Legacy of Orïsha, #2
Children of Virtue and Vengeance
by Tomi Adeyemi
Contents
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN: ZÉLIE
Overview
Zélie is pulled from a well after Ibadan’s gas attack, barely sustaining Roën through their life-bond. Surveying mass casualties, she learns the monarchy’s real strike: the Iyika army has been captured, with executions threatened. Amari arrives to the devastation as Zélie realizes the rebels have been outmaneuvered.
Summary
Zélie awakens in darkness, being hauled up from a well with a screaming infant in her arms. Villagers pull her over the lip, take the baby, and tend her bleeding leg. An older woman re-bandages Zélie, marveling at her Reaper power and comparing her to her mother, Jumoke.
Reeling from pain and a splitting headache, Zélie reaches for her bond with Roën and feels his heartbeat fading. She sees Healers and kosidán working on Roën in a nearby pyramid ahéré, but the life-connection strains her; she fears his dying body could pull her under as happened with Mâzeli.
As Zélie drinks water and tries to rise, the scope of the Ibadan massacre becomes clear: bodies line the streets, their skin blackened and shriveled by the Cancer gas. A young girl collapses over her father’s corpse, and Zélie turns away, haunted by memories of the Raid and the lives she couldn’t save.
Amari arrives in the square, stunned by the carnage. Zélie and the elders follow Amari’s gaze to a blood-red message painted across the mountain above the lake: “WE HAVE YOUR ARMY. SURRENDER OR FACE THEIR EXECUTION.”
Realizing the monarchy’s true target, Zélie understands their evacuation failed to protect the Iyika. The massacre served as a diversion while the army was seized. With Roën’s life flickering, Amari shaken, and the threat of executions looming, Zélie concludes the monarchy has outmaneuvered them and the war is slipping from their grasp.
Who Appears
- ZéliePulled from a well after the gas attack; maintains a dangerous life-bond with dying Roën; realizes the Iyika were captured.
- AmariArrives to Ibadan’s devastation; sees the mountain threat; shaken as the monarchy’s gambit becomes clear.
- RoënGrievously wounded; tended by Healers; his fading heartbeat is sustained through his bond with Zélie.
- Older woman (village elder)Rebands Zélie’s leg, recognizes her resemblance to Jumoke, and guides her amid the chaos.
- Young girlFinds her father’s shriveled corpse and screams, underscoring the massacre’s human cost.