The Last of the Wilds

at her, their pale, wrinkled faces twisted with disgust.

Words passed between them. One narrowed his eyes at her, then barked at the others. They eyed him with sullen respect, then all but one moved away.

She guessed the barker was the leader. He began to talk with the one who’d stayed. Imi turned her attention to the net still tangled around her ankles. The rope had drawn painfully tight. If she could free herself, she had only to spring up and leap over the side of the boat to get away.

But the rope would not loosen. She felt a shadow fall over her and realized the leader was bending down. Seeing the knife in his hand, she shrank away, sure that he was going to kill her. She heard herself whimpering with fear.

The knife moved to her ankles. With a few careful cuts he freed her.

He was going to let her go. She felt a surge of relief and found herself thanking the man. He looked at the second man, who smiled.

It was not a friendly smile. Imi felt her stomach twist. The leader barked again, and one of the other men tossed him a short length of rope. As he moved toward her ankle again she realized what he was going to do. Relief evaporated and she tried to leap up, but his hand closed around her leg firmly. The second man grabbed her shoulders, shoved her down onto her back and held her there. She shrieked again, and kept shrieking as the leader tied her ankles together. They rolled her onto her front in order to tie her hands together behind her, then dragged her to the center of the boat where they tied her hands to a metal ring.

“What are you doing?” Imi cried desperately, struggling into a sitting position. “Why won’t you let me go free?”

The two men exchanged glances, then turned and walked away.

“You can’t hold me here. I’m... I’m the Elai king’s daughter,” she declared, feeling anger growing. “My father will send warriors to kill you!”

None of the landwalkers paid any attention. They did not know what she was telling them. They did not understand her words any more than she understood theirs. How could she tell them who she was?

One of the landwalkers nearby upended a bag. Its contents spilled out. She stared at the green mess, and as the men set to plucking small objects out of the tangle she realized that the limp strands she was looking at were the fragile branches and roots of the sea-bell plant.

The landwalkers had ripped the plants out of the sandy floor of the sea.

She felt a wave of nausea at the thought of what they’d done. There would be no crop of bells next year for this plant. They had killed the plant outright in their haste to harvest them.

How can they be so wasteful? she thought. And so stupid! If they left the plants intact, they could come back next year and gather more bells.

Her father was right. Landwalkers were horrible. She twisted her hands about, but there was no way she was going to be able to get to the knot to untie it.

Rissi, she thought. He’s got to tell father where I am. She struggled to her feet and searched the water. After an eternity she thought she saw something move. A head, perhaps.

“Rissi!” she screamed. “Tell father where I am. Tell him I’m a prisoner. Tell him to come—”

Something struck her face. She staggered to her knees, her face aflame. The leader was standing over her. He barked out a few words, pointing at her with his long, web-less fingers.

Though she could not understand a word, the warning was clear. Stunned, Imi watched him walk away.

Father will come, she told herself. He’ll save me. When he does, he’ll spear every one of these horrible landwalkers, and they’ll deserve it.

14

It was pleasantly warm outside the cave, now that the late summer sun had set. The sky was free of cloud, and the stars were a dense carpet above. Emerahl sighed with appreciation.

“That’s better,” Mirar murmured.

They had decided the rock wall was the most comfortable place to sit two nights ago, when Mirar had first ventured outside. Though she hadn’t caught a hint of Mirar’s thoughts for many days now, he wasn’t invisible to physical eyes so he only emerged at night. The Siyee thought she was alone and she did not want them to find out otherwise until she and Mirar had decided what they wanted to do next.

There was little to do at night but admire the stars and talk. She heard Mirar draw in a breath to speak.

“I’ve been thinking about the other Wilds today. It is possible some are still alive.”

She turned to look at him. His face was faintly lit by starlight. “I’ve been thinking about them, too. I’ve been asking myself whether it would be better or worse for us if we found them.”

“Worse if it leads to the gods discovering our existence.”

“How would they?” She paused. “Do you think the others would betray us?”

“They may not mean to. The gods may read their minds.”

Emerahl smiled crookedly. “If their minds were readable, the gods would have found and killed them long ago,” she pointed out.

Mirar shifted his position. “Yes. Probably.”

She looked up at the stars. “Still, the others might need our help.”

“I’m sure if they’ve survived this long they don’t need our help.”

“Oh? Like you didn’t need my help?”

He chuckled. “But I’m just a young fool a mere thousand years old. The other Wilds are older and wiser.”

“Then they might be able to help us,” she replied.

“How?”

“If I was able to teach you to hide your mind, imagine what they might be able to teach us. Perhaps nothing, but we can’t know that until we find them.”

“You want me to come with you on this search?”

Emerahl sighed. “I’d like you to, but I don’t think it would be wise. If you are right about ordinary priests not being able to read minds...”

“And I am.”

“... then I will be safe enough, unless I have a moment of exceptionally bad luck and bump into the priest with the mind-reading ability who was looking for me before.”

“While there are far more people who might recognize Leiard,” he finished.

“Yes.”

“If the gods are looking for me, they may have instructed priests and priestesses to call for them if they see me. Dreamweavers are probably also watching for me. The gods could be watching their minds, too.” He groaned. “There are so many people who could recognize me. Why did Leiard agree to become Dreamweaver Adviser to the White?”

“I’m sure he thought it was for the best.”

“Dealing with the gods never turns out for the best.” He sighed. “How long am I going to have to hide for? Am I going to have to stay in this cave until no one is left alive who might recognize me?”

“If you did, you’d never leave. Unless you plan to have someone assassinate the White.”

“Is that an offer?”

She smiled. “No. You are going to have to do what I did - become a hermit. Avoid all but the most ordinary, unimportant people.”

“So if I stay here for a lifetime I’ll only have the White to worry about.”

“If you want to avoid all people you can’t stay here. I told the Siyee I would return home now I knew the war was over,” she said. “They will keep coming back to check if I am still here.”

“Do you know of any other hiding places?”

“A few. I don’t think you can or should avoid other humans completely, however. You need people about or