Inyanga's Star and Other Constellations

Part II. Mali's Star

Guardia Eve paced back across the cafeteria back wall, going the other way now, and said, "We received a tip, of sorts. Not intentional, but a neighbor mentioned how you take it upon yourself to provide the third meal of the day to the orphans you teach."

A tip, of sorts? Mali breathed slow but not too slow, answered slow but not too slow.

"That's right. Most . . . aren't orphans, however." This the maestra uttered carefully, for the benefit of the children. Because though the correction must be made, it was important to make it gently in front of so many whose mothers had or would return to mortality and pass from this life. "I teach students of varying ages, some of whose mothers have not yet passed to fuel the eternal youth of the child." In this neighborhood, most had fathers. Most were not starborn, but the products of plain old human conception. To say it would hurt her little Nyuki, salt in the wound of his lost parens, and surely the guardia had sense enough to know it without being told.

Eve said, "And where did the food come from?"

Mali gave the signal — a hand swept behind her back as she turned toward her students — and thirteen voices called, "Benicio's on Libra!"

The maestra had trained them, starting with Nyuki. "And what do we say if guardia inspectors come by?" To help him remember, she gave the gnomon a twirl, then slid it up the back of her shirt, tucked into her waistband, into hiding.

Some days the boy fooled with her. "We ordered from the Cloud."

"Uhn un. You need to say something believable. Now, no more fooling, we ordered in from where?"

"Benicio's across the street. But we could get from the Cloud one time. It's not un-believable. If it was a special day . . . we could order from the Cloud one time, and that one time could be today. Be bold, Aunt Mali. They see through you if you don't. You got to hit them with a bold as stars lie."

She made a wrong buzzer sound: "Eeaaaa."

With a knowing shake of her head, "We're doing it my way. We practice saying Benicio's two thousand times, tell it to the guardia like that, and the two thousand and first time, you can say we got it from the Cloud." The boy had tackled her, delivering knuckle punches to the lap that were loving. "Hey! But only if the two thousand and first time falls on a special day — like your birthday." When he said they could order from the Cloud on a special day, it seemed he had been afraid to say on his birthday outright. Like it would make her sad, thinking about his mother Bahari and how she had passed. Mali didn't want Nyuki to feel sad about the day he came into this world.

Now the kids were back to munching and the inspectors asked to speak with Mali privately.

Privately was not so private; it was only the corner by the door, and only Guardia Eve's body blocked the conjured cuffs she slipped onto Mali's wrists from the students' view. "Our detection spells got an improvement, a new breakthrough at Constellation's law and order department. We pinpointed the spell's origin to your classroom."

Hands in the front belt loops of her navy uniform, Nguri took over from here. "Come on, Mali. You can't tell me that slop came from Benicio's," a hand swept toward the greens Mali conjured painstakingly. "I've eaten there every dies Saturni for time immemorial. Can't miss tamale night."

With her own hands bound in front of her, all Mali could do was keep her wrists tilted upward so gravity would remain on her side, hiding the gnomon and keeping it up in her sleeve — and keep talking. She said, "And since you're from the Shade, you know there's real crime here. Real theft. Our packages get stolen even with link delivery, even within locked gates. Vehicles get broken into. There's violent crime. Gangs. Protestors. Whatever you call the terrorists who commit murder in the streets to return an immortal animus to Constellation in hopes of bringing down the market price of eternal souls. As if the mothers in this neighborhood will ever be able to afford a Constellation animus, so they can live to see their children's lives, just like the executives at the company do.

"Why not search around a little it? You might actually find a criminal whose law breaking harms the people in this community."

"Theft of magic itself harms the community, Mali Otto." Nguri rocked back and forth on her heels.

Eve took over. "How do you think the package thieves break through the school's magical locks?"

Back to Nguri for the answer. "Black market connections."

"Those killing in the street? The shooters get a contraband gnomon from the same dealer as you."

Nguri added, "The real criminals are a threat to your students."

"The longer you conceal the origin of their power, the more culpable for the crime in the Shade you become," said Eve.

Mali lifted her chin. "As long as the children in my care require sustenance, I'm going to give it to them. If Constellation wants to bring down the law, they better bring down affordable conjured meals for the impoverished motherless babes here."

A hand went knowingly to her right wrist. Nguri said, "With that well-reasoned protest in mind, we'll offer you a little mercy. We have to do our jobs, so you're coming in for questioning. But you may have a moment to say goodbye. You might want to make some arrangements for your boy." She touched the gnomon within the shirt fabric and burned her gaze into Mali's eyes. A message seemed to come through the fire in her eyes: It's the death penalty should a gnomon be found on your person.

Mali's head dropped. The officers left her alone with the happily munching students. Though she wanted to trust Nguri, any failure to cooperate could result in the officer returning to the classroom to search for the magical instrument.

The only choice she had would sear her heart and soul if it went wrong. Under the kids' table, Mali stretched the gnomon to Nyuki. The instant before his fingers grasped it, she cast invisible soundproofing around them. "No games. I need to be able to count on you right now. No fooling. You give it to Mvua's dad the second he gets here. That's it. Don't you hold on to it another moment. Just give it to Ziwa, okay?"

"Okay." His lip quivered.

"Take this very seriously."

"Okay." The boy was scared. She didn't want to scare him, but she needed him to be scared.

"Just get it to Ziwa."

"Okay, but where are you going?"

"I'm going to go with the inspectors. Maybe they want to thank me for my cooking." She laughed, but she couldn't stop trembling. "Maybe they'll take me to the Cloud as thanks."

Nyuki's head tilted to the side, the smirk on his face steady, and her mischievous munchkin was back. "I don't think so. Your meals stink. Literally. Like sewer trash."

The laugh was against her will; it fell straight from her belly out of her mouth, and she held him. "You just stay with Ziwa tonight. Stay with Ziwa a little while. Just a little while."

Thank you for reading Episode I of Mali's Star. If you liked reading it, please leave a star for me to let me know. One day Episode II of her story will come!!