Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“And there’s other news. Mother …” I hear the way her voice shakes before she continues. “Mother’s resting place, it has sprouted grass like that of Hallalah. Our flowers, too, all in richer soil. And it’s been spreading, the grass growing each day. Burying her here seems to be revitalizing the land where she rests. Mother always did tell us that even in death, we live on, in some way.”
Halun’s hand tightens in mine and when I look at him, he’s smiling still.
“This war is almost over. This planet is coming back to life, slowly but surely. And the people here are beginning to trust us, I think. There are more humans in camp than ever. There are a bunch who have agreed to come to Hallalah after meeting with mother and I. A ship is leaving with them in a few Earth days.” Her next words are whispered, “Katur will be coming back with his mate. But you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Finally,” Halun murmurs.
“Frances says to tell his daughter hello, and some weird human phrase. Who’s more powerful than the one who can stop the future?”
I giggle at that and when Halun looks at me with furrowed brows, I say, “I’ll explain later.”
“One more thing. I … found one of the handheld tablets tucked inside one of my crates that we brought from Hallalah. It only had one recording on it. It was from Mother. She knew. She knew what would happen once she came to Earth, and if she left me a recording, her last message, then I’m sure she recorded one for everyone else, too. Look out for those. I’ll see you all soon.”
The message ends and Halun hangs his head a little.
“She knew,” he says more to himself than me, even though his eyes come to me. “Fate.”
“Fate,” I agree. The word has come to mean more to me than ever before.
He nods and I know he desperately needed to hear his sister say the words she did.
“What did it mean?” he asks. “What your father said?”
“My mother would always say who’s more powerful than the one who can stop the future to make sure I knew the power that women held. We had children, we educated them, we raised them. We had the power to stop the future, to change the future if we raised our children to be different than The New Order tried to make them be. She was killed for saying that, charged with preaching against The New Order, but those were her last words. She looked at me and said those words before they burned her.”
“She was a strong female.”
“The strongest.”
“Well, that explains you.”
“It does.” I smile. “I don’t know if you mean that in a good or bad way.”
He kisses me. “I mean it in the best way.”
“Well, do you want to go look for the tablet?”
“You go look for it. I’ll be there after I tell my father what Vabila said. If anyone needs to hear my mother’s voice, it’s him.”
I nod, knowing he’s right.
“Then, I’ll go to Bothaki and tell him, and ask him to take over for a few days.”
“Okay.”
“One more kiss before we part ways, Zawla?”
“You never even need to ask.”
He kisses me. Like he used to. Like he’s missed me as much as I have him. Like a part of him has come back.
“I’m sorry I went so many days without calling you Zawla,” he says. “It won’t happen again.”
“It better not.” I grin.
We walk out of the room and separate to walk different directions down the hallway. When I look over my shoulder, I’m not at all surprised to find Halun’s eyes on me. And there’s some joy in them now. Some relief. I release a relieved sigh of my own at the sight of it.
*
“How was he?” I ask Halun when he comes into our bedroom.
“I imagine he looks much the same way I did this morning. Heartbroken, silent, hollow. He just nodded along as I relayed what Vabila said about things on Earth, and smiled when I told him about my mother’s resting place. But when I told him about a recording from Mother, he brightened up some. I offered to help him look for it, but he said he already had an idea of where it might be, so I left him to it. Did you …”
I hold up the small silver tablet. “I found it.”
He takes it from me with every care, holding it in his hands like it’s his most prized possession. And right now, I guess it is.
“Do you want me to give you a minute alone?” I ask.
His eyes come to mine, brow furrowed above them. “I wouldn’t want to share this moment with anyone else but you.”
With those words, I come to his side as he sits on the end of our bed. His thumb hovers over the button in the center of it for a few moments, until he takes a deep breath, and presses it down.