by S. G. Basu
Bikele reached out, holding his upturned palms in front of Maia. Maia hesitated a moment before she put her hands in his. He cradled her hands; it was strange how safe Maia felt at the moment, holding the hands of a man she had not even known existed until a few weeks ago.
Someone sighed deeply, the sound breaking the stillness.
“And Zaara? What happened to her?” Dani asked in a subdued voice.
A pain swept through Bikele’s face, twisting it momentarily.
“I haven’t seen Zaara since that night in Miorie. We had to part ways. There was always a risk that we would be hunted down, so we decided to hide in separate places. If the Xifarians found us, they would find their way to Sophie’s child, and we could not let that happen.”
“You’ve been hiding at the bottom of the seas for me . . . so I could be safe—” Maia could not bear it anymore. The hurt overwhelmed her heart and spilled from her eyes.
“No, Maia, not just for you.” Bikele wiped a tear from her cheek. “It was all done to protect our future. Sophie did her part, and we chose to do ours.”
“What happened to the rest of the circle?” Kusha asked. “Did you hear from Raidyn and Asiyaah?”
“I never heard of Raidyn again.” Bikele shook his head. “But Asiyaah never left us; she was always a part of Sophie’s unending nightmares. Every night Sophie would start screaming in her sleep. All she said was ‘Asiyaah, no. Asiyaah don’t. Asiyaah, I’m sorry.’ And it went on until the very end.”
“What does that mean?” Nafi asked. “She was begging? But for what?”
“I don’t know,” Bikele replied solemnly. “Zaara didn’t say much about Asiyaah, but she seemed to think that Asiyaah could have helped Sophie more. ‘She could have given Sophie a better cover’ was all Zaara would say. And I have this . . .”
Bikele reached inside his water gear and held out a small notebook for Maia. “Sophie kept scribbling in it. You won’t find anything meaningful, but it is something I had of hers. It’s yours now. Asiyaah’s name is all over it as well.”
Maia slowly opened the notebook. It parted right at the center. Broken handwriting filled the pages from top to bottom. It was the same words over and over again.
ASIYAAH NO . . . ASIYAAH NO . . . NO . . . ASIYAAH NO . . . ASIYAAH NO . . . NO . . . NO ASIYAAH NO . . . ASIYAAH NO . . . NO . . . ASIYAAH NO . . . NO . . .
Maia shut the book with vehemence. The Xifarians had turned her mother into a madwoman, a raving lunatic. And no one paid for their crimes. It was not fair that so many people had to die or live broken lives because of the Xifarians.
“Was Asiyaah a student of the XDA as well?” Ren asked.
“No, she was not,” Bikele replied. “She was a master. Zaara, Raidyn, and Sophie were her students at the XDA.”
“Asiyaah,” Ren pondered again. “Did Zaara tell you anything about her family?”
“No.” Bikele shook his head vigorously. “She would not tell me anything about the other two. She said it was better if I did not know. I never argued—the less I knew, the less the possibility that the Xifarians would come after me. And I was fine with that.”
Ren fidgeted uneasily for a while and blurted, “Asiyaah was the name of Miizuken’s only daughter. She was a master at the XDA before her husband became the Xifarian chancellor. After her husband took office, she surrendered her position at the XDA and completely retired from public life.”
“Miizuken’s daughter? And the Xifarian chancellor’s wife? That means she’s Miir’s mother, right?” Nafi deduced.
Ren nodded.
Maia recalled that Ren had told them once about Miir’s grandfather Miizuken, the genius Xifarian inventor.
“Wait. How can you be sure this is the same Asiyaah?” Dani questioned.
“How many Asiyaahs do I know of who have been a master at the XDA about fourteen years ago and have retired since then?” Ren retorted. “Only one. It has to be her, and that explains why Zaara didn’t want to tell Bikele more about her.”
“Because of her powerful connections, she could harm him more if her involvement with Sophie became known,” Kusha concluded.
“But hold on a moment. We’re assuming this alleged involvement,” Dani interrupted. “All we know for sure is Sophie and Asiyaah were friends.”
“Zaara did not talk about it, but she always seemed to suggest that Asiyaah and Sophie were in it together. This plot to damage the heart of the Sedara was more Asiyaah’s,” Bikele said.
“And it’s quite obvious from Sophie’s nightmares that Asiyaah betrayed her and let her be captured by the Gnelexians.” Kusha inferred, thumping his fists together.
Bikele nodded slowly. “And it all fits together in an interesting way. Sophie was captured right around the time when the new chancellor, Asiyaah’s husband, came to power. This was probably a few months after the heart of the Sedara had been broken.”
“You mean Asiyaah could’ve betrayed Sophie to buy the office for her family?” Kusha asked.
“I do not know that,” Bikele replied. “But, it’s intriguing that so many things happened right around that time.”
“How could Asiyaah have betrayed my mother?” Maia felt drained. She could not even think clearly anymore. “They were a circle of trust.”
“Don’t fret over what you don’t know for sure, Maia.” Bikele placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “But then again, always be prepared to see people change, because they often do.”
They sat in silence for a while before Bikele spoke again.
“I have to go now, Maia.” He stood up slowly. “I hope to see you again soon. You all be careful now.”
As soon as he opened the lid of the water lock, a stubby nose and smiling face of a snub-nosed dolphin popped up through the hole, its dark eyes glittering with mischief. Bikele broke into an indulgent laughter as the audience shrieked in surprise.
“Meet Gibbon, my trusted partner over the years. He’s blind, but he refuses to stop following me. And I cannot force him into retirement because he thinks he’s still smart and strong,” Bikele chuckled loudly. “Maia, your mother and Zaara liked to pamper him. Actually, those artificial eyes that he likes to show off so proudly were gifts from Sophie. I was just a struggling apprentice then, had a hard time getting him fitted with a prosthetic fin after he had an accident about fourteen years ago. But then Sophie gave away two of the black pearls from her necklace, and Zaara, being the gifted healer that she was, fashioned a pair of eyes out of them. It all worked for Gibbon—he came out as good as new and as conceited as ever.”
After they had all said their hellos to a very excited Gibbon, Bikele prepared to leave.
“Now, we need to figure out how to get past that broken ladder,” Kusha said, scratching his head as if to rouse his wits.
“What ladder?” Bikele asked. “You took the maintenance elevators down the side of the air shaft, didn’t you?”
Maia looked at Dani and caught her blushing profusely.
“Tell me you didn’t take the ladders down forty floors,” Bikele said incredulously. “Well, at least I’m glad we talked about this. Take the elevators and stay safe, kids.”
With another wave of his hand, he was gone. Ren shut the lid slowly, and Maia felt her friends shuffle around her. She had lost the urge to move. She stood gazing at the closed lock, yearning to run away with Bikele to his hideaway under the seas, to keep hearing as much about Sophie as she could.
41: Remii and the Apprentices
“Come on, Maia, we need to get back to our rooms.” Kusha patted her gently on the back. It was a hazy feeling, as if she was a thousand miles away from there, somewhere alone in a dark cocoon with nothing but the pain and the misery of her thoughts.
They tortured my mother, turned her into a living corpse. My mother gave it all—her life, her sanity—to save her Tansi.
“Maia, let’s go,” Kusha said again. And she took the first step and the second and kept on going. Following the sounds and the sights,
the murmurs and the whispers, all the way to the huge black walls around the airshaft that ran like a spine through the city.
Now they’re trying to restore the Capsule. And if they do . . . all the sacrifices Sophie made will be for nothing.
“Down those stairs,” Dani said as the group turned a corner, pointing at a flight of metal stairs that wound down to a narrow corridor.
Tansi, Sophie’s Tansi, is in danger. Again. No, wait; it’s my Tansi now—
“There’s the elevator,” Dani exclaimed.
At the end of the passageway was another flight of stairs and a pair of huge elevator doors stood beyond them. The group had started walking briskly forward when a loud clanging sound made them stop. The elevator doors started to open with a prolonged screech. The last trace of daze cleared from Maia’s mind at the terrible ruckus.
“Stand back,” Kusha whispered. They quickly fell back a few steps and hid around the corner. Maia heard heavy footfalls—most likely a group of people had emerged from the elevator.
“Search Keif and Zeiss again,” a man said. His hushed voice was cold and bitter. “There has to be something in there.”
Maia peeped around the bend of the wall. Three figures clad in familiar black uniforms had stepped out of the elevator. A man she had never seen before walked out first. Following him was a young woman with bright red hair and a young man.
“Miir and Amanii? Who’s that other guy?” Nafi whispered.
“That’s Remii, Miir’s elder brother,” Ren whispered back.
Boredom and frustration was etched deep on Miir’s pale face, but Amanii looked content.
“We are wasting our time,” Miir’s voice came up the stairs.
“Do you have a problem with following my command? Or maybe you have a better idea?” Remii snapped. “There is something down here for sure, the pointers can’t be all wrong. You heard the chatter about Keif and Zeiss . . . it has to be there or somewhere nearby. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get out of this mess. So I suggest you stop trying to prove me wrong like you always do and search again.”
“Remii, maybe Miir is right. We have looked in there a thousand times over and found nothing,” Amanii spoke up hesitantly. “We should look elsewhere as well.”
“My dear Amanii, try once more. Use the weapon if you need. Do what you have to do, tear the place down, but just find the thing,” Remii said irritably.
“Use the weapon?” Maia recognized Miir’s voice, but it sounded a bit strange. Never before had Maia noted that tremor in his voice. “Do you remember what happened the last time we used it? People live around here and we will be risking—“
“You think I care about these people?” Remii hissed. “I don’t. And if you had any sense left in you, you wouldn’t either.”
Nafi nudged Kusha. “What are they talking about?” she whispered. “What weapon? And what are they searching for? Does he mean the heart of the Sedara?”
“I don’t know, Nafi,” Kusha responded. “Just be quiet.”
“I hope they don’t decide to come up the stairs.” Dani peeked from behind Kusha.
No sooner than she had uttered those words, Remii started up the staircase and headed toward the corner where Maia stood huddled with her friends, unsure of what to do. Behind them stretched a long, straight corridor, and there was nothing to hide behind, not even a smallest bump. The two groups would have to face each other; there was no other option.
“Act normal,” Nafi said as the Xifarians neared the corner. “Let’s walk into them before they walk into us.”
Before anyone could come up with a better idea, Nafi traipsed out into the corridor. Kusha put on the face of a martyr and followed bravely. Maia, Dani and Ren brought up the rear. Remii and the apprentices stopped on seeing the gang, their faces frozen in stunned surprise.
“Miir,” Nafi squealed. Maia could have sworn that expression of happiness on her face was as good as genuine. “What a surprise!”
Miir frowned in reply. Amanii stared half-smiling, half-confused at the group. It was Remii who startled Maia the most. His brown hair was parted neatly on the right side, and he had a strange, cold, unblinking gaze of a reptile. His dark eyes darted from one face to another until they came to rest on Maia.
“We get to see the whole group today,” Amanii laughed. “That is so wonderful. But what are you doing down here?”
“Came downstairs to meet a friend,” Kusha blurted the truth.
Remii continued to stare fixedly at Maia amidst all the conversation. It was unnerving, annoying as well.
“We should leave now,” Maia whispered to Ren who stood fidgeting next to her. He nodded eagerly.
“You should leave now,” Miir said, as if sensing their thoughts. “It is past midnight. You should not be strolling around here. It is not safe. I have told you that before, but you do not seem to get a hang of good sense.”
The last part of his lecture was clearly directed at Maia, and she bristled at his tone. She swallowed the jab with difficulty, thinking only of their eventual escape out of this floor to keep herself from retorting.
“Come on, Miir,” Amanii tried to make light of matters. “Don’t be so harsh. They’re just kids . . . let them have a little fun.”
“Fun? This is no place for fun. They do not have the slightest sense of responsibility.” Miir did not take Amanii’s comments lightly at all. He seemed really agitated. He did not look at Maia, but she felt every word he spoke was a rebuke to her. “They were reckless on Xif, and they are no better down here.”
Nafi shrugged and flashed the silliest grin possible. While the others exchanged rather amused glances among each other, Maia felt outraged. Maybe it was the suffocation from Remii’s reptilian stare or her pent-up frustration from the conversation with Bikele, but she could barely tolerate Miir’s cutting remarks.
“All this fame has gone to their heads,” Miir grumbled on. “Now they think they are superheroes of some kind.”
Maia was not going to take it quietly anymore. She drew a sharp breath, filling her lungs to the brim with air that smelled of fire.
“How does what we do here matter to you?” she lashed out at Miir. “You forget that you’re not our mentor anymore. Stop bossing us around.”
“Maia . . .” Dani tugged at her arm, trying to placate her.
“You are quite a thankless girl,” Amanii said, frowning. “All he did was show his concern for you all.”
“I’m not dying for his attention or concern. I don’t think my friends are either.” An angry blaze was sweeping through Maia’s mind. There was no stopping it. Someone screamed, Asiyaah, no . . . Asiyaah would pay for her betrayal, for the pain she had caused Sophie. Asiyaah’s sons would have to pay as well. “And if he still feels like showing that he cares, he better learn how to do it nicely.”
“That’s no way of talking to your friends,” Amanii countered again.
“Friend?” Maia spat out the word, the vehemence in her voice surprising even to her own ears. But more words kept rolling out, along with the rage. “I know better, Amanii. He was never a friend, and he never will be.”
“We have to go. Now.” Kusha grabbed Maia by her shoulders and pushed her past the trio before anyone had a chance to respond. They rushed down the stairs and huddled into the elevator as quickly as they could. Maia took one last look at the top of the staircase. Remii and Amanii had turned away, but Miir still stood staring. His eyes were vacant, much like Yoome’s dead, lifeless eyes.
“Stay away from me,” Maia shouted, as a wave of revulsion at his face swept through her whole being. An instant later, the elevator door screeched shut.
42: Dani and Kusha
“Maia?” A concerned Dani peered at her face. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Maia replied, still fuming. The elevator had not even climbed ten floors when she started feeling calm again. And as suddenly as it had come, the fury was gone, replaced by a terrible feeling of guilt and embarrassme
nt.
“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have behaved that way,” she said. “I don’t know what came over me, Dani. I think I should go back and apologize to Miir.”
“No one is going back,” Kusha said firmly. “And you don’t need to apologize to anyone. The way Miir talks to people, he deserves some criticism once in a while.”
“I don’t think we should go back either,” Ren added. “Maybe we’ll see Miir again soon, and then you could explain yourself.”
“Yes, he’s right, Maia,” Nafi chimed in. “If there’s anything we know about Miir, he gets mad at people easily, but he usually comes around. Don’t worry too much about it.”
“I . . .” Maia found it difficult to justify her actions or express her thoughts clearly. She rested her back on the cold wall of the elevator, trying to think what had brought this on.
“I was thinking of Asiyaah when we bumped into them,” she confessed. “All I could think of was how she could’ve broken Sophie’s trust. I hated her with all my soul, and Miir’s words made me snap. I thought shouting at him was a way to get back at his mother, and that was wrong.”
“Maia, it’s okay.” Dani slipped a comforting arm over her drooping shoulders as they walked out of the freight elevators and headed toward the atrium section of the fiftieth floor. “We will see him again, hopefully soon.”
“No, Dani. It’s not okay. I said some nasty things . . . unfair things. He saved my life. How could I have forgotten that? I . . . I said he was never my friend. How could I?”
“Cheer up.” Kusha decided to try to bring some optimism back. “I don’t think you should feel guilty at all. You had a right to feel angry after all you had heard about Miir’s mother’s hand in all this.”
“We don’t know much about that, Kusha,” Nafi protested. “Not enough to be sure.”
