Chapter 57:

Two weeks later, Rajani stopped Lainla outside the Jinkari smokehouse. “I found out what Sukren’s been doing with his food.”

Lainla, her arms full of mammole meat parcels, gave Rajani a confused glance. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know how Sukren always eats only half the food we give him, how he packs the rest?”

“Yes.”

“Yesternight, before they returned to the Gather’s Children ditch to sleep, I saw Sukren give his uneaten share to Mayah.”

“He does that every night,” Lainla responded.

Rajani’s brow furrowed. “He does?”

Her sister nodded. Rajani was silent. She accepted the parcels of meat that Lainla handed to her, then stooped to help her sister tie down the flap that covered their smokehouse entrance.

“Why are you so surprised?” Lainla asked as she knotted the strings. “He’s her brother, isn’t he?”

“They look nothing alike.”

“They call each other brother and sister, but I’ve never seen their parents. Maybe overbelters do families differently.”

“It’s just…” Rajani struggled to pin down her feelings. “Everything he does is for Mayah. Anyone can see that. But for some reason I can’t shake the sense that she doesn’t like him very much.”

“Are you sure it’s Sukren that Mayah doesn’t like, and not us?”

Rajani knew what Lainla meant. Inviting the overbelters to eat with the Jinkari had not been Rajani’s most popular decision. The adults had argued with her at length about it. They of course submitted to her authority in the end, but Rajani didn’t doubt that both Sukren and Mayah could tell they were not completely wanted.

Or at least Mayah could tell. The girl was smart, picking up the Cursed language with a quickness that impressed Rajani. Was Mayah’s quiet rancor a response to overheard comments about the Gather’s Children? Or was it directed against Sukren?

“I think she’s upset with Sukren,” Rajani finally said. “But I’m not sure. Can you talk to her for me and find out?”

Lainla reached out to take some of the mammole meat packages back from Rajani. “I already have.”

“What did she say?”

A smile touched Lainla’s lips. “That she’s scared of you.”

Rajani looked at Lainla, aghast. “What?”

“You didn’t give a great first impression when you barked at Shib-vyn the first night they started eating with us.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I was telling Shib-vyn to stop mocking Gather’s Children in front of them!”

Still smiling, Lainla shrugged. Half-amused, half-exasperated, Rajani followed her sister to their meal bench. Mamai greeted them. “Put the meat on the board. I’ll start the fire.”

Rajani and Lainla placed the parcels of meat on top of the meal bench’s circular board. After a few minutes the firepit in the middle of the board was crackling. Mamai began unwrapping the parcels. “Are you sure we should eat all this?” she asked Rajani.

“Yes,” Rajani responded. She steeled herself. “I agree with what you said yesternight, though, we should start rationing soon.”

Mamai said nothing in reply. Soon their skygold pot was burbling over the firepit, and the smoked meat inside it stewing. The sun hung high in the eastern sky.

When Sukren and Mayah arrived, Rajani watched them carefully. To her surprise, instead of joining them, Sukren whispered something to Mayah, then turned back west towards the Gather’s Children ditch. Mayah came to the meal bench alone.

“Why isn’t Sukren coming?” Rajani asked Mayah.

“He said he’s not hungry.”

Rajani and Lainla exchanged a glance. They both knew that couldn’t be true. Rajani got to her feet and jogged after Sukren. “Wait,” she called out to him in Xhom. “Sukren, wait.”

She caught up with him in the atreola. A Cursed woman getting water from a well nearby gave Sukren a dirty look. Overbelter, her eyes sneered. Rajani glared at her, then gestured Sukren away from the well to the center of the atreola, where there were fewer people.

“Why aren’t you coming to dinner?” she asked him.

Unlike Mayah, Sukren struggled with Cursed. He used a corrupted but somewhat understandable version of Xhom to communicate with Rajani. “The Gather’s Children rations are enough for me.”

Rajani looked at him. Sukren’s tone was warm, intended to persuade, and his face was calm. If she hadn’t known he was lying, it would’ve been hard to tell. But Rajani was no fool. She had seen Sukren’s hunger from the way he ate. She was well aware that the Gather’s Children rations were barely enough to keep an adult man like him alive.

“Why are you lying to me?” she asked.

Sukren looked away. “Food is short for everyone. I don’t want to take from you what I don’t have to.”

This time it took a moment for Rajani to process his words. Food is short for everyone… oh, she realized with a start. He, or Mayah, more likely, must have overheard Mamai telling me yesternight that we had to start rationing our food.

Respect for Sukren rose up inside Rajani. She had already admired him for his steadfastness towards Mayah despite the girl’s returned antipathy. That he should be willing to go hungry so the Jinkari would find it easier to feed Mayah… that he should be willing to do so under pretense so that he would not even receive credit for it… overbelter or not, Sukren had the heart of a true hunter.

Rajani didn’t want to have to accept Sukren’s sacrifice, but she knew she should. The Jinkari food stores would not last forever. If the Jinkari wanted to continue feeding Mayah, then someone would have to forego.

“I’ll walk Mayah back to the Gather’s Children ditch after dinner tonight,” Rajani said. She paused. She wanted to honor Sukren somehow but couldn’t think of a way.

Sukren rescued her from having to come up with something by thanking her with a smile and walking off before she could say anything else. She watched him disappear behind the meal benches and lodges of the western half of the urb. Later that eventide, when Rajani and Lainla walked Mayah back to the Gather’s Children ditch, Rajani pressed a handful of shredded jerky into Mayah’s hand. “For Sukren,” Rajani told her.

“Thank you,” Mayah whispered. Rajani touched her shoulder, accepting her thanks. Then she withdrew and watched as Mayah and Lainla bid each other a prolonged farewell by the ditch’s edge.

“What did she want?” Rajani asked Lainla as they made their way back through the urb.

“She’s scared,” Lainla replied. She hesitated, as if she was about to say more, then stopped. “Let’s get back quickly.”

Picking up on Lainla’s mood, Rajani asked no more questions. They hurried back to the eastern side of the urb. As they went Rajani felt a shadow cross overhead. The sun was still high in the sky, but the rain clouds moving in were now hiding it from sight.