“Good, because I have something and I don’t want to regret showing it to you.”
Mama Agba reaches into her kaftan and pulls out a sleek black rod. She gives it a sharp flick. I jump back as the rod expands into a gleaming metal staff.
“Oh my gods,” I breathe out, fighting the urge to clutch the masterpiece. Ancient symbols coat every meter of the black metal, each carving reminiscent of a lesson Mama Agba once taught. Like a bee to honey, my eyes find the akofena first, the crossed blades, the swords of war. Courage does not always roar, she said that day. Valor does not always shine. My eyes drift to the akoma beside the swords next, the heart of patience and tolerance. On that day . . . I’m almost positive I got a beating that day.
Each symbol takes me back to another lesson, another story, another wisdom. I look at Mama, waiting. Is this a gift or what she’ll use to beat me?
“ Here.” She places the smooth metal in my hand. Immediately, I sense its power. Iron-lined . . . weighted to crack skulls.
“Is this really happening?”
Mama nods. “You fought like a warrior today. You deserve to graduate.”
I rise to twirl the staff and marvel at its strength. The metal cuts through the air like a knife, more lethal than any oak staff I’ve ever carved.
“Do you remember what I told you when we first started training?”
I nod and mimic Mama Agba’s tired voice. “ ‘If you’re going to pick fights with the guards, you better learn how to win.’ ”
Though she slaps me over the head, her hearty laughter echoes against the reed walls. I hand her the staff and she rams it into the ground; the weapon collapses back into a metal rod.
“You know how to win,” she says. “Just make sure you know when to fight.”
Pride and honor and pain swirl in my chest when Mama Agba places the staff back into my palm. Not trusting myself to speak, I wrap my hands around her waist and inhale the familiar smell of freshly washed fabric and sweet tea.
Though Mama Agba stiffens at first, she holds me tight, squeezing away the pain. She pulls back to say more, but stops as the sheets of the ahéré open again.
I grab the metal rod, prepared to flick until I recognize my older brother, Tzain, standing in the entrance. The reed hut instantly shrinks in his massive presence, all muscle and strain. Tendons bulge against his dark skin. Sweat rains from his black hair down his forehead. His eyes catch mine and a sharp pressure clamps my heart.
“It’s Baba.”
‘A perspective long overdue in British fiction’
Alex Wheatle, author of Crongton Knights
‘A book steeped in drama and empathy’
Nikesh Shukla, author of Run Riot
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Muhammad Khan is an engineer, a secondary-school maths teacher, and a YA author! He takes his inspiration from the children he teaches, as well as his own upbringing as a British-born Pakistani. He lives in South London and has an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s. His debut novel I Am Thunder was shortlisted for the 2019 YA Book Prize, has won the 2019 Branford Boase First Novel Award, the 2018 Great Reads Award and a number of regional awards. His second novel, Kick the Moon, nominated for the 2020 Carnegie Medal is also published by Macmillan Children’s Books and Mark My Words will be published in summer 2020.
CELEBRATE STORIES. LOVE READING.
This book has been specially created and published to celebrate World Book Day. World Book Day is a charity funded by publishers and booksellers in the UK and Ireland. Our mission is to offer every child and young person the opportunity to read and love books by giving you the chance to have a book of your own. To find out more, and get great recommendations on what to read next, visit worldbookday.com
World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is also made possible by generous sponsorship from National Book Tokens and support from authors and illustrators.
World Book Day works in partnership with a number of charities, who are all working to encourage a love of reading for pleasure.
BookTrust is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. Each year we reach 3.4 million children across the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of reading. booktrust.org.uk
The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that encourages children and young people to enjoy reading. Just 10 minutes of reading every day can make a big difference to how well you do at school and to how successful you could be in life. literacytrust.org.uk
The Reading Agency inspires people of all ages and backgrounds to read for pleasure and empowerment. They run the Summer Reading Challenge in partnership with libraries; they also support reading groups in schools and libraries all year round. Find out more and join your local library. summerreadingchallenge.org.uk
World Book Day also facilitates fundraising for:
Book Aid International, an international book donation and library development charity. Every year, they provide one million books to libraries and schools in communities where children would otherwise have little or no opportunity to read. bookaid.org
Read for Good, who motivate children in schools to read for fun through its sponsored read, which thousands of schools run on World Book Day and throughout the year. The money raised provides new books and resident storytellers in all the children’s hospitals in the UK. readforgood.org
Also by Muhammad Khan
from Macmillan Children’s Books
I Am Thunder
Kick the Moon
Coming soon
Mark My Words
First published 2020 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2020 by Macmillan Children’s Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithon, 6 Briset Street, London, EC1M 5NR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-4331-0
Text copyright © Muhammad Khan 2020
Extract from Children of Blood and Bone © Tomi Adeyemi 2018
Cover image © Getty Images
The right of Muhammad Khan to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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