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CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

AMARI

M Y HEART RACES AS the island of New Gaīa comes into view. A new ring of vines surrounds the island’s borders, creating a floating barrier to keep everyone out.

Every videira that made it back from our failed attack floats in the choppy waters. The New Gaīans wait for the enemy, bone weapons drawn and brown faces grim.

Baldyr’s fleet looms in the distance.

It won’t be long before the Skulls reach their shores.

“ Limpe o caminho! ” a Green Maiden shouts. The floating wall of vines folds open at once. We sail through the woven walls, heading straight for the main river.

I hold Mae’e’s and Zélie’s cold hands as we pass through the dense underbrush and the emerald forest. Our videira zips through the lush plains. There isn’t a single soul on the surrounding rice fields. Even the elephantaires have been cleared away.

When we crash through the waterfall to enter the city center, all of New Gaīa is up in arms. Hysteria sweeps through the city like a wildfire, spreading from the floating farms to the emperor’s palace.

New Gaīans flee in every direction, panic powering their every step.

Tears stream free. Sharp screams fill the air.

Only a few vineweavers are left to guide their evacuation. They struggle to control the masses. The people crowd one another as they rush to enter the new network of vines. The city of hundreds of thousands moves underground, running away from the approaching Skulls.

And all the while, the crimson moon bleeds overhead. It bathes the city’s sacred mountains in red. Dark shadows cover the face of Mama Gaīa. When we pass beneath her, the vines that crawl under her eyes look like tears.

We make it to the base of Mount Gaīa, and the videira we sail unravels at once. Half the Green Maidens lift Mae’e and Zélie in woven stretchers. The others run to the shaking mountain.

In the absence of Yéva, it takes their combined efforts to open the tunnel at the base of the mountain. The stone disks slide apart, revealing the stairwell of obsidian glass.

I turn to Inan—he waits at the mountain’s base. He stares after the Green Maidens. I can almost feel the ember of hope that lies in his heart.

All at once, Inan wraps me in his arms. I squeeze my brother tight. Every fear I fight to keep down comes alive.

“I really thought…” Inan’s voice cracks. “I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t wake up.”

“Don’t say that.” I shake my head. “We have to believe. There’s still a chance—”

BOOM!

We pull apart as plumes of black smoke rise in the distance. The air echoes with cannon fire and the faint shouts of the Skulls’ brutish tongue.

They’ve landed.…

I drift to the mountain’s base. I reach for my obsidian blade—

“Go to them.” Inan guides me forward. “We still have time.”

I race down the spiral steps, meeting the wall of steam head-on. When I reach the bottom, Zélie and Mae’e already float in the natural spring. Ribbons of red leak into the glistening waters.

The Green Maidens circle around them. The emeralds flicker at their feet. All at once, they join their hands. I hold my breath as they begin to chant.

“Mama Gaīa, hear us now.

We demand your healing fires.

Your holy waters need you now—”

The waters start to thrash with the maidens’ words. The rising steam swirls around their circle. The maidens’ pleas echo through the rumbling mountain. A new pressure builds in the air, forcing me to the ground.

The veins bulge along the Green Maidens’ arms. Their bodies shake with the power they call forth. But one by one, they start to collapse. They don’t wield the force of Yéva or Mae’e.

I don’t know if they’re strong enough.

Please. I shut my eyes, praying with everything I have. I think back to Mama Gaīa, to her mighty spirit running through these lands. I picture the Skulls amassing on New Gaīa’s shores, their leather boots storming through the main waterfall. We can’t face this fight alone.

We need Zélie and Mae’e to be reborn—

All at once, a pulse radiates from the mountain’s base. The black stone heats beneath me, burning my bare feet. The final Green Maiden collapses from exhaustion. An emerald light rises from the bottom of the natural spring, encasing both Zélie and Mae’e.

I shield my eyes as the bright light travels down their temples and up their feet, meeting at the medallions in both of their chests. It glows through the runes carved into their skin. It threads itself through the gash in Zélie’s heart.

Please! I crawl forward. The earth beneath us shakes with new force. Fragments of black glass crash down from overhead. A crack ruptures far above.

“Please!” I cry out loud.

The waters glow so bright they burn.

Then both girls disappear beneath the surface.

Relief hits me like the rays of the sun as Mae’e emerges.

“ Ugh! ” Mae’e inhales a sharp breath, clutching her chest. Her head whips from side to side as she takes in her surroundings, a look of bewilderment in her diamond gaze.

“Mae’e!” I can’t stop the tears that fall. I hook my arms around her neck and hold her tight. The medallion in her chest pulses with her reawakened heart.

I move to embrace Zélie, but she doesn’t emerge from the waters. I release Mae’e and lunge forward. Panic grips me as I pull Zélie’s body above the spring’s surface.

“Zélie?” I whisper her name. A world I wasn’t ready to face crashes before my eyes. Though her wounds are healed, her body hangs limp.

It didn’t work.…

Every part of me goes numb at once. Sound muffles in my ears. Bars close around me, trapping me inside a nightmare I can’t escape.

I see the first time I ever saw her face, all those moons ago in Lagos’s marketplace. I feel the pain of every battle we’ve fought. Every time I’ve held her hand in mine.

I don’t know what it means to fight without her at my side.

Mae’e moves to me. She places her hand over the medallion in Zélie’s chest. Mae’e’s forehead creases, and she looks up at the shaking mountain.

“Where is your brother?” the hierophant asks.