PROLOGUE

       Be still, Little Priestess.

      My father kneels before me with a string of teeth threaded between his fingers. They shine like polished pearls, and I square my shoulders and stand a little taller to make him proud. The distant echo of the djembe drums drowns out his words, but it doesn’t tame the twinkle in his eyes as he drapes the teeth around my neck. Tonight I become a true daughter of Tribe Aatiri.

      Magic of all colours flutters in the air as gentle as wingbeats. I can’t be still when it dances on my father’s dark skin like lightning bugs. It flits along his jaw and leaps onto his nose. My hand shoots out to catch an ember of gold, but it slips through my fingers. I giggle, and he laughs too.

      Girls gossip as their mothers fix their kaftans and bone charms. For every one the magic touches, it skips two, like the rest of us are invisible. My chest tightens, watching it go to others when it’s never come to me – not even once.

      The few girls who speak Tamaran ask me what it’s like living so far away in the Almighty Kingdom. They say that I am not a true Aatiri because my mother is not of the tribe. Something twinges in my belly, for there is truth in their words.

      I hold my head high as my father straightens my collar. He’s the only man in the tent, and the other girls whisper about that too. I don’t care what they say; I’m glad he’s here. ‘Why doesn’t magic come to me, Father?’

      The question comes out too loud, and silence falls upon the tent. The other girls and their mothers stare at me as if I’ve said something bad. ‘Don’t worry, daughter,’ he says, folding the sleeves of my orange-and-blue kaftan, which matches his own. ‘It will come in due time.’

      ‘But when?’ I stomp.

      It isn’t fair that many of the Aatiri children younger than me have magic already. In Tamar, I’m the only one among my friends who can see magic at all, but here, it flocks to the other children and they can make it do things. I can’t.

      ‘Maybe never, little ewaya,’ says the oldest girl in accented Tamaran. She glares at me and I wrinkle my nose at her. I’m not a baby, and she’s wrong. It will come.

      The girl’s mother clucks her tongue and fusses at her in Aatiri. Her words slide over my ears without meaning, like all the strange and beautiful languages in the markets back home.

      ‘Even if the magic never comes,’ my father says, ‘you’ll still be my Little Priestess.’

      I poke my tongue out at the girl. That’ll teach her not to be so mean.

      Another girl asks why my mother isn’t here. ‘She has more important things to do,’ I answer, remembering how my father had begged her to come.

      ‘Why the sad face?’ my father asks, squeezing my cheeks. ‘Imebyé is a time of celebration. Tonight, you begin the long journey into adulthood.’

      The djembe drums stop. I bite my lip, and the other girls startle. It’s time to go stand in front of the whole tribe so the chieftain can bless us. But for once, my legs still as the other girls hurry from the tent with their mothers.

      ‘I want to go home, Father,’ I whisper as the last girl leaves.

      Some of the light fades from his eyes. ‘We’ll go home soon, okay?’

      ‘I want to go home now,’ I say, a little stronger.

      He frowns. ‘Don’t you want to take part in Imebyé?’

      I shake my head hard enough to make my bone charms rattle.

      My father comes to his feet. ‘How about we just watch the ceremony together?’

      The chieftain walks into the tent and I tuck myself against my father’s side. Her silver kaftan sweeps about her ankles and stands out against her midnight skin. Salt-and-pepper locs coil on top of her head. ‘Do my son and granddaughter plan to take part in a ceremony they travelled fourteen days to attend?’ she asks, her deep voice ringing in the tent.

      My father wraps his arm around my shoulders.