“I was told to stay in the hull and out of sight.” He looked at the ground. His voice wavered. “They must have known I shouldn’t be seen….I’m just so hungry. I wanted to see if I could scrounge something up.”
“Are you saying Queen Khadijah left you on a ship without food or water?”
The boy hesitated before nodding.
Diana shook her head. “That makes no sense.”
“Y-you don’t know her like I do. The queen—she was angry with m-me.” The boy’s voice trembled. “I ironed her clothes, but I didn’t get the edges right. When she gets upset, she does things most people would never imagine doing—many things I wish she wouldn’t. You don’t want to see her when she gets upset.”
“Impossible,” Diana said firmly. “She would never…”
But her voice trailed off when she looked at the scrapes and bruises along his arms and face. Her stomach turned.
“Are you saying Sakina’s mother did that?”
“I’m…I’m sorry,” he said. “I can see that you think well of her.”
Diana’s head hurt. She’d known the queen all her life and she’d never so much as raised her voice to anyone. And then there was the other matter: If what the boy said was true, why hadn’t Sakina stopped her mother?
“Diana!” a voice called in the distance.
It was Sakina. Diana exhaled. Finally she could get an explanation.
“Well, there’s Sakina now.” Diana turned away from the boy and glanced at the forest. “Let’s talk to her and sort this out.”
“N-no. She can’t know you saw me!” The boy winced, gripping his elbow. “Please.”
“You don’t have to fear Sakina. She won’t do anything to you.”
“She won’t d-do anything. No one d-does anything when I bear the worst of her mother’s fury. Please. If you call out for her, if she sees me here talking to you”—the boy shuddered—“I’ll be done for.”
Diana’s head spun. It was impossible to believe such a thing, but here was a boy on her island with scrapes across his arms and face, shaking like a sheet of paper in the wind at the sound of Sakina’s voice.
“Diana! Where’d you go?” Sakina’s voice sounded in the forest.
“Diana,” he begged her. His eyes grew moist. “You would never let anyone get hurt. Would you?”
“Of course not,” Diana said. “But—”
“The way you rushed to save me from the falling ladder…You are good and kind. Please promise you won’t say anything. At least not until we have a chance to talk more. My life is in danger. I’m begging you. Promise you’ll wait until I can explain.” Tears streamed down his face. “Please!”
“Diana! Are you okay?” Sakina’s voice called out.
Sakina was close. She’d find them by the docks in a minute. Diana hesitated. Asking Sakina would clear this all up in a matter of seconds. The boy’s story didn’t make sense. But what if he was telling the truth? What would Queen Khadijah do?
Maybe I can talk to my mother, Diana thought. But what would happen to the boy if he were found out? Males weren’t allowed. Diana studied the boy’s stricken face—could she live with herself if the consequences were worse than she could imagine?
“Fine!” Diana finally said. “I’ll come back later tonight. You can tell me everything then. Until I return and get some answers from you, I promise I won’t say anything.”
She hurried into the woods behind the docks, following Sakina’s calls.
“Here!” Diana shouted once she was far enough away from the ships. “I’m by the chestnut trees!”
“There you are! I was starting to think you got kidnapped by aliens,” Sakina exclaimed. She parted a field of bamboo in the forest’s center and walked over to her. “Binti’s all the way out here?”
“Not too far from here,” Diana said. “Come, I’ll show you.”
They walked toward the towering sequoia trees. The moon shone full and bright upon the land. Diana looked at her friend. She longed to ask Sakina about the boy, but Diana had promised she’d let him explain first. And though Diana never broke her word, the thought of having to keep something—especially something so monumental—from her best friend made her feel sick with betrayal.
Binti whimpered when they reached the clearing.
“Yikes! That looks painful!” Sakina said when she saw the wolf. “When did it happen?”
The wolf howled a response.
“Two days ago? And it’s getting worse and worse, huh? Mind if I take a peek?”
The wolf rested her paw in front of Sakina, who traced her hand across it. Binti pulled back and howled.
“That’s a splinter,” Sakina said. “Looks like it got wedged in a tricky place. Can I take it out? Might hurt for a second, but then it’ll be over.”
The wolf buried her head in her forearms and whimpered.
“One. Two…and three.” Sakina’s face flushed as she squeezed, and then she yanked out the splinter. “There. All done.”
Binti licked her paw. Then she leapt up and licked Sakina’s face with gratitude.
“Happy to help.” Sakina laughed. “You’ll be completely better soon enough. Look at this.” She turned to Diana, holding up the scraggly thorn. “Such a tiny thing causing so much pain.”
“I don’t know how I missed it,” Diana said, shaking her head.
“The same thing happened with Mira,” Sakina said. “She belonged to a merchant in town. He kept her locked in a cage, and she screeched loudly every single day. I finally marched over and demanded to see what the matter was. Turned out a shard of glass was buried deep in her claw. He never bothered to check. I paid him a price he couldn’t refuse. Even though I freed her, she decided to stick around.”
This was the Sakina that Diana knew. How could the kind of person who stood up for an injured, trapped bird not stand up for her mother’s mistreated servant?
“You must have been upset someone would hurt a living thing like that,” Diana said cautiously.
“You have no idea.” Sakina’s expression darkened at the memory. “My mother was even more furious. Trust me, you do not want to mess with her when she gets angry.”