The Battle Drum (The Ending Fire Trilogy #2)

by Saara El-Arifi

“A person without ambition is a happy person,” he often said. To which Nayeli would respond, “A person without ambition is not a person but a ghost. For without a purpose, what are you?”

“Ignore Aunty, you should marry my friends, Opo and Lopo…” Over Nayeli’s soulless body would she marry a couple whose names rhymed.

“Maggot,” she’d called Anoor in her journal. Anoor closed her eyes and thought, At least maggots change. I transformed long ago.

Must not the oppressed become the oppressor in order to further change?

The only way foretelling harks true is if those who believe make it so. It makes me wonder, is faith a type of madness?

Remember that anger burns like coal, long and slow, and it takes but a spark to reignite the flame.

“There are so many secrets in this empire that when you uncover one, you need only turn it over to see another.” Cryptic. Annoying.

Freedom is not free. It has a cost. But it cannot be bought or given. Only taken. And it is time to take ours.

Sylah found herself wanting to trace the lines of her fine orange veins that shone through her light brown skin. They made her skin glow. “What can you tell me then?” Neera asked. Sylah had forgotten her own name.