My heart skipped.

“Are they in our banija now?” I asked Father, already moving out of the room.

He smiled at my worry. He understood what I was asking about.

“No” he replied gently. “They’re not even close yet.”

“What happened to Mother then”

“Tani heard the conches. She forgot you were in the banija and was rushing to send a deep diver after you. The banija lurched and she slipped and hit her head. She’s unconscious now”

I sighed in relief. The people the watchers saw paled to insignificance. The priority right now was making more handholds.

I didn’t feel like wasting more time going out of the banija the proper way, going all the way to outside the compound and diving into the water. I took the fastest way. It was a trap door right in Fathers main court that led straight to the water. I grabbed two sacks in my way out, one for me, one for Mali.

I wasn’t going alone of course. If I wanted to do any real good, I had to make as much handholds as possible.

I took my hollowed out narwhal calf tusk just in case he was on watch. Every Elaenja have something like a right hand man. It is not an official position officially, but have so much status that it was pretty much official. They are called Hanu, the female form of Tani.

The narwhal tusk is used to call a Hanu to his position beside the Elaenja. And I’ve told Mali he will be my Hanu.

I made a long, deep blow on the tusk, then pulled open the trapdoor and dived in. I had just reached the ocean floor when Mali caught up with me.

I gave him the sack and we set about work. From the way his eyes outshone the lantern strapped to his head, I knew he has something interesting to tell me. I wasn’t worried about him forgetting to tell me when we reach the surface, if his eyes were any indication.

Once again, I noticed that the pressur wasn’t quite as great as it should be for the depth we were in. And there was our slush in the ocean floor. The light was darker than it should be . All things that happened around the castle.

But the castle wasn’t here.

Well, it seems like I have something to tell Mali too. I’ve heard that watchers have sharp minds. Time to check if it was true.

We managed to fill only one and a half bags before the we found ourselves scratching the ocean floor. The slush was gone. Yet another mystery.

…. …. …. ….

Goodness.

That was my first thought when I broke the surface. Ironically, the sight before me spoke nothing of goodness.

The banija was in chaos. There were many canoes of strange make, with strange men in strange dressings on them. And there were more canoes, made in our fashion, rowing into the storm.

Stolen story; please report.

They rowed as if death was calling them, crashing into many feet high waves. As they overturned, even more followed, paying no heed to the fate of those before them.

What’s happening?

My heart skipped. There was panic in the air. And there was the smell of blood.

If there’s smell of blood with all the raging winds….

I couldn’t complete the thought. Another thought took its place.

Mother! Father!

I dived under the water, Mali right behind me. I was going to swim right under the strange canoes, I had to get to the court, but I couldn’t let the strange men see me. A part of my mind considered overturning canoes as I went, but my dear for my parents didn’t allow it.

I swam as fast as I can, but I couldn’t seem to go as fast as I want. Then I realised the reason. Mali was holding me back.

Rage flared in my chest. I turned, swung my arms. The weight of water slowed it down a little, but the force was still enough to daze him for a while. The possibility of drowning wasn’t so real to me right then.

…. …. …. ….

I broke surface to a command.

“Fire!”

All hell broke loose around me. Things exploded around my head. One exploded right in my face. I smelled fire. The men in strange dresses were throwing fire. I dived right back in.

…. …. …. ….

I slowed down my kicking, so that momentum carried me reduced. Iit carried me very slowly to the surface. I felt air on my hair. A split second later, the water seemed to have burned right off my hair. Intense heat.

I sank as fast as I could.

…. …. …. ….

I swam out as far as I thought reasonable. Not too close to the banija, but not too far.

This time, I didn’t even fully surface. The water boiled around me. The command was garbled underwater, but I had no doubt what I heard.

Fire!

There was no doubt about it now. People were after me. People who knew who I was. And knew where I was. And they were waiting for me to come up.

A piercing pain in my chest reminded me that I had barely caught a breath for a longer than was safe time. And I can’t come up. Not when they seemed to be waiting for me all around the banija.

Was I going to die this way? Hunted like a fish?

I released some air. The pain eased, but I knew it was deceptive. I will die if I don’t get air.

Then I remembered the trap door I had gone out of. It led right into our court.

…. …. …. ….

I made it out safely. No one waited for me above the surface. I fell down on the floor weakly. I drew in as much air as I could with each breath, but it wasn’t nearly enough. My whole body screamed to rest, but I knew I couldn’t .

My mother was in the infirmary. She wouldn’t be able to run if danger comes. I had to get to her. But my legs just didn’t obey me. I tried crawling. My hands screamed more than my legs did. My body remained propped on my hands for a while, then I gave up and passed out.

…. …. …. ….

It seemed to me I was out for a long time. But when I woke up, everything looked just the same. As if I just blinked. I got up. My legs still screamed, but it was manageable now.

I started staggering in the general direction of the infirmary. That was when I heard it. Voices. They were coming from my father’s courtroom. It my tutor’s voice. But for some reason, it gave me the willies. I felt chills crawling up my spine.

“You have hidden for generations” the voice said. “You never cared for us. Your hiding had killed us, slowly, but surely.”

What was he talking about?

“Now, you must pay” the voice said. It dripped murder intent now.

It jolted me into action. I pressed my feet against the floor and leaped at the door. Only it happened in my mind. In reality, I only staggered and fell on the door.

But my weight still opened the door, which was what I had intended. So what the hell.

What I hadn’t intended was to have my understanding of the world twisted.

My tutor was floating in the air. Floating supine was my bloodied father. Shapes, and what looked like words from a strange language floated around him.

No.

My tutor was drawing them. But each one he drew floated where his fingers left them.

He drew the last one on my father’s body.

They glowed, then my father started turning to sand. His body crumpled, flaking off from the feet up.

“Hanu” he whispered.

Then his head fell in a pile of brown sand.