I don't intend to fall asleep, but the waiting and the quiet and the still water of the inner stone forest are enough to outweigh my anxieties. It doesn't really matter anyway. It's mid-afternoon when I wake again, and nobody's come to find me. Or if they have, they didn't wake me. I check my dagger, but it's still at my side.
A quick jet down the rocks reveals that Makeba and Luli have left the alcove we were speaking in before. A check of the Sandsinger camp reveals they're not there, either, so I wander about the local pillars long enough to find food for myself, then return to my post. Evening has begun to fall when I see motion at the mouth of the Sandsinger camp. I squint against the dimming light of breakeye. The person entering the camp is Luli. She's alone.
I tense. The water around me remains empty, though, until the surface far above warps and ripples with the brilliance of sunset. That's when Makeba appears. My hand drops to my dagger, but she's not armed. There's nothing aggressive in the way she approaches, either. I wait for her to pull up in front of me.
"Can we go somewhere more private?" she asks.
I don't know what else to do, so I nod. Makeba turns without another word. I glance over my shoulder for any sign of someone following us, but no flicker of motion betrays them if they are.
Makeba takes us back to the alcove we were in before. "I didn't want to drag Luli into this," she signs then. "Can I ask you a question?"
I don't think she's ever asked me if she can ask something. Normally she just does it.
"Yes," I reply.
"Why did Ruka leave?"
My hand twitches back towards my dagger. Makeba doesn't tense, though. She leans against the opposite wall, just watching me. She looks tired.
"You didn't ask her?" I venture.
"I did. She didn't say."
I bite my lip. I'd give almost anything to have Ande here with me right now. But I'm on my own.
"I have my guesses," continues Makeba. "I want to know how close I was."
"I... don't know if I can say."
She just watches me again, for a long time.
"You're on her side," she signs at last.
There's not much point in lying about that, so I nod.
"Ande, too?"
I nod again. If anything, Ande is even more on Ruka's side than I am, given how close she's gotten with Sar.
"Do you trust her?"
She's referring to Ruka. I clench both fists. I didn't, for a long time. The Glauclin clans have always been close with the Ashianti and other surface Kels. In past conflicts, they've equipped the Ashianti with spies and even assassins. Some of those spies were Glauclins themselves. I was scared of their clans, once upon a time. I still am, really. But thinking about Ruka again makes me realize I've started to see the Ashianti as allies. Which means their allies are my allies. Which means I do trust Ruka to some degree, whether I like it or not.
"Enough to work together," I sign. But even that's not quite true. "More than I trust most Kels."
"Does Ande?"
"More than me."
Makeba goes silent again. It's hard to tell how she feels about Ande, and therefore about what I'm saying. At last, though, she signs, "Is there anything you can tell me? I just want to understand."
"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.
"Is she trying to put that heir back on the throne?" asks Makeba.
"If that's what it takes to stop the war and Andalua."
"And you're sure about your reading in Roshaska, about the war?"
I hesitate. Do I trust Sar's reading? The answer is yes. I don't want to when so much rides on it and I didn't want them in Roshaska to begin with, but the only answer I can give is yes.
I give it.
Makeba rests her face in one hand and stays that way. Talking out loud won't work for her, so I just wait. It's probably better to give her time to process all this anyway.
At last, Makeba lowers her hand and signs, "Can you let Ruka know I want to talk to her? On equal terms. Just the two of us."
That could easily be a request to fight. I wait warily for confirmation.
"I swear I just want to talk," signs Makeba, annoyed. "Unless she decides she'd rather fight, in which case, I can't say I've never wanted to. I just want her to explain herself, if she's known all along that we apparently need to stop this war to save the ocean."
"She hasn't known. We only just learned—me and Ande. Some of the Ashianti suspected Andalua, but they didn't have proof, and only the older stories confirmed that the ocean got unbalanced because people were fighting. Ruka just didn't want the Ashianti to get dragged into the war."
A fiercer glare flashes across Makeba's face. "Is that what she pulled Ande into the first time you two visited?"
"What?"
More grumbling. "Never mind."
Something else must have happened between her and Ande back then. I'm not surprised. I've also stopped wishing Ande was here. She's infinitely better at reading situations than I am, but in this case, I'm probably a more neutral party.
"So," signs Makeba. "Do you have a plan?"
"For what?"
"To stop the war."
"Oh." I wish. "Right now, we're just trying to get enough Kels for the Unity Song. But Ande doesn't want to abandon the islanders, so she might be planning to bring some of the new alliance to help you? I don't know her side of things. We've... been working apart from one another for a while."
"Where is she?"
"Trying to get someone who can interpret the old stories better. There's a symbol we couldn't read in one of them, that might be important to how the eel Kels in Roshaska made it through the war. Or even ended it. If we can read that, we'll know better what to do."
"And what's your plan in the meantime? For gathering Kels."
She's still angry—at me or in general, I can't tell—but I think it's a good sign that she's asking questions. Unless she's doing it so she can pass on this information to the Alliance or fighting Karu, but if that's the case, only one of those can reach Roshaska, and it's not the one guarding the island chain.
"I wanted to come here first," I sign, "to get anyone who was sheltering in the stone forest, and to give you a place to send island Kels. After that, I have other people I want to talk to."
"Like who?"
I don't answer. If Makeba is planning to send this information to our enemies, I'm not selling out Lix'i.
"I'm not involving myself in anything beyond the islanders if you don't have a plan," signs Makeba.
I startle. "You're willing to involve yourself?"
"If it helps save the islanders."
"That might take a while."
"If we've got ten moons until the water rises and an angry goddess eats the remainder of my people, I'm willing to explore options. Unless you're telling me this will take longer than ten moons, in which case, I have nothing more to say here, and better things to do."
"Ande isn't going to let the islanders die."
"You said Ande is currently occupied. How long will that take?"
She's right. She's right, and with that, something else shifts. I'm on my own here. If we're going to stop the war, Ande is exactly where she needs to be, but that means I'm the one forging alliances to save the island people until she gets back. If I want Makeba on my side—if she's telling the truth about helping me—then no one can negotiate this except me.
"You're right," I sign, "but I don't want the islanders to die, either. And I'm the one talking to people. What if I ask each group if they're willing to help?"
"Make it a requirement."
"I can't do that. But I can let them know it's part of what's putting the ocean off-balance."
"Is it?"
I shrug. "We don't know for sure. But that's how a spell like that should work. The islanders haven't completed the requirements they went to the islands with, so the magic will keep stretching until it breaks, and that causes instability. It wouldn't help Andalua, at least."
"Use that, then."
"It might still take a while. The next people I want to talk to are the Karu in the Gods' Teeth. The ones who aren't fighting."
"Your old island?"
"Including them."
Makeba lifts a finger, stopping me. "The Sand-Coral cluster is completely occupied. Unless you have a way to draw off the North Faction, you're not likely to get in."
"Even if there's two islands at that end of the chain now that have been emptied the way Kuna was?"
Makeba straightens. "Two?"
"Nefinti and Osogo."
"Osogo wasn't a stronghold for either side."
"I know. The coral Karu were planning to take over it, though, and they'll be able to do that now that the Burrowers there are gone. Would that give them enough space to move out of the Gods' Teeth?"
"Only if they feel their territory there is safe enough to reduce their guard. With the Ashianti falling to the Alliance, that's unlikely. The North Faction has been on the highest alert we've ever seen. We can't even reach the northern islands on the chain anymore."
"What if something distracts the Alliance out near Ashianti territory?"
Makeba peers at me. "Is that something you have the power to do, or are you saying something already will?"
"It's hypothetical."
She flicks a noncommittal hand. "Who knows? It would probably do something. I couldn't say what without talking to someone, and we're not exactly allies with these people. Would you want to just talk to your Karu island, or actually get people out?"
I lift my hands, then drop them again. I want to at least offer to help move the Lix'i Karu somewhere safer, but the logistics of that become almost impossible if the islands are under siege. Very few of those Karu can swim further than an island at a time. None of them can dive. I'd also need somewhere safer to go, much farther away. Right now, I don't have that, either. Underfarrow only takes fighting Kels now.
I have a bit of time. The diversion won't have started yet, and news of it will take a while to reach the North Faction. I need to secure more allies in that time, and I think I know who to talk to next.
"I won't be going there as soon if it's too dangerous to approach," I sign. "I have a different question then, though. What's the situation like around Kuna?"
Makeba's brow furrows. "Why?"
"It was taken over by the Alliance, wasn't it?"
"Yes. But why do you want to know?"
"I can't say yet. There's someone I need to talk to first."
Makeba watches me for a while, then signs, "The Karu haven't approached it ever since it got emptied. They're concentrating their efforts at the north end of the chain."
That makes sense. If the strengthened Alliance attacks anywhere first, it'll be the rich hunting grounds of the Gods' Teeth. The North Faction is already clustered at the north of the chain, and they'll want all their forces there to fortify their Gods' Teeth territory now that the Alliance is strong enough to make a move on it.
"Do you plan to move the Shalda sheltering here first?" signs Makeba. "Or should we keep training them?"
"I'll need to gather a group to come get them, to make sure they reach Roshaska safely. Would it be possible to mark the route through the lower stone forest? It's impossible to get here through the surface waters."
"I can tell Dasha and Betea to arrange that."
Things are coming together. It feels almost unreal. "Thank you," I sign, and mean it. "I need to get back to Roshaska as soon as possible, then. Is Luli staying?"
"For a while, I believe."
That actually gives me more freedom. "Can Dasha show me the way out tonight, then? I can be back with an escort party within a quarter moon."
Makeba nods slowly, then signs, "One more thing. Come with me."
I follow her out of the alcove. She leads me to the Sandsingers' raid map, then tells me to wait and vanishes around the rocks. When she returns, she's carrying something.
"These are what we use to get through the stone forest these days," signs Makeba, and hands it to me. It's a small rock with a hole through one end, strung on a cord like a necklace. I turn it over and catch my breath. Carved into one side is a symbol from the ancient language on the stone pillars. The same one we can't read in Roshaska. The same one I found in the Chura's Skull shrine.
"Loba noticed the curse calmed around one of the pillars," signs Makeba. "So we experimented. It takes a while to replicate the symbol properly, so be careful with that. We can't spare you another one."
I clench the pebble tightly, then remember what the string is for and tie it around my neck instead. The pebble is warm when I clench it again. "Thank you."
"I'll send Dasha down to meet you." Makeba turns away, then pauses one last time and adds, "Good luck."