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

(5) Taiki: Currents On the Wall

Ande bristles at the comment the moment it leaves Makeba's hands. I can't tell if she's angry on my behalf or her own, but either way, I can speak for myself. I catch her by the wrist as her hands rise. She drops them again and moves away, her arms crossed and her face stormy.

"I chose to come," I sign. I can already tell Makeba doesn't believe me, but it's true.

"You weren't threatened?" she replies, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Ande flinch.

Did that happen the last time I was here? That would explain why such a strong part of me was afraid of Ande's dagger when I came back to myself while staying with her village. But a threat alone isn't enough to stop me. Ande's strong, and fast, but I don't actually know which of us would win in a fight. I've been looking out for myself for years, and I've been told before that I'm hard to push around. If she managed to threaten me to go with her somewhere, it means I already wanted to come. Not that that makes it right. But I already know that's not how Ande is anymore, and I've never really held grudges. Beside the fact that it's hard to when your memory isn't reliable, it's never seemed fair. I'd rather look at the present than the past.

That's not how Makeba works, and I can tell she and Ande have talked about this before. Or maybe "talked" isn't the right word for it when Makeba is involved. Either way, I suspect it means Ande already got whatever she deserved.

"I chose to come," I repeat, because Makeba is still watching me, waiting for my answer. "They're my people, too."

Her face twists in the same look she wears every time the Singer comes up. She flicks her hands skyward. "Fine. If you want to pursue your stupid Singer theory instead of helping your people yourself, you can come. But don't say I didn't warn you."

And with that, she swings herself off the rock and leaves the same way Feather went. Shoulders ease all around the camp. Neither leader is here now, which puts Ruka in charge. Makeba told Ande to talk to Neem about the Sandsingers' plans, but Ruka will know just as much. Makeba probably wanted Neem to give the overview so he could size Ande up and determine if she'd be a help or a liability.

Ande is already drifting in Ruka's direction. My senses sharpen warily. Did they already meet the last time we were here? Ruka isn't the one I'd have expected Ande to befriend first, and she is the one I'd least want her befriending. Ruka's people have been on speaking terms with the Sami for generations. I'm surprised Makeba has let her stick around, let alone entrusted her with so much responsibility. My initial thought, though, is confirmed as soon as we meet up with the blue-shark Kel at the edge of the camp. Ruka gives Ande a friendly greeting and a smile that welcomes her far more than Makeba's did. They know each other.

We swim out of the camp together, to a spot where the wall is nearly smooth, coated in a different rock than the columns that make up the rest of Chura's Skull. There's a map scratched all the way across it. It's the long, bent crescent moon of the island chain, recreated from Shalda hereditary knowledge but filled in with details the Sandsingers must have accumulated over their many trips up and down the chain. Near-shore currents, reefs, and what I can only assume are island villages pattern the map. Half the villages are crossed out.

But the rest of the rock face isn't empty. My thoughts about Ruka and the Sami intensify as I realize what the great, faint swirls over the outer map are. They're currents. I recognize the ones scratched into the rock itself, but over them are more, drawn in black. They coil and braid, their intricate dances separate from the one that flows into the island chain at one end and out the other. Between them are the tiny flecks of seamounts and atolls. Hundreds of them.

The Sandsingers have a map of the Sami-sana. I make sure to keep Ande between Ruka and I. Is Ruka working against her people's alliances for the sake of helping sing the islanders down? She's one of the few in the group who could have helped draw this. But even then, why do the Sandsingers need to know everything in the Sami-sana to deal with the islands? Does Ruka learn where her people and the Sami cluster, then help the Sandsingers avoid that? It's the only explanation that makes sense.