The smell of bread wafted through the hallways. Nico heard laughter around the corner and peeked her head into the kitchen. Black from previous cook fires stained the brick around the clay oven bulging from the kitchen wall. Rounds of flatcakes cooled atop the counter. She watched as Kai used the broken peel to slide a clay pot to the open edge of the oven and stirred at the millet porridge. He looked over his shoulder at Rasia checking out his ass, and then at the half-sliced melon she leaned on.
“How is it you can take down a gonda faster than you chop a melon?”
“I keep getting distracted!” she threw her hands up laughing.
“Get over here and carry this,” he whipped a linen towel at her legs, before tossing it over at her.
“You’re so bossy when you’re cooking.” She winked as she caught the towel and threw it over her shoulder.
Kai held his side as he stepped back. She rubbed a hand over his shroud, before bending over toward the oven. Nico didn’t know if Kai wore his shroud because Kenji-ta was in the house or because he wanted to hide the extent of his injuries, but she could clearly see a teasing playfulness crinkled at the corner of his eyes. Sometimes, Nico hated Rasia. And sometimes, Rasia could put an expression on Kai’s face Nico hadn’t seen in years. Rasia genuinely made him happy.
Rasia wiggled her hips as she leaned forward, then hefted the pot up and placed it atop the counter. Kai wrapped arms around her, and she blatantly smelled at the frond-smoke on his skin. She asked, “You know what stirring porridge sounds like?”
“I can’t think of anything in particular,” he hummed, and pushed her against the counter. He drummed his fingers up her thighs and then reached to the counter above for the honey jar. She laughed against his skin, and before he could pull away, locked her legs around his waist. She smiled mischievously, and Kai narrowed his eyes before leaning forward and diving away from her angled lips to drag an open mouth down her chest, belly, and then, popped free under her legs and spun effortlessly to mix the honey into the porridge.
“You’re such a fucking tease.”
He stirred the porridge slowly with a knowing smirk. Then he tilted his head, acknowledging Nico at the door. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
Rasia glanced over, and a wicked grin spread across her face at the sight of Zephyr coming up behind Nico in the doorway. Rasia started a slow clap. “Look who finally got some dick!”
Nico’s face heated at the embarrassment and shot back, “Look who can finally get some legally.”
Rasia smiled cheekily. “Well pointed, Nico-ji.”
Nico narrowed her eyes. Rasia might be in a courtship with Kai, but that did not give Rasia the audacity to address her as a sibling. “Absolutely not.”
Rasia glanced over at Kai, who had immediately dropped what he was doing. “Are you going to tell her, or am I?”
“You couldn’t wait?” he hissed at her.
“What would have been a better time? Over breakfast? When she overhears everyone talking about it all over the Grankull?”
“What are you talking about?” Nico demanded. What now? What else could Rasia have possibly done?
“Chop that melon,” Kai said, pointing at Rasia before grabbing Nico by the hand, and pulling her past Zephyr into the maze of hallways. Nico quickly overtook him and had to slow while Kai limped through his injuries.
From the kitchen, they overheard Rasia ask Zephyr, “If her magic is water is she always wet down there?”
“Shut up, Rasia,” Zephyr said immediately.
“Does it magic when she orgasms?”
“Do you want to fuck her?”
“Eww. No. Out of curiosity though . . .”
Kai dropped his head in his hands as they walked further out of earshot. He dragged his hands down his face and flung himself against the wall. Whatever he had to say, Nico wasn’t going to like it. She squinted at him as he struggled to spit out whatever was the scandal. She knew Rasia had been disowned, and it wasn’t a coincidence Kai moved back to his old room.
“You asked her to move in?” she asked, guessing at it.
If anything, his face grew paler. She tried to keep her cool. She reminded herself that it was a good thing Kai was telling her the truth and not keeping secrets. She promised, “Whatever it is. I am listening. I can handle it.”
He stared out at her with owlish eyes, then he said in a rapid rush, “Yesterday, when Rasia signed her name in the Book of Names, she also signed mine.”
“WHAT?!” A dry thunder boomed over the Grankull. She couldn’t get any words out. Who signed someone else’s name during the Naming Ceremony? Who did that?!
“Did you two plan this?” she asked, horrified.
“Of course not! This was all Rasia.”
“So what? She’s your kulani now? And there’s nothing you can do about it? Absolutely not! There must be some sort of precedence we can use to fight this.”
“I’ve already talked with Jilah-shi about it. Apparently, I can choose to sign someone else when I come of age, but I’m it for Rasia. It’s done. Kulani is the only name we get to choose—and you know how historically binding that is. Even the Council can’t do anything about it. Also . . . that move-in thing, too.”
She shook her head. She doesn’t understand how one person can be so absolutely insane. This meant Nico was stuck with Rasia—stuck with her. Forever.
“How are you okay with this?” Nico demanded. “How can you possibly forgive her after everything she has done?”
Kai seemed to know this question was coming, for he had an answer already thought out. “No one should be defined by their worst day, and yesterday was tough for everyone. Her actions stole something from you, and I understand if that’s difficult to forgive. But on normal days, she slays dragons, and on her best, she lets them live. She’s not perfect. She’s an asshole. Most of the time she doesn’t mean it, and sometimes she does. Yesterday, something was stolen from her, too. She’s hurting, too. I would like your blessing for her to stay.”
Here Nico was forgiving Rasia again. If you forgave someone too many times, did that mean you condone their actions or even worse, perpetuate them? Where was the line between forgiveness and her principles? She closed her eyes and knew she had to chunk this hatred out of her, if not for Rasia, but for herself.
“She can stay.”
“Thank you.” Kai fled back toward the kitchen. Nico remained there, pensive, against the wall.
“Shamai-kull would wring her neck.”
Nico looked up at where Kenji-ta leaned against the corner of the hallway.
“You heard everything?” she asked.
“I heard the thunder and came running. Thought you were in trouble.” Tah rubbed at his neck where the strap of his bag dug into his shoulder. Guilt wore into the lines of his face. He was yet another person where the lines of forgiveness and principles blurred.
No one should be defined by their worst day. What did it mean when you add up all the good and the bad? What did that equal?
She stared at the far wall with a question she never had the courage to ask her tah before. They’d never acknowledged it, none of her tahs, but she faced it every day in a dragon glass mirror.
“After Kai was born, you and Ava-ta separated. How did you forgive her when you learned she was seeded with me?”
The silence in the hallway felt suffocating. Her tah stared at that scar of an older blood price.
“I didn’t know you knew that,” he finally said. “I guess we ultimately forgave each other for you. Logically, I understood why kulani did it. She needed an heir and hoped it would shift the Council’s attention from . . . Kai,” he said, stumbling over the name. “And I was . . . unavailable. But I was angry about it for a long time when I learned what she did. It hurt to know you wouldn’t be my seed, but I was her kulani, and you were my child all the same. Kids don’t remember much when they’re young, so you wouldn’t remember how difficult those years of reconciliation had been. All you know are the good parts. After we both decided to make it work, it had been a difficult, challenging, and long road to walk, but it had been worth it in the end. We came out stronger for it. And I’ll do it all again, walk that road all over again until you forgive me. You have always been the best days of my life.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. She could not imagine who she’d be without Kenji-ta. She might not look like him, but she had his bones all the same.
Nico needed to expel all this messy guilt and hatred to breathe again. But unlike Rasia, which had been akin to chucking her feelings out with the dirty bath water, this felt like a carving. A slicing of malignant growth from her organs. Sometimes forgiveness was easy, and sometimes it was a long, winding road. Sometimes it was a journey of years to reach one moment in time.
“I forgive you,” Nico croaked out. “But I don’t trust you. You’ve got to earn that back.”
He nodded. He stepped aside and then paused. “You look like you have your hands full here. Rae is at jih’s place? I could watch them if you are too busy today.”
With all that was going on, she knew she needed to take him up on the offer. “Okay.”
He approached her, and after a moment of consideration, leaned down to place a kiss to her forehead. “I understand I missed a pretty good speech last night. Proud of you, butterfly.”
Her throat swelled at the endearment. She watched him disappear down the hall to the roof exit.
She took a moment to gather herself and then returned to the kitchen where Zephyr shared her previously traumatized expression. Apparently, Rasia had told him about the signing while Nico and Kai were in the hallway. There was nothing to be done for it now, especially if Kai didn’t want to fight it.
When she walked into the serving room, she found the chaos from the previous night had all been cleared away. Ysai sat cross-legged on the floor, almost comically bent over, as he rewove a broken basket. Kai squeezed past her from the kitchen to usher plates of food outside to the veranda.
“You cleaned all this up?” she asked.
“Both Rasia and Ysai-ji honestly,” Kai said. “Rasia didn’t want me popping my stitches, so I did the easy stuff. They moved the broken pieces of the serving table to the side of the house and brought down the table from the roof. I hope you don’t mind. I wanted to clean up the room before we picked up Rae.”
Nico grabbed the extra guest mats from the serving room credenza. “It was a good idea. I wished you had waited for me to help.”
“You were occupied.” He shrugged and then stepped out of the house.
Nico glanced at Ysai, who, even sitting down, looked of a height. “You know, this isn’t in your job description. You don’t have to do this.”
“I know,” He chirped. She followed the effortless weave of his fingers, amazed by their dexterity. “I don’t mind. I like fixing things. Something a lot of people don’t know about Shamai-ta is that he was really good with his hands. He enjoyed building things—like the windship and other smaller projects around the house. I got the touch of it from him,” he paused, “Rasia got all the ingenuity and lack of manners. She tells me she’s staying here now, but if you ever get tired of her, feel free to throw her in my direction.”
“I most certainly will.”
Those siblings couldn’t be any more different from one another. She shook her head as she joined Kai outside. She and Kai cleaned and set up the veranda table. It’d be the first time they’d eaten outside since Ava-ta’s death. She watched as he maneuvered awkwardly to avoid aggravating his injuries. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Most of the damage is to my face. It’s not pretty, but I’ll recover.”
The sight of a distant figure came down the road. Very few people rounded the pathway around the temple unless specifically coming to visit them. Suri gradually came into view with a bottle of date wine in her hands. Nico walked out to meet her.
“Suri,” then Nico corrected herself. They weren’t children anymore. You couldn’t go around speaking an adult’s name without an address if not intimately acquainted. “Suriya Longbow,” she greeted.
“You disappeared last night,” Suri said, then her gaze shifted over Nico’s shoulder at Zephyr and Ysai talking as they stepped out the front doorway.
“I needed a diversion,” she said, unapologetic.
“Whatever you’re planning, I want to help,” Suri said. “You were right. The Council is corrupt, and so is my tah. She did it. She and Kibari Oshield tried to kill you even knowing it could risk the Forging of the other children. She admitted she had placed me on your team to waylay suspicion. She wanted me to come over this morning and spy on what you were up to. I told her to politely shove her scalpel up her ass.” Her eyes widened, scared. “I think I’m disowned.”
Without reservation, Nico wrapped her arms around Suri and gathered her up in a hug. Suri immediately broke into hiccupping sobs. “I want to be better than her. I want to be better than my family. Maybe I can’t help you change the world, but I can at least change myself. I hope that’s enough.”
“Suri-kull,” Nico said. “The world changes one person at a time. You are always enough.”
Suri pulled her shroud from around her neck and wrapped it around the bottle of date wine she carried. She shuffled toward Zephyr and held out the bottle of alcohol to him. “I am sorry, Zephyrus Dragonblood.”
“Thank you, Suriya Longbow.” Zephyr accepted the apology token, then smiled, and handed it to Nico. She laughed at the belated guest gift. She didn’t hesitate to pop it open and pour it into everyone’s morning tea.
Sitting between Kai’s legs, Rasia emptied her cup all in one go. Two more figures approached from down the road, and Rasia didn’t hesitate to refill both her cup and two extras.
“Oi-yo!” Rasia greeted them, waving them over as if she were the host and this was her house. Nico used to think Rasia had no manners and then revised her assumptions because no one could be that dense all the time. Rasia had to know she was being a little shit—but as Rasia rolled to her feet to grab more mats from inside the house, Nico took a deep breath and let it be.
“Where’s the pouring?” Kelin called out as he and Azan approached.
Judging by their clothes, they looked like they had come from the same place, probably having met up later last night. Azan handed Nico a bottle of alcohol and nudged Kelin in turn.
“Oh right.” Kelin handed over the bottle he carried.
Nico’s brows shot up when he plopped the heavy gourd into her arms. She could smell the strong tent brew through the plug. This one might be better saved for a later time. Azan posted against the trellis and Kelin sat down to swipe food off the nearest plate, which was Kai’s.
“You touch his food and I’ll cut your intestines out to get it back,” Rasia threatened.
Kelin wisely withdrew his hand.
Loryn, Faris, and a few of the other kids came soon after, all presenting Nico with gifts of gratitude. Many hadn’t planned to stay, but the crowd began striking up conversations and they drank the morning wine that Nico freely passed around. They gathered comfortably on the soft mats and sprawling table of the veranda. The swinging bench creaked under their weight. They expressed their thanks, chatted about the namepour, and volunteered to help her in her political endeavors. A few drums ago, she had faced the darkness of the Grankull alone, but now she was surrounded by friends.
Kai, Nico, and Rasia finished breakfast while the rest passed around the plentiful bottles of alcohol. Once everyone had settled comfortably and was warmed with drink, she stood. Their conversations quieted, except for Rasia, who was turned around speaking with Azan in an engaged discussion about all the details of last night’s bodika. She unheeded the sudden quiet. “A fog? Where did a fucking fog come from? Could you tell who you were fucking? What if it was one of your jihs?”
“By the Elder, I didn’t fuck my jihs!”
“But how do you know?”
Azan opened his mouth to argue, then scrunched his face in a horrified pause. She collapsed in laughter at his uncertainty. Finally realizing all the attention was on them, Azan dropped his head into his hands. Nico certainly hoped her fog didn’t have such unintended consequences. Rasia raised her brow at all of them and then drank her tea with fake stoicism. “Y’all nasty.”
Kai gave Rasia a long-suffering look of exasperation and squeezed her thigh. “I believe Nico has something she wants to say.”
Rasia snorted and gave Nico an impatient expression for her to spit it out already. She drank an entire cup of wine and cleared her throat of the sting as she looked them all over.
“Many of you came here to thank me for standing up for you, but I wanted you all to know that it was your strength and determination that got you here today. The names you have earned are yours. Many of you may feel as if you don’t deserve your faces, but you do, no matter what anyone says,” Nico looked pointedly at Rasia, who looked pointedly back, with no less the amount of disdain from last night. “And while we all may harbor some resentment towards Rasia Dragonfire, ultimately, the corrupt members of the Council are the ones who disrespected your right to a fair Forging.”
“Last night during the namepour, I announced my intentions to run for the Councilor Seat of the Wings. They can take my title away from me, but they can’t take away my fight. I am going to change the Council from the inside out if I must. I refuse to allow them to interfere in another Forging or allow them to deny anyone’s rightful face ever again. But it’s going to require more than one seat. We need a complete revolution, which means I need people willing to run on behalf of their neighborhoods. Most of you are too young and inexperienced to seriously run for a seat but talk to your family members. Convince them of the importance of taking a stand. I appreciate all of your support.”
“Stop,” Rasia interrupted. “Let me get this straight. You declared war on the entire Council, which makes Kai an even bigger target than he already is?” she turned to Kai. “See what the fuck I’m talking about? She’s the problem. You’re in more danger now.”
“And I’ve taken steps to make sure he’s protected,” Nico countered. “Last night, I also entered an alliance with the Tent Hans. As part of the alliance, they’ve agreed to protect my family.”
“Oi-yo.” Kelin smirked and raised his hand.
“I can protect you,” Ysai said, a little hurt.
“Ysaijen Unbowed, I am grateful for all that you’ve done so far, but they’ve already put a price on my head. This job is way more than what you signed up for, nor do you have much of a choice. Kibari Oshield might reassign your position, and you’re but one person. Nor do I entirely trust the night guard not to be bought out. This family needs more protection.”
Kai’s eyes narrowed, scrutinizing. “What else does this alliance with the Tent Hans involve? What do they get in return?”
“A seat at the table. They want one of their own in power,” Nico answered, speaking directly to Kai. “This is a risk, and I know it will affect our family greatly. You’ll become even more of a target, and you’ll have to sacrifice even more for me, but I promise you that things will change for the better. I have often been criticized for not having a plan, for being nothing but pretty words and hollow hopes.” The plan she and Zephyr had hatched in the early morning seemed fogged by a dream now, but it was one she needed to till into reality. She scanned all of their faces, and she was reminded of that moment at the oasis when she helped the kids retrieve their supplies and how they were willing to follow her to the end of the world if she asked. Now, she was asking.
“I want all of you to know that I do not ask you to follow me blindly, and that I have a vision for the Grankull and our future. The cold hard truth we face today is that there is not enough fertile land to grow enough food for the population, which in turn makes us more vulnerable whenever a hunting season is unsuccessful. The Grankull have often responded with mechanisms of population control, with good intentions, but these systems have become so corrupted that we deny people basic human decency. We turn the other way when lives are lost. We value each other less. We climb over one another to survive. Therefore, we have two choices before us: we eat ourselves from the inside out or we change. People might argue different visions for that change, but this is what I propose: we take the Graveyard.”
Rasia burst out laughing. “Really? You don’t think Ohans haven’t thought of that before?”
Ysai gentled Rasia’s words, “Ohans have tried to take the Graveyard and have failed before. Not because they weren’t strong enough to conquer it, but because it’s practically impossible to keep. No one can eke out a sustainable living in the crossroads of the dragon’s coast, the spider mines, and the gonda breeding grounds—it’s enough for scavengers, but not enough for the entire Grankull.”
Nico smiled and clarified, “Which is why I say again—we take the Graveyard—and we bring it to us. With a little engineering and my magic, it should be possible to move the Graveyard here, bone by bone if we must. It’s a huge project. It might take years, and most certainly all the scavengers, the Tents, and the Grankull working together, but if it succeeds, there will be enough for us all. The magic in those bones changes the soil. We could have wingfields stretching from here to the saltpans. It was you, Rasia-ji, who gave me the initial idea. You said it yourself: With enough water, the bones float.”
It took Nico almost sixteen years, but she finally, for once, managed to render Rasia speechless. The gears churned in Rasia’s head—thinking of ways to contradict herself, but in the end, she had nothing.
“You really think the scavengers are going to want to work with us?” Faris asked, uncertain, and no doubt burned by his previous interaction.
“We’re all starving. What choice do we have? It’s either kill each other or work together. The scavengers don’t have the technology to succeed alone.” Nico looked at all their faces, at the faces of the kids from the Tents, the kids from all the different neighborhoods of the Grankull, and Rasia’s own brand of special. Lastly, she looked at Kai, and promised, “This is how we survive. We throw no one overboard. We build a bigger ship, together.”