Page 20 of Ashes of Gold
“Zora,” the girl with the nose ring says, introducing herself.
“Rue.”
“Pleasure.” She gestures for me to go first.
Last I remember, the Central District was under fire, buildings toppling, burning, chaos when the General’s betrayal was aired on screens everywhere, thanks to me. Half the people were enraged by his lies and betrayal, ripping the City to shreds, while the other half fought against them in the name of treason.
Then, my people had a chance. Then, I was free. I take the rung on the ladder and climb, my stomach twisting in anticipation of what I will see. The salty, humid air slaps. I pull myself out of the tunnel. The world aboveground is a pile of rubble. The others pull themselves out of the hole behind me. The door in the ground we came through is sectioned off with barbed wire in an alleyway near an abandoned warehouse. If you were to drive by, the clutter and trash would completely camouflage it like a sewage drain back in East Row.
We emerge from the alley and most buildings in the Central District—or what’s left of them—are half collapsed. The Chancellor’stower looms a mile or so away, a pillar of alabaster stone. Its windows are broken on the bottom floors andTRAITORis painted across its facade in big red letters. We keep moving through the narrow block, careful to stick in the shade.
“I’m going to have your head,” I say under my breath before turning my back on his stone tower. We hurry through the main artery of the island, which is like a mini downtown. Where stores and screens once were on every corner with bewitched storefronts trying to lure you in, sits rubbish, piles of broken concrete. Storefronts are boarded up or burnt. Some of this is new. It was sort of like this when I left, but the destruction must have continued. New buildings are burned, way more than before. The Chancellor’s own people have turned on him; shattered glass and spray-painted messages scream of the unrest. Goose bumps skitter up my arm, mixed with a bubble of pride. The demand for justice hasn’t dulled; it’s amplified.
“It’s a disaster up here,” I say, and Kai nods.
“Who’s responsible, you think?” I ask Bri.
“Dwegini… probably,” she says, a flicker of something shading her expression. That assumption is more rooted in pride than anything else. Her family has been Zruki for as long as the faction existed. Blame for destroying her home doesn’t quite sit right with her, I guess…. If it did, would her answer have been different?
Kai shrugs. “All I know is this place is torn in half. Grays fighting other Grays.”
“Yeah,” I say. “And neither is backing down, from the looks of it.”
Jhamal’s jaw clenches.
“Zruki, we lived in entirely different worlds from Dwegini. I just can’t imagine us doing anything like this. Dwegini have always hadthat air of arrogance about them because of the way the Chancellor favors them. Their glittery homes on the mountainside, their fancy research jobs and social gatherings. The way they—they just move through this place like they own it because the Chancellor’s decided they aren’t suited for mine work.” Bri spits the words. “If anyone is tearing this place apart, it’s probably them. They have no respect for anything.”
Respect?I don’t respect this place either. Does she?
She sighs, apparently reading my expression. “I hate him. Don’t misunderstand me. I just—” As we pass what looks like it used to be a trinket shop, she runs her fingers along the brick facade and her eyes turn down. “?‘Respect’ wasn’t the right word. The Chancellor should burn for what he’s done. I just… I don’t know.”
I study her pinched expression, the lines written into her forehead, as we skirt another corner, pass another crumbled block that used to ring with life. It was her home, and as messed up as the Chancellor is, she still has an affection for the place. Memories. It’s been her entire life.
“What was that place?” I say, pointing to the store we just passed.
“Trixy’s Fine Trinkets.” She turns a silver ring on her finger. “Dad gave it to me when I turned sixteen. My Binding present. Took him my entire childhood to save up for it.”
I rub her hand. “Hey, we will win. And then, rebuild.”
She nods.
The Chancellor’s tower still watches despite being farther in the distance. It’s so tall, even from Yiyo it can be seen like a dot in the distance. A watchtower. His dais. On the uppermost deck of the Chancellor’s tower is a room fenced in windows with a wide balcony,the jewel-on-top stone somehow untouched by the carnage. Curtains flutter behind the glass, and the hair on my neck stands. I squint, but whatever lurked there is gone.
“I don’t like this,” I say. “We need to get off the street. Back underground.”
“And we will,” Kai says. “But we have to get there first.”
“There’s a whole web of tunnels underground,” I say. “You said yourself. Yousurenone of those lead where we’re going?”
Kai turns, a flicker of something in her expression. “What are you suggesting, Jelani?”
“Just that coming outside, being exposed in the open, might not be… a necessary risk.”
“Oh, and you’d know?”
“Enough.” Jhamal steps between us.
It stings. She’s right to question me after what I’ve done. But I have good fighting instincts and I’d bet money we’re being watched.
