Spectator

Chapter Twenty-one: Now

It took one more day to reach the camp. It had passed much the same as the day before: her leg throbbed from relentless walking, Sh'an barely talked to her, they couldn't get away long enough to either talk to or see Nari and Jae, and Zakariah was an obdurate translator, to the point that Kali preferred ignorance.

And then before sunset, they were there. The sun filtered less and less down to the jungle floor, until it was just cracks of vibrant orange and violet. The burbling of water grew to a roar, until another waterfall peeked between some thick boled trees. It was larger than the other, far more impressive: it was subsumed by mist, the white foamed water fanning out into a clear pool surrounded by rocks and willowed trees. The body of water was big enough to have a few floating boats on it. Though they were flat, round, more like a building used to cross the surface than a moving boat.

People added slowly to their escort as they wound closer and closer to their destination. All similar in appearance: brown skin, black hair, some braided, some loose. Same animal skin and plant material clothing, mud smeared on their skin, just some in different places. There were children among them too, staring and curious with big dark eyes. They had a lot of the same features, an odd conformity she wasn't used to. After the Collapse, the divides between countries became one exiting force, and after the last couple hundred years, they weren't so distinct anymore. Features had blended more into one, and with all the cosmetic surgeries, no one really had to stay a certain way if they didn't want to. Blondes, red hair had become less common by genetics, but easy enough to alter. Large eyes had been popular, then arched and angled like a cat's, and then back to large again - heterochromia had been the popular alteration for a while, until everyone was doing it.

But this was just natural. Uneven teeth, scarred skin, welts from bugs or acne, wild hair and eyebrows. She could actually see family resemblances. But it wasn't like they were interbred—she remembered from her studies that there was more than just war between the different clans, but marriages and exchanges too. How it worked with other tribes like Blood Clan, she didn't really know, but she did find the imperfections intriguing.

And when they stopped in front of a man on a floating throne, he was definitely distinct enough. She wasn't sure if this pool of water had been natural or made, but it was more than a person across, and not very deep: there were hollow logs placed across it in a square fashion, and on top of it a collection of fronds and grass that resembled a chair. The man on top of it wore a cloak of weaved rope, affixed with some lilies and what looked like the glittering scales of fish. On his head was an impressive crown of bone and obsidian rock, his hair cascading down his shoulders. There was a touch of familiarity about his features that she couldn't place.

Sh'an briefly glanced at her, but there was a startling emotion in his dark gaze she didn't recognize; then he and the siblings were touching their forehead and nose consecutively with their pointer finger in what she guessed to mean respect. She shuffled as close to Zakariah as she could. She was going to stomp on his foot if he didn't translate for her. He wasn't looking at the floating chieftain or whatever, however, but to a woman with a flat nose and broad, bare shoulders. She was wearing more than the rest too, a furred cape that sat on her shoulders and hung around her waist. She had a necklace of bones and even more satchels hanging around her hips than Kali had. The most interesting thing was the large staff she held in her large hands. It was a firm stick with a rock tied to the top of it, but the rock had a large, smooth hole in the middle of it, as if the water had simply washed it away.

"Who is that?" Kali whispered, suspecting that she was someone special.

"The shaman," Zakariah hissed back, as if it was obvious, and if she could actually remember the difference between the clans. "Now shut up for a second."