Children of Virtue and Vengeance

A few days later, the group goes to Gusau prison, where the queen has imprisoned maji. They plan to free them to start an army.

Roën surprises them by arriving as they look down at the prison. Amari responds to him with hostility, but Roën makes it clear that he has no plans to kill them. Instead, he warns them of bombs that have been set up around the prison, making their success impossible, and gives Zélie a note from the Iyika. They paid him to bring Zélie to them.

Inan looks at himself in the mirror in his father’s quarters, dressed in his father’s clothing. Ojore joins him. Inan notes how Ojore looks at the white streak in his hair, and Ojore admits that he still hates magic but understands how they need to use it to win the war.

Inan’s mother enters and places his father’s crown on his head. Inan is going to be crowned king and speak to the royal council. Inan fears everything that he must face—famine, raids, the maji, and the Iyika—but he also fears becoming his father. His mother assures him that he will “be the king [his father] couldn’t” (82).