Page 19 of Ashes of Gold
“You know,” she says to me. “My mother’s mother told me as she died that when she was a girl, she actually met Yakanna’s half sister.” Her cheeks push up under her olive-green eyes, sparkling with longing. “What a day that was, I cannot imagine.”
“I wish I could have met her. Mother Yakanna.” I wish I could have met lots of my father’s people. Known them, their stories. So much of my connection with my people here is instinctive. The Ancestors chose me to wield their magic… but what were they like? What stories did they gather ’round and tell on holidays? Did they go to they Grandma’s a certain day of the week like I grew up doing at Ms. Leola’s?
I study Kai’s arched brow and beautifully wide nose, my feet sliding over the patches of pavement. Her lips are full and her teeth, perfectly white. I don’t know if it’s her armor that makes her stand the way she does. But her shoulders are back, which almost forcesher chin up. Even her gait oozes pride. The Ancestors probably look down on her with such joy.
I’ll never understand why they chose me.
I straighten my posture and try to imagine I could be like that, make them proud in the same way, but the only picture I can conjure in my mind is plumes of smoke rising from Yiyo.
Kai points and speeds up to a light jog. “It’s just there.”
I slow my pace to walk beside Bri, my mind still tarrying over Kai and her saisas. The way they moved in there, as a unit. Each having the other’s back. Their strength is in their togetherness, their unity.
“You okay?” Bri asks, but I can’t meet her eyes.
“I’m fine.” Not the entire truth, but once I’m out of here I can focus on what I came back to do—take down the Chancellor.Somehow.I try to swallow but my throat is raw.
The problem with my whole plan in the first place is I lack what the Yakanna had. They broke into the Chancellor’s own building and broke me out.Together.
“It’s just… I’m…” I hold up my wrists, and despite the dim underground light, they gleam in the orb light. “There’s only one of me.”
Maybe if…
Oh my god, that’s it!
“Bri, I need to find a spell to restore the Ancestors’ magic.” Thinking I could take on the Chancellor myself was… stupid. Shortsighted. We need to fight him together.
“Oh, wow. You really think that’s possible?”
“There’s got to be a spell somewhere about magic messing up and needing to be restored. That only makes sense, right?”
“Uhmm.” Bri’s eyebrows cinch in skepticism but she keeps her mouth shut, which I appreciate. I have a world of doubt on my shoulders; I need this ray of hope.
“Therehasto be a way, Bri. And I’m going to find it. I’m fighting beside my people against him next time.”
“I’ll help, however I can, of course.”
I shake her shoulder in excitement, light budding in the shadows where I hide my fears. “When we get there, we need to find Bati. He’ll know where their spell books are.”
“Shouldn’t we try to figure out what the Chancellor’s been up to since we’ve been locked up?”
“Yes, that too. But magic is the key. Trust me.”
She nods and we walk the next few minutes in silence, my mind working over any remnant of information I’ve ever even seen on magic restoration. Maybe it takes magic to restore magic, and that’s why they haven’t done it?
Kai leads us through the winding corridors. My calves ache like we’ve been running forever. The tunnel converges with several others. There are ten or more directions we could go, and each looks exactly the same: dusty pavement, stone archway, and floating orbs lining the way. But Kai and her girls don’t hesitate and lead us down the third one on the left.
We follow the twisty tunnel. The orbs are fewer and more spaced apart. By the time we stop, I can hardly make out my hand in front of my face. A door in the ceiling attached to a set of stairs that pull down like a ladder is barely a sliver in the dark. Finally.
Kai grunts and light splits the ceiling wide open, hinges groaning as she opens a steel door above us.
“This will put us closer to the Chancellor’s building than I like, but it is the shortest route to where we’ve been hiding.”
“Where have you been hiding?” I ask.
“Underground. The Web. Just the other side. The entire island is full of tunnels. But they don’t all connect.” How does she know all this? I want to ask, but they’ve been searching for a way to break us out for months, she said, so it makes sense.
Kai nods at the girl with the nose ring. “Be vigilant. It’s a war zone.”
