“Ughh…I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I can’t even visit my man anymore because his school will be on lock down. Unless we have jobs to go to, we can’t leave this school, like ever? Is that even legal?”
“Obviously,” Quan said before hissing at her. Asha stared at him before side swiping his body off the table in one shove. He went flying into the air before landing on his feet.
“Where is Maggie?” Asha asked instead, ignoring a scrambling Quan trying to get back on the chair.
“Namir is already on the Grounds so she shouldn’t be too far off,” Asha said.
“Of course you’d know where Namir is–––”
“Do I need to smack you back to the floor?” Asha let out as I waved for them to both stop.
“Maggie is still out with her family. She said she’ll be back tomorrow night,” Souxie said. Ayira walked over wearing an oversized Drew Collins t-shirt with basketball shorts that clearly didn’t belong to her. The only thing that was the same was the satin blue scarf she kept pinned to her hair like a fabric crown as if draped down against her body. It was somewhat in uniform but as she waved to a few students passing by trying to get a peek at her, she put three heavy books down on the table before us.
“Okay,” she sighed. “This is all I could find in here about my home…One of them has a really big map.”
We all leaned in together as we started to pour over the books of the Solhari district. The most mysterious train stop in the Underground.
“How exactly are we going to sneak into this place if there is a lock down?” Asha asked in a low voice.
“We would have to do it fast,” Souxie said. “Over the weekend of course.”
“We’d have to be precise in finding my sister, knowing exactly where she is at the right time and getting back.”
“Okay but if the Southern Five gets there first–––”
“See, there!” Ayira beamed as she stretched the pages out, unfolding each crease as it made one massive map. “All of this here,” circling a brown region. “This is my home.”
“So what is the rest of this?” Asha asked. “Just open land?”
“There are seven territories in all…We only need to get to one, mine.”
“Y'all ain’t gonna make it,” Quan said.
“Look at all of this,” Asha pointed, showing the broken bits of land separated by water labeled Talu River.
“Yes…that is the second territory,” Ayira said. “My father had a man from each region come to try for my hand in marriage.”
“Like a fairytale,” I sighed.
“No, not like a fairytale. These men are dangerous. They are abusive and power hungry. They will hurt her if she marries them.”
“Well if she was engaged to that loser Xavier, she’s not far off,” Asha muttered.
“I’m still wondering how you fools are going to pull this off,” Quan said as he stared down at the map. “You’re going to get caught or worse, killed.”
“Lalu falls,” Asha read out loud as she looked at the map. “So how is all of this next to a desert? It’s so much water here.”
“The River dominion is broken up by rivers. That is where the Morori live… They are like you,” she said to Asha. “You call them sirens; we call them Morori. They are spirits of the rivers and lakes.”
No one noticed Asha looking at the map, stuck with her finger still on the word Talu. Souxie and Ayira continued talking, already coming up with a plan before Asha suddenly pushed away from the table with a scrape of her chair dragging the floor. Everyone looked at her before she suddenly came back and pointed at the map again.
“Morori?” She repeated with a tap of her finger on the map. “Why is it called Talu river or Lalu falls or… Who are the Morori?”
“She said they’re sirens dummy,” Quan said. “What, you think they’re like you?”
“The Taluwi sirens,” Souxie said out loud as my mouth dropped. Ayira looked confused at Quan.
“Yes,” Ayira said as if it was common knowledge. “They are sometimes called the Taluwi. I heard stories from my father when he spoke about them. They are not generally friendly people and rarely leave the waters. We may have to cross their territory, but I hope not.”
