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I can feel everyone staring at me, puzzled, but I don’t care. I just want to exist in this happiness for as long as I can. For however long I’m here on Maida, the ebiki surrounding me, I want to revel in this feeling of being perfectly safe.
And the ebiki seem to understand, because they circle around me, rumbling my name reverently to the wind until finally, I’m out of tears. Out of emotion. And there is just peace.
Just the ocean breeze wafting where sobs once did.
When their songs have quieted, Ixa flitters over to me, pleased. Deka all better, he says, flying back up to cuddle on my chest. He wraps those wings around me, which are just as velvety and warm as I imagined, if not more so. Mother say Deka have two weeks now before get weak again, maybe more. Ixa happy.
Two weeks…That’s how much time I have before my life force begins depleting again, before the sores start opening again. I’m not even dismayed by the thought. It’s much more time than I thought I’d have. I’ll treasure every day, every moment that I can go without pain.
I look down at Ixa, this miraculous creature that’s been so instrumental to my well-being, to almost every move I’ve made since my blood ran gold, and I squeeze him tight.
“Thank you, Ixa,” I say. “Thank you for everything.” Then I glance at the other ebiki, all of which are still waiting patiently underneath Maida, gentle eyes unblinking. “Thank you all.”
The reply, when it comes, is a deep, reverberating sound. “Welcome,” Queen Ayo says in that unending rumble, and then she starts moving again, the other creatures following behind her, waves surging in their wake.
The entire group watches them go, awed, as I am, to have been witness to what is almost certainly a scene out of the deepest, most hallowed mythology.
Only when the ebiki are a distance away does everyone regain their faculties.
Nenneh Kadeh turns to me, awe in her eyes. “You are most fortunate, Angoro,” she remarks, “to earn the loyalty of the ebiki. Not every god is as fortunate, particularly not the fledgling ones. It is a deep honor.”
I nod. “It is,” I agree.
I hold on to this feeling as we continue on, letting it buoy me all the way to the city and whatever victories and treacheries wait there.
* * *
If Maiwuri seemed beautiful from afar, it’s stunning up close. Those jewellike buildings gleam in the warmth of the setting sun, making the entire island seem lit from within. Its cloud foundation, which I noted earlier, is just lowering to the ocean when we reach the city, those clouds scattering into sparkling white sand the moment they touch the water. Power tingles through my body as the island’s colossal trees begin stretching even taller, their brilliantly hued leaves misted by the waterfalls that curve along the floating hills, each one dividing the city into distinct districts.
There, to the west, is a district filled with gardens—plants and mushrooms of all colors and shapes growing in voluptuous abandon while vines wreathe every building and monument, every statue and gate. To the east is a more austere district filled with forbidding white buildings that hold the intimidating aura common to institutions of law. It’s flanked, almost ironically, by a pleasure district, immediately apparent by the hordes of drunken people spilling out of brightly colored houses, goblets and horns of wine in hand, their bodies in all the colors of the rainbow. Yet another district seems filled with libraries and bookish people in all manner of dress, most of whom have affixed strange glass contraptions to each eye, and who are all, to the very last person, pale-and-shimmery-skinned like Lamin and his aunt.
These must be the godsworn of Sarla, the god of wisdom. A paler and more academic lot I’ve never seen in my life. I can’t help thinking that Acalan, the most scholarly of our uruni, would feel at home there.
I can’t wait to tell him about it the moment I see him.
Then I remember: I probably won’t ever see Acalan again. Nor Adwapa and Asha, nor Katya and Rian. Nor any of my other friends. Not in this form, at least.
If what Anok and White Hands told me is true, once I meet Mother, she’ll lead me to my kelai, and then I’ll ascend to divinity and smite the gods, thus bringing Otera into an era of peace, free of divine meddling and celestial aggression.
The thought fills me with conflicted feelings; relief at being able to finally free Otera from its divine oppressors, sadness at leaving my friends…I reflect on this as Maida drifts to a landing in the waters just in front of the city. Once I’m a god, Otera will finally be peaceful. Everyone will lead the lives they want to. Except for me. Yes, I’ll be happy the gods are gone, happy Otera is safe, but I’ll be separated from everyone I love—my friends, Mother.
All this time, I just wanted to hold her again. To smell her scent. Hear her voice. But I’ll only get to do that for a few moments, a few hours.
As tears sting my eyes, a shadow shifts beside me: Keita, hand extended to help me off Maida while Nenneh Kadeh unsaddles the massive horn ray.
The devastated expression on his face as I step off the glistening gray animal is an exact replica of mine, but he tries to hide it with a rueful smile. “Nervous, Deka?” he asks, glancing pointedly at the island, those jewel-hued trees rising in front of us.
“Terrified.”
“Once you meet your mother, it’s the first step to divinity….”
“I know.” I can’t help the misery that creeps into my voice at the thought.
Keita hooks my arm in his and then squeezes it, the simple touch so overwhelming, it’s some moments before I realize he’s speaking again. “You know…you’re healed and your body isn’t in imminent danger of breaking again. Otera won’t fall apart tomorrow if you wait a day or two to repair your bond with your kelai.”
“Except it will.” I sigh. “Every second I delay…”
“The One Kingdom worsens.” Keita sighs as well, weariness seeming to weigh down his entire being. “Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to not have the fate of an empire on your shoulders.”
