Page 116 of Ashes of Gold
I squeeze his hand, all words escaping me right now. “This is only the beginning,” I manage. “We still have to win this thing.But for now, we lie low and bait them to come.”
“How do we know they’ll come?” Bri asks.
“Oh, they’ll come.” I pull the thin bobby pin from my pocket that Rojala gave me and squeeze. A red light beeps on the end of it. “It’s a tracker that’s been following us, reporting our location.”
Rojala gasps.
“Yep, someone planted this on us, who knows how long ago.”
And I’m not so sure it wasn’t Jhamal.
I close in on the opening to our underground lair with everyone behind me, the Macazi, the Beerchi, Bri. Morning sun peeks at us from the west. Both directions around us are undisturbed.
“Psssst,”someone whispers, but I see no one.
The area is no more than barbed wire and crumbled concrete, a dumpster, and piles of broken glass. The Ghizoni and Macazi step carefully over the barbed wire and slip down the entrance. Julius handles the Seer and Joshi takes up the rear. Taavi stands aside next to a wagon full of tiny graphite-colored balls—lead.
“Psssst.”
Okay, I didn’t imagine it that time. “You can go ahead inside, I’ll meet you in there,” I say, and Taavi nods, ducking inside behind the others. When the door clamps closed, I follow the direction of the sound more closely.
“Over here.”
I recognize the voice when she speaks. Zora’s face peeks from behind a barrel, gesturing for me to come faster. She pulls me down behind it, flashing a gaze in both directions before ducking down too. Her grip on my arm is tight.
“Listen to me, they are tracking you.”
I finger the bobby pin in my pocket.
“The Chancellor knows where you are and yet he has not struck yet. Why?”
The picture of what’s ahead contorts in my mind into something far more daunting than even I’d understood. If he has known where we are but hasn’t attacked us head-on, it has to be because…
The truth of how the Chancellor’s been plotting slaps. The way when we left prison we always felt like we were being watched. “He wanted us to raise the Ancestors. He wanted us to get this far.” Oh my god. But how did he… “Wait, Kai is she…?”
Her countenance cracks with desperation at the sound of Kai’s name, and shivers skitter up my arm. “Listen, Jelani.” Zora grips my arm, her nails digging in. Worry claws at me. I’ve never seen Zora like this. She glances over her shoulder.
“I don’t know how the Chancellor knows. But I do know he was supposed to strike soon, but the Ancestors’ being raised changed things. Something did not go according to plan and now…” She glances over her shoulder. “And now there’s a new plan.”
Fear washes over like a chill from the wind.Could Jhamal be in league with him too? In my memory, I saw him plotting with Patrol.My head throbs. The lies, the deception. It’s so much. All of this is so much.
“What’s the new plan he has? Tell me.” Trepidation lives where my resolve and determination used to.
“I don’t know. But Kai is reporting to the Chancellor.”
My mind races through what-ifs. “No, she wouldn’t. Our beef was about Shaun.”And maybe Jhamal. Maybe.
“It does not matter if Shaun is no longer King. It was never aboutShaun.” Her nails dig harder into my skin. “You do not understand, Jelani.” Her eyes are glazed, and it’s only then that I notice her gloves are gone. Scratches streak her arms, like magic burned her skin.
I’ve seen marks like this before, it confuses me. I reach to touch them, but she grabs my hand, her pulse raging through her fingertips.
“It’s about the future of our people,” she says. Her nostrils flare and her chest huffs. “Who would she think is best to carve out our path forward?” Her whisper is thick. “You? From some faraway place? Or her, a direct descendant of the Mother?”
“Well, I-I’d hoped we could maybe do it together or…”
“This war will end either us or them. And whoever wins, Kai intends to be on top. I have to go. You did not see me.”
“Thank you for this, Zora.” I want to ask about the other Yakanna, but how do I word that without… I bite my tongue.
