by Cassie Wolf
Jocelin exhaled with relief as he stepped back and paced back towards the bed, before slumping down and putting his head between his hands. When he looked back at her, she had a hand outstretched towards him, waiting for him to reach out to her. He felt ashamed as he clutched her fingertips and pulled her to sit beside him.
“I wouldn’t harm you, Joce,” he said.
“Atsu, I see in your eyes every day you wouldn’t. If I believed you to be that type of male, I would have had you killed.”
Atsu nervously grinned and trapped her hand between his palms. “I know. I’ve never spoken of it before, not even with my sister. She still believes it was an accident with the cooking fire.”
Jocelin’s bright green eyes sparkled as she rested her hand behind his head and scratched at his neck. “Tell me. I won’t tell a soul.”
Hesitantly, Atsu squeezed her hand. His leg shook from the memories he had suppressed for so long. But the moment his eyes met hers, he knew he could trust her, and that he would tell her everything. “I was only eight. I had a few siblings… can barely even remember how many now. One was a baby, Adana she was called, and she had been born not too long before.” He chewed on his lip and tightened his eyes shut as a clear, high-pitched scream flashed in his mind.
Jocelin leant forward and cupped his face in her palms, gently tilting him to look at her. She softly spoke to him. “You survived. Don’t think about what happened to them. You know, Atsu, they are at peace now. Focus on Jasari, how do you know it was him?”
His heart hammered as he tried to clear his mind of the screaming, the smell of burning flesh, the beam crushing his siblings. But with Jocelin’s presence calm in front of him, he was beginning to be able to sway past the smoke. “It was late. It was so late in the night. We never cooked when it was that dark, our last meal was always before sunset and the fire would be out before we went to bed.” Atsu took another deep breath when his skin flushed. “Jasari… he was at the back of our hut with warriors. That was the only reason I was awake. I thought nothing of it… warriors were always on patrol.”
Jocelin nodded, her eyes gleaming as she kept a firm grip on him, keeping him from panic. “Is that why?”
Atsu shook his head. “When Inari had to take… the bodies, I was still in the Chief’s hut. It was near morning and I wanted to see my mother but Inari wouldn’t let me. I snuck out where the… the corp- my mother was kept but Jasari was already there.” He sniffed as he fought back the thoughts of when he was a boy. Terror was taking over once more and he glanced around, looking for an escape as his eyes filled with tears he hadn’t cried in a decade. “I can’t… I can’t do this.”
Jocelin pulled him to face her. She gave him a smile and ran her thumb over his lip. “You can, Atsu. Tell me, tell me what you saw.”
He leant his forehead against hers and blinked as his eyes burnt. “He was kneeling over my mother. I wanted to kill him. I was going to run in and do it but then… I heard him. He was sobbing. So I stood by the door and watched as he cried over her remains. That’s when I heard him.”
“What did he say?”
Atsu shook his head as he remembered the words as clear as day. “‘I never wanted you to die Zura. I have turned you into ash when I only wanted you by my side.’”
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX -
Inari had become worn to the bone as the Shadow tribe grew restless. Naked women had found the courage to strike back at their mates, children were stealing crops and men were frequently forcing themselves on any female they wanted.
There was an eerie feel to the village, as though an invisible mist had fallen and taken over even the soberest of minds. He walked away from the graveyard after giving the rites after yet another avoidable death. Bee, the bubbly woman who sold alcohol to the tribe, had been aggressively attacked and battered when she refused to give a man more drink than he could handle. The scrap had involved eight men, even spilling out onto the path, before she was punched to death and passed in the arms of her eldest son.
Out of respect for their mother, they had closed the drinking hut for the day and had been ordered by Inari to serve no more than two cups to each customer. He had noticed that men and women under the influence of drink became easily angered and often believed themselves to be invincible, even to the guards on patrol.
As he walked through the Chief’s hut and went by the troubled shape of Jasari, who had done nothing more but stare into space of late, he wondered exactly what was going on inside his mind. In the past, Inari had usually been told most of Jasari’s plans, but he had been kept in the dark about their contact with the Whites up until he was requested to mark the leather to send. When he asked what was going to happen at this “meeting”, Jasari would simply ignore him and order him to do as he was told.
The witch doctor got to the door of Masika’s quarters for his usual check that the infant was growing as it should. Over the months, the girl had eaten very little and at one point she had collapsed and had to be force-fed fluid. They had had to rope her to the bed, and even then she tried to scratch and bite at every garasum or healer who approached with meals until Inari gave her strong herbal drugs to make her too weak to resist. Since then, the unborn had become stronger and in some ways, Inari believed it was stronger than she was. With her unexplained bruises and vacant stare, he was saddened to see the forlorn woman she become.
He unlocked the door and walked inside. As usual, the stove and table looked as if they hadn’t been touched. The clean clothes that Kanzi had brought in were still piled high on the side and the bowls glistened from lack of use.
With a sigh, he called out. “Masi? Masi, I’m here to check on the baby.”
No reply. Instinct twisted his gut as he looked around. She had been told Dia wouldn’t be back for a few days… surely she wouldn’t?
Inari ran to the bedroom, his hands trembling as he glanced around. The sheets were crumpled together as if she had only just got out of bed. Her used, filth-ridden clothes covered the floor, and there was no indication where she was.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he went to burst through the bathroom. The door was jammed. The witch doctor pressed his ear against the door. There wasn’t a sound.
“Masika? Masi, open the door!” He called and used all his weight to try and force it open. With only silence as a response, he glanced around and spotted the wooden chair next to the open window. He dragged it over and smashed it at the door with as much strength as his frail body could muster. After a couple of swings, whatever Masi had lodged on the other side fell away and the door flew wide open.
In the centre of the cosy room, the pine bath was filled with mucky water. The floor was stained where it had dripped over the sides. Inari mumbled prayers to the Gods as he sped over, nearly slipping on the wet.
“Masika!” he yelled. Beneath the grey, speckled liquid, she lay with her eyes closed. Her locks floated almost majestically above her while her naked, bruised body had turned ashen in colour. Her lips were nearing blue beneath, but despite all of it, she appeared peaceful, almost as if she had a slight smile.
Inari scooped the heavy weight of her lifeless body into his arms. With gritted teeth, he struggled to lift her over the edge and toppled on the floor beside her.
“Come on, Masi,” he whispered while he checked her pulse. With no blood pumping, he hastily spun her to the side and placed one arm beneath her chest and pushed down as hard as he could, patting her back while sadness settled in his gut.
Every moment dragged as he attempted to wake her up. He offered every prayer he knew and his arms ached for him to stop. But he knew he couldn’t. He couldn’t let her give up.
With a rasped choke, Masika opened her eyes wide and water spluttered out of her mouth. Inari looked up to the ceiling and thanked the Gods while he eased some of his pressure and helped her to cough out the liquid.
Masika spluttered and gagged, her breath struggling to come back to her while her mind still swam.
/> “We need to get you warm,” Inari said and helped her to her feet. The pair stumbled into the bedroom, where Masi sat on the bed while Inari wrapped multiple fur blankets around her shoulders.
She shivered, her breathing easier. Her skin was wrinkled, especially in her fingers and toes. Her limbs were cold as ice and felt leaden.
Inari rushed back in with a cup of hot water and sat beside her, urging her to sip. “Masika, what the hell do you think you were doing?!”
She gave him a faint grin. In the water, she had sensed the coldness creeping over her body. For months she had practised fighting her natural instincts to search for survival. Each time she became heavy from the tip of toes to her fingers, her heart would race and drive her to come back to the surface, to the life she hated once more. Not today.
Inari shook his head and took her freezing hand in his. “Masi, you have to be strong. Soon you will be a mother. You will have innocent eyes looking to you for how to live this life.”
Masika drew her empty stare to Inari. “The baby hasn’t moved for days. It’s dead.”
The witch doctor flinched at the words, but he helped her lie back on the bed, then brushed away the furs and pressed his fingers down around her belly until he could feel its outline.
“It’s not dead, Masi. It just doesn’t have much room left to move.” Resting his ear on her stomach, he nodded. “It is definitely still with us.”
Masika feigned a hum of concern as Inari covered her back up with the blankets. He paused as he noticed the plum and crimson hand marks on her thigh, trailing between her legs.
“Masi, do you need me to tell Dia to be gentler?”
She laughed lightly and shook her head. “No.”
“I think I should anyway.”
“Go ahead. The bruises will be news to him,” she mumbled.
Inari narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“They aren’t from Dia. Just… please, Inari, leave me be.” She turned over.
“Who are they from, Masi?”
“Just forget it Inari. Please.”
The witch doctor sighed. “I will send your garasum to stay with you overnight, Masi. I will come back in the morning to check on you again.”
He tucked the fur blankets up beneath her chin to keep her warm, then walked away.
Watching her grow as if she was his own, it killed Inari to leave the room but he knew he had to. He didn’t want to risk angering Jasari with the way the Chief had been recently.
Inari found Kanzi sleeping on the ground in the gardens and quickly told her what had happened. The girl looked near tears as she listened to him speak about Masi’s attempt on her life and ran off in a blur.
Walking back down the hall, Inari saw the door slam shut as Kanzi shot through, and there at the end stood Jasari, seemingly frozen on the spot.
“Jasari?”
“Why is that garasum going into see Masika?” he spat, his eyes widened with sudden fury.
“She isn’t feeling too well so I asked her to be by Masika’s side overnight. Did you need to speak with her?”
“Hmph. My son told her not to let anyone in. She let you in?”
Inari hesitated before answering. “She wasn’t answering so I went in to check on her. Come on, Jasari you can see she is about to bear her child. I wasn’t going to just leave her.”
“You should have,” Jasari hissed with his lip curled.
“Very well, I won’t go back to check on her then. At least get a healer to-”
Jasari raised his hand and shook his head. “Go.”
Inari took a couple of steps back. “I was going, Chief. I will see-”
“No, Inari. Leave. You are exiled from the tribe.”
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN -
As soon as the warm, golden sun broke across the sky with the glimmering rays of a new day, Atsu, Pazade, Jocelin and her sister Nyah set off. The Chief made certain that only his best and most well-prepared warriors accompanied them, most of whom kept to a circle around the sisters, isolated from the vanguard in case it was an attack.
After Atsu had told Jocelin the words he heard Jasari say to his dead mother, a part of him felt too exposed. She now knew more about him than anyone else in the world and that was not an easy trust to earn. He found himself growing concerned that maybe she had manipulated him into confessing, despite the comfort he’d taken from her warmth and soothing.
“Atsu, you grew up within their tribe. I know most of the underhanded tricks Jasari is capable of but I would be a fool to not ask: do you believe he would be dim-witted enough to ambush us?” Pazade asked as they strode up the hill, packs heavy with supplies.
“No. He hasn’t got the warriors for it, nor for a war. To be honest, I have no fucking idea what he is trying to pull.”
“Hmm. I put the warriors back at the village on full alert as a precautionary measure. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and raze it while I wasn’t there.”
Atsu nodded and glanced over his shoulder at Jocelin in the distance behind them with her escort. With her mask back on and crimson robes flowing to the ground, he couldn’t help but smile at the majestic way she walked. He turned back to find Pazade smirking. “What?”
“It is nice to see such care towards my daughter. It reassures me for when I am gone.” Pazade grinned and offered Atsu some of his flask.
Atsu shook his head, feeling his cheeks flush. He had tried the alcohol once but as soon as he took his first swig, he was clicking his lips in disgust as it burnt down his gullet and left a thick layer of bitterness over his teeth. “Just doing what I need to.”
The meeting point was in sight and some of the warriors pulled their sacks from their backs to ready the group’s overnight tents. They could see members of the Shadow tribe not too far away, although it surprised both Pazade and Atsu that they were so few in number.
Pazade turned to the group and ordered them to stop before he cleared his throat. “It seems the Shadows have only a quarter of the men we have brought … so I want half of you to come with me and Atsu, the other half to set up camp and keep watch over Jocelin and Nyah. If I return and either of them have a scratch, know you will be a sacrifice to Father Sun Solianga.”
Atsu threw down his items and gave Jocelin a smile before he caught back up with Pazade. The Chieftain had quickened his pace and was striding up the hill at the head of his warriors. “Are we not resting first?”
“No. I want to know what he wants and then we can enjoy the night beneath the stars out here before we return,” Pazade replied.
“Shouldn’t we plan?”
“There is nothing to plan. He has hardly brought any men; we have double his force just with us.”
The Whites arrived at the top and looked out across where jungle trees once stood. Once the pride and joy of the Blood-and-Stone tribe, it was now an empty space beneath their toes, full of history. The Stones had tried to overtake both the Whites and Shadows through force and the clash of spears, but failed when their scouts were paid off to give false reports of the enemies’ numbers. At the end of the war, when all had crumbled to ash, the leaders of the Sun and Moon tribes, all the way in the north, had to decide who got the land. By right it was granted to the Whites, but since then no one had rebuilt on the vast, fertile space.
Pazade, Atsu and the warriors stood waiting at the top, watching the other tribe’s poorly-constructed tents bobble as people darted in and out in a hurry. Dia finally emerged from one and signalled to his men to walk with him.
Atsu felt his blood begin to bubble the moment he saw him. Everything his family had put him through, all the torture and all humiliation, but Atsu knew that since he got back at Dia fairly, they couldn’t handle it. He despised the family with a passion and if it were up to him, he would have them wiped from existence.
“You improved his face it seems.” Pazade sniggered quietly.
Atsu forced a grin behind gritted teeth as the burns and crooked nose became clearer with every s
tep Dia took. He didn’t realise how badly he had messed up his face, but when he saw it, he felt a stab of pride.
Dia cleared his throat as he stepped forward and went to speak before Pazade raised his hand.
“Don’t give us false pleasantries. What the fuck do you want, boy?” the Chief said.
Dia shuffled awkwardly on the spot before he rummaged through his pouch and threw a beaded necklace covered in speckles of blood on the floor. “My father thought it would be best to tell you.”
Atsu drew his eyes to the familiar beads and felt his heart race. He saw Pazade glance at him out of the corner of his eye.
“Tell us what?” the Chief asked.
Atsu shook his head. Kneeling on the ground, he carefully hooked his fingertips beneath the necklace and lifted it from the dusty floor.
Dia cleared his throat once more and as Atsu shot his eyes in Dia’s direction he stood like a frightened child. Last time he had seen Atsu, he was thin but was still able to pin him to the ground. Now he had filled into a proper man, strong, healthy and with colour flushing his skin.
“Well?” Pazade asked with a bored tone.
“Masika is…” Dia stammered.
Atsu’s blood vessels were on the verge of bursting as he waited for the final word to come out. “What?! Where the fuck is she?!”
“Dead,” Dia finally said.
The instant that word hit his ears, Atsu felt his adrenaline soar. With fire burning in his belly, he roared from the back of his throat as he launched himself at Dia, “I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!”
Pazade and his warriors grabbed his arms before he was able to make contact. Dia took several paces back, shaking like a terrified pup on the spot.