Page 37 of Children of Blood and Bone

Mama Agba places a wrinkled hand on my face and grabs Amari’s wrist with the other. “I know you’re scared, girls, but I also know that you can do this. Of all the days to trade in Lagos, you went today. Of all the people you could’ve approached in that market, you chose her. The gods are at work. They are blessing us with our gifts after all this time. You have to trust that they wouldn’t gamble with the fate of the maji. Trust in yourselves.”

I release a deep breath and stare at the woven floor. The gods that once seemed so far away are closer now than I ever imagined they could be. I just wanted to graduate today.

I only needed to sell a fish.

“Mama—”

“Help!”

A scream breaks through the calm of the night. In an instant we’reall on our feet. I grab my rod as Mama runs to her window. When she rips open the curtains, my legs go weak.

Fire rages in the merchant quarter, every ahéréengulfed in the roaring blaze. Plumes of black smoke tower into the sky with villagers’ yells, cries for help as our world goes up in flames.

A line of burning arrows cuts through the darkness; each explodes as it makes contact with the reeds and wooden beams of the ahéré.

Blastpowder…

A powerful mix only the king’s guards could obtain.

You, the voice in my head whispers in disgust.You brought them here.

And now the guards won’t just kill everyone I love.

They’ll burn the whole village to the ground.

I’m out the door before another second passes, undeterred when Mama Agba shouts my name. I have to find my family. I have to make sure they’re okay.

With each step on the crumbling walkway, my home blazes into a living hell. The stench of burning flesh stings my throat. The fire’s only raged a few minutes, yet all of Ilorin fries in the flames.

“Help!”

I recognize the cries now. Little Bisi. Her screams cut through the darkness, desperate in their shrieks. My chest heaves as I sprint past Bisi’s ahéré. Will she even make it out of the blaze alive?

As I race home, villagers desperate to escape the flames jump into the ocean, their screams piercing the night sky. Coughing, they cling onto charred driftwood, fighting to stay afloat.

A strange sensation rushes through me, surging through my veins, trapping the breath in my chest. With it, warmth buzzes under my skin.A death…

A spirit.

Magic.I put the pieces together.My magic.

A magic I still don’t understand. A magic that’s brought us to this hell.

But even as embers burn my skin, I picture Tiders summoning streams of water to fight the flames. Burners keeping the blaze at bay.

If more maji were here, their gifts could stop this horror.

If we were trained and armed with incantations, the fire wouldn’t stand a chance.

A loud crack rings through the air. The wooden panels beneath my feet moan as I near the fishermen’s sector. I run for as long as the walkway holds before launching myself into the air.

Smoke sears my throat as I land on the teetering deck that supports my home. I can’t see through the blaze, but still I force myself to act.

“Baba!” I scream through my coughs, adding more cries to the chaos of the night. “Tzain!”

There’s not an ahéréin our sector that isn’t engulfed in flames, yet still I run forward, hoping mine won’t share the same fate.

The walkway wobbles beneath my feet and my lungs scream for air. I tumble to the ground before my home, burned from the heat radiating off the flames.

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