Chapter 34
ìlú-Idán, Fourth Ring, Kingdom of Oru
L’?R?
L’?r? opened her eyes to the bright sunlight, and felt its heat radiating off her skin.
She moved to sit up, but her body was too heavy and too sore.
She slumped back, and her head hit a wooden panel.
Groaning, she rolled to her side. She was in the back of an open wagon.
The taste of dust and sand on her lips told her she was still in Oru.
Gathering all her strength, she heaved her body up and looked around.
She was in a clearing surrounded by rocks on all sides.
In the distance, a horse was tied to a tall shrub; farther past it, she could see the mighty wall that divided the rings.
L’?r? hoped that the wall she saw was the border into the fifth ring, and that Command hadn’t taken her farther from her destination.
‘Alawani,’ she called out, straining her voice. ‘Alawani, where are you? Command, are you there?’
L’?r? climbed out of the wagon and roamed the stony grounds.
She checked her pocket, quickly tossing everything out to the ground until she found it.
She held the hourglass up to her eye level.
The sand had reduced significantly. A wave of panic surged through her as the looming boulders surrounding her seemed to inch closer.
Her breath stopped short, and her entire body tensed when she heard her name.
She swung round to see Command’s tall figure coming towards her.
L’?r? heard the chimes in her hair before she saw her face.
‘Good, you’re up,’ Command said flatly. ‘Now let’s go. I can’t drag you all the way to the capital on this thing.’
‘The capital?’
‘I’m taking you home.’
‘Command, I can’t go back,’ L’?r? said.
‘If you turn yourself in, they will release your father and Kyà,’ Command said briskly.
L’?r? stepped back from her. ‘àlùfáà-àgbà will never release them.’
‘It’s not up to him. The Lord Regent sent me to bring you home. It’s his word that matters, not the Elder Priest’s.’
A few light beads ago, L’?r? might have said yes.
She trusted no one more than she trusted Command.
But àlùfáà-àgbà hadn’t told Milúà to stop hunting them, even after the deal to give up her agbára.
He wouldn’t even give her a chance to honour her side of the bargain.
She wasn’t going back. Not now. Not when she was so close to doing what her father had begged her to do. Escape and survive.
‘Where is Alawani?’ L’?r? said, breathless. ‘Did you leave him with Milúà? She’ll kill him.’
‘You think a maiden of the Holy Order whose life is bound to her priest will kill an àlùfáà? L’?r?, please, you’re smarter than this,’ Command said. ‘Anyway, my mission is you. And you need time apart from him to understand the situation you’re in. You need to come with me.’
‘I need to go back to him. He needs me.’
‘Do not move from that spot, L’?r?. That boy does not need you,’ Command replied firmly. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Did you know my mother?’ L’?r? said abruptly. ‘If you want to talk, that’s what I want to talk about.’
Command’s shoulders slumped and before she could speak L’?r? went on, ‘You knew my mother and you didn’t tell me. I’ve spent nearly every day for gods know how many first suns with you. Every night you could have told me, and you didn’t.’
‘I chose not to tell you. To save you from walking the same path she did,’ Command said, fuming.
‘Your mother had friends in high places, and enemies in even higher places, and when she chose to defy the gods, she died by their hands. I didn’t want that for you.
I was trying to protect you. I am trying to protect you now. I love you. Can’t you see that?’
L’?r?’s eyes stung with tears. Those were words she never thought she’d hear. ‘I love you, Command,’ her voice hitched, ‘but I can’t do it. I can’t go back. What if you come with me?’
Command’s eyes darkened. ‘The Lord Regent didn’t give that option.’
‘So you’re not helping me. You’re kidnapping me.’
‘L’?r?, you’ve caused so much damage,’ Command’s voice shook with anger.
‘You don’t understand!’
‘What is there to understand? Your father is in a dungeon awaiting the executioner’s axe.’
‘He is not my real father!’
‘Of course he’s not your father, L’?r? – not by blood. But he is your father in every way that matters.’
‘You knew?’ L’?r? said, her voice a mere whisper. ‘You knew who I was this whole time.’
Command’s jaw clenched, ‘I don’t care what you found out. Whatever that man did, he did to protect you. How can you not see that? You’re alive now because of him. I look at you now, and I don’t see the warrior I trained, I see –’
‘Everyone in my life has been lying to me. I didn’t think you would too!’
‘Our lies saved your life,’ Command said and unsheathed her sword. ‘You’re coming with me back to the capital.’
‘They’ll kill me.’
‘Come with me and I promise the Lord Regent will keep you, your father and K?yà safe. He assured me of this.’
‘Command, please listen to me,’ L’?r? begged.
‘You’ve changed the fate of so many because you couldn’t accept that boy’s destiny.
When you became his friend,’ Command grimaced as though the word was bitter in her mouth, ‘I told you. I warned you and begged you to let him go, but no. You always have to be right. Everything always has to be on your terms.’
As Command spoke, her words stirred the air around her. L’?r? felt the pain and anger pouring out of her commander.
‘They’d have killed Alawani,’ L’?r? said, her voice shaking.
‘And how do you know that? I’m starting to think you were never even afraid he might die. You were afraid he would live and you wouldn’t have the chance to be with him.’
‘That’s a lie!’ L’?r? shouted back.
‘Are you in love with him?’
L’?r? lowered her gaze and Command roared, launching herself at her. L’?r? jumped out of the way. She realized that she couldn’t reach her blades, which were in the back of the wagon. She was in trouble.
L’?r? weaved and dodged Command’s attacks, and her muscles burned with each step until her vision grew hazy.
Feeling at a disadvantage, she channelled her agbára.
She remembered her training with ìyá-Idán this time and tried to focus on the heat coming off the surrounding rocks, not the heat coming off Command.
After moving as far as she could from Command, she closed her eyes for a single heartbeat to concentrate on challenging the energy around her.
Eerily, it was still Command’s voice she heard in her mind when she fought. Even now that she fought the woman in the flesh, the voice in her head directed her moves as it always did. Watch out!
Command’s strike came quickly, and L’?r? caught the edge of the blade in her palms just before it struck. She screamed as the blade tore through flesh, and she poured her agbára into it. The blade froze over, turning brittle. It shattered in her hands.
Command stepped back, her eyes wide with disbelief. ‘Gods, you are one of them.’ She took another step back. ‘So this was Mremí’s secret.’
L’?r? inched closer and withdrew her agbára but didn’t get the chance to reply before Command punched her right in the face, and she fell back flat. The sharp, searing pain made her face feel like it was being pierced by needles. You should’ve seen that coming. Focus, the voice in her head said.
Command lifted her by her collar, and L’?r?’s feet dangled beneath her. She struggled to break free, and Command threw her against the ground. L’?r? heard a crack, but as heat and pain spread throughout her body, she couldn’t tell what had broken.
You’re losing. Always losing. Get up and fight.
She wouldn’t survive this by evading the fight that was clearly not going to be over until Command had her back on that wagon.
L’?r? struggled with the decision to fight Command.
Her Command. The closest thing to a mother she’d ever had.
But Command wasn’t backing down, and L’?r? wasn’t ready to give up.
Even as Command leered at her now, she realized she was right.
She wasn’t behaving like the trained warrior she was.
She hadn’t for a long time now. A fight had come to her, and she was nothing if not well-trained.
If Command’s remarks to Milúà were anything to go by, even she wasn’t expecting L’?r? to give up, no matter how hard the fight became.
As Command prepared to take her on with her fists, L’?r? shuffled around the clearing.
With high rocks on all sides, it felt much like the pits of Gbàgede.
If nothing had changed, this would have been the fight she’d have to win to be declared ready for Ogun.
And she was ready. L’?r? faked a blow, and as Command ducked, she struck the side of her face with her foot.
Good! Go now, hit her again before she’s ready! the voice prompted.
Command stumbled back but didn’t fall. She spat out blood from her lips and cracked her neck. ‘Now we are talking.’
L’?r?’s heart raced as she saw the blood, and she felt her determination slipping away. ‘Please, Command, I don’t want to fight you.’
But Command wasn’t listening. She launched at L’?r? again, throwing high kicks at her.
Jump. Get out of reach! the voice shouted.
L’?r? felt the world slow as she bobbed and slid out of each kick’s reach. Her feet shuffled through the loose rocks on the ground. She was panting heavily by the end, her arms aching with exhaustion as she blocked each strike.
‘Surrender, L’?r?, don’t make me ask you again!’ Command said.
‘I – I can’t. They won’t spare him if I go back. They will kill us both! You don’t –’ she heaved, ‘you don’t know the truth.’
Command lunged again. L’?r?’s reflexes had slowed, so when Command reached for her, she caught her hair, pulled her close, punched her stomach, and tossed her to the ground.
L’?r? groaned and attempted to stand, the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears as she tried to keep the world from spinning.