Page 90 of Wings of Ebony
“Just them, my Queen? The spirit of our Ancestors remains alive in those cuffs. A relic that’s been in our tribe since the clouds were hung in the sky. And they chose to call to someone… for protection.”
Someone…me.
I’m tingly all over. “Your magic seems to be working okay out here. I mean, that weapon was wild.” Couldn’t they use that to defend themselves? Fight back?
He brushes the dirt around us. “This is where the Elders were buried, next to the Ancestors. When I am here, I am closest to my roots. When I am here, my magic moves in me fiercely. But beyond this pit, simple spells are my limit, I’m afraid.”
Wind unsettles the dusty pit floor and I can’t look away.
“Can you feel them here, my Queen? Do they speak to you?”
I press a palm to the dirt and close my eyes. At first the dirt is gritty between my fingers, then everything goes dark. Bursts of light swirl in my mind’s eye like someone turned on a TV in my head. Images of the forest—the familiar forest—and my little friend pull me in. The heat from his hand causes mine to sweat and we run. Over and under brush, around jpango trunks wider than I’ve ever seen. I’m dripping with sweat, my hands, my hair, my face.
We run and this time there’s no crack.
He takes me through the entire forest until I’m panting and breathless. No tall towers or steel buildings in sight. A tall peak swallowed by dense foliage is up ahead, so tall it nuzzles the clouds. Yiyo.
Is this the before?
Little Man pulls me toward the mountain and I can’t follow fast enough. Closer to the mountain I can make out Yiyo’s carved doors, but it doesn’t smell of oil and smut. Whiffs of rosemary and jasmine fill the air.
Thisisthe before.
I can feel this place. It’s as real as the wind in my lungs, like the cool air sifting through my roots. Whispers play from the forest behind us, as if the trees themselves can talk, and they’re urging us on. The vision shakes like this might be the end. Like I might be pulled away.
I’m not leaving.I focus hard on the scene. “What is it you want me to see?” I whisper to him, and we stop.
“Where are we?” I ask Little Man, but he just stares at me. I reach for Yiyo’s door, but it escapes like sand between my fingers. The world around us shifts, obscuring everything. The trees lift, Yiyo dissolves into thin air and the forest behind us bleeds into the sea.
Now a village surrounds us. A crowd of people sway in a circle, arm in arm, singing, celebrating. Music pounds like thunder and a sea of bellsting-ling.Gravel crackles under my feet. No one in the crowd even flinches, as if we’re not there.
They’re wrapped in robes of purples and blues with threads in gold and bright pinks. Thin belts loop their waists and golden rings adorn their hair. More gold ornaments hug their knuckles, crown their heads, coil up their arms. Even their sandals are adorned with gilded beads between their toes.
The Ghizoni, in all their glory.
Before the Sickness, before the Chancellor.
Clusters of cone huts are in the backdrop, their doors fashioned with hair-like fibers and dotted with flecks of gold. Wide smiles warm me up inside and laughter rings so loud it rattles in my head.
I start to latch on to some sort of meaning, but the setting switches again in a dust storm of colors. Little Man holds fiercelyto me this time as the people depart like dust on the wind. The next scene settles around us and Little Man digs his hands into me.
I hold him tighter. “I-it’s okay. I-it’s just a dream. We’re gonna be okay.” I think.
The wind picks up as the darkness lifts, like someone’s fast-forwarded to sunrise. It’s dawn and the gusts settle. My little friend buries his face deeper into my hoodie. He won’t even look?
I gulp. What’s coming?
Sunlight peeks over the horizon and a man in a golden breastplate, looking like an older version of Aasim, storms past us thrashing his hands.
An Elder?
With each swipe of his arm, trees are uprooted and flung through the air, out of his way in a blur of black and green. The ground trembles as a trunk rips from the earth, leaving a giant crater in its wake.
I gasp and the man turns and stares right at me.
I take several shaky steps backward.
He still comes.
