Page 117 of Firstborn of the Sun
‘Why is there a night market?’ L’?r? asked.
‘People here spend daylight working for the overlords, so everything happens at night. Their day has just begun.’
‘Overlords?’ L’?r? said, looking from Márùn to Alawani.
‘I don’t think this is the time for this,’ Alawani said quietly.
‘Those monstrous buildings you saw closer to the borderswere prison houses,’ Márùn said. ‘The fifth ring has hundreds of those all around the state from north to south. Each ward has an overlord.’
‘Why so many? Who’s in there?’ L’?r? asked, and noticed the glance between Márùn and Alawani. Again.
‘Everyone and anyone. From those who dabbled in old magic to those who defy the crown or the Holy Order to those who can’t pay their taxes or debt. Everyone sent here from any ring in the kingdom is serving a life sentence. They go in as people and return as dust.’
L’?r?’s eyes bulged in disbelief.
‘How come you don’t know this?’
‘I’d never – never crossed the border of Ìlú-Ìm before,’ L’?r? said, defending herself.
‘Even then, don’t you read? It is written.’
L’?r? had read. Or at least she thought she’d read all there was to know about the kingdom of Oru, but every moment she spent outside of Baba-Ìtàn’s library proved that reality differed greatly from the books back there.
‘You didn’t tell me about this,’ L’?r? said to Alawani, who had been to all ends of the kingdom on his adventures.
‘There was no point,’ he said plainly. ‘It’s just more people my father promised to help and didn’t.’
‘Don’t they try to escape?’ L’?r? turned to Márùn.
Márùn snickered. ‘Where would they go? They’re trapped between the magic border of Ìlú-Idán that we just passed through and the heavily secured walls of Ìlú-Òdì, where we’re headed.’ Márùn pointed behind them in the direction of the wall they had come from. ‘That wall has only two gates, and they are on the King’s Road – one on this side and the other on the south side. As you experienced coming in, old magic protects that wall, and it’s monitored by the Holy Order. Only those who know the words and the waycan pass through.’ She sighed. ‘If that wall ever falls, it’ll spit out the bodies that tried to cross and got lost in its stones. There’s nowhere to run, so no one does.’
L’?r?’s life back in Ìlú-Ìm suddenly seemed less brutal. At least she hadn’t had to work for overlords till her bones dropped. Back home, if she stayed indoors protected by books and a father who loved her, she could always pretend that all was well in the world. Once, she thought she had the worst fate in all of Oru. Now, looking at these people hunched over from hard labour, she knew she was wrong.
Márùn pulled L’?r? along as she slowed. ‘This way, we need to get some food.’
‘No, we can’t stop,’ L’?r? said.
‘Let me give you some advice. When you’re on the run and you see food, eat it. You don’t know when next you’ll get a meal. And we don’t know what army Milúà is bringing with her. I don’t think the Holy Order is going for stealth anymore,’ Márùn said.
‘She’s right,’ Alawani added.
L’?r? nodded and kept running alongside her. Everything was a blur in L’?r?’s mind. She couldn’t tell what parts were real and which were nightmares she conjured in her head. She was moving and speaking, but it was like she was outside herself. Command’s face kept flashing in her mind, and L’?r? knew that face would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Márùn stopped a few times to buy food from different sellers. She returned with mounds of bread and balls of àkàrà – golden fritters made from blended beans, wrapped in paper from torn books. For their reserves Márùn got roasted yams which would last many days before going bad. They ate as they walked, not deviating from their mission.
L’?r? grimaced at the oil-soaked sheets wrapping the food. She knew just how much work was done to get that singlesheet from plant to book, and here it was, soaking in fried oil and serving as a plate. Baba-Ìtàn would be horrified.
Márùn led them to a small house at the end of a dark street. ‘Wait here,’ she said to them as she entered the clay roundhouse with a woven raffia mat at its entrance in place of a door.
‘Hurry,’ L’?r? whispered as they watched her disappear into the darkness.
All around them were large clay huts and houses separated at even distances from each other. More than L’?r? had ever seen in a single location. The fifth ring clearly saw very little of the kingdom’s wealth. She wrapped herself in her cloak as the desert cold seeped into her bones. Peering into the house, she saw nothing but flickers of candlelight. Her fingers rubbed against the obsidian beads Ìyá-Idán had given her, and she wondered if she could still go back for Baba-Ìtàn and Kyà. She’d been more confident when all the Holy Order wanted from her was her agbára. She’d had something to bargain with. But now, with everyone thinking she’d magically transformed from the coward’s daughter into the heir to the throne, L’?r? knew if she went back, she’d never get out.
‘Do you think we’ll make it out?’ L’?r? said quietly.
‘We will. I promise,’ Alawani said, meeting her gaze. He placed a kiss on her forehead and she melted into his arms. ‘Do you still have the hourglass?’
L’?r? nodded and showed it to him.
