CHAPTER 12
Lost Trails

Kaan and Thorro set to work immediately the carriage arrived at the falling house. They walked among the dead rats, sprinkling the black dust, muttering in Majen. Nasomi caught a few phrases: Zhef’mi pami, dham’ni vhii eft’an, vha ao ahn. The black dust turned into golden sparkles as it touched the ground, swirled and shot northward, fading like trails of shooting stars.

Nasomi saw a rat twitch. Kaan saw it too, and he bent to pick it up. He sprinkled dust onto it, demanded something in Majen. The dust gilded, fogged, and flew away through the backyard, between the trees and bushes. One of the rat’s legs twitched, and Kaan leaned his ear to it as though it were telling him a secret.

Nasomi thought she could almost hear a whisper whenever the mages threw their black dust and spoke their language. The trailing gold dust was saying something. Pointing the way. Perhaps repeating to the mages what she had seen in the dream.

“Do you hear that?” she whispered to Tambo and Teeyana when another trail of gold burst forth and dissolved away.

“What?”

“A faint sound, like a distant beautiful voice singing?”

“No,” said Tambo. “There’s no sound besides the irritating words of the mages.”

Teeyana shook her head.

The rat in Kaan’s hand was now stiff, unresponsive to his Majen. He threw it away.

The black dust ceased to respond. The mages were all but shouting: “Zhef’mi pami! Fumakwi? Vhaaoahn!” Kaan wiped sweat from his brow, and Thorro yanked back his hood. He was skeletal. High cheekbones, round eyes, and a scowl that could kill.

Nothing was happening anymore. Kaan turned to say something to Nasomi and the others, but Thorro caught him in the robe and pulled him toward the carriage.

As they passed by, they looked exhausted. Thorro said, “Our task here is done.”

Tambo followed after them. “How can you say you’re done when you haven’t explained to us what you have found?”

The mages climbed onto the carriage. Kaan, looking guilty, said, “Let me assure them at least, Thorro.” He turned to Tambo as Nasomi and Teeyana came closer. Ramona stayed back, poking at a dead rat with a stick.

“You have to fear nothing,” Kaan said. “By all indications, the ones who sent the rodents are dead. Or dying.”

The carriage driver whipped the horses into action, but Tambo jumped in front of them. Nasomi had seen him angry before, but this was something new. Courageous indignation. He stammered as he spoke. “S-s-stop! This is madness. Y-y-you can’t say you’re going. You haven’t sho-shown us how to protect ourselves. I demand you tell us now!”

Thorro stepped down and bounded to Tambo with a raised fist. “Listen here, you worm of a man.” He grabbed Tambo in the shirt. “Do you know the things I can—”

“Enough of this!” Kaan said.

Ramona, who had drawn nearer, started crying. Teeyana lifted her up and walked away. “Let’s go away from the bad man,” she said. “It’s well, it is well. Hush.”

Kaan pulled Thorro away from Tambo. “You’re scaring them!”

“We can’t waste time explaining high truth to simple people. We have work to do.”

Nasomi went to Tambo’s side. “Why do you hate us?” she demanded of Thorro.

The question caught him by surprise. “Hate? I don’t hate you. How would I even… I have things to do.”

“The king said to help us.”

He didn’t like her response. “And that is exactly what we’ve done! Tell me right now what you would have us do.”

“They want to know they can trust us,” Kaan said. “We are the Mage Council. We will protect the people of Nari from its enemies. I will explain a few things to placate their hearts.” He turned to the others without waiting for a response. Thorro didn’t seem to like it, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Sorcerers often make use of familiars in their nefarious business,” Kaan said. “The common animals chosen have, over the times, come to mean particular things. And in many ways, magic works differently based on the animal’s characteristics. A tortoise is a sign that the sorcerer is patient with whoever has aggrieved him, giving them a chance to apologize or repay a wrong. A crow is death on wings, a rage that gives no time for discussions. If one has no protection, she or her family member may die a terrible death.”

He paused to check he had their attention. “Then there is the hyena, considered the most dangerous in the witching circles. Only a powerful sorcerer can control a hyena, or even yet turn into one. It symbolizes domination, ultimate power, death and suffering to anyone the sorcerer considers an enemy.” He smiled. “But all that means nothing to Majen. We can crush a sorcerer like a snail. Now we come to the kwindi, the white rat here. Like the tortoise, the kwindi is a messenger familiar. It is an announcement. Of a new beginning, of something following after. Usually something not good.”

“You’re saying this was a message?” Nasomi said. “We would have been killed! She wants me dead.”

“Then you are not done!” Tambo said. “You must help us. How can we face what is coming if this was only the beginning?”

“The kwindi is not an easy animal to control, despite its smallness. Only the overconfident sorcerer would use it. Hundreds of them came by your home, I wondered what hefty price was paid for such a stunt.”

All her wealth, Nasomi thought but didn’t say. She was now debating within herself whether she should tell them about the dreams.

“You were not the targets of this,” Kaan said reassuringly. “Your house was only in their way. That’s our judgment. This jealous woman you talk about, she couldn’t have done this. It’s magic beyond ordinary people. If she paid much gold to someone to do it… Well, what kind of idiots would be willing to throw their lives in this reckless stunt?”

“She would do that,” Nasomi insisted. “She is that kind of woman.”

“You’re telling me she traveled from here all the way to Arwomba—?”

“Arwomba!” Tambo exclaimed. “That’s where she went?”

A heaviness dropped in Nasomi’s gut. The place in her dreams. With the vines and cold and rottenness. Reema went that far, literally and figuratively, to exact revenge on Nasomi. Terrible things were said about Arwomba: it was a dark place, hidden from the sun, full of strange creatures and evil sorcerers. Monsters there romped like pets and children were born with one eye and a dead man was king.

“I can’t imagine Reema would go there,” Tambo said. “It makes no sense.”

“Exactly,” Kaan said.

“If it happens again?” Nasomi said. “More kwindi? Dogs even?”

“It won’t. We have queried the remnant magic here. Two sorcerers, acting as one. A difficult task to accomplish, I’ll admit. But they could command so many kwindi.” It was almost as if Kaan was admiring that. “They sent the kwindi to other kingdoms as well: Aiyo, Shodishu, Kon’s Brother, Sipo… My guess is they were announcing their ascendance among the witch folk. Like the way messengers are sent to proclaim the arrival of a king.” He stood affectedly, lifted his head, mimicking an announcer: “‘Make way! Make way, you damn peasants! Here come the sorcerer-kings!’ But like I said, an overconfident stunt.”

“What do you mean?” Tambo asked.

“Because they are dead. Or dying. This cost them all the power they had. Our task now is to search Nari for the witches to whom this message was meant for. You’re not witches. We checked you.” Kaan turned and went to the carriage. He and Thorro got in and the carriage drove away.

“They don’t know what I saw,” Nasomi said. “Even if they are right about the sorcerers, what if Reema tries to find another way?”

Tambo squeezed her on the shoulder. “We will be alert, my love. We can now run to the king anytime and he can make the mages sort it out.”

Teeyana came back with Ramona and helped Tambo and Nasomi to repair their home. The work took them four days. Some neighbors came to help after they heard the mages had come by and declared the place free of witchcraft. They brought foodstuffs, new timber, and thatch for the roof.

As the city became filled with much drumming and singing to celebrate Prince Keyula’s birth, Nasomi was troubled by a continual trepidation. She started at every shadow, every dog and cat that came her way, every noise in the night that sounded unnatural.

Tambo seemed satisfied at the mages’ judgment. But there was a fear constantly in Nasomi’s mind. She was in need of a telling dream. She needed to know, to rest her mind. But none came.

She performed many chores one after the other and jogged down a street to the edge of the district and back home every evening. All to tire herself out so that she could sleep. Otherwise, she would blink in the gloom all night. And when she did sleep, her dreams were ordinary. Some were nightmares about kwindi, bony mages, and a vengeful Reema, but none of them were telling dreams. She knew the difference.

After supper, she would go to the backyard to kneel under a senegalia tree. She would close her eyes, try to clear her mind as she focused on the scents of the rosemary, the gardenia, the falling leaves. She listened to nightingales, insects, owls, distant human voices. She longed for the tugging sensation in her gut.

On the seventh night, as she whispered pleas to the Mara to send a telling, and felt a fever coming on and didn’t mind that a stone was grinding on her left knee, a sharp snap of a twig behind her snatched her from her reverie. She turned to find Ramona standing there.

“Mona? You scared me.”

“I wanted to see you.”

“I have told you I don’t want to be disturbed when I am here. Go back inside. You will catch a cold.”

“Can I kneel with you?”

“Mona, please! I need to be alone. Go back inside.”

The girl shrugged her shoulders in refusal. Nasomi picked up a stick and whipped the ground. “Go back inside or I will whip you with this!”

The girl cried and ran to the house. A moment later, Tambo came out. “Nasomi. Please come inside.”

Nasomi arose and followed him into the house. It was warm and she was glad for it.

“It is time you let this go,” he said. “I don’t like how it is affecting you.”

She nodded. “I don’t either. I am so sorry. I need answers so that you and I and our daughter are safe.”

“We are safe, Nasomi. We have a life to build. We can’t let Reema be between us all the time. She is gone. She is not our problem anymore. You must free yourself from her.”

She sighed. “You’re right. I am free of her now.” She picked Ramona up. “Sorry for being harsh on you, little queen.”

Ramona pouted. When she looked up and saw her mother smile, a smile caught on her own lips.

“You can come to me anytime you need to.”

“Yes, Ma.”

“I have some news,” Tambo said. “The queen is putting me in charge of the smithing guild.”

“You went to see her? I am so happy for you!”

“She sent word. I will go see her tomorrow. This is our win, Nasomi. I have proved my father wrong.” He paced. “He must see that I don’t need to depend on him. He must see that I am my own man now.”

“You already did that.”

“But he must see! You know what I’ll do? I’ll send Mother a gift. A big gift. I’ll send it over by a wagon, accompanied by a minstrel to sing her a dozen songs. And nothing for him. Maybe a chest of garments. Some furniture. A load of curios…”

He listed a number of things but Nasomi wasn’t listening anymore. She looked around. “Let us move to a new house,” she said.

“You want to move? But... But you love this place.”

“Yes.”

“The trees, the smell of things… We are about to extend it and make the walls stronger, make the thatch fence thicker. And I was thinking of building a rondavel at the back.”

“I just want to move… It is time to start new things.”