The Last of the Wilds

tunnel behind the carving. For years now she had been venturing here every few weeks to listen in on conversations in and out of the palace.

Through the device she had learned a great deal about many important people, and that people in different parts of the city lived very different lives. Sometimes she envied the other children she overheard. Sometimes she didn’t.

Though she knew her father used this room, he had never discovered her here. She was also lucky that Teiti had never woken and found her missing, or caught Imi entering the hole behind the carving.

Moving to one of the pipes, she put her ear to it. The voices that came whispering down the tube were quiet, but soon her hearing adjusted and she began to make out the words.

“... not marry him, mother! He is more than twenty years older than me!”

It was the voice of her cousin, Yiti. Imi frowned. Had she chosen the wrong pipe? No, she was definitely listening to the one that came from the jewellers’ cave. She put her ear back to the opening.

“You will do as your father tells you, Yiti,” a woman replied calmly. “You will marry him, have his children, and when he dies of old age you will still be young enough to enjoy yourself. Now have a look at this one. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Young enough? I will be an old crone! Who will want me then?”

“You will be no older than I am now.”

“Yes. An old crone with nothing to...”

Imi pulled away from the pipe. Though she sympathized with Yiti, she couldn’t spend the whole night doing so. Her cousin and aunt must be visiting the jewellers’ cave in order to buy something for the wedding.

She had tried the pipe to the jewellers’ cave first because it was one of the places the traders might go to sell their wares. There was a good chance they’d talk about sea bells.

But they weren’t there. She considered where else they might be. At home, perhaps. Moving to a pipe that came from one of the trader’s homes, she listened carefully.

The pipe offered only silence. She tried a few more homes and even the Main Room of the Palace, but though she heard the voices of other members of the traders’ families, or their servants, she heard nothing from the traders themselves.

Frustrated, she selected pipes at random. After hearing countless snatches of conversation, she caught a laugh that sounded much like one of the traders. It was a good laugh. One that put people at ease. Which was probably useful to a trader, she realized suddenly. He wanted people to relax, and relaxed people bought things. She’d noticed that about her aunt. If Teiti was annoyed or unhappy when she was at the market, she hardly looked at the wares in the stalls. If she was relaxed, she was much more likely to buy Imi a treat.

“... wager?”

“Yes. Ten.”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty, eh? Matched!”

“You?”

A sigh. “Out.”

“Settled? Yes? Turn.”

There was a triumphant chuckle, and a groan, then the light sound of corrie shells clinking against each other. She recognized the voices of the traders she’d overheard, plus a few more. They were playing squares, she guessed.

For several more rounds the traders’ comments related to their gaming, then they took a break to eat a late-night snack and drink drai. They began to talk of their families. She waited patiently for the talk to turn to their profession.

“Gili says he saw raiders off Xiti Island three days ago.”

“Not raiders,” a rough voice said. “Divers.”

Several of the traders cursed.

“Knew we shouldn’t have waited.”

“It was a gamble we had to take. It takes time for sea bells to get big.”

“And a lot less time for the landwalkers to steal them.”

“Thin, pale-skinned thieves!”

Imi’s heart skipped a beat. So the sea bells were somewhere near Xiti Island...

“Steal?” The one with the easy laugh gave a humorless chuckle. “It’s not stealing if nobody owns it. Nobody owns anything they can’t defend. We can’t even defend our own islands.”

“Huan made us the people of the sea. All treasures of the sea belong to us.”

“Then why doesn’t the goddess punish these divers? Why doesn’t she punish the raiders? If she means for us to have all the treasures of the ocean, she would stop the landwalkers taking them, or make us capable of stopping them.”

“Huan wants us to take care of ourselves.”

“How do you know that?”

“Either she means for things to be this way, or we have made some error.”

Imi sighed with frustration. Stop talking about the gods! she thought. Talk about the sea bells again. But the conversation fragmented into two different discussions.

“We should never have put aside so much of our knowledge of metallurgy. Or we should trade goods for swords from the mainland.”

“... lone swimmer might succeed where a group would not. The harvest was small, but better than...”

“What’s the use? They rust away in...”

“... dangerous. What if...”

“... you care for them properly. You need to...”

“... time it well. The right weather conditions... harder to see below the...”

“... surface with something to prevent corrosion. The landwalkers...”

“... won’t dive during bad weather.”

Imi’s mind was spinning from the effort of deciphering the different conversations. The trouble was, she wanted to hear both. The traders’ discussion of how a lone Elai might swim in and take some of the sea bells excited her, but she was also intrigued by the other traders’ interest in trading with landwalkers.

A distant tapping caught at her attention. She reluctantly pulled away from the pipe, then felt her heart constrict as she realized she was hearing footsteps drawing nearer. She leapt away from the pipe and dove into the cupboard. Just as she pulled the doors closed she heard the sound of the main door opening. She froze.

Looking between the cupboard doors, she felt a thrill of apprehension as she recognized the broad shoulders of the man strolling up to the pipes. At the same time she could not help smiling with fondness. Her father was humming to himself. She recognized the song as a popular new tune by Idi, the beautiful new head of the palace singers.

He bent to listen at the pipe that led to the singers’ cave. Imi watched, her heart racing. He was only a few steps away. Only the cupboard doors stood between them.

After a moment he straightened, smoothed his waist wrap, then swaggered out of the room.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Imi turned around. She grasped the frame of the hatch and pulled herself into the tunnel. Only when she had reached the other end did her heart stop racing.

She slipped out of the tunnel quietly, pushed the carving into place, and tiptoed back to her pool. Moving carefully to avoid splashing, she slipped into the water and felt the comforting coolness as it surrounded her.

I know where the sea bells are now, she thought. All I have to do is find a way to get away from Teiti and my guards, and slip out of the city. There are only two ways out of the city: the staircase to the lookout and the Main Pool... When did I decide I’d go, rather than send someone?

It wasn’t until the next morning that she began to wonder why her father had been eavesdropping on the singers’ cave.