The Last of the Wilds

several more stalls, Imi sighed.

“I can’t see how I’m going to find anything here,” she complained. “The most rare and precious things would have gone straight to my father and he uses all the best makers in the city already.”

“Anything you give him will be precious,” Teiti told her. “Even if it were a handful of sand, he’d treasure it.”

Imi frowned impatiently. “I know, but this is his fortieth Firstday. It’s extra special. I have to find him something better than anything he’s been given before. I wish...”

She let the sentence hang unfinished. I wish he’d agreed to trade with the landwalkers. Then I could find him something he’s never seen before.

That was something she wasn’t supposed to know about. On the day the landwalker sorceress came to the city, Imi had been locked away in her room. She had sent Teiti to find out what was going on - but also so Imi could do something without being seen.

Behind an old carved panel in her room was a narrow tunnel just big enough for her to slither through. It had been blocked originally, but she had cleared it long ago. At the end of this was a secret room, lined with pipes. If she put her ear to a pipe, she could hear what was being said at the other end. Her father had told her about it once, and explained that it was how he knew about people’s secrets.

The day the landwalker had come to the city, Imi had crawled through the tunnel to see if she could find out what had stirred up the guards. She’d heard this woman asking her father if landwalkers and Elai might become friends. Her people would get rid of the raiders that had killed and robbed the Elai for so long, forcing them to live in the underground city. In return the Elai would help her people if they ever needed it. They would also exchange other things. Her people would buy from the Elai, and Elai could buy from her people. It sounded like a good arrangement, but her father had refused. He thought all landwalkers were untrustworthy liars, thieves and murderers.

They can’t all be like that, Imi thought. Can they?

If they were, then the mainland must be a horrible place where everybody stole from each other and people were murdered all the time. Maybe it was, because they had lots of valuable things to fight over.

Imi shook her head. “Let’s go back.”

Her aunt nodded. “Maybe there’ll be something special next time.”

“Maybe,” Imi replied doubtfully.

“You still have over a month to find him a present.”

The market was near the Mouth, the big lake that was the entrance to the underwater city. As they came in sight of the great dark cave filled with water, Imi felt a wistful longing. She had ventured beyond the city only a few times in her life, but always with many guards. That was the trouble with being a princess. You couldn’t go anywhere without an escort.

She had learned long ago to forget about the armed guards that followed her and Teiti about. They were good at being inconspicuous and didn’t get in her way.

Inconspicuous. Imi smiled. It was a new word she had learned recently. She said it under her breath.

They stepped out of the market into Main River. It wasn’t really a river, since it carried no water, but all of the ways in the city were named rivers, streams, creeks or trickles. The larger public caves were called pools - sometimes puddles if someone was mocking the neighborhood.

Main River was the widest thoroughfare in the city. It led straight to the palace. She had never known Main River to be empty, not even late at night. There was always someone on it, even if it was just a courier hurrying to or from the palace, or the night guards patrolling the palace gates.

Today the River was crowded. Two of the guards following her stepped forward to ensure people moved out of her way. The noise created by so many voices, slapping feet, music and singing of entertainers was deafening.

She caught a thread of melody and paused. It was a new song, called “The White Lady,” and she was certain it was about the landwalker visitor. Her father had banned anyone from playing it in the palace. Teiti caught Imi’s arm and pulled her forward.

“Don’t make the guards’ job any harder,” she said in a low voice.

Imi did not argue. Can’t show too much interest in the song anyway, in case they guess I know about the landwalker.

They reached the end of Main River. Teiti let out a sigh of relief as they stepped out of the crowd, through the gates and into the quiet of the Palace Pool. A guard stepped forward and bowed to Imi.

“The king wishes to see you, Princess,” the man said formally. “In the Main Room.”

“Thank you,” Imi replied, managing to suppress her excitement. Her father wanted to talk to her in the middle of the day! He never had time to see her during the day. It must be important.

Teiti smiled approvingly at Imi’s restraint. They walked down the main stream of the palace at a dignified but frustratingly slow pace. Guards nodded politely as she passed them. The stream was full of men and women waiting to see the king. They bowed as Teiti and Imi walked past to the open double doors of the Main Room.

As Imi stepped into the huge room she saw her father leaning on the arm of his throne, talking to one of four men sitting on stools arranged before him. She recognized her father’s counsellor, the palace steward and the head clothes-maker. Her father looked up, smiled broadly and opened his arms.

“Imi! Come give your father a hug.”

She grinned, tossed all decorum aside and ran across the room. As she leapt into his arms, she felt them wrap around her and the vibration of his laugh deep within his chest.

He released her and she settled on his knee.

“I have an important question for you to answer,” he told her.

She nodded, making her expression serious. “Yes, Father?”

“What entertainments would you like to see at our party?”

She grinned. “Dancing! Jugglers and acrobats!”

“Of course,” he said. “What else? Can you think of something particularly special?”

She thought hard. “Flying people!”

His eyebrows rose and he looked at his counsellor. “Do you think a few Siyee would agree to attend?”

She bounced up and down with excitement. “Would they? Would they?”

The counsellor smiled. “I will ask, but I can’t make any promises. They might not like being underground where they can’t see the sky, and they can’t fly in small places. There isn’t enough room.”

“We could put them in our biggest, tallest cave,” Imi suggested. “And paint the roof blue like the sky.”

Her father’s eyes lit with interest. “That would be a sight.” He smiled at her and she searched for more ideas that might please him.

“Fire-eaters!” she exclaimed.

He winced, probably remembering the accident that had happened a few years before, when an overly nervous new fire-eater had spilled burning oil over himself.

“Yes,” he said. “Is that all?”

She considered, then smiled. “A treasure hunt for the children.”

“You’re not getting too old for that?”

“Not yet... Not if we have it outside.”

His expression changed to disapproval. “No, Imi. It’s too dangerous.”

“But we could bring guards and hold it somewhere—”

“No.”

She pouted and looked away. Surely it wasn’t that dangerous outside. From what she had overheard in the pipe room, raiders weren’t circling the islands all the time. People went out every day to collect food or objects to trade. Whenever someone was killed, it was on one of the outer islands, or away from the islands altogether.

“Anything else?” he asked. She could hear the false brightness in his voice. She could tell when his smile was forced because the wrinkles around his eyes didn’t deepen.

“No,” she replied. “Just lots of presents.”