*Isla*
I try to process what my mom is saying to me, but something about her words isn’t computing. I’m not sure why. What did I expect her to say? Yes, she did use to be the queen of an island kingdom called Maatua, and yes, I used to be a princess?
I mean, it’s not as if I really expected what Mystica said to be true. What are the chances, really, that my family is from royalty? For most of my life, I’ve required safety pins to keep my socks up. That doesn’t exactly sound like the princess life.
Still… there’s something about my mother’s tone that makes me think she’s not being completely straightforward with me. Her voice has that little quiver to it like it did when she told Ben that his cat went to live on a farm outside of the city. I had seen the cat’s body lying by the side of the road earlier that day, so I knew that Otis wasn’t going to live out a peaceful life chasing mice in a barn. Otis was dead.
Mom wasn’t a good liar.
“Oh, you’ve never heard of the place at all?” I ask her.
“Uh… nope. Not that I can think of,” she says. “Oh, your father is going to be so glad that you called, honey.”
She is trying to change the subject.
I’m not quite ready to abandon ship completely yet. “Mom, what was the name of the island that we came from?”
“That was a long time ago, sweetie. It’s probably best if we just let those days go from our memory altogether. There was a lot of death and destruction back then in that part of the world.” She is trying to get me to let it go again.
“Mom, now that I’m at the castle, a lot of people ask me questions about my family and where I came from. It’s sort of important for people who are working closely with the king to be able to tell him their background so that he knows he can trust them. The last thing I need is for the king to think I’m a spy from some other kingdom.” Perhaps I can guilt her into telling me something.
“Would that really happen?” she asks.
“Uh, yeah. It could. I mean, you do know that he’s currently looking for some fugitives who were plotting a murder assassination against someone close to him, right?” She definitely doesn’t need to know that that someone was me.
“No! Are you okay, honey?”
And now, I’ve totally lost her again….
“Yes, Mom. I’m fine. I’m perfectly safe. That’s not the point. If there’s an interrogation, I need to be able to tell Mad—uh—mad people who are yelling at me the truth.” I suppose I shouldn’t call the king by his first name to my mother. That would really get her off the subject at hand.
“Well, I certainly don’t want that. Okay, dear. We came from Tushti. Do you know where that is?” Mom says.
I think for a second, not sure how to respond. Yes, I know where Tushti is. It’s far away from here, south, across a different ocean than the one I always thought we traveled over.
And as far as I know, there haven’t been any wars there for many centuries.
“Why did we come?” I ask her.
“Because… of the… economic hardships,” she says. “Your father needed work.”
“And what did he do before, when we were in Tushti?” I want to see how much further my mother is willing to take this lie.
“Uh… he was a factory worker there, too. A foreman. So… he wanted to have a similar job in Willow pack, but they only had regular worker packs. We made due.”
“What about the others who fled Tushti? Where did they go?” I ask her.
“Oh, all over,” she says. “But they don’t like to talk about it, you know? It’s a bad memory for most of us. So we try not to speak of it. If you were to ask someone if they were from Tushti, they would probably lie and say they were from somewhere else. Or if they did say they were from there, they’d probably pretend everything had been just fine.” She clears her throat. It is still wavering.
I don’t understand. I want to know the truth, but she’s unwilling to tell me.
So I have one last question for her.
“What about Uncle Tony?”
Mom is silent for so long, I look at the phone to see if it is still connected. I see that I have a signal.
“Mom?”
“Wh-what do you mean?” she stammers. “You remember your father’s brother?”
“I remember him,” I say, confidently. “I remember a lot, Mom. I remember the boat the night we left, with the howling in the background. I remember the sea and the waves. I remember my sisters and dad being in front of us, and you were so scared. Dad didn’t want to go. I remember… I remember a lot.”
She makes a whimpering sound but chokes it off. “I think… you may have dreamed some of that, Isla,” she says. “I think… you might be remembering something from a book that you’ve got all mixed up in your head. We left with a large group of people on a boat in the middle of the day. No wolves, nothing like that. Your father was happy to go. Your sisters were ready for an adventure. But now, well, you probably shouldn’t ask either of them about it. Your sisters are happy in their current lives. They don’t want to talk about any of that either.”
It's clear she doesn’t want me asking questions or remembering who I am or where I’m from. “Okay,” I say. “I understand.” I don’t tell her what she wants to hear, though, not directly.
I’m not going to promise her I won’t say anything to my sisters.
“So what kind of work are you doing?” she asks, changing the subject once more. I let her.
“Oh, uh… mostly… bedchamber work,” I say. It isn’t a lie.
“Oh, like changing the sheets and cleaning up? That sort of thing?” she asks.
I can’t tell my mom the truth, so I say, “Sure, sure. Something like that.”
We talk for a few more minutes before I hear two men talking in the background and figure Beta Miguel wants his phone back eventually.
“Well, I should go,” Mom says. “I need to get back home. We should get our own phone now, though, so we can talk more often. What number should I call you on at the palace? Aren’t there lots of different lines?”
“Oh, yeah, there are,” I say. I look at the list of phone numbers in front of me and decide to give her Beta Seth’s number. It seems silly to give her the king’s number to call me. “I love you, Mom,” I say as we prepare to hang up.
“I love you, too, dear. So much. And I’m so proud of you. I hope you’re not too disappointed that you’re not a real princess, but you’ll always be a princess to me.”
It’s a sweet thing for her to say, and I thank her, even though I’m still a little wounded that she’s not being completely honest with me.
I hang up and sit in Maddox’s chair for a few minutes. None of what my mom said makes any sense.
Across the room, I see a book that says Atlas on the outside, so I go and pull it off the shelf, taking it to his conference table and setting it down. It’s heavy and thick, but there’s a good table of contents, and I quickly find what I’m looking for.
Tushti. Nope, there’s no way that’s right. I can remember seeing the sun rise and set on that boat, and I know we had to be sailing east. If we were coming from Tushti, it would’ve been different.
I look for Maatua. It’s hard to find, but eventually, I see it.
The island is small, and it’s near another continent, one covered with large mountains and jungles.
It’s to the west of Crescent Falls pack lands. If we came from there… the sun would’ve been setting behind us, rising before us.
“Just like I remember it,” I say.
I sigh and pick the book up, putting it back on the shelf. Maybe I’ll just have to go to Maatua and see for myself.
I do think about what my mother has said, though, and even though I know it’s not what she’d want me to do, I cross back over to Maddox’s desk.
I pick up the phone and look at Maddox’s list of extensions. I’ve never done anything like this before, and my heart is racing. I dial a few numbers and wait.
A kind female voice answers. “Eclipsed Plateau pack. This is Ginger. How can I help you?”
“Hello. This is… Isla, from King Maddox’s office.” She has to have caller ID. “I’m trying to get in touch with Brandy Moon… Brandy Bear,” I remember she is married now. “Do you happen to have a number for her?”
“Certainly, miss. One moment, please.”
I wait for the receptionist, Ginger, to find my sister’s number. She reads it off to me, and I write it down on a scrap piece of paper before I thank her and hang up.
Taking more deep breaths, I dial Brandy’s number, hoping she answers and will talk to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to either one of my sisters. Mom’s right about one thing—they don’t like to remember stuff. Like their siblings.
“Hello?” a distracted voice says on the other end of the line.
“Brandy?” I ask.
“Yeah? Who is this?”
“It’s Isla…. Your sister.”
She’s quiet for a minute before she asks, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I tell her. “It’s just… I need to ask you a question.”
“Listen, sis,” she says, “whatever it is, you should ask Mom. She doesn’t want me talking to you about—stuff.”
“Brandy, I work for King Maddox now,” I begin. “I live in the castle. I’m around guards and soldiers all day long. They want to know where I’m from. I can’t lie to them.”
“Tell them you’re from Willow pack,” she says dismissively.
“I can’t!” I say. “They know that’s not true. Mom told the king herself that we moved here. So… where from, Brandy? And don’t tell me Tushti because I know that’s bullshit.”
“Tushti?” She says the word like that’s the stupidest thing she’s ever heard. “Who the hell told you we were from Tushti?”
“Mom did. But I know she’s lying.”
“Oh, uh… no… that’s right.” She tries to cover up the fact that she’s just disagreed with Mom.
“Brandy… are we from Maatua?”
The phone is silent for a long moment before she says, “Don’t ever say that word again.”