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

(20) Taiki: Interrogation

I can't tell if Ande regrets asking me what I found through the healing song. She keeps a hand over her mouth for half of it, and even though she didn't feel any of it the way I did, I can't blame her. I've seen Kels kill in horrific ways, but even among those cruelties, Arcas is an exception. She didn't offer the quickest death, or the one that would leave the least trace of her involvement. She would need the common sense of a jellyfish for that, and given the rest of what she planned, she's far smarter than most. The only answer, then, is that she took down Sar that way because she wanted to watch them die.

They say they escaped, the only thing about their story that makes me instantly suspicious. If it's true, the implications are alarming. Arcas is small even for an Ashianti Kel, but Sar is scarcely average. They were already injured at the time, too. There's a part of me that wonders, then, if Arcas let them go deliberately; if she had other plans, or just wanted to watch them try to get away. If the second option is true, they're either far stronger than they look, far slipperier, or both.

There's a part of me that wants to tell Ande all of that, and a part of me that hopes in a dark and quiet way that she'll learn the hard way in befriending Sar. They're not still here because they trust us. They're still here because right now, we're the only shield they have. Ande's trying to befriend them, and they're letting her believe it's working. She's already proven she'll fall for it, and I don't know how long it will be before she's willing to fight me to protect a Kel she barely knows.

And they're bold enough to do all of this right in front of me.

I turn from watching Ande, to find Sar watching me. I hold eye contact until they break it and let their own gaze wander away. It flips the moment Ande looks over, to something with a pained break in it, just as carefully crafted. She offers to help them lie back down, and they accept, showing a flinch I already know they would have hidden if Ande were me.

Another Sami-Kel would never fall for this. Another Sami-Kel would abandon one this badly injured, or use them as leverage against Arcas and whoever follows her. Sami don't show their weaknesses. It's an unspoken rule as strong as the community impulse of the Shalda: so strong, it's one of the few things the Karu still say about their open-water neighbors with complete confidence. In the Sami-sana, size and strength dominate, or strength without size in rare cases like the Ashianti. A Sami-Kel who knows the rules of the place they grew up in would only let themself look weak on purpose.

We're being used. I want nothing more than to leave; Sar won't die now, but of course that will never be enough to convince Ande. The best I can do, then, is keep an eye on Sar until I find some way of convincing Ande to leave them before Arcas comes after us, or Sar uses us as bait to escape the Kel who tried and failed to kill them.

I look up as Ande rises reluctantly from Sar's side.

"Are you going out foraging?" she signs to me.

Oh, this should be interesting. With their status among the Ashianti, Sar must have the skills to sing in their own food, but I'm curious whether their current nap—or "nap"—is a test to see if Ande will gather it for them. I already suspect she will, just to spite me.

I nod once to answer her question.

"Can I come?"

Reluctant to leave me alone with Sar. I nod again and set out without another word. True to my prediction, Ande scours the rocks for twice as much food as she herself needs. I finish long before she does, and have a moment to think. Sar's poisoning should wear off by end of tomorrow night, but they're still injured. Also dead if they return to Rapal. They need us for protection, but that means leverage for me, and I'm starting to wonder if there's more I want to learn from them. My original plan, after all, was always interrogation.