Cover

By Agnes Gomillion and Available From Titan Books

BY AGNES GOMILLION AND AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

The Record Keeper

The Seed of Cain (June 2020)

Title Page

TITAN BOOKS

Copyright

The Record Keeper

Print edition ISBN: 9781789091151

E-book edition ISBN: 9781789091168

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

First edition: June 2019

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

© 2019 Agnes Gomillion

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Dedication

To Herron always, and Lana. More, to the birds and the Byrds, especially Bill and Connie.

RECORD OF THE LIFE

OF

ARIKA COBANE

AN

AMERICAN SLAVE

WRITTEN BY HERSELF

“To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery … If there be one crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly rust off the slave’s chain.”

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

EDITED BY M. LARK PARADISE

SOUTH CAROLINA COLONY

c.1739 A.D.

Preface

PREFACE

Dear Reader,

The following record is no fiction. I am aware that many of my adventures will seem incredible to you. And yet, they are true. I have not concealed names or places that you might substantiate the facts as they come to pass. I cannot know where or when you are. If you are Kongo or friends of the English. Will you keep my words or toss them away? I cannot know. And yet, like any good Kongo, I hope my story, faithfully told, will persist. I will speak it out onto these pages so, even when I die, my story will live on. And even when these pages die, breaking into dust, my story will live. Now in a book, now in a letter, now on a breath. Now in a song, now in a dance, now in the sea. Now, I cannot imagine. Such things are best left to the one true God, Soltice.

Arika Cobane

Part One: The School House

The Rebel

THE REBEL

SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA 170 A.E., AFTER THE END