A HAZE LIFTS from my mind as I blink into consciousness. My vision blurs the past and the present. For a moment, the silver of Binta’s eyes shines.
But when the hallucination passes, the flicker of candle flames dances along jagged stone walls. A rodent scurries by my feet and I jolt back. It’s only then that I realize I’m bound, tied to Tzain and Zélie with unyielding ropes.
“Guys?” Zélie stirs at my back, sleep dripping from her voice. She twists and turns, but no matter how much she writhes, the ropes do not give.
“Wha’appened?” Tzain’s words slur together. He pulls, but even his considerable might doesn’t loosen the ropes’ hold. For a while his grunts are the only sounds in the cavern. But in time another sound grows louder; we freeze as footsteps near.
“Your sword,” Zélie hisses. “Can you reach it?”
My fingers brush against Zélie’s as I reach backward for my hilt, but I grasp only air.
“It’s gone,” I whisper back. “Everything is!”
We scan the dimly lit cave, searching for the brass of my hilt, the gleam of Zélie’s staff. Someone’s taken all our things. We don’t even have the—
“Scroll?” a deep voice booms.
I tense as a middle-aged man appears in the candlelight, dressed in a sleeveless suede robe. White swirls and patterns dot every inch of his dark skin.
Zélie sucks in a quick breath.
“A sêntaro…”
“A what?” I whisper.
“Who’s there?” Tzain growls, straining against the ropes to see. He bares his teeth in defiance.
The mysterious man doesn’t even blink.
He leans against a staff carved from stone, gripping the face sculpted into its handle. An undeniable fury burns behind his golden eyes. I begin to think he won’t move at all when suddenly he lurches forward; Zélie jumps as the man grasps a lock of her hair.
“Straight,” he mutters with a hint of disappointment. “Why?”
“Get your hands off her!” Tzain yells.
Though Tzain poses no threat, the man steps back, releasing Zélie’s hair. He pulls the scroll from the band of his robe, and his golden eyes narrow.
“This was taken from my people years ago.” His accent hums thick and heavy, different than the Orïshan dialects I’ve heard. I stare at the unraveled scroll in his hand, recognizing a few symbols on the parchment inked onto his skin. “They stole it from us.” His voice takes a violent turn. “I will not let you do the same.”
“You are mistaken,” I blurt out. “We are not here to steal!”
“Exactly what they said before.” He wrinkles his nose at me. “You stink of their blood.”
I draw back, shrinking into Tzain’s shoulders. The man looks at me with a hatred I cannot deflect.
“She’s not lying,” Zélie rushes out, voice powered with conviction. “We’re different. The gods sent us. A Seer guided us here!”
Mama Agba … I think back to her parting words. We’re meant to do this, I want to cry out. But how can I argue that when right now all I wish was that I had never laid eyes on this scroll?
The sêntaro’s nostrils flare. He raises his arms and the air thrums with the threat of magic. He’s going to kill us.… My heart thrashes against my chest. This is where our journey ends.
Father’s old warnings ring in my head: Against magic, we don’t stand a chance. Against magic, we are defenseless.
Against magic, we die—
“I saw what this used to be,” Zélie chokes out. “I saw the towers and temples, the sêntaros who looked like you.”
The man brings his arms down slowly, and I know Zélie’s caught his attention. She swallows hard. I pray to the skies she finds the right words.
“I know they came to your home, destroyed everything you loved. They did the same thing to me. To thousands of people who look like me.” Her voice cracks and I close my eyes. Behind me, Tzain goes rigid. My throat dries with the realization of who Zélie’s talking about. I was right.
Father destroyed this place.
I think back to all the rubble, the cracked skulls, the hard look in Zélie’s gaze. The peaceful village of Ilorin up in flames. The tears streaming down Tzain’s face.
The cascade of light that escaped Binta’s palm fills my mind, more beautiful than the sun’s own rays. Where would I be now if Father had allowed Binta to live? What would all of Orïsha look like if he had just given these maji a chance?
Shame beats down on me, making me want to crawl into myself as the man raises his arms again.
I squeeze my eyes shut in preparation for pain—
The ropes vanish into thin air; our belongings reappear by our sides.
I’m still stunned by the magic when the mysterious man walks away, leaning on his staff. As we rise, he utters a simple command.
“Follow me.”