Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(34) A Smile Like Sunshine

I can't. I can't sing. I'm not the Singer.

I don't know what I am anymore.

"Twenty years ago," signs Makeba, "a Shalda-Kel met a child on the shores of my island. They convinced her to keep their presence secret until they had taught her the Song. Then they sent her back to tell her village. That girl was my sister. I was the first one she transformed."

The Song is real. I press my head back against the stone to keep the world from spinning. Masae wasn't joking. And she isn't just telling a story. This is happening.

But twenty years? Makeba would have been a child... a preteen at best. How did she survive? I can't help but glance at the scars that web her body.

Makeba gives a mirthless smile. "The only injury I got then was a skinned elbow. A shark found me, and we got curious enough about each other that I followed it out to open water. The diving call caught me there. I hid alone in the Shalda-sana for half a moon before the Song spread and the rest of my village tried to reach the water. Less than half of them made it."

"They didn't transform?"

"They did. The Karu got them."

So many people.

"I started the Sandsingers in memory of that one Shalda-Kel who was brave enough to reach my village," signs Makeba. "I've spent the fifteen years since gathering Kels who are willing to help me. Kels who aren't waiting around for the Singer to come solve all their problems. We're almost at the end of the prophecy. The Singer isn't coming."

I swallow the dry, pasty feeling in my throat. I can tell she's building up to something with this, but I can't tell what it is yet. "You said there is no Singer. Now you're saying they're not coming?"

"Some Shalda-Kels have a version of the prophecy that has no Singer. I'm inclined to believe it was added."

"But you don't have proof."

Makeba bares her teeth. Are mine that sharp? "I lost two-thirds of my village that night. We here have watched for fifteen years while the fish disappear and the Sami and Karu kill our people. We've seen villages remember the Song and try to reach the water without us, only to be mown down the moment they touch the waves. We've lost dear friends while guiding others. I've almost died so many times, the only thing that scares me is what will happen to the people still trapped on the islands when I'm gone. And no Singer has ever come to help."

She's deathly calm, though her eyes are black fire burning into mine. "So don't you dare tell me there's a Singer, or that you're the Singer, until you know what that means to us. Until you know what we've been through. What we went through to get even you into the water. You want to know what happened to your village? We sang them down just over half a moon ago. They tried to kill us, and then they tried to kill each other. In the time it took us to convince them they weren't all cursed, the Karu found us and attacked."

She releases me. I slide down the wall, numb all over.

"And you want to know what's 'wrong' with Taiki?" she continues.

I want her to stop. I don't want to learn any more, when I already know it's going to hurt. I drop my head and cover my eyes.

Makeba drops in front of me. A grip like a trap's vice secures my chin and jerks it up again. "You threatened him. You can deal with the consequences," she signs, a snarl on her face. "Two years after we started the Sandsingers, we found a Shalda child alone in the deep. From what he said, we guessed that he and several other children had been out playing when diving Sami attacked their tribe. Slaughtered them, every last one. This child returned on a simple errand and saw it all happen.