One Beside You

The well is dying, the settlement is closing its hands, and Neema's father refuses to trade her future for water. Forced onto the road with almost nothing, Neema must cross the Turkanan Drylands toward Arusha, the greatest settlement in the known world.

The journey becomes her father's final classroom. As heat, hunger, violence, and impossible choices strip away every illusion of safety, Neema claims adulthood and chooses one principle to guide her: Guard the One Beside You.

But mercy can invite danger, survival can demand sacrifice, and even a good choice can end in grief. When Neema and her father join a merchant caravan led by Omari, a sudden flood binds their paths and carries them toward a city where water is abundant-and power is never free.

Inside Arusha's walls, Neema discovers that protection can become ownership, public works can become political weapons, and affection can be distorted by debt and fear. To keep her life, she must decide whether security is worth surrendering the freedom she has only just begun to understand.

One Beside You is Book One in the six-book Rains in Ifurika series, a post-apocalyptic survival saga of migration, political power, emotional sacrifice, mature romance, and the difficult work of rebuilding civilization without surrendering freedom.

For maps, history, institutions, and the wider setting behind the novels, continue with World of Red Plains Companion Guide.