Page 133 of Firstborn of the Sun
The first time her agbára had broken free, it had been something like an out-of-body experience, watching herself do something she couldn’t understand. But at this moment, she knew exactly what she wanted to do, she only hoped to not die in the process.
She unleashed a beam of light and frost towards Tofa. As her light passed through the glass storm coming down onher, they froze and burst into soft flakes of ice. L’?r? channelled her agbára at Tofa again, engulfing him in a dome of ice so thick she couldn’t see his figure within. Alawani picked up a slow pace, limping towards her. Within moments, Tofa blasted through the dome, sending ice shards flying in all directions.
The loud crash made her jump, and Tofa was panting heavily when she turned to him. The dome was completely gone. Around her were sharp ice splinters littered across the ground. Behind her, Alawani was on the floor, groaning in pain. A shard of ice stuck to his side. She gasped, and then bolted to him, her feet flying across the floor.
Angry, L’?r? growled at Tofa, and sparks kindled at her fingertips. Her screams were drowned out by the cracks of lightning and the roaring of thunder. All she could think about was that if she could take energy from the sands around her, she could also channel the energy from the lightning that sparked nearer with each explosion. Until this moment, L’?r? hadn’t considered that if the stories Ìyá-Idán had told her were true, and she really was born before Tofa, then she would be not just as powerful as he was but more so.
She raised her hands and shone her light into the sky. She reached for the energy in the storm, and when the next bolt of lightning struck, she felt an explosion inside her core. It rippled through her in an incredible wave that made the hairs on her body stand. The energy raged inside her, and when she pointed her hands at Tofa, the shock in his eyes showed that he knew what was coming. Sparks flew, thunder roared around them, and the crown heir was blasted out of her sight. Even in her anger, L’?r? felt the urge to check and make sure she hadn’t killed him but instead she rushed towards Alawani.
‘No, no, no!’ She fell next to Alawani and lifted him to sit up against her body. He groaned with every move. L’?r?reached for her blades and awoke the heat energy in them by speaking the old tongue. She placed it over the shard and melted it off. Blood and water oozed from the wound.
She winced as she pressed the blade over the wound to cauterize it, and Alawani let out an animal-like growl that made her shudder. The haze got thicker with smoke and ash and a dark overcast cloud formed all around them. L’?r? tried to breathe through it but every breath burned. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to stop a fit of coughing.
‘We need to go – now!’
L’?r? turned towards the voice. ‘Rmí!’ She had never been happier to see someone in her life. Rmí pulled up beside her and dismounted the mighty war horse he’d ridden into the graveyard. ‘Alawani is hurt. We need to carry him,’ she said.
Together, they placed him across the horse, then L’?r? jumped on, and Rmí climbed behind her, firmly gripping the reins. L’?r? felt his body tense around her as he struggled to stay saddled on the horse.
‘Hold on,’ Rmí said into her ear and kicked the horse, sending them racing towards the final wall out of the kingdom of Oru.
The graveyard had stony terrain and large red rocks, which only got bigger as they rode the half-mile between them and the wall. The wind picked up, and much of the sand got into L’?r?’s eyes as the horse raced on, but she didn’t care. She was determined to reach that wall. Her best friend wouldn’t die, not on her watch. One way or the other, they were leaving the kingdom.
They reached the base of the wall by some miracle and as soon as they jumped off the horse, it ran away in a frenzy, frightened by the lightning that struck the wall.
‘You came back for us?’ L’?r? said as she put Alawani to rest against the stone wall. The north wind blew from theother side of the wall so the closer they stayed to the base on this side, the less sandy it was. Just enough to keep their eyes open.
Rmí shuddered as another bolt of lightning struck the wall. He looked up and closed his fist in the air as if catching the wind. He opened it to gaze at the sand in his palm. ‘You were losing. Quite terribly too,’ he said plainly. ‘What’s the plan to get to the other side of this wall?’
L’?r? gazed at the heavy stones that formed the wall all the way up to the sky. ‘He was supposed to blast through,’ she said, looking at Alawani, leaving the rest unspoken.
‘What happened to him?’ Rmí asked.
L’?r? exhaled a deep, heavy sigh. ‘He was impaled,’ she breathed, holding back the sobs that burned in her throat.
‘Why did you take it out? You could have killed him,’ Rmí said, walking towards Alawani, who now lay flat on the ground.
‘There’s nothing you can do. He needs a healer …’ L’?r? hadn’t finished speaking when a thought crossed her mind. She did know a healer.
‘What is it?’ Rmí asked.
‘I just remembered something.’ She quickly loosened her braid and reached deep into her sand-filled hair until she found it. The vial Ìyá-Idán had given her.
Alawani groaned as she emptied the contents of the vial into his mouth. Holding his head up, she forced him to swallow every last drop, ignoring the pain that hummed in her own body.
His wound began to close, and her eyes widened at the sight. The blood stopped flowing. And in a few moments, his breathing was already less laboured. A scar remained, but soon the wound was fully healed.
Rmí didn’t seem surprised in the slightest. Perhaps he had seen the effects of such a potion before. ‘We still need a way out,’ he said, squinting into the storm. ‘I can’t get caught again. Could he do it, now his wound is healed?’
‘I doubt it – he’s been fighting for ages; I don’t think he has much power left. Can you do it? Blast a hole in the wall? It’s literally the only thing between us and freedom at this point.’
Rmí shook his head. ‘No. I have no agbára oru.’
L’?r? froze. ‘What? What do you mean?’
His words sent a pang deep into her chest. She felt a tightness and seemed to hold on tighter with every breath. Until that moment, she believed she was the only one in the entire kingdom without agbára oru. And here, this boy was claiming the same. She looked back at Alawani, who had regained consciousness and now sat upright against the wall.
‘I’m not from this kingdom,’ Rmí said slowly, as if cautious.
