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Dakari is, after all, attractive and popular; he has lots of friends. Lots of girl friends, specifically.
Foreigners call it magic; my people call it the splendor.
Everyone is afraid of me and of what I can do, but Dakari . . . He isn’t afraid.
“Sometimes things that seem dangerous are just misunderstood.” Mama said the words with a strange sadness before patting Diko again.
Born for this. For generations, every male Okojo had served the Sons of the Six, a longer tradition than that of almost any other family in Lkossa. That legacy was fortified, respected; it left little room for ineptitude.
His brother had faith in him; he believed in him. Just like Baba once believed in you, said a cruel voice in his mind. He trusts you, just like Baba did.
Kutoka mzizi.”
Kutoka mzizi meant “from the root.” The old family adage was a reminder of where he came from and the expectations that came with that. Kutoka mzizi.
Yet again, she’d felt that strange tingle in her feet, a rush of something moving through her.
The revelation didn’t come the way she’d expected it to—total and devastating. Rather, it rolled over her in waves, each one crueler than its predecessor, until it was numbing.
The sense of emptiness was one thing, but the blame and guilt cut through her like a knife.
heron, a crocodile, a jackal, a serpent, a dove, and a hippo—icons of the gods’ familiars.
“Nightmares hunt like beasts of prey, vanquished in the light of day.”
Those beasts of prey represent our worldly troubles,” Brother Ugo explained. “Often, we run from painful things and hope that they will tire of chasing us. But in truth, avoiding our troubles simply gives them more sustenance, allowing them to eventually consume us whole. Only when we cast light on them and acknowledge them can they truly be vanquished, allowing our spirits to be
free.”
“Destiny is not a single path, but many, Ekon. Some are as straight as an arrow, others twist and tangle like thread. Our duty is not to question them but to follow them.”
