“I still find it hard believing he did what you say. I mean, is that even possible” Mali said.

“But you saw the strangers exploding stuff. Is that even possible?”

We were in my room, standing and trying hard to stay on our feet. The handholds helped some, but I felt like another lurch and my arm would be jerked off.

Formerly, I had thought the sky was so dark I wouldn’t even know when night came. I was wrong. It was so dark now I could barely make out the shape of Mali’s head, even with oil lamp. But I knew there must be confusion on his face.

“Exploding things?” he asked. The confusion leaked into his voice.

“Yes. They weren’t throwing fire. They threw stones, which exploded as it came near one…” I paused.

Stones. If they had stones, they must either be from land, or very deep divers.

Was there another tribe better than us in the waters? Because I knew none of us could dive deep enough to pick stones from the ocean floor. It didn’t seem likely, which left the first option.

Maybe because of the part of history Iearnt that day, of all the nations on land, one kept coming to mind.

The Masiks. The one that had banished us.

Shit. I’m curious now! I need to question Tutor before I kill him.

I had no doubt he was somehow connected with the strangers. That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone do things that so went completely against the natural. Our ancestors have seen some pretty inconceivable things, like the waters glowing at night. But I don’t think they have ever seen something like these abominations.

“Hey! What you thinking about?” Mali’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I started.

For some reason, I didn’t feel like sharing my suspicions yet. So I lied. Well, sort of.

“Thinking how best to kill him” I replied.

“ You didn’t hear what I was saying, did you?” he asked. I shook my head.

“You stand no chance against him, if what you said is true. Besides, there's only one way to kill him. Its not as if you can turn him to sand”

When I didn't reply, he added

“And what if he's awake now?”

I shrugged. It wasn't his father that turned to sand above the earth. He didn't know how I felt. It dawnwd on me I would have to do it myself. Seems like best friends are not for all times. I stood up abruptly.

“If you aren't going with me, don't try to keep me” I said as I started leaving the room.

He was beside me before I could reach the door.

“As much as I don't support you murdering him, I think you getting caught is even worse. I'm coming”

I could hear the strain in his voice. It was a very difficult decision for him, yet he chose to come with me. Scratch what I said eearlier

When we reached the infirmary, I discovered I had no executable plans for my revenge. Somehow, I had been expecting to just walk in, take care of business and leave. Right now, the reality of getting caught became clear. No one knew what happened to the Elaenja after all. The general consensus was that he somehow drowned, however unlikely that might be.

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And it wasn’t likely any one would believe me. Well, except my mother. She might have seen something at some time or another that would have made her suspect. But when I left the infirmary, she was still asleep. Was she awake now?

As if reading my mind, she came out of the infirmary just then. She saw me and started walking towards me.

“I’ve never known your father to allow you out this late at night.”

That was her first comment. And the comment, simple as it was, had my throat clogging up.

Something in my posture must have alerted her. Because her tone changed from being conversational to one of inquiry when she asked me’

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t speak. There was a lump in my throat. I made what could only pass as a croak. That must have gotten her alarmed. Because she shook my shoulders and almost shouted

“What happened? He drowned?”

I don’t know why, but I considered letting her go with the popular, and better version of things. Then I cleared my throat and just blurted out.

“Tutor turned him to sand”

“But that’s impossible!”

Her answer came almost immediately, and in a voice that told me she wasn’t quite talking that it’s impossible the same way Mali and I were. Hers was a different kind of impossible.

“You mean that’s impossible realistically, or that’s impossible as regards to tutor?”

She stared at me. There was not enough light to see her eyes, but I felt the stare. At last, she sighed.

“It is the second impossible” She replied.

I knew it.

“Meaning that it’s possible someone can turn to sand before ever being in the earth?” I asked, just to be sure.

She sighed.

“Mali, there’s something about our banishment your tutor didn’t tell you” She said this looking over my shoulder at Mali. She wanted him to go. Mali got the message and turned to go. I pulled him back.

No way! Whatever she was about to say would shatter everything I knew about my world, I knew that. I think one is entitled to some sort of familiarity around him when his world is being shattered.

“He’s staying here” I told her bluntly.

She appeared to consider for sometime, then nodded her head slowly. But she insistedali has to swear an oath of secrecy on the mother Earth. Funny she should do that. From the sealskins, if you broke an oath sworn on the Mother Earth, she will deny you her produce as a way of punishment. But we don’t live on land now. How would the oath take effect?

I think Mali knew that too, and if he knew, then my mother surely knew.

When Mali had sworn the oath, she led us away from the infirmary’s entrance.

“You may not know it” She began. “But the story of our banishment has three versions. The lore says we were banished because our first ancestor killed the most intelligent beast of the sea. The samino. It’s a crime to kill intelligent beings, as it is to kill humans. So he must be punished.

The second version, which you learnt today, tells us the actual reason for the banishment. Our first ancestor, Elinja, was a very good friend of the king’s prime minister. His brother, believing they were plotting to overthrow him, seized the opportunity of killing samino to banish him to the sea by bribing the diviner to divine the punishment.

But we have good reason to believe the samino accident was no accident. That it was engineered by the king and his diviner. You see, when our first ancestors were banished to the deep oceans, a place where no human has ever been, he discovered he wasn’t normal anymore. He had gained some unnatural abilities.

During the divination, he was with the diviner, as the custom demands, and he had clearly seen the diviner fighting the Mother Earth’s verdict. It was entirely possible. Contacts with the Mother Earth during divinations may have taught the diviner a thing or two not given to the human mind. This would have made it possible for him to thwart Mother Earth’s verdict. He may even have manipulated that samino to do what it did

As the diviner was fighting Mother Earth, Elinja had seen a vision. A vision of how everything came to be from nothing. He saw how the Mother Earth takes what was dead, and fashions it into a new thing. He saw the secrets of Mother Earth. And he grasped it’s power. We don’t know where the power was from. It may have leaked from the diviner as he fought. Or the Mother Earth may have given it to him, for the ocean was a treacherous place.”

Mother looked at me steadily. Then she took a deep breath and said.

“Those secrets have been passed from Elinja to, to the first Elaenja, to the next, to the next. Your father was the first Elaenja to pass it to his Hanu. But Hanu haven’t become quite proficient as to turn a full human to sand in the twinkle of an eye. For he started learning only at the beginning of the ganena’s mating season”

“I’m telling you I saw it happen.” I said.

She paused contemplatively.

“Maybe. But the earlier invaders? Who were they?”

“I don’t know. But they could explode objects. They seemed intent on killing everyone, whether the person surrenders or not”

She sucked in a breath. “It must be the Masiks. Our land brothers. Where are they now?”

I told her.

“You mean your slush hurts them?” she asked, flabbergasted.

I nodded.

“Sarineka” Whenever she calls my full name, it means she’s annoyed.

“There’s something your father hid from me. And now he’s dead, I don’t know how to find out what. Unless you would agree to help me?”