Page 9 of Children of Anguish and Anarchy

“Farðu!” The captain bangs on the bars of her cage. Nâo and the girls back up at once, staring after me as the Skulls carry me away.

But they’re alive. We’re still alive.

I attempt to let the news spark hope. But pairs of empty shackles lie between the lines of girls. Every maji I was captured with isn’t onboard.

I note the open chains where Imani, the leader of the Cancers, once was. The freckled face of her twin sister, Khani, fills my mind. Grief tears at me from inside.

If I lost my brother to this horrid ship, I would die.

Flames dance over the faces of eight maji chained to a corpse, a body they’ve yet to throw overboard. The young girl’s round eyes hang open, and a tattered rag doll lies in her clenched hand.

She can’t be more than twelve.

How could this happen?

The girl’s body haunts me as the Skulls drag me through the long, damp hall. My body aches with the pain she must have felt. The utter misery her final hours of life held.

I take in the captured faces of my people, the festering lesions where the Skulls’ shackles meet their skin. The cramped quarters echo with their unspoken fears, their questions of whether or not they’ll ever escape from here.

I think back to Inan’s plan, his insistence that I need to escape. Despite what the Skulls may be after, this can’t just be about me. We are all locked in these cages.

We all need to break free.

Push, Zélie.

The heat of determination flares in my core. I try to move, though panic seizes every limb. My legs start to shift as the Silver Skull opens the door to the next level. We rise up another narrow stairwell.

When we reach the next hall, the sight of the boys sparks a new thought—I consider how many maji sit before me now, how many Skulls might lie above deck. What chance might we have if the maji on the ship outnumber the Skulls?

How many of us would need to break free to overwhelm them all?

Seven… nineteen…My head swivels from side to side as I try to keep count. Hatred burns through me with each protruding rib cage and hollowed face I pass.

If I could just get the keys…

I glance to the Skull on my left; a ring of brass keys jangles against his hip. The Skull jostles me, and my majacite crown pricks at my forehead.

Its blackened thorns hang just beneath his chin.…

This is it.I brace myself. One shot is all I’ll have. I rear my head back. My body quivers with my impending attack.

But before I can strike, we pass another cage. Everything changes when I see a familiar frame.

A boy with sturdy shoulders and cropped black hair.

My brother, Tzain.

CHAPTER FIVE

ZÉLIE

“TZAIN?”

For the first time since they locked me on to this ship, a smile spreads across my lips. Feeling returns to my legs in a rush. The sight of my brother hardens something in my gut.

Tzain sits in the corner of a cage, face buried in his hands. When I speak, his body goes rigid. He lifts his head, and his dark brown eyes meet mine.

What do they need to escape?The question I asked Inan back in the hold runs through my mind.

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