Shadow Speaker, page 3
“Y . . . yes,” I said, tears in my eyes. I sniffed and tasted blood. My nose was bleeding.
“What is your name?”
“Ejii Ugabe,” I said. Warm blood crept from my nose toward my lips.
She chuckled and brought forth her sword. I took in a sharp breath, still trembling, as she flicked the scarab beetles off my shoulders. They caught themselves in midair and flew up and away.
“Chief Ugabe, indeed,” she said. “I hope you are nothing like him.” She squinted at me, her head cocked, as if assessing me. I just stood there looking at the strange blue eyes of her camel and the smear of my father’s blood on her sword.
That sword is legendary. It’s made of a green clear metal that people say has no earthly name because it doesn’t come from Earth. Rumor has it that the sword’s blade comes from the body of another place called Ginen. People say it smells like rain-soaked dark true soil. It is thin as paper but strong enough to cut diamond without a scratch. I believe all of this.
“Ejii,” she said. “You will hate me for this, but one day you’ll understand why I had to do it. He was a weed in my garden; a weed’s nature never changes.”
I only stared at her.
“Where is your mother?” she asked, after a moment.
I looked around. My half-brother Fadio was on the ground, passed out. Jaa’s husbands, Gambo and Buji, their shoulder-length dreadlocks swinging as they maneuvered their camels, were telling people to go home. My mother was still standing there, her hands on the stage. I ran and jumped off the edge of the stage and stood in front of her.
“Leave her alone!” I shouted.
Jaa trotted up to me on her camel. I waited, trembling, sure she would raise her sword and behead me and then my mother. Jaa leaned to the side to see past me and said, “Greetings.”
“It’s a good time for you, Gambo, and Buji to return, Sarauniya Jaa,” my mother said, gently pushing me aside.
“Mama, no,” I whined.
She caught my hand and held it. I looked at her and her face was sad and she wiped tears from her cheek. But they kept coming as she stood there. Jaa laughed as if my mother were an old friend; no longer did Jaa look like a crazed warrior. I tried to figure out her age, not wanting to look at my father’s body. Jaa seemed both ancient and the age of my mother.
“You will handle this town when I’m next gone,” Jaa told my mother.
My mother nodded. Then her shoulders curled and she sobbed. And that is how my mother became Kwàmfà’s councilwoman who answers only to Sarauniya Jaa. My mother is like Merlin to King Arthur, except I’m not sure if my mother is older or younger than Jaa, and Jaa probably has more mystical abilities than Merlin.
Everyone knows that my father’s head was never found. The bush it rolled under was one of the new type, the carnivorous type. I was the first to start looking for it, minutes later. I was in shock but I had to find it. I was too late. Those few minutes were enough time for one of these bushes to devour flesh and bone. So my father was buried without his lovely head. The burial ceremony was so big that Kwàmfà had to be shut down for the day.
I still have the flower that fell when Jaa spoke to me. I planted it and over the years it has grown into a tree next to my bedroom window. I also still have horrible nightmares about that moment. Sometimes I hear the sound of her camel’s hooves, other times I see my father’s head roll. Other times I see my father and he’s winking at me. He never winked at me when he was alive. But I don’t cry as much anymore.
It’s been five years since all this and so much has changed in Kwàmfà. Everything changed. And now there is the earthquake from two weeks ago. There have been tremors since the great change, but nothing that violent, so similar to the huge earthquake that happened on the day of the great change. People are saying things about what they think the latest earthquake did, and all of them scary. And there is a static in my ears as the shadows try to tell me something that’s probably earth shattering, as if the Earth could endure more shattering.
I think about the mark I want to make on the world, my place in history, and I know that I don’t want to be a councilwoman like my mother. I want peace but deep down I wonder if I am peaceful. I wonder if I am more like Jaa. I think I want to be more like her. Is that wrong of me, since she killed my father?
But who knows, maybe I’ll never have the chance to make history because of the way things are going around here. Mrs. Nwabara, you said that we can’t move forward unless we understand the past. Well, I don’t think there is anything from history that can prepare us for what’s coming.
CHAPTER 3
Fadio’s News
Ejii looked up from her essay. Her hands shook; she suddenly wanted to smash her e-pal against the dead palm tree. I wish Arif and Sammy would get here. I need to focus on something else, she thought. What’s taking them so long? She clicked the essay closed. When she looked up, her half-brother, Fadio, was standing before her. He was the last person she wanted to see. She sucked her teeth loudly and rolled her eyes.
Fadio was born normal. To Fadio, the shadows were places sunlight couldn’t reach. His eyes were dark brown with round pupils and white whites. He couldn’t see farther than any other normal person. And at night, when he walked into a room, he’d need to turn on the lights.
Ejii, on the other hand, was a product of the great change. She’d been born with the ability to see in the dark and she could see clearly as far as fifteen miles. And since she could remember, day or night, the shadows were alive and drawn to her, often pressing close and trying to speak to her. Ejii’s eyes were golden with black pupils that were horizontal slits in the light and large and black in the dark, like those of a cat’s. And she was one of only four shadow speakers in Kwàmfà.
“Look at you!” Fadio said, looking Ejii up and down, his face twisted with exaggerated disgust. It was a look he often gave Ejii, a look that marked Ejii as abnormal.
Later, when Ejii thought back to what happened next, she understood that it was a combination of the shadows’ static, Fadio’s initial three words, all the emotions she’d called up by writing her essay, and Fadio’s next few sentences that made things go wrong. For at no other time in her life would she have behaved in the way she was about to.
“Look at you!” she spat back. Immediately she felt she should lower her voice and act more like a lady. Fadio smiled knowingly and Ejii was more irritated with herself.
Both of them knew that when it came to looks, Fadio had the easy advantage. From birth, Fadio had possessed a beauty that was sure to win him beauty contests in the future. His rich brown skin was flawless, his lips were like two orange segments, and his black hair was lush and when braided reached down his back. On top of all this, Fadio had the magnetic charismatic personality of their father, and for this reason, he had a lot of friends. Many even said that Fadio was their father’s reincarnation. And he used this to make Ejii’s life miserable.
“Not only are your kind ugly, you attract evil. You and the others are the source of all of Kwàmfà’s diseases and bad luck.” He turned his head and spat.
Compose yourself, Ejii thought. She hated all the stupid superstitious rumors that people had for the Changed, especially windseekers and shadow speakers.
“You all should be afraid,” he said.
“Of you?” Ejii retorted, looking him up and down. “No such thing.”
He stepped closer, his arms around his not-so-narrow chest. “Haven’t you heard?”
She waited for him to say what he seemed to be itching to say. Her hands prickled and her face felt warm.
“Six days,” he said, making eye contact, something few people ever did with her. “In six days, the Red One will be leaving.”
And right in that moment, the shadows that had been whispering to her stopped. Silence. The news hit her hard enough to make her temples ache.
“What?!” she gasped, standing up.
“You remember what happened last time that witch left?” Ignoring her shock, he stepped closer. “It’ll happen again. And no one will protect your pathetic mother. Kwàmfà will become the town Father wanted.”
Ejii’s composure was cracking. Jaa is leaving? she thought frantically. How could she? Why would she?! When she refused to look at him, Fadio stepped closer. She could smell him, soap, scented oil and power.
“My mother was talking about you yesterday,” he said.
“So?” she said, finally finding her voice, looking angrily into his eyes. Fadio stepped back. She frowned to keep the tears in her eyes from falling. “Why should I care what your mother says about me? She could easily be my older sister!”
Taken aback, Fadio’s eyes grew wide. “You’re a curse!” he shouted. “That’s why you look like that, with those damn eyes. That earthquake was probably an attempt to swallow you back to hell. Everyone knows evil spirits hang around you. Like moths to light at night. Once Jaa gets the hell out of here, all of you unnaturals will be properly dealt with.”
“Your mother is ignorant and illiterate!” Ejii shouted.
“Your mother is a whore!” Fadio retorted. “You aren’t really the first child! I am! You were a mistake! Look at your mother! She couldn’t even stay in her husband’s house. He threw her out because she was a worthless and pathetic bitch. Maybe you look like that because her ass hit the ground too hard when he threw her out and . . .”
And that was when she sprang forward and threw herself at Fadio. She plowed into his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist, and they both fell to the ground. Releasing her rage into him felt sweet. They were an even match. At fourteen, Ejii was gangly and full of spit and fire. And at thirteen, Fabio was tall and strongly built but taken by surprise. They’d both inherited their quick reflexes from their father, but Ejii got her powerful arms from her mother.
Dust flew up as they punched, scratched, bit, and grabbed at each other. It was not a children’s fight. This was a fight poisoned with hate and resentment that was older than both Ejii and Fadio combined. They threw each other off and jumped back onto each other. Fabio tore at Ejii’s now dirty green dress and Ejii tore at Fadio’s dirty white caftan and pants. Ejii punched Fadio in the face and Fadio punched her in the belly. A crowd gathered, some cheering Ejii on and others cheering Fadio.
Ejii had no idea how long the fight lasted. She didn’t recall what her age mates were yelling. She wasn’t sure if her friends Sammy and Arif finally came for her. All she remembered was wanting to tear Fadio apart. She wanted to once and for all shut him up. She wanted to pummel his beautiful face.
It took several teachers, the school headmaster, and a bucket of cold water to finally break them both up. And by this time they were battered and bruised. Still, even as they were dragged apart, sputtering from the water, Ejii could see that underneath the scratches and bruises, Fadio was lovely as ever, a smirk on his face.
“I hate you!” she screamed, her voice cracking. “I hate you!”
But even as she screamed this, again she felt it. Satisfaction at the release of it, the violence of it. Fadio had had it coming. Like her father.
• • •
That evening even Ejii knew that everyone was talking about two things. The earthquake was still a favorite. Some said it was a warning from Allah of what was to come in seven years, in the seventh month, on the seventh day at seven o’clock from a seven-year-old daughter of seven children. Others said that the earthquake opened up portals to hell and that people needed to somehow open up portals to heaven.
Others believed these portals led to heaven and people needed to make sure the ones to hell never opened. Several said that only a sorcerer in Kenya named the Wizard of the Crow could predict what would happen. Some speculated that now monsters roamed the Earth.
Nevertheless, the news of Jaa’s impeding departure topped even the earthquake. Talk of the fight between Ejii, Chief Ugabe’s first child, and Fadio, Chief Ugabe’s first son, only added to the fear of Kwàmfà becoming unstable again upon Jaa’s departure. People said that this fight was ferocious and there was a rumor that Ejii had knocked out one of Fadio’s front teeth. Ejii rubbed at her bruised hand. There were people who were born with the ability to disappear at will. She wished she were one of them.
“What started it?” her mother asked after their evening prayers. It was the first question her mother had asked about the fight.
Ejii only shrugged, ashamed. “Mama, it started a long time ago.”
Her mother only nodded, pulling her blue wool robe more tightly around herself. That night was the second night that Ejii lay in bed awake with a swollen face. Last night the swelling was from crying, this night it was from Fadio’s fists.
CHAPTER 4
Walkabout
Ejii’s mother allowed her to stay home from school, as long as she did her homework and some extra reading. Tomorrow was Saturday and schools would be closed the days before, on, and after Jaa left. Ejii would have plenty of time to get herself together to face her schoolmates.
Ejii ached from her bruises but she ached more from guilt and shame. Over and over, she asked herself how she could lose her mind the way she did.
“People are talking, right?” she asked Sammy and Arif when they came to see her after school. Sammy laughed as he slapped the back of his hand to hers three times, the handshake of friendship.
“Yep,” Arif said.
“You sure you want to know?” Sammy asked.
Both shadow speakers, Sammy and Arif were also her best friends. Arif was a wiry boy with a knack for noticing details. It was his description of the earthquake and subsequent green wave that everyone at school liked to hear most. If he’d witnessed Ejii’s fight with Fadio, he’d have recalled everything, including the reactions of others.
Sammy was a strongly built boy and Fadio knew not to mess with him. Nonetheless, Sammy had a gentle soul. He’d spent the hours after the recent earthquake helping to rescue people from fallen buildings. Being a shadow speaker, he was especially useful when night fell. If he’d been there when Fadio had harassed Ejii, she wouldn’t have gotten in the fight in the first place.
Sammy and Arif had been trained from the day they were born. Five years ago, after Jaa returned and righted the wrongs of Ejii’s father, Ejii began attending the special lessons with them. This marked the start of their friendship. The lessons were given by an older shadow speaker named Godwin. Ejii, Arif and Sammy called him Mazi Godwin, “Mazi” being a title of respect for adults.
“Of course people are talking about the fight,” Arif said, grinning. “That’s what people do. Don’t worry about it so.”
They sat in the darkness on the steps behind the house facing her mother’s small garden. She watched a fat black beetle walk up a long yellow stem. The beetle was too heavy for the stem and the stem slowly bent as the beetle tried to move higher. Neither Arif nor Sammy liked Fadio. Aside from the fact that he was Ejii’s nemesis, Fadio was known to talk garbage about all the Changed with more pointedly odd abilities, like shapeshifters, windseekers, firemolders, faders, and rainmakers.
“Where were you guys?” she asked.
“Talking to a teacher,” Sammy said. “The shadows didn’t warn us with even an unintelligible whisper. I guess they didn’t think you needed our help.”
Ejii almost laughed at this. “So . . . was Fadio . . .” She stopped when she saw them exchange a look. She cocked her head. “He wasn’t at school?”
Arif and Sammy burst out laughing. But Ejii felt more horror. “It’s true, then!?”
“Yeah,” Sammy said. He pointed to one of his front teeth and said, “This one.”
“Now people will really think I’m dangerous,” she said.
“I wish I was there to see you do it,” Arif said, looking at Ejii with admiration.
Ejii felt warm under his gaze. “I don’t know what came over me,” Ejii mumbled.
“If he’d said that about my mother, I’d have beaten him to mash, too,” Arif said.
“I didn’t exactly win the fight,” Ejii said.
“Yes, you did,” Arif said. He and Sammy laughed some more.
“Stop being so hard on yourself,” Arif said. “He had it coming.”
“No!” she said. “It’s not right to think like that.” Ejii looked away, frowning. “I’ve just . . . had a lot on my mind lately.”
“Have you tried to consult the shadows?” Sammy said, growing serious. It was always Sammy’s first reaction when things went wrong—to consult the shadows.
Ejii shook her head, feeling slightly embarrassed.
“Why not?” Sammy said.
“I can’t understand them, really,” she said. “I’m not like you guys.”
“No, you just don’t try hard enough,” Sammy said.
“Or maybe you don’t really want to hear what they have to say,” Arif added.
• • •
For the third night in a row, Ejii lay in her bed unable to sleep. She glanced out the window, remembering that tonight was a full moon. It was about eleven o’clock. Quickly, she dressed and went to her mother’s room.
“Mama,” she said peeking in.
Her mother was leaning back in her chair facing the open window, her e-pal in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. She didn’t look up. “Mhm?”
“Is it all right if I go listen to the storyteller?”
Her mother turned and looked as if she were about to say something, but then decided not to. She nodded. “Some fresh air should help. Try to enjoy yourself.”
Clear full-moon nights were the safest nights in Kwàmfà. On these nights, almost everyone would shut off the lights in their homes and open their windows and doors. It was traditionally believed that good but self-righteous spirits walked the streets on these nights. For these reasons, no one dared commit an act of lawlessness under a full moon.
This was also the night the storyteller walked to and sat under the old monkey-bread tree next to the marketplace. Children were allowed to walk alone to the tree and listen to his stories. Even during Ejii’s father’s reign, this was one of the few freedoms that remained. The last time Ejii had gone to listen to the storyteller was when she was nine years old, days before Jaa had returned and changed her life. Her decision to stop going hadn’t been conscious; she’d stopped doing a lot of things after her father’s death.
