Chapter 35
With the start of a new day it seemed the whole lands and the animals were at a near stand-still.
Dumaka knew this because he was a shaman. He'd been trained for years to study the movements of not only animals but the earth. He had to be in tune with his shamanic instincts always, at all times. His father taught him that.
"If you find yourself distracted for any reason by the ways of mortality your spirit will be corrupted. We, as shamans, are the messengers of the Creator himself. We carry him within the core of us. The ways of those who are untouched by the Creator, those who choose to follow a path he has not set for them…" His father sighed heavily. "If you come across those whose path is corrupted by their own selfish needs and desires, if you fall prey to them and their ways your soul will fall prey and everything your gift of shamanism has given you will be lost. If that is lost then you too will be lost."
The words stayed with Dumaka even he left to join Tayari in his exile. His father warned him that if he went his 'own way' and 'joined the corrupt prince' he would lose touch with his gift. But he never did. He meditated every day and night since he left. He prayed over the kills Tayari had caught and prayed over his own meals. When they met Kambiri and Kipaji, Dumaka had known deep in his heart that he and Tayari joining them was the right thing to do. He prayed over the kills, both the morning and evening, prayed for Kambiri and Tayari's safety as they hunted, and still found time to meditate.
Each and every time he could feel his gift of shamanism coursing deep through his veins, all through his body. Whenever he looked at the stars before settling himself to sleep he knew that the Creator of all was looking down on him from the other side with pride and love.
His father had been wrong. Dumaka did chose to leave and follow Tayari, but he didn't do it for himself. He'd done it for Tayari, the lion who would have been king of his pride, except for the fact that he had been born second. His older brother was next in line for the throne.
Dumaka had thought on his decision before he made it and afterward. If Tayari had made up his own mind and left the kingdom to find his own lands and start his own pride, Dumaka would have followed gladly and honorably.
Dumaka wasn't connected to Tayari because of their childhood friendship, it was something deeper, something he could never describe. It was just there and supposed to be. If Dumaka had made the wrong decision – which he knew he didn't – he would have heard that small voice in his head, the voice of the Creator telling him to go back and be the shaman to Tayari's older brother.
But nothing of the sort happened.
He'd followed Tayari; they'd met Kambiri and Kipaji and went with them. It had all lead them to finding King Nkosi dying and bleeding in his lands and to their acceptance into the Eastern Valley kingdom.
"Everything has its purpose, Dumaka…"
Another thing his father said. Every day, before and after his choice to follow Tayari and every day after that up to now, he believed it. He would until the day he died.
Now as he stared out into the lands, watching the horizon and the skies above, hands behind his back, he wondered about his purpose in the Valley, other than helping Rashid. Then again, now that he thought harder, maybe that was it. Maybe that's all there was.
Rashid would never say, especially to him, but he was getting old, though he didn't look it. The monkey's fur was still deep brown. How long had he lived anyway? How many kings and queens did he see ascend to the throne and step down to let their son or daughter take over? Though Dumaka was a shaman it didn't mean that he wasn't still mortal. It didn't mean that he didn't want to know about others, their lives, their hopes, dreams, their worries and fears. He didn't want to be cut off from everyone because he had high connections to the heavens.
His father told him to never fully involve himself in his patients' lives.
"If you do then you'll be exposing your own vulnerability to the ways of life and its twisted, dark ways."
But Dumaka never believed him. It wasn't possible, mainly because of his friendship with Tayari. That alone prevented him from thinking and becoming like his father, who, now that he thought on it as he gazed out at the horizon, was cold and emotionless. When he was a kit he never thought much of it. He'd had his mother for love, comfort, and support, not to mention his sisters and brother. He loved his father, despite the lack of love his father showed him and his siblings. As he grew up, he became more aware of his father's behavior and it sickened him.
His friendship with Tayari wasn't the only reason he left. It was his father, who he learned later, hated that Dumaka had taken up a friendship with a prince of the kingdom. His father wanted Dumaka, his firstborn, to be like him. But was something Dumaka could not do and separating himself from Tayari was the last thing he would ever do. He believed then, as now, that he and the gold lion were connected by the work and want of the Creator himself and Dumaka was more than glad to follow that want.
He removed his hands from his back, let them fall to his sides, and turned his hands into fists. He gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry I hurt you father, but you hurt me first. You didn't love me, any of us. You may have loved Mom, but…" He could feel tears beginning to well in his eyes. He didn't stop them. Unlike his father he had emotion and he showed it every chance given. If it made him weak, too bad, he would rather show weakness than keep himself separate from the pain of others. He was a shaman who loved the Creator's creation. A tear leaked out of his right and left eye, trailing down his face. He sniffed.
His ear twitched and he heard a grunt behind him. He turned. Rashid was getting up out of his grass bed. No, more like rolling out of it, onto the ground on his knees then picking himself up and rubbing his eyes. Dumaka wanted to turn away. His friend didn't look good again. For the third time in three days – since King Nkosi's memorial for all he knew – the older shaman hadn't weathered the night well. His stance was different, hunched over, his face masked with a pain that Dumaka could only imagine. Rashid had lost his king – his Great King – a week ago. Of course the shaman wouldn't be sleeping well. But Dumaka knew and felt that there was something else, something more to it than just losing a king. He watched as Rashid came to a gourd full of water, bent over, stuck his hands in and began washing his face.
"There's something wrong with him," Dumaka thought, shrugging his shoulders.
He turned back to the lands. Rashid walked up and joined him. Dumaka glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Rashid's fur was ruffled. He really hadn't slept well. "Morning, Rashid," he said.
The monkey yawned quietly and rubbed his eyes. "Morning, Dumaka."
Dumaka swallowed, trying desperately not to ask or say the wrong thing.
"I know what you want to say. Am I okay? The answer is no. Did I have another bad night? Yes, I did."
"The nightmare?" the meerkat asked.
"Yes, and it was worse than the last few times."
"How bad was it?"
Rashid closed his eyes, trying to keep from trembling. He could feel hands and arms begin to shake. "The lands… they were barren, wasted. There was no grass, hardly any water, no animals to be seen at all. The pride was gone, dead from lack of food. Once the grass died, so did the animals." His eyes flickered and in his mind he could see the horrifying images. There was no grass, not the beautiful green he saw now. It was brown, dead. The waterholes were near empty, not enough to support even a small family of animals like meerkats. There was nothing, absolutely nothing. Rashid looked down and shivered from head to foot.
Dumaka ran his tongue over his mouth and gripped one hand in the other, phrasing his words carefully in his mind. He too looked down then said in a soft voice, "You've… been having these dreams for days now." At a side glance, he looked at Rashid. "What do you think they mean?" But in his heart, he knew the answer. The kingdom… its state… its future… That has to be it!
Rashid swallowed a large lump in his throat, felt his heart beat harder than usual. His hands started to shake, quake, followed by the rest of his body. The trembling, shaking and quaking all in one was too much that he finally sat down on the ground, crossing his legs.
"This realm…"
Dumaka could barely hear. He sat down beside the animal he'd come to call friend. Professionalism aside, Rashid was a good creature, given a gift, and like him, had embraced it with all his soul and heart. He waited.
"This realm… it will fall, die, without a good proper leader to take care of it." The monkey licked his lips with his tongue. His vision began to blur. "I've seen it in my dreams, Dumaka…" He shook his head. "It's not something you want to see, not in your dreams or in the real world." He rubbed the ground with his hand. "The kingdom needs a leader, one of royal blood, with a good heart."
Only one name entered the meerkat's mind. Rashid was thinking it too, he knew. "How," Dumaka finally asked. "I mean, the pride… clearly they're against it."
Again Rashid shook his head and slowly rose to his feet. Dumaka did the same. Rashid's hands balled into fists. He gripped them, the tips of his fingers digging into his palm. His eyesight became strong and clear.
"We go to the Queen Mother," he said, his voice strong. "We go to Lady Nadia."
Without another word or waiting for Dumaka to reply or object, if he would, Rashid saw the nearest vine, grabbed it and wrapped his body around it and began lowering himself down into the grass.
Dumaka watched confused. What had gotten into the older shaman? Not a few long heartbeats earlier he was about ready to suffer a breakdown and now he was as strong the night of King Nkosi's memorial service? What in the name of –
Rashid called up to him from below.
"Dumaka, are you coming? I'm sure Tayari and the others would like to see you. It has been a week after all. If they're not there when we arrive you can stay. You are a shaman. You have a right to be present and address your own concerns as I do."
The younger shaman sighed, knowing the monkey had a point. He was missing Tayari and Kambiri, missing any wise words Kipaji often gave.
He saw a vine in front of him, grabbed it and wrapped his legs around it, sliding down.
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Sauda woke up with a start. She looked around the cave. She hadn't slept among the pride, she couldn't. It was simple really. Lately she had been dreaming. And last night she'd had another and it kept her going from being asleep to jerking her head awake and going back to sleep again. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, it didn't stop all night. She should have been worried but she dismissed the matter as only a dream, nothing more or less.
What she did find strange was that her dreams weren't of the future or the present, but the past. The days when Nkosi, Nyari and Kali were alive and they were all together. It was just them, the four cubs of the Eastern Valley, so young and innocent… in the days when she and Kali didn't drink from the forbidden and poisonous waterhole on the northern side of the kingdom.
Sauda had no idea why she was dreaming about them. They were gone and dreaming wasn't going to make them miraculously come back. Did she care? Did her subconscious, while asleep, care? She wasn't sure and dismissed it as nothing, just her dreaming mind wanting things to be the way they were before that day on the northern side.
She stared at her surroundings. She was in one of the other caves and this cave was familiar. It was the cave where Kali had died and where she had fought for her life for three whole months after that day.
Claws came out on her right forepaw and looking at them she ran her paw along the ground, leaving faint marks. Why, she didn't know until something struck her. Was this cave making her have memories of the ones she knew as a cub? She thought about it then shook her head. No, that was impossible. Caves don't give someone dreams, or nightmares. It was preposterous, foolish.
She blinked her eyes, feeling the heaviness. She rose slowly with a grunt, stretched, arched her back and stepped out. The lionesses were all up, some talking, others grooming themselves. They didn't seem to notice her which was fine with Sauda. They all knew what to do, what the routine was. It hadn't changed and as far as she was concerned it never would. They would hunt. She would lead them, if she was up for it.
No matter that she had slept badly again for the third night in a row. She had a job to do, as much as she loathed it and wished one of the other lionesses could take her spot as leader. But no one could. All lionesses her age were dead. As her mother pointed out the day they were told Nkosi was dead, she was the only one of that generation left. It hadn't weighed on her then, but since she started dreaming of Nkosi, Nyari and Kali, it had, if only a little. She'd shrugged it off then and did so now. So what if she was the last of that generation? What did matter to her?
We die, she thought to herself as she headed outside. She didn't know what else to think. One day she would die and that would be the end of it. She wasn't sure if the afterlife Rashid, her mother or Nadia talked about even existed. She would know when she died, wouldn't she.
She stepped out into the morning light and yawned again. She looked around. It was going to be another good day, but the rain season would come in time. It had to. The lands weren't drying but in a few months, or sooner, they would.
Her ears rose as she heard a voice behind her. She turned. It was her mother and the gray lion. What was his name again? Oh, yes, Kipaji.
She didn't greet them with words or a nod or a smile. She just stared at them. This was the seventh or eighth time she'd seen her mother with this lion, this, in her eyes, a stranger. He was as old as her mother! What business did he think he –
She put it out of her mind. It disgusted her.
Her mother spoke, smiling and dipping her head. "Good morning, Sauda."
Even her voice and attitude was chipper than usual! She wanted to throw up. What did her mother see in this rogue that she seemed to like? Then again, what had her mother seen in her father, who, also, was a rogue?
"Going somewhere again?" she asked, her voice cold, her tone clipped.
But Radhiya was unmoved by her daughter's voice. She gave a quick glance to the lion at her side. He glanced back at her. She gave him an apologetic smile and faced her daughter. "Yes, we are," she said.
"Where," Sauda heard herself asking.
"Sauda, Kipaji has been here for a week and I…"
"And what, Mother, what?" she snapped.
Radhiya narrowed her eyes. "Watch your tone with me, child."
"I am not a child! Not anymore. I am queen!" Her green eyes glared and burned.
"You're not acting like one, especially in front of a member of the pride."
"A member of the pride…" Sauda didn't care one lick if the gray lion heard this. She had yet to say anything negative anyway and after having a dream of a past she'd rather forget, now was the perfect time.
Her mother continued. "Yes, a member of the pride. Kipaji is a lion of the Eastern Valley just as we are."
"And what exactly are you going to be doing?"
Radhiya felt sick, appalled even. She couldn't believe her own daughter was asking this, any of it. "You have no right to ask that. You haven't so far."
"Well, I am now."
"Sauda…" Radhiya could feel her heart race inside her chest. Her blood began to boil and she took one step closer, away from Kipaji toward Sauda. "I am entitled to a life of my own. It's something I haven't had, truly had, in many years and you, though you are my daughter, are not in control of what I do. You may be queen but you are first and foremost my daughter, not my queen first and daughter second. Do you hear me?"
She gathered herself, swallowed, looked ahead for a moment and then put her eyes back to Sauda, whose eyes didn't seem to withdraw their snapping. Kipaji was still quiet behind her and she silently thanked him for it. She knew he would speak when the time was right. He always did. For now he was letting her have this verbal fight with her daughter. Perhaps he knew she could able to handle it, which was why he wasn't saying a word.
Sauda sucked in a breath of air through her nose and met her mother's stare head-on. She didn't like her mother spending so much time with this rogue. She didn't trust him or his other friends, the two lions who had been patrolling their lands for a week. How much longer would that go on?
"Fine, Mother, do what you want." Then she glared at her mother, sent a cold stare in Kipaji's direction and retreated back into the den. Whether the lionesses heard her words she didn't care.
Radhiya watched her go, sighed softly, turned her stare ahead and stepped forward. Then she turned back, facing Kipaji, a look of deep pain crossing her face. "I'm sorry," she said.
He took a step up. "It's all right."
She shook her head. "No, it's not. Sauda, she…" Her ears fell. "She's not the daughter I raised."
He didn't speak.
"There… there's a reason for it."
"Whatever the reason, it's not your fault. I don't believe that it is."
She managed a smile. "Thank you, Kipaji."
They were quiet for a bit. Radhiya pawed the ground in front of her, looked at the grass, then back at him.
"What is it?" he asked.
She wasn't sure if she should but after what had just happened with Sauda and the fact that Kipaji knew she was keeping something buried deep inside, she had to show and tell him everything now. It had been a week since his arrival in the kingdom. It was time. It would help him understand.
"Radhiya…" He spoke her name gently, worriedly.
"The northern side," she began. "There's something you need to see and what I need to tell you… the two are connected."
He nodded, slightly unsure of what she meant, and they started walking. About twenty steps away from the caves Radhiya stopped. Her eyes were fixed ahead. Kipaji also stopped and followed her gaze. They were two figures coming toward them and upon closer inspection they knew.
Rashid and Dumaka, but what were they doing here?
The two shamans approached. Dumaka smiled at Kipaji while Rashid came to Radhiya and wrapped his arms around the lioness's neck.
"How're things here, my friend?" the older shaman asked, pulling away.
She sighed. "Slowly coming back, that's all I can say."
He nodded. "Well, that's good. It's a start, anyway."
"It is, but we're still lost without a leader… without Jahzara taking her father's rightful place."
Rashid's eyes brightened. "Then you're in luck because that's why I'm here." He looked to Dumaka who was in deep conversation with Kipaji. The meerkat and gray lion stood a few feet away from them. "That's why we're here. Do you know where Nadia is? How has she been?"
"She's been… Well, I don't really know. We talk but not that much. She's still in shock, naturally, and she's been staying in the royal chambers with Jahzara."
Rashid nodded again and rubbed the back of his neck. "So, you don't know where she is?"
Radhiya gave a small laugh. "Well, I know Nadia very well. She could be in the royal chambers asleep, or on the stone. She's somewhere, Rashid. You'll find her." The lioness smiled.
"Thanks," he said and he stepped back. Dumaka was still talking to Kipaji.
"Kambiri and Tayari have been patrolling the lands? These lands?" the meerkat asked his friend while he paced, one arm behind his back, the other with his hand rubbing his forehead.
The gray lion nodded. "Yep, for a week now, and I think they're gonna keep doing it. Princess Jahzara is with Kambiri I'm assuming. Neither of them was in the den this morning when I woke and Tayari has had the lioness Safiya with him too." His face fell a bit. He looked down at Dumaka's confused expression. "The lion Adawa has been causing trouble for the two lionesses, and well, you know Kam and Ty."
Dumaka nodded. "Yeah, I do. Kambiri was trained to protect the innocent. Who better than to protect the princess? And Ty, well… In spite of everything he went through there is still good in him." He heard Rashid call his name. He turned, nodded to the monkey then met eyes with Kipaji again. "Gotta go, Kip, duty calls…"
"Good luck talking to Lady Nadia."
He walked up and elbowed Kipaji's lower foreleg. "So, you and Radhiya, huh, how's that going?" A sly smile crossed his face.
The lion rolled his eyes. "Dumaka, you know better, and it's not like that. Yes, I do like her, but that's it. Besides, we just had a run-in with her daughter, the queen, and now she has something she wants to show me. I have a feeling that it has something to do with her daughter. I don't know what, but I feel it."
"Yeah, you're good at feeling. Well, good luck." Dumaka smiled at his friend and joined Rashid.
Radhiya walked up to Kipaji. "How's Dumaka?" she asked. They resumed walking.
"He's holding up well. Being with another shaman is good for him and he and Rashid seem to make a good team." He paused and looked at her. "So, the northern side…?"
She nodded. "Yes." She glanced at him. "You seem to know that I've been hiding something deep, and I have. It's time I tell you and the northern side is a good place to do it."
He gave a nod in agreement and they continued on in silence.
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Tayari was quiet. Heavily quiet.
Quieter than usual, Safiya thought to herself as she walked alongside him. Not only that but he was more alert than ever despite the fact that his eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his sockets. He hadn't slept well, she noticed. His eyes were bloodshot, his face tired and yet he was out here patrolling, and her along with him, why she understood.
It had now been five days since he saved her from Adawa, and she would always be grateful to him for it. But the look in his eyes afterward, that fear… She'd wondered about it and was half tempted to ask him but never did. She'd managed, with much difficulty, to restrain herself from her own curiosity as to the lion's strange behavior after that day and the days she joined him on his patrol.
Yet with this strange behavior the temptation to ask was great. So great she had to bite her tongue to keep from speaking. She looked away and then stared ahead. They were near to the first borderline. She looked from it and around. They were on the western side. It was a slightly less green part than anywhere in the Eastern Valley though the animals that lived on this side managed to eat the grass of the ground and trees and still drink from the waterholes. Safiya licked her lips. She was getting thirsty already. Tayari noticed and spoke for the first time.
"Saffy," he said, using her nickname that she suggested he use instead of being so formal, "why don't you go and get a drink. I shouldn't be too long." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, saw her nod, but before they could part, he moved closer, his face inches from her own. "And if you see Adawa or smell his scent, I want you to roar out. When I hear you I shall come and chase him off like last time." He paused and felt himself tremble.
She looked at him, stared into his green eyes and saw the urgency. She also saw him tremble. Why? She shook herself a little and nodded. "Okay, I will."
He also nodded and they parted – her to the waterhole not ten feet away from where they'd stood, and him to the borderline.
When Safiya approached the flowing hole of water she looked to the right then to the left and finally to the front and back of her, her eyes alert. No sign of Adawa. She sniffed the air. His scent wasn't in the area, to which she was deeply thankful. She sighed in relief and lowered her head down to drink. She drank long and slow. She didn't realize just how dry her throat was. After taking another long sip she raised her head, licking her mouth.
The day, so far, had been peaceful, just what she'd hoped for. She wondered, in the back of her mind, how Jahzara was. No one had to tell her that her friend been near assaulted by Adawa. The truth of the matter had been written on the brown lioness's face, and the way she walked close to Kambiri, the sandy-brown lion's eyes aflame with fire, the same fire she'd seen in Tayari's eyes when he protected her from the dark gray lion.
So she had been right! Jahzara was Adawa's target.
The very thought of their childhood 'companion' being anywhere near Jahzara made her blood boil. Adawa was an evil lion; she'd known that much when they were cubs. It was hard not to. He was, as his name suggested, full of 'hostility' from the start and the fact that his mother did nothing to keep him in check, to make him walk the right path, made her sick.
She felt someone approach her to the left. She tensed, looked at the figure out of the corner of her eye and relaxed. It was only Tayari. Back so soon? That was quick, she thought to herself as she took another drink. When she raised her head up, he took a drink himself, long and hard and once he lifted his head up he was panting, his eyes wide with fear. She pawed the ground and stepped back. She wasn't afraid but her curiosity had just risen to an all time high.
She sat in the grass. "Tayari, what's wrong, and please, don't tell me it's nothing."
He sighed and shut his eyes. She wanted to know! But could he tell her? He'd tried so hard in nearly half a year, or was it months, to put it out of his mind! He didn't want to remember and if he told her he would be opening up the wound he wanted to keep closed. He clawed the grass and breathed in and out. He forced himself to relax. She deserved to know… right?
You can't keep it from her forever, Ty. Besides, you care about her, admit it!
And he did, but only in his mind. He did care about Safiya. Seeing what Adawa had done, would have done had opened up the part of him he'd closed off long ago – the part that could care about a lioness. Not all lionesses were bad, most certainly not the one behind him.
He gave off another sigh and turned, walked up to her a bit and then saw a tree not far from where they were. He jerked his head and went toward it, heard her follow. They lay down in the shade, facing each other.
He pawed the grass. "Saffy, what I'm about to tell you… it may change the way you see me." He shrugged. "It may even make you change your mind about coming with me on my patrols in the future."
She shook her head. "I don't think so."
Tayari let out a breath. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
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Rashid chided himself, muttering under his breath, something he only did when he was either angry, shocked, saddened, or all of the above.
This time he was angry, furious and frustrated with himself.
How could he have been so stupid? Were his nightmares making him lose his touch in knowing the kingdom, the inhabitants', even specific inhabitants? He rubbed his head, searching the nearby bushes then chided himself again for his foolishness. Maybe he was losing it. He should have known, by heaven!
He'd known Nadia, the former queen, since she was a cub. He'd baptized her himself when she was only a few days old. He'd known all along that Prince Habari would choose her as his mate and that they would rule together. Rashid had crowned the two Eastern Valley rulers and married them for heaven's sake! He'd even baptized and presented their only son to the kingdom and the heavens.
As the years passed, from cubhood to now, Nadia had been a friend he cherished friend. He'd been close to some queens, not many, but her… Nadia… There was very something special. He'd known that for years and he loved how they could talk about anything, whether it was kingdom-related or not.
While he wanted to have that kind of relationship with Habari, Rashid knew, even now, that it wasn't supposed to be. Habari was a stickler for tradition and there was no tradition anywhere that said he, the king, had to be friends with the shaman. It was just something that happened with the first king and his shaman and had been carried on since.
Nadia, Lord bless her soul, had taken it upon herself in her own busy schedule throughout her four years of ruling, to spend time with Rashid, to seek counsel not just for herself but for her mate and son. There wasn't a day that went by in those four years that Rashid wasn't informed of anything, except one – Habari betrothing his son to the lioness Sauda, a terrible match that Rashid had refused to consider making official.
But there was a requirement Rashid had to honor or face the wrath of the heavens and risk being stripped of his shamanic gift – He had to obey his king, and obey he did, though it caused him much heartache. He'd told Nadia, who expressed her own sorrow and pain over the betrothal. They'd both come to the conclusion that Habari wasn't in his right mind then and it was in that moment that he began to slip from them.
From that day on to the day he disappeared from their lives, Habari wasn't the same.
Rashid chose not to figure it out, thinking it was one of those things that couldn't be explained. Not only that but Habari had known what he was doing and no one, not even Nadia could talk him out of doing something foolish. Rashid shook his head. Come on, it's in the past! Focus on the now! The now, you hear, the now! He would do just that.
He looked ahead. There was the water stream. He looked down at Dumaka, who nodded his head firmly. Together, they stepped around the stream and made their way up to the bush.
Nadia was there behind it, paying her respects to her son, his true mate, and possibly Habari, though he wasn't buried there. They'd never found his body, never knew where he went when he left. So when they'd all presumed themselves, Habari to be dead, Prince Nkosi's first pre-king business was to have a large body of grass placed next to where Habari's parents were buried.
If he remembered correctly, Nadia told him that when she died she would be buried next to that spot, so everyone would know that despite Habari's body having never been found, he was king and deserved a place among the royals, among his parents. When she joined the dead in heaven she would buried among them too. She had been married to a king and kept the pride together after Habari's disappearance. And she was keeping them together now!
If anything she deserved to be among them more than the grass they'd placed next to her parents-in-law to represent Habari's grave.
They stopped at the bush. Trembling, shaking all the way to his knees, Rashid's fingers touched the bush, grabbed it, and moved the patch in his fingers away, peering through. No question, no doubt, she was there, lying beside the graves of her son, her should-have been daughter-in-law, and the makeshift grave for her mate. The sight tore at Rashid, but it couldn't be helped, none of it could. This, I'm sorry to say, was simply too important.
He exchanged another look with Dumaka, who, again, nodded and went over to the water stream, leaving him there. He would call for the meerkat when and if time permitted. And provided his upcoming conversation went the direction he hoped. He said a silent prayer. God… please, forgive me for disturbing her private mourning… Nkosi, Nyari… Habari, if you're up there… please, forgive me.
He cleared his throat softly and called out respectfully, "Lady Nadia?"
The lioness's head shot upward, her eyes almost snapping but then relaxing upon seeing his face. She slowly rose from her spot and stepped over the graves, coming to him and the bush. He moved to the left, his fingers still on the bush, giving her a wider space to climb through. When she was out, he bowed lowly.
"I am sorry to interrupt my lady, but it is urgent that I speak with you. It is a matter of great importance."
The lioness sniffed and faced him. Her eyes were red and she looked as though she'd aged a lot more since the last time they'd seen each other several days ago. Of course she looks older! She lost her son a week ago and her only granddaughter is still not ruling this land! That's why I'm here!
Again he cleared his throat and stepped up to her side.
She spoke. "I had a feeling you would come, Rashid. I am not too surprised that you found me here." She gave a smile but it was sad. "You know me too well. All those times we spent talking when I was queen, I guess."
He laughed softly then shook himself. Get to it! He forced his face to become serious, as pained and torn as it was when he first woke up.
"Nadia," he began, speaking her name with care and respect, "I… I've been having dreams, nightmares, really. Uh…" He paused then stopped altogether and avoided looking at her directly.
The former queen took a breath and let it out through her nose. She sat in the grass and turned her head to the water stream. Dumaka was there, sitting behind the water, appearing to be meditating, or waiting patiently with his eyes closed, his hands pressed together, elbows facing out. She turned back to Rashid and nodded.
"It has to do with the kingdom, its current state and its future, right?"
Rashid felt his entire mouth go dry. He swallowed and near choked. Even his throat was dry. He had to get a drink. But he had to tell her first. He braced himself and finally allowed their eyes to connect. In that moment Rashid felt he was going to fall or pass out.
"I'm… I'm afraid it does, my lady. I… I fear that the kingdom will die physically and… spiritually without the rightful heir on the throne."
Nadia could only nod as if she'd known that would be his answer. It sent a hard bone-chill through her body and her nerves.