Page 122 of A Thousand Nights Before Dawn
The sweet sound of a laugh long lost to Zahra’s memories filled the air. “Poulaki mou, come here.Come and see, little one.”
The sound of her mother’s voice was sweet to Zahra’s ears, and she looked up to see familiar sea-blue eyes. Her mother wore her blue-and-gold scarf on her shoulders. She smiled, scooping little Zahra up in her arms. “Look, Rhodopis. What do you see all the way up there?”
Zahra looked up at the sky, squinting to see past the sun’s glare. Against the cloudless sky soared two eagles. She gasped, pointing. “Eagles!”
“Yes.” Her mother smiled softly. “One of them is your grandmother, Doris. If you listen closely, you can hear her singing the lullaby she sang to you as a babe.”
Zahra leaned closer and listened. When she heard nothing, she frowned. “I couldn’t hear her.”
“Don’t fret, little one. You will learn to hear her soon enough.” She pulled Zahra closer, planting kisses all over her head.
Zahra giggled. “Mamá!”
Her mother smiled, tapping Zahra’s nose. “Very well, little one.”
Zahra looked up at the eagles once more. “Will I become an eagle when I die, Mamá?”
“You may,” her mother said. “Our people go to Elysium when they die. It is in the sky, and the stars remind us of the heroes thetheoshave chosen to honor.”
“And what about Mamme?Will she go to Elysium?”
“She has already gone there, but sometimes our ancestors come back as eagles to serve Selene or to comfort or guide their descendants.”
Zahra looked excitedly at her mother. “Like me?”
Her mother smiled and rubbed her nose against Zahra’s. “Especially you.”
The ocean rocked the boat, and Zahra’s mother stroked her hair, humming a soft melody. Zahra grabbed the edge of her mother’s scarf, looking up at her. “Will you be an eagle one day, Mamá?”
Zahra’s mother smiled and opened her mouth, but Omar’s voice interrupted her. “Katerina, will you help me with these?”
Zahra gasped and held tighter to her mother’s scarf.
Katerina smiled softly. “I’m coming,agapi mou.”
“Wait.” Zahra pulled the scarf from her mother’s shoulders as Katerina lowered her to the boat and walked over to Omar. The memory continued to play, and Zahra saw them laughing as they wrestled the fish net further onto the boat. “Mamá!”
The boat turned to golden sand beneath Zahra’s knees, and Zahra sobbed as the memory faded before her eyes and turned into the Duat. She fell over, hugging her mother’s scarf close to her chest.
“I’m sorry!” she cried.
How had she not realized? How had she not remembered?
“I’m so sorry.”
A gentle hand brushed the curls from her wet cheeks. “Don’t fret,poulaki mou. I am here.”
Zahra lifted her head. Katerina looked down at her with a soft smile, no longer a bird, and with a cape littered with tawny feathers. “Mamá!”
Katerina pulled Zahra into her arms, hugging her tightly. “I am sorry I couldn’t come to you like this sooner. There werethings you needed to learn first, and you couldn’t learn those things if you knew who I was.”
“Have you come to take me to Elysium?” Zahra asked. “Have you come to take me home?”
Katerina smiled softly and stroked Zahra’s hair. “The time for that has not yet come, Rhodopis.”
“But I am ready,” Zahra cried. “Please. There’s nothing more for me here! Namir will not let me protect him anymore!”
“In time,” Katerina promised, “but not now. There are still many things for you to do.”
