Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2)(100)

I picture my best friend.

Strike, Amari.

Father’s voice fills my mind as the tears fill my eyes. Though I breathe, my chest stays tight. It feels like I’m being buried alive.

“Or?sha waits for no one,” I whisper the words. “Or?sha waits for no one.”

I will the words to be true as I ride through Ibadan’s gate.





CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN


ZéLIE


WHEN MY EYES flutter open, I don’t know where I am. It feels like I’m suspended in darkness. A light circles above my head.

The rough cords of a rope are wrapped around my chest before I’m pulled toward the light. The infant still screams against my neck.

“Pull her over the edge,” a weathered voice instructs.

Firm hands latch onto my arms, pulling me over the side of the well. I shield my eyes as someone takes the baby from my hands and another bends to unwrap the soaked bandage from my bleeding shin.

“Allow me.” I blink at the older woman who kneels by my side. She takes the white gele around her gray curls, using it to re-bandage my leg.

“You saved us.” She shakes her head. “I can’t thank you enough.”

I close my eyes, trying to think past the pain. My mind throbs with a vengeance. I can’t feel my legs. But the memories start to piece themselves together, bringing me to the well we used to escape. The shadows I channeled before everything went black.

“Ro?n.” I clutch my chest, straining to feel him. His heart still echoes through me, but it grows weaker by the second.

“They’re tending to him. They’re doing the best they can.” She points and I follow her hand to a pyramid ahéré beyond the well. Its stone doors are thrown wide open, revealing the village Healers and kosidán who huddle around his wounded form.

“I have to go.” I bat her away, struggling to rise to my feet. I can feel his life within me, but his pulse is still too weak. The pressure is already building in my chest. The same crushing weight that hit before Mazeli’s death.

I don’t know how long I can sustain the connection before his dying body kills us both.

“Zélie, please.” The woman holds me down, forcing a cup of fresh water down my throat. She clicks her tongue. “Just as stubborn as your mother.”

“You knew Jumoke?”

“I’ve never seen another Reaper move like that.” She nods. “I thought she had risen from the dead.” She sits back and looks out at the carnage. “Just when I thought the war would leave us behind.”

Beyond her, I see the first body lying in the street. The man’s red cap sits in the dirt. Blood stains coat his lips and nose. The whites of his eyes are now yellow. His dark skin has turned black, shriveled from the Cancer’s gas.

A young girl escapes the well, falling to the ground the moment they remove her harness. She scrambles faster than her feet will allow, tripping over herself as tears fill her eyes.

“Baba!”

Her shriek makes my ears bleed. She falls onto his shriveled corpse, clawing at his stained robes. I have to turn away as another villager grabs her, pulling the girl away. Her screams are far too familiar.

Just like mine after the Raid.

Why? I hide my head in my hands, trying to understand. What happened to our plan? Why would Amari launch this attack?

Though body after body is lifted from the well, I’m surrounded by those I couldn’t save. The young mother who saved her infant. The div?ner who couldn’t run fast enough.

“No…”

I turn as Amari walks into the square. Her hand flies to her chest. She crumples to her knees. At first I think it’s the corpses in the street, but then I follow her gaze. My brows knit at the message painted on the mountain overlooking the village lake.

The red ink is stark against the mountain stone, dripping like blood. Other elders approach from the north, horror dawning as they take in the words.

WE HAVE YOUR ARMY.

SURRENDER OR FACE THEIR EXECUTION.



My heart collapses as I read it, suddenly understanding the monarchy’s true target. These people were sacrificed in vain. We didn’t get them.

The monarchy outmaneuvered us.

We’ve lost this war.





CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT


INAN


THE STEADY ROCKING reaches through the blackness first. I blink open my eyes, meeting paneled wood. A constant creak rings through my ears, in harmony with the patter of paws. My body feels like it’s been set on fire as the memories trickle back in.

“Ojore…”

His hatred sears into my core. It all happened so fast. So fast, it’s like it wasn’t even real.

One moment he was there, sharpened blades held to my neck. The next …

I didn’t know Mother could strike that way.

“Oh, thank the skies.” Mother rises from the front of the caravan. She sets down the parchments in her hand, moving to the side of my bed. She looks strange with the blood splattered across her face.

She places her palm against my head. “How do you feel?”

“What happened?” I croak. I attempt to sit up, but the pain is too severe. Mother keeps me on the bed, perusing her collection of glass vials to bring a sedative to my lips.