Children of Blood and Bone

Zélie and Tzain run across the wooden pillars of their ocean village home, Ilorin. As they run, they argue over the responsibility of watching their father, Baba. Zélie spots her father out at sea and fishermen rowing to reach him. Baba vanishes underwater and Tzain dives into the ocean after him, reminding Zélie of when Tzain drowned and their mother brought him back to life with blood magic. She has almost given up hope when Tzain emerges from the ocean with their father.

Later, Baba, Tzain, and Zélie sit in their hut along with Zélie’s lionaire Nailah, a giant horned feline that Zélie raised from a cub and can be ridden. Baba says that soldiers came for a tax and Tzain grows enraged at the increase in fees they must pay. Baba tells them that the soldiers threatened Zélie with forced labor if the tax was not paid. He has also lost the boat, meaning they have no way to earn an income. Zélie decides to take their recently caught, extremely rare sailfish to Lagos and sell it to someone who could afford the high price. Baba decides that Zélie will go to sell the fish and Tzain will go to make sure she is kept safe, while he will hide with Mama Agba until their return.

Princess Amari, the teenage daughter of King Saran, sits at a luncheon with other women. Her mother is displeased with her behavior. Amari is invited to the estate of Oloye Ronke, but her mother denies the request and Oloye’s eldest daughter Samara speaks disparagingly of the local divîners. This upsets Amari because her maidservant and friend, Binta, is a divîner. When Amari asks a new servant where Binta is, she is told that Binta was escorted to the throne room. Inan, Amari’s older brother, bursts out of the palace and the women praise his appearance and the fact that he is the youngest captain in Orϊsha’s history.

Samara’s diamond bangle reminds Amari of the one she gave to Binta to pay the divîner tax. Realizing someone must have believed Binta stole it, Amari excuses herself and runs to the throne room. Afraid to confront her father, Amari waits outside until the throne room empties of servants and guards. Amari slips inside and hears Commander Kaea and Admiral Ebele speaking to King Saran about artifacts that cause divîner powers to activate, turning them into maji. Kaea presents a scroll to the King and references the sunstone, stolen before they could retrieve it. Ebele confesses that he failed to destroy these artifacts years prior and threw them to the bottom of the ocean to hide them. The King chokes Ebele and throws him to the ground, then calls for Binta to be brought forth. When presented with the scroll, the maid’s hand unleashes light, and the King kills her immediately. Amari runs up a corner stairwell and vomits into a vase. A guard comes up the stairwell carrying the scroll to Kaea’s rooms. After the soldier leaves, Amari enters Kaea’s chamber. She finds her father’s cloak there and realizes he is having an affair with the Commander. Amari touches the scroll on Kaea’s desk and, when no magic bursts forth, grabs her father’s cloak.

Zélie and Tzain argue on their way to Lagos until Zélie realizes he will never understand what it is like to be a divîner. They arrive at the city and see the divîners isolated in the slums, the result of further persecution. Tzain decides to wait outside the city with Nailah and gives Zélie a dagger for protection, stating that that he and Baba are worried for Zélie’s safety. At the gate, a drunken guard sexually harasses Zélie, making lewd comments. Zélie forces herself to remain calm and is granted admittance into the city, where she is overwhelmed by the crowds and the overt discrimination of the other divîners. At the bazar, she spots a nobleman arguing with a fisherman, demanding swordfish. Zélie shows the nobleman her sailfish. She haggles and bluffs her way to a large profit, receiving payment just in time for guards to explode through a fruit stand. Zélie flees but is grabbed by an amber-eyed girl who begs her for help escaping. Although Zélie does not realize it, the girl is Princess Amari.

Without revealing her identity, Amari tells Zélie that she has done something unforgivable and, despite her fear, Zélie agrees to help. Zélie forces a clothing trader to switch Amari’s velvet cloak with a muted brown one. They attempt to leave the bazar but are stopped by guards. When one reaches to remove the girl’s hood, Zélie attacks him with her staff, and the two girls run away. They steal rum and a torch from two divîners. At the city gates, guards block their exit. Amari recognizes the captain as her brother Inan and drops to her knees. Zélie throws her makeshift explosive made from the rum and torch and the two girls run for the gate, ducking through the line of soldiers. Amari falls as the gate closes and Zélie turns back for her. They are about to be arrested when Nailah leaps over the gate and the girls climb on. As they flee, Zélie feels a lightning shock and meets the captain’s gaze as Nailah jumps onto the rooftops and back over the gate again.

Prince Inan returns to the palace, preparing for his father’s abuse and thinking of the escaped fugitives. His mother intercepts him and drags him to the throne room, where she dismisses everyone. Inan notices blood stains on the floor as his mother tries to argue that he should not be allowed to serve as captain. The King asks about Inan’s use of plural when describing the fugitives, and Inan tells him about “the divîner,” referring to Zélie. When Inan’s mother calls the King by his first name, Saran, he dismisses her. Inan prepares for a beating, but the King instructs him to pursue the fugitives alone, telling Inan that Amari is the thief.

Zélie, Tzain, and Amari travel halfway to the ocean before they stop. Tzain and Zélie argue before Amari speaks up, removing her hood and revealing her identity. Zélie attacks Amari out of rage, but Tzain intercedes, and Amari explains her fear of her father. Amari then reveals the stolen scroll and tells them it is capable of restoring magic, relaying Binta’s death. As Amari begins to cry, Zélie takes the scroll and feels an electric shock. She feels vibrations under her skin and is torn between hope that her magic is returning and fear of believing in that hope. Zélie picks up the scroll to study it again as Tzain warns her against being hopeful, asserting that he does not think magic can come back. Zélie has a flashback to the day her mother was killed. Tzain realizes that if they are caught with the scroll, Zélie will be killed. They mount Nailah again and grudgingly bring Amari along.

Inan is shocked to learn that Amari is the thief and sees his father’s rare fear. The King tells Inan about the maji who killed most of his loved ones years before. Inan is shocked again to learn about the King’s attempt to destroy the magical connection between the maji and their deities. King Saran killed those who had practiced magic because they knew what power was like, and he believed they would never stop seeking it. King Saran killed the maji so their children, the divîners, would grow up unknowing and fearful. King Saran orders Inan to bring his sister and the scroll back, telling him that Amari will be allowed to live if no one knows about her treason. Kaea steps into the room and tells them that the only divîner who has entered the city is Zélie Adebola of Ilorin, and the King grants Inan’s request for 10 men. Kaea accompanies him out of the room as the King tells Inan to burn Zélie’s village down if he must.

The trio arrives at Ilorin and Zélie takes Amari’s headdress, putting it away to hide her royal status. They go to Mama Agba’s hut and Tzain takes Baba to their home to pack. Amari is introduced, and Zélie recounts their day. When Mama Agba touches the scroll, she has a seizure and feels magic again, telling Zélie that she used to be a Seer and asked for a disease magician to make her white hair fall out before the raid to hide her identity. Mama Agba calls out to her god for a vision and explodes in light, creating an image of the three teenagers climbing a mountain. She then reads the contents of the scroll and says it is a ritual, telling the girls that it is their job to complete the ceremony and bring magic back. She directs them to the temple of Chândomblé, where answers wait for them. When she tries to reassure them, a scream for help rises in the night, and they rush outside to find that the village has been set on fire with arrows containing explosive powder. Zélie searches for her family. Their hut is on fire, and Amari blocks Zélie from rushing inside. Enraged, Zélie begins to drag Amari to the hut as it collapses into the ocean but is stopped by the sight of Tzain atop Nailah in the water, pulling a boat with Baba and Mama Agba.

As the survivors reach an inlet, Zélie feels guilty over the burning of her village and hopes that the souls of her people have ascended to the afterlife. When Baba speaks, he is filled with fury, reminding his children of the man he was before the night his wife was murdered and he was nearly beaten to death by soldiers. He orders the three teenagers to go to the temple and bring the magic back as soldiers reach the survivors. The family embraces and then the three teenagers ride away into the night.

Inan is horrified at what has happened to the village and the death that has resulted from the fire. Kaea approaches him after beating the soldier responsible for setting the fire too soon, causing the unnecessary destruction. Inan sees a turquoise cloud that Kaea cannot and gets an image of Zélie in his mind. He worries that he has been infected by magic but tells Kaea that the fugitives were at the village, pretending that he was told this by a villager to hide his magic vision. When Inan and Kaea interrogate the villagers, Inan hears their panicked thoughts. Kaea threatens an old woman and Yemi steps forward, promising to tell Inan everything she knows about Zélie in exchange for the villagers’ safety.

The three teenagers ride for hours and eventually find a place to sleep. Before resting, Zélie prays to Oya, Goddess of Life and Death, for guidance. Zélie dreams that she is in an unending field of reeds, and sees the captain she attacked, realizing that he is Prince Inan. He accuses her of trapping him in a prison and infecting him with magic, but Zélie realizes that the magic is his own when she sees a spot of white hair near his neck. Zélie believes Inan is a Connector, a magician who focuses on minds, spirits, and dreams. She is awed by the power he must possess, but does not understand how he can be magical without being born a divîner. Zélie taunts him, and when Inan lunges at her she wakes up. Back in her body, she realizes that Inan will now hunt her down to kill her so that his secret will remain safe.