“On the way, we must stop by Table Mountain for a sky reading, to fulfill the requirements of the prophecy,” Hot-Breath says.
“The blessing of the Wahadi is what will bring back the lifesaving water and transform Sabaak into paradise for all of eternity, not your silly sky reading,” someone else says. The menacing look in Boss’s eye shuts down any further discussion.
The room goes unnervingly quiet. The only sound is Tai’s open mouth chomping next to me. I dig my elbow into his ribs.
“Ouch! What the fu—” He stops himself when he sees fury in my eyes. Tai looks around the room, finally observing the situation around him.
Boss also takes note of the mood. “Brethren, of course we will go to Table Mountain on our way to the Wahadi. Our merciful goddess would never neglect one of her sacred duties.” Another one of his sickening smiles spreads across his face. A face that is asking to be punched.
Keep speaking for me and see what happens.
A brethren I haven’t nicknamed yet leans down to place more food in front of me. I use the opportunity to ask the questions I need answers to before I agree to any of this.
“What’s a wahadi?” I whisper into his flat ear.
Without looking away from his task, he responds. “It is the sacred oasis.” The way he picked up on my need for subtlety makes him my favorite so far.
“And what’s sky reading?” I follow up with.
He looks down at me, baffled. “It’s when the shapes in the clouds answer our most important questions. It’s how we knew our goddess would be our salvation.”
I feel caught in a lie, and the only way to get out of it is more lies. “Oh yeah, that. We used to call it something else.”
Tai laughs and tries to disguise it as a cough. I slap him roughly on the back, a playful punishment.
Boss’s eyes narrow on me, and the brethren shrinks away out of his field of vision. I stare back, daring him to say something. Boss is the first to break eye contact and stands stiffly to leave, his robes sweeping behind him.
I glance at Tai. “Road trip!”
“What the fuck do you mean we can’t leave?” Tai paces around our small room, roughly combing his hands through his hair.
Our room. I had to think quickly when Boss suggested Tai go back down to the dungeon.
There is something going on here, and Tai seems to know more than he led me to believe. I don’t feel like I can trust anyone at the moment.
“I can’t go yet! You heard them out there—they need me to bless the water and read the clouds or whatever for their cult. I’ll play goddess a little bit longer, and then we can leave.” The lie comes so easily. What I really need is a chance to help get rid of Boss so these guys can live out their lives in peace.
“It’s the perfect opportunity for us to leave!” His fingers curl up like claws. I bite my lips to keep from smiling. Messing with Tai is the most fun I’ve had in months.
“Tai, have some compassion. These poor guys are stuck here, with only their religion to cling to. They think I’m going to save them. It’s the least we can do.” Another easy lie. I’m impressed with how convincing I sound.
“This isn’t our problem, Bri,” he says through clenched teeth.
“I hate to do this, but you should probably call me something like Goddess Divine or something.” I quickly turn my back to him and pretend to straighten my pile of blankets to hide my smirk from him, but my shoulders shake from the effort of keeping it in.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he says, clearly annoyed. The laughter bubbles up out of me.
“I’m taking a bath. When I get out, you better have a damn good reason why we can’t leave tomorrow, and playing goddess for their sake doesn’t count.” He slams the bathroom door behind him, and I shove my face into a pillow to stifle my laughter. The look on his face was priceless. To think, when I was bored all those months in the muraDome, I could have been torturing Tai the entire time. Such a wasted opportunity.
He’s clearly not buying my excuses to stay. It won’t be forever. Only a few days. Maybe a week. That’s all the time I’ll need to poke a few holes in Boss’s authority and help lay the first stone of the egalitarian society they think they have. Unfortunately, it appears I’ll need Tai’s cooperation.
Why does he have to complicate everything?
I loosely braid my hair back for the night and undress as quickly as possible. I jump into bed and pull the blankets up to my chin. I’m going to ask the brethren for some pajamas tomorrow. Sleeping naked with Tai across the room is not a good idea.
The source of my discomfort walks back in a few minutes later. He’s dripping wet, with the towel wrapped around his waist. I look away as quickly as possible, but I can’t escape the soft padding of his feet on the ground reminding me of our mutual state of undress.
“Are you ready to tell me the real reason you want to stay here and not get home as soon as possible and never touch sand again?” he asks. Clearly the bath did nothing to ease his bad mood.
