For three nights and days now the world had intruded on her every thought. She was having difficulty coping with her newfound abilities. In all her short life she had never heard so much and at the same time heard so little. Mizq had shown her how to listen, but now that she could hear she could not shut her mind off to the voices of the world. Every bird and animal seemed to want to speak with her, or ask for her help. She even felt the trees trying to communicate in their slow measured tones. If she didn’t get some sleep soon, she felt she would surely die of exhaustion.
The moon took the time to greet the stars as it crawled across the darkened sky until finally the night sounds began to recede, only to be replaced by the awakening voices of the day. Light from the early morning sun beamed through the window and even it skipped around the room showing its delight at seeing her problem.
Knowing that she would not be able to rest, Camille climbed from her bed, took the black dress form its peg on the wall and stared momentarily once again at the gold shield and crossed swords embroidered on the breast, wondering as to its real meaning, or the reason for the six coloured bars on the shield. When she was ready, she went to the kitchen where Zazuk was preparing a plate of stewed greenbeet, but the smell of food on her tired body was too much for her.
Taking only a drink of water before she left, Camille set out again to meet her mentor at the beach. Mizq had decided they would start their sessions later now that Camille was progressing satisfactorily and she would not be there for some time yet. Camille hoped she may get some rest if she was distracted by the gentle rhythm of the waves and the softness of the moving sands. Settling under the now familiar old tree, she leaned her back against the tortured bark of its trunk, looking over the expanse of water rumbling gently towards the shore. The clear blue sky was reflected in the darker blue-green of the ocean. Where they met, at the end of the world, the crisp line shone bright in the morning sun. The yellow sand was only scarred by the white suds of the gentle waves as they washed ashore, before disappearing back to join the sea and wait for their next journey up the quiet beach.
But even as she watched the voices assailed her. First the lizard that had been her first true contact came to greet her and then the birds and other animals joined in. Other voices called in the background. The noise and the strain of exhaustion became too much for her. Although she had not cried for many months she could not stop the tears now. The voices she could hear changed from greeting to concern and this only helped to make her feel worse. Tears flowed uncontrolled down her cheeks as sobbing shakes wracked her body. She was tired and she was frustrated and she didn’t know what she could do about it.
The deep grumble of another voice intruded.
“Why you cry?”
She looked up and rubbed her eyes until the blurred shape before her coalesced into Aiyu’s mother-in-law, her mentor. Mizq was standing over her with the dappled light under the tree playing over her blue body. Finally she was able to take a deep breath and control herself long enough to answer.
“It….It won’t stop,” she squeaked.
She took a deep breath and tried to quell the tears that threatened to return.
“Before I couldn’t … hear the voices and tried so hard to listen, and now I hear them and they won’t stop. … Why won’t they stop?” she screamed.
Mizq laughed at her complaint.
“No listen,” she advised, but this only sent Camille into further fits of sobbing.
Mizq waited but it soon became obvious that the little human girl needed a break.
“You go back Zazuk’s house. You rest. No work today. Go back. No work and no listen.”
Once Mizq left to return to her household duties that had suffered since Holdbori had instructed her to train the human, Camille sat before the ocean. She knew Mizq assumed that she would do as she was told but instead Camille sat not seeing the beauty of the day as the sobbing was driven out by exhaustion and the exhaustion silenced the voices long enough for her to collapse into a restless sleep. The voices woke her again not long after the sun climbed halfway into the sky and she rose to make her way back to the old auch’s house. Feeling much better after the nap, but still troubled by the noises echoing in her mind, she wondered if she was beginning to go mad. At the door she paused before pushing it open and striding in as confidently as she was able, so that Zazuk would not think she had failed in her lessons again and begin to chastise her. But she was the one to be surprised. Aiyu sat at the table drinking a mug of hot vegetable broth.
She had not seen the big blue man since Mizq had brought them to Zazuk’s home. Knowing he was still feeling the pain of Bhata’s death, and caring deeply, she had not followed when he left. She had taken the old auch’s advice and left him to his contemplations. But he had not been seen since and she had been worried for him. Aiyu looked up and smiled and before she knew what she was doing, she had run to him, flung her arms around his thick neck and was asking him where he had been. Tears again threatened to cloud her eyes but these were tears of relief, not frustration.
“Aiyu need time think. Go outside city, try talk spirits, see if Bhata good. Try, but no can talk spirits, so come back.”
Camille stepped back and hit him in the arm with all the strength she could put behind her punch. Aiyu didn’t seem to notice.
“You go and you leave me alone in this city,” she huffed. “I could have been lost or hurt.”
“You not.”
“But I could have been, and I missed you. Are you alright?”
“Aiyu good.”
She took the auch’s head in her hands and looked into his eyes. Having satisfied herself that all was fine, she fetched herself a mug of broth from the stove and sat with him. He asked what she had been doing and she began to explain her progress under the guidance of Mizq when the door opened again. Zazuk joined them. As Camille greeted the old woman, she realised she could not hear the voices. It felt like they had been switched off and when the old auch saw her confusion and asked, she explained.
“But they, the voices, are gone,” she finished.
“Voices no gone,” laughed Zazuk. “You no listen.”
“Mizq told me that I should not listen. What do you mean?”
“You no listen then you no hear. You listen, you hear.”
“But how can I just listen or not listen?” Camille was still very confused by the explanations.
“You come talk Aiyu. Listen him. No listen voices. So no hear,” Zazuk explained.
“But I can’t spend my life talking with Aiyu, no matter how much I love our conversations.”
Zazuk thought about how to explain to the girl what she must do.
“Listen like listen to man. Man make much noise, most mean nothing. Maybe sometimes say little bit important. When woman need listen, hear man voice change, pay attention. Other time ignore man. Let man quack like duck.”
“So you are saying I can ignore the voices until I hear a change in their tone?”
“There much noise always in world. No listen all noise. Only listen important noise.”
Camille tucked the thought into her mind and thanked her friend for the advice before turning her attention back to Aiyu. He was happy to discuss his time hiding from the world and all the memories it held, and his search for the spirits of his wife and children.
“You no spirit talker. You no can speak Bhata. Must ask spirit talker help,” chastised Zazuk.
“No,” Aiyu agreed. “I no spirit talker, but no need. Speak Bhata in world she love. Bhata in mountains and flowers. She in water and sky. Bhata with me. I see now.”
The two women studied Aiyu to satisfy themselves that he was alright and Zazuk finally announced, “Aiyu different most men. Aiyu wise.”
Chapter