks felt. Her soles were tough, but some of those sharp points would cut right through. Not good, especially not when stepping into saltwater. “Should we see if we can cut him off on the other side?”

Lebna looked at the cliff above the small stretch of rock and sand. “If he’s going to the other side...”

“It’s a good vantage point, at least.”

The trees got in the way, but Lulu paid attention to the shrubs and branches which might make too much noise. She and Lebna crept up to the cliff’s tip

without sounding like more than the wilds.

Lebna moved down onto his stomach and crawled to peer over the cliff’s edge. He pulled back.

Lulu squatted down, bow in hand.

“Four I can see,” he whispered certain words, gesturing the rest with his hands. She squinted to catch more of it in the dark, believing she caught the important parts. “I don’t know how deep in a cut into the rock might be, where more could be. Or in the dark.”

Lulu nodded, before checking herself. She could only see two from her angle, until another moved into the single torchlight below. They both waited, watching. There was the Yigdu man from the village, talking adamantly to the others. From up here she couldn’t hear what he said, but she made a few guesses. They all stayed close to the rock though, not stepping out far enough for her to see anyone else.

“We could pick a couple off,” Lebna suggested, his own bow in hand. “Drop down to deal with the rest. Or wait. Others will come if we don’t return soon and if there are only four, we could pick them all off from here.”

It was a good plan. A smart plan for the situation. Lulu looked down at the blue markings and a sick feeling rose in her stomach.

No. These people chose to associate with the thought of killing her Lel’ult. It didn’t matter what colour marked their skin. Anyone who tried to kill her Lel’ult would have to pay for such things. She had fought of Yigdu before for such reasons.

Yet.

“I have another idea.”

Lebna waited as Lulu came up with the idea.

“What if we capture them?”

“Lulu, we are four on two. If there aren’t more.”

Lulu had only seen three figures, two of the same and one different. The total of four Lebna saw, if they were the same.

“We have to consider the big picture,” Lulu replied, using less hand gestures and more hushed tones. “It’s no longer the days when people would simply pick up their arms and try to kill the Lel’ult in whatever way they thought of. We have stopped all those people. Those who remain? They can’t be alone. If there are only four, I doubt that’s all to follow us here. The must have heard that we were coming out this way. That was a scout, not an assassin. We need to get information off them.”

Lebna nodded, but slowly. “As good an idea as more information is Lulu, how would we manage that?”

That was the other thing, wasn’t it? Lulu grit her teeth. “Ambush. We knock out two of them and then we disarm the others. We won’t be alone for much longer, and the noise we make from them surrendering will be enough of a point for Hasani or Tinotende to catch up. Something like that.”

“It also might be enough noise if there are more than four of them nearby. If the others might show up soon, perhaps we should wait for them so we aren’t outnumbered. We can beat them, Lulu, we can win. But without letting them run and without killing any of them? Much harder.”

Lulu rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. “They might leave anyway. What if the reason the scout left was because he noticed we were watching him? If they leave here and reconvene with others, that would be harder for us too. Which is the better risk?”

They might have considered the question further, but someone looked up. Lulu pulled her head back, while Lebna pressed himself harder against the rock he lay on. Lulu slowly lowered herself, trying to tell if they had seen anything or if she and Lebna were in the clear.

She didn’t hear anything. A bad sign. Lulu glanced at Lebna. They had run out of time, so...?

Lebna pulled back from the edge and into some of the other grasses. Lulu rolled to the side, finding another groove to drop in. She felt stone against her cheek,

rough yet still. Waiting, eventually she felt the vibrations near. One set of footsteps at first, then another. She didn’t know if there were only two below now or not. She didn’t have a way to share this information with Lebna and could only hope he had caught it himself.

Taking a deep breath, Lulu shifted. There they were, searching with their own weapons drawn, small flames out to cast away the shadows. She would leave her bow here, grab it later. Her hands were on her spear. Lebna made a motion when the Yigdu turned away.

Three. His fingers showed clearly, before the dark obscured his digits wrapping around his spear.

Lulu knew exactly how to pace the count. Two.

One. Lulu rolled out of the niche. Lebna sprung out from the bushes. Lulu struck up with her spear, swinging it to the side and slamming it against the woman’s temple. While she struck, the woman backpedaled. The blow didn’t hit as much force as she had intended. The Yigdu wavered, but stayed on her feet.

Lebna had more luck. His strike had come out sidelong to the man’s jaw and the Yigdu went down. That strike wouldn’t give them long, but he wasn’t a factor for now. Lulu tried to strike again, but the woman’s blade swatted her to the side. Lulu caught it on the flat of the blade to force the woman back. One flame went out, but they’d backed out from under the branches. The ancestor’s gave Lulu sight, but so did the rising sun. Had it truly gotten so late?

She and Lebna could have taken the woman out if the other two Yigdu hadn’t

arrived. Lulu thought they looked like the people she had watched below. Lulu changed tactics, stepping to Lebna’s side and facing the opposite direction.

The spear-siblings kept turning, as the three surrounding them took stock of the situation. The Yigdu assassins attacked simultaneously. Lulu and Lebna stepped in one direction, Lulu knocking a sword aside again while Lebna smacked the second’s spear against the third. Lebna whistled. Forward and back.

Lulu lunged forward, jabbing to the left and digging the butt of her spear into the man’s back. She struck right where she wanted to. He was down for the count. It would take him much longer to recover, being struck near the kidney hurt like anything. Lulu knew it well, Daudi had often aimed there during practice when he had the advantage.

And back, wheeling around again. There were two left and as they spun, Lebna kicked at the hilt of the man’s sword. It disappeared into the brush. Disarmed. Lulu pretended to spring forward. As one readied to defend, she struck the other in the knuckles with her spear as hard as she dared, then a second time for good measure. The knives dropped to the grass. Lulu thought it must be good enough. She quickly turned her spear around so the point pressed against the woman’s torso, kicking dirt over another fallen torch, putting out the fire.

The tip of Lebna’s spear froze near the neck of the only Yigdu on his feet.

“Stand down,” said Lulu. “Put down your weapon.” She didn’t take her eyes off the woman in front of her. She could see the unconscious one and the one she had hit in the back. He was awake, but not ready to get up yet.

Lebna’s opponent’s jaw clenched, but he lowered his weapon.

The woman reached out, grabbing Lulu’s spear. Lulu moved out of the way, but the Yigdu woman took the opportunity to drop for one of her knives. Lulu stepped in and knocked it aside, guiding her spearhead at the woman’s chest once more.

“I said stand down.”

The man’s spear was on the ground. “We surrender,” he said.

On the ground, the other man nodded, grimacing. She could almost feel bad for him. Almost.

The woman’s eyes flashed. She didn’t go for her knife again, but reached out and grabbed at the end of Lulu’s spear, pulling herself in. Hands with nails, more ragged than they should have been, reached out for Lulu’s wrist. But the spear was too long - she would have to let go. It gave Lulu enough momentum to bat the woman in the head with the length of her spear. Almost harder than she had thought she could at this angle.

The woman spun and hit the ground. There was a crack as she hit the rock. The man on the ground protested for a second, but fell silent. The woman didn’t breathe.

“We surrender,” the man before Lebna repeated, voice broken.

Lulu let out a breath. Unfortunate.

“Lulu, the spear.”

She picked up the knives first, then the spear and the swords. Lebna let the one in front of him check on the unconscious man as he began to rouse. He reached for a weapon he didn’t have, as the other man murmured things Lulu couldn’t hear. Likely about their surrender.

“There is time for her rites,” said Lebna. The tone in his voice sounded how Lulu felt. Having him there made her feel better, despite how this hadn’t gone as intended.

A whistle rang out. Lulu sounded in return. It wasn’t long before Hasani and Bashiri showed up.

Hasani looked surprised. “What...?”

“We’re taking them in. The Lel’ult can question them and determine their fate,” said Lebna. “Those who surrendered.”

“Is that worth it?”

Lulu shrugged. “Time will tell. I think it is, even if we get nothing, because I’d prefer to be safe and try than sorry because I only struck to kill.”

“Is she dead?” Bashiri asked, gesturing to the Yigdu woman.

“Yes.” Lulu wanted to shut her eyes, but didn’t. She had to move on. It would be okay. “Take this one. I will carry her. She has to have her burial.” The morning had broke. They had the day to prepare, until the next sunrise. At least there was that.

They each took one. Hasani took the weapons as well so Lulu could carry the dead woman. The dead were always heavier than the living. The spirit had weight as they prepared to ascend to the heavens, the moment they could cast away such burdens. Hopefully not become trapped with it, manifesting as an evil spirit. No one deserved such a fate.

They returned to Mirtuli.

“Why are they alive?”

Adanech didn’t sound annoyed or happy. The question was matter of fact. Lulu hadn’t realized she would need to explain herself so often. Carrying the Yigdu back to town shouldn’t have been as hard as it had been. Lulu had carried more for further distances, but it had been hard anyway. She had put the woman down for Mirtuli’s Sayer to begin tending to the body.

“Very well done, the Lel’ult’s spears are as good as all have claimed.”

The Sayer’s words managed to fill her with pride, despite how disappointed she had been in the death happening at all.

“There were only the four that we saw, but I didn’t trust that,” said Lulu. “I thought the Lel’ult might want to question them.”

Adanech frowned, but nodded.

“Question them?” Talei asked, surprised. She thought it over, watching as the three prisoners knelt next to one of the huts. Now not only did the Lel’ult’s spears watch them, but other hunters from the village, both Yigdu and not, looking at the would-be assassins with suspicion. With anger. With disappointment.

“We’ve never had the opportunity before,” said Lebna, “but Lulu is right. It was a risk, but now that we’ve successfully done so, it’s worth learning if they know about anyone else.”

“It’s perfect!”

Lulu blinked a few times, rather deliberately, ascertaining she saw the cheer on Talei’s face correctly. “My Lel’ult?”

“Less bloodshed the better. If that can be done by talking to them, then talk to them I will.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean less bloodshed,” said Adanech, “just less surprises. If they talk.”

Lulu could only focus on the blood covering her spearhead. She needed to clean it off. She wanted it gone. For the life of her, Lulu couldn’t understand why it all bothered her now, when she’d had so much blood from assassins on it in the past.

“But if they do... I’ve never had a chance to talk to any of these people before. Not after they have shown themselves as opposed to me. I want to try. To convince them.”

Lulu tried to smile, but couldn’t manage.

Talei started toward the tent again, but Lulu stood where she was. She needed to clean this now. It had never been so strong a pull before.

The hand on her shoulder wasn’t Lebna’s. Adanech’s expression showed concern.

“What’s wrong, Lulu?”

Lulu didn’t want to talk about it. It was obvious. It was her job. She didn’t want to take it back. She wouldn’t die so someone who wanted to kill the Lel’ult could live. “I tried to keep them all alive. I know it’s the first time and it is impressive that Lebna and I came back with three at all. I... wanted to keep them all alive.”

“There is reason you wanted these people to live more than other assailants?” Adanech asked. Her hand still rested on Lulu’s shoulder. Lulu realized Lebna had gone with Talei, leaving Lulu alone with her. Had he let her know and she hadn’t noticed? “It’s never bothered you so much before, but it does now.”

Lulu looked around. The people who did meet her eyes smiled. They were thankful for her actions. Yigdu as well. Yet she couldn’t meet their eyes for very long. “I don’t want the people here to know me as a slaughterer of the Yigdu, Adanech. I didn’t want to kill her.”

“You didn’t kill a Yigdu. You killed an enemy of our Lel’ult.”

Lulu sighed. “I know. I believe that. If it was just what was in my mind, that is exactly how I would feel about it. But... what if someone doesn’t see it that way?”

Negasi wouldn’t take this well. She knew it. That’s what bothered her.

“If someone doesn’t see it as protecting our Lel’ult, they aren’t paying attention.” Adanech squeezed her shoulder again before returning her hand to her side. “Let’s get that cleaned up. You are right though. Not a scratch on you.”

Lulu finally smiled and nodded.

“And Lulu?”

She met Adanech’s eyes, taking in a breath. “Yes?”

“Think on this. What’s more important? What they think of you or what you want to make happen in the world? That answer isn’t always black and white, but there is always an answer.”

“You know better than anyone,” said Lulu. “Those two things are intertwined.”

Adanech chuckled. “True. But I had to convince people what was right. I had to show them my truth. I couldn’t wait for everyone to catch up. That’s what would have brought about an end.”

“That’s the smart way of thinking about it.”

Lulu went to clean up her spear at the hut she and Lebna had been staying in when it struck her. She slowed down. She stopped. The sounds of the town around her continued as normal. People spoke of many things, the prisoners she and Lebna brought in only one of the topics.

Adanech convinced people of her truth, that was all.

Masozi had done the same beforehand. She had convinced everyone of her truth too. Because of that so many people, who shouldn’t have died, died.

Lulu closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and went to clean up.

Difference

Lulu ran.

Spear in hand, her quarry in her sights. She heard the ululations of other warriors. There were so many.

Some Yigdu had weapons. Some waited out in the brush, attacked those who walked by. Whether they would have done so before the Lel’ul’s death or not, she didn’t know. She only knew they killed indiscriminately, much like they looked to have had done in Hirka. Lulu captured them, but if that proved to be too much trouble... she ran them through, like the other spears. No more deaths from the Unclean.

Some of the Yigdu hid. Some only struck when they were noticed. Lulu dealt with them all in the same way. The way she had been ordered to.

Some of the Yigdu ran. They had no weapons. They had no intent to hurt. Lulu ran them down and pinned them until someone brought more rope to bind them. Pull them up by the arms and take them back for their questioning.

Lulu deflected a blow aimed at her side, the Yigdu in front of her still running as another man stepped out to club her. It was only a branch. Worn down from use as a club, but still only a branch. Lulu knocked him down, tripping him with a foot as he dodged her spear. She pressed the length of it horizontally against his throat as he tried to push her off, branch on the ground.

An arrow went over her head. Rope dropped at her feet and Masozi helped her

tie the Unclean up.

“You are very quick on your feet, Lulu.” Those green eyes looked at her with warmth. “At every turn, you impress me.”

Lulu ducked her head. “Thank you, my Lel’ult.”

Getting to her feet, Masozi whistled sharply, summoning others to pick up the Yigdu they had downed. Some would be buried, others questioned. Lulu started to do as her Lel’ult bid when Masozi stopped her. “A moment. Show me your stance.”

Such interest in her was shocking. She got into position, blood sticking to her spearhead, soaking into the leather at its haft.

Masozi looked her over, then reached to her forward hand, pushing her thumb to the side. “When you have to turn so fast, you want to make sure that you twist more with your arm than with your wrist. And especially not with your fingers. It is a quick shift, but use it well.”

Lulu smiled. “I will perfect that technique, my Lel’ult. Thank you.”

There was something off-putting about the blood on her spear. Because some of it was from people who had their backs to her as she stopped them in their tracks.

Masozi’s mask of bone held her hair back, giving her the air of a leader. Drive and confidence, to make Lulu feel better about the distasteful things she had to do. Make her put other thoughts aside. This was what was best for the land. For the Emperor. For her Lel’ult.

For those she had lost.

“I can’t wait for this to end,” Lulu itted. “You have my spear, whatever you need it to do, my Lel’ult. But I can’t wait for this to end.”

She expected some sort of speech to buck her up. Take heart in the deaths she had caused, those who she had captured who would give them more information. Instead, Masozi looked at her, face soft.

“Me too, Lulu. I wish this didn’t have to be done. But as it does, we will do it. They will be gone, before they ruin the land more than they already have. And we will do it.”

“Of course, my...”

Lel’ul.

The dirt over her spear-brother’s final resting place. The dirt over her Lel’ul’s grave. The tears she didn’t bother to restrain. It hurt, it all hurt. Yet they were ancestors now. The light of the morning would take them up. They would have the entire day to become one with the sky.

“With your strong spirit, with the desires of becoming better, you will make this world a better place. You will make all strong. You will...”

Tears burned hot on her cheeks. Lulu wanted to sob. Her heart pounded against her ribs, making every part of her ache. Her head was killing her. She wanted to close her eyes and never open them again.

“You will be wonderful and we shall make you proud, my brother.”

And Lulu woke up, the tears on her cheeks. She wasn’t sad. No, her overwhelming feeling was of fury.

Lulu rubbed at her face until it was dry and took a few moments to calm down. Lebna’s breath came calmly, he still slept. Thankfully she hadn’t been loud with her feelings during her sleep. She lay there, staring at the ceiling of the hut. “Lebna?”

She heard him stir. “Yes?”

There was still anger in her voice and she couldn’t make it go away yet. “I... I’m not wrong, am I?”

She knew she had to explain herself, but she had to take another moment. Lebna spoke as though he knew what she meant, surprising her.

“Again, I don’t think you’re wrong. I just don’t know how it is that you can succeed with him. I was thinking though, that perhaps you could ask Yahim to go with you? He would probably assist. You should talk with him.”

That wasn’t the topic. The topic was Masozi. How she couldn’t have been a good person. That Lulu shouldn’t ever her as a good person. It was all manipulation.

So how had she looked so kind?

Yet Lebna’s words brought her out of herself. “That’s a good idea. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of him.”

“Probably because he does what he wants. Yet he does like you, so I think he will.”

“Yeah.” Lulu would do so. Today.

She would get something cleared up.

All the fishers knew where Yahim was. Because he was fishing again, by the river. And he hadn’t wanted any assistance, so they had left him to it.

“I let him borrow a spear,” said Shauntia, “but I’m not sure he’s going to catch anything unless by luck with how he’s been at it. Not a good way to start.”

“Man can be stubborn,” Lulu agreed.

She went to the riverside, where he had decided to take the narrower channel as his tactic. He had picked an all right place to perch and stare down into the water, though Lulu easily saw a better one. She didn’t take it though, not wanting to bother him.

“I’m not needing advice.” Yahim didn’t even look up. “I simply need practice.”

“I’m not here to advise you.” Lulu shrugged. “I wanted to talk to you. Mind if I stick around for that?”

Yahim took a chance to look away from the water at her, nodding and smiling. “I don’t mind at all.”

Lulu settled at the edge of river, not looking into the water or paying any mind to his tactics. She could tell from her peripheral he was still too tense, but it wasn’t her place. If this was how he wanted to figure it out, he’d get what he wanted.

“I wanted to talk to you about the fisherman Negasi.”

“He’s the one that called you out about the Cleansing, wasn’t he?”

Words blunt, but true. Lulu sighed, drawing her knees to her chest. “Ouch. But yes.”

She glanced over, noting Yahim looked as uncomfortable as she felt. “I don’t envy you in the slightest, Lulu. That’s a rough position to find yourself.”

“Yes, but it was always going to happen. I should be more surprised that I haven’t come across someone like him before. Someone who recognized me from... that time.”

“Something like that will never fall completely into the past.” He clenched his teeth and struck into the water. He came up with nothing. “It’s going to be uncomfortable while you are here, but I know you can deal with it. We won’t stay in Mirtuli forever, after all.”

“No, but that’s not the problem. I want to talk with him, but he refuses to be near me.”

Yahim paused in his exertions. “You want to talk to him? Why?”

“I... I need to. I want him to know how much I regret those actions. How much I am doing to make up for it. The rest of my life, in fact.”

With an incredulous laugh, Yahim shook his head. “What will that accomplish, Lulu? Other than perhaps making you feel better. It’s not going to close any

wounds for him. The damage is done and the damage is permanent, no matter how much anyone might wish to undo it. You’re trying to make yourself feel better.”

“That’s not true!” Lulu straightened her back. She saw where the fish were, but she wouldn’t watch them. “It’s nothing to do with how I feel. In fact, it’s not even only about what he feels.”

“You have lost me.”

“It’s a matter of faith.” Lulu looked up at the sky. The sun shone brightly, some clouds off the coast over the water. Between the heat of the sun and the cool wind coming in from the ocean Lulu felt wonderful. All except the subject of conversation. “Because of what I do now, contrasted with what I did then, he believes less in the Lel’ult. Because she keeps me with her, defends me, he thinks less of her.”

Yahim scowled. “Someone doesn’t have to agree with one’s every action. Not even of your own leader.”

Lulu didn’t believe it impossible, but that wasn’t the point. “When it comes to something that important, something so divisive? This entire subject is about him and the Lel’ult. This isn’t to do about my feelings. At this moment, I would run for it if I could. Confronting this is distressing. But my feelings are secondary. Negasi is the one who lost because of me and the Lel’ult is now the one who could lose from lessened from him and others like him. It’s that I have to figure out.”

Yahim retracted the spear, standing up straight as he faced her. “All right. You want to talk with him?”

“...not alone.”

“You want me to go with you?”

Lulu nodded, looking at him with a hopeful smile.

Yahim shrugged. “Well, sure. I can do that. I take it you didn’t want to go with someone not Yigdu.”

“I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to impose my will on him. Our differences still matter. I’m not trying to take that away.”

“Then I’ll talk to him first, before we do this. I don’t want to be the stranger who sidles up with you, after all. That won’t help.”

Lulu smiled, getting to her feet. “Thank you so much for this, Yahim. I know this isn’t about how I feel, but making a way forward with this makes me feel better too.”

Yahim waved it off. “Don’t thank me yet. What am I supposed to talk with him about yet? I want it to seem natural enough and I’m going to be approaching him specifically. Any ideas?”

Lulu looked around. “He’s rather solitary, but...” She tried not to laugh. “I hear that he is one of the best fishermen in Mirtuli.”

With a frown, Yahim jumped over to the shore, wading to her side. “Right.”

He didn’t ask more, but Lulu decided Yahim would either find something else or ask about fishing. It was the only thing she knew about Negasi not immediately related to tragedy.

It would have to do.

Lulu had to wait for Yahim to speak to him first. Then she had to find the perfect moment. She didn’t know how long it would take, if she would have the chance today. She found Lebna and they returned to the Lel’ult.

She had decided it was time to question the prisoners. All three men had been fed and tended to. Despite this, none of them were willing to talk.

“It would be easier if we staked them down,” said Hasani to Talei. “Out where we all could watch them. Undo a hand for eating, let them walk when they need to relieve themselves. There’s a lot one can do when hidden inside.”

“No stakes,” said Talei. “No cages. No matter what they think, they are still people and are deserving of some comfort.”

“They want you dead, my Lel’ult. They don’t deserve anything.”

Talei wouldn’t back down. Bashiri didn’t want to broach the subject, so after a look at him and a look at Adanech, Hasani turned to Lulu and Lebna.

Lulu didn’t know what the big deal was, but she saw understanding in Adanech’s eyes. So Lulu shrugged. Hasani sighed and let it drop.

“We don’t know how long it might take them to speak,” Adanech spoke up. “But it might be easier for them to speak with another Yigdu. And not you I’m afraid, Talei.”

Talei frowned. “Yes, I understand that, but...”

Once again it had to do with that. “Yahim?” Lulu suggested.

Talei shook her head. “No, I don’t want him to do it. More like, I’m not sure he’s the best person to do that.”

“Might another Yigdu here do so for you?” Lebna asked.

“Definitely not. That is not their job and it wouldn’t be fair to ask them to try. This is out of their purview.”

“Agreed,” said Adanech. Lebna nodded, having known the idea was flawed while suggesting it.

“What about taking them back to Hirka?” Lulu asked. “Oringo is likely still there. The Yigdu in Hirka are much more aware of your situation, my Lel’ult. And most Yigdu know about him even when they haven’t come from the Basin.”

“But because of that, they all know his position relative to Talei.”

Adanech made a good point. There were far too many good points to make. Why didn’t people ever talk things out?

“However,” the Lel’ult’s spear-sister continued, “he would be willing to do so. And Oringo does have an air about him that makes him easy to speak with. The biggest problem would be escorting them. Are we going to do so without accomplishing what we had come here to do? If not, then how many of us have to go to make certain none of them pull anything off?”

“That’s manageable,” said Talei, looking at Hasani. “If I send you and Bashiri in charge of the other four, you could escort them back to Hirka?”

Hasani nodded without any hesitation. “Of course, my Lel’ult.”

“And the four of us will stay and continue to search. We will stay around Mirtuli until your return.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Lulu said.

“Only if there isn’t actually a larger group they were a part of,” said Adanech. “If that’s the case, we are splitting up and making both sides vulnerable.”

“If there are more people out there waiting for me, then it is better to get some information out of them as soon as possible,” said Talei. “Which we have established won’t happen here. If they want to release their conspirators, then the longer we hold them here the better someone might plan to help them escape. The sooner Hasani and the others go, the sooner they can come back.”

Lulu gave a small audible sound of agreement, with Talei on this. Even as she wondered if they were making a mistake. What if there were four more people, waiting? Knowing what had happened. Well, four on four she felt they could handle, especially as they would still be around other people in Mirtuli.

Unless it was someone else in Mirtuli. Though then they wouldn’t have needed to send a scout. Lulu was much better at fighting than this post or prior-fight strategy.

“Where would the others have been?” Lulu asked. “If there was a larger group, I don’t think they were nearby. They probably don’t know this has happened yet. Or else they would have interfered.”

“You should try to speak with them, one last time,” Lebna said to Talei.

Talei glanced over at Adanech, who stared back at the hut. “It don’t know.”

“One more time,” Adanech agreed. “Would you like someone else to try?”

Talei smiled at her.

“Want me to try?”

“Lebna and I will step in too,” said Lulu. “You two take the outside and the next shift?”

Hasani and Bashiri agreed, so Lulu and Lebna stepped in to relieve Tinotende and Adjoa from duty. The three Yigdu men didn’t look at them at all. The man who had surrendered to them watched their progress from the corner of his eyes, but otherwise focused firmly on the ground.

Lulu and Lebna said nothing. They waited as Adanech came in, Talei standing in the doorway behind her.

“We are trying one more time.” Adanech stepped in and then squatted down to be on their level. She stared intently at all three men, but none of them risked looking back at her. “The Lel’ult refuses to let me battle you for your information, so I am going to ask. You planned on taking the Lel’ult’s life?”

Nothing. Lulu didn’t even see a single one move their lips.

“Was it only the four of you there? This is for your friends safety, if they are out there. We aren’t in practice of keeping our assailants alive, but the Lel’ult would like to.”

Despite the lack of response from their prisoners, Lulu was pleased to hear those words. Every word establishing how happy Talei and Adanech were with Lulu’s choice had made the decision worth it.

Adanech reached out to one of their faces, making the man look her in the eye. He tried to look down, but his eyes caught her face. Perhaps guessing at what had caused her scarring, her dyed skin. His own skin looked similar to Adanech’s, in a way. Many scars, both on and off his blue marks.

“I’m worried now that my fellow spears have knocked you so silly you have forgotten how to speak. Do you think you caused damage to their senses, Lulu?”

“Someone spoke well enough to surrender,” Lulu replied.

“I know when I’m beaten,” the man Adanech held said. Lulu saw the youngest appearing of the men’s eyes dart over, but the other continued to stare resolutely at his feet.

“But not enough to speak up for yourself otherwise,” said Adanech. “Do you have something to say now?”

“You are disgusting. Pretender. Yet another joke that this Lel’ult throws upon us.”

Lulu met Lebna’s eyes. Both wanted to speak, but neither of them would. No interrupting, hopefully Adanech had cracked this one enough. She had let go of his face, still keeping his eyes locked with hers.

“Meanwhile this... this mistakesimply makes the others give in. Gives them false hope, false dreams. We’ll suffer in the end, because she pretends that we can live in the same space. As if anything can make up for what the last Lel’ult did, for what the Emperor has allowed to happen in these lands since the ancestors were alive.”

Lulu felt distant from the conversation. Why did anyone stay here when they said these terrible things? Because they couldn’t escape? The south, the west? The Eagle and the Leopard wouldn’t let the Yigdu by. Who knew about here, in the east. And the north, where the Yigdu could be safe?

Not everyone wanted to live in a swamp.

And the Emperor had people there in the past, keeping people from ing through the Arch. Why?

“How dare she call herself Yigdu when her father was the Lel’ul.”

Lulu wasn’t sure what had happened. One moment she stood at her post and the next she was next to Adanech, her hand stinging and the man’s face turned to the side. She had hit him. She didn’t doing it at first, but the memory slowly returned.

Adanech had Lulu’s wrist in hand, but it didn’t calm her in the slightest.

“How dare you,” Lulu spat at him. “You plan on murdering her, then judge everyone on their race when that was the reason everything went so badly in the first place! You can’t complain about people keeping that divide and tricking others when you are the one doing it! What, it’s okay when you do it, but not anyone else? What is wrong with you?”

Lebna had her other arm now. The muscles in Lulu’s main hand relaxed, lowering. Adanech’s fingers still lightly surrounded her wrist.

“It is not okay for anyone to do it,” said Talei, quietly. “But using the excuse of someone else doing it first is no excuse at all. If that is all you have to say, I understand.”

Talei made a motion and Hasani and Bashiri entered to replace her and Lebna as the four of them stepped outside. Lulu took a few moments, closing her eyes to dissipate her anger. It was gone, just like that, leaving her only with the irritation she knew she should have felt in the first place. Where had such fury come from?

What a question. She knew exactly where. That blanket of blame which threatened Talei when all she did was her best. Her best with what she was

given, a bloodline she had not asked for.

“No good?”

Lulu looked over to see Yahim. She wondered how much he had heard.

Talei ignored him. “Thank you, Lulu. I’m not sure that helped, but...”

Adanech squeezed Lulu’s hand.

Lulu sighed, shaking her head. “As long as you never take those sorts of words to heart, my Lel’ult. What you do is good. Never blame yourself for the actions or the beings of those who came before you and shaped you. Only with what you do with such things.”

Talei smiled at her, before looking at all her spears. “It seems the best option is sending them to Hirka.”

“I don’t think so.”

They looked at Yahim. Talei’s lips pursed together, but before the silence between them could linger for too long Adanech spoke. “It’s not your place what we do with those we should have struck down in battle, Yahim. They wish to kill our Lel’ult.”

Yahim rose a hand, waving it slowly. “I understand. What I meant to say is that you should send them to the Basin.”

Talei started. “Send them to the Basin?”

“Not to the Table. They should live in the swamp. Those there can teach and watch them from there. They can learn a new perspective, whether they want to or not.”

“That won’t get us any information,” Lebna said slowly.

Talei bit her lower lip, but Lulu spoke up. “But if there aren’t any more? If Oringo gets the information out of them? What do we do with them next? We don’t kill them without a fair fight. But... why have a fair fight when we might eventually get through to them?”

“It’s a thought,” said Talei. “For after. I will send a message to Oringo and to my grandmother about this. It will be up to them what happens and what we might learn. We have other things to focus on.”

“More important than this?” Adanech asked.

“If we don’t find out, we’ll never know how important.”

The next morning, the burial took place. Talei let the other three come out and speak for the woman.

She had three younger brothers to return to and dreams of raising crops instead of living a nomadic life. Now that no one asked them questions, the three men did not hesitate to speak. To cry. One even had a name now, Mwangi. The one with the most scars.

Three brothers.

Lulu looked at her hands.

Yigdu or no, they practiced the same rites. All had to be buried before the morning light had ed. It was all the same.

Negasi

Yahim knelt outside town, with Negasi standing at his side. On the coast, past where the fishers had pulled their boats onto shore, Yahim waited at the deep recesses of the sands where fish would come and go. His spear was in hand. He was ready.

He had swallowed enough pride to ask Negasi his advice on the matter. If nothing else came of this, Lulu was touched Yahim had done that to help her. Right now, however, she needed to decide what the best moment to advance on the two would be. She didn’t want to it to be too soon, but she didn’t want to miss her opportunity.

Lulu took in a deep breath, pushed her hair back over her shoulder and walked up. Negasi struck with his spear, coming up with a fish almost without showing any effort. It was impressive, even as she could only see his movements from behind. Yahim noticed her coming, but didn’t draw attention toward her, shifting his own hold on his spear and peering down into the waters.

There was nothing else for it. Lulu walked up besides the both of them. She kept a careful eye on the spear.

Negasi glanced over. She watched as his hand clench tight around the shaft, but he only took off his catch and threw it in his basket, on top of the others filling the bottom. He said something under his breath to Yahim and turned to walk away.

“You don’t need to go,” said Yahim. “Lulu won’t do anything.”

“She’s done enough.”

Lulu took it in stride, because it was true. “Hello. Yahim, Negasi.”

“Don’t try to make this something it isn’t,” said Negasi, turning around.

“Please, Negasi. I’m so close to getting one. She won’t do anything.”

He said it so easily, Lulu wouldn’t have had an idea at all about how stubborn he had been before about taking advice on how to fish.

“I mean no disrespect, Yahim, but you came from the Basin. You don’t actually know anything about the horrors of the Cleansing and what this woman has done.”

“Yet what I want to do now is have a moment to speak,” said Lulu. “I-”

“-don’t want to hear it.” Negasi glared at her. Lulu would have shouted it at him, but she had the impression it wouldn’t do much. Her words didn’t mean anything to him now, but they would mean less when screamed. He had to be willing to listen.

“I may not have experienced it with my own eyes, but I know many who have had to deal with the aftermath of the Cleansing.” Yahim rested the butt of Shauntia’s spear into the sand, leaning into it heavily as he looked between her

and Negasi. “Those who have lost everything. And more. Not everyone has decided that things have stopped at that moment. Things change and move on.”

“Things change and move away from the time before that terrible action was taken,” Negasi said bitterly. “And you can’t understand what it was like. No one can, unless they were here, running away from everyone, everything, not knowing who might be coming over the plain. I envy your perspective. I can’t share it.”

That said, he moved away. Lulu opened her mouth again, but even as she started to speak he did not slow, did not pause. Negasi wouldn’t listen to her at all.

Lulu shut her eyes tightly for a moment before sighing. “I’m... Thank you for the attempt, Yahim.”

Yahim shook his head. “I hate to say this Lulu, but he doesn’t want to be swayed. You’ll be better off placing your effort in other things.”

“Should I give up on becoming a better person?” Lulu asked. Yahim didn’t expect those words, but before he could answer she shook her head. “Of course not. That is a ridiculous question. I will find a way. Somehow. It might take a while. I might have to come back much later to Mirtuli to try again. But I will have to try. For him, for Talei, for me... for everyone.”

“I’ve lost the thread of your meaning,” said Yahim, “but no. Never give up on bettering yourself. That sounds like a strange thing to ask of someone. Stop being better?”

Lulu chuckled.

“Still, you might be putting more importance on this than you should. Perhaps in this particular case, you should back off. You do appear to be making it worse.”

“Lots gets worse before getting better,” Lulu said firmly.

Yet she knew there was a long way down to go. Just because one hit bottom didn’t mean they would make it back even to where they started.

What she was doing was wrong. Lulu wandered back into the centre of the town, then headed out to the beach again. Many of the fishers had gathered there, discussing plans and drinking the season’s drink. Lulu saw Shauntia, who waved her over to .

“Where’s your brother?” she asked, handing Lulu a bowl.

“With the Lel’ult. Giving me a bit of time for me.” Lulu grinned, gratefully taking the drink with both of her hands and taking a large gulp.

“Good day?”

Lulu let out a huge breath. “Not really.”

“Want to talk about it?” asked another.

She should have said no, but Lulu thought about it. She wasn’t a secretive person and really, what was the worst that could happen? They could all turn against her. They wouldn’t attack her, because of her position with the Lel’ult, but she could easily become outcast from this place and most of the coast.

Despite those thoughts which should have made her nervous as all things, Lulu didn’t find any hesitation in her. “I tried to smooth things over with Negasi, who very much dislikes me. Not for wrong reasons either. But I failed at that.”

“Negasi is a distant person.” Another fisherwoman shrugged, bringing her bowl to her lips. “He isn’t likely to accept apologies or the like.”

“He’s the best fisher out of all of you, didn’t you say?” Lulu asked, looking at Shauntia.

Shauntia grimaced, but nodded. “That is true. He’s very good at it. Partially because of his technique, and perhaps a bit because of luck.”

“You mentioned you didn’t know about how he managed that.”

The Yigdu woman nodded. “Not in the slightest. In fact, one of the things I know that helps... I don’t know how he does that either.” Lulu’s confusion must have been apparent, because Shauntia didn’t make her ask. “He’s the only one who

has ever managed to take his boat all the way out to Seconmoy.”

Almost as one, Lulu and the others looked out to the island in the distance. From Mirtuli itself the island was harder to see, but here and with the weather of the day Lulu could manage. Lebna could probably see it better. Lulu decided she would ask him about it. “What happens to the other boats?”

“They sink,” said another. “For a myriad of reasons. The eastern coast of Seconmoy is the best place to catch fish on the entire coast, perhaps in the entire land. Yet all our boats hit sand, rocks, sea creatures, something. They leak, they turn, they sink. Whenever any of us head out in that direction...” He slapped his hands together, letting them slide right off from each other.

Lulu frowned. “Sounds haunted.”

“But it’s not!” Shauntia shifted in closer. She didn’t actually bring her volume down much, despite acting as though she was going to give a secret. “I’ve been out there many times. The place is beautiful. Safe. Nothing to prey upon us. Lots of fish. Nothing to suggest an evil spirit.”

“How many boats have you lost?”

Shauntia laughed along with Lulu. “Only a few! And I’d end up swimming over to the island and waiting before making it all the way back home.”

“Yet Negasi can take his boat there?”

“All the time,” said the other Yigdu woman. “Who knows what he does. He has taken a few of us with him and he doesn’t seem to do anything special. Yet he’s had the same boat for years, while the rest of us have had to make new ones at least once because of the waters. Yet he can make it out there and get the best of the catches and we can only do the same when he takes us with him.”

“It’s odd,” Shauntia said.

Lulu drank with the rest of them and wondered.

Lulu returned to Lebna and where he sat with Talei and Adanech in front of the Sayer’s house. Lebna’s fingers moved deftly as he shelled the nuts the Sayer had brought out to work with (as always, helpful that Lebna), placing the insides in one spot and the shells in another. The Sayer’s interest fell to the shells. Quietly, Lulu sat by Lebna to assist.

“Then we will have the others set off back to Hirka tomorrow,” Talei was saying.

“Not much to speak of with your search so far, my Lel’ult?” the Sayer asked.

With a frown, Talei looked over at her and Lebna. “Anything new? Or should we bring together what we have learnt so far?”

Lebna shook his head. “Absolutely nothing. People are only familiar with the Jackal of the Basin. No one else has heard of the Eagle, or even the Leopard,

except for those who were in the south with us.”

“Let’s take a different angle.” Adanech sat upright on her ankles, hands on her knees as she leaned forward slightly. “What is the most promising direction we could take this?”

Talei rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. “But we don’t have any information. How can a direction be promising if we have nothing?”

Lulu frowned, putting down the shells she had in hand. “We don’t have nothing. I’ve heard something interesting, whether or not it has anything to do with the beast.”

She had all their attention, but Lulu decided to direct her words to the Sayer, who would definitely have more to say on the matter.

“I’ve heard how no one can get away with their boat intact near Seconmoy.”

Everyone watched her but Talei, who glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the coast. “What happens?”

“It sounds like just about everything. Rocks, waves, animals.”

“I’ve heard similar,” said Adanech. “That’s why that place up the coast is considered the best fishing place. The best is actually near the island, but people

don’t often make it out there.”

“Apparently Negasi can maneuver through the waters,” Lulu started at the same time as the Sayer spoke. She fell silent, letting the older woman speak without further interruption.

“There is the land bridge during low tide. Sometimes, when one wants a larger catch than normal, they take the days to walk when the bridge is exposed, catch as many fish as their hearts desire, and then walk back with it during the next low tide. That was done for the festival, my Lel’ult.”

“Yet it’s almost as though evil spirits haunt the place?” Lebna asked, confused.

“Not in the slightest. Perhaps in the waters around the island, but not on the island itself. No one has had a problem while on land out there.”

“Could we go and check it out?” asked Talei.

“If the beast was there, someone surely would have seen it,” Lebna replied.

“Doesn’t have to be there,” said Adanech. “All that has to be there is a clue. Perhaps something like in the cave. Something no one else would have thought twice about.”

“No one would be against you seeing Seconmoy,” the Sayer said to Talei. “Your

next chance would be in three days. And if the search takes you long enough, you had best be prepared to a few days on the island until the water comes down enough for the bridge.” She brought out a few wooden sticks, rolling them in her hand with a few shells Lebna had set aside. “Likely another four after that, considering the season. I will know the timing better the closer the day comes.”

“That’s perfect,” said Talei. “Enough time to prepare, enough time to then search. Thank you, grandmother.”

Talei and Adanech stood up and after the Sayer batted them away, Lulu dragged Lebna to follow.

“What’s on your mind?” Adanech asked Talei.

“What happens if we find the beast over there? I know that no one else has seen one, so it is unlikely, but if we are trapped on the island and it shows up?”

“Lebna and I could scout first,” Lulu offered, but Talei shook her head.

“No, of course not. The four of us are going. I only want to be completely prepared for all eventualities... Well, as prepared as we can be.”

“As that one is unlikely, what else?” asked Adanech.

“You will likely want something to record things if we do find carvings similar

to the ones in the desert,” said Lebna.

The Lel’ult brightened. “Yes, I will need something to write on for copy. It was one thing trying to reproduce the language for the Emperor to see if she recognized it, but I knew my attempts were shadows of the real thing. If I can copy something like that she might actually know more than my approximations could ever be.”

Talei and Adanech went to discuss the situation with Hasani and Bashiri, leaving Lulu and Lebna on watch. It reminded her of the desert, sitting in a tree and all of town in view. Except Mirtuli was huge with no one place that would give them the best view over the town and its surroundings. Yet they went up a hill to the northwest of town. It was easy to look down on most of the huts from there. It was also easy to look up the coast to where they had caught the three assassins.

“Do you think it was only those four?” Lebna asked.

Lulu was either obvious or Lebna had become much more observant of what was on Lulu’s mind at all times. “I never believe that there isn’t someone currently in the area who wants to hurt our Lel’ult.”

Lebna laughed in surprise. “You sound like Adanech.”

“The only reason I don’t act like it is because I don’t want the Lel’ult to get nervous. She’s used to Adanech. I figured when she started taking a bit more to the both of us that she could have used a bit more relaxed of a guard. At least, one who appeared more relaxed.”

His eyes caught off somewhere closer to the beach. Lulu looked, seeing the tiny figures of the people all the way out there. Everything seemed normal enough. Lebna stroked his Eagle’s feather.

“Adanech has a way of always being vigilant. You can tell, but at the same time sometimes you can forget that she is? I’m not as good at that, it’s a constant struggle for me.”

“It fits her persona a bit better,” Lebna itted. “You are much more upbeat.”

Lulu laughed. “I’m considered to be such in comparison to many people.”

“Don’t I know it.”

They fell into a companionable silence. Everything in Mirtuli looked well. Perhaps there weren’t any more than those four. They had said nothing because they didn’t want everyone to think they were alone. Considering what had happened during the Cleansing to those who had given up information, she could understand. That they still thought they would be handled with in the same way as the Cleansing was unfortunate. Sad. Understandable. Lulu took in a deep breath and looked out to the water again.

“You know, Shauntia told me that Negasi is the only person who has managed to go back and forth from Seconmoy in his boat without issue.”

“Is that so?” Lebna scanned the area, before looking behind them and off to the west. “That is something. I have to wonder what is out there that only bothers people in the water but apparently lets them stay comfortably on the island.”

“Could be the waters. They only seem to stay close to the coast to a certain extent, or head up the river. That’s nothing like Mazundu.”

“And nothing like Surayday. They head out some distance from land as well.”

“You think the handed beast might be some sea creature?” Lulu asked. She couldn’t ignore Lebna doing his best to steer the conversation away from Negasi. She appreciated it in some way, even if he did it for reasons other than her.

“If it was going to attack them for heading out too far east, surely they wouldn’t have been able to swim to the island.”

Lulu agreed. Yet... “Negasi somehow manages with whatever it is.”

Lebna pursed his lips. “If it is something he knows about and has kept it to himself from the people he lives with... He seems to like these people, even if he is distant from them. It is less likely that he would tell the Lel’ult about it. Even without us around.”

Precisely what Lulu had tried to consider. With a sigh, she nodded and let it be.

Hidden Preparation

Back in Mirtuli, they found the Lel’ult trying to keep her argument with Yahim under wraps. No matter how quiet she was, the residents of Mirtuli knew. When Lulu and Lebna asked, everyone pointed them in that direction. Lulu was more concerned until she saw Yahim, then she was slightly exasperated. Oddly enough, Adanech was not there.

“A letter to Oringo or your grandmother ought to be enough. Hasani or Adjoa could say whatever you’d want them to say. You don’t order where I go or don’t, Talei.”

“It’s not about that.” Talei was taking in some controlled breaths, as though she was sparring with her spear. “The idea to take them to the Basin was yours. I feel that you should be the one to tell Oringo that. The Basin isn’t my land, I do not have say over that. It would be better if it came from youand not from me sayingit was you.”

“I will write a letter.” Yahim folded his arms across his chest. “You don’t tell me what to do. And you especially don’t get to say where it is I go.” He strode off, leaving Talei’s mouth open as she was about to retort.

“Everything all right, my Lel’ult?” Lebna asked, walking up to her.

“If I stab him would someone get upset?” Talei’s voice was a low whine.

Lulu rubbed her shoulder with one hand before looking off to Yahim. Lebna’s words from earlier came back to mind. Treating some people well doesn’t

excuse what they do.

She gave Lebna a look, which he caught. He was first confused, before he realized she was leaving Talei to him. “Where’s Adanech?” he asked her. “Though if you are feeling like this, perhaps it was good she wasn’t here. She might have run him through for you.”

“Or maybe I wouldn’t feel like doing it at all.”

With a final pat to the Lel’ult’s shoulder, Lulu rushed off after Yahim. It didn’t take her long at all. He headed to the coastline. She pulled out her spear.

Then smacked him in the back of the head with the butt of it.

Yahim had realized something was coming, but hadn’t moved enough to dodge the blow. He stumbled forward and turned, looking confounded. “Lulu? What-”

“I don’t care how you actually feel about my Lel’ult,” Lulu said, jabbing the butt of her spear in his direction again. He took a step back, even though she didn’t come close to striking him again. “She is still an important figure. Even if she wasn’t, she is still a good person. Even if you don’t think so, people are meant to be treated well. You can’t treat her like that, you petulant little boy.”

The confusion in his face washed away with anger, but Yahim reined himself in. “You can’t talk to me like that.”

“You talk to herlike this,” Lulu said. “And in the end, while she is asking you for help, your response is you can’t tell me what to do. I don’t care whether you go or stay, but that is the response of a petulant child.”

Yahim stretched out his fingers, looking away from her. She thought he might yell, but instead he took a few deep breaths. “All right. Perhaps I went a little too far this time.”

“No. Not this time. You alwaysdo this, Yahim. Because you want to prove that you can stay here and that you aren’t one of the Lel’ult’s people. But it’s wrong. What you are doing is wrong. And I’m not going to wait any longer for the Lel’ult to call you out on it.”

Now Yahim looked ready to shout, squaring his shoulders. His volume only increased slightly. “All right... Perhaps I do. Great leaders are made when pushed forward by strife.”

“She has enough strife. She was made in it and it is still there.”

He shook his head. “There is a difference between the strife that intends to hurt, that strife of people who wish your end, and that caused by simple confrontation. Confrontation where you do not have to worry about your end, about any retaliation. Like when you work with your spear in the morning. A spar.”

Lulu put the butt of her spear into the ground, her left hand gripping on it as comfortably as ever. “There is that. But we respect each other. We work together to learn better. That isn’t strife, Yahim. That is collaboration. That is respect. And if you respect the Lel’ult at all, you had best start showing it, because if you

keep this up I’m going to do more than give you a bruise on your skull.”

Frowning, Yahim placed his hands on his hips. “All right. I concede to your point. There... ought to be more of a middle ground I can take. I don’t want to be easy on her though. Enough of you are. She can’t only have confrontation against those who also want her harm. She needs some conflict against those who want the best for her. That is how great leaders are made.”

“You want the best for her?”

He laughed. “Of course! Look what she wants to accomplish, whether it is probable or not! A place where we all could live in relative harmony? Where the problems between us have less to do with the blue that mark some of us? That can’t be the Basin, where you would die if you stayed for too long. It has to be here. Here in a place where we can fight over necessities rather than constructed conflict.”

The last of that seemed strange to Lulu, but Yahim walked away from her. Not back to Talei. Probably somewhere to steam off. She knew she had toed a line with insulting him, but there was only so much polite talk had done before.

She felt another approaching. Lulu turned to see Adanech. “How did it go?”

Lulu returned her spear to her back. “Only time will tell if he actually understood like he said. That he changes his actions. But he does know now. He can’t pretend he doesn’t. I’m sorry, I know the Lel’ult wanted to deal with this a different way, but I couldn’t take the both of them acting like children.”

Adanech smiled. “You made the right decision. How did you get him to it at all? He can be so dense.”

Lulu chewed on her tongue, trying to think if there was anything special she had done. She shrugged. “I just was blunt, that’s all.”

Adanech chuckled. “Really? That seems strange of you.”

“Oh?”

“You are one of the most honest people I know, but I never thought to describe you as blunt.”

Lulu grinned. “Really? Well, I suppose I never thought much about it before.”

“I suppose self description isn’t as necessary when you are that comfortable in yourself.”

Adanech almost sounded wistful. Lulu couldn’t imagine Adanech not being comfortable in herself. Lulu knew who she was, most definitely.

Lulu cleared her throat. “You know, I don’t want to be reading too much into it, but... do you think that Yahim has feelings for the Lel’ult? Might be part of the

reason he is such an ass to her.”

The topic surprised Adanech, but she did not shrug it off. When she spoke, it was obvious to Lulu she had considered it differently. “I don’t even want to think about dealing with that mess. Having to have a union... it isn’t something I’d hope for Talei.”

Lulu frowned. That was true, as the Emperor’s heir she would haveto have a union.

“Many will want it to be Yigdu, to help with relations. Just as many won’t though, not because they don’t like Yigdu, but because they don’t want to be overtaken and have the shoe put on the other foot.”

“Ah...” Lulu shook her head. “That’s too confusing. Politics involved with a union? I can’t imagine having to make such a decision with that in mind. I don’t envy her one bit.”

“Neither do I. I can only hope that Talei... is able to make the most of it.”

“You didn’t actually say if you agreed with me about Yahim though.”

Adanech shrugged. “Other than how Reem felt for Lebna... I can’t tell how someone knows that about someone. It was so obvious with Reem. Maybe because I knew her so well.”

The question slipped out without Lulu thinking enough of it to be embarrassed. “Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have a union? Never crossed your mind?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I’m avoiding it, but I never went looking either.”

“Fair enough. There’s enough to do at times without actually looking. Maybe one day... but there has to be some requirement she must meet, right?”

Adanech frowned, then nodded. “Yes. She’ll have to be able to match me. That’s all I want.”

Lulu tried to not start grinning like a maniac. “Of course it is.”

She already strove for that. She would make it one day. And when Lulu did, maybe Adanech could be hers.

Hasani and the other spears took the prisoners westward. Yahim did not go. Lulu didn’t know whether he had discussed the topic with Talei again, but it didn’t take long to realize whether he had or not, Talei’s feathers were still ruffled. She, Lulu, Lebna and Adanech sat in the Lel’ult’s tent as she outlined the next step.

“We should keep our trip to the island a secret,” said Talei. “I know the Sayer said no one would mind, but as we still don’t want to bring up that we are searching for a beast on the coast, it might be best if we keep mum.”

“I don’t think they would be all that confused as to why you would want to check out Seconmoy,” said Lulu. “Is that the only reason?”

“It still might come out,” said Talei. “I spoke with the Sayer. She promised to keep quiet. As far as anyone else in concerned, we are planning to check out the land down the coast while the others are gone. We have to move fast enough when our opportunity comes.”

“We’ll need to prepare for a few days on our own,” said Adanech, “but that won’t be any trouble.”

“Definitely not.” Talei looked ready to go. She also looked quite happy about it, as she slipped out of the hut.

Adanech started after her, but paused between Lulu and Lebna.

“She doesn’t want Yahim to follow us,” she said pointedly.

Lulu couldn’t help but laugh, even though she didn’t want to. “But... but that’s... that’s not helpful at all!”

“No, it’s not.”

Lebna sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “This is a lot of trouble just because Yahim is...”

“An ass?” Adanech gave Lulu a look.

Lulu smiled, leaning back on her hands. “Right. The type of person Yahim wants to be for the Lel’ult is irable, only if he could get past the being a jerk part.”

“If Talei asks about it, I will say as such,” Adanech began, “but I’m not sticking my nose in this. You did your part, Lulu, but they must both learn how to be adults. As long as it’s only affecting the both of them, we don’t have much right to do more. Not if we want them to learn.”

Lulu nodded, as well as Lebna, but Lebna was the one who spoke. “I wish we could sit them both down. Make them talk it out.”

“Something we do for children,” Adanech told him.

“Are they really older than that now?”

Both Lulu and Adanech burst out laughing. Lulu wasn’t sure if it was because, despite being a woman and a man, Talei and Yahim really did seem like children to her or if it was because the thought should have made her feel old. She felt no older than she had.

Lulu didn’t think they needed to prepare food, considering how bountiful Mirtuli said Seconmoy was, but as they were pretending to travel up the coast instead, she and Lebna went fishing with Shauntia again. Yahim came to try again as

well. Lulu didn’t recognize the spear he had in hand and wondered if someone had found him one he could hold on to for longer. Shauntia had reclaimed hers.

“How is your progress?” Yahim asked Lebna.

“Better than I could have hoped. Lulu’s tips make me feel like I’m not as much of a novice.”

“Hm.”

“I would have given you some tips,” said Lulu, “but you made it abundantly clear that you didn’t want any assistance.”

He didn’t seem to hold anything of their previous confrontation against her. Or he hid it well. He shrugged it off. “Perhaps I’ve been trying to do too much on my own.”

“At least when it comes to fishing,” Lulu agreed, but Yahim shook his head.

“All the way around. I’ve been thinking about it a good deal since our last conversation, Lulu. What I do now is a position I gave myself, no one else did. There is no precedent for any of this. I still think what I do is important though. I can’t give that up.”

“You don’t have to,” said Lebna. “You don’t have to give up your freedom here

and you don’t have to stop following your own Chieftain to work with us a bit better. Which includes taking advice as well as giving it.”

Here he was, thinking about it, while Talei was trying to give him the slip. Lulu wanted to be like Adanech and keep herself out of it. She had to, because Talei had told them not to tell anyone. She knew Yahim wouldn’t be happy when he found out they left him behind. She wondered if there was anything she could say to change Talei’s mind. But that wasn’t staying out of it. “I like you a lot, Yahim,” Lulu said, “so I would like you to be a more cohesive part of the team.”

“I understand that. There is...” Yahim watched as Lebna thrust down and came up with a large fish. Lulu whistled, impressed. “There is something different in how you do things down here. Not a large difference, not one of those things where I can point it out as being so different. Just something that’s... small, but important in some way.”

“Could be how active we are.” Lulu had never been to the Basin, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t heard much about it from Talei or from Oringo about the place. “Not to say that you all don’t have important things to work out, but you have the Jackal. He keeps everything in balance. When you get into danger in the Basin, it tends to be more danger that you walk into or invite. Here, it could show up from anywhere, anything. And your community lives together on Table mountain, not strewn all the way out over the swamp.”

Yahim considered, no longer as interested in the fishing. Lulu took the time to skewer one. She showed it to Lebna, to make him more impressed at the size of his catch. She removed it from her spear, tossing it aside into the basket.

“Probably,” Yahim agreed. “We are one family. Unlike here, where you are a collection of families who are supposed to have the same rules, but how can you

know when you are so far apart?”

“A desire for consistency, maybe.” Lulu pointed out a spot and Yahim stared into the waters, getting ready. “We all want to know that we are in the same boat, so it were. Know that wherever we go we know how to deal with our disputes. If people didn’t want to do that, they could always not. Depending on what they are doing would be whether the Emperor wanted to stop it or not.”

“Shouldn’t she want to? It’s her land.”

“It’s her land, of course. But why stop it unless it kept her own people from actively standing on it?”

Yahim frowned. “That seems like rather lax governing for such a large area.”

Was it? Lulu didn’t understand how it all worked. “I never thought too much about it before. But... one thing I have thought of lately was that even before the Cleansing, there has been more Yigdu down here than up in the Basin. What do you think about that?”

Yahim looked away from the water for a moment, the question catching him off guard. “I never thought too much about it. It’s just how it was. Perhaps because there is more space down here. Well, open space. Places to settle. We’re very careful with our resources.”

Shauntia spoke up, surprising Lulu as she hadn’t realized the others were paying

this conversation much attention. “How things were, it’s not like we had a single place that was easy to settle down. A lot of roaming, it was. You think that would make it harder for there to be many of us.”

They all went deep in thought. Lebna gave Lulu a knowing look as she pulled out an even bigger fish. “People will find a way to survive. That includes trying harder in places where things are more difficult.”

“True,” said Yahim, finally striking. His spear came up with nothing and he let out a few words Lulu had never heard before. Shauntia started laughing like a little girl and Yahim quickly tried to take it back.

“I tried to speak with Negasi. About going out to the island.”

Lulu sat down by the Lel’ult, who had retired after dinner into her hut. Adanech packed while Talei examined the soles of her shoes. She hadn’t worn them much in Mirtuli, but Lulu knew she would put them on when they were on their own. Talei did like wrapping her feet.

“What did he say?” Lulu asked.

“Nothing useful. He says he doesn’t know. He has taken others with him and not had a problem, but apparently others don’t have that same luck.”

“He was lying,” said Adanech. Both of them looked over.

“About?” asked Lulu.

“I don’t know. Whether it was about that or something else on his mind...” Adanech sat back on her heels. “He was lying about something.”

“There isn’t much else we can do about that,” said Talei. “I’m not about to force him for information. We’re fine walking there.”

Lulu thought on the island. She had spent some time staring at it, so now she had a perfect picture in her mind. It wasn’t small, but it wasn’t all that large from this side either. A few days ought to be enough for them to examine the entire place. Likely find nothing? Lulu didn’t know.

“Lebna is worried that the creature might be there and we will be trapped with it.”

Talei looked at her strangely. “But if it was there, surely someone would have seen it by now.”

“I know, just repeating what he said.”

Which is when Lulu thought of it. How the Leopard hadn’t cared to go after them at all. She couldn’t see one of these beasts destroying people’s boats to get at them but then not kill those who had fallen in the water. Unless it was the boats? What if the handed beast was in the water, truly, and couldn’t do anything to those on land?

It didn’t explain Negasi in the slightest.

In the end, Lulu and the others decided the best option would be to stay away from the water’s edge. Just in case.

Seconmoy

The sands were wet and firm. Lulu ran across it, Lebna behind her, Talei and Adanech in front. They had plenty of time, the Sayer had told them, but they didn’t want to risk the water coming close. Especially not with the increasing feeling the handed beast dwelt in the water, somewhere. Lulu’s imagination had provided her with strange human hands emerging from the waves to grab at them, to drag them into the depths.

No one else on the coast had had a problem with this. At least, not that people had noticed. Then again, somehow everyone in the south had lived in the area without anyone noticing the sandstorms were often caused by an overly energetic and gigantic leopard.

Lulu wondered how obvious they were, running across the bridge toward Seconmoy. If Yahim had noticed yet. They had several hours of this, before the bridge would become something more to wade across. The Sayer had said it spent most of its time like that. Not something one could move fast on, but not completely trapping them on the island if the beast turned out to be there.

Not in the water.

Lulu kept her eyes open.

They paced themselves until they reached the shore. When far enough from the water to feel comfortable, the four took a moment to take in some deep breaths and rest their legs. Adanech straightened up first, already examining their new ground. Lulu meant to do the same, but found herself staring back at the mainland.

It looked strange. From here, the coast looked bigger than it had from standing on the hill above Mirtuli. Perhaps because the water was no longer the focus. That lay behind her. Now it was the land and it was completely different perspective, one Lulu didn’t know what to do with. There was something about the shore.

“The... the everything,” said Talei and Lulu noticed she looked at the same thing. “It’s not like it’s a revelation. I’ve travelled through so much of the Emperor’s... through my lands. Yet from here it looks so much bigger.”

“It does,” Lulu agreed.

Talei then looked in the same direction as Adanech, into the thick trees of Seconmoy. “This island looks bigger from here too.”

“We will still be able to manage it all before the next low tide,” said Adanech. “Only the four of us? Nothing to worry about. Let’s see if we can come up with anything interesting.”

“If not, consider it some time off,” Lebna said.

Lulu chuckled and, nudging elbows with the Lel’ult, headed into the trees.

Seconmoy was a strange place. Lulu couldn’t put her finger on why. She wondered if this was a similar feeling to how Yahim had described her entire

culture in comparison to his. It wasn’t foreign, not completely, but there was something different enough and her inability to put a finger on the one thing that really changed things held her attention. The trees were thick and luscious, as though the rains had come the proper amount, yet Lulu knew it hadn’t rained while they had been here. Even if it had, the soil wasn’t mud, but comfortably squishy. It didn’t stick to the bottom of her feet, wasn’t filled with lots of littered sticks.

Perhaps it was too perfect, as though someone lived here and tended to the land. Yet not enough of it was. Lulu brushed aside spider webs and avoided the biting insect. The west side of the island was clearer than anything further in. The sands were smooth and tiered, waiting for the water to submerge it soon. Nothing there was strange at all. Nothing implied a past people had left anything behind.

Heading inward, they startled some birds who took up into the treetops, but that was the most of it. Lebna spotted some lemurs. Those were the largest creatures anyone spotted during the entire first day. Talei didn’t know whether they should keep talking or resort to whistles, because if they stayed quiet the moment someone stepped past a tree half of the party would lose visual confirmation. It wasn’t as though she had to push between the trees to walk, but the low hanging branches were like curtains. While sunlight easily came through the trees, seeing anything from a distance within certain clusters of the trees was sometimes impossible.

Talei stopped her from walking straight off a cliff, when Lulu thought the island had finally opened up.

“If everyone hadn’t already told us that they had safely been here, this would have to show us instead,” said Lebna, placing a hand on her shoulder. “There is no way a large beast could live onthis island. There is not nearly enough room for one.”

“Which leaves me thinking about a fish,” said Lulu. “A fish with human hands. How would that work?”

She tried to imagine it, but the only image she came up with were hands plastered to the side of a huge fish where its fins should have been. Which looked stupid. If hands were there, they wouldn’t be very useful. Unless it had arms coming out from there too. She coughed.

“As well as any of them, I suppose,” said Lebna. “Any animal having human hands is strange. Just because we’ve seen others with it and can think of those doesn’t make it less strange.”

“If it were a gorilla, it wouldn’t be as weird, would it?” asked Talei.

“They already have hands similar to ours.” Adanech looked down the cliff. Lulu thought they could use some of the trees to carefully make their way down, but a single slip would make for an uncomfortable fall. It was likely there was another way down. They would look for that.

“The strangest one is still a fish.” Lulu started alongside the cliff edge, listening and not watching as the others followed. “I can’t decide if it would have arms or not.”

Talei giggled.

“If it does, it probably still wouldn’t do a very good job dragging itself out of the water,” said Adanech.

“How long would the arms have to be to make us worry?” asked Talei.

“From here?” Lulu waved her free hand about. “Impossible. An arm that big couldn’t make it past these trees!”

“Can’t rule out that it may be another bird,” Adanech’s voice came up from behind.

“Even then we’re still safe under all of these trees.” Lulu looked up. It didn’t shut out the light like some trees did in Geresu, but it would be difficult for someone to reach down through. Even if they broke the branches, it would slow them down. Plus, where would such a bird perch? Without anyone on the mainland seeing it?

“What if it was an insect?” asked Talei. “A huge insect would be as big as any of us, wouldn’t it?”

Lulu knew she wasn’t the only one who shuddered at the thought.

“I’m going to have nightmares about that,” Lebna muttered.

“I can’t decide if a spider or a beetle would be worse,” Talei continued, making

the topic worse.

“A mosquito,” said Adanech.

“Stop!” said Lulu. “Unless you can tell me where the human hands would be on any of those things.”

She tried to think if a large spider would still only have two human hands or four, but couldn’t decide. Nor did she want to think about it. Instead she went for what a huge ant would look like, but couldn’t decide on the hands again.

“What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t become complacent,” said Adanech.

Talei sighed. “Reminder noted. Complacency would have us miss what we’re looking for anyway, if anything is here.”

As far as they could tell, during that first day, there wasn’t anything here to worry about. Working their way to the east side, they found the island was somewhat shaped like a crescent, an inner bay a large expanse of still water which opened out into the waters beyond. Lulu and Lebna went down to check the water’s edge first, as carefully as they could. Part of it was shallow enough, Lulu didn’t think they would have to worry about something reaching them so quickly. She calculated how far up the water would come with the rising tide.

“The tip on the left doesn’t look to head out as far as the one to the right.” Talei pointed out to the top of the crescent, the northern edge. Lebna moved over to

her side to look as well, the two of them staying on the inside of the bay but heading out that direction.

Lulu glanced back at the water. It was calm here. Peaceful. She wondered if there was a creature to worry about at all. Perhaps not. Though it didn’t mean there might not be something else to find here. Some carvings about the creatures somewhere. If there wasn’t, well, they’d just started.

“You think Yahim is missing us yet?” she asked Adanech, who had squatted down a little ways down the beach.

Adanech said nothing.

Lulu made her way over to see what had Adanech’s attention. Grooves in the wet sand, not sharply done, but perhaps not recent either.

“These are strange,” Adanech finally said. “Everything here is strange. Because it’s been so peaceful. It shouldn’t feel this peaceful. Where has it last felt so peaceful?”

There was no answer. Even in Hirka, at the Emperor’s Lake, Lulu was always on alert. Animals who might roam by, waiting to pick off someone travelling alone between two places. The assassins who would try to pick off Talei no matter where she was at. There was always something.

Yet on an island where people had difficulty arriving at, with no animals larger

than the ive lemurs above, this place was peaceful. Adanech needed everyone to hold their suspicion, but Lulu didn’t want to be suspicious. She wanted to think a place as nice as this could exist.

Yet.

Lulu squatted down as well, across from Adanech as she hovered over the markings. Taking her hand out, she pretending to graze over it with her hand.

Their eyes met. Adanech whistled out. Talei. Lebna.

Lulu turned, not leaving her back toward the water. Talei and Lebna jogged over. The water was still, calm. Further in, she could see the slight motion of fish. Unworried. Calm, peaceful.

“What is it?” Talei asked, looking down where Adanech still stared at the markings.

“It’s here,” was all she said. “Or it was.”

They all looked into the water, the direction where the beast had to have clawed from. Talei let out a deep breath.

“There will be something to find here then,” said the Lel’ult. “Whether something left to us by the ancestors, or a glimpse of this creature.” She reached

out, much as Lulu had, slowly scratching the air over the sand. Four fingers.

Adanech stood back up. “Then we should prepare. Before it gets dark.”

She and the Lel’ult began searching for a good place for the four of them to make camp. Lulu and Lebna stood still a bit longer, scanning the water. Lulu listened, knowing her eyesight was not as keen as Lebna’s. She heard the water, the occasional sound of a bird, an insect, Talei and Adanech’s footfalls. She smelled the salt, the fresh air of the ocean. The health of the vegetation, an odor which somehow matched the waters’ and left a pleasant taste in Lulu’s mouth which made her nostalgic for her hometown.

Lebna stroked his feather.

“See anything of interest?” Lulu asked him.

“No,” he said. “And it bothers me.”

Perhaps there wasn’t anything else, but something in the way Lebna said that put Lulu on edge.

The Search for the Beast

Lulu ran.

Spear in hand, her quarry in her sights. She heard the ululations of other warriors. There were so many.

Some of the Yigdu had weapons. Some of the Yigdu hid. Some only struck when they were noticed. Lulu dealt with them all in the same way. The way she had been ordered to.

Some of the Yigdu ran. They had no weapons. They had no intent to hurt. Lulu ran them down and pinned them until someone brought more rope to bind them. Pull them up by the arms and take them back for their questioning.

Lulu deflected a blow which came at her from the side, the Yigdu in front of her still running as another came out to try to club her. It was only a branch. Worn down from use as a club, but still only a branch. Lulu knocked him down, tripping him with a foot as he tried to dodge her spear. She pressed the length of it horizontally against his throat as he tried to push her off, branch on the ground.

An arrow went over her head. Rope dropped at her feet and Masozi helped her tie the Unclean up.

“You are very quick on your feet, Lulu.” Those green eyes looked at her with warmth. “At every turn, you impress me.”

Lulu ducked her head. “Thank you, my Lel’ult.”

Getting to her feet, Masozi whistled sharply, summoning others to pick up the Yigdu they had downed. Some would be buried, others questioned. Lulu started to do as she was bid when Masozi stopped her. “A moment. Show me your stance.”

Such interest in her was shocking. She got into position, blood sticking to her spearhead, soaking into the leather at its haft.

Masozi looked her over, then reached to her forward hand, pushing her thumb to the side. “When you have to turn so fast, you want to make sure that you twist more with your arm than with your wrist. And especially not with your fingers. It is a quick shift, but use it well.”

Lulu smiled. “I will perfect that technique, my Lel’ult. Thank you.”

There was something off-putting about the blood on her spear. Because some of it was from people who had their backs to her, as she stopped them in their tracks.

Masozi’s mask of bone. Drive and confidence. She knew what was best for the land. For the Emperor.

For those she had lost.

“I can’t wait for this to end,” Lulu itted to her Lel’ult. “You have my spear, whatever you need it to do, my Lel’ult. But I can’t wait to stop this.”

She expected some sort of speech to buck her up. Take heart in the deaths she had caused, those who she had captured who would give them more information. Instead, Masozi looked at her, face soft.

“Me too, Lulu. I wish this didn’t have to be done. But as it does, we will do it. They will be gone, before they ruin the land more than they already have. And we will do it.”

“Of course, my Lel’ult.”

Lulu took that to heart when they ran down yet another group of Unclean. They were Unclean. They had killed her Lel’ul. They had killed her spear-brother. They had killed Reem.

They had killed Azzah.

She disarmed one, knocking his weapon aside and forcing him to the ground. He looked up at her, anger in his eyes. She went to bind him and he jumped up, hands out around her throat, choking her.

Lulu moved forward into it, removing one of her hands from her spear and embedding her knife in his stomach. The man stumbled back, then tried to charge at her again. Right into the spear she had aimed at him to defend herself.

Her throat hurt.

“I knew this was who you were,” said Negasi. “This is what you keep close to you, Lel’ult Talei. Someone who wouldn’t hesitate to kill us.”

“That was different!” Lulu spun around to face them, but the body attached to her spear came with. She dropped it, something she knew better than to do, letting her spear fall with the Yigdu’s body. “I know what I did was wrong! I know I’m a better person now! I know better!”

“My spear, do you know enough?”

It wasn’t Talei who spoke, it was Masozi. Lulu reached for her spear, but the body wouldn’t let go of the spearhead. She didn’t want to put her foot on him, she didn’t want to kick him off. She knelt to put her hand on his chest, trying to pull the spear out carefully.

“Are you now the type of person who can judge people right?”

Lulu opened her mouth to say in no uncertain of course she could, but her mouth was dry. “I... I...”

Lulu woke up. She blinked several times at the sky. It was still dark and their fire was still going. She looked around without moving her head. Lebna was on watch now, which helped her place how long she had slept for. In a few quick motions, Lulu slid away from the other two and next to Lebna. He glanced over,

slightly surprised, but stayed quiet until she had settled herself to sit down next to him.

“Trouble sleeping.” It wasn’t a question.

“Am I a bad judge of character?” Lulu asked him.

Lebna’s eyes widened, almost comically if Lulu had been in the mood. “What? What would make you think that? Of course not.”

She frowned, staring into the fire and then looking around. No large insects with human hands. Not yet, anyway.

“You are positive, you treat everyone well, but that doesn’t mean you can’t discern anything about them. Not from what I’ve seen.” Lebna scratched his cheek. “If you weren’t discerning, I don’t think you’d make as good of a spearwoman.”

Lulu leaned into his shoulder and he put an arm around her. It wasn’t too cold, it wasn’t too hot. This island was much too nice. Except for that nightmare. “I’ve been dreaming about Masozi. ing her. I’d forgotten what sort of person she was. Not just the person we found out she was. The one I followed. The one who rallied us in the first place. The woman we... we thought we knew?”

Lebna nodded.

“She took advantage of our grief, grief she created for us to feel. That’s what I thought. Yet I look back and I still don’t see her manipulation in some things. Some things still feel genuine, even when I know they are not.”

“Because there has to be some parts that, for her, were still all that genuine.” Lebna patted her shoulder. “What she did was wrong. What we did because of her was wrong. But we can’t forget that she thought she had to do this for some reason. She had something against the Yigdu. It doesn’t excuse anything, but there had to be something that made her so adamantly believe that we would all be better off without them. Even when the rest of us, who thought poorly of them, were still tolerant enough to let them stick around. She thought that had to change. And she was wrong, but she believed it. She didn’t think she was evil.”

“What could make someone want to set up something like that?”

It wasn’t an answer they would ever have. Whatever Masozi had thought went up with her to the ancestors and was freed from any living goals and fears. She desired power. Or truly feared the Yigdu as people who would destroy the land. No matter how out of nowhere it had been to everyone else, there had to be something behind it Lulu would never know.

It wasn’t very satisfying, but she thought of her once Lel’ult Masozi, Daudi’s murderer, in a different light.

If there was a hidden cave or secret markings somewhere on this island, they had not found it.

There were trees with fruit and fish in the bay. There were a few clearings, but looking up didn’t suggest any large creature had descended. The only area where those marks had showed up was near the water’s edge. That creature had to come from the water. And didn’t seem to mind if they wanted to fish a little to vary up their meals.

Lulu and Lebna could have done it on their own, but Adanech looked out into the water and Lulu had to invite her over.

“I haven’t done this in anything other than a running stream,” said Adanech.

“It shouldn’t be hard for you,” said Lulu.

“I’ve managed to do well in not that much time at all,” said Lebna. “Let Lulu guide you and I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

There was something about the way he said it. Lulu shot him a look, but Lebna went back to treading the edge and looking for where to strike.

“It’s the same as any other sort of hunt,” Lulu said to her. “Wait, watch, and strike. I don’t think there’s much I have to tell you that you wouldn’t be able to infer from hunting anything else.”

Lulu ended up watching Adanech more than fishing herself. Not that she needed to, Lebna did well enough for four of them, but then there was Adanech. She took a moment, stalking the edge of the water. Talei watched her as well, only

slightly distracted by cleaning the fish Lebna threw to her.

Adanech tensed one or twice, jerking the spear as though she were about to thrust, before she finally committed to strike. She came back with a fish, wriggling in its death throes.

Talei clapped, only stopping as Adanech removed the fish from her spear and threw it at her. The Lel’ult laughed as she snatched it out of the air.

“Not bad, woman,” said Lulu. “Care to repeat it?”

Adanech grinned. “If only to prove that it wasn’t luck.”

Watching her head for another one, Lulu found herself thoughtful. “And to think, Yahim still can’t figure it out. Guess that comes from never having wielded the spear before.”

Talei looked up, surprised. “He’s using the spear?”

“For fishing,” Lebna said. “He wanted to make a good go at it and that’s how everyone does it here.”

“He’s taken up the spear,” Talei muttered, deep in thought.

“He must be infuriated,” Adanech spoke up, “there’s no way he hasn’t figured out that we’ve evaded him by now.”

Lebna nodded, finally standing by Talei with the last of his catch.

Talei looked between the three of him. “Was... That was childish of me, wasn’t it?”

Lulu looked at Lebna. Neither said a word. When she glanced over to Adanech, the Lel’ult’s spear-sister gave her a look which told Talei more than anything she could have said in words.

At first, the young woman opened her mouth to protest. But her words failed her. Not that any words were necessary between them. Talei flushed and closed her mouth.

They ended up with a good sized haul, enough to keep the four of them full for the rest of the day. Lebna and Talei cooked while Lulu and Adanech continued to search. Adanech pointed out some fresh water, where they wouldn’t have to worry about their own stores. Lulu wondered if a small pond like this at the top of one of the cliffs might have something around it like they were looking for.

But the only discovery was a natural source of water collected from rainfall.

As safe as it was, as much attention as they paid to everything, they split up more than the once. People came out here all the time. They stayed after losing

their boats, waiting for the tide to come down for them to return home. Lulu and Lebna went to the outer edge of the northern crescent tip, while Adanech and Talei remained in the bay to trudge in the water, search for any more marks the beast could have made which might have remained under the water. And then make lunch with fruit and fish.

“If we don’t find anything?” asked Lebna, pushing his hair from his forehead. A few beads of sweat were there, probably from the amount of time they had spent out from under the trees looking on the beach.

“We still have plenty to search here,” was all she had to say. “If the beast is here, it’s not like we can see if it is something that only is uncovered when the tide is low. That’s a bit troublesome.”

“It doesn’t mean that there is something nearby it either. Just because we came across that cave near the Leopard doesn’t mean anything. That Leopard could have been anywhere. It was pure luck we found. Or a guide from the ancestors.”

“If it was because of the ancestors, surely they would lead us to the next. They have brought our Lel’ult to each of these creatures so far, it would be unthinkable that they wouldn’t lead her to the last of them too.”

Whether it was here in this particular place.

“It would be disappointing if we couldn’t at least figure out what sort of beast it is,” said Lulu. “It’s been here, even if it’s not here now.”

“You think it has anything to do with the capsized boats?”

“I can’t imagine it would be aggressive then, but allow them to swim back to land.”

The whistle came out. The fish had cooked, if they were hungry. Lulu slapped Lebna on the shoulder and with a slight squeeze she turned back toward the bay. She took a few steps before realizing Lebna wasn’t following.

“Lulu.”

She turned.

“There’s something in the water.”

That could mean anything, but Lulu knew he wouldn’t have brought it up for nothing. They moved around the trees for a better view of the water, but by the time they had done so Lebna’s “something” was gone. Lulu saw nothing but the motion of the water.

“Where was it?”

Lebna pointed to nothing but subtle ocean waves. “It might have been a boat.”

“A boat?” Lulu frowned. “You think Yahim decided to come us?” That was worrisome, especially as they didn’t see anything now. Could his boat have gone down that fast and without them noticing?

“Negasi would be more likely from this side, wouldn’t he?”

They watched a bit longer, before returning to Talei and Adanech. The time they had taken to check that out had made the other two curious. And because of that, Talei looked excited.

“Did you find anything?”

“Not exactly,” Lulu shrugged, catching the fish Adanech tossed her way.

“I thought I saw a boat off the northern tip, but when we went to get a better look there was nothing there.” Lebna caught the next fish Adanech threw just as easily.

Talei’s excitement hadn’t dwindled. Perhaps she simply wanted something to happen, no matter what it was.

“Let’s take this out where we can watch then,” said Adanech.

The midday meal ed. As did the rest of the day. Lulu stood by Lebna, who wiped his brow off with his sleeve and kept his hand up to take the sun’s

reflection from his eyes. Nothing strange happened, nothing new appeared.

“I could have been mistaken,” Lebna itted. “Or it was some other sea animal coming up for a moment. What lives around here?”

“Shauntia said there were dugong around.” Lulu didn’t quite the specifics.

Talei nodded. “Understandable.” Despite the word, the Lel’ult was put out.

Adanech patted her hair. From anyone else that could have looked condescending, but between Adanech and Talei it held so much warmth it didn’t matter that such things were usually done to children,. That Talei didn’t mind was a display of her maturity, one she didn’t have before.

Or even still, at least not completely, considering her reaction to Yahim.

“We know the beast has been here,” said Adanech. “Even if nothing else is. What else could have left a mark like that in the sand?”

“A human being,” said Talei. “And others are known to come.”

“Such a mark?” Lulu asked with a frown. “Why would someone do that?”

Talei shook her head. “There could be many reasons for it. I don’t know all the cultures and traditions of the people here. It could be something, supposed to be something else entirely, and we just think it looks like a large hand, clawing into the sand.”

“If that were the case, wouldn’t someone have mentioned that to us?” asked Adanech. “We did ask about such things, talking about the Jackal. If there was a tradition like that for whatever reason, a purpose, surely someone would have said as such.”

Adanech’s words calmed Talei. She brought her hand up to place on the back of Adanech’s wrist. “True. But if we go back with nothing?”

“There is still plenty of time, my Lel’ult,” said Lebna, Lulu nodding beside him.

“And more to look at, don’t lose heart.”

They headed back to camp. In doing so, they ed by that part of the bay with their single sign once more. Lulu fell back, only by a few steps, to look at the marks. The grooves had some water in them now, from the tide, but that merely smoothed out the edges again. Eventually it would disappear. Fade into the waves of the sand. From previous grooves? Past that, the water had remained unchanged. It was getting dark, but there was still enough light not obscured by the trees’ shade for her to see the fish. Perfectly calm, not as though a large unnatural animal had come through.

At least, not recently.

Disaster

Lulu felt like she had only begun getting some peaceful rest when she was shook awake. Her eyes shot open and her hand went to her spear. Adanech stood over her, but her own spear was at her back.

“What’s wrong?”

Adanech glanced toward the other two. “Lebna. He’s sick.”

Lulu didn’t bother rising to her feet, moving to her hands and knees to skitter over to her spear-brother’s side. He sweat profusely, forehead burning as he shifted, trying not to shiver.

It was so sudden. “Lebna?” Lulu asked, reaching around to get her water skin.

His mouth moved slightly, eyelids fluttering. Lulu propped him up, feeling the fire on his skin as she got him to drink.

“Is... something there?”

The Lel’ult was awake now. Adanech quietly informed her of Lebna’s situation. Lulu got more water down him, taking some after to wipe the sweat from his face.

“You’re going to be all right, my brother.”

“We must be close to finding it,” he finally said, to a conversation no one was having, perhaps to someone who wasn’t actually there. “Do you have any...?”

Lulu settled him back down, loosening his armour. Talei shifted in more closely, reaching out to his forehead when Adanech pulled her hand back.

“Best not, if it is some evil you could catch.”

“What if it is because we are here?” Talei asked. “Like for me in the desert, for you in the swamp?”

Lulu looked to Adanech, wondering if Talei was right.

Adanech shook her head. “All sorts of people have stayed here for a few days without growing suddenly ill. We are here, you Yigdu and we not, and we are not sick.”

“Perhaps it is not by race?”

“He is the only man here,” said Lulu. “But not all who fish here are other than man. Negasi comes here all the time and is not sickened. At least, that no one has mentioned. If one of the men became ill here consistently, the Sayer would have said.”

The reason was beyond them. It didn’t really matter, as far as Lulu was concerned.

“Did you see anything around that might help with this?” Adanech asked, looking through their supplies. “We will need more fresh water.”

“There was some centella.” Lulu didn’t know the precise amount of the herb they would need, but she did know it was used by medicine women. “I seeing it.”

“I can stay with him,” said Talei. “If you know where it is.”

Lulu and Adanech’s eyes met. Lulu knew what needed to be done immediately. Talei could indeed protect herself if something showed u. But to do that and protect Lebna, while he was incapable of moving? Lulu wouldn’t even leave Adanech to that on her own. Too risky.

“I’ll go,” said Lulu. “I’m off to run anyway, so I’ll be fast out of the way if something happens. Which it isn’t likely to, unless the lemurs decide to get mean.”

Talei hummed, uncertain. However, Adanech nodded, shifting in closer to Lebna. “Good idea. One person to collect the plant and water will move faster anyway.” She picked up the water skins to hand them all over to Lulu. With that, Talei agreed.

“We’ll take care of him.”

“I know, my Lel’ult.” Lulu hooked the skins to her belt and smiled at them. “I’ll not be long.” Reaching down, she squeezed Lebna’s shoulder, and headed out into the dark. No panic, illness could happen.

Fortunately enough starlight came through the canopy for Lulu to see where she was going. She went for the water first, because from there she ed the direction of the centella. She made her way up to the pond without much issue, pacing her speed with caution, not wanting to miss something in the dark and tumble down an embankment. Kneeling down by the water’s edge, Lulu quickly filled each of the skins. It was easy. At this rate, as long as she found the centella fast enough, she would return to Lebna in no time.

She heard the rustling from the bushes.

An animal, her mind provided her, but her instincts told her to prepare anyway. Lulu hid, back against a tree, only one of the filled water skins against her belt. She considered putting it down, wondering if it sloshed enough to be heard or if she had filled it to the brim enough so it wouldn’t. She saw a hint of what had to be red, before it disappeared behind the thick cover of trees.

It sounded like human footfalls. Not quick enough to be an animal skittering in the night. Too heavy for what she had seen here, too messy to be Adanech or Talei.

Lulu started after, as quietly as possible. She reached another clearing and the light provided her an answer. What she had thought was a light red was actually the lavender dressing of a Yigdu hunter.

Yigdu. Someone from Mirtuli who had come to fish? In the middle of the night? Or, what Lulu was more likely to think, was it another assassin? No one should have known they were here.

She moved closer. The Yigdu’s markings looked like freckles on her arms. She looked familiar, as if Lulu had seen this woman before. It took a moment, but eventually Lulu ed her, if not her name (if she had even known it). The group of Yigdu had been happy to see Talei, for the most part. But there was a handful who had not. One of them had brought others to the mountains in the west, trying to kill Talei there. With as many as they had dispatched, Lulu thought they had washed their hands of that particular group. But the starlight did not lie to her. This woman had been there once upon a time, west toward the Rwenyan Peaks. She would not be here alone.

An assassin. Lulu wouldn’t leave this to later. She could not risk it. She would at least capture the woman, find out what her true intentions were and if there were anyother people here to worry about. Right now Lulu didn’t see or hear anyone else. This was her chance. Lulu shifted her spear in her hand and then pounced.

She struck the woman in the back. The Yigdu hit the ground, but twisted to face Lulu with her own spear. It was much shorter, but considering the trees’ proximity around them that wasn’t necessarily a bad idea. Lulu had to be careful. She went forward before the woman could do anything else, feeling the starlight sparkling above as her champion. She could see perfectly, despite the night. The ancestors wanted her to win this.

With a side blow, Lulu disarmed the woman. The short spear fell to the side. Something struck the back of Lulu’s head. It cut and stung like she had walked into the ocean with a wound. Lulu stumbled, but stayed upright. Keeping the butt end of her spear toward the Yigdu woman below, she turned around to prepare for the second opponent.

Holding his fishing spear, stood Negasi. Lulu tried to speak.

The woman tackled her. While Lulu would have been able to stay upright, she needed to step back to do so. She stepped back into air.

Lulu fell.

It wasn’t as sharp a drop as she had thought. Lulu knew that. It wasn’t all that far down. She knew this. It couldn’t have done that much.

Yet Lulu didn’t know if she had blacked out. Her head hurt, and not only because of the spear wound which had scratched the back of her skull. She wondered if she had lost any hair. Any beads. Those were the same beads as Daudi’s. She missed him.

Lulu took a careful breath and listened, waiting through her heartbeat as it returned to its regular pace. Much time couldn’t have ed at all, someone was speaking up there. Lulu tried to what had happened. Negasi? That was Negasi? He was with the assassins?

Wanting to kill the Lel’ult?

Nothing could have caught her more off guard. His reaction when he had first seen Talei was so genuine. It wasn’t because of seeing Lulu, was it? Because of Talei defending her?

Lulu still had her spear in hand, as she needed to. Pushing herself upright, she knew she only had one option. She had to get back up there. She couldn’t let either of them go after Talei. If that was indeed what Negasi was here for. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to.

It was selfish, but how could she make something up to someone who then wanted to kill her Lel’ult?

Lulu crawled back up to the top of the hill. One of her hands felt numb and didn’t like gripping into the soil as she made it, but she ignored it. A spear of the Lel’ult did what needed to be done, it wasn’t always comfortable.

Masozi came back to her mind. Lulu pushed her away. This was to protect Talei. Talei had to be protected. Talei was not Masozi. She might still be young, a bit naive, but she was a good woman. She would be a good Lel’ult. One day, a glorious Emperor.

Lulu neared the top of the hill, stilling herself enough to listen to the conversation. Negasi sounded surprised and when Lulu could finally focus in on it, she heard why.

“You... you’re what?”

The Yigdu woman didn’t seem to follow. “You’re saying none of them sent you?”

She had her short spear again, raising it to point Negasi. He readied himself, but even in Lulu’s addled state she could see how he shook. He hunted for fish, perhaps for other sort of game, but not people. He was not a warrior. His stance wasn’t easily defensible. He didn’t know how. But his spear was up and he was ready to do something, even still.

“You can’t attack the Lel’ult!” Negasi said, voice shaking.

The assassin went at him. Lulu sprang to her feet and skewered the woman in one. Not her intention, but taking any more time the woman would have reached Negasi. She would have knocked his longer spear aside and skewered him. Lulu couldn’t let that happen.

She kept the motion going to pull her spear right out. The body came along with and then Lulu realized, while the spearhead still stuck somewhat into the woman’s body, she was still alive. She stabbed at Lulu, who pushed her away with the spear. The assassin took several steps back so as not to have Lulu’s spear embed any deeper into her.

Negasi rammed his shoulder into her and the woman fell off the cliff. Lulu held her spear, watching the emptiness where the woman had been.

“Have to bury her in the morning,” she said, before falling to her knees.

Her head hurt. Things were blurry. Lulu didn’t want to reach up and find out what it was like, partially because now that she didn’t have to fight she didn’t want to raise her right arm. She didn’t think it was broken. It hurt to breathe.

A hand was at her back, keeping her from falling backwards. Lulu blinked several times before looking at Negasi.

He was conflicted. She couldn’t think of why at the moment. “I’m... What is going on here?” he asked.

Right. Things were still going on. Lulu tried to think it through. “Did you come here by boat?”

“That’s not an answer.” Negasi took in a sharp breath. “But yes. I did.”

“Then you need to get the Lel’ult off of this island. If there are more of them...” Something the Yigdu assassin had said made Lulu think there was more of them, but she couldn’t what it was. “Lebna is ill. They are to the south. Go, tell them what is happening... Get them back to Mirtuli.”

Negasi didn’t move. Lulu focused on him again, at the eyes which once tried to burn holes into her. Did they do so now? She didn’t care.

“They cannot hurt the Lel’ult! You must warn her!”

“Why... why are you...” He got back to his feet, letting her go. “Why did you come here? Why is the Lel’ult here?”

“Beasts with human hands,” said Lulu. “Learning about them is important. They keep us all trapped within the confines of the Emperor’s lands...”

Wait, had Talei ever said that? Lulu didn’t think so. She couldn’t . The Jackal didn’t stop the Yigdu from going north, or anyone else from going south. Talei was born from a Yigdu woman and the Lel’ul. The Jackal hadn’t attacked her, but the Leopard had. It didn’t make sense. Lulu took a moment to collect her mind.

“She said someone sent you, there are more people. Please get them to town.”

“What about... what about you?”

Lulu gripped more tightly to her spear. “I do not matter. My place is protecting my Lel’ult. Don’t be slowed by me, go to them. They are down the hill, in the clearing with a tended fire. Be careful.”

Negasi took a few steps back, turning the the direction of the others. “My boat is in the bay. If you can get there by the time I get them there, we can all go.”

“Good idea,” Lulu murmured. “Go.”

Negasi left. In the other direction, which was a good idea, considering how easy it was to fall from this hill. Lulu knew she had meant to do something else, but for the life of her she had forgotten. Despite knowing she had to protect the Lel’ult, she dipped back into darkness.

The Protector of the Malausa

Lulu startled herself awake, forcing herself not to out. Or had she already? She sat upright. It didn’t seem like much time had ed, but she had to focus, take stock of her situation. Move on.

Nothing appeared to be broken. The armour at her side had been cut through by a rock or some other sharp object. The gash there should have been more painful, but somehow it hadn’t ed yet as anything other than a wet stain. Her arms were cut up and would likely bruise, but her legs weren’t too bad. She felt at the back of her head and didn’t think the spear had gone deep. She bled, of course, but head wounds did bleed to keep themselves clean. It hadn’t even reached bone. Negasi hadn’t had the ability (whether physically or mentally) to push in deeper. Or push at all?

Slipping her fingers down her hair, something came off into her hand. Almost with horror, Lulu pulled her hand forward to look down at the shattered piece of one of her beads. Back when Daudi was alive.

Lulu sobbed.

She missed him so much. The near constant he had been in her life, the comfort he had provided her, that she had provided him, when leaving Mazundu. The late nights they had spent, back to back, listening to the waves as they challenged each other to who could stay awake for longer. The first beads they had made, made of red clay. They painted them and put them in each other’s hair. She ed the moment he had put this bead in her hair.

There would be no going back to him, or to before this bead broke.

With an aching arm, Lulu wiped off her face and looked down at the bead again. It was only a bead. Daudi would be upset if she focused more on that then the Lel’ult. She had to get to the bay. It was closer to here than the campsite was. She had to make sure Talei was there. That the boat was clear and no one else was there to keep Negasi from getting Talei, Lebna, and Adanech into it.

Lulu pushed herself up with her spear and carefully headed toward the bay. Every step felt like agony, but Lulu refused to give up. If she had been stronger before she might not have lost so much.

She wouldn’t lose now. Adanech said strong enough to match her. Adanech had struggled through more.

It didn’t take Lulu as long as she thought it would to reach the water. Negasi’s boat was dry docked near the northern edge. She had to wonder why Negasi had brought the boat to this side instead of grounding it at the side closer to the mainland. It didn’t make sense, but he knew what he was doing. He was the only who consistently managed to sail back and forth from here.

Lulu took a deep breath and took a step down into the sand when she realized, despite the calm waters, she most definitely wasn’t alone.

Illuminated by star and moonlight was a gigantic grey figure. Thick skin, covered in algae at the grooves, the folds, of his skin. Two tusks, extremely long, suggested his age. And the forelimbs were short, but longer than she would have thought, with webbed digits in the form of a human hand.

The Dugong sat in the bay, unmoving. Not bothered by the boat, or heeding it no mind. Lulu did not move, wondering if it saw her. She didn’t know a dugong’s regular eyesight, let alone this one’s. She stood petrified, but the Dugong didn’t notice her. His back was to her, only a part of his face showed in her direction.

Almost against her will, Lulu found herself walking forward. Because she wanted to reach the boat. She had to make sure it wasn’t wrecked. That was what she told herself. It hurt, but she had to move.

The closer she came, the more she was struck by the enormity of him. Not that the Eagle and the Leopard were not big. Of course they were. Yet dugongs themselves were massive creatures, when considering their own height and weight. This one being more than ten times as tall didn’t seem possible. Especially when able to arrive without noise. The entire island should have heard him arrive, but they had not.

Lulu looked back to the boat. It did not seem as though it had been broken by the beast. Hands tight around her spear she drew nearer. Her eyes trailed back to the Dugong.

Who looked straight at her. Those eyes, so small on his massive form, yet so large as to be as big as her head. Lulu froze again, wanting to prepare for anything, but only able to stare at those eyes.

Before she could comprehend what she saw, he slowly turned his head away to stare off into the eastern horizon. He did not mind she was there. Lulu processed. Would he attack a Yigdu then? If Talei and Negasi came to the water, would he attack them?

She continued to the boat, not letting her eye off the Dugong. In general, dugongs were considered slow beasts, but she had no doubt that despite his bulk this Dugong could strike in an instant. The Leopard was certainly faster than a creature his size (or supposed species) had any right being. Hobbling closer, the Dugong looked at her again.

Then it struck her what was so strange. It wasn’t that he was looking at the motion on the shore, Lulu believed the Dugong actually saw her. Saw her without any aggression in the slightest. The Leopard hadn’t seen her at all, but hadn’t attacked her. The Eagle had seen her and, well, perhaps attacked them all (it was hard to tell with the chaos at the time). Yet the Dugong saw her and did nothing.

Lulu took another step and collapsed into the sand. The boat was so close. What would happen when the Lel’ult arrived? Was she all right? Lebna? Adanech?

The last thing she needed to believe was that she had failed them. She hadn’t even found the herbs Lebna needed.

It was quiet.

Lulu heard movement. The Dugong shifted in the bay, unlikely to be floating at this point, he dragged himself through the sand. Lulu could feel it now, though it wasn’t with nearly as much shaking as she had thought. One webbed hand came forward, as he pulled himself further out of the water. He looked down at her.

Lulu stared up, blearily. There were the whiskers, the tusks, the eyes. Algae covered almost every palm of the surface in one way or another. Like the sand of

the Leopard. The mud of the Jackal. Had anything come from the Eagle? Stone?

There was intelligence in these eyes. She would never have seen it at first, but she saw it now. Not some mindless beast here for some unknown purpose. Some intelligent being here for some unknown purpose. Was that the case with the others? Was it just the Dugong?

She had never come face to face with any sort of dugong. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

Lulu relaxed and so did the Dugong. He could roll over and crush her, but if that was his plan Lulu didn’t think she’d be able to run away from him fast enough anyway, so she took in a breath, tried to regain her stamina. Negasi hadn’t brought the others yet. What would they do when they saw the beast? What would Negasi think?

The Dugong remained. Lulu wondered if he was keeping her company and, if so, why he would do such a thing. She looked at the hand of his closest to her. It was as disturbing as she had thought it would be, but the crawling feeling it might have caused in her stomach before was nullified by everything else the Dugong had done.

Against her better judgement (which was muffled in her hazy brain anyway), Lulu reached out and touched him.

Past the algae, which both stuck and slipped off when she touched it, were short and rough hairs poking out from beyond the sea vegetation. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling on the skin, but at the same time it was comforting. She wondered if he

might kill her for the touch, but the Dugong didn’t move.

“I find that I care for you very deeply,” said Lulu, “and I don’t know why. But thank you.”

As if her voice broke some spell, the Dugong moved. He pulled himself back into the water, the smooth sand left behind him, the only bit of algae remaining behind the pieces Lulu had accidentally removed while petting him.

Negasi’s boat rocked slightly, as the water came up while the Dugong moved down under the surface. Lulu didn’t sit up, watching as the Dugong disappeared under the surface of the water. Once underneath, he disappeared completely.

And all she did was watch as the ripples faded, taking several deep breaths, watching for any movement.

Lulu didn’t see anything, but she eventually heard a noise. The boat rocked again, but not because of the water. There was something in the boat. Lulu hadn’t seen anything or anyone get into the boat. Which meant there had been someone in it the entire time. She made herself sit up.

The one who stepped out of the boat was Yahim. She knew it immediately. Why it was Yahim, Lulu didn’t have an answer for. He was dripping wet, staring from her form and then back into the water. Something came to him and he nearly tripped his way over to her, kneeling down at her side.

“Lulu! What happened? What... by the ancestors, was that the beast?”

Lulu nodded. “Yes. Apparently the Dugong. The Lel’ult will be thrilled to hear it.”

“What happened? I...” Yahim swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry. I saw you coming, I saw it going for you, and I... I...”

It took her a moment, but then Lulu realized what he was thinking. “The Dugong didn’t do this to me, Yahim. I was worried too, but... If he was violent, there wouldn’t have been anything either of us could have done about it. Two people would certainly be unable to do anything against one of these beasts. Not like this.”

He examined her and Lulu let him, in case there was something more serious than her head and side that she had missed.

“I saw Negasi. He didn’t mention that you’d come with him.”

Yahim shook his head. “I didn’t. I came with a different boat.”

Lulu glanced back over to the boat. “That’s... yours?”

He grimaced. “No. I saw Negasi heading out and, well, I followed him in my own. Until something hit the underside of my boat and it started to sink.”

She winced as he pressed against her shoulder with his hand. “You lost a boat?”

“I know. I thought following him closely enough would make up for it, but... I didn’t want him to see me either. It was a thin line I’d tried to forge and I failed. There were also other boats out there.”

He wrapped her side tight with his tunic, putting pressure on the long open gash. Lulu did her best to take long deep breaths. “Others?”

“I didn’t see anyone in them. They just floated there. It is dark, of course, so I could have missed something, but... They weren’t at the shore or tied up to anything. They were floating away. But I couldn’t lose Negasi. I had to find out what he was doing.”

“So you swam here?”

“He was gone by the time I arrived, so I went to see what he might have brought. Something was following me by then though. I could tell. I didn’t know what until I’d arrived and... and... that beast came out of the water.”

Not a warrior, being so close to such an unknown creature must have been one of the most terrifying experiences in Yahim’s life. “Hiding was probably the best thing you could do. Running might have been better.”

Finally he finished binding her side. “I didn’t realize you were injured at first. I

thought you could run for it, if needed. Then you collapsed and it was... so close. I’m sorry.”

“Again, even if it had been for the worse, there wouldn’t have been anything we could have done. Better one of us survive than neither.”

Before Yahim could respond, they heard sounds coming from further down the beach. Lulu moved to stand, but Yahim kept his hand on her shoulder.

“If it’s more assassins, I need to fight,” Lulu protested.

“If it’s... more? More assassins. If it is, then you’re not in any condition.”

Yahim moved her from the sand back up into the brush to hide in the bushes. Lulu hoped it was Negasi, having come back with the other three. She kept her head low in case her hopes were to be dashed. She and Yahim held their breaths, waiting.

The sounds moved away. Lulu blinked away her fatigue. “Yahim-”

He squeezed her shoulder, not looking at her. Lulu fell silent, uncertain what else to say. Talei had to be getting here soon. Adanech could carry Lebna, she was certain. Lulu should have been with them. She at least should have had the water, or the herbs, or...

She needed to make sure the boat didn’t get into the wrong hands. She reached for her bow and waited.

They they were, a group of Yigdu. Running from her. Lulu gave chase, not weary in the slightest.

“After them!” Masozi said, giving off a string of ululations.

“Daudi!” Lulu cried, only to find her spear-brother wasn’t behind her as he should be. She turned around and Lebna lay on the ground. “Lebna!”

The Yigdu surrounded him, makeshift weapons at the ready. Lebna was unconscious, he couldn’t defend anything. Lulu ran to him with her spear out, but at the last moment swung it like a club instead to knock the Yigdu aside from him. She stood over Lebna, ready to knock them back.

“Kill them!” Masozi screamed.

They went for Lebna and Lulu pushed them back. She should have stabbed them. There was no other way to protect Lebna. There were so many of them and only pushing them back would tire her.

“Run them through!”

Lulu grit her teeth. The blood on her spear. How many of them were only

scared? Who only did this because they were forced into it?

But Lebna! She couldn’t lose another brother. She couldn’t.

“Lulu!”

She swung around to look at her Lel’ult, to yell that she couldn’t, but the green eyes which looked into her being was her Lel’ult. Her real Lel’ult.

“Fight those you need to fight. Chase those you need to defend the world against. It’s never all or none. Doing something once isn’t a promise to always do so. If you want it to be, you have to do it over and over and over. You are who you choose to be from now onward.”

“Lebna,” said Lulu. No matter what, I fight by your side. Against any enemy.

But she felt the blood at the back of her head and she fell into nothingness once more.

Defender

She couldn’t have been out for long, Lulu knew. A couple of blinks at most, while resting against the earth. But now she could hear the sounds of battle. Everything felt stiff, but her hand felt better than it had. Lulu pushed herself upright once more. She was still hidden in the bushes, where Yahim had taken her to hide. He was not with her now. Lulu’s eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and she looked down into the bay.

The battle was at a standstill. There were many Yigdu she did not recognize. Not from town, not from anywhere. But she saw Yahim out there with his fishing spear, but with more emphasis with his knife, standing by Lebna’s side.

Lulu’s lips parted, every part of her screaming for action. Lebna stood upright, but his spear was more of a walking stick than anything. The only reason neither of them had been struck was because Adanech and the Lel’ult stood away from them. That was where the majority of the assassins focused their attention. Negasi tried to help the other two to the boat, waving his own fishing spear ahead of himself to push others away from their path.

As per usual, Adanech and Talei moved in tandem. Those surrounding them tried to move in, but two already lay dead on the sands. Yet Adanech moved less deliberately than usual. The motion made Lulu think she might have taken a blow to her left leg.

There were five left. One of them tried to drive Lebna, Yahim and Negasi away, as though the three of them would have been in any shape to the others in surrounding the Lel’ult. They were being careful. They weren’t rushing forward, where it would have been easiest for Adanech and Talei to handle them.

That Talei and Adanech didn’t rush forward assured Lulu one of them was injured.

Lulu reached for her bow again, wishing she was Lebna. Still, he had taught her well. As long as she could keep her hand steady, she could do this. She shifted forward, resting her arm against the tree nearby. It was hard to see. Was it really that dark?

She took the shot. It was not a lethal strike, as she had wanted. The arrow struck the man in the shoulder, causing him to pitch forward. Others looked back, still standing warily before the other two, but Adanech took the chance to take out the injured attacker. He tried to dodge, but she caught him in the side. Talei followed up and pierced throat. He went down. The other three changed positions to face the spear-sisters and the direction the arrow had come from.

Lulu reached up and wiped the sweat from her brow. It was watery blood. That had to be why it was hard to see. Was this new, or more of the same? Lulu didn’t know how much to worry, so she decided not to.

“Lulu!”

Lebna sounded terrified. Whether because of his fever or because he realized Lulu’s condition... she was not sure. But if it was the latter, she must appear hideous. The thought almost made her crack a smile.

The assassin trying to keep Lebna, Negasi and Yahim away decided to leave them be, coming for her, as the last three tried to take another chance at the Lel’ult. Lulu considered her situation, determining she would definitely be had if

she let that man catch up to her.

She needed something to put her mind together. She wasn’t as bad off as all that. Lulu just had to keep her mind rolling as it usually did.

Dragging herself upright, she ran toward the water. Water, seawater, would sting against her wounds. That would bring her to attention more than anything else she could think of. She had to get there.

The warrior tried to cut her off, his sword, despite dull in colour, almost gleaming by the moonlight. Lulu’s feet still touched water, even before she had expected to. She realized it was because the tide had come up, from her toes up to her ankles.

The Dugong surged forth out of the water. Everything changed.

Adanech took the surprise to pull Talei back from the others, toward where Yahim and Negasi stood - their spears out. Yahim didn’t look like he knew which direction to point it in. Negasi still pointed his spear at the assassins.

The Yigdu assassins completely lost their minds. They forgot about the Lel’ult. Their terror had them turning their aggression onto the beast, rather than running away. All their previous plans were forgotten as they aimed their weapons at the algae.

Negasi ran at them, trying to spear the closest Yigdu to him. He missed and

while the woman plunged her spear against the Dugong’s blubber, the butt of her spear hit him in the stomach on the way back, causing him to fall back. Yahim ran after him, grabbing and pulling Negasi away.

It all happened so fast, but the water had receded from Lulu’s feet and she found her eyes only upon the Dugong. They stabbed him, sliced him, and maybe it was only the algae that fell, but the Dugong did nothing. He sat there, looking at them all. Despite how quickly he had come up, he sat there dumbly and let the four assassins do what they could. Lulu didn’t know if it was anything. Eventually he started to move, as though he was going to turn. Slowly.

The Eagle and the Leopard had taken so many strikes from them without being affected. The Leopard had only been stopped when over saturated by water (so it seemed). Which meant they could be felled, perhaps. In some way or another.

And for some reason, that thought infuriated her more than anything. That these people would attack her Lel’ult, try to kill her, then immediately strike at this beast who had yet to do anything to any of them?

Lulu ululated and ran forward. She dug her spear into the back of the closest warrior. The others barely noticed her motions, until she struck again, grazing a man’s arm. The three hunters looked back at her. Not only them, but the Dugong paused to do the same.

“Get out of here!” Lulu yelled. “Go on! Don’t take it, go!”

“Run, my Lel’ult! To the southern tip!”

Negasi’s words caught everyone off guard, but it pulled the three remaining assassins out of their haze. From the Dugong, to Lulu, they looked off to the southern tip and ran. Lulu started to chase them, with Yahim somewhere behind her, but Negasi called out.

“Don’t go! Wait!”

He had to be speaking to the three ahead of her, but Yahim grabbed her wrist and Lulu faltered, spinning away from the three men. Bewildered, she stared at Negasi, then at the boat. Talei’s head poked out, watching as the three Yigdu warriors disappeared past the trees.

Yahim took a few more steps, letting go of Lulu, when Negasi spoke again. “Leave them.”

“When they find out and come back?” Yahim asked. “Is there some way we should prepare for them?”

“They won’t come back.”

Lulu wasn’t the only one confused, but in a moment it did not matter. The answer came. The Dugong stood at attention, as much as a creature like him could be considered to “stand”. In a flash he turned and headed back into the water. The water came up again and Lulu could barely see as he disappeared and left the bay, waves rippling high behind him.

“Amazing,” Yahim breathed, putting words to Lulu’s thoughts. He was so much faster than he appeared. Perhaps not as fast as the other handed beasts she had seen, but faster than she could have ever imagined.

They waited, as Negasi had told them. Eventually there were screams. Adanech ignored Negasi’s calls and headed for a tree, climbing up some ways in order to see beyond the crest. Lulu didn’t think she would be able to, with the trees there, but while squinting Adanech came up with something.

“He’s beached himself.”

The cries ended then, very suddenly.

“He’ll be able to get back in the water,” said Negasi. “He’s done it before.”

“You know that?” Talei asked, sitting up on the edge of the boat. Now Lulu could see Lebna lay in there as well, Talei’s hand on his shoulder.

“He is perfectly docile, until you reach the southern tip of the island. Then he’s a completely different beast. He’s left it before, he’ll be fine.”

They stopped talking, listening a little longer. Lulu could only imagine what had happened to the assassins, though she would prefer not to see it right now. She wiped her hair back from her face, feeling sore, but otherwise better than she had been. Some sleep would be nice, but that was all.

The night was quiet, except for the subtle sound of the Dugong slipping back into the ocean.

Negasi’s boat could not carry them all. No one questioned how Negasi would be the only one to direct the boat, and that Lebna had to go back to get the Sayer to care for him.

“You’re injured, Lulu,” said Talei. “You have to go back.”

“I have to go back, but I don’t want to deal with the water yet.” Lulu leaned back against a tree, staring down at the boat and thinking about bobbing up and down on the water. Her side ached at the thought of it. “I’d rather rest first.”

“But... Lulu...” Lebna didn’t have to say anything else, Lulu could feel his worry. She moved over to reach in the boat, taking his hand.

“I’ll be fine, really. Just don’t want to be jostled quite yet.”

“Yahim.”

He looked at Adanech, who addressed him.

“Go with them. Protect Talei and Lebna.”

“Protect me?” Talei started. “Adanech-”

“Four might be a little too many.” Negasi scratched at his chin. He hadn’t thought of this when he first told Lulu about meeting up here. Then again, Lebna took up more space in his ill state. “The Lel’ult is rather small though.”

“I can stay and help.”

“We still don’t know if that is all of them,” Adanech said. “I will listen to your final say, Talei, but keep this in mind. There were more of them. There could be others still. It would be best for you to go back and regroup. We will be all right.”

“I’ll take a nap, we’ll stay away from the tip of the island, and all will be well.” Lulu squeezed Lebna’s hand again. “We can come back to here later, after all, but right now Lebna needs help. We can tend to my injuries without the Sayer.”

Talei worried her lower lip for a moment, before she nodded. “I understand that. But if you fall ill from your injuries, Lulu...”

“We’ll both be in trouble.” Lulu elbowed Adanech in the side. It made her side twinge, but she dealt with it. Thinking how everyone else was safe made the rest of the pain manageable.

Negasi pulled a bag out from the stern of the boat, handing it to Adanech. “Use

this to help with her wounds. I’ll be back as soon as I have them back safely.”

“Thank you,” said Adanech, taking the supplies and holding them to her chest with one arm.

With one last look at her spear-brother, Lulu let go and took a step back. Negasi took his paddle, while Talei settled in by Lebna. Yahim pushed the boat into the water and jumped in with the rest of them. Lulu and Adanech watched them leave the bay.

“Don’t rush it!” Lulu called after. “I won’t be up for the ride until morning, anyway!”

“Morning,” said Adanech. Lulu had an inkling of what had suddenly occurred to Adanech, but the fatigue kept her from focusing.

Yahim waved back at them. Lulu didn’t want to watch the four of them go out of sight. She turned to Adanech. “Thank you for staying with me.” The other thing she couldn’t say was how surprised she was Adanech had let Talei out of her sights. That she wouldn’t have trusted anyone else with their Lel’ult, not even those any of them would have trusted in all other situations.

“Talei will keep an eye on him,” said Adanech, surprising Lulu. “All Mirtuli will have their eyes open when they return as well. Much better than staying here, if more people are to show up. She’ll be much safer there than here, not with someone injured or sick.”

Lulu nodded. “Good point. I don’t look that bad, do I?”

Adanech looked her over, the right corner of her mouth tilting downward. “You’ve looked much better, Lulu. I have to be honest. I’ve never seen you so messed up.”

Lulu sighed. “Well, that’s probably accurate within the last several years. I... I left the water skins up at the pool.”

“I figured.” Adanech put a hand at her elbow. “Let’s head back up there, then you can rest. We’ll be good there.”

Lulu didn’t know if it was true or not, but she didn’t have the strength to argue or ask. She let Adanech guide her, eyes trailing over the path she had taken not too long before.

“Nothing’s broken. Yahim confirmed it for me.”

“Didn’t seem like it.”

Lulu tried to get a good view of Adanech’s leg, but couldn’t while they were on the move. “Are you all right?”

“I need a little patching too, but don’t worry. I can’t really feel it. That’s the problem, I have to be careful so as to not break something when I can’t feel my

body reaching its limit.”

Lulu had never consider that. Now whilst trying, her consciousness started down that path back into darkness once more. Lulu didn’t want to stop, she didn’t want to be a burden Adanech would have to carry, but at the same time Lulu knew she had run out of her excess energy. Wherever it had come from before. Her eyes fluttered shut without her say so, but she kept moving.

One foot in front of the other foot in front of the other. Even if her eyes were not open, she could still do this.

“Almost there.”

Adanech’s voice didn’t have to be smooth to comfort her.

Adanech

Lulu didn’t lying down, but when she regained consciousness she was. Adanech sat at her side, she could tell without opening her eyes, cleaning the wound beneath her ribs. Lulu would need some new hides. She supposed it had been a bit. When they had a moment, she would temper a new set.

There was nothing she could do though, or say. Lulu was still too tired and being tended to made her comfortable. Like this she could try to forget about how sore she was, because Lulu felt nothing if increasingly more sore. Her side hurt more than her head did, and she wanted to forget about both.

Yet she felt better. Perhaps being able to feel the pain helped her understand how little she would actually want to move any of it. And knowing those limitations relaxed her.

Adanech cleansed her and wrapped each wound, each cut, each scrape. Tending to her as easily as all that, only the two of them here. Perhaps because of that Lulu felt like she could finally speak (not in general, but of this one particular topic).

“I’ve dreamed of Masozi recently.”

Adanech paused, then continued. “That’s something. I’m... sorry to hear it, I think.”

“I think so too.” It was too much of a conflict. Should she say this to Adanech of all people? Lebna might understand better, he had been taken in by the same

words. Done the same things. Adanech had not.

“I dream that I am under her banner again. I am chasing after the Yigdu, as she told me. And as I do, she comes up to me. She congratulates me, she tells me how to change my stance, how to be better. And I’m grateful.”

“Did that happen?”

Lulu let her eyes open, to stare up at the sky. It was mostly obscured by the branches above, but she could still make out some stars. She wondered which of them was Daudi. “Yes. Something like that. She was very nice to me.”

Adanech nodded, meeting Lulu’s eyes. Lulu felt relief and an awkwardness. “I used to have dreams of her too. Well, for the longest time I didn’t know that was her. I had that moment Reem died repeating over and over in my head. I could barely . It took me so long to sort it out. the details that my addled brain had missed. But I wondered how much of it I had made up. Until I figured what the rest of it was about. Why it made sense, not only from what I could see. But through everything I had come to know. Everything about Talei.”

Lulu processed this. “But that was what had happened... the truth. Mine is... well, it is the person she pretended to be. A lie, in a way? Or the other part of her? The part of her that was good, if the rest of her hadn’t been capable of such terrible things. Things that I’d wanted to forget about, because of what else she had done, what you helped us to know.”

Adanech held one of the water skins up to her lips and Lulu paused for water. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she had been, didn’t in the slightest.

Something which might have had started when she had fallen down from right here.

When Adanech pulled it away, Lulu continued. “I spoke with Lebna about it. He has done better than I have. In putting it behind him. Or... maybe not behind him, but consolidating that time with the rest of himself. Understanding what happened as much as he can and accepting that. But... does this make me a bad person?”

“What?”

She had lost Adanech somewhere. Lulu mulled it over. “That I can still look back and Masozi as a good person, despite knowing that it wasn’t true. She wasn’t. No way could someone good like that would be capable of the things she had been capable of.”

Adanech started to clean off her own leg again. She must have already done it once, but now was doing it again before wrapping it up. “I don’t think you could ever be a bad person, Lulu.”

Lulu laughed. “You sure about that?”

“Wanting to see the good in people isn’t a bad thing. You are a lot like Talei, in that way.”

Lulu had never considered herself anything like the Lel’ult. There were many

things she had compared with herself before, many things she had thought she would have done when she was younger, but never once had Lulu made that connection.

“Masozi is an ancestor now. There is no need to hold on to grudges.” Adanech tightly wrapped her leg, not flinching at all. “The moment she was pulled off me, the moment you all believed me... I had no grudge. Reem and the Lel’ul wouldn’t have wanted me to dwell on it as I had in the past. I’m certain they wouldn’t have wanted me to dwell on it as I had in the first place. There was a better use of me, and I had Talei to focus on.”

Dropping it was very well and fine, but it implied something Lulu didn’t think Adanech meant. “Is it okay to forgive someone for something that horrible? Something that still affects others to this day?” Negasi still suffered because of it. Other Yigdu did as well. Some of them used that as an excuse to hunt Talei, but who knew about the others who suffered in silence. Those they would never know.

“Only you can determine who you can forgive.” Adanech folded her legs underneath her. She pulled out some dried meat (it had to be from earlier the previous day). Lulu took it and bit off a tiny piece to see if her stomach could take it.

“You didn’t spend time with Masozi as I did. How do you feel about it when I say I thought she was a good person?”

Adanech frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Masozi wasn’t like how I imagined her either - neither when I first met her without knowing or after when I did. When Masozi came for me in Hirka, she wasn’t anything like I had thought. I’d wanted to see someone so blatantly evil. Inside I knew better. If that

was true, how could I ever hope to convince others to follow anyone else? The people I knew wouldn’t have fallen for the words of someone like that. Masozi was only a woman. A woman who did something very terrible. And her life was her atonement.”

It was the first time Lulu thought of it that way. Was she holding a grudge against Masozi, for having tricked her? Did Lulu hate thinking about it only because she didn’t like thinking about how she had been fooled?

It had been years. Lulu thought she had come to with it all. Apparently not.

Reaching up, she put her hand on Adanech’s hand. Adanech squeezed it and pulled her upright to finish cleaning up her back. Lulu chewed away at her food, only wincing a little as Adanech finished up.

Lulu’s hides desperately needed repairs, but at the moment they were all she had. Adanech helped her put them back on. It seemed as though she had spent a great deal of time getting the excess blood off it and having it dry above the fire. Only some of them were done, the rest still were damp.

It was not an excuse for anything else that Lulu leaned into Adanech for warmth while they waited. Adanech easily moved her arm around her, not thinking anything of it.

Was everything worth it for this? Lulu didn’t want to think about it like that. That was too simple, too black and white. What had happened, happened, and she enjoyed being here now.

“You think you will be up for the boat ride when Negasi comes back?”

Lulu nodded. “I’ll be fine by then. Better that than running across the sand back to Mirtuli.”

“Sounds good.”

That should have been the end of the conversation, but Lulu had to keep her mouth running. Perhaps because her brain landed upon the thought and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. “Should we look at that tip of the island? Nothing happened when we neared there, but perhaps we didn’t get close enough to the edge for that to happen?”

“It does seem like there should be something, if he isn’t aggressive until someone actually reaches the sand out there. Or maybe... maybe his territory is the water. He doesn’t attack until someone actually broaches it.”

“You think the Leopard might exit the desert and not attack anyone outside it?”

Adanech shrugged her other shoulder. “I have no idea. It doesn’t make any sense, either way. If that is his territory, it doesn’t make sense for him to leave it and come in here. Come in here and not even go to defend himself or escape...”

Lulu closed her eyes. “If the boat isn’t back first thing in the morning, perhaps we should check it out?”

Because there were bodies. They had to be buried right, to become ancestors. They could reach the ones in the bay, but those the Dugong had dealt with? Were there even bodies to bury? Cast out to sea?

It had been a long time since Lulu had seen a water burial.

“We can look,” Adanech agreed. “Now, get some sleep.”

“Wake me up for watch?”

“I’ll wake you up when you seem rested. Go to sleep.”

Lulu would have protested more, but she was too tired and knew Adanech could tell. Instead she nodded and finally went willingly into unconsciousness.

Lulu knew when Adanech woke her up that it was far too late for her to take watch. Morning had not come yet, but the stars had begun to dim. Adanech drifted off almost immediately and Lulu wouldn’t complain. She was injured, after all, a great deal more than Adanech.

Not wanting to waste any time, Lulu moved over to the fire to check the rest of her things. They had dried and she put them on, slowly. Then she went through what Adanech had brought over, taking out the mushrooms to cook them. It didn’t take too long, but she moved them only a little back so they would keep warm. Lulu slowly ate hers as she watched their surroundings. She heard nothing

but the sounds of the nightlife going to sleep, the other animals starting to rouse. Yet not quite. It was the point between the two worlds.

When Adanech woke up not too long later, she started eating the mushrooms before doing anything else. “How are you feeling?” she asked Lulu between bites.

“Sore. I know where I shouldn’t do too much twisting. Other than that? Pretty good, considering I fell down a cliff.”

Stuffing the rest of them in her mouth, Adanech scooted over to her to check her bandages. Lulu moved her arms out of the way. She hadn’t seen any blood spotting through it, but she couldn’t see her back.

“Your arrow was spot on,” Adanech commented. “Considering this arm, I’m impressed. It’s a shame that Lebna is ill, but it’s even more that he couldn’t have seen that shot.”

“Or only it that well.” Lulu wanted to believe Mirtuli’s Sayer was tending to him right now. He would be all right. She had to believe that. It was just a normal illness. One that had come on so fast?

“And your spearwork wasn’t that bad either, though your side is likely making you suffer for it now.”

Lulu shrugged her other shoulder. “Nothing you haven’t done, I’m sure.”

Adanech snorted. “I don’t know about that. But you certainly look like you’ve avoided any sickness on your injuries so far, so that’s good. Shall we get going?”

They doused the fire and headed back down to the bay. At first it felt like some sort of torture, but the more she walked the better she felt. Not amazing, but better than she thought she might.

The boat wasn’t there, but it was still dark. “You think it’s all right? The boat trip shouldn’t take that long.”

“You did tell him not to come back until morning,” Adanech said. “Negasi knows how the tides around here work. He knows the Dugong too.”

Those were all true enough. Lulu wondered about him and the Dugong. They went to move the bodies and prepare them for their final rites.

Adanech did the heavy lifting. Lulu took care of the rest. Cleaning them as well as she could and then binding their arms to the rest of them. She had done several sea burials in her youth, though it had been in the comfort of her hometown, not out on her own with only one other person to help. Yet as it didn’t require digging into the earth, Lulu always considered it easier.

Fishing for enough scales for blanketing the corpses was something else entirely, but it had to be done now. Adanech had time to practice now, as Lulu skinned the fish and wove the scales together. They had enough to eat, enough to bring back to Mirtuli as well. Seconmoy really was the most plentiful fishing spot Lulu

had ever seen. Even with Adanech’s less experienced spearfishing there was an entire school to pick through. Adanech moved fast. Lulu did her best to keep up, feeling better the more she moved her fingers.

When they finished with that, they took the bodies to the northern point. They sloughed off a hard piece of bark to place the bodies on, so Adanech could pull them. She refused to let Lulu do more than that. And letting them sink in the bay wouldn’t be sending them off to anywhere.

“You were all distraught from evils done upon you,” Adanech said. “I hope in the future you will see amends made for those evils. Watch over the world and better it, and we will do the same. Strengthen the world.”

Each one floated off into the water, the bare morning light allowing Lulu to watch as they slowly drifted away. Lulu watched them for as long as she could. She felt better now. Hopefully they would see the same. That they would all do better.

“Ready?”

Adanech nodded and they headed back to the bay.

Adanech felt the same as Lulu as they neared the southern tip of the island. Neither of them wanted to arrive. They didn’t want to get close enough and bring the Dugong’s wrath upon them. While Lulu didn’t know Adanech’s thoughts on the matter, Lulu didn’t think she could attack the Dugong, no matter what. Even if he was suddenly to attack her.

What she had seen in his eyes told her he wouldn’t want to. That he wouldn’t elsewhere told her something more. That something else pushed him into doing so.

They peered off into the sands at the tip. It was all nothingness, part of the reason they hadn’t gone off to explore that area beforehand. There had been more likely places to search.

There was only one body on the beach. She had no idea where the other two would have been. Perhaps they had already fallen into the water.

“If they are already in the water...”

Adanech didn’t have any more words. They couldn’t bring along the last words for those if they could not send them under after. Lulu didn’t know. Would that mean their spirits would turn evil in the water? She supposed they could be like that anywhere, that it didn’t really matter if the place underneath was solid or not.

“There is one left.”

The body was mangled. Lulu didn’t know how they would clean her up beforehand anyway, but she would do her best. If they could get to her in the first place. It would be impossible to get to her without stepping into the Dugong’s domain.

Lulu and Adanech looked at each other. They couldn’t do it.

They couldn’t not head down there to save that woman from becoming an evil spirit.

“I’ll run down, grab her, and come back,” said Adanech.

“I don’t want you going down there yourself.”

“You would attack him?”

Adanech had cut down into the heart of it. Seen right through Lulu.

“Carrying a body you won’t either,” was all she said, “we can at least try to run with her as fast as possible, together. Your leg is what is injured. My legs are only sore. I could manage that much too.”

The look on Adanech’s face said she didn’t think it comparable, but instead of saying so she nodded. “Let’s go.”

They didn’t run down to the shore, they walked. Lulu strained in the bare morning light to see where the Dugong was. She did not see him, not even as they reached the body. Adanech knelt and did her best to pick up as much of the

woman as possible. Lulu didn’t know if any piece might fall off. The body was definitely gruesome, and Lulu had seen a lot of death. But she tried not to focus on that. She stared off into the water and kept watch.

Lulu felt herself stiffen when she saw the Dugong breach the water. He came up slowly, in the distance. He didn’t seem to move now that he was at the surface.

“He’s here, but... not in any rush.”

“Let’s not wait for him to change his mind,” said Adanech. “I’ve got her.”

Adanech walked as fast as she could inland. Lulu followed, constantly looking behind her. The Dugong didn’t move.

They slowed down when away from the sand, returning back to where they had completed the other burials. “He didn’t advance at all,” said Lulu. “I don’t understand.”

“Perhaps what he protects is in the water,” said Adanech. “He might have chased them back on land. We might not have broached into his territory.”

“Why would any of them have gone that far out into the water?”

Adanech didn’t have an answer. Neither did Lulu.

They did what they could for the body before sending it out into the sea, yet another blanket of fish scales. Lulu spoke for her this time, though she felt like she simply followed the lines Adanech had spoken before her. Lulu had never done such things for complete strangers before. So often there were others there to speak for them, others who knew the deceased.

Yet it wasn’t hard to say nice things. Outside what they disagreed vehemently on, Lulu could imagine these people had some nice qualities with which they could strengthen the world.

“Should we say something for those who have already fallen into the water?” Lulu asked.

The way Adanech pursed her lips was the exact feeling Lulu had. Without the body it didn’t seem as though their words would make any difference. How would the spirits hear the words? How could it matter without giving them a blanket? Accompaniment to the sky?

Yet Adanech spoke.

“Life never goes as we wish it. You died here, probably not expecting you would. At least not without accomplishing your goals. That is the way of things and you might be made into something you would not want to be, something people will hate you for despite yourself.”

Lulu should have stared out into the water still, but she found herself in complete

surprise looking at Adanech.

“You can make something of this. Of what we couldn’t stop. It will be hard. You will definitely be upset for no one being there to help you at the end. We have no guide to give to you, you are beyond us. No one would have wanted this to happen to you. I hope that you will be able to make something better of this than most will. Struggle against the anger of the world that Yewubdar has saddled her with. Find a purpose, a good one.”

“That was... beautiful,” Lulu said. That wasn’t really enough to say on the matter. Other rites were beautiful. They said so much to the departed, the ancestors, the world. Yet there was something about that, something about knowing two people wouldn’t become ancestors, that made those words so poignant.

“I cannot take credit for it. Talei said that for a very old, unburied body once. I hope those words were enough to give that spirit some semblance of peace.”

Adanech looked at her, looked at the smile Lulu couldn’t keep from her face, and smiled back. Lulu could have kissed her, but instead she reached for Adanech’s hand. Adanech took it and it was more than Lulu could have ever hoped for.

The Dugong remained visible in the distance as they waited for the boat in the morning light. They cooked the rest of the fish, eating them slowly as they watched.

“Look.” Adanech pointed into the water. “There are more of them.”

Lulu squinted to see the other sea cows around the Dugong. Of much more manageable size. They still looked small, despite how she would have found them large creatures before seeing the Dugong.

“You think he protects them?” asked Lulu.

“I don’t know. None of the others did that. At least, not that we could tell. But this one has been different enough from the other three.”

Lulu took the last bite of her fish, spitting the bone down the hill. She tried to hit one of the trees. This time she almost got one.

“Nice.”

Lulu grinned. “You think the Leopard would have been much different if there had been no Yigdu there?”

“Nothing like this though.” Adanech shook her head, then took a bone out of her fish and tried to shoot it at the tree. She missed by several hand lengths. “The Dugong isn’t like the Leopard. Not like the Eagle. Not like the Jackal.”

None of them had been anything like each other, as far as Lulu could tell.

“I wonder if the seas out there are as confusing as the deserts had been. The mountains? I wonder if I would have gotten lost in the swamp had the Yigdu not shown up and taken us up to Table Mountain.”

“That’s something. Though who would go that far out into the water?” Lulu watched as Adanech tried again. She came closer, but not as close as Lulu had. “You think Negasi has been protecting him?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. He was almost manic the moment the hunters forgot about Talei and headed toward the Dugong.”

Lulu thought on the Leopard, running in the sand of the desert without a pause for any of them, until noticing the Yigdu. She had not cared in the slightest that anyone else was there. She would not have stopped to look at Lulu like the Dugong had.

Adanech hummed, deep in thought. “The Jackal is the guardian of the Basin, a guardian to the Yigdu people up north. Perhaps there are people further south who claim the same of the Leopard. Or even past the mountains, who could claim the same of the Eagle. Who knows. We might never know.”

Lulu reached for the last fish, but paused, not knowing if Adanech wanted it. She wasn’t hungry anymore, she didn’t need it. It was just something to do. “There might not be anything here to find.”

“Like the cave in the desert? No. There might not be. Still, this wasn’t a waste.”

Adanech was referring to finding the Dugong, but Lulu couldn’t keep her mind on that. Some hair had started to grow in. Adanech would shear it when they returned to Mirtuli. Even if she had liked to grow it before, the blue scars on her skull would keep the hair from growing in evenly.

“Time with you could never be a waste,” Lulu managed to say.

Adanech smiled at her as Negasi’s ship finally came in.

Setting a Trap

Negasi kept looking at her, but other than answering their questions he didn’t say anything. Lebna was being tended to, the Sayer had told them all not to worry. Talei was fine and she waited for further news on Lebna’s condition. Lulu took in that comfort and focused on staying comfortable in the boat. It wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it might be, but occasionally the shift of the water made her side feel like flames.

That was enough to distract her from Negasi. She didn’t know what was on his mind, but she figured he would say it if he needed to. Lulu had to focus on herself right now.

As soon as they arrived, Adanech brought her to the Sayer, where Lulu suffered through more poking, prodding, and drinking something she knew she had drunk before but could not what it was. It tasted slightly bitter, but went down easily.

“How is Lebna?” Lulu asked as the woman checked on Adanech’s bandaging job.

“Sleeping. Never you worry, I’ve treated such illness before. It comes on fast, tries to linger, but with the medicine I’ve given him and some sleep, he will recover fully.”

“Thank you, grandmother.”

Almost as soon as Lulu closed her mouth, the Sayer’s hut flap opened and the

Lel’ult stepped inside. “You’re back!”

“I’m sorry. I tried to come to you immediately but...” said Adanech. The Sayer hadn’t let Adanech leave, even when starting on Lulu first.

Talei went to sit down beside her. “No, no. Not at all. How is Lulu?”

“Lulu is fine,” said Lulu.

Adanech nodded, backing her up. “She is doing fine, isn’t she?”

“Would be doing better if she didn’t move around as much,” the Sayer said.

Lulu frowned. “Moving is how I make my living.”

“You’ll make a better living if you let this mend.”

Lulu did her best to stay as still as possible, knowing the truth of the matter, but not used to remaining still unless in wait during a hunt.

“Have we missed anything here?” Adanech asked Talei.

“Adjoa and Tinotende have come back.”

Lulu straightened. “Are the others all right?”

“Yes, they are fine. They came back because one of the prisoners finally spoke. They said that there were fourteen of them in total.”

Fourteen. Lulu tried to do the math, thinking of the number of people they had put to rest on the island, but Adanech answered it first.

“There are two left.”

Talei nodded.

Lulu groaned. “After all this there are more of them? What a uncoordinated group, split up as they were.”

“They weren’t doing half bad on the island,” said Adanech.

“Because of things beyond their influence? Lebna sick and my gathering for him. They couldn’t have planned for that. They also got four of their number caught beforehand. And apparently two didn’t even show up to the island to help them with their strength of numbers.”

The real truth was that they underestimated the Lel’ult’s spears. Which seemed ridiculous for anyone to still do after all this time. Lulu, Lebna and Adanech had been guarding the Lel’ult since she was announced as the Emperor’s heir. It wasn’t as though the others wouldn’t have heard about their abilities. The other spears were another matter - no matter how good they were, they weren’t always the ones at Talei’s side. But they were around and they were good. Lulu wouldn’t take Adjoa or Hasani in place of Lebna or Adanech, but they were good spears. Always getting better.

“Regardless, I don’t want to sit and wait for them,” said Talei. “I’m tired of waiting on these people. We are going to fish them out.”

The Sayer glanced sharply at Talei, though said nothing. Lulu could tell the woman wanted to speak against it, but was holding her tongue for the moment.

“That won’t be easy,” said Adanech.

“It was never going to be easy,” said Lulu, turning to face Talei despite the Sayer’s tutting. “Is there a plan?”

Talei smiled at her. “Not yet. I want to capture them though, if possible.”

“My Lel’ult,” said the Sayer, “can the rest of this conversation wait until I am done with your devoted spears? I despair of her moving around like this.”

“Of course.” Talei rose to her feet. “I apologize for getting in the way. I’ll be

outside, when you are done.”

Adanech was about to go with her when the Sayer gave her a pointed look. Lulu tried not to laugh as Adanech either was cowed or had decided to humor the woman by remaining long enough for her to finish with Lulu’s injuries and check over hers.

Tinotende and Adjoa waited with Talei in the middle of town, along with Yahim. Talei was listening to a couple, as if nothing else was planned. Lulu used to wonder why anyone did that, when Talei was so young and inexperienced. She didn’t think that anymore. Even if Talei didn’t have advice, knowing someone was there to listen meant just as much. That the Lel’ult cared to hear.

She and Adanech did not interrupt. Only when the two thanked her and walked away did they finish their approach. Lulu slapped Adjoa in the arm. “Good to see you!”

“I’d do the same, but...” Adjoa placed her hand on Lulu’s shoulder. “Strong as ever, Lulu.”

“Now, we can discuss.” Talei stood back up. “We have two more out there to find. I want to capture them and send them away like the other three.”

“We can do that,” said Adanech, “but finding them is going to be a problem.”

“We draw them out.” Talei gestured to herself. “Give them something they think

is a chance against me, but in reality it will be an ambush.”

“My Lel’ult, you would be better off staying in town while this is going on,” said Lulu. Her fellow spears nodded their agreement.

Talei frowned. “We know what they want. How else would we draw them out? I don’t want them trying in here, where others might get hurt.”

“No offense,” said Tinotende spoke up, “but with the...” He paused, looking down.

“Go ahead,” said Talei.

“With the Yigdu who live here not being in a small number, it would be easy for these two people to slip into town and come close, unless there are those in town who can speak up if someone is new. Even then, we don’t know if the last two might have any position in Mirtuli.”

“No one here would.” Talei was certain.

Adanech put a hand on her shoulder. “Not so hasty, Talei. There would be many reasons someone would them, not only because they truly harbor you any ill will.”

“No, it wouldn’t make sense,” said Lulu. “Or they wouldn’t have sent someone

else in. There are so many opportunities they could have taken that would have been much easier had any of their number been a part of this community. I’m with Talei. Mirtuli is as one with her. Therefore it is the best place for her to stay protected, with Adjoa and Tinotende to protect her.”

They waited on Talei’s word on the matter. They could argue the point forever, but if in the end Talei decided to go out, they couldn’t stop her. They could only believe she trusted in their judgement enough to agree with them.

Before she could speak, Yahim finally interjected. “If we made a decoy of you, Talei, it would be all the more simple to drag them in.”

“Decoy?” asked Adanech.

“Get one of the other young Yigdu women to dress up in her colours.” Yahim gestured at Talei’s current set. “Surround her with your spears, and someone will definitely come after “you”.”

“I’m not putting someone in danger like that,” said Talei.

“If you do it like that, then you could be on watch as well,” Yahim continued. “With your own spear.”

Talei liked that part of it, as was obvious, but it certainly wasn’t enough for her. “No, that can’t be a solution.”

Lulu bit her lower lip. “Though it if was...”

“You have a thought?” Adanech asked.

“There is a fisherwoman who is similar in stature to Talei. Shauntia has spoken before about her irritation of these assassins, of the Yigdu who don’t want to make this place better. She’s feisty enough to want to help. Perhaps.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Talei. “No matter how willing she is, I wouldn’t want to put such a target on her. If something terrible was to happen to someone, because they were stepping in place for me, I would never forgive myself.”

“Could you at least speak with this Shauntia?” asked Adanech. “See if she is willing to help in any way, before you make a decision about what you want or not want to do?”

“There are two left,” said Lulu. “We don’t know what they are capable of. We don’t know if they know what happened out on the island or anywhere else. Whether being the last two might make them more willing to risk themselves or not for one final attempt.”

What were they willing to risk? Lulu knew Talei was not willing to risk her people, but she had her spears. They had agreed to risk themselves at any time to protect her. If someone else was to make that decision themselves, there couldn’t be anything to say against it.

Talei nodded.

“I’ll go find her,” said Yahim.

Adanech waited for Talei to nod again before saying,“Needless to say, keep it quiet.”

He left. Talei ordered Lulu to go get some more rest. Lulu was happy to do so.

When she woke up, Lulu went to see Lebna. This time, the Sayer didn’t chase her away as she had earlier. The medicine woman was still on watch, but did not stop in her grinding of medicine to tell Lulu off.

“How is he doing?” she asked, outside the hut.

“His fever broke,” Mirtuli’s Sayer told her. “He’s resting comfortably now. Let him sleep.”

“Of course.”

Lulu slipped in and sat down by Lebna. He did look much better, the sweat of the fever having been wiped away by the Sayer. His sleep was peaceful. With a smile, Lulu reached over and squeezed his arm.

“Adanech and I buried the hunters in the morning. The Dugong let us be. I don’t know why, when he killed the others who went to that tip of the island.”

She didn’t want to rouse him, so Lulu spoke quietly. Having been away from her spear-brother for so long though, even though it had only been a day, she needed to talk to him. Even if he couldn’t talk back.

“There are two more of them left. I think everything about the Dugong is being put aside until we are certain the rest of the assassins has been dealt with. What needs to be done needs to be done. I’ll be out there, you’ll be recovering... it feels so strange doing any of this without you. Without you nearby me.”

Leaning down, she kissed his forehead. It felt as it should. He would be well soon.

“I’ll make you proud of me, my brother. You get your rest. I will be back.”

Certain some of her sentiment made it through, even if the words did not, Lulu left him. She returned to the Lel’ult’s hut. When she saw Adanech first Lulu changed course, jogging up to her. The motion only caused a bit of soreness, her medicine worked well.

“What’s the word?” she asked before Adanech could speak.

“And I wanted to hear about Lebna. Shauntia has agreed to help. She and Talei have come up with an idea. Your turn.”

That was not how Lulu wanted to do the exchange, but she supposed she was at fault for not talking about Lebna first. “He’s doing fine. His fever has broken and the Sayer wants him to continue resting. He was sleeping well when I was with him”

Adanech sighed, a little smile on her face. “Good, good.”

“Now, what’s this idea?”

Adanech’s smile faded. “We are going to take Shauntia out of Mirtuli. Shauntia is helping us determine for what purpose. Probably fishing.”

Lulu nodded. That made sense. Not as much Adanech’s feelings on the matter, but Lulu could infer. “Where will the Lel’ult be?”

“With you.” Adanech stared, resolutely at Lulu. “I will stand with Shauntia. It is well known that I am always by Talei’s side - if not known by words than by sight. The ruse might not work if I’m not standing with her. I’m trusting you with Talei.”

Those words sobered her. Lulu nodded. “Of course.”

“This may take several days. Ready for the long haul? If Talei was comfortable in waiting for a bit longer, you could recover more.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Lulu. “We’ll be ambushing the ambush, after all. Might use the bow and not worry about getting in harm’s way. Are we sure they will go after a larger group?”

“We’ll have to manufacture some openings for them, but it will just be Shauntia, me, Tinotende and Adjoa.”

“The Lel’ult inside?” Lulu gestured to the hut.

Adanech nodded, stepping aside.

Lulu tapped the back of her closed hand against Adanech’s arm as she ed. Only when entering the hut and seeing Talei did it occur to Lulu Adanech’s complete trust of her with Talei should have hit her harder. She knew Adanech trusted her with the Lel’ult’s well being, but at the same time... For something like this? While they were looking for the danger?

Adanech didn’t like Talei out of sight usually. Staying with Lulu on Seconmoy had been an outlier. It hadn’t had a larger impact because Lulu and Adanech shared the same feelings. Adanech trusted her to take her place for a moment, take care of her spear-sister.

Lulu felt content.

“My Lel’ult?”

Talei waved her in. “Lulu. Adanech spoke to you?”

“Yes.” Lulu sat down on her ankles across from Talei. The young woman marked on pressed plant with charcoal, those symbols which meant words Lulu could not understand. She kept meaning to try to learn, but other things got in the way. (So she said, though she worried the distraction of it might take her away from her other duties and aspects she wished to improve.)

“I don’t want to go immediately. First of all, I want you to get more rest. Second, I want to set up Mirtuli to talk about what I’m doing as naturally as possible, so if these two aren’t watching us they might hear it from someone here somehow and decide to take their chances then.”

“Makes sense.”

“And in a few days, we will be leaving Mirtuli. That one is flexible, but I want it to be as soon as Lebna recovers.”

Lulu was surprised. “I didn’t know we were leaving so soon. I know we found the Dugong, but... but we didn’t find anything else. I mean, something more concrete.”

Talei shook her head. “If we don’t find these last two hunters soon, we are better off on the move so that we have less chance of catching the people of Mirtuli up in whatever they might plan. If they are planning anything at all and haven’t run off already. People think they can get away with more while we are on the move.

Perhaps for most travellers that is the case, but we can handle it.”

“Of course, my Lel’ult. It’s what we have trained for. Protecting you under any circumstances.”

Finally, Talei broke her attention completely from her writing to look at Lulu. “You are feeling all right, aren’t you? I know you tend to bounce back up from anything, but I don’t want you to push yourself if it’s that bad. I’d rather be certain you are completely on the mend.”

Lulu smiled. “I am. I wouldn’t put myself at risk, my Lel’ult, because that would make me less of an asset to you. I...” Don’t want to keep treating you like a child, Lulu realized, knowing that the difference in their ages often made her think of Talei like that. Did she ever seem condescending like Yahim had been? “I wanted to follow your father with every fibre of my being, but I didn’t always understand what he did, though I trusted it to be for our good. I follow you with every ounce of that and more, because I know what you intend and I share those feelings completely. Instead of having to trust you know better, I trust that you will continue to find the paths I didn’t know were there in the first place.”

Talei broke out into a wide smile, eyes watery. “I’m... I’m so glad, Lulu. Thank you. I’m glad that you were the first spear I spoke to when I first came to the Emperor’s Lake.”

The Lel’ult shifted forward and embraced her. She was so small, Lulu felt, but maybe Talei would always be like that. She was still a woman now. Lulu had to do more than simply treat her like her Lel’ult, she had to start treating her as a woman too.

“I’ll go get that rest now.”

Talei let her go and Lulu let her get back to her plans. Returning to Lebna, Lulu could feel some of the pain at her side trying to return. Could she drink more medicine yet? The Sayer would let her know, she came in often enough to check on Lulu’s spear-brother. Lulu lay down and closed her eyes, knowing no matter what she had to see this through.

Her hair wasn’t right.

From the back, Shauntia could be mistaken for Talei, except her hair wasn’t twisted right. That was all Lulu could pick out.

“It’s too bad you’ve gone and had your face known by as many people here as possible,” Lulu mentioned.

Talei shifted her head coverings. “Not at all. I wouldn’t undo anything I’ve done in Mirtuli so far.”

“I didn’t think you would.”

Lulu supposed from a distance the ploy would work. With Adanech standing next to someone of that height and in those colours, at a simple glance even Lulu would have guessed she was Talei.

Lulu’s own hair was set upright, bound behind her head without even letting the tail down to cascade over her shoulders. Talei had twisted it up for her, commenting how pretty it was with all the beads swirled around. Of course, Lulu couldn’t see it herself. But it was rather heavy.

They waited, hiding from the Sayer’s hut. As far as anyone else was concerned, Lulu rested with Lebna and that was why they were not there. It would cover her motions for long enough. If this was going to work at all, it would have to work fast.

The others headed out without them. “Is it strange to see Adanech go on without you?”

Talei shook her head. “Not really. I’m used to watching her going off without me, while I’m supposed to stay back and be safe. I’m glad that this time I can do more than simply stay out of the way.”

That said, they headed after. Their spears might have been at their backs, but their bows stayed in their hands. Lulu knew Talei had to be sharing the same feelings as her. Lebna’s aim would have been the best for this. Lulu would have to hope her recent improvements would actually make him proud.

“If all goes well, there won’t even be a fight,” said Talei.

Lulu knew she wanted to catch them alive, if possible, but in the end they weren’t going to go anywhere. No matter what happened.

“This could be quite anti-climatic.”

“I hope so,” said Lulu, “which is saying much. I’m always ready for a good fight. I missed out on one last time.”

Her side told her she would appreciate missing out on one this time too, but Lulu kept that to herself. She would take it, she would do whatever she must, to protect her Lel’ult.

Rip Tide

As announced, the Lel’ult’s group went hunting. They started after a pack of wild dogs they spotted on the way to the cape. The others hid, going into their usual hunting pattern. Lulu wondered all what Adanech was telling Shauntia to do. The young Yigdu woman kept back for a bit of it. She was a fisher, after all, less so a hunter of the land.

From a distance, they would look very natural. Lulu and Talei? Less so.

They remained observant of the wilderness. The animals who kept their distance, those who mistakenly wandered into a hunter’s ambush. As normal as hunting ever went. Lulu didn’t see a single sign of assassins watching the decoy at all. Talei stayed quiet.

Lulu wanted to ask Talei about Negasi. He rose in Lulu’s mind, unbidden, as she hadn’t had the time to see him since he had brought her and Adanech back to Mirtuli. She wondered what he had wanted to say. If they would have a chance to ask him about the Dugong. Or even discuss that at all, other than the bit she had talked with Adanech about.

Not time for that now. Lulu focused on their surroundings. And as the others continued on a hunt so normal, she and Talei watched. Waited.

At night Talei took the first watch and Lulu the second.

Shauntia took the group to the cape. Lulu ed the place well. Great fishing, other than for the island. Nearby was the cliff by the beach where Lebna

and she had caught the first group, where she had killed one. But this was a common place to fish, no one would think anything of it. So Lulu tried to think. She had to wonder if this fooled anyone at all. But Talei and Shauntia had discussed things beforehand, so Talei had to have agreed to this.

“There’s a good outcropping down that way.” Talei pointed. “Further down from where she took you and Lebna to fish. A great place to be ambushed, even by two people. We’ll be over here, watching for it, pinning them when they think I’m pinned.”

“Not as many trees to hide along here,” Lulu commented.

“No, but still plenty to crawl under.”

Neither of them had to say anything about keeping an eye out. They knew. Lulu couldn’t see how this would be the best place to be “ambushed”. Then again, she had lots of practice. She and Daudi had done so many attempts at ambushing Azzah and Reem in front of Talei’s house. She had thought about this from every angle. Except she hadn’t.

Lulu looked out to the water. Seconmoy looked as peaceful as ever. She could see the area where she and Adanech had seen the Dugong, where the smaller of his kind had moseyed around. How had no one else seen the Dugong before except for Negasi? Surely from the mainland people would have seen the Dugong had he risen from the water anywhere on the western side. Yet they had no idea. Maybe they wouldn’t have known about the hands, but they would have still heard something about such a large animal.

Currently irrelevant. Lulu brought her attention in. Not to the land, not where Talei looked toward. Lulu looked at the water. People from town, unsure what had caused the wreckage, wouldn’t bring their boats this far north, this far out. A boat floated, upside down, in the water. Lulu nudged Talei’s arm.

Talei scooted forward, tapping part of her bow against her upper lip. “Yahim told me that there are quite a few broken boats floating around like that. From times when the weather would accidentally take a boat out too far. Whether or not anyone was in it.”

Lulu nodded, ing that. Talei went to turn her attention back towards land, but Lulu, kept a grip on her arm.

“Lulu?”

“ when I surprised you in the river?”

Talei’s attention returned to the boat, eyes focused. She worried her lower lip. “It would be hard for them to attack like that though... right?”

It would be. Lulu couldn’t imagine trying to shoot a bow while floating in the water, let alone under some wood. But it was something and Lulu refused to let it slide. If she could. “Possibly. My Lel’ult?”

Talei spent a minute considering and Lulu tried not to rush her. Tinotende and Adjoa watched inland. Adanech and Shauntia got in line to fish, convincing the

others to “not watch” as closely.

With a nod, Talei began to sidle down toward the sand, with Lulu at her back. They stayed close to the craggy rocks, out of sight from part of the water until they had gotten close enough to risk looking around it.

The boat had drifted closer, but that didn’t say much. The tide was coming in, that’s what would happen. Lulu desired for nothing more than for Lebna to be here with her. He would be able to see right now. He wouldn’t have to wait for it to come in closer to determine if there was any point in watching.

Talei pressed against her side, squinting. “The splinters look like the boat broke from the inside?”

At Talei’s words, Lulu realized what those were.“Those aren’t splinters.” Those were blow darts. They drifted for the position where they could take several shots at “the Lel’ult”. No one would likely even realize a missed dart unless it came close enough. “They are going to shoot darts.”

“Those... wouldn’t hurt too much at that distance, would they?”

One more thing Talei still didn’t know about. “They don’t have to hurt. They only need to have venom on them.”

Her Lel’ult’s eyes widened. Lulu waited for her call.

“They are there,” Talei whispered. “We should... could we take them out?” She noted her bow.

“We’d be safer in the water with them,” Lulu said. At least, she thought so. “They wouldn’t be able to use the darts and neither of us are as good a shot to actually hit them from here. If we hit one of them and the other escaped...”

Talei nodded, Lulu’s words not surprising her. “Whatever we need to do. Shauntia will not suffer for helping us.”

“Yes, my Lel’ult.”

“We should warn the others. Do you think they could hear that from here?”

Lulu pulled her shoulders back. “Maybe? Maybe not. If they do, they’ll likely try to leave. They aren’t in position to attack yet. They know better than to do a frontal assault now, or they wouldn’t be trying it like this.”

From the corner of her eye, Lulu watched as Talei had come to a solution. “We will shoot. Then we’ll whistle for help and dive in after. We cannot let them get away.”

“You cannot dive in,” Lulu said. “Adanech would have my hides.”

Talei looked about ready to protest, but instead took in a breath. “I will whistle.

You will stay here and keep an eye on them.”

Lulu nodded and they brought out their bows. She pulled back her bowstring, feeling as Talei did the same moments after.

“On three,” said Talei. “One. Two...”

They shot. Lulu’s arrow stuck into the wood of the boat. Talei’s struck the water right before it. And everything moved.

Talei whistled, calling Adanech down. Lulu leaned forward, watching how the boat moved, realizing Talei might have hit someone, because there was blood. The boat began to drift away.

She dove in the water.

Lulu had always hated swimming in salt water. Many reasons for it, reasons she didn’t ever have to think about. Right now there was only one reason to hate it. It soaked through her bandages and into her side. Not the best feeling. Yet it wasn’t a struggle to swim forward. Lulu wouldn’t fool herself that it would last long. She would tire quickly, so she had to do this quickly.

Talei’s arrow had scratched one of them, but they still were able to push themselves away - the boat above their heads constant protection. Lulu had a knife in hand when she caught up, reaching one of their legs. Talei had wanted to catch them, but Lulu thought it unlikely.

Her eyes stung. She struck out and a limb struck back in return. Lulu couldn’t tell what was going on, it was too confusing as she could not see and the world underwater kept her from hearing the world.

None of them had prepared for an underwater fight. That Lulu had initiated it was the advantage she refused to let go of. Lulu grabbed one of them, pulling them away from the boat. He struggled against her, but even as Lulu let go he was separated from the other assassin.

A leg came out to strike her, but Lulu drove her blade forward. He cut his knee on it.

They rose back up for air and as the water poured out of her ears and mouth Lulu knew the assassin came for her.

And a whistle.

The person she noticed wasn’t familiar, until she paid attention to the colours the woman wore. It was Shauntia. She reached Lulu quick, grabbing at the man Lulu had grabbed in the first place. She had her own knife and appeared on equal par, if not with advantage, in that struggle. Lulu saw the blow dart gun come out from the other man and she dove back into the water to avoid it.

Someone else had arrived, but underwater Lulu couldn’t tell. All she knew was it had to be another one of the Lel’ult’s spears, because she went for the other assassin. Lulu believed it was Adanech.

It was impossible to keep track of the fight. Perhaps the other was trying to escape, but neither Lulu or Adanech allowed for it. Adanech reached out with her spear, trying to swing it into the man’s side. He tried to evade, but Lulu pushed forward so Adanech could grab the spear with both hands, locking the man’s neck in with the haft. They swam to the surface, not as easily done as he struggled to escape them.

Lulu was struck in the face, but it was with the back of his hand and not the knife. She finally got a good angle, gasping for breath, as she plunged her knife into his chest.

It wasn’t worth it. Trying to bring him back. He didn’t want to. He would rather die. And between him and the two of them, between him and Talei, Lulu only had one answer.

Adanech had her spear in one hand and in the crook of her elbow where she had him pinned. Her other hand? Held a knife plunged into the man’s back.

The spears took one moment to catch their breath before swimming toward Shauntia. She had brought the final assassin up to the surface. Neither of them had weapons now, struggling with hands. Shauntia might not have had any training when it came to fighting humans, but she certainly didn’t hold anything back. Lulu worried that trying to get close to them Shauntia might hit her or Adanech by mistake. She whistled, groaning after as her side spasmed.

Shauntia might not have known their language, but she understood it meant they were there. She butted her head into the man’s nose as a distraction and Adanech brought spear up and somehow managed to push it through the man’s chest

somewhere. It was hard to see, but from the amount of blood spreading out in the water Lulu knew she had done it.

Lulu took a moment to calm down, letting the pain in her side ease and floating where she was. Some of her hair had come out of its hold, but fortunately only at the back, where it stuck to her neck and shoulder blade. She reached up to smack some of the water out of her ears. Someone, probably Shauntia, said something, but Lulu couldn’t hear it.

“What?” Adanech appeared to be having the same problem.

The Yigdu woman waved her arms around, but started swimming back for the shore. Lulu decided that was a good enough idea, no matter what it was Shauntia wanted to say. She started for Adanech first, allowing she might have to ask for some help to get to land faster than she could manage on her own.

Then came the rip tide. Lulu knew what it was, as soon as she felt it. There was no confusion. All she knew was she should have kept that in mind earlier.

The water flung her out farther to sea.

It wouldn’t matter. Lulu only needed to reach the surface again. But she couldn’t, the tide was in control and even at full strength she knew she wouldn’t be strong enough to fight it. Lulu kept her airways shut, mind racing for a solution. She needed to breathe again. Time ed far too quickly and she wouldn’t be able to hold on. Lulu felt her spear at her back, but knew it wouldn’t help. At least she still had it though, at least she still had it.

I can’t.

Lulu didn’t have a solution. Blindly, she reached out.

And something both rough and soft caught her.

A stream of bubbles escaped her, but Lulu refused to let her lungs expand. She had never felt anything like this before. There was hair, perhaps, and scratchy skin, and something soft and-

Coughing, Lulu was at the water’s surface. She reached out, but nothing was there. While she could breathe, Lulu’s side spasmed. She tried to relax, though relaxing could entail the water pulling her out further to sea. Seconmoy was not the direction the water had dragged her in.

“Lulu!”

Shaking her head, Lulu finally saw Adanech. The other spearwoman reached her, encoming Lulu’s arm with a firm grip. Lulu smiled at her.

“...and the sea takes away.”

“Not you,” said Adanech. “Not yet.”

Gliding through the water, Shauntia caught up with them. “This way! Let’s avoid any more rip tides!” With a wave, she started back to the shore.

“Can you hold on?” asked Adanech.

“Nothing wrong with my hands.”

Shauntia didn’t move too far ahead. She scouted and swam back. Lulu had a hard time keeping track, finding the best way to hold onto Adanech without tiring herself further. She looked back and saw a figure in the distance.

“The Dugong saved me,” Lulu said.

Adanech didn’t respond at first, but eventually Lulu heard her laugh. “Not you, not yet.”

Lulu took Shauntia’s hand when she neared. She and Adanech helped Lulu onto the shore.

Spirit

Lulu had never felt more happy to be completely dry. This said a lot, considering how rainy it was out west toward the mountains and how miserable that rain was. Yet with her hair loose and drying by a fire, Lulu couldn’t recall ever appreciating it this much before.

Yet she also couldn’t stand to be without water. Regular water, the type she could drink without becoming sick. Lulu agreed with Talei - having that much water in the world which was undrinkable was some sort of sick joke.

Mirtuli’s Sayer had made her promise to lay still, but when someone knocked on the hut, Lulu couldn’t sit up any faster. Her side hurt, but it felt more sore than anything. Every bit of her felt sore. That was what came from getting pulled out by the waters. “Come in.”

Negasi.

Lulu was not prepared. She found herself searching for her spear. She knew exactly where she had propped it up, she just didn’t know if she thought it was too close or too far with him here.

He sat down on the other side of the fire. Lulu knew she had to look shocked. She didn’t try to hide it, there would be no point.

“Can we speak?” he asked, the very words she had wanted to hear this entire time.

“Yes. Whatever you need to say.”

Negasi looked conflicted. Lulu couldn’t blame him. She could only imagine how he felt right now, especially as she didn’t know what had brought this on.

“I knew about him. The Dugong.” Negasi rested his hands on his knees, staring into the fire.

Lulu followed suit. She usually did well with eye , but even she could recognize how uncomfortable it would be for him. Perhaps for her as well. She didn’t know how to feel.

“Others have attempted to hunt the sea cows for their meat, their blubber. I never did, but I didn’t care. Not when I first arrived. It was simply the way to be. Until the day I saw him off the coast of Seconmoy. He reminded me of... of the stories my parents told me. Of the Jackal. I saw those hands and I knew he was a protector. Even if I didn’t know what he was protecting.”

“They do seem to mean protection,” Lulu agreed, voice quiet as she worried she might interrupt him by speaking too loud.

“I’ve defended him. It was not my place to say of his existence. There are good people here, but what would they do about him? I don’t know. Even after all this time, I don’t know. I’ve told them I’ve seen nothing when they wonder what the silhouette is. I have knocked holes in their boats when at Seconmoy, to further spread their rumours of accidents taking them out that far.”

Lulu’s mouth dropped open. “You’re behind that?”

He didn’t look up, though the corners of his mouth twitched upward. “Occasionally. More often then not it happens without my help. I needed it to happen a little more often. Keep them away. From Seconmoy, from the southern tip where the Dugong might hurt them.”

“Yet you are destroying their livelihoods.”

“I know. I’ve long since decided I would become a large provider of the fishing catch to make up for it, but it never made me believe that wasn’t wrong. It was never so... black and white.”

Their eyes met. Lulu didn’t know what they tried to convey. She couldn’t read his face. He didn’t smile, didn’t frown, didn’t want to look at her. But it wasn’t forced.

“But I didn’t know what to make of you there. You sent me directly to the Lel’ult, to help her, but I couldn’t figure out what to make of you.”

She scratched at the corner of her mouth with a finger. “It doesn’t say much about the other actions I’m judged for.”

Negasi didn’t look away. “Even if you had no interest in harming the Dugong... why did you defend him?”

That wasn’t the question he was supposed to ask her. Lulu didn’t know what the question should have been, but she was fairly certain that wasn’t it. He waited. She sat there, twisting the question over and over in her mind, knowing she had to say something.

“If you’d asked me at the moment, I would have told you that we were trying to find an answer. If he died, that might have lost us, the Lel’ult, the opportunity to find that answer.”

He swallowed. “But that’s not your answer?”

“No. Not at all.” She rubbed at her side. It wanted her to lay down, but she didn’t want to have this conversation like that. She would remain sitting. “Not for a moment did I believe they could have killed the Dugong. I fought a Leopard in the south who shrugged off our attacks. An Eagle in the west who simply saw us as nuisances. They couldn’t have really hurt him, but...”

Looking at her. Looking at her. Something behind those eyes that was more than she had thought of the other creatures.

“I don’t know what these handed beasts are. What they exist for. Why they are which animals they are, where they are. But he was someone behind those eyes. Maybe they couldn’t have killed him, but I didn’t want him to be hurt. I don’t know.”

For the first time, looking straight at her, Negasi smiled. Lulu was struck by how

young he looked. He had come of age only a few years ago. A few? It had been a little longer than that.

Lulu was a woman. Not a young woman. Funny. When had that happened?

As fast as she had come to that realization about herself, about Negasi, he realized what had happened. Looking more than a little awkward, Negasi got back to his feet. “I’d best be going.”

“Negasi, wait.”

He did, in fact, wait, turning to look at her again.

“I can’t apologize. Because that’s not enough. It doesn’t matter that the previous Lel’ult had tricked me, tricked us all. That doesn’t excuse what happened to everyone during the Cleansing. It only makes it less... black and white.”

There had to be moments of that, somewhere, but those were moments. When it came to entire collections of moments, it was too hard to say if they were all one way or the other. Lulu hadn’t meant to do something so wrong. But she had.

“Lately... I’ve dreamt of her. Masozi. Of the woman she had tricked me into thinking she was. Or perhaps the one she was as well as the horrible one who had killed her brother, killed my spear-brother, and changed everything.”

His eyes darted away, then back. Lulu almost wished he had kept staring at the wall. She cleared her throat.

“I was wondering how true that part of her was. Whether she had the good sides I believed she had. I don’t know. I’ll never know. And it doesn’t matter.” She sighed, reaching up for her hair, feeling for any wet spots and finding none. “If my only option for reconciliation is blood for blood, I can’t. I know I can do much more to atone for my sins to the world by staying alive for a bit longer. Do more than if I sacrificed myself right now. A very... very dear person to me showed me that with her own sacrifice.”

Without hesitation, Negasi slowly nodded. “It’s the past. It is hard. I don’t know if I can forgive you for it, but... This doesn’t mean I don’t believe you are trying to make amends. Doing better now than you did then.” His eyes trailed over her. She wondered if he looked at her scars, her blue. “No matter how anyone feels, those trying to better the world should not die.”

She smiled.

“If you help the Lel’ult make this land home for us, all of us everywhere, for as much peace as we could possibly have... If you do that, I’ll consider it the path we have taken. I don’t like to think that we have to make sacrifices to make things better. But I’ve done the same.”

Lulu didn’t think knocking holes in boats was comparable, but she appreciated the stretch. “I will.”

All the tension drained from him. He did not smile, but Lulu thought he might be

more content than when he had. “Thank you for protecting her, Lulu. And thank you for protecting him.”

The Dugong.

“Tell the Lel’ult about him,” she suggested. “She will want to know. And you shouldn’t have to do as you’ve done to make sure he stays safe. Believe me, she doesn’t want him harmed.” She didn’t even want the one who had actively tried to kill her to die. Lulu didn’t know if it was too soft or exactly what they needed.

She supposed they would find out. They hadn’t managed to capture the last two assassins, after all. Yet Lulu found she only regretted it in a general sense.

Waiting for the world to become something better? No, she would not wait. She would make it so.

Eventually the Sayer let her out to stretch her legs, with the promise to not leave Mirtuli or even walk too fast. Things had been a whirlwind of excitement outside her hut without her, but had calmed down by this time. It was evening, but late. Everyone already had their food, their last drinks of the day, leaving her with the nightlife which had a more relaxed atmosphere now that the group after the Lel’ult had all been dealt with.

Lulu went to the beach to sit down, stretching her legs over the soft of the sand. Funny how quickly she returned to the water. Yet she kept enough distance to stay dry. She hadn’t thought about it in years, but she had missed the smell of the coast.

“There you are.”

Looking up, she saw Adanech right before the other woman sat down. Lulu could count the hand spaces between them. “Apparently I didn’t do as much damage to myself with that last bit as I thought I’d done.”

“You’re a walking bruise, Lulu.”

“Nothing broken, no more cuts than I’d had before. I’m happy.”

Adanech shook her head, rolling her eyes. Lulu grinned.

“How is Shauntia?”

“A few cuts, but otherwise well. She’s scrappy enough. I’m not sure she was meant to be a warrior, but she can certainly manage when she wants to.”

“All hunters are warriors when they need to be.”

Adanech smiled at her, then reached out. Lulu tried not to lean in too much as Adanech almost traced a finger at her cheek. “You are going to have a scar here.”

“Then I’ll have to get the dye. Ancestors turn away me if it doesn’t match the rest.”

Adanech snickered. “Lulu, you keep that up and you’ll be as blue as me. I’m constantly wondering if the dye is going to bleed out and turn me all blue.”

“I wouldn’t mind being all blue. What’s the harm?”

She was right there. Adanech wouldn’t mind if Lulu leaned into her. Lulu knew this. It just didn’t mean the same to her as it did to Lulu. Should she refrain? Lulu didn’t know.

“I saw Negasi enter your hut.”

Lulu sighed and rested her head against Adanech’s shoulder.

“Went badly?”

“No, not really.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. “It’s hard to think about the people we were before the Lel’ult, you know? I don’t spend a lot of my time thinking down like that, but... with people like Negasi, or others shaped because of things like that... It’s hard to ignore it. I don’t want to ignore it.”

Adanech tapped the fingers of her right hand against her leg. “Sometimes I feel guilty.”

“Guilty?” Lulu frowned. “You... you didn’t take part in it, Adanech. Even when asked, you didn’t take part in the Cleansing.”

“That’s not what I was talking about.”

Adanech didn’t sound any worse for wear for Lulu bringing it up. It had hurt then, when she had asked Azzah to stay and the woman had left, into the forest. When she asked again, far away from Hirka, and Azzah had left in anger. Lulu daring to ask to be her spear-sister. Even though now she was so glad it had happened like that.

“That I closed myself off like that. As if my losing Reem was more important than what anyone else lost. The Lel’ul. You lost Daudi. I didn’t treat your loss as important.”

How could they be having this conversation? Lulu didn’t feel uncomfortable. “It’s not the same. First of all, you had Reem forever. I’d had a bit of a life before Daudi. I wasn’t addled physically during that attack. When Daudi left me... I had all my wits to feel the loss, but also to see the context of the rest of it. If I’d been alone, if I’d been as injured as you had been? I wouldn’t have dealt with it much better.”

They spoke of Adanech as though she were Azzah, Lulu realized. No pretense at all. Lulu wondered what it meant.

“Maybe.” Adanech blew one of Lulu’s strands of hair away from her mouth, the beads swaying. Other than that, neither moved.

“I had all of Hirka to mourn with. I can’t imagine what it was like for you. I should have gone after you. I tried, but maybe not hard enough. I had no idea where you’d gone.”

“Me either.”

Azzah stared off, above the water at the stars. Shifting a little, Lulu felt Adanech’s spear where it had tilted to allow the woman to sit with it still at her back.

“I shouldn’t have been alone,” Adanech itted. “Talei... saved me.”

“She’s going to continue to save us all, Adanech.”

“Lulu!”

Speaking of who might save them. Both Lulu and Adanech turned, Lulu moving to her knees as the Lel’ult approached.

“I...” Talei looked to struggle with the smile on her face. “You shouldn’t be up,

should you?”

“I promised not to strain myself. I wanted some air.”

Talei stopped in front of her, taking her hands. Lulu watched as Talei took her hands up to her face, kissing her knuckles. She felt like she should have been the one to do it. It was strange. “Very well. I’m glad you are feeling better. You already look much better.”

“Putting one’s feet up does help with that, I reckon.”

“Lebna was awake.”

Lulu was on her feet before she knew it. Talei still had her hands, so she couldn’t start running. Nor should she, not when in conversation with her Lel’ult. (And her side, couldn’t forget that.)

“He’s back asleep again,” Talei continued. “But the Sayer managed to get him to eat and drink some. There’s no need to rush.”

Lulu felt herself unwind again as she lost her need to run back to her spearbrother. Which was when her stomach decided to remind her of something. “He had a good idea. Eating sounds good.”

“We still have all that fish that we didn’t finish up on Seconmoy.”

Lulu rolled her eyes. “One thing I won’t miss when we leave the coast. So much fish.”

The other two laughed, escorting Lulu back into Mirtuli.

“We didn’t get any answers.”

Lulu had almost finished all her fish, despite her previous words. Yahim tried to offer her more, but Lulu shook her head. She’d gotten enough in that first helping. Talei ate in little bits, very consistently, while Adanech looked more to browse over her meal. Nothing like how they ate on Seconmoy. Lulu wondered if it had to do with the difference from being in town with a bowl or when eating with the Lel’ult.

Talei sighed. “No. No answers. There are still plenty of places to look for some documentation on the beasts, but... We’re nowhere closer to knowing where.”

“But we do know what all four of the beasts are now,” Adanech said.

Lulu frowned. “But what do we do?”

Talei drummed her fingers against the lip of her bowl. “We can keep searching. Just because it wasn’t on the island doesn’t mean it’s still not there.”

“But it could be anywhere on the coast. Or, even more probable, my Lel’ult, underwater. We might never be able to access a place we don’t even know if it actually exists.”

Lulu’s words deflated Talei somewhat, but she couldn’t have taken them back. It seemed unlikely they would find it.

“We should keep looking,” said Adanech. “If not to find that, or hear if anyone else has seen the Dugong, but because Talei should see the rest of the coast.”

Yahim nursed his drink, staring into the liquid. “Does that mean you would take us to see your hometown, Lulu?”

“I did promise.”

Talei smiled.

Lowering his bowl, Yahim looked square at Talei. “What is your plan? If we continue to search the coast and find nothing?”

And it was in his tone. In the way he looked. Lulu believed Yahim might actually have learnt something about his actions. Though she couldn’t tell if Talei recognized it or not.

The Lel’ult stayed deep in thought. “Adanech?”

“Yes?”

“You the story Oringo told us about his coming of age?”

Adanech put her bowl on the ground besides her, leaning back against her spear and the side of the hut. “Of course.”

That was all she said, but the change in her expression told Lulu more.

“What?” Lulu asked.

“Oringo found a tree,” said Adanech. “During his coming of age trial. One with strange symbols carved into it. An old tree.”

“You- you think that is the same thing?” Yahim asked, leaning forward, eyes shining with interest.

“If we find nothing here, I want to go and find that tree. Oringo might not have found it again, but perhaps he would be willing to give it another shot.”

Lulu didn’t hesitate. “We are with you, my Lel’ult.”

“We will find something,” Yahim agreed.

They all finished their meal before some of Mirtuli’s fishers asked for Talei’s company again. She and Adanech left, Yahim helping Lulu to her feet.

“How are you feeling?”

Lulu laughed out a sigh. “I’m fine. My side isn’t nearly as bad as anyone thought.”

Yahim shook his head. “Not what I meant. Not physically. How is your spirit?”

Lulu pulled him in for a hug.

“My spirit? It’s better. Much better.”

Epilogue

Opening to Family

Mazundu was a very small town in comparison to the others they had seen. Lebna couldn’t guess why, because the bay was beautiful and the land lush.

“This seems too humble to have produced someone like you,” he said to his spear-sister.

Lulu laughed.

“My arrival might knock the village over,” the Lel’ult said.

“Nonsense! We still have a Sayer. Come, we’ll get you to them first and then make a big deal of you.”

Lulu led the way down the slop to the sands and around there to the mouth of the river. Lebna wondered if the houses were too close to the water’s edge, but they seemed to have stayed well and sturdy there for a long time. The Sayer’s hut was the first one at the edge. At least, it was from what Lulu said. She knocked at the edge of it and waved the Lel’ult in with Adanech to follow.

“Should we...?” Lebna asked, but Lulu took his hand.

“The Lel’ult told me I had best see my parents first. Come, I want you to meet them.”

Lebna’s parents had died years ago of illness. He had never considered what it would be like now that he was a spearman. That if they were still alive, he would want to introduce Lulu to them. He already would have, when she and Daudi first arrived in Hirka they would have known her.

Suddenly Lebna felt awkward.

“Don’t get reluctant on me now, brother,” Lulu chastised, winking at Hasani and Bashiri outside the Sayer’s hut, pulling Lebna along.

Lulu’s parents looked exactly like how he had imagined them. They both wore the same beads in their hair, though not nearly as long (but perhaps more beads?). Lebna caught the spears propped against the wall, the staves as well. He ed Lulu had said that was how she started, with a staff long before the spear.

“You must be Lebna,” her father said, clasping Lebna’s hands between his own. “Lulu sent word of you. Strong eyes, I see. That’s good.”

“Beautiful eyes,” her mother added.

That used to catch Lebna off guard, but no longer. “It is good to meet you.” He hadn’t realized how true that was until this moment.

He thought they might be keeping them up, but Lulu’s parents didn’t mind cooking another meal. They immediately launched into questions about Lulu,

about the Lel’ult, about Hirka. Lulu didn’t hesitate in responding to any of them, though she may have avoided the straits they had been in while staying at Mirtuli. Lulu’s mother handed Lebna a drink.

“You weren’t raised a warrior, but you became one?”

Lebna nodded. “I am an archer. A hunter. Yet during these times we need warriors to defend the Lel’ult.” He smiled. “And it’s hard being around Lulu without wanting to do more.”

Reem had made him content with where he was, happy with what she was capable of. Somehow Lulu drew him out to want to match her. It was why he had most wanted to be her spear-brother. During a different night, his long-dead lover had laughed and told him how one knew they were partnered with an equal.

“Don’t I know it.” The woman huffed. Her hair only came down to her chin, but there was so much of it and almost all of it was concealed by beads. He couldn’t imagine how she went anywhere without people hearing her coming. He supposed it wouldn’t matter as much, if she fished for her hunt.

“You came with her, didn’t you?” Lulu’s father asked, taking his wife and Lebna’s attention back to the rest of the conversation.

“Of course! The Lel’ult stopped by the Sayer’s hut first, but we shall be here for a few days. She has wanted me to bring her here for quite a while now.”

“The Lel’ult Talei,” Lulu’s mother mused.

That she was part Yigdu didn’t seem to factor in. Or maybe it did. Neither of Lulu’s parents seemed nervous or disgusted at the thought. Simply curious, simply unsure. Which could have come from the thought of how young she was, rather than her heritage.

Lulu hadn’t seemed concerned at all about the reaction of the people here. Lebna trusted her wisdom.

“Tell us about her.”

“She’s young.” Lulu didn’t hesitate at all. “She is naive. She is overly optimistic. But mother, oh! She is wonderful. She is exactly what we need. The Lel’ult shines when you think nothing else can. And she protects us, all of us. Yigdu or no. Because she cares for us all. And in return, we try to care for her at least as much in return, if not more.”

When Lulu stopped, Lebna thought one of her parents might speak, but he found himself pitching in instead. “She has a heavy weight on her shoulders. And day by day she shows herself to be very like the Lel’ul.”

“For the ancestors to smile on us,” blessed Lulu’s father.

They finished the food (hilariously more fish, as Lebna noted Lulu tried not to complain despite how for days before during their travels she had done

everything she could to not eat any) as more and more sound came from outside. Their arrival had been noticed. Lulu’s father opened the front flap so the four of them could watch the gathering outside. The Sayer had brought the Lel’ult and Adanech outside, the old woman eagerly introducing her to each individual person. Lebna supposed it was easier to do in such a small village.

“That tall woman,” Lulu’s father said. “That must be the Lel’ult’s spear-sister?”

“Yes, that is Adanech.” Lulu spoke up much too fast.

Lebna didn’t have to do anything. Her parents noticed it.

“Is she the other one you should have brought to meet us, had this not been such an official trip?” her father asked.

Lulu frowned. “Well, of course. Though it would never not be, as Adanech is always with the Lel’ult. The four of us probably spend the most amount of time together...”

She trailed off, looking at Lebna. He knew he tried to convey his thoughts through his expression. While he never thought he was very good with it, he knew Lulu usually could catch on to such things fast.

“Not like that!” Lulu spluttered, head turning quickly between her parents.

“She is not your chosen?” her mother asked.

Another time Lebna would have let the teasing continue, but right now was probably not for the best. “No, she is not,” he assured them. “Adanech is the Lel’ult’s right hand, and we always flank the two of them. It is how we are close.” If it were ever more than just pairs, perhaps all four of them were siblings in a way.

His spear-sister appreciated the save, getting to her feet. “But you should meet her, and the Lel’ult. Please no speaking such assumptions in front of them.”

“We wouldn’t dare embarrass you in front of the Lel’ult!” Lulu’s mother exclaimed softly.

“I would hope not!” Lulu stretched out. “That’s my job!”

Lulu headed out the door, her parents following right after and leaving everything as it was. Lebna couldn’t help himself, he gathered all the empty bowls together so they could be washed before leaving the hut and closing the flap behind him.

Mazundu was a happy place. It was obvious just by looking at it. After so many other locations where the feelings were complicated, or the suspicions of the Lel’ult’s spears kept them from taking anything for granted, Mazundu was a breath of fresh air. Lebna had to force himself to keep alert. He couldn’t risk being too relaxed.

Yet he was still recovering, he felt. And with certain pieces of pottery, painted in particular colours not natural to the coast? The Yigdu might not have lived here (he didn’t see any), but they had left their mark. They traded with this place.

No matter what had happened before, a small place like Mazundu had come to accept change.

While the night was late, Lebna and Lulu still awoke as the sun rose. At least she did and when she stirred beside him his subconscious roused him before she could decide whether she wanted to wake him. They were being careful with each other, especially Lulu. Lebna couldn’t blame her, he had his own nightmares about illness. He might not have worried as much for himself now, but he could follow the sentiment.

He wasn’t as tired as he had been, striking forward with his spear and turning about Lulu in matched steps. They swapped out for their bow in one. He felt it slip in his hands and he had to readjust, but it didn’t take him long. Lulu didn’t drop it this time, as she had started doing again since her injuries on Seconmoy. Adanech said it was because she hadn’t taken enough time to rest. Lulu shrugged it off, as she tended to do when she understood the truth of it but didn’t see the point in talking about it.

Lebna fatigued easily still, when they went all out like this. He whistled for a slow down, which Lulu compensated for. They got through the first of their warm ups and Lebna took a moment to breathe.

“It’s taking me a while to get back into shape,” he itted sheepishly.

Lulu scoffed. “Like you’re the only one! I’m feeling it too. We’re together in this.”

“I don’t deny that. But you seem to be getting back into it more quickly than me.”

“Is that so? I felt on the same foot as you.”

Lebna reminded himself to look upon himself in a better light in that case. He hadn’t thought he was being self-deprecating this time, but Lulu wouldn’t lie to him. “Again?”

“Again.”

Sweat went down his brow as they began once more. They took it slowly and the breeze coming in from the waters felt wonderful. Lebna took in a breath.

“What do you think the Basin will be like?” asked Lulu, her words sharp and focused.

“Dangerous for us, as we are not Yigdu.”

Lulu hesitated before continuing with their motions. She hadn’t thought about that. Lebna would have sighed if he wasn’t controlling his breathing. The things Lulu would let slip by simply because they were in the way.

“But we have to go with.”

“Of course we do,” he agreed. There wasn’t another option.

“Do you think we’ll see the Jackal then?”

Lebna rather hoped not. “He comes out to defend the Yigdu from outsiders, so it would be likely.”

“Yet he backed off when other Yigdu told him to.”

“He backed off when they showed up. Adanech never said that they spoke to him.” Though until Lulu brought it up, Lebna had forgotten about it. Unlike the Leopard, the Jackal had only done so much. The Eagle attacked them all. The Dugong hadn’t attacked either Lulu or Adanech when they went to the tip of the island.

“Well, perhaps being with Yigdu will protect us for as long as we can stay up there.”

“Not the only protection we’ll be around. We did have Oringo send three assassins up there to survive in the swamp as their punishment.”

As they turned, Lebna caught the embarrassed grin on Lulu’s face. “Didn’t think that one through, did we? Whoops?” she offered.

That somehow caused Lebna to laugh so hard they had to start their warm ups from the top once more. They got through it this time, not too much better than the first successful run through, but well enough that they both felt satisfied.

“I’m going to bathe. You?”

Lebna shook his head. He’d had enough of that lately, after recovering from his illness. Any more and he felt like his skin might rub off. “Maybe later.”

“Tomorrow?” Lulu shrugged, knocking her shoulder into his arm. “Go and appreciate Mazundu then. It’s home to everyone.”

“Like Hirka?”

“Except with more water!” With a grin, she headed off to the shore. Lebna watched her go before looking back into Mazundu. Such a small place. Lulu and Daudi had come to like Hirka so much, but they had come from this place.

Lebna worked through his motions with care once more. He did not speed up, he did not follow the usual routine. He closed his eyes and moved, paying only attention to how his body felt. Weak, but not as much as it had felt. Tired, more than earlier today. But better.

He stopped and looked out toward the ocean. He could see where Lulu made her way for the water. He could see the outline of Seconmoy of the morning. Letting his eyes focus on what they wanted, he looked for the Dugong. Maybe that was him, so far in the distance.

Had he always been able to see that far? No, just now.

Tapping at the feather in his hair, Lebna headed down into town to get some fresh water to drink.

The Lel’ult spoke with her people. Lebna couldn’t imagine how she did it so consistently. He had been raised with people, but at times he needed space to himself. She had been raised almost alone, yet never seemed to tire of company.

Adanech waved him over and he sat by her, watching as the Lel’ult listened as though she was a medicine woman much older and wiser than herself. He didn’t know how accurate it was, or how much it was pretense, but he knew she tried.

The other spears had ed as well. Lebna saw them in similar states as himself. Relaxing, yet still alert. How they would always be for the Lel’ult.

“Where’s Lulu?” Adanech asked.

“Bathing. Didn’t want to let the wind take away the sweat.”

Adanech chuckled. “That’s just an excuse for her to get into the water. She might not say it, but I think she missed the sea.”

“But not eating fish.”

They didn’t look at each other while they smiled, Lebna noting as Mazundu’s Sayer approached him with a cup. The season’s drink. He took it gratefully, taking a sip. It was lighter than it had been in other places. He wondered what was different about Mazundu’s drink of the hot season which would cause such a thing.

“May I ask you a question, spearman?” the Sayer asked.

“Of course, grandmother.”

She gestured to the feather. Lebna didn’t need the question stated aloud.

“It is a gift from the Lel’ult.” He might have gone further into it, but how the Sayer’s eyebrows shot up at that alone had his interest.

“She gave it away, did she? Interesting.”

“The story is a bit more complicated than that,” Adanech said. “What is it you see?”

The old woman pursed her lips together. “Nothing you probably don’t already know. There is power in it.”

Lebna nodded, taking another sip. “I’ve been complimented for my vision for a long time, but only after receiving this feather have I noticed it myself. Even when injuries and illness should tax my ability to see.”

“Really?” Adanech looked at him carefully.

“Only in your waking hours?” the Sayer asked. “Or have you seen more in your dreams?”

Lebna hesitated, the surprise of her words causing him to be unable to respond immediately. His dreams of Reem, of her spirit and not of their past... Had those begun before or after the feather was twined in his hair?

“It could be,” he said, “but I don’t believe I’m the only one who lately has come to learn more from dreams. I didn’t connect those two when it started.”

“Everything is connected,” said the Sayer.

“In one way or another,” Adanech agreed quietly.

“Are you still having those dreams?”

The Sayer wanted to hear more about them, but what could Lebna say? Yes, he still dreamt of Reem. She talked him through things, he told her things she couldn’t not reach understanding of in her current state. It wasn’t often, but it was more than he could have ever deserved.

If Lulu had asked that now, he would have told her. Perhaps if the Sayer asked him alone, he might have spoken to her about it. But right next to Adanech? He didn’t feel like he could say. It was as if he had taken something from her, something she deserved more than he did. If he could have given that connection to Adanech instead, he wouldn’t regret it. But he couldn’t.

“It’s a very personal thing to ask in such a public setting,” Adanech said to the Sayer.

Lebna would have smiled at her, but he didn’t want to make things awkward to the Sayer. “I do still have those dreams. They used to cause me some anguish, but I finally could take some wisdom from them.”

The Sayer did not push. “That is good, very good. Take care with your gift, Lulu’s spear-brother.”

“I will. Thank you.”

She left them. Lebna looked back over at the Lel’ult, as she begun to tell one of

her mother’s stories about the Basin. Adanech shifted, the spear at her back marking the ground. She didn’t mind.

“Sayers always know where to hit you with a question, don’t they?” Adanech asked him.

Lebna laughed. “Every single one of them. Waseme is blunter though.”

“I don’t know.” Adanech laughed as well, staring at the Lel’ult. “Many Sayers are, but... well, not Imani. Do they still count?”

“Imani can be very blunt,” Lebna mused. “And they definitely count.”

At the mention of them he wanted to be back in Hirka. It hit him hard and he could almost hear Reem laughing about it.

“I think Waseme is intent that they take over for her when the time comes.” Adanech smiled softly as she watched the Lel’ult. She had everyone’s attention, somehow the way she told the stories was so captivating.

“I hope so. I know they one day want to be a Sayer again. I’d hate for them to go elsewhere.”

“You did get awfully close with them.”

“I am very fond of them.” The words weren’t a surprise to him, though they might have been this morning. It hadn’t occurred to him before.

Adanech was as surprised as he might have been this morning. She stared, eyes round, before taking a moment and looking back at the Lel’ult. She wouldn’t push him. He appreciated that.

“Not interrupting anything, am I?”

They looked up at Lulu. “Just wondering where you’ve been,” said Adanech.

It’s not as though she could hide it, Lulu’s long hair would take some time to dry out. Lebna started to move away from Adanech so Lulu could sit between them, but she settled herself down on his left before he could. She leaned into his side, getting the remnants of the water on him.

Lebna said nothing, handing over his drink so she could take a swallow.

“She has their attention,” Lulu mused.

“She always will,” said Adanech. “We just have to make sure it continues to be good attention.”

The crowd around the Lel’ult laughed. The Lel’ult quickly looked over, meeting Adanech’s eyes before seeing Lebna and Lulu sitting with her. She smiled at them before addressing someone else. Lebna saw it was Lulu’s father.

“What’s the Basin like?” Lulu asked Adanech, resting her head against Lebna’s shoulder.

“Dangerous unless you know what you’re doing. Always remain close to the trees, but don’t trust them. They might trick you if you do.”

“Trick like how the tree Oringo saw completely disappeared?” Lulu asked.

“I wonder if we might find something like the antidote in the south,” said Lebna. Perhaps Imani would be willing to come and look, being the most familiar with such things.

“We have another antidote right here.”

At Lulu’s words, both Lebna and Adanech noted how Yahim had ed in whatever the Lel’ult was saying. Their way of speaking with each other was not as charged as it had been in the past.

“Good job,” said Lebna.

“Yelling Yahim into submission,” added Adanech.

And Lulu laughed, her mother ing them as they began to speak of Lulu’s childhood. For a time, a short amount of time, they would relax here in Mazundu. Then they would move on.

Lebna knew they were reaching. Reaching for something. It was only a matter of time.

Also by A. A. MacConnell

Spears of the Lel'ult Spear's Sacrifice Spear's Ascent Spear's Reach Spear's Forgiveness

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About the Author

A. A. MacConnell is thankful for all time and emotion spent imbibing creative endeavors, being personally familiar with the process. Living in the woods with noisy nature and dogs, this author thrives in the fantastical, the psychological, and introspections of relations between people. Go to aamacconnell.com to read more drabbles, poetry, ideas, other books, and updates of future releases. Read more at A. A. MacConnell’s site.