Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Amari joins the other elders at the council, without Zélie present. They debate what to do about the royal army, with some arguing to hide and others arguing to fight. As arguments break out, Amari considers her father and realizes that war made him as ruthless as he was. She thinks of how she, too, needs to be ruthless and plans to use her powers to kill her mother and brother. As she silences the crowd to tell them her plan, Zélie enters the circle and speaks. She tells them that she has a plan that does not involve fighting.

After speaking with Roën, Zélie learned that the king was being hidden in Ibadan in the hopes that the maji would attack Lagos. She tells the maji that they need to use this information to escape while the king’s army is split. There is debate among the elders, and some seem to listen to Zélie. However, Amari speaks, telling the crowd that they need to fight and end the war instead of running. To Zélie’s dismay, the crowd begins to chant “Take back what’s ours” in agreement (286).

The elders meet, with Amari now in charge and Zélie absent. She devises a plan to go to Ibadan with only the elders while sending the rest of the Iyika to Lagos to make the royals think that that is where they are going. She struggles with how best to infiltrate Ibadan and calls Tzain forward to help. He explains that there is a system of underwater tunnels that they can use to get close to Inan without alerting anyone. After they formulate a plan, they hold a celebration for their last night in the sanctuary.

Amari fails to enjoy the Iyika celebration as she thinks of tomorrow’s battle. She also thinks of her father and wonders if he would be “proud” of the ruler she is becoming. Tzain finds her, and she realizes that she wants to be alone with him.

The two go up to Amari’s bedroom and kiss. Tzain stops her and tells her that he does not want to make love to her just because she is afraid of dying the next day. However, she insists that she loves him—the first time she has ever said that to him. He tells her that he loves her, too, and they go to Amari’s bed.

Zélie stands outside the hall and hears the celebration within. She thinks of Mâzeli’s last words but can’t bring herself to be happy and enter the hall. Mama Agba approaches her and tries to get her to go in. However, Zélie treats her coldly, still unable to forgive her for severing the bond and ending Mâzeli’s life. Zélie turns and goes back to her bedroom but finds Roën outside with two packed bags, insistent that he needs Zélie’s help.

Without telling her where they are going, Roën takes Zélie to the shore. They get on a boat and go out into the ocean. He gives Zélie a mask to breathe underwater, and then the two drop drown into the ocean. Zélie is awed when Roën brings out a globe of light, allowing her to see all the creatures living there. When a whale passes by, Roën hooks them onto it, and then the two are dragged through the ocean, able to see the thousands of fish pass by as they travel at great speed. As the whale leaps from the ocean, they are pulled to the surface, and Roën detaches them. When Zélie asks Roën why they did this, he responds that he needed to see her happy again.

While meeting with the war council, Inan is unable to participate; he feels “numb” and desires for the war to end. When the council leaves, his mother stays behind. She reveals to him that, years ago, Inan’s grandfather—the old king—tried to broker peace with the maji. However, she intervened, letting Burners into the palace and allowing for the murder of the entire royal family, except for Inan’s father. The news shocks and appalls Inan; until now, he and his father both had blamed the maji for their family’s death, not realizing that Nehanda played a role. However, she simply reiterates to him that “no cost is too great” when it comes to stopping the maji (308).

Roën takes Zélie back to her room. He attempts to leave, but she stops him and asks him to stay. The two kiss and go to Zélie’s bed. He asks if he should stop, but she wills him to continue. However, as he touches her, her scars burn, and she has a flashback to when King Saran cut into her back. She also thinks of Mâzeli’s voice, Inan’s touch, and Baba’s blood. As Roën tries to comfort her, she angrily tells him to go. When he does not listen, she intentionally wounds him, telling him that he is “just a mercenary” and that they could never be together (312). His face drops, making Zélie feel bad, but he turns and goes.

While Amari sleeps, Inan pulls her into his dream. She reacts angrily toward him, but he begs her to listen. He tells her that he is ready to give up the throne—that he cannot protect their mother anymore and that he wants to do what is best for Orïsha. Amari considers what he is saying but decides that he has done too much damage to be trusted. She tells him that they are going to win and that they do not need his help; she then angrily insists that he let her go.

Amari awakens back in her bedroom. She thinks of what Inan told her and decides that, to win, she needs to be “ruthless” and “fight like Mother” (315). She decides to go to Jahi’s room. She tells him that she has a new plan, but they cannot tell the other elders.

After four days of travel, the elders gather on the edge of Ibadan. Amari continues to lead the group but withholds part of her plan from everyone but Jahi. She asks for volunteers to travel through the water caves and into Ibadan, and she is surprised when Zélie steps forward to join Nâo and Roën.

Unable to be in his mother’s presence now that he knows the truth about her role in the royal family’s deaths, Inan leaves the war council. He locks himself in a room and paces, considering how to stand up to his mother and put a stop to the attack.

His thoughts are interrupted when Ojore arrives. Ojore admits that he overheard Inan’s conversation with his mother and knows that she is responsible for the deaths of his parents. Inan tries to console him, but Ojore reacts with anger. He tells Inan that he needs to kill her and angrily tries to leave. When Inan tries to stop him, Ojore strikes at him with his sword. Inan avoids it and throws a dagger at Ojore—which Ojore stops in midair using magic that Inan never knew he had.

Zélie, Nâo, and Roën travel through the underwater caves, with Nâo creating a bubble of air around them as they walk. Nâo tries to make peace with Zélie, telling her that she does not blame her for trying to run and that she understands Zélie’s heartache at Mâzeli’s death. However, Roën interrupts them, saying that Zélie is just a coward. He blames her for acting like a “victim” when, in reality, she is a “survivor” who is still alive when so many aren’t. As they argue, Zélie catches sight of a spark and smells oil. She tries to stop Roën, but is too late, as bombs begin to explode.

Several bombs go off, collapsing the tunnel and ending Nâo’s bubble of air. Zélie is trapped under a boulder and unable to free herself as she runs out of air. Her mind tells her to “[l]et go” and abandon all the pain and suffering of her life (328). She sees Mâzeli’s spirit, who extends a hand to her. However, instead of welcoming her into the afterlife, he sends her a thought: If the bombs were set up, that means that the nobles must know they are coming, and all the other elders are in danger as well. With this new thought, she realizes that she must live to save them, as well as Tzain, Amari, and Roën. With a last burst of energy, she frees herself from the wreckage and pulls herself above the water.

Ojore turns Inan’s dagger around and sends it back at Inan’s head. Inan dodges it, but Ojore manipulates the metal ground to form columns that hit Inan. Inan is shocked by Ojore’s mastery of his magic.

Ojore tells Inan that he is not worthy of the throne—that he and his mother are a “poison” that has ruined the country. He admits that he has always hated himself for his tîtán ability but now realizes that magic was never the problem. As he approaches Inan to kill him, Inan manages to hit him in the chin and then he uses his own magic to paralyze Ojore.

Inan runs from the room and yells for help. As he watches Ojore struggle, he admits to himself, “We did this to him. We poisoned him with all our hate” (332). His mother comes to help, sending a column of earth up and into Ojore, puncturing his stomach and killing him.

As Zélie floats in the water, gasping for air, she realizes that Roën is likely still below the surface. Despite her injured leg and her exhaustion, she dives back into the water. She can see Roën’s life force in the distance, but it is slowly fading. She finds him with his arm trapped under a boulder.

As she struggles to free Roën, he tries to tell her to leave. However, she refuses to let him die, calling forth spirits to help her free him. The spirits are too weak to move the boulder, so she instead directs them to sever his arm, allowing her to pull him back to the surface.

Zélie pulls Roën onto the shore as he coughs up water. She desperately tries to stop his arm from bleeding, tying a tourniquet using his belt. As he dies, he tells her that his mother used to sing to him. She desperately tries to get him to share the song, but she can see his life slowly fading. He closes his eyes and stops responding. Zélie struggles to breathe herself as grief threatens to overwhelm her. However, she sees “a flicker of gold in Roën’s heart” (338), the last bit of his life. She thinks back to her isípayá and the golden strand, realizing that it was Roën. She recites the incantation, using the power from the moonstone to tether her purple strand of life with his gold one. The effort drains the last of her energy, causing her to pass out just as she hears Roën’s heartbeat—“now connected to [hers]” (339).

Amari and the other elders realize that something has gone wrong after the explosions. Amari internally struggles with whether to go through with her secret plan. She wishes that her father were there so that she could ask for his advice.

Nâo comes out of the water, but she is alone. She tells the elders that she does not know what happened to Zélie or Roën. In response, Tzain begins to run toward the caves. Amari tries to stop him, insisting that he cannot go near the village, but he does not listen. She uses her magic, freezing him in place and creating chaos among the elders as they begin questioning what she is doing. At that moment, they also realize that Jahi is also no longer among them.

As the elders ask what she is planning, Amari still battles with how much she will sacrifice to win the war. She yells at everyone to “shut up” as she thinks that if she goes through with her plan, she “won’t be any better” than her father, but if she doesn’t, she’ll “never get the chance to save Orïsha” (342). She begins to cry, apologizes to the elders, and then blows a horn.

Zélie makes her way into the village, dragging Roën’s lifeless body with her. She hears a horn, confused since it is one of their own. She looks to the sky as hundreds of crows fly toward the village. At the same time, she sees a barrier fall, blocking the exit from the village. In the distance, the wind picks up, and she sees a cloud of poisonous gas that was put out by a Cancer maji. She slowly realizes that Amari’s plan is to trap everyone in Ibadan and poison them.

Zélie desperately tries to figure out an escape plan. She calls upon spirits to take her and Roën further into the village’s center. She sees people fleeing their homes as they realize what is happening. She begins yelling to people to go to the well, where they can hopefully barricade themselves inside.

As she gets to the well, several people have already gone in. She lowers Roën down in as people desperately hand their children over to try to save them. Just as Zélie gets into the well, she sees people in the distance being melted by the cloud of gas. She uses her spirits to block off the top of the well as the gas passes over.

After the Cancer cloud settles, Tzain continues to scream, and the elders look at Amari in shock. She thinks of her father and wonders if this is how he felt after the raid. She repeatedly tells herself that the sacrifices—even that of Zélie—are worth it. She gets on her cheetanaire and rides toward the village to end the war.

Zélie wakes up as she is being lifted from the well. It takes her several seconds to remember where she is, and then she desperately asks for Roën. A woman assures her that he is being tended to and then insists that Zélie receive care as well.

As Zélie contemplates why Amari would do this, Amari comes into the square but stops short in shock. Zélie sees what she is looking at: a message from the monarchy. It reads, “We have your army. Surrender or face their execution” (353). Zélie realizes that all these deaths were in vain, as the monarchy allowed them into the village in order to capture the rest of the Iyika forces.

Inan awakens to his mother and finds that they are traveling out of Ibadan. She tells him that his plan worked; they were successful in capturing the Iyika at Lagos and are now holding them hostage.

Inan remembers what happened to Ojore, bringing tears to his eyes. His mother insists that he should not grieve for Ojore, but Inan argues that it is her fault that he is dead. He says that Ojore was right, that they are “poison,” but his mother insists that they are “victors.” He thinks of how he “wanted to be the king [his] father couldn’t be,” but instead all he did was “finish his work” (356).

Amari refuses to acknowledge that killing the villagers was useless. She watches as Dakarai draws forth a vision of the Iyika locked in the palace cells.

Tzain arrives and is elated to find Zélie alive. They embrace. When Zélie turns away from him, she finds Amari and heads toward her. Amari tries to explain herself, but Zélie sends shadows to bind her. As Zélie begins to charge at her, the effect of being tethered to Roën’s dying body overcomes her, and she collapses into the dirt.

As Tzain and Kâmaru rush to Zélie, Na’imah orders Kenyon to seize Amari and lock her up. Amari’s eyes meet Tzain’s, but he turns and walks away.

As Zélie dies on the table, the elders and Tzain struggle to figure out what is wrong with her. As she attempts to communicate, Tzain figures out what she is trying to say—that her life is tied to Roën. Tzain urges her to break the connection, but instead, she communicates that she needs to bind them both to another person for them to survive.

Kâmaru, Khani, and Tzain all step forward to have their life forces bound together. Zélie chants the incantation, causing each of their spirits to leave their bodies in a thread and weave themselves together—finally revealing what her isípiyá showed her. After a painful moment, they are all sent flying apart.

As Khani recovers, she heals Zélie instantly without an incantation and then does the same for Roën. Kâmaru realizes that he can effortlessly work with metal—a material that he should not be able to use as a Grounder—and fashions a replacement arm for Roën.

Together, Khani and Zélie go outside. They place their hands over the heart of a man who died in the street. Their magic brings him back to life.

After Zélie and Khani have brought the dead villagers back to life, she stands before them and promises that they will take down the monarchy and win the war. However, as they cheer her on, she can already feel the connection beginning to weigh her down. She remembers what Mama Agba told her: that they would need to make a blood sacrifice of someone they love to solidify the connection.