Nineteen: Redemption

I sat by Kai, watching with increasing nerves at the approaching shapes of the riders and hunters. Thanks to the wrappings they riders wear, I couldn't see Tali's expression and Meon's was as blank as it usually was.

"Do you think they know we fixed it?" I asked sheepishly.

Kai snorted a laugh. "Yes, Wren. They know you did something anyway."

"I couldn't have done it without you," I said. "All of you, actually."

Kai didn't respond to that. He actually just sat in silence as we watched the approaching Khusuru. I sensed Schula and Nassir above me, likely making their way back over the stone since we were split up after the fixing of the witch's mark.

Hooves in the sand kicked up small clouds as the horses drew near. I waited with bated breath as Tali finally got close enough to slow her horse, letting it come to a stop in front of us.

All I could see under the cloths that kept her face protected was her eyes, and they were wide and bright.

"Aoyi'ka. What have you done to the stone?" she asked.

My eyes met with Kai's. She wasn't asking about him, not yet anyway.

I stood from where we were sitting on the sand as Tali dismounted, followed by her riders and the hunters.

"The stone should be fixed now," I said. "If I'm right in my assumptions, a witch helped one of your shaman bind the stone in the first place. It's back up and running."

I think.

Tali made the symbol of evil over her chest, but in a reverse motion. The other Khsuru did the same.

"We thank you for what you've done for us, aoyi'ka. The Khusuru are in your debt. Please come to the village if you ever need us," Tali said, then turned to Kai. "But you, I will need you to come back with me."

Instant panic filled me, and was reflected in Kai's expression. Tali and a couple of the other Khusuru began to round on Kai when I reached out a hand to stop them. I opened my mouth to say something, but my friends beat me to it.

"Wait!" A wall of sand and dirt shot up between Kai and Tali, cracks of ice frosted over it as well. The Khusuru immediately backed up, and the hunters drew their atlatls.

My eyes shot to the top of the Stone of Souls where Schula and Nassir both stood. Puko, who had been with me until I stood up, had flown up to land on Nassir's shoulder.

"Your curse is broken only because Kai was here," Schula said.

"Without his knowledge we would not have fixed it," Nassir added.

"And," I said, drawing their attention back down to me. "His very blood is in the spell that binds it."

Tali looked sternly between me, the wall, and the two fae that stood on their sacred stone. Her expression revealed nothing, not even a hint at how she was going to take this information.

"You have lied to us." Tali spat in the sand, turning on her heel to leave.

"They have rescued the stone," One of the riders whispered to her as she too a few steps away.

Tali's jaw clenched as she whirled back around at us with a hurt expression. "I believe this nature from the aoyi'ka. They know no better than their own nature. But you, Kai, are still descendant of a Manaaban'tu and an jadaama and should know better."

"And you would punish the one who helped us heal your stone?" I asked.

A vein in her temple pulsed as she scowled at me. "You would not understand, aoyi'ka."

Bada, the huntress that had accompanied us to the stone placed a hand on Tali's shoulder. "If he is to be punished as a tribesman, then let him answer as a tribesman. We take him to the shaman and headman."

Tali whipped her head to Kai. Nassir and Schula had let the wall crumble away after the immediate threat was over, but Kai wasn't looking at them, or Tali. He was looking over the sands to the north.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said. "It looks like all of the tribes are coming to us."

My eyes met the horizon and I took in a sharp breath as I saw the pinpricks of movement from at least four different directions. Schula and Nassir jumped down from the stone, disturbing Puko momentarily and he landed on my shoulder again to sulk. We stood around Kai, watching in silence as the Khusuru approached. All of them. They were the closest, a mass of people slowly moving. Horses carried long poles and the tent covers. People walked, each with a burden of baskets or some other item. And the rest, the other groups, they were about as large as the Khusuru.

We watched in stunned silence for a long time, as the people approached. The very first one leading the Khusuru to the Stone of Souls, was Daai, the shaman.

Tali and the others gasped when she came into view, and dropped to their knees right away. Kai and the rest of us did not, but we held our heads high as we watched her come to us. Every once in a while my eyes flicked to the other tribes in the distance. Each of them also had what looked like a shaman out front.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"I wish I knew," Kai said.

They kept coming. When Daai was finally in speaking distance, I settled my sights back on her and waited for their next move. Schula silently reached out and we held hands as we waited.

The Khusuru stopped a distance away from the stone, but Daai and the headman continued forward. Daai's eyes never left mine, and she was smiling.

"Greetings again, aoyi'ka Wren. I see the number of aoyi'ka has grown." Her eyes danced with amusement as she nodded to Nassir and Schula.

"Caw!" Puko lifted off my shoulder, taking me by surprise as he circled up high and landed on top of the stone, preening himself.

Traitor. Leaving us to handle this on our own.

But Daai just laughed, looking up at him in merriment. "And you must be the night bird that carried the red star to the stone. Is that right, red star?"

I blinked and looked up at Puko, then down at Kai. Unfortunately, Kai was frozen in a mix of confusion and fear. I leaned over and nudged him. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Yes, shaman." Kai's answer was short and gruff, but he was visibly nervous. Daai seemed unaffected as she approached us. Even the headman was deferring to her movements as he let her walk forward. The Khusuru that were with us, Tali included, stood from their knees and backed away making room for Daai to come as close as she wanted.

Daai walked forward, and past us as she approached the Stone of Souls. She placed her hand on it, smiled, and then pressed her cheek to it. "Ahh, the stone is happy again."

"Daai," I said quietly. "We couldn't have fixed it without Kai's help."

"I know," She said, pulling back from the stone. "We all know."

She gestured to the rest of the desert where I could see four, no, five now. Five other tribes coming down the horizon.

"All of us saw the vision days ago. Not long after you left, actually. We saw the night bird carrying the red star to the aoyi'ka and saving our ancestors. Healing the stone." Daai patted the stone once more before walking back closer to the headman.

"So, you knew?" Tali's small voice came from the ground where she had resumed her kneeled position a few paces away.

Daai looked down at her with a smile. "I did. I know you would have stopped him if you knew, so we did not send riders ahead to you. For that I am sorry, my dear Tali. Please forgive me."

Tali shook her head furiously. "It is not my place to question the shaman. I am grateful for your insight."

Daai sighed. "One day you will learn not to take everything I say so seriously."

The shaman turned to us again, smoothing out her skirts as she spoke.

"Aoyi'ka. You are all welcome at the fire of the shaman. For your help in breaking the curse that plagued our sacred site we wish to honor you." Daai extended a hand to sweep the view behind her. I saw the Khusuru already building their tents once again, just a short walk from the Stone of Souls. No farther away than where Tali and the others were staying out of the curse's reach.

"We have to be out of the desert by the new moon," Nassir spoke. "I would love for us to celebrate with you, but on this we cannot fail."

I looked up in the sky. As far as I could tell we still had about a week to go.

"It begins now, and ends when all the shaman have gathered. Perhaps three weeks for us all to reach here." Daai smiled at us in turn and up at Puko. "You are welcome as long as you can stay."

I looked to Nassir and Schula. We each had a smile growing on our face. It felt right to stay and celebrate, even if just for a while.

"We'd love to join you for a few days," I said. "But..."

I looked over to Kai who was still pretty much in shock.

Daai turned back to Kai too. "Kai, all of the tribes are making their way here. An event like this one has not happened in generations, if at all. I would like you to join our fire when we come together."

Kai looked like he would fall, so I placed a steadying hand on his back.

"Y-you want me to join you?" he asked.

Daai nodded. "Me and the other shaman, yes."

Kai just nodded dumbly and I had to bite back a giggle at his expense.

"For your part in the saving of the Stone of Souls!" Daai let her voice ring through the sands. We could all hear it, the headman could hear it, and the closer of the Khusuru could hear it.

"For your part in saving the resting place of our ancestors," Daai called out. "I reward your ancestor with forgiveness! Let it be now known that Murari of the Manaaban'tu shall have her name restored upon the Stone of Souls in honor of her son!"

An immediate and booming reaction of cheers and applause roared from the Khusuru. Kai faltered again, and this time Schula and I each took an arm so he wouldn't topple over. Daai laughed with merriment as she held her arms high. Even Puko cawed and took to the sky, soaring in a wide circle around us.

"Kai, it's what you didn't know you were looking for!" Schula exclaimed.

"W... what?" he asked, breathlessly.

"Take the wild one, the white one, the one who sees, and the night bird across the sands, and that is when you would find what you are looking for." Schula beamed as she recited his own prophecy to follow. I had nearly forgotten it, but she certainly hadn't.

Kai blinked up at her, then at Daai, then his eyes spilled over with tears. "My... mother. I was looking to clear... to clear her name."

He swallowed hard and nodded, the tears still spilling over and onto the warm sand underfoot.

"Kai, son of Murari," Daai said so only we could hear. "As a proud son of the desert, I want to thank you for saving our Stone of Souls and if the Manaaban'tu do not welcome you as their son, know that the Khusuru will."

Tali, her riders, and the hunters nearby swooped in with laughter and lifted Kai in the air. Well, maybe Tali still wore a frown on her face but that seemed to be her regular expression. But the Khusuru lifted Kai, and carried him to the camp being set up a short distance away.

Daai laughed and turned to me, Schula, and Nassir. "Come aoyi'ka, let us show you how we celebrate!"