“Such a shame to leave. This is a rebellion that brings me joy to see,” Mossi said.
“Until the slaves see they would rather the bondage they know than the freedom they do not,” I said.
“Remind me to pick this fight with you another time,” he said.
We rode all night. We passed where the old man lived but all that was left of his house was the smell of it. Nothing remained, not even the rubble of cracked mud and smashed bricks. Truly this made me worry that there had been no house and no man, but a dream of both. Since I alone noticed, I said nothing and we rode past the nothing in a blur. Jakwu tried to follow while being ahead, but pulled back three times. Even I had no memory of the way, unlike Mossi, who charged through the night. I just held on to his sides. Sogolon tried to sit upright on the buffalo as he ran almost as fast as the horses, but she almost fell off twice. We moved through the patch of the Mawana witches but only one broke through the ground to see us, and when she did, dove back down as if it were water.
Before sun chased night away, the boy left my nose. I jumped up. Sasabonsam had flown all the way to the gate and gone through. I knew. Mossi said something about my forehead punching the back of his neck, which made me pull back. He slowed the horse to a trot when we reached the dirt road. The door crackled, shifted the air around it, and gave off a hum, but was getting smaller. I could see the road to Kongor in yellow daylight.
“When they come—”
“The doors don’t open themselves, Sogolon. They have already gone through it. We are too late,” I said.
Sogolon rolled off the buffalo and fell. She tried to scream, but it came out a cough.
“You do this,” she said, pointing at me. “You was never fit, never ready, nothing in the face of them. None of you care. None of you see what the whole world going lose. First time in two years and you make them get away.”
“How, old woman?” Mossi said. “By being sold into slavery? That was your doing. We could have taken on all of Dolingo and saved the boy. Instead we wasted time saving you. Safe passage my sore ass. You put the whole fate of your mission on a queen more concerned with breeding with me than listening to you. That was all your doing.”
The gate was shrinking, large enough for a man, but not for the Ogo or the buffalo.
“Is going be days till one get to Kongor,” she said.
“Then you’d better cut a stick and walk,” Mossi said. “This is as far as we go.”
“The slaver will double the money. I promise it.”
“The slaver or the King sister? Or maybe the river jengu you pretend is a goddess?” I asked.
“It is only about the boy. You so fool you don’t see? It was only for the boy.”
“I have a feeling, witch, it was only for you. You keep saying we were useless when use is exactly what you put us to. And the girl, poor Venin, you rid of her own body because Jakwu, or whatever his name is, was of greater use. This whole failure is on you,” Mossi said.
Jakwu jumped off his horse and stepped to the gate. I don’t think he had ever seen one.
“What do I see through this hole?”
“The way to Mitu,” Sadogo said.
“I shall take it.”
“All might not be fine with you,” I said. “Jakwu has never seen the ten and nine doors, but Venin has.”
“What do you mean?”
“He means, though your soul is new, your body might burn,” Mossi said.
“I shall take it,” Jakwu said.
Sogolon looked at the gate the whole time. She staggered right up to it. I knew she thought of it. That she had made it to three hundred, ten and five years, mayhaps surviving worse, and besides, who had time for old woman tales that nobody could ever prove?
“Well you all seem like the gods smile on you, but nothing here for me,” Jakwu said. “Maybe I go to the North and have those Kampara perverts make me one of their wooden cocks.”
“May good fortune come to you,” Mossi said, and Jakwu nodded.
He headed to the door. Sogolon stepped out of the way.