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

(21) Ande: The Shrine

I can tell Taiki and Sar were talking the moment I get back. Taiki is gone again, but Sar doesn't respond the same way when I offer them the food I gathered. For a long moment, they look about to refuse. It's been a long time since any of us have eaten, though, and they threw up whatever they last had before we found them anyway. When they finally give in, they give me a small thanks and then stay quiet while we eat. They bury their shells before I can offer to discard them elsewhere.

I finally can't take the change anymore. "Did he threaten you?" I sign.

Sar is not-looking at me successfully enough that my lights just catch their attention. They glance over, and I sign the question again. They shake their head and go back to the food. I have a hard time believing that. When they finish, they give me another quiet thanks, then drop back to the sandy ground, curl up again, and make it clear they want to be left alone. I unearth the shells they buried, and discard those and mine properly. Then I leave to track down Taiki.

He's not far. I find him resting against the coral-rock only a dozen arm-spans from the shelf, his stillness and proximity to the stone wall as out of place as Sar's sudden change in attitude. I pull up in front of him and cross my arms.

"They know the way to the shrine," he signs.

That knocks every fighting word straight out of me. I stare at Taiki, speechless for a moment as I try to figure out how he figured that out, or how the conversation must have progressed.

"I made a deal with them," he continues. "They take us there, and get to stay with us for safety until we arrive. Then we go our separate ways."

I can already see whose favor that skews in. Travel won't give Sar any chance to recuperate, making that safety temporary at best, abusive at worst. "And if they're not recovered enough to be safe alone by the time we arrive?"

He shrugs. "That's not my problem."

I clench my fists. Taiki has to realize how desperate Sar must be to agree to a deal like that. One that will put them in the open water without further healing, have them actively swim for however long it takes us to reach the shrine, then offer them only continued travel in water far outside their home depth if they still want to stay with us after that point.

"And they agreed?" I sign.

"They proposed it first."

"And how soon will we be leaving?"

"Whenever we want."

Which is to say, Sar didn't have the option to negotiate for that. They're desperate. They're willing to put their own recovery beneath staying with a pair of Shalda-Kels they don't even know, one of whom has done nothing but twist their arm since the moment they met. And Taiki is taking advantage of every moment of it.

"Will you at least heal them the rest of the way?" I sign, pouring everything I have into keeping the signs steady. "And when are you wanting to leave?"

"I owe them nothing." He fixes me with a cool gaze. "And as soon as possible. We've wasted enough time here already."

Wasted. That's all saving someone's life is to him. Wasted time.

Taiki lifts his hands again. "Them, or the prophecy?"

I'm so angry, I'm shaking. But for all the furious words flashing around my mind, itching at my fingertips, burning the lights on the backs of my hands, I again find myself with nothing to say. He's right that we can't expend any more time here, and with Rapal fallen into the Alliance's hands, we're not just racing against the prophecy. We're racing against a war. But Andalua help me, this feels so wrong. I know I owe Sar nothing, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to be treated a thousand times better than this. Any living person would.