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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

ZéLIE

T HE VERY SIGHT OF the emperor quiets all sound. He moves with the might of a mountain. His footsteps thunder across the emerald brick.

The emperor shares the brown skin of his people. His dark hair sits in a low bun. A gold chest plate rests on his bare shoulders, decorating his body with rays like the sun.

“ O que é isto? ” His deep voice rumbles through the medallion.

What is this? The words fill my head. The emperor examines us from the top of the stairs, square face set into a frown.

I force my breaths to still, tuning into the medallion as Koa explains what happened in the jungle. Koa hands the emperor the bronze compass. I watch as he inspects the glass face. The moment Koa points to me, blood rushes into my ears.

Think, Zélie. The moment I’ve been waiting for races at me. But I’m not prepared to respond. How do I explain what we’ve escaped?

Why would this man believe a single word I say?

The emperor walks forward, and the entire city echoes with his descent. When he makes it to the bottom, I stare at the cracks in the emerald steps, unable to meet his face. My throat constricts when the emperor stops in front of where I am kneeling.

“ Look at me ,” he orders.

I struggle to follow the simple command. The thought of looking into the emperor’s face feels like looking straight into the sun.

“Look at me if you can understand.”

I clench my fists and force myself to look up. The emperor’s pale green gaze burns straight through my soul. Anger radiates off him like heat.

“ You speak our tongue? ” he challenges me. Somehow I know that no response will suffice. Even still, I pull from the medallion, allowing it to feed me their words.

“ There is a girl ,” I start slowly. The emperor’s jaw sets at the sound of his own tongue. “ An enemy approaches— ”

The emperor holds up his hand.

“Kill the outsiders.”

The emperor’s order comes so quick, I don’t have a chance to react. He turns on his heel, traveling up the stairs. The people roar at my back. Two warriors come forward, holding my arms. Koa stands at the top of the stairs.

He removes the obsidian cleaver from his skin.

“ Please! Mercy! ” I shout at the emperor’s back. Tzain’s muffled screams ring as Koa descends. The warrior raises his cleaver in the air. The world around me spins. I smell the sharp cut of ash.

Then I see her .

The girl runs down the stairs, orange skirts swirling behind her long legs. Golden bangles jingle around her brown ankles. A jewel-studded scarf wraps over her long black braid.

Her eyes are so luminescent, they sparkle like diamonds, so much brighter than what I saw in my visions. Determination fills her as she lunges forward. She grabs Koa’s cleaver with her bare hands before he can strike me down.

“Mae’e!” the emperor shouts. The entire crowd gasps as the girl’s blood spills, but she doesn’t let go of the blade.

The ancient medallion boils in my skin.

“ Men are coming ,” I shout at the emperor. “ They’re coming to take her. ”

B LOOD POUNDS IN MY EARS . I wait in their town circle. The moment I declared the Skulls were coming for the girl they call Mae’e, the whole of the city broke out in a frenzy.

Now the entire civilization watches in the seats above, hundreds of thousands forming new mountains around me. The emperor sits on a dais, surrounded by Koa and his warriors. Tzain and Amari are forced to watch from a cell carved into the mountain’s side.

Vines bind me to the stone seat in the center. Dried blood soaks the rock floor. The seconds of life I have left feel like they’re slowly ticking away. With nowhere else to turn, I close my eyes and pray.

I followed the ancient voice’s command. I turned down the opportunity to sail back to my homeland. I found the girl I saw in the seas.

If they kill me now, what will it all mean?

The crowds roar from the stands. I don’t need the medallion to decipher the calls for my head.

The way they react to us makes me believe we’re the first outsiders to enter their woven walls.

I want to shout at them about the Skulls, make them understand that we’re here to help.

I can only imagine what will happen to their people if King Baldyr lands on their black shores.

Across the circle, a boulder rolls away. My thoughts still as a silence falls over the masses. An elderly woman stands in the cave entrance, wrinkles woven through her brown skin.

“Yéva is here.…”

The woman’s name travels in whispers through the crowd. Gold pigment covers her neck and the curve of her jaw. Her hair forms a river of silver, falling to the small of her back. Shrouded faces reach out from the emerald cloak that adorns her frail shoulders. The entire earth hums in her presence.

I don’t speak as Yéva glides toward me. Mae’e follows her into the circle like a faithful servant, dressed in new emerald robes. She keeps her sparkling gaze fixed on the ground. No one makes a sound.

Yéva opens her palm, and the vines around me fall. Cool air rushes into my lungs. I lurch forward, hitting the hard rock. Yéva waves her hand again, and my stone seat slides away, revealing a crystal bath.

Yéva takes a stick of lavender from behind her ear and crushes it in her fingers. When she drops it into the bath, the water begins to steam. She fixes her gaze on me.

“Enter.”

Yéva’s lips don’t move, yet her voice whispers through my soul. My fingernails dig into the stone floor.

This voice…

She’s the woman I heard before.

I rise to my shaking feet. I feel every single eye on me as I remove the wool pants of the enemy and undo the wrap around my chest. Mae’e gasps at the sight of the gold medallion, but Yéva isn’t fazed.

The mystic gestures to the bath. The warm water burns where the vines rubbed my skin raw. Yéva raises Mae’e’s hand over the steaming waters. She pricks her palm with an obsidian dagger, and a single drop of blood falls.

The moment it hits the water, everything transforms.

Yéva starts to wail. The crowd above us cries out. Her diamond eyes sparkle. Her silver hair flies with a sudden gust of wind. Something deep possesses the mystic’s form. It’s like twelve different people yell at once. The medallion buzzes in my chest, more powerful than it’s ever been.

“Uma filha das tempestades da Grande M?e…”

A daughter of the Great Mother’s storms…

“Uma filha da forja da Grande M?e…”

A daughter of the Great Mother’s forge…

“Um pai criado com sangue…”

A father formed from blood…

The triple arrowhead ignites as words rip from Yéva’s throat. Storm clouds circle above my head. A hard rain fills my ringing ears. Screams ripple through the stands as golden lightning crackles free from my hands.

“Before the Blood Moon, all three will unite.

On the Old Stone, the bodies shall be sacrificed.

He will feel the touch of the Great Mother again.

The skies will open once more,

And a new god will be born.”