By the time Mother was done lighting the lamps, I was able to see the full out line of what would be our living space for the foreseeable future. That got me wondering how long we would be in hiding. And how was I ever going to find out if Tutor is an outsider?

Well, maybe, it may be in one of these records. But first, I had to check out my surroundings.

The place was a about the size of two rooms in our banija. The air was a bit murky, which immediately told me that it opens into the water somewhere. Something I definitely have to check out later. I don’t want getting drowned in my sleep. Maybe, the opening wasn’t meant to be in the water, but the storm had it submerged.

There were the lamps, and two seats. Perfect.

But still, the room didn’t look empty much, probably because of the shelves. They filled everywhere. Like a huge library.

“There have got to be a way to let air into this place.” Mother said.

I looked at her.

“Before you were born, your father stayed down here a lot. For days sometimes”

“We’ll deal with that later.” I said. “For now, I feel like the room leaking is more important. Do you smell the salt in the air?”

Mother sniffed the air and nodded.

“You are right” She said. She took a lamp and started examining the floor closely. She stopped at a corner and pulled something. The shelf on the east side

Or west, I’ve lost my bearings

Sprang out of the wall.

Whoa.

We pushed it till the space behind it was fully revealed. It was a dark passage. Seems like it’s a day for dark passages, physical and scenic.

Once again, Mother rubbed her palms together and a lamp was lit. The passage looked to go on forever. We followed it, lighting lamps along the way. We soon found out the passage was some sort of maze. It had passages branching out from the main passage, and other passages branching out from these.

I didn’t realise where we were, though it was obvious, till I saw a shark spine that went into both the ground and the ceiling. We used shark spines as pillars only at room or hall corners. Down here, it wasn’t at a corner. It didn’t look as if it was supporting the ceiling either.

We were under the banija. Or more correctly, we were under some sort of under-banija tunnel network.

I guess getting food won’t be as hard as we thought. We were worried how to go about that, since Tutor would occupy the palace once he’s established as the new Elaenja. With this tunnel network, we have no need of going through the palace of we want to find food.

Now we just need to find a way up into the main surface of the banija. We decided we would do that later. For now, we would have some rest. It had been a long day. No such luck though. It didn’t.take long to discover we were lost.

…. …. …. ….

“What’s keeping … from coming?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Voices filtered into my fretful sleep. I ignored it.

After wandering some more trying to find out way, Mother decided there was nothing stopping us from resting right here we were. So she removed her sealskin outer garment and wrapped me up in it. For once, I was grateful to be treated like a child. I was so tired. But even at that, sleep still came to me in fits and bouts.

“But why … he turn … to sand? … power to the Elinjas?”

I jolted awake.

Yes. It wasn’t from my dream. There are people down here. Down here was supposed to be my father’s secret place. So why were there people?

I shook my mother awake and whispered it to her. I could not see her reaction, as there was no light here, but her gasp told me what it must have been.

“That’s not possible”

We kept quiet as they started speaking again.

“We are all going to die anyway, killing him early is not a big deal” a voice said

“Personally, I wouldn’t mind when I die. I knew what I was doing when I came here. But I do mind the way I die. I would rather turn to sand over the course of years”

“Wait. Are they talking about Sari?”

Mother calls father Sari.

“I don’t think so. Father was not going to die anyway. Before you spoke, one of them asked why someone turned someone to sand, whether it was to show power to us”

“Really? You said Hanu turned someone to sand? Would they be talking about him?”

It made sense. I thought I had seen hesitation when I begged Tutor to fight the invaders earlier in the day. He had hesitated before he turned that one to sand. And then he had ordered someone to tie up the invaders and….

“We’re in the dungeon” I said.

“Right” Mother said. “Should have occurred to me earlier. The dungeon is also down here, but it’s separated from the rest by a thick board. The voices must be filtering over the walls”

“They talk about Tutor like they knew him before now” I observed to my mother

“Then they probably knew him before now.” Mother said in a voice that suggested she was thinking.

“So no need to ask the Maken. Tutor was not an Elinja”

“He could have arranged the mutiny with another tribe even if he was one of us. But he hasn’t left the banija for a long while. So it can only be what you said. Either he was a Masik, or he was one of the other water nomads from the other nations. But the Masiks are the most advanced in the Abominable acts. So he should be a Masik”

I nodded, then remembered she can’t see me and whispered a yes.

“And it seems like they prepared for this for a long time. He must have learnt the abominable acts from a very young age before he got sent here. Because I knew your father since we were teens and he was already here then.”

Something didn’t quite make sense.

“If they could make people into abominations, and they wanted to kill us, it would be easier to swarm us with abominations, wouldn’t it? Or they could simply let the ocean drown us. You told me the diviner that banished us must have made the waters think we’re enemies, because the waters started acting unusually after our ancestors had been on it for sometime”

“I think the ocean is trying to drown us right now. But I don’t know why they had to come too. And about the swarming us with abominations part, I don’t know about that. This is the first time I’m seeing an abomination afterall. As we have not maintained contact with land, we know next to nothing about the state of the outside world”

Still not right.

“What does Tutor stand to gain by killing Father if he will still drown with us? And why would he have to kill a tribesman?”

“Maybe Sari could have stopped him. He had no choice but to kill the man. If he hadn’t , people would have gotten suspicious and left the tribe. I think they want us all dead”

Nice to know.

“We have to stop the our banija from drowning.”

“The slush harms abominations…” I started to say, but Mother shushed me up.

She laid her hands on my shoulders.

“Why are you fixated on killing your Tutor? Its not in your nature to kill”

That question made me pause. Why indeed. I know I’m so scared of killing him. And if I told myself the truth, I was hoping Mali would convince me not to do it when I called him. I know I wanted revenge for my father, but not so much as to kill him. But I just keep talking about killing him.

Why indeed?

“I was once like you, my little Sari” Mother said in a gentle voice. “Once upon a time, I couldn’t handle tension, or anxiety. Any heavy emotion. Because I feel too much. Me and you both, we feel too strongly. And you can’t handle the knowledge that Hanu can kill you, and has a good reason to. I understand that, it’s basic survival instinct. But it won’t help is this time. Killing him won’t make the waters forget where we are and mask us from the waters”

Right.

“You shouldn’t kill him. You should find a way to mask our banija from the waters. A way to save our tribe. You need to become an abomination”