She looked at him, still seeing that little boy from so long ago. She felt a pang of guilt, thinking of Tamerit and what she herself was keeping from him, but quickly pushed it from her mind.
Omari rubbed the back of his head, as he always did when he was nervous, but said nothing.
“Well?” she prodded.
Omari’s jaw clenched. “You must keep this to yourself, do you understand?” He scanned the area around them. Other than two farmers and a donkey carrying sacks of grain far up ahead, they were alone on the road.
Rae’s pulse quickened. “Yes, of course,” she said. “I swear it.”
Omari stopped walking and turned to face her. They’d reached the edge of his family’s land, where their mud-brick home and carpentry workshop stood. “There is a group of like-minded men who want to liberate Low Khetara from the pharaoh’s oppressive rule. They have been meeting at night, in various secret locations, to make a plan of action that begins here, in Sakesh. The weavers have been passing messages along to the men so that they can avoid being seen together on the street. Not all of the weavers know, mind you, but Mamet Mut and a few others do. The Medjay don’t like it when Sakeshis assemble in groups of any number, so…” He faltered.
“Wait…you’reone of these ‘like-minded men’?” Rae asked.
Omari squared his shoulders. “I am.”
Rae felt a chill, despite the blazing heat of the sun on her skin.“I don’t understand. Since when are you so interested in politics?”
“Since my eyes were opened to injustices I can no longer tolerate.”
“Omari,” Rae scoffed. “I know things in Sakesh are bad, but what—?”
“Look around you,” Omari broke in. “Our city is falling to ruin. Once proud men beg on the streets, dressed in rags, while High Khetarans live in luxury, wearing robes threaded with gold they stole from our land. Don’t you ever think about it, Rae? Don’t you ever wonder why you’re so angry?”
Rae was taken aback. It felt as if she were talking with a stranger. Omari had always been so soft-spoken and easygoing, in many ways her opposite. Looking at him now, she had to wonder what depths lay beneath his placid surface—what she’d been too busy to notice while focused on her own problems.
“Of course, I think about it,” she said, sullen. “But I’m too busy keeping food on my father’s table to have secret meetings with strange men.” When Omari didn’t reply, she asked, “What is it that you plan to do, anyway?”
Omari shook his head. “I’ve said too much already. I don’t want you and Ankhu involved if something goes wrong.”
“Wrong?” Rae asked, alarmed. “Omari, what are you planning? How do you know you can trust these men? Who are they? If you go and get yourself killed, I swear I’ll—”
“Keep your voice down!”
Rae was shocked by the force in his voice. He grabbed her, squeezing her wrist in his work-roughened hand. Rae’s instinct was to pull him toward her and throw him onto his back, just like she did to Buto—but she didn’t. Omari must have sensed the tension in her, though, because he quickly released his grip.
“I’m sorry,” Omari said, his voice quiet once more. “But these are dangerous times, Rae. I recommend you keep your unbridledstupidity to a minimum.”
Omari’s gentle jabs typically made her laugh, but this time, a rush of rage flooded her body. “You’re callingmestupid? I’m not the one sneaking out in the middle of the night searching for a fire to burn in!”
Omari glared at her, a similar fury reflected on his face. Then it dissipated, and he sighed. “Look, I didn’t mean to—”
But Rae was too angry and hurt to listen. “Don’t worry,” she broke in. “Even a fool like me knows how to keep her mouth shut.” And with that, she strode past him toward home.
“Rae, wait,” Omari called after her. She didn’t look back. “Rae!”
After that, he must have given up and gone inside, because only the sounds of the river followed her home.
***
Soon, the slender palms lining the edge of Omari’s family land were behind her, and the familiar fields of golden wheat began. The feathery stalks were nearly chest-high, and Rae stretched her hand out to let them tickle her palm. She pushed the fight with Omari from her mind.You’ve got too much going on to worry about him.
Rae’s back ached thinking about all the work that needed to be done on the farm. She and her father had already harvested the southern field—but it was the smaller of the two, and besides that, the year’s crop, much like everyone else’s, had been middling at best, so they’d have to make sure to harvest every stalk to have enough wheat cut and bundled to pay the king’s tax. If the northern field took extra time, so be it. She began to plan out the rest of that day, and the next, and the next. The orderly, ordinary thoughts soothed her.
She caught her father as he was leading one of the humpbackedbrown zebu back to its pen. He was her equal in almost every respect—from his broad muscled frame to his large knob-knuckled hands, and the sun-bronzed color of his skin. Only his frizzy halo of graying hair—which made him look far older than his years—separated them.
“You see?” he said to the cow when he spied Rae coming up the path. “I told you she’d be back. And in one piece too.” His gaze fell upon her face, and he cocked his head. “Well, mostly.”
Rae raised a hand, wincing when she touched a puffy welt under her eye.Add that to the fat lip, I guess.Had she landed on her face one of the times Buto threw her? She couldn’t really remember. Shrugging, she gave her father a sheepish grin. “Tripped over a rock in the road. You know me.”
