“If this reunion is over, we really should be going,” Kai says with a group of armored girls at her back. They all wear their hair in the same way, braided up in a bun. But the sides are not shaved. And where Kai’s armor is solid gold, theirs are painted with patterns in shades of jade. One, a thicker girl, with a hoop nose ring, holds a javelin as tall as the doorway. Her eyes flick from Kai to me and back to Kai.

“You may follow this corridor out,” Kai says to Bri. “My girls have cleared it.”

“She’s going with us,” I say.

“She will do no such thing,” Kai says. “I do not mean any disrespect to your father, may he rest in power… yoo t’cuzi maska—”

“Yoo t’cuzi maska,” her girls echo under their breath in unison.

“But,” Kai goes on, “we do not welcome her. She is a thief like the rest of them.”

“Kai,” Jhamal says. “Bri does not—”

“And no disrespect, but I’m not asking,” I say. “Bri’s coming.”

Bri looks between us and the girl with the nose ring clenches her grip on her weapon.

Jhamal holds out Bri’s wrist. “Do not make an issue where there is none, Kai. She is not a perpetrator anymore. Master Bati did the ritual himself.”

“Agh,” she scoffs. “Bati is old. Too forgiving. How do we even know what she says is true? That she did not agree to help them?”

The girl with the nose ring lays a hand on Kai. “We must go, saisa.”

“I-I just want to say,” Bri says. “I-I hate them as much as you do. We—”

I elbow her to shut up and she does. “You heard your sister,” I say. “Lead the way.”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE WEB, THE TUNNELS Kai’d mentioned that run under the island, stink with rot. We snake through the maze, a hollow of dirt tunnels and dusky light. Our hurrying kicks up more dust and the lights pinned to the walls are dim, like headlights in fog. The underground air is chilly, and every few moments rattling shakes the world around us, loosing bits of dust from overhead.

Kai and her girls lead the way, sticking tight together. I push, one foot in front of the other, but my knees are heavy. My feet, too. Air is ragged in my lungs. It’s been so long since I’ve fought like this.

“I saw you out there, by the way,” Kai says, beside me. “You fight like you have Yakanna in your blood.” She smirks.

“Yo kan who?”

“Yakanna.” She laughs to herself. “The Ghizoni were not always one, Jelani. When this land was united under the Chancellor, our people fled into hiding in Yiyo. Our individual clans had become secondary to just surviving. But do not be mistaken. I am of the blood of Moi Ike Yakanna, warrior goddess of Ghizon.”