Page 71 of The Merciless Ones

“But she’s a monster, commander,” a quaking voice replies. This one sounds young, almost certainly one of the recruits. “She could be waiting in the shadows even now.”

“Shut your ignorant mouth, recruit,” Commander Xipil snarls, confirming my theory about the younger man. “She isn’t a monster. She’s just an alaki, playing tricks on you. Playing tricks on all of us!”

The gravel crunches, indicating that he’s moving about angrily.

“How have they been killing us so easily, then?” another voice asks. This one sounds a little older and very much aggrieved. “First Seref, then Amadou and Keuong. That’s three dead in the past hour, and the night hasn’t even reached its peak yet. We can’t afford any more losses, we can’t—”

“I said, shut your mouths!” Commander Xipil barks. “There are no monsters here, only women. And you will find them and subdue them, or I will have your hides. Move out!”

More gravel crunches as the jatu obey their orders. I try to calm my breath when a torch approaches the well, its light spilling through the slats. As the recruit holding it begins to peer down, however, another jatu pulls him away.

“That’s just a boarded-up well. Move on before Commander Xipil catches you.”

The light fades as the recruit joins the others.

I heave a relieved breath, then wait until all the lights disappear before I continue down to the tunnel at the bottom of the stairs, where the others are waiting. Karmoko Huon pulls a torch from the wall and lights it with a flint, her eyes widening subtly when she sees Katya and Nimita. Katya immediately kneels, giving her the same respectful greeting we used when we were neophytes in the Warthu Bera.

Karmoko Huon’s eyebrows gather as she stares down at Katya. “That red colour…” she breathes. “Katya? Is that you?”

When Katya nods, the karmoko gasps. “Katya! We’d all heard that deathshrieks were resurrected alaki, but I didn’t believe it until now. Katya… Infinity save us! It’s good to see that you are still alive.”

Katya nods shyly, moving closer to Rian, who squeezes her arm.

The moment Karmoko Huon’s eyes flick to him, she smiles. “And you must be Rian.”

Rian’s eyebrows rise. “You’ve heard of me?” he asks.

“Who hasn’t?” Gazal humphs, rolling her eyes as she speaks for the first time. “Now, can we hurry along? Don’t want daylight to catch us still here.”

As I nod, walking onwards, Keita moves closer to her. “So, you discovered it, the way the jatu enter and exit Hemaira?” he asks, excited.

Gazal shakes her head.

Keita frowns. “How did you manage it, then?”

Gazal shrugs. “Usual way one does: waste tunnels.”

It’s my turn to frown. “But doesn’t the n’goma reach even there?”

She shrugs again. “Good thing I can’t die from burning.”

I still, horrified. “You passed through the n’goma?”

Gazal nods. “Took me an entire day, but I did it.”

Burning and reviving the entire time, flesh melting and then regenerating every few hours. It must have taken hours just to take one step through the wall of flame. Nausea rises inside me, as does awe. I can’t even begin to imagine the strength of will it took to accomplish such a feat.

Britta can’t either, judging by the shock on her face. When she finally is able to close her mouth again, she asks, “Wha about the water? Those tunnels flow continuously. An’ some of them flow more powerfully than rivers.”

Another shrug from Gazal, this one accompanied by a dull, unnerving look in her eyes. “Good thing I can’t drown.”

Another chill shivers down my spine, this one deeper than the last. Gazal was once locked in a cage and thrown into her family’s lake, where she spent only Infinity knows how long drowning and reviving. To think that she’d put herself through that again, just to find her way here…

What is it that drives her to go to such lengths?

She quickly grows uncomfortable with our gaze. “Shall we get going?” she says brusquely. “The others are just ahead, and I’d rather we free them before we get caught ourselves.”

I nod, turning to Karmoko Huon. “So what’s the plan?” I ask. “Same as we discussed with Karmoko Thandiwe?”