Chapter 20
"Jabari!" Ben shouted, and as one, he and Jabari were on their feet.
Jabari grabbed his bow, but Ben ran empty-handed toward Isika. She sat sleepily as the man above her hesitated. When Ben was two steps away, a spear whistled through the air from behind him, not from Jabari but Gavi. The spear went wide, missing the man, but giving a clear message, and the man backed up a step. Isika blinked at him.
"Hyder?" she said. Then her eyes landed on the second shape, just beyond the light of the fire. "Jak?" She scrambled up off the ground and held her blanket out in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
"Poison-landers," Jabari breathed, his face hard. "Why do you trespass in Maween?"
"We don't want to do harm," Hyder said. He was a short, broad-shouldered man, very like his s
