Hear The Whispers Sing.

Ch.3: That Moment When Everyone Disregards Your Opinion

'I'm sending the ogre we completed today, sawa?' Mama said cradling the kijioo to her ear, and at Baba's sawa, she returned with sawa and ended the call.

'Haya, let's continue,' she said, turning back to the immobile monsters.

But Akiba had had enough. 'You're lying to him?' she whispered, 'lying...'

'Things going well is subjective,' said Mama in a calm voice.

'Subjective,' said Akiba with a hysterical laugh, 'so, if I tell him...'

'You will do nothing of the sort!' Mama snapped.

'Mama..'

'Here, take this,' she handed Akiba a bag with all the jars of skin, claws and dark serum, 'and move. I'll do this part myself.'

'But...'

Mama whirled to face her, her eyes flashing again. This time, she blinked hard and fast until the flashing stopped. 'Promise me you won't tell him, Akiba,' she ordered, 'Promise.'

'That's...what...how the hell...'

'Akiba, promise.'

'What? No!'

'Promise me,' Mama took Akiba's hand and gripped it hard, 'please, please, please, promise me. D'you know what'll happen...' she took a deep breath, 'How desperate d'you think your Father will be if he knows?'

Akiba opened her mouth but closed it when she saw Mama's face. This wasn't something she could handle by arguing.

'Sawa,' she said, her voice quiet, 'Sawa, I promise.'

As if.

She looked back up, waiting for Mama to release her hands, but when she met her eyes, Mama only gripped them harder.

'Then,' she said, 'swear to me.'

Akiba blanched. 'Swear...'

'Yes,' she said, her eyes narrowed, 'swear. Say Wallahi Billahi you won't say anything to your Father.'

If Akiba hands weren't clamped between her mother's, she would have curled them into fists. She'd gotten her. What could she do? If Mama was determined enough to find even her suspicious, then there was no way she was talking her way out of this.

Akiba sighed. 'Fine,' she said, 'Wallahi Billahi I won't say anything to him.'

Mama nodded and dragged the bags and ogres deeper into their underground network. Akiba clenched her teeth as the tips of her leso disappeared into the darkness. There she went, safe in the knowledge that Akiba would stand there and watch everything go to hell. How did she think that she could stand against Warsame alone? They'd been at his mercy for eighteen years.

She took a deep breath and headed out. Mama had told her not to tell Father about the mad scheme cooking up in her head, but she forgot. Akiba wasn't the only child of hers who'd think that she'd gone off her rocker.

She didn't want her to tell Father? Fine. The information would reach him anyway. Just not from her mouth.

*

On weekdays, Sidi resided in the training grounds. Being tortured by Shangazi Faraja.

Her arena of abuse stood on a cliff before the sea, furnished with a stone watchtower with a domed and spiked tip for Shangazi Faraja to watch the show and a sparse covering of grass. Below it, the thundering waves masked Sidi's screams for mercy and Shangazi Faraja's maniacal laugh. 

'Show some ennnahjeee you big sack of dying bones,' Shangazi Faraja screamed, 'Move, move, move, move!'

Akiba looked down. Sidi was running a steep incline with weights on her feet, Mbwawatu large enough to reach her waist yipping and snarling at her back.