“If you didn’t fight, she’d have killed a woman and child. Would their deaths be a fair price for a clear conscience?”
That didn’t seem fair. “You came to argue?” Tau asked.
She looked hurt. “Is that what we’re doing?” She shook her head. “I came to see you,” she said, lifting her chin and taking a deep breath. “I came to…” She gave him a nervous smile, the edges of her mouth fluttering. “I came to…”
“What?” asked Tau, confused.
“Ah…” Zuri was steeling herself for something, then seemed to lose her nerve. “I’m surprised Aren didn’t whip the skin from your back,” she said.
Tau wasn’t in the mood for her teasing. “Jabari asked me to accompany him.”
The smile slipped from her face. He’d been too terse with her. He was an idiot.
“I saw Jelani,” she said. “She told me she saw you yesterday, before the battle. She told me you were on your way to find Jabari.”
“Jelani, her mouth has always been too large for her face.”
“Tau, Jabari is many things. He’s bold, handsome, tall—”
“Is he?” Tau asked.
“But he’s not impulsive. That characteristic I’d lay at someone else’s door.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t want you to say anything. I came to… I wanted to see you.” Zuri had that strange look on her face again. “I wanted to make sure you were well. I needed to know that.”
“I am.”
She stepped closer, within arm’s reach, and suddenly, his arms felt heavier than boulders. She raised a hand and, hesitating, laid it on his chest. “Would you tell me, if you weren’t?”
Tau’s scalp beaded with sudden sweat. She’s being friendly, he told himself. She’s worried about a longtime friend. He looked down at her hand and back to her face. She was so close. He could almost—“The battle, w-we… I thought we had no hope,” Tau stammered.
“You fought. You kept us safe,” Zuri said, stepping closer.
Tau could feel her chest against his. “They had us. There were too many.” He couldn’t keep his mind on his words. Every time Zuri took a breath it was… distracting. “The hedeni were about to overrun us when the military arrived, with Guardians.”
Zuri’s eyes widened. “You saw dragons?”
Dragons. That was something he could talk about. “I’ve never seen one up close before.”
“I’ve never seen one at all,” Zuri said.
“They’re enormous. Black as shadows. I felt their fire. It’s… Well, it’s indescribable. And the Gifted controlling it—”
“An Entreater.”
“What?”
“Entreating. Gifted don’t control the Guardians, they call to them,” Zuri said. “How did she do it?”
“Eh… she lifted her arms and waved them around,” Tau said.
“She waved her arms around?” Zuri pursed her lips at him.
“I’m telling the truth.”
“I believe you.”
“No, you’re teasing me again,” Tau said, trying not to stare at her mouth.
“Never,” Zuri said, full lips curving into a bright smile, eyes sparkling. “Well, it sounds funny to think of a Gifted guiding Guardians by waving her arms around.”
“It doesn’t look like the way you’re saying it. It… You can feel their power.”
“Go on,” said Zuri, still close.
“There were other Gifted, like the one with the Ingonyama. The hedeni captured her when—”
“What?” Zuri’s smile vanished.
“They killed the Ingonyama and took the Gifted.”
She stepped back.
Why had he told her that? Did he want to describe the way the dead had looked too? “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s my fault,” Zuri said, voice soft. “I’m asking about it like a child, imagining it’s all honor and glory, brave warriors and wondrous Gifted. It isn’t, is it?”
“No,” said Tau. “It isn’t.”
“No,” Zuri echoed, lowering her eyes.
Silence, and Tau had no clue how to fill it.
“Tau, I came here for a reason. When I heard you went to Daba, I was so worried I… Tau, we don’t have long before you leave for Ihashe training, and I won’t look back with regrets. I’d rather live with a thing done poorly than do nothing and always wonder how things could have been.”
He should have told her she was beautiful when he had the chance.
“Tau?”
“Yes?”
Zuri stepped in and kissed him. His entire body tensed with the shock of it. Her lips, first pressing softly on his mouth, became insistent, and his pulse pounded in his ears as his scalp tingled.
He didn’t know what to do with his mouth, or his hands, and it felt like a warm fire lanced across his skin in the places where their bodies touched. Tau put his arms around her, holding her, pleading to the Goddess to let this moment last forever. He wanted to die like this, with her in his—She ended the kiss.
He opened his eyes, surprised to see the sun still shone. For a few precious breaths nothing but Zuri had existed.
“We should stop,” she said, her voice deeper than usual. “We don’t want to go too far.”
Tau’s mind felt stuffed with grass. “Zuri…,” he said, astonished at how needy he sounded. He was close to begging and wasn’t sure what for.
Her eyes danced. “I did it,” she said. “I wasn’t sure I’d have the courage.” Her smile was a new day’s dawn. “I’ll see you soon, Tau Tafari.”
She slipped out of reach and walked away. Tau watched her go, the most perfect being who had ever existed.
“We have the rest of Grow and Harvest before the testing,” she called to him, before disappearing below the rise of the mountainside.
Tau stood there, trying to understand some part of what had happened. He couldn’t make sense of it, but somehow, his life had become better.
PATHS
The next morning, Tau woke before sunrise. He was still sore from the battle, but the nightmares had lessened, and as the sky brightened, his head filled with thoughts of Zuri.
“You’re up,” Aren said, eating cold lentils and potatoes.
“I’m up.”
Aren watched him. It was the same look from training, when he was worried Tau was about to get hurt.
“I’m well,” Tau said.
“Didn’t say anything.”
“Were about to,” Tau countered.
“Maybe, but you’ll never know now.”
Aren got up, buckled on his sword, and went outside to relieve himself. Tau heard him greeting someone and then his name was called.
“Coming,” Tau said, pulling on his worn boots and going outside. Jabari was there.
“Well met, Tau.”
“Well met, nkosi.” Tau knew Jabari didn’t like it when he used the Noble honorific to address him, but Aren was there, and Tau would get an earful for being too familiar if he didn’t.