Silence.
Panic surged through her. ‘Alawani! Márùn. Can you hear me?’
Her head throbbed, and her vision dimmed intermittently as she searched for them.
Then the dust cleared, and there they were, slumped on the ground. Not moving. She ran to Alawani, shaking him, calling his name. She placed her face to his, checking for breath. He was alive. Márùn was the same. Between Alawani’s waning agbára and Márùn’s recent attack, L’?r? wasn’t surprised that they took longer to wake. But being alone terrified her, and so she kept calling their names, waiting for them to hear her.
Her voice didn’t wake them. But it woke Milúà, who L’?r? noticed was also caught in the blast. That meant Milúà hadn’t caused that explosion – someone or something else did. L’?r? jumped to her feet as quickly as her shaky feet would allow. Milúà moved slowly towards L’?r? like a being half-alive, dragging her leg and holding on to her visibly dislocated shoulder. L’?r? watched in horror as Milúà leaned against a rock and popped her shoulder into place. As usual, the maiden didn’t let out a sound; she clenched her jaw and glared at L’?r? with the most sinister reddened eyes that L’?r? had ever seen.
‘I’m going to kill you,’ Milúà said through gritted teeth, blood dripping from the gash on her head.
L’?r?’s fingers trembled as she reached for her agbára. It felt as though she’d forgotten all she’d just learned. An icy chill flowed through her, and L’?r? knew she was doing it wrong. Something about being alone, cornered by the maiden she knew could and would kill her, made her tremble with fear. She stood up and reached for her blades. She called upon ?àngó in the old tongue. The old god who always heard her after the new ones had forsaken her. But nothing happened. Her blades did not glow. She’d either said it wrong, or he had grown tired of her. L’?r? clashed her blades together – gods or no gods, she wasn’t going down without a fight.
‘Don’t take another step, maiden,’ a voice called out, and Command walked out from behind a cluster of high rocks.
Milúà swayed and glared at the figure, releasing her frown only when Command came into full view. Then she bowed slowly and stepped out of her path, a glare still fixed on her face.
L’?r? watched her commander stride into the clearing and her heart raced in her chest. Seeing Milúà’s bow confirmed that the maiden acknowledged Command’s rank and would not attack. So L’?r? ran towards Command, crying as she crashed into her. She hugged her so tightly, she feared she would crush the woman in her own armour. L’?r? wept into her arms, her heart so full every word out of her was incoherent; she sobbed, unsure of what she wanted to say while trying to say everything all at once. Command held her just as tightly, holding her head like a child she hadn’t seen in a long time. Her voice softer than anything L’?r? had ever heard from the woman, she whispered, ‘I’m here.’
‘Stay out of this, Command,’ Milúà said, the edge in her voice not as firm as it had been when she was speaking to L’?r? a few moments ago. ‘I have orders from the Temple to bring the Prince Àlùfáà and the girl back to the capital.’
Behind her, L’?r? heard the maiden’s blade shoot out of her staff. She turned to see Milúà advancing. Command moved L’?r? out of the way and pulled out her sword from the sheath strung to her back.
‘I won’t tell you again, Milúà, I don’t care what you do with the prince,’ she said, nodding towards Alawani, still slumped on the floor. ‘You’re not taking L’?r? from me.’
‘Command,’ Milúà said with a shaky curtsy, greeting the woman before rising again with a stern glare. Being at war with each other was no reason to discard respect in Oru. Milúà spun her spear and pointed its steel end at Command. ‘I don’t want to fight you.’
‘Where are the palace guards? The king’s army?’
Milúà scoffed, ‘My mother sent me. I don’t need guards to find my prey.’
Command chuckled. ‘The Lord Regent sent me, and that overrides whatever the Elder Priest and his maiden have ordered you to do.’
‘It doesn’t,’ Milúà seethed.
‘What do you know, you child of the temple,’ Command said. With her outstretched hand glowing bright in the sunlight, Command used her agbára to grab hold of Milúà’s spear. Like a magnet, Command’s agbára pulled the spear and she turned it around mid-flight and flung it back at Milúà, who jumped out of the way. The spear sank deep into stone.
‘Don’t die,’ Command said softly. ‘Is that not what Ìyá-Ayé tells you girls? I’m telling you for the last time, L’?r? is coming with me. One more attack from you and you’ll join the souls in my hair.’
Milúà was up quicker than L’?r? thought possible, her hands aglow with agbára. The girl didn’t know when to give up.
Command launched a throwing star at Milúà. The four-sidedspiked steel blade flew in an arc towards the maiden, who dodged it easily, but L’?r? knew this trick. Milúà only realized her predicament when she felt the sting of the second and the third and the two that came after it. Command’s stars seemed to multiply with each throw. Milúà ducked and danced through each strike, trying and failing to avoid getting hit. Finally, the last one came hurtling towards the maiden – right in the middle of her forehead. L’?r? had thought that there was no way Milúà could avoid the hit from the awkward position the previous stars had left her in. To her surprise, Milúà raised her hands, and used her agbára to stop the red-hot star mid-flight. L’?r? gaped at Milúà as she mirrored Command’s previous move. L’?r? had never seen anyone push and pull steel the way Command did. Milúà shoved the star right back at Command, who slowed it to a stop and plucked it from the air like an unripe mango. And smiled.
‘You have your mother’s will,’ Command said.
Those words seemed to knock the air out of the maiden more than anything Command had done to her.
Milúà gaped at Command, panting like a dying ox. Her eyes were still red but with much less fury than a moment before. For the first time, L’?r? considered that there was a person beneath those layers of gold and steel.
‘This is what I’ve been trying to teach you, L’?r?,’ Command said, turning to her. ‘When you fight an enemy stronger than you, learn their tricks and use them against them. Never stop moving until there is no life left in you.’ Then she turned to Milúà, who was bruised and bleeding, the crimson staining her midnight-dark skin, ‘Very well done.’
L’?r? could not believe it. Now? Command chose this moment to teach her lessons?
Command looked from L’?r? to Milúà and back, a grim expression on her face. ‘In another world you’d have beensisters, yet here you are fighting each other at the whims of the same people who led your mothers to their deaths.’
Sisters? L’?r? nearly scoffed. But how did Command know Mremí? Why had she never mentioned it? Was that why Command risked her life to train her?
‘You knew my mother?’ L’?r? and Milúà said at the same time, then glared at each other.
