The Burning City (Spirit Binders) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  What came before. . .

  Glossary

  Prologue

  PART I - Fate

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  The black book

  PART II - Chance

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  The black book

  PART III - Kings

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  The black book

  PART IV - Desperate Men

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  The black book

  PART V - Ipa Nui

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Note on Pronunciation

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  To my mother and my Aunt Vanessa,

  the strong women in my life who helped inspire the strong

  women in this book.

  Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men. . .

  —John Donne

  Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

  —Dylan Thomas

  What came before. . .

  THE MORNING OF HER FIRST BLOOD, thirteen-year-old Lana is at once excited and terrified to perform her first dive alone. If successful, she will be initiated into the elite ranks of those who dive for the jewels created by the sacred mandagah fish. But two unusual jewels, given her by a dying fish, are destined to one day tear her from everything she has ever loved. In the islands, humans are engaged in a constant struggle with their environment—the countless volcanoes, floods, and divine winds that threaten their lives. And so, to control these natural forces and allow human civilization to flourish, a few brave individuals used the power of sacrifice to imprison the spirits of fire, water, and death that govern these acts of nature. Ever since that time, despite the continued worship by humans, these spirits have struggled to break free.

  Soon after Lana’s initiation, floods devastate the small rural island. Although Leilani, Lana’s mother, is reluctant to leave, her father’s desire to travel to the city prevails. Lana and Leilani stay in another, smaller city while Lana’s father goes ahead to the metropolis of Essel—an urban center in the shadow of the smoking volcano, Nui’ahi, and home to the famed Kulanui, an ancient school.

  Returning to the Kulanui is Lana’s island teacher and youthful crush, Kohaku. There he is happy to be reunited with his deaf sister, Emea, someone whom he believes is very sheltered from the rest of the world because of her handicap. Unbeknownst to him, however, she is carrying on an affair with Nahe, the head of Kohaku’s department at the Kulanui.

  Meanwhile, Lana and her mother eke out a meager living in the dockside slums in Okika City. Lana’s harsh work at a launderer’s eventually makes her desperately ill, and Leilani turns to prostitution in order to pay for her daughter’s medicine. A mysterious one-armed witch approaches Leilani and offers her a deal: enough money to travel to Essel and live comfortably with her husband in exchange for Lana’s apprenticeship. Lana would learn how to harness the power of the spirits through sacrifice. Leilani must also wear a necklace with a bone charm carved in the shape of a key—the ancient symbol of the death spirit.

  Lana generally enjoys her life with the witch Akua—although certain strange events sometimes make her question her mentor’s intentions. Lana ignores oblique warnings from Ino, the water sprite who guards the nearby lake. When Lana is eighteen, Akua informs her that her apprenticeship is nearly at an end. As a final lesson, she promises to show Lana a technique that can be used to harness great power. Under Akua’s watchful eye, Lana learns how to use the matched jewels she harvested during her initiation to trick another person into an unwitting sacrifice. What Lana doesn’t know is that she will slowly kill the other person to whom she gives one of the jewels. She sells it to Pua, an older woman who has spent most of her life in the outer islands raising her nephew Kai, the half-human water guardian. Then, in a ceremony Lana doesn’t understand, Akua binds Lana’s fate inextricably with her own, tricking Lana into accepting this burden.

  Soon after, Leilani collapses. Using her connection with Pua through the linked jewel necklaces, Lana recites a geas that will allow Leilani to live, but only with great sacrifice: Lana is doomed to be hounded by the specter of her own mother’s untimely death until she herself dies. Akua, curiously unsurprised at Lana’s predicament, gives her a powerful means to survive—a flute made from the hollowed bones of Akua’s right arm.

  In the days before Lana’s fateful sacrifice, Kohaku’s sister Emea dies—a victim of her lover’s callous treatment after she becomes pregnant. Nahe expels Kohaku from the Kulanui to discredit his accusations. Destitute and bereft, Kohaku makes the pilgrimage to the inner fire shrine, where hundreds supplicate the fire spirit to become the new ruler of Essel. Kohaku merely intends an honorable death: of those hundreds who vie for rulership, only one succeeds—and the rest are all sacrificed. On the boat to the shrine, however, Kohaku meets Nahoa, a rough-edged but lovely sailor. The unexpected love he feels for her rekindles his desire for both life and revenge, leading him to do the unthinkable. For the price of his left hand, Kohaku deliberately weakens the bindings that hold the fire spirit—and thus becomes ruler of the most powerful city in the islands. He and Nahoa marry, but their happiness is tempered by his bloodthirsty need to avenge his sister—who appears to him as a ghost—and his growing paranoia about Nui’ahi, the great volcano.

  While Kohaku becomes Mo’i, Lana spends her days engaged in a desperate battle of wits with the death spirit. She goes on a pilgrimage to the original wind shrine, destroyed five hundred years before, when that spirit broke free of its human-forged bindings. After she endures a three-day vigil, the wind spirit grants Lana its double-edged gift—she grows black wings that can help keep her from the clutches of the death spirit. Lana thus becomes the first “black angel,” an ancient harbinger of destruction, in five hundred years.

  Exhausted unto death, Lana flies away and collapses on the doorstep of a well-to-do country inn, wearing a cloak drawn over her shoulders. There, she is taken for a hunchback beggar and is about to be turned away before one of the richest guests demands that she be let in. The guest is in fact Kai, the water guardian, whose otherworldly features inspire more fear than respect. He takes her to his rooms and helps to nurse her back to health. Kai then offers her a gift she never could have hoped to receive: complete protection from the death spirit in his shrine on the outer islands. She accepts and begins a more peaceful existence with Kai in his home. However, despite their growing love for each other, he keeps his distance. Any woman who chooses to sleep with a guardian will kill him if she sleeps with another. Lana understands the risks, but gives herself to Kai anyway. As he teaches her more about the art of geas and binding, she discovers that Akua has left some vital gaps out of her education. This makes Lana suspicious, but she only fully understands the magnitude of Akua’s treachery when Kai tells her of his beloved aunt Pua on the anniversary of her death. Lana immediately realizes that this is the same woman she had used as an unwitting sacrifice a year before. Kai’s aunt died of a sudden illness one week after Lana cast the spell that saved her mother. Racked with guilt, Lana leaves the water shrine, determined to confront Akua and demand answers. />
  But Akua has abandoned the cottage, and the only information Ino can give Lana is a slim, ancient black book. And then, before she can look further, there is an explosion to the west. Nui’ahi, Essel’s great volcano, dormant for a thousand years, has finally blown.

  Just before the explosion, Akua appears in the city, where she kidnaps Leilani. The two women witness the destruction in silence, both equally shocked.

  At that moment, Nahoa is sequestered in the fire shrine, having left Kohaku when she discovered the brutally mangled body of his sister’s erstwhile lover. Nahoa gives birth to her and Kohaku’s daughter amid the fiery carnage.

  Lana arrives in the devastated city to find her parents’ home razed. Her father tells her that her mother has gone missing, and the two grieve the only way they can, by playing a lament together in the smoking ashes of the great city.

  Glossary

  The black book

  Characters

  Aoi – Narrator of the black book.

  Parech – Akane tribesman who served as a Maaram soldier.

  Taak – A Maaram soldier.

  Tulo – A Kawadiri princess.

  Wolop – A Maaram soldier.

  Yaela – First of the Great Binders, who bound the water spirit.

  Nations/Tribes

  Akane – A loosely grouped network of tribes conquered by the Kukichans a generation before.

  Essel – The city that has become the dominant cultural and military power.

  Kawadiri Archipelago – Home to tribes conquered by the Maaram but still fighting for their independence.

  Kukicha – Large island known for its rice farming; the Kukichans are the conquerors of the Akane tribes.

  Maaram – The chief rival of the Esselans. Their city is also called Maaram. Centuries later, the island of Maaram becomes known as Okika.

  Lana’s story

  Characters

  Ahi (full name Lei’ahi) – Nahoa and Kohaku’s infant daughter.

  Akua – A witch. Lana’s former teacher.

  Arai – Okikan general.

  Edere – Mo’i soldier.

  Elemake – Death guardian.

  Eliki – Rebel leader.

  Ino – Water sprite of the lake near Akua’s house on Okika Island.

  Kai (full name Kaleakai) – Water guardian and Lana’s lover.

  Kapa – Lana’s father.

  Kohaku – Mo’i of Essel.

  Lana (full name Iolana) – The black angel.

  Leilani – Lana’s mother.

  Leipaluka – Rebel soldier.

  Lipa – Apothecary for the rebels.

  Makaho – Head nun of the fire temple.

  Malie – Nahoa’s maid.

  Nahe (deceased) – Kohaku’s former superior at the Kulanui. Tortured in Kohaku’s dungeon.

  Nahoa – Kohaku’s wife.

  Pano – Rebel leader.

  Sabolu – Stablehand for the fire temple.

  Senona Ahi – Fire guardian.

  Tope – Rebel soldier.

  Uele’a – Stablehand for the fire temple.

  Yechtak – Member of the wind tribes and ambassador of the wind spirit.

  Landmarks in Essel

  Essel has eight districts total, which spiral outward from the city’s center.

  Sea Street – The north – south road that bifurcates Essel and connects the two bays.

  Greater Bay – The main harbor to the south. The Kulanui and the fire temple are both nearby.

  Lesser Bay – The old, smaller harbor to the north. This has been in general disuse for centuries.

  The Rushes – An ancient farming community on the far west coast of the seventh district.

  Nui’ahi – Also known as the “sleeping sentinel,” this is the volcano that has loomed over the great city of Essel for centuries.

  Kulanui – The great center for learning in Essel; it has been in the city for nearly a thousand years. It is located in the third district, near the Greater Bay.

  Mo’i’s House – Another ancient structure, located more centrally in the third district.

  Terms

  Napulo – A philosophy of spirit binding. In the past, those who called themselves napulo were evenly split on its morality. In the present, only those who dispute the spirit bindings actively retain an association with the philosophy.

  Mo’i – The ruler of all Essel, chosen once every fifteen years by the fire spirit itself. In the ceremony at the heart of the fire shrine, many will offer themselves, but only one will be selected—and all the others will die in the great flame.

  Kai – An old word for water, used to invoke the water spirit.

  Make’ lai – An old word for death, used to invoke the death spirit.

  Mandagah Fish (and Mandagah Jewels) – A type of fish native to the outer islands, where generations of divers harvest the brightly colored jewels that grow in their mouths. Recently, disasters have greatly reduced their numbers.

  Outer Islands – The term for the warm, spirit-heavy islands that scatter the rim of the island world. The guardians of the three major spirits all have shrines in the outer islands.

  Inner Islands – The term for the frozen heart of the island world, where the three major spirits remain imprisoned.

  Spirit Bindings – The central tenet of island life. The spirits ruling fire, death, and water have been bound by humans for a thousand years, thus protecting humans from environmental extremes. Wind used to be bound, but it broke free five hundred years before Lana’s time.

  Prologue

  THIS HOUSE HELD ANCIENT TREASURES—mats woven with long-extinct dune grass, walls of acacia wood turned burgundy with age, and notes slipped into its nooks and crannies like messages across time to the woman now trapped inside. Leilani could hardly have devised a more fascinating prison. The ocean was a constant presence, beating against a shore a few dozen yards away. Leilani could almost imagine throwing off her clothes and diving beneath the water—if it weren’t for the winter cold and the sprites that ever so gently prevented her from exiting the door. She tried twice, and stopped. Leilani knew enough about power to recognize a superior force.

  Her daughter was safe. Her husband. . .she would not think of her husband. Instead, she spent her days hunting for the notes. They were written in an ancient form of Essela and one could sometimes take her hours to struggle through. The words and grammar were largely the same, but the characters slightly, maddeningly different. The content of the notes would have been stiflingly banal in other circumstances, but fascinated her now.

  “I would go to the Nui’ahi,” read one in large, childish script. And another: “I would feed the big eel fish.” She imagined a child a thousand years dead, exuberantly placing his or her wishes in the wall and hoping an indulgent parent would grant them. It reminded her of Lana at that age, though most of Lana’s wishes had centered on diving. Some of the notes were in an older hand. “I wish to see Ile ride a wave,” and “I would watch Ile dance.” She showed these notes to Akua, but the witch would hardly look at them before going away again. Leilani learned to keep them out of sight if she hoped for conversation. Occasionally, the witch made Leilani sit in the middle of the room while she attempted a geas. It always failed, and given the witch in question, Leilani knew this was astonishing. Other than these eerie, aborted moments, Akua left Leilani largely alone. And Leilani, whose options were either brooding over her fractured family or exploring the ancient house, chose the latter.

  But one month after the great eruption, she found a note very different from the others. The handwriting was recognizably that of the parent, but the characters seemed to form nonsense words. A different language? She stared at the brittle parchment. Almost everyone in the islands spoke the same language. They had for centuries. Somehow, she knew that this note would not convey the familiar wishes of a parent to a child. The characters were cramped and hurried. It felt like a confession. Like a secret. Like a hint of what had truly happened in this house centuries befo
re.

  Deliberately, she left it in the open and waited for Akua to return. The witch read it as though she could not look away. She bent down and picked it up. Her hand trembled. Leilani realized what should have been obvious from the first: Akua had loves and disappointments just like everyone else. It was her combination of extreme power and emotional detachment that made her seem inhuman.

  “Where did you find this?” Akua asked.

  “Beneath the mat closest to the door. What does it say?”

  Akua was silent for a long time, long enough for Leilani to give up on an answer. Her words, when she spoke, rang with the natural intonation of poetry.

  “Haven’t I always loved you?

  And yet you only see her,

  Dancing by the fire.”

  The death had grown to know the girl, to feel comfortable in her shadow. It would trail her for hours, then days—a week, once—before recalling its geas. It attempted to kill her the way a master attempts to beat a skilled partner in a shell game, with more interest than conviction. It had been cast off like a splinter from a carving, a death not of death, and it had grown and changed. It recalled the sublime consciousness of the whole, but did not long to return there. The girl was complete and bright with the life it longed to quench. That time in the guardian’s shrine, when she had nearly passed beyond the gate, she had tried to bind the death with words alone. She had noted the substance of its key, and it had stilled at the burning, frantic, hope in her eyes as she struggled for more, as she uncovered truth with desperation. “So long as it wields the key,” she had said, “the death is bound to petty human emotion.”