Chapter 4
Kital skipped ahead of Isika as she walked arm-in-arm with Auntie Teru. She could hardly believe that Auntie had agreed to come to the ceremony. As far as Isika knew, it had been eight years since Teru had traveled farther than the pottery workshop where she still sometimes went to visit her friend Tomas, and even that was rare. Auntie grew all of their food in her own kitchen garden. When she needed something she couldn’t grow, first Uncle Dawit, and now Isika or Ben, bought it at the market. After their son, a ranger, died eight years before, in a fight on one of the borders, Auntie Teru had only felt safe at home.
Isika felt guilty for the effect of her last two big adventures on her foster mother. She knew Auntie didn’t sleep very well when Isika was away—Ibba told her she
