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

(44) Ande: Islander of the Deep

Taiki, to his credit, leaves without protest. I can tell he's not happy, but he knows he never had Sar's trust to begin with, let alone now. Sar, meanwhile, eases up as soon as he's gone.

I turn to them immediately. "Do you know a group called the Sandsingers?"

The sign name should be language-ambivalent, and Sar confirms it. "You know them?"

"Better than I'd like. Taiki knows them better. We've both swum with them on one of their raids, right before we came to Rapal." When Sar's expression turns guarded, I add quickly, "I don't agree with their views on the war. We were just testing whether I was the Singer."

Rashi help me, it still hurts. That whole trip endangered us both for nothing; the Singer doesn't exist.

"Anyway, we left again right after," I finish. "That was the second time I'd visited them. So yeah. I know them."

"It's them."

I stare at Sar for a long moment before I realize they're answering my question from before. About who is passing information back and forth between the Sami and Karu in order to inflame the war. My heart sinks like a stone.

"What do you know?" asks Sar. "About what you said earlier."

"About them wanting to cause chaos?" When I get an affirmative, I pummel my mind for all the details I've ever acquired about this. "I know they want war. They only care about the islanders, and they believe conflict in the surface waters will make it easier to reach people on the islands. Which is probably true, even if it's messed up. I know there's some internal conflict about it, too, and their islander-Kel leader is most in favor of the war. I've seen one of their members in contact with Karu-Kels in secret out around their camp, too, which is why I wondered about the information going both ways. Two of the members are working undercover to stop the war. I..."

Do I want to say it?

But Sar deserves to know.

"I helped two of them send a warning to the Ashianti palace after Taiki and I saw Arcas meeting with Alliance Kels on Kuna, but—"

Sar bolts upright. "The Alliance took Kuna?"

"You know about it?"

"Not that they took it."

"No, about Kuna in general. Actually..." Yeah, it is weird, isn't it? The Ashianti aren't supposed to be interested in anything around the islands. "About the Sandsingers in general. How do you know them?"

Sar gnaws their lip for a moment. "Promise you won't tell?"

"I'm not turning over information to anyone who wants you dead, Sar. Or anyone in general. Not until you say it's okay."

They melt a little. "We have an ally in the Sandsingers. They bring back information whenever they come make a visit, but the last one was moons before... before Arcas took over."

"Do you know if they're still okay?"

"No."

"Was it Ruka?" I sign quietly.

It makes too much sense for me not to guess. Ruka gave me a carefully phrased reason to help send the warning to the Ashianti, but I now suspect she hid the full truth. Taiki has said her people are friendly with the Ashianti; she's from the Glauclin clans, one of their closest allies. And she and Keshko were clearly operating outside their fellow Sandsingers' eye when they roped me into that message-sending.

Sar breaks at the name. "Is she still there? Is she okay?"

"She was last time I saw her. But that was moons ago."