Chapter 34 #2
Move, L’?r?, move, the voice said, and L’?r? hit her hand against her head to stop the disorientating noise that echoed in her mind. ‘Leave me alone!’
By the time her sight cleared, Command’s dagger was coming down on her.
L’?r? put up her hands in front of her and screamed.
She didn’t realize what had happened until she saw Command stagger and whimper, gasping for air.
In her panic, she’d channelled her agbára and shot a blast of frost into Command’s core.
The ice blast had sunk deep into Command’s chest, oozing dark mists, spreading quickly over her body.
L’?r? rushed to grab her, holding her head in her arms.
Command’s lips trembled, her words fluttering as she tried to speak. Stuck on the first letter, she repeated, ‘I – I –’
‘Shh, don’t speak. You’ll be all right. I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry.’ L’?r? used the dagger to tear through the woman’s clothes to see the impact on her bare skin.
The dark streaks across her chest spread out like webs from her core.
L’?r? desperately brushed off the flakes of ice forming over Command’s skin. They only grew faster.
‘Channel your agbára. Let your heat warm you up!’ L’?r? pleaded. Command didn’t respond, her gasps ebbing away slowly. ‘Command! Wake up! Curse the sun, please, please, wake up!’ She shook her vigorously. ‘Help me! Somebody, help me, please! Command, wake up!’
Command opened her eyes slowly, and L’?r? leaned in close, her ears to her mouth to catch every word. ‘I wasn’t going to kill you.’
‘I know, I know, I’m sorry,’ she rubbed her face, ‘I’m so sorry, I panicked.’ She placed her hands over her head, confused and more scared than she’d ever been in her life.
Command coughed, and L’?r? hugged her tighter.
‘Please, please, somebody help me! Aunty Títí, please get up!’ she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Command hadn’t let L’?r? call her by her birth name since she was a child.
L’?r? couldn’t bear to call her Command in this moment. She couldn’t lose her.
‘You fought well,’ Command struggled to say with the briefest smile across her face. Then she said, ‘Save your father,’ and she went quiet.
Tears poured out of her eyes as she held on tightly to the woman who had loved her and trained her. She was hysterical, ‘No, no, Aunty Títí, please! Wake up! Wake up! Open your eyes! Help me! Wake up! Wake up! Open your eyes! Help me! Somebody help me!’
L’?r? screamed, her voice echoing through the air until her throat was raw, and her sobs came in strained gasps. She jumped at the sound of footsteps crunching on the ground nearby. She looked up to find Milúà staring back at her.
L’?r?’s shoulders fell and she hunched over Command’s body, too exhausted to run or fight. Too tired to do anything but cry.
‘Is she dead?’ Milúà said in an even tone, looking at the ice crystals covering half of Command’s body.
L’?r? looked up at her, frowning, then shook her head.
‘Can you help her?’ She noticed the warm glow of agbára in Milúà’s hands and knew the maiden was there for her, but she couldn’t do anything about that now.
She just wanted Command to live. ‘Please help her. Use your agbára to warm her up. There’s ice inside of her. ’
L’?r? stepped back in shock when she saw Milúà kneel beside the woman, her face filled with emotion. Ice had formed around the corners of Command’s lips, and her breath came in slow bursts of dark mist.
‘I don’t think anyone can help her,’ Milúà said, glaring at L’?r?. ‘What did you do?’
‘It was an accident. I love her,’ L’?r? sobbed.
‘So you killed her? A commander in the king’s army? What is wrong with you?’
‘It was an accident!’
Milúà scoffed.
‘Please, just try!’ L’?r? shouted, crying and sobbing.
Milúà channelled her agbára, sending a warm glow through her palms and placing them on Command’s chest. The woman groaned softly, and the ice clinging to her chest melted away.
L’?r? moved in closer and spoke softly to Command, caressing her locs. ‘Tell me what to do, tell me how to fix this.’
Command gasped as the warmth seeped into her. ‘à?írí,’ she said in a coarse, strained voice.
Tears streaming down her face, L’?r? cried out, her voice full of anguish, ‘No, no. Hold your secrets. Tell me when you are better. You’ll be fine, I promise.’
She met Milúà’s gaze. ‘She’ll be fine, right?’
Milúà glared at her with a piercing stare. ‘No, she won’t,’ she said, wiping sweat from her face and pouring her agbára into Command’s body. ‘If you don’t want her to die two deaths, take her à?írí.’ Milúà leaned in close to Command’s face. ‘You know who killed my mother. Tell me. Please.’
That last word was something L’?r? never thought she’d hear from a temple maiden. The ache in her voice as she begged was even more of a surprise.
‘You need to focus. Use more energy, please don’t let her die,’ L’?r? said to Milúà.
Milúà glared at her, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘I need to know.’ Then she returned to Command, crouching lower. ‘Please tell me. Was it ìyá-Ayé? Did that woman kill my mother? Who is my father? Command, please,’ the maiden’s voice cracked.
The ice was growing again – Milúà’s agbára wasn’t saving her.
‘Our king was murdered,’ Command’s voice broke through their sobs, and with that, her haggard breathing stopped. There was no raspy sound coming from her, no more groaning. Nothing.
They looked at each other, shocked by the secret revealed.
L’?r?’s eyes widened. ‘No, no, no,’ she mumbled as she grabbed Command’s clothes, shaking her cold body, calling her name, rocking her in her arms. L’?r? wailed loudly, ran her hand through Command’s hair and pulled out a cowrie, and pressed it into her palm. Her first cowrie. Her first life taken.
L’?r? didn’t recognize the voice that whispered in her head. It wasn’t Command’s. Command was gone. Her voice was gone. Forever. This voice was unfamiliar. Softer, calmer, sweeter. Look up, it warned.
L’?r? moved to find Milúà standing before her with her spear pointed at her face.
‘You killed her,’ Milúà said, rising with her weapon. ‘You killed her, and she was the only one who knew about my family.’
‘She gave the only secret she had. If she were the only one alive who knew your parents she’d have told you. She didn’t. So someone out there knows. Go find them and leave me alone. Find whatever answers you seek, and let her soul find rest in the city of light.’
‘You killed her before she could tell me,’ Milúà said, her voice so gritty and coarse with fury that L’?r? was reminded who exactly the maiden was. Not someone worthy of pity, but a tool for murder. And in Milúà’s eyes, L’?r? saw blood.
L’?r? poured out her rage and agbára in a blast of energy, creating a crystalized barrier that formed a dome around the maiden – trapping her within it. The structure was so thick that L’?r? could only see faint glimpses of the maiden’s shadow within.
‘You can’t hide from me. I’ll find you!’ L’?r? heard Milúà’s muffled voice shout from within the dome, as she grabbed her bag and blades and ran as fast towards Command’s horse as she could. She jumped on it and bolted out of the fourth ring.
As she raced towards the border wall, in the distance to her far right, she saw a beam of light shine from the ground up.
A few heartbeats later it shone again, and again.
Alawani. She knew that signal well. She raced towards it and hoped no one else had seen it, or at least hoped she’d reach him before Milúà did.
The sun had set when she finally found Alawani and Márùn waiting by the base of the tower-high stone wall a few miles from where she’d left Command’s body. She leapt off the horse and ran into Alawani’s embrace, her body shaking with sobs and tears streaming down her face.
‘What happened? Where were you?’ Alawani said, arms outstretched. ‘We looked everywhere for you.’
He hugged her so tightly, she felt the pain from the crack around her ribs earlier. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he breathed.
L’?r? shook her head, then pulled away. ‘We need to leave now. Anyone could have seen your signal.’
‘I told you not to do that,’ Márùn said to Alawani.
‘It worked, didn’t it?’ Alawani said.
‘How did you get away from Milúà? Before I got knocked out, I saw her standing over you.’
‘By the time we both woke up, no one was there,’ Alawani said, squeezing L’?r?’s hand.
‘She just left you there? Why would she do that?’ L’?r? asked.
‘Whatever the reason, I’m glad she’s gone,’ Alawani said. ‘Where were you? Who knocked you out?’
‘I don’t know. Someone from the capital, a senior guard maybe. I couldn’t recognize them.’ The lie came more easily than L’?r? had expected. She caught the frown that flashed across Alawani’s face and looked away. She hoped he wouldn’t pry further.
‘I’m just glad you’re okay,’ Alawani said after a brief moment.
‘How will we get through?’ L’?r? asked, looking up at the massive border wall.
Márùn placed her hand through the stone all the way to her arm. ‘This wall is protected by the magic of ìlú-Idán. Hold on to me and don’t let go. We’ll walk through the stone.’
L’?r? could hear her own gasp of disbelief as she looked around her. She’d expected a smuggler’s tunnel like there was at the third ring border wall, but this was something wildly different. The stone wall had no holes or doors, and she expected her to walk into it?
‘It’s fine,’ Alawani said to L’?r?, ‘I’ve gone through before.’