CHAPTER 24
Silver Bells
Ekon didn’t sleep well their last night at Badwa’s camp.
It wasn’t for lack of trying or want; above him the sky was stunning, a smattering of silver-white stars more vivid than he’d ever seen in Lkossa. He crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at it. A few feet away, snuggled into her bedroll, Koffi slept, and the sounds of the jungle formed a melody he almost liked. Tomorrow, bright and early, they would leave and start their new search for Adiah. They’d been in this jungle for seven days and eight nights; finally, they were going to find the thing they’d entered it for. They were going to find Adiah, help her get rid of the splendor poisoning her body, and possibly stop the killing that had plagued Lkossa for almost a century. Those were good things, things that should have made him happy. But something else was on his mind.
The hunting party.
By no means was it the first time he’d reflected on it; thoughts of the Sons of the Six had invaded his mind intermittently since he and Koffi had set foot in the jungle. He had been actively avoiding those thoughts recently, but they’d finally caught up with him.
Tomorrow marked eight days. Eight, a bad number.
He thought about his conversation with Fahim in the temple, the last time he’d seen his friend.
Do you know when you’re going?
Not yet. But I think it’ll be soon, probably in the next few days.
Even if he was being generous, the few had likely meant three or four days at most. By now, the Sons of the Six were likely in the jungle too, trying to find what they thought was the Shetani and kill it. He remembered Kamau’s words next, the warning his brother had given him.
You won’t just be contending with what’s already in there. The Sons of the Six will be hunting too, the Yabahari way.
Ekon could already see them in his mind. Father Olufemi would have picked the strongest, fastest, and keenest warriors for such a mission, and they’d prove their worth once in the jungle. What would happen if they found him here? What would happen if they found Koffi here? He cringed at that thought.
I don’t know what I’d do if this were any more complicated.
Koffi had said those words back at the Kughushi District while they’d been looking at the maps. And in that memory, he recalled the moment he’d decided not tell her the whole truth, the moment he’d decided to lie. He hadn’t planned to keep the information about the hunting party from her forever, just until they were far enough into the Greater Jungle to make it a moot point. Now guilt twisted his insides.
You have to tell Koffi, said a voice in his head. You have to tell her the truth.
And admit that you’ve been lying to her from the start? another argued right back. No. Come up with some kind of a strategy first. Figure out the optimal time, then tell her. Ekon liked that plan better. His entire life had been the summation of carefully tailored strategies, ideas, and objectives that could be planned, perfected, and executed. This was the kind of problem that needed the best strategy. He found comfort in that as his eyelids grew heavy.
I’ll tell her the truth, he promised the stars overhead. I’ll tell her—when the time is right.
Dawn came all too soon.
They packed their few possessions without speaking, and for that Ekon was grateful. Anxiety still churned in his stomach every time he looked at Koffi, every time he remembered his thoughts from the night before, but that didn’t change his resolve. Badwa had kept true to her word; she and the yumboes were gone by the time they rose. He’d expected it, but that didn’t make their absence feel any better. Once again, the jungle felt massive, dense, and even sentient. Something pulled within him when he saw their bags had been left fully stocked with rations and their water gourds full. He and Koffi gave the now-abandoned campground a final once-over, then set off into the jungle yet again.
“So, this trail will take us north?” Koffi was marching ahead, as usual.
“That’s what Badwa said.” Ekon nodded at her back even though she couldn’t see it. “If we stay on it, we should find Adiah within the next day.”
“Great.”
They kept on, largely in silence, for the next few hours. For Ekon, it was the perfect time to think through his strategy. He could tell Koffi the truth about the hunting party if they found Adiah, when they found her, after they found her . . .
“Ekon?”
He jolted. Koffi was staring at him, appraising. “Sorry, what?”
Koffi’s expression didn’t change. “I was just asking if you wanted to stop for a minute to eat and maybe look at the map to check our progress? It’s nearly midday.”
“Oh.” He’d been so lost in his own thoughts, he’d barely thought about food. “Yeah, that’s fine by me.”
They found a spot on the jungle floor and spread out their assortment of fruits from the yumboes. The trees in this area were thinner and richer in color, their roots carpeted with the delicate pink petals of flowers that looked to have finished their bloom a day or so before. Ekon’s stomach growled audibly as he bit into one of his apples. He’d been hungrier than he thought.
“So . . . ,” Ekon said between bites. “You’ve been quiet today.”
Koffi took longer than strictly necessary to peel her orange. She chewed and swallowed slowly before answering. “So have you.”
“Anything on your mind?”
At first, Koffi clamped her mouth firmly shut, as though she planned on saying nothing at all. Then words seemed to tumble from her unbidden.
“We came into this jungle looking for a monster,” she said, poking holes into the dirt. “Now we’re trying to find a one-hundred-year-old daraja so we can save her life and our home from the god of death.” She looked up from the dirt. “That’s . . . sort of weird, isn’t it?”
Ekon laughed in spite of himself. “Yeah, it’s a little weird.”
Koffi’s expression turned hesitant but intent. “Do you really think we can do this?”
Ekon swallowed. There was more than one question in that look, and he hoped he’d get the answer right. “Yeah, I do.”
Her eyes brightened. “Thanks for saying it out loud. I guess I just needed to hear it.”
There was a gentleness in her voice, a vulnerability Ekon had never heard before. Something about it made his chest tight. She trusts you, he realized. That understanding also made guilt coil in his stomach. She was being honest with him, but he was not being honest with her.
Tell her. Tell her the truth.
“I’m scared.” Koffi spoke so softly Ekon barely heard her. “I haven’t said it aloud, but . . . I’m scared.”
Ekon was taken aback. “Really?”
“That surprises you?”
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “You’re probably the most fearless person I know.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “My mama says I lead with my heart, but . . . that I have to learn how to think with my head. I’m still working on it.”
Ekon didn’t miss a beat. “Why can’t you do both?”
At this, Koffi’s pretend smile fell. “Both?”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “I mean, if leading with your heart and thinking with your head are both a part of who you are, why not use both?”
The question was simple, but Koffi stared at him as though he’d spoken a foreign language. He had trouble reading the expression on her face. Was it anger, confusion, or . . . something else? She opened her mouth to answer, and then her head snapped to the right.
“What?” Ekon straightened. “What’s wrong?”
“Shh.” Koffi held a finger to her lips. “Do you hear that?”
Ekon’s frown matched hers. Badwa had said Adiah was a day’s walk north of her camp, but they’d only been walking for a few hours. His ears pricked as he looked around, nervous. Had some new unfriendly inhabitant of this jungle come to pay them a visit, or was it something worse, like the hunting party? The air around them was filled with its usual low buzz, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. Then he heard what Koffi must have.
A sweet, metallic ringing.
“What is that?” Ekon asked in a whisper. Koffi didn’t answer. Already, she was on her feet, fists clenched. Ekon rose more slowly and looked around again before zeroing in. The sound was coming from their right, and it wasn’t far away. Instinctively, he reached for his hanjari.
“It’s . . . strange,” said Koffi. “It sounds like—”
“Bells.” And as soon as Ekon said the word, he knew it was true. “Those are bells.”
“Why would there be bells in the middle of a jungle?” Koffi had already started toward the sound. Ekon followed.
“I don’t know,” he answered, staying on her heels. “But honestly . . . I’m not optimistic.”
“Have you read about anything like that in the journal?”
Ekon paused. Some distant memory from the first night he’d had the journal was curled up at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t recall it. “No,” he said. “Nothing I remember.”
“Then we need to be cautious.” She looked over her shoulder, visibly conflicted, before she spoke again. “And . . . you should probably be in front.”
“Me?”
“You’ve got the weapon,” said Koffi. “And I still don’t know how reliable the splendor is when I channel it.”
Ekon nodded. It felt strange to take the lead for the first time since they’d entered the jungle, but he did it nonetheless. With each step, the years of training took over. He changed his gait so that he walked on the balls of his feet, muscles tensed and dagger at the ready. The tinkling sound was getting louder, more prominent. Definitely bells, he concluded, but for what? A large oak tree stood up ahead. Whatever was making that sound seemed to be behind it. His gripped his dagger tighter, then signaled for Koffi to take the other side of the tree. As soon as Koffi moved forward, he rounded his side of the trunk, dagger raised—but someone screamed, stopping him short. It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing.
“What the—?”
A little girl was sitting near the tree’s roots, knees hugged to her chest while she sniffled. Her tunic was overlarge, torn at the hem, and her eyes were bloodshot. Bramble and bits of leaf were tangled in her hair, and . . . two tiny silver bells looped on ribbon were tied around each ankle.
“Please,” she said in a wispy voice, looking between them. Her hands flew to cover her face. “Please don’t hurt me.”
Ekon let the hand he was holding the dagger with fall to his side. Whatever he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been this. For several seconds, he could do nothing but stare. Seeing a perfectly normal child here in the middle of the Greater Jungle was such an odd contrast that he wasn’t even sure what to say. Koffi gave him an exasperated look before crouching down to meet the little girl’s eyes.
“It’s all right,” she said gently. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”
The girl peeked between her fingers. “You’re not?”
“No.”
“Okay.” The girl wrapped her arms around her knees, and her bells jingled again. “Then, who are you?”
“Our names are Koffi and Ekon.” Koffi kept her voice at a murmur and spoke slowly. “What’s your name?”
“Hila,” the little girl answered. She was still looking between the two of them, wary. “Why are you here?” She directed the question at Ekon.
“Uh, well, we’re—”
“Looking for butterflies.” Koffi’s eyes cut to Ekon in a very deliberate way. “Isn’t that right, Ekon?”
“I—” Ekon clamped his mouth shut. “Yes,” he muttered. “Butterflies.”
“Oh, I like butterflies! They’re so pretty.” Hila seemed to perk up at that. Her eyes widened a bit as she stared at Koffi. “You’re very pretty.”
“Oh.” A smile touched Koffi’s face. “Thank you.”
Hila turned to Ekon. “Do you think Koffi is very pretty?”
Ekon made a sound like a cross between a cough and a hiccup. “I—”
“We have a camp nearby.” Koffi was careful not to meet Ekon’s eyes. “Are you hungry?”
“Mhm.” Hila nodded enthusiastically while Ekon found his words again. Gently, Koffi lifted Hila to her feet and walked with her back to the spot where they’d left their bags. The bells rang merrily as she took the last few steps at a run and plopped down on the ground. She helped herself to one of the oranges in their food pile and nibbled at it. Koffi settled beside her; then Ekon followed suit.
“So, Hila,” said Koffi. “Where are you from? And how did you end up here in the jungle by yourself?”
Hila popped another piece of orange into her mouth before answering. “I’m from one of the border villages,” she murmured. “I don’t come in the jungle often, but . . . well, I was trying to find kola nuts.”
“Kola nuts?” Koffi repeated. “Those are common. You didn’t have to go into the Greater Jungle to find them.”
“Not the large ones,” said Hila immediately, knowingly. “I’ve found some here that were bigger than my fist, and Baba can sell those for more at market.” Her shoulders hunched. “It’s just him and me. My mama died when I was small.”
Ekon was caught off guard by the pang of pity he felt for the girl.
“Baba sent me into the jungle a few days ago,” Hila went on. “But . . . something came after me.”
Ekon straightened. “What was it?”
“Something scary,” said Hila. “I don’t know what it was, but it looked strange. It had a slithery body like a snake, and a head like an—”
“Elephant.” Ekon looked to Koffi. “That sounds like the grootslang we saw.”
“Or one of its friends,” said Koffi, pursing her lips.
“I ran away from it,” Hila murmured. “But then I got lost. Baba tied these bells around my ankles so he could find me if that ever happened, but . . .” She looked down at them. “I don’t think they work anymore.”
Ekon swallowed. Try as he might, it was impossible not to draw the obvious comparison. He’d once been a child lost in this jungle; she was too. She was alone and scared; he knew what that had felt like. The little girl’s eyes locked on his, and he came to a decision.
“We’ll get you back to your family,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
Koffi gave him a strange look before clearing her throat. “Actually, Hila,” she said in a voice slightly too high, “Ekon and I are just going to step over here for a moment. Please enjoy your food. We’ll be right back.” She nodded curtly to a spot several feet away and gestured for Ekon to come with her. Once they were standing out of Hila’s earshot with their backs turned, she scowled. “What are you doing?”
Ekon looked over his shoulder. “She needs our help, Koffi. We can’t just leave her here alone.”
“Are you forgetting about our plan?” Koffi’s mouth formed a hard-set line. “We’re supposed to be finding Adiah, not doing search-and-rescue missions. She’s a distraction.”
“She’s a child,” Ekon corrected. “What else would we do?”
Koffi crossed her arms. “If we showed her the map and the trails, maybe we could—”
“You’re very pretty.”
They both jumped. Hila had gotten up, as silent as a mouse, and was standing before them, a curious smile playing on her lips. She looked, if it was possible, even smaller and younger than she had before. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, and her ankle bells jingled merrily.
“Thank you.” This time, Koffi’s eyes were wary. “Look, Hila, we want to help you, but we need some more information about—”
“I like the way you wear your hair.” Hila was still dancing in place when she pointed to Koffi. “My mama always tries to get hers to do that, but it never looks as good.”
A quick throb shot through Ekon’s temple, sharp but fleeting. He closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids. When he opened them again, Koffi had stiffened. She was looking down at Hila, and her expression had changed entirely.
“You told us a second ago that your mother died,” she said slowly. “You said it was just you and your baba.”
“Oh.” Hila stopped dancing. Her eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, I must have—”
“Forgotten your mother was alive?” Koffi frowned. “That’s a very strange thing to forget.”
“Koffi.” Ekon looked from her to Hila, confused. “What’s going on? You think she—?”
“I think something about you isn’t right at all.” Koffi wasn’t looking at Ekon. Her eyes were on the little girl, expression hard. “And I think you should probably find your own way home.”
“No!” Hila’s voice rose an octave as she moved to stand by Ekon, ankle bells jingling with each step. She took his hand in her small one and squeezed. “No, no, no, please don’t send me away! Don’t leave me alone again, there are monsters!”
Instinctively, Ekon moved to stand between Koffi and Hila. The raw fear in the little girl’s voice plucked at something deep within him. It made it all too easy to remember how he’d felt many years ago. “Koffi,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t help—”
“Ekon, something isn’t right about her.” Koffi actually took a step forward. “She was alone in the middle of the jungle wearing those bells, her story doesn’t match up—”
“She’s our friend.” The words didn’t feel right, but his lips formed them anyway. “We have to help her.”
“Yes, that’s right,” a nasty voice croaked. “You have to help me.”
Ekon nearly jumped out of own skin. Hila’s voice had changed, no longer wispy and sweet. When Ekon looked down, he saw it was no longer a child holding his hand. Something with wet black eyes was leering up at him, not human at all. Its body was wrinkled and swollen, filling out a tunic that had been too large before. The skin of the thing that had once been a little girl took on a horrid grayish pallor. Ekon tried to pull out of its grasp, but the creature smiled, exposing a set of pointed white teeth. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a single word finally unfurled from Ekon’s memories of Nkrumah’s journal.
Eloko.
“My new friend will help me,” said the eloko in a low, gravelly voice. “He will use his nice dagger to cut off the pretty girl’s face so that I can have it for myself, just like the last pretty little girl I found all alone in this jungle.” The creature clicked its heels together, and the silver ankle bells rang out impossibly loud. Involuntarily, Ekon reached for the dagger at his hip.
“Ekon!”
From far away, Ekon heard the rising panic in Koffi’s voice, saw the terror in her dark eyes. He knew, in a detached way, that her terror should have had some effect on him, but a numbness was creeping over him. The only thing he heard were those little silver bells, and the only thing he wanted was to obey, to help Hila. His grip on the dagger tightened, and he took a step forward.
“Ekon, stop!” Koffi was retreating, her entire body shaking. Her ankle caught on a vine and sent her crashing to the ground in a heap. The eloko cackled and hopped in place when Ekon took another step.
Help Hila, a voice in his head urged. You have to help Hila.
“Please.” Koffi scrambled back in the dirt. Her eyes stayed fixed on Ekon’s as she snatched up their bags and held them against her like a shield. “Ekon, it’s me.”
Now, those words didn’t sound right. The longer he stared at the girl moving away from him, the less familiar she became. What was her name? All he could hear were the bells.
“Help me, Ekon.” Hila’s voice was soft and sweet again. “Help me, my friend.”
Ekon raised his dagger. The strange girl had nowhere left to go, so she would be easy to kill. She closed her eyes and buried her feet in the dirt. Ekon advanced until he was standing over her. The girl didn’t look afraid anymore, but strangely at peace. He grabbed her wrist and pulled up so that her eyes were level with his, pressed the dagger’s blade to her jaw, and . . .
And then he felt it. A hand.
The girl’s hand was on his cheek, soft and barely there. At her touch, he felt a prickle. Then the sound of the jingling bells began to grow faint. The numbness that had overwhelmed his body started to recede like a tide, and he had the strange sensation of emerging from something, of his head clearing. A single word floated back into his mind, and he remembered.
Koffi.
She was still staring at him, eyes determined and focused, with her feet buried in the dirt. Tiny fragments of light seemed to be gathering all around her, dancing up her length and out of her hands.
“No!”
Ekon jumped. The eloko was standing a few feet away, its wicked smile falling away. He looked back at Koffi just in time. She raised her own hand and pointed at the creature. To Ekon’s surprise, the sparkling fragments left her body and floated around her as though waiting. Then, without warning, the mass of them soared toward the eloko. The moment they touched the creature’s skin, it shrieked.
“No! No!”
“Ekon!” Koffi was still staring at him. “Run!”
Ekon needed no further prompting. He snatched his own bag from Koffi’s arm and took off, matching her stride for stride. There was a rustle behind them, a horrible keening, and then:
“Nooo! No, my friends, come baaack!”
Ekon glanced over his shoulder. The eloko was running too, batting away Koffi’s fireflies as it pursued them. Its distended arms were outstretched, and there was a wild hunger in its gaze.
“Keep going!” Koffi flicked a wrist over her shoulder as though she was throwing something. Another wave of fireflies rushed from her palms, but not nearly as many as before. Panic flashed across her face. “I can’t calm my mind,” she said. “I won’t be able to—”
“Friends!” the eloko screamed. “Don’t run away, my friends!” It was impossibly close. Ekon’s grip on his dagger tightened, and he braced himself.
Without warning, there was a flash, an aura of light far bigger and brighter than what Koffi had produced before. Like a golden beam, it shot overhead. The moment it touched the eloko, the creature’s skin began to sizzle. A foul stench filled the air.
“Nooo!” The eloko cradled its burned arms to its chest, screaming in pain. It turned and ran, as fast as it could, in the opposite direction. Ekon watched its retreat, awed, before turning back to Koffi.
“That was amazing,” he said. “How’d you do that?”
Koffi wasn’t looking at him, and she wasn’t smiling. Her eyes were set on something else when she spoke.
“I . . . didn’t do that.”
Ekon’s blood ran cold. Slowly, he followed her gaze, new fear rising within him like a tide. When he saw what she had seen, he went still.
Something massive was staring back at them from the shadows of the trees up ahead.
Its eyes were cold and black.