Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi Page 0,99
feel lighter, though the strain of suppression causes sharp pains in my chest. Something about her essence calls to my curse, bringing it up at every chance. Her spirit seems to hover around me, crashing with the force of the turbulent sea.
“You’re slowing me down,” Zélie calls back, nearing the top of the hill.
“Do you want to carry him?” I ask. “I’m more than happy to watch him bleed on you instead.”
“Maybe if you stopped suppressing your magic, you could handle the extra weight.”
Perhaps if you closed your wretched mind, it wouldn’t take so much energy to block you out.
But I bite my tongue; not every part of her mind is wretched. Laced in the memories of her family is a fierce love, something I’ve never felt. I think back to days sparring with Amari, to nights spent flinching from Father’s wrath. If Zélie had my magic, what parts of me would she see?
The question haunts me as I grit my teeth to finish the final ascent. When I reach the top, I set our captive’s body down and walk until the hill plateaus. Wind whips at my face, and I yearn to take my helmet off.
I glance at Zélie; she already knows my secret. For the first time since getting this miserable streak, I don’t have to hide.
I unlatch my helmet and savor the way the cool breeze runs over my scalp as I approach the hill’s steep edge. It’s been so long since I could remove my helmet without fear.
Below us the forested hills of the Gombe River Valley spread beneath the shadows and moonlight. Mammoth trees fill the land, but from up here, one unique symbol makes itself clear. Unlike the random spread of trees throughout the forest, this grove is arranged, forming a giant circle. From our vantage point, their special X is just visible, painted onto some of the trees’ leaves.
“He told the truth.” Zélie sounds surprised.
“We didn’t give him much of a choice.”
“Still.” She shrugs. “He easily could’ve lied.”
Between the circular formation of trees, a secret wall has been erected, formed from mud, stones, and crisscrossed branches. Though rudimentary, the wall sits high, reaching several meters up the trees’ trunks.
Two figures armed with swords stand in front of the wall, guarding what must be their gate. Like the boy we interrogated, the fighters wear masks and are completely clad in black.
“I still don’t understand who they are,” Zélie mutters under her breath. I echo her question. Besides their location, the only other thing we learned from the boy was that his people were after the scroll as well.
“Maybe if you hadn’t beaten him half to death, we could’ve gotten more answers.”
Zélie snarls. “If I didn’t beat that boy, we wouldn’t have found this place at all.”
She stalks forward, starting her trek down the forested terrain.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“To get our siblings back.”
“Wait.” I grab her arm. “We can’t just storm in.”
“I can take two men.”
“There are far more than two of them.” I point to the areas around the gate. It takes Zélie a moment to see through the shadows. The hidden soldiers are so still they blend completely into the darkness. “There are at least thirty of them on this side alone. And that doesn’t count the archers hidden in the trees.”
I point to a foot dangling from the branches, the only sign of life in the thick leaves. “If their formation matches the feet on the ground, we should expect at least fifteen of them up there as well.”
“So we’ll attack at daybreak,” Zélie decides. “When they can’t hide.”
“Sunlight isn’t going to change how many of them there are to fight. We have to assume they’re all as skilled as the men who took Amari and Tzain.”
Zélie scrunches her nose at me; I hear it, too. Her brother’s name sounds strange coming out of my mouth.
She turns; her white curls glow in the moonlight. Her hair was straight as a blade before, but now it bunches in tight spirals, twisting further in the wind.
Her curls remind me of one of her young memories, back when she was a child and her coils were even tighter. Her mother chuckled while trying to comb Zélie’s hair into a bun, magically summoning dark shadows to hold Zélie in place as her daughter struggled.
“What’s our move?” Zélie breaks through my thoughts. I return my focus to the wall, letting the facts of battle wash away all memories of Zélie’s mother and her hair.