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

(22) Taiki: Reparations

"Why she left?"

"Or why she was here in the first place. We worked together for fifteen years." Makeba runs both hands over her hair and drops her head, then lifts it again. "You can see why it was hard to find out she worked for someone else. I trusted her. She broke that trust."

"She did believe in saving the islanders."

"Did she?"

"From what I've heard. Ande says it, too, and she talks to Ruka more than I do. They both... respect what you do. And don't want the islanders to die. You're really the only one doing anything about that. Anything that's working, anyway."

"Who did she work for?"

I don't want to reveal these things on Ruka's behalf. But Ruka isn't here, and she won't be within reach again until she and Ande get back from Rapal. If they make it back at all. If I'm trying to make an alliance with Makeba, meanwhile, I might have to reveal some things that make her willing to work with me. Or help her confirm she doesn't want to.

Then again, Ruka isn't involved with the Kels gathering in Roshaska. Even if Makeba rejects any kind of association with her, I can still offer a place to send new island Kels. And explaining why I'm okay working with Ruka might be key to getting Makeba to trust me.

"She doesn't work for anyone, I think," I sign. "But she has allies. Especially the Ashianti."

Makeba grumbles something too half-formed to be legible, but doesn't interrupt.

"The Ashianti have been trying to stay out of the war" I continue. "They knew the Alliance was a threat, and they knew someone was sending information that risked making the Alliance stronger. Ruka came here to find out who it was, and why. She stayed because she agreed with you, too. But she's always had multiple loyalties. When she found out about the assassinations..."

"It wasn't about the assassinations. Not specifically."

"It was about the signs that the heir escaped, wasn't it?"

"She wouldn't tell me." Makeba throws both hands up. "She could be angry because Arcas couldn't take the throne, for all I know. Or because something changed among the Glauclin clans. I got a tip-off afterward that she might even have been an Alliance ally. I doubt that part, but until I can ask her directly, I know exactly as much as she told me, and that's almost nothing. She left too fast."

Oh.

Makeba doesn't know. For all the information the Sandsingers have been sending back and forth between the Alliance and the fighting Karu factions, no one in the Alliance has been sending updates back. No one telling the truth, that is. Of course Makeba would be angry at Ruka if it looked like Ruka was allied with Alliance Kels. And of course Ruka couldn't say who she was allied with without revealing how long she'd been a spy. Now that even that cover has been blown, Ruka has almost nothing to lose here unless Makeba comes after Sar.

She's not going to come after Sar. Sar is trying save the Shalda-Kels. That includes sung-down islanders.

"Ruka isn't allied with Arcas," I sign. "She's allied with the Ashianti palace. She knows the heir... they're close. She got upset because there were signs that heir escaped, and she didn't know soon enough to go looking for them."

"Is that what she's told you?"

"Not just her. I've talked to others who confirmed it. Including someone from the palace, who escaped, too. Who I know isn't allied with Arcas."

Half-lying is a lot easier than completely lying, and I'm not sure why I've never tried it before. I've spoken to plenty of people who've worked with Ruka in Underfarrow, from Yaz and Finika to El, another Ashianti refugee. The Kel I really mean is Sar, but everyone else in Underfarrow speaks highly of both them and Ruka.