Raybearerthemes loyalty and fate, and is steeped in West African traditions and mythologies.
That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere.
I leaned precariously over the sill, hoping to catch a fleck before a servant wrestled me inside.
Credit: Abrams Books
Shame-shame, Tarisai, my tutors fretted.
What would The Lady do if you fell?
But I want to see the lights, I said.
Theyre only tutsu sprites.
A tutor herded me away from the window.
They guide lost elephants to watering holes.
Or to lion packs, another tutor muttered.
If theyre feeling less kind.
Magic, I soon learned, was capricious.
I was seven when the man with cobalt-fire wings found me.
The moon hung high above the savannah when thealagbato, the fairy, appeared in my path.
The light glinted in his gold-flecked eyes, which slanted all the way to his dark temples.
He seized the back of my garment, hoisting me up for examination.
The alagbato watched me, amused, as I punched and kicked the air.
Im in bed at Bhekina House, I told myself.
My heart pounded like a fist on a goatskin drum.
I can smell breakfast in the kitchens.
But my cheek began to throb.
I was not in bed.
I was lost in the balmy Swanian grasslands, and this man was made of flames.
His Sahara breath warmed my beaded braids.
Just where do you think youre going?
How do you know my name?
Were alagbatos all-knowing, like Am the Storyteller?
I am the one who gave it to you.
I was too angry to absorb this reply.
Did he have to be so bright?
Even his hair shimmered, a luminous thicket around his narrow face.
If our compound guards spotted him .
I had barely made it a mile into the savannah.
Capture now would be humiliating.
My tutors would lock me up againand this time, every window in Bhekina House would be nailed shut.
Im not allowed to be touched, I snapped, clawing at the alagbatos grip.
His skin felt smooth and hot, like clay left to harden in the sun.
You are small enough to be carried.
I am told human children need affection.
Well, Im not human, I shot back in triumph.
So put me down.
Who told you that, little girl?
No one, I admitted after a pause.
But they all say it behind my back.
Im not like other children.
This was possibly a lie.
I would wave from my window until my arms grew sore, but they never waved back.
Yes, the alagbato agreed grimly.
Would you like to see your mother, Tarisai?
I stopped resisting at once, and my limbs hung limp as vines.
Do you know where she is?
My mother was like morning mist: here, then gone, vanished in clouds of jasmine.
My tutors bowed superstitiously whenever they passed her wood carving in my study.
They called herThe Lady.
I delighted in our resemblance: the same high cheekbones, full lips, and fathomless black eyes.
Her carving watched as my study brimmed with scholars from sunup to moonrise.
They chattered in dialects from all twelve realms of the Arit Empire.
Some faces were warm and dark, like mine and The Ladys.
The tutors plied me with riddles, shoving diagrams into my hands.
Can she solve it?
Try a different one.
Shell have to do better than that.
I didnt know what they were looking for.
I only knew that once they found it, I would get to see The Lady again.
Her shoulders glowed like embers.
The Lady never spoke when I demonstrated my skills.
Sometimes she nodded as if to say,yes, perhaps.
But in the end, she always shook her head.
But each time it was no, no, and no again.
Then she vanished in that haze of heady perfume.
At age five I had begun to sleepwalk, padding barefoot through the smooth plaster halls of our manor.
They were always careful never to touch my skin.
I cannot find your mother, the alagbato told me the night of my attempted escape.
But I can show you a memory.
Not in my head.
He dodged my attempt to seize his face.
I never store secrets on my person.
The Lady had forbidden people from touching me for a reason.
I could steal the story of almost anything: a comb, a spear, a person.
I touched something and knew where it had been a moment before.
If I held on long enough, I could see a persons memories formonths, even years.
Only The Lady was immune to my gift.
I knew every story in Bhekina House, except hers.
It is not far.
He offered a bony hand, but I hesitated.
Youre a stranger, I said.
he asked, and I felt the odd sensation of peering into a mirror.
He smiled, lips pursed like a meerkats.
If it makes you feel any better, my name is Melu.
And thanks tothat woman, I am not an alagbato.
His smile soured into a grimace.
I picked up my sack, from which most of the mangoes had fallen, and took Melus hand.
Though gentle, his grip felt hard around mine, as though his muscles were made of bronze.
Careful, he murmured.
We walked to a clearing hedged in acacia trees.
Herons flapped above a vast still pool.
The air hung with lilies and violets, and the brush rustled andshhhedin a wordless lullaby.
Is this where you live?
I asked in awe.
In a manner of speaking, he said.
It was beautiful for the first few thousand days.
After that, it grew tedious.
I blinked up at him in confusion, but he did not explain.
He only pointed to the soft red earth.
The story is here.
Cautiously, I pressed my ear to the ground.
Id never tried to take the memory of any place larger than my bedroom.
The winged man and the flock of herons disappeared.
The clearing is younger now, with fewer brush and acacia trees.
It is daytime in this memory, and the amber pool is clear, free of fish and mayflies.
My heart skips a beat: The Lady, my Lady, reclines on a rock by the water.
Her wrapper is frayed, and her sandals are worn to the soles.
I worry, wondering:What were you running from, Mother?
The Lady dips an emerald cuff into the water.
She murmurs over the jewel, kissing it tenderly, and the emerald glows and fades.
Then she sets the cuff down and calls out, Melu.
My mother tastes the word on her full lips, drawing out the syllables like a song.
Melu, my dear.
Wont you come out and play?
The clearing is silent.
The Lady laughs, a deep, throaty sound.
The seers say that alagbatos dislike humans.
Some doubt you even exist, Great Melu, guardian of Swana.
But I think you do hear.
She produces a green vial from her pocket and tips it precariously toward the pool.
I think you hear just fine.
A hot wind rushes into the clearing, swirling up dirt and clay into a tall, lean man.
His wings smolder cobalt blue, like a young fire, but his voice is frost cold.
I would tell you my name, The Lady tells him.
But as you know, my father never gave me one.
She pauses, still dangling that vial over the pool.
How quickly doesabikublood spread through earth and water, Melu?
How much would poison every living thing within a fifty-mile radius?
Dont, Melu barks.
The Lady points to the emerald cuff.
Melus features contort with defeat.
Stone-jawed, he picks up the cuff and snaps it on his forearm.
If Ive done that right, says The Lady, you are no longer Swanas alagbato.
You are my ehru .
Three wishes, Melu spits.
And I am bound to this grassland until your wishes are complete.
The Lady sits, thoughtfully dangling her muscular brown legs in the water.
Melu, I wish for a stronghold that no one may see or hear unless I desire it.
A place my friends and I will always be safe.
That is my first command.
A mile from here.
Melu points, and the newly blossomed plaster walls of Bhekina House shimmer in the distance.
The Lady glows with pleasure.
Now, she breathes, I wish for Olugbades death
Not allowed, Melu snaps.
Life and death are beyond my power.Especiallythat life.
Even fairies may not kill a Raybearer.
The Ladys mouth hardens, then relaxes.
I thought that might be the case, she says.
I wish for a child who will do, think, and feel as I tell it.
An extension of myself.
A gifted child, sure to stand out in a contest of talent.
This is my second command.
Not allowed, Melu intones again.
I cannot force a human to love or hate.
You may notowna child as you own an ehru.
The Lady steeples her fingers in thought.
A smile spreads across her face, and her teeth are coldly white.
What if, she says, my child was an ehru?
What if my child was yours?
Melu grows as rigid as a tree in dry season.
Such a union would go against nature.
You are human, not of my kind.
You ask for an abomination.
Oh no, Melu.
The Ladys brilliant black eyes dance over the ehrus horrified ones.
I command that abomination.
They performed a ritual then, one I didnt understand at seven years old.
It looked painful, the way his body folded over hers in the grass.
Two species never meant to unite, dissimilar as flesh against metal.
But the memory told me that nine months later, my infant cries rang through Bhekina House.
And The Ladys third ungranted wishher abominationran through my veins.
Do you understand now?
Melu muttered over my drowsy form, once the memory had run its course.
Until you grant her third wish, neither you nor I will be free.
He touched my forehead with a long, slender finger.
I bargained with The Lady for the privilege of naming you Tarisai.
It is a Swana name:behold what is coming.
Your soul is hers for now.
But your name, I insisted, must be your own.
He sounded far away.
Stealing The Ladys story had exhausted me.
He whispered, Ive been bound to this savannah for seven years.
For my sake, I hope that woman claims her wish.
But for your sake, daughter, I hope that day never comes.
Then servants clambered toward the gates, and Melu was gone.
But their dilated pupils and terse smiles told a different story.
My adventure had confirmed their most sinister suspicions.
My mother was the devil, and I, her puppet demon.
