Page 146 of Earthbound

Their love for one another was the only thing that had remained unscathed during their journey.

He watched as Malak’s fingers caressed the hoop of his drum, ready to strike.

‘A few days of starvation will loosen your lips. Then perhaps you’ll be more willing to help me,’ the chieftain said.

Again, Lettle didn’t respond.

Come on, Lettle, please. Fight back, do something.

Malak flicked his wrist and two guards walked forward and lifted Lettle by the arms.

Her head lolled to the side, her eyes still blinking with life, but her spirit was broken.

It was as though she was awaiting her death.

The image stirred Alder’s panic into rage. He could not sit by and allow them to take Lettle away.

So he said the words he’d vowed he wouldn’t.

‘Obeah, to me,’ he said.

He had promised not to use the creatures as weapons, but without Lettle everything would be lost. It wasn’t just his identity that would suffer; the lives of an entire race rested on her drooping shoulders–she was the only one who knew the spell to bring back the humans. He was doing this to save them, as well as her.

As well as him.

Did Afa think this righteously when he broke his promise to Hady?

His nails bit into his palm and he pushed the thought from his mind. Even though he knew that in making this decision he had irrevocably blurred the boundary between him and Afa.

Malak looked around, surprised by Alder’s call, but when no obeah showed up, he smiled. ‘Is this some trick?’

Alder waited.

Then Malak heard it. A distant thunder at first, growing louder with each passing second. The soldier holding Alder let go of him in favour of her drum.

‘What is happening?’ Reena said. She hadn’t recognised the sound, but she’d see them soon enough.

The obeah’s footfalls thumped like Alder’s heart as they drew nearer.

Badum, badum, badum.

Louder and louder. Faster and faster.

And just when he thought his heart might rupture, the obeah burst through the camp, tearing through tents and bodies alike. They moved as one, their horns interlocked like a forest of blades.

‘Protect the chieftain!’ Reena shouted, and the soldiers moved to surround Malak in an arrowhead formation.

The white pearlescent bone of the obeah’s horns soon dripped with blood as they advanced. Their teeth were bared in snarls as they carried out Alder’s request: protect him.

Here were the weapons Afa had built. It sickened Alder and he looked away to help Lettle up from the ground.

‘You called the obeah?’ she whispered.

‘Yes.’

‘I’m so sorry, Alder.’ She understood the sacrifice he had made.

He held her to his chest, trying to regain the piece of himself he felt he had lost.