Page 18 of Ashes of Gold
I take the paste from her and dab it on her face, under her eyes, too. The swelling there deflates like a balloon.
“They gave me potion after potion, but my Defense Boost keptme holding on. And joke’s on them because while I had access to their lab, I made all sorts of stuff we can use. Ha! I knew you’d come for me eventually.”
I press my forehead to hers, grinning. “Oh my god, you’re such a badass. WHO ARE YOU? Did I do this to you?”
“Yes, I credit you for this metamorphosis.” She smirks and throws an arm around my shoulders. And for a moment one thing in all this mess feels right. Bri’s going to be okay.
“I’m just so glad you’re alright. Before they captured you, when we got separated during the fighting, I realized you didn’t have your watch….”
I cup my arm.Julius.I left it with him… when I told him I would bring him here once things got settled. It’s been months. He’s probably worried as shit. And my sister, Ms. Leola. They’re all probably freaked out.
“… I couldn’t reach you and I freaked. So, I followed them. But they caught me.”
“If this reunion is over, we really should be going,” Kai says with a group of armored girls at her back. They all wear their hair in the same way, braided up in a bun. But the sides are not shaved. And where Kai’s armor is solid gold, theirs are painted with patterns in shades of jade. One, a thicker girl, with a hoop nose ring, holds a javelin as tall as the doorway. Her eyes flick from Kai to me and back to Kai.
“You may follow this corridor out,” Kai says to Bri. “My girls have cleared it.”
“She’s going with us,” I say.
“She will do no such thing,” Kai says. “I do not mean any disrespectto your father, may he rest in power… yoo t’cuzi maska—”
“Yoo t’cuzi maska,” her girls echo under their breath in unison.
“But,” Kai goes on, “we do not welcome her. She is a thief like the rest of them.”
“Kai,” Jhamal says. “Bri does not—”
“And no disrespect, but I’m not asking,” I say. “Bri’s coming.”
Bri looks between us and the girl with the nose ring clenches her grip on her weapon.
Jhamal holds out Bri’s wrist. “Do not make an issue where there is none, Kai. She is not a perpetrator anymore. Master Bati did the ritual himself.”
“Agh,” she scoffs. “Bati is old. Too forgiving. How do we even know what she says is true? That she did not agree to help them?”
The girl with the nose ring lays a hand on Kai. “We must go, saisa.”
“I-I just want to say,” Bri says. “I-I hate them as much as you do. We—”
I elbow her to shut up and she does. “You heard your sister,” I say. “Lead the way.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE WEB, THE TUNNELSKai’d mentioned that run under the island, stink with rot. We snake through the maze, a hollow of dirt tunnels and dusky light. Our hurrying kicks up more dust and the lights pinned to the walls are dim, like headlights in fog. The underground air is chilly, and every few moments rattling shakes the world around us, loosing bits of dust from overhead.
Kai and her girls lead the way, sticking tight together. I push, one foot in front of the other, but my knees are heavy. My feet, too. Air is ragged in my lungs. It’s been so long since I’ve fought like this.
“I saw you out there, by the way,” Kai says, beside me. “You fight like you have Yakanna in your blood.” She smirks.
“Yo kan who?”
“Yakanna.” She laughs to herself. “The Ghizoni were not always one, Jelani. When this land was united under the Chancellor, our people fled into hiding in Yiyo. Our individual clans had become secondary to just surviving. But do not be mistaken. I am of the blood of Moi Ike Yakanna, warrior goddess of Ghizon.”
I had no idea the Ghizoni I met weren’t just one big group. It makes sense that there were clans within the tribe and that much ofthose delineations of their heritage dissolved over the years under the sheer stress of trying to survive.
I picture my father’s pencil locs and deep brown skin, the child he must’ve been, the way he met my mother, imagining a long life was ahead of him. Did he dream life outside the mountain could ever really happen again? Did he let his mind go there, or did reality bleed him of hope, whittle him down to the instinct to just survive? Did he pretend to be brave so I would be? Did he worry I’d fail? I have so many questions… that will never be answered.
Kai’s arm brushes mine as she directs us around a corner. “The exit up to the ground is just this way.” The next leg of the tunnel has a higher ceiling but is much less dusty, the floor a mix of hard pavement and dirt.
