Page 23 of Ashes of Gold
“Na!”Kai shouts, and it startles me. “Get away from him.” She turns to Jhamal. “Does she know nothing?”
“Rue.” Jhamal rushes beside me. “Don’t touch—” He scrubs a palm down his face at the sight of my hand laid across the dead Macazi’s forehead. “Alright, get him up,” he says to the Yakanna hovering nearby, shocked. Zora nods and leads them in lifting the body.
“I don’t understand,” I say.
Jhamal pulls me aside, cutting a glance over his shoulder. Kai’s back there pacing.
“It is of great responsibility to touch the body of an innocent slain. The Ancestors consider honor above all Integrities. Honor is an inescapable duty, Jelani. And there is no honor in the death of an innocent. Whomever they are.”
“But I didn’t hurt him.”
“But you touched him. You are aware innocence was slain. So you are bound by honor to give him a proper burial now.”
“I… But… We don’t have time for that. I was just trying to—”
“I understand. But we have to. It is the way. You cannot dishonor the gods when it is their power that flows in your veins.”
I study his eyes a moment and the weight of the world hovers inthem. This is serious. “Okay. Okay, if that’s the Ancestors’ way, okay.” I nudge my chin in Kai’s direction. “And what about her? She looks pissed.”
He sighs. “Yakanna are headstrong, rigidly loyal, and full of pride. Honor for the tribe is more valuable than anything, even life itself. You’ll never meet a more fierce, ambitious warrior than a Yakanna. But they can be so brittle….”
“That they break.”
“Yes.”
“And you? You’re not Yakanna.” He’s never mentioned his clan or any clans before.
“Yakanna are matriarchal. They do not partner with men… long term, I should say. If they take one on, it’s purely in servitude. We were a thing a while ago, but that is not a life I wanted, so I insisted we go our separate ways.”
Ah, so she’s clearly not over it.
“I am Beerchi.” He slaps his chest. “Might, wisdom, the two fiercest weapons. Whether male or female, it does not matter. We are drawn to follow whoever embodies these values best. But, Jelani, those alliances have long since dissolved. We are talking about the loyalties of our parents’ parents. Generations ago.”
“It doesn’t seem like everyone’s let them go.” I gesture at Kai again, who is apparently in a tense conversation with Zora, and I realize they are not sisters in the traditional sense. “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, really. I just—”
“You didn’t know. I understand.”
“Division will destroy us.”
“Agreed. Send up a chant to the Ancestors that when we return,no other ancient loyalties have reemerged. I can keep Kai in line. But the others…”
Before I can ask more, Jhamal jets off and inserts himself in the conversation between Zora and Kai, and Bri walks up.
“Everything cool?” she asks.
“I guess. We have to bury this poor guy.” I can’t tear my eyes away from Jhamal talking with Kai. A vein pulses at his temple and everyone around them moves away. Bri gazes their way in apparent confusion.
“I just have a sick feeling, Bri, that…”
“That what?”
That I’m not cut out for this. That the more I try to help, the more I screw up. The more will die at my hand.The fear in Rahk’s eyes when he’d asked what they should do is a torchlight in my memory. The way he ran off without question at my order to retreat to the mountain. How his last breath must’ve burned. How he probably died with a scream in his throat. I bite down hard. My lip bleeds.
“Rue, that what?”
“Nothing.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
