Uzuri was true to her heart. Once her feet were set on the path she did not stop until she arrived. Out of her love for Elanna, she kept an eye on Taka whenever she could.
She heard a rumor from Ber that some of the hyenas were plotting to kill Taka, but they needed a way to make it look like an accident--or suicide. It panicked her, not so much because of Taka but what it would do to Elanna. Little did she know they were planning to kill Lannie as well, or she would have really done something desperate.
To settle her mind, she went to see Taka--something very few lionesses would ever do, for his mental state had deteriorated to a barely suppressed madness.
He was not in his usual place. She bullied one of the hyena guards to tell her where he went.
“The cistern place, I thinking,” he said in broken leonine. Leonine from a hyena! Indeed, the occupation had lasted longer than she’d thought.
“Ka’del chul,” she replied in perfect hyannic. Now it was his turn to be surprised.
She ran down the slope of Pride Rock along a path covered with hyena footprints. Going around to the lee of the stone, she saw the dark-maned lion huddled by the side of the water, talking to his reflection. “No way out. There’s no way out. If there is a God, please help me! But how can there be a God? How can there be a God with so much misery in the world?? If I were God, things would be a lot different around here, that’s for sure!”
“Sire?”
“What??” He looked up, more afraid than angry. Tears had stained his cheeks. “Oh, Uzuri, it’s only you.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Did they send you to find me? Did they put you up to it--all those lionesses that want to know if I’m totally mad??”
“That’s not fair!” Uzuri upbraided him, something only she and Elanna could do. “Lannie was worried about you. She asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“Spy, you mean?”
“No. If I was spying on you, would I call out? I could see you quite well from over there.”
“Yeah.” He wiped his eyes with a paw. “You do think I’m mad, don’t you.”
“Well, I think you’re hurting.”
“Hurting.” He laughed bitterly. “I’m going to die soon. Not that I dread being dead one bit. It’s dying that frightens me.”
“Surely you’re not going to kill yourself??”
“No, nothing that noble. My friend, I know my star lore well. Well enough to know that the rumors are true, not mere whispers in the reeds.” He sniffed. “Uzuri, you believe in God, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then if you swore something by Aiheu, you’d consider that binding for all times, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course. Where is this going, Taka?”
“You looked after me for Elanna. Now I want you to swear that you’ll look after her for me when I’m gone. I want you to swear by Aiheu.”
“I don’t have to swear it. I love her, and as long as I have breath in this body, I’ll take care of her.”
“When I die that the others will want to hurt her because she was my wife. You must protect my Lannie. She gave up everything for me, and that kind of devotion must not go unrewarded. Don’t let them hurt her, Uzuri. They’ll listen to you.”
“I’ll do my best. I promise. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll swear it to Aiheu.”
With a pronounced trembling in his limbs that made him look far older than he was, he drew up alongside her and nuzzled her. For a moment she could see the frightened little cub that used to call her Zuzu. “I said some unkind things about you in the past,” he said. “When you remember me, I want you to remember that I felt regret. Say a prayer for me from time to time.” He nuzzled her once more. “Now be a good girl and please leave--I should like to be alone now.”
Uzuri nodded and softly padded away. She had no way of knowing that Shenzi would crush the life out of him later that evening.