The journey to the city was no less daunting for Teru than the one before, but she knew the Efraimu now, knew their names and their warmth as they slept close to her at night. Ifa had come forward when they set out.
I will take her, she insisted. More gentle.
After some grumbling, Lore agreed, and Teru found that flying with Ifa was indeed easier than with Lore. It was still an assault on the senses, though—everything suddenly becoming tiny when seen from above, the swift drops in height when they avoided clouds, or steep, rapid climbs when they avoided trees or mountain tops.
Teru wondered whether she would be able to speak once she was with other humans. Maybe her loss of speech had something to do with only being around dragons. Again, she pushed the thought out of her head and focused on what she saw before her.
They flew over forests and lakes. In the distance, Teru saw the ocean. And then, in the other direction, a vast, sprawling city with strange tall towers and soaring sculptures that she eventually realized were buildings. The city was nothing like Azariyah.
They landed in a public place near a market where people shopped and haggled over the prices of food. Teru could understand the speech of the people around her. Centuries ago, when an ancient Emperor's grip was firm on both continents, he had forced the blending of all the languages. In the time since then, their continent had broken away from the reign of the Emperor, and Teru's ancestors were part of the force that liberated them from the Emperor's tyranny. They had freedom and peace for many years, until the Desert King's grandfather began to assert power over his neighbors.
The people in the market didn't react to the Efraimu. Clearly, the citizens of this place were used to the dragons. They did, however, seem shocked at Teru's appearance. She realized at once that she stood out. The people of this city were uniform in a way that made any outsider immediately obvious. Teru had not been prepared for this reality, and it hadn't been something the dragons had thought to tell her. She did not look like anyone around her.
A little cluster of women came from the market to ask if she was lost or needed help. Their words were strongly accented but understandable. They were also vaguely threatening, as though in asking whether she needed help, they were actually asking her to leave. Teru tried to answer but found that her ability to speak had not come back with her proximity to humans. She tapped at her throat and her mouth, and the people looked puzzled.
"Maybe she cannot speak," one said.
"She cannot remain here," the other said. "We can't afford to draw the eyes."
Teru gestured that she would leave, and they nodded and went back to the market, where they stood at their stalls and watched her. Teru took a moment to regain her bearings, standing with one hand on Ifa's wing.
Why don't you tell them how you found me? she asked Lore, who was looming above Ifa, Ped at his side.
Can't understand us, Lore answered.
Teru looked up at him, shocked.
Very few can, Ped added.
They want me to leave, she told them.
We heard. We can understand them.
Teru wondered if the sound he made was a dragon laugh.
Where can we take you? he asked, musing. And then the dragons seemed to have some sort of conference, but they kept their internal voices to themselves, so Teru turned again to observe her surroundings. She felt the bubbles of panic again but spoke to herself sternly.
Remember curiosity, Teru, she told herself.
The people were tall, taller than Teru, and she was a tall woman. They had skin ranging from light brown to dark brown, but their hair was very different from Maweel hair, long and light-colored and straight. They had light-colored eyes, amber, gray, or even blue, and they wore long robes that were plain in color. Some had hats or some kind of habit, high and slightly intimidating. They moved differently, too, with gliding steps, slowly, almost as though they didn't want to move out of order or suddenly. Teru focused on the details to keep the terror at bay.
Then, just as the people who had spoken to her appeared to be ready to come back and force Teru to move, Ifa picked her up in her talons, and the dragons took flight again. They flew over the city, past the markets and the tall buildings. How did people live so far off the ground? Teru wondered. In such a short time, there had been so much vertical motion, up and down, up and down. The dragons flew to a section of the city that had short brown houses formed from some kind of stone. The streets were wide here, Teru noticed. It must be for the dragons, she thought, as they landed in front of one of the houses. The Efraimu were massive and needed lots of space to land. That meant they must have been a part of life in this city since it was first built.
You should knock, Lore told her.
Teru frowned. They stood in front of one of the squat brown houses, indistinguishable from the others.
Yes, that one, Ifa said. Teru didn't see anything else to do, so she walked up the path and knocked on the door. When it opened, she was surprised to see a woman who looked like she was Maweel. She wore one of the head coverings that Teru had observed at the market, but from her cheekbones, the width of her mouth, and the flare of her nose, Teru could tell that this woman was from Teru's homeland.
The woman darted forward, reached out one hand, and grasped Teru by the wrist. "Thank you," she said to the dragons, even as she shook her head, her face as fierce as a thundercloud. Then, she pulled Teru inside, shutting the door behind her. Inside the house, Teru stared at the woman, startled by the abrupt change in scenery.
"What are you doing dressed like that?" the woman demanded.
Teru shook her head, tapping her throat to show that she could not speak.
"Oh, my." The woman sighed and bustled to a cabinet. She pulled out a small book, flipping through it. Teru saw drawings and scribbles all through the book and had a moment to wonder whether the woman was a scholar, before the woman reached a blank page and turned back to Teru with the book and a pencil. Teru took them. She was worried. Would she be able to write, or would she have forgotten how, the way she had somehow forgotten how to speak?
She took a deep breath and found that she could write.
I don't know how I arrived here
the dragons found me on a cliff
brought me to their valley
I asked them to help me find people
I haven't been able to speak since I arrived
"So you normally speak? Where are you from?" the woman asked.
Maween, Teru wrote.
The woman looked at her blankly. Teru realized that though the woman looked Maweel, she had no idea what Maween was. Teru took the pencil again and scratched a word onto the page.
Map?
The woman nodded and went to another shelf, leafing through papers that were stacked haphazardly. Teru looked around her. The style of decoration was different from what she was used to. They were in a small, dark room with tiny windows that were covered in thick cloth. Drying grasses and herbs hung from the ceiling, and there was a little table in the corner, covered in books and papers and a single lamp. There were bookshelves and a bed in one corner of the room. The cooking area was in the opposite corner with a stove that had a fire burning, not red rocks, but not wood, either. Teru didn't know what the fuel was. Smoke exited through a pipe that went out of the ceiling.
"Ah," the woman said. She recovered a rolled piece of paper and spread it on the table, moving the lamp to one corner to hold it down, and setting a book on the opposite corner. Teru joined her at the table. They looked at the map, but Teru had never seen a map drawn in this way. She slowly began to make sense of it as the woman pointed out where they were, where the ocean was, and where the dragon valley was. The continent where they were was extensive and detailed. Across the sea, Teru saw her own continent and the shore where the Hadem and the Workers lived. The sea seemed impossibly wide. The Efraimu continent was drawn to be very large, but Teru's was much smaller and didn't have much detail. Teru traced her hand from the Hadem villages until she got to the foothills where Azariyah must be. She pointed and nodded to the woman, who looked at her in shock.
"From there?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.
Teru nodded again, reaching for the writing book and pencil.
I went to sleep in my bed
and woke up here
They looked at each other for a long time. How had Teru gone to sleep and then woken up half a world away? Finally, the woman shook her head and rolled the map back up. Teru almost wanted to stop her, as though the picture of her lands meant something, and she didn't want them to disappear. But she realized that she felt better for having seen it. Maween existed, and Teru existed. She was just very far away from where she was meant to be.
The woman gestured for Teru to have a seat and took one herself, arranging her long skirts around her.
"My name is Miko," she said. "And yours?"
Teru
"Teeru," Miko read. Teru shook her head and wrote again.
Pronounced Tay-roo
Miko said it again, correctly this time. "I was born here in the city," she said, "but my parents were brought here as servants when they were small, as many others are. We always have had to cover our differences as much as we can. It's how things are done here. The Emperor has pathways from servitude if you are interested in being part of his energy workforce. It's arduous work, and many people choose to continue to be bound to him. But my parents did it, which gave me the freedom, once I was done with my own servitude, to go to school. Now I'm a teacher and an engineer."
Teru sensed it was a delicate matter, full of pride but also resentment. She nodded.
Do people know you are not from here?
"Of course, it's obvious. Many people are from somewhere else because the Emperor finds his servants from everywhere, but we are encouraged to look the same as everyone else. So I keep my hair very short and wear a wig, or a habit like this one. The habit is more comfortable."
Teru was wide-eyed. This was a strange place.
"Your hair is long?" Miko asked. "You wear it like that?"
Teru had washed and re-coiled her hair that morning before the flight. She nodded.
"You will have to hide it if you remain here. It's not safe." Teru frowned, but before she could write anything more, Miko said, "I'm surprised that the dragons befriended you. Before my education, when I was still a servant, I was a caretaker for the Efraimu kittens. They rarely take people to their valley. And they don't trust many humans. I think it's because of their work. They are servants of the Emperor, bound to him."
The collars? Teru wrote.
Miko nodded. "Yes, the collars are how he keeps them bound."
I can understand the dragons, Teru wrote.
Miko looked alarmed. "Don't ever tell anyone that," she said in a low, intense voice. "I don't know what things are like where you're from, but here it is important to hide abilities that can put you in danger. Some are okay, things that can bring you more value as a servant or employee, but if anyone knew you could understand the dragons…" she shook her head. "Well, you would never get free. Here we are taught that the invisible wall between the two continents is essential for our survival. Somehow our Emperor has some control of the other continent, but your people are not supposed to be here. If anyone knew…" She shook her head. "We must hide you."
Teru thought about this. Miko's words were ominous. But she couldn't believe that sitting here hiding would help her get home.
Can you show me the city? Help me understand it?
Miko looked at Teru's words and bit her lip. "Yes," she answered finally. "But we have to cover your hair, as much of you as we can, really. You don't look like you belong here, and even I have to show papers often to prove that I do. But you don't have papers."
That night, Miko took Teru out under cover of darkness. She had loaned Teru robes and a habit that they managed to use to contain Teru's hair. They walked through the city between squat buildings like Miko's and arrived at even wider streets beside the tall sculptured buildings that Teru had seen when she was flying with the Efraimu.
Teru's jaw dropped, and she peered in every direction to see the details on the buildings. She couldn't understand why they were built like that.
Miko glared at her. "You walk…strangely," she hissed. "Your arms and legs move so much. People will notice. Try to walk like me. And keep your head down."
Falling back so she could walk slightly behind Miko, Teru did her best to imitate the other woman, gliding rather than striding, with her head slightly bent. It was not comfortable, and Teru lost patience almost immediately. Thankfully, they reached a new building that distracted her somewhat—it was the enormous palace with its spirals and domes. They moved one, keeping to the shadows until they got to a hill beyond the palace, and Miko left the street to follow a path up the hill. At the top, Teru could see the city spread on every side, running all the way to the harbor on one side and all the way into a vast wilderness on the other. She exhaled slowly. This was the might of the Emperor. She understood now, as she looked at the expanse before her, that this was what the Desert King served. His tribute, his ships of abducted people, things they had heard of in the desert, these ended up here. It scared Teru. It was a kind of power she had no name for.
The following day, some of Miko's friends turned up at the house. Unlike Miko, they looked like the other people on this continent. Like Miko, they were friendly school teachers.
"They won't turn you in," Miko said after they had arrived but before she opened the door to admit them. "We're not exactly any kind of resistance, but neither are we rushing to help the Emperor if we aren't compelled.
"What if we take her to the healer?" one woman asked after the initial burst of surprise and exclamations when they saw Teru. "Maybe he could help her speak again."
The dragons had stayed close. One of Teru's three dragon companions often sat on the roof of the house or lingered on the street outside, and when Teru left that night with Miko and her three friends, Ped was waiting.
"That's odd," said one of the schoolteachers. "They don't usually do that."
Miko shot Teru a warning look. Apparently, the information that she could speak to the Efraimu was too much information to offer the friends.
Don't follow, Teru told Ped, but he ignored her.
The healer couldn't find anything wrong with her. His healing room was as dark and secret as Miko's house, and Teru wondered if everyone in this city lived as though they were hiding from something. And if so, what? She shivered.
"It must be shock of some kind," he said. "Has she gone through some kind of shock, lately?"
With a start, Teru realized that he was assuming that she was like Miko, that she had been born here, despite her Maweel features. It made sense—she wore Miko's clothes, and her accent could not give her away.
"I would say so, yes," Miko said.
"It may come back in time," the healer said. "That's all I can give you."
Teru could not believe it. Healing skills were terrible on this continent. Isika would have known what to do. They went on like this for a while, with Teru only leaving the house at night. She found that she missed the daytime. She missed her big windows that let the light in and all the plants and flowers of her garden.
One morning, Ifa came to the door in a panic. Miko tried to shoo him away even while Teru was trying to listen to what the dragon was trying to tell her.
Discovered, Ifa said. Go now.
Teru frantically looked for a piece of paper to write on, but before she could even begin to scrawl the words, people were pouring into the little house, shouting. They pushed Miko away, grabbing Teru, and though she struggled, she could not break free.