“I do not know why she is so sour. Sour before we even got to this city,” Sadogo said.
“Who, Venin?” I asked.
“Stop calling me that foul name. That is what she said. But it is her name, what else should I call her? You were there when she said, My name is Venin, were you not?”
“Well she was always sour to me, so I—”
“Sour, she never was. I was never sour to her when I let her sit on my shoulder.”
“Sadogo, there are more crucial things, and we need to have words.”
“Why did they put us away from the others, Venin? That is all I said and she says that is not her name, and yells to take my monster arms and my monster face away, you will never get anywhere near me, for I am a fearsome warrior who wants to burn the world. And then she called me shoga. She is different.”
“Maybe she did not see things the way you saw things, Sadogo,” Mossi said. “Who knows the ways of women?”
“No, she is different and—”
“Do not say Sogolon. Her scrawny hand is in far too many bowls for us to talk about them all. There is a plot, Sadogo. And the girl might be in league with Sogolon.”
“But she spat when I said her name.”
“Who knows why they bicker? We have more serious issues, Ogo.”
“All these ropes, coming from nowhere and pulling everything. Foul magic.”
“Slaves, Ogo,” Mossi said.
“I do not understand.”
“Let that rest for another day, Sadogo. The witch had other plans.”
“She does not want the boy?”
“That is still her plan. We are just not a part of it. She intends to get the boy herself after I find him, and with this Queen’s help. I think the Queen and her struck a bargain. Maybe when Sogolon rescues the boy the Queen will give safe passage to the Mweru.”
“But that is what we do. Why the deceit?”
“I don’t know. This Queen gets to have us for their wicked science, maybe.”
“Is that why everybody is blue? Wicked science?”
“I don’t know.”
“Venin, she pushed me out the door with one hand. How I must disgust her.”
“She pushed you out? With one hand?” I asked.
“That is what I said.”
“I have seen an enraged woman turn over a wagon full of metal and spices. It might have been my wagon, or I might have enraged her,” Mossi said.
“Sadogo,” I said, louder, to shut Mossi up. “We need to be on guard, we need weapons, we need to get off this citadel. How do you feel about the boy? Should we rescue him as well?”
He looked at both of us, then out the door, furrowing his brow. “We should save the boy. No blame is on him.”
“Then that is what we shall do,” Mossi said. “We wait for them to arrive in Dolingo. We take them on ourselves, not telling the witch.”
“We need weapons,” I said.
“I know where they keep them,” said Sadogo. “No man could lift my gloves, so I took them to the swords keeper.”
“Where?”
“On this tree, the lowest level.”
“And Sogolon?” Mossi said.
“There,” he said, and pointed behind us. The palace.
“Good. We go when the bloodsuckers come. Till then—”
“Tracker, what is that?” Mossi said.
“What is what?”
“Do you have a nose or no? That sweet scent on the air.”
As he said so, I smelled it. The smell grew sweeter and stronger. In the red room nobody saw the orange mist coming from the floor. Mossi fell first. I staggered, fell to my knees, and saw Sadogo run to the door, punching the wall out of anger, fall back on his bottom, then full on his back, and shaking the room, before everything in the room went white.
NINETEEN
I knew it was seven days since we left Kongor. And forty and three days since we set off on this journey. And in one whole moon. I knew because counting numbers was all that kept my feet on the ground. I knew we were in the trunk of one of the trees. One big shackle around my neck, attached to a long, heavy chain. My arms chained behind my back. My clothes gone. I had to turn to see the ball the chain was bolted to. Both were stone. Someone told them of me and metals. Sogolon.
“I say, tell us where is the boy,” he said.
The chancellor. The Queen must be upstairs waiting for the news. No, not the Queen.
“If Sogolon wants news of the boy, tell the witch to come for it