Akata Witch

lessons. Fear? Get used to it. There will be danger; some of you may not live to complete your lessons. It’s a risk you take. This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless.”

What kind of thing is that to tell your students? Sunny wondered.

“Today’s lesson is camaraderie,” Anatov continued. “I want you to go and greet a friend of mine. Orlu, Chichi, you know of Kehinde.”

“What?” Sasha exclaimed. “I even know of him and I just got here. He’s one of the most brilliant juju workers in the world. Isn’t he practically a recluse?”

“Kehinde’s a close friend of mine,” Anatov said. “He’s a recluse to folks he doesn’t think are important. I was discussing you four with him yesterday. He wants to meet you.”

“Why?” Sasha asked. “Why us?”

Orlu looked aghast. “And we don’t even… we can’t go-”

“Kehinde wants to see you,” Anatov repeated. “Figure out how to get to him. That’s today’s lesson, too. Oh, and beware of some of Kehinde’s… friends. They’re a bit possessive. Give him my regards. Peace out.”

419 Scams and Leopard People

The 419 scam is an illegal practice that Nigeria has become known for all over the world because of a small group of Internet-savvy criminals. It is a pox on this great nation’s reputation; a symptom of its marrowdeep disease of corruption. If you use e-mail, you have to have seen the ones offering to pay you insane amounts of money if you help Chief or Prince So-and-So get his money out of the bank. That is an example of the billions of 419 scam e-mails sent out daily. In Nigeria, Leopard 419 scammers use a blend of Internet technology and juju to make the target individual’s electronic funds disappear and reappear elsewhere. Thankfully, even these people cannot tamper with whatever provides us with chittim. Still, Leopard 419 scammers can get up to some darker business in the Lamb world. It is believed that as we speak, some are using the Net to design a network of virus-driven juju-powered supercomputers so infectious that they could bring down the Lamb world’s biggest economies with a few pecks of the keyboard. We will speak no more of this here. If you are approached by one of these criminals, decline involvement.

from Fast Facts for Free Agents

7

Night Runner Forest

Again, they were hurried out of Anatov’s hut. A little way down the path back toward Leopard Knocks, they stopped. Orlu, Sasha, and Chichi just stood there.

“What’s the problem now?” Sunny asked. “Who’s Kehinde?”

“Sunny, weren’t you listening?” Chichi asked.

“Just tell me again. Unlike you, I don’t have a photographic memory.”

Chichi chuckled. “Okay. There are eight living people in Nigeria who have passed the last level, right? Four of them are Anatov, Sugar Cream, and the twins named Taiwo and the one we’re supposed to go see, Kehinde. They are the scholars of Leopard Knocks; they’re kind of like elders, but not all of them are super old-only Sugar Cream, really. The problem with seeing Kehinde is he lives in Night Runner Forest.”

“Is that far away or something?” Sunny asked. She didn’t want to take another funky train.

“Humph,” Orlu said. “Now I know why he chose tonight instead of Saturday afternoon for this. You can only enter Night Runner Forest at night.”

Chichi cursed. “And it disappears in”-she looked at her watch-“four hours.”

Sunny looked at her watch. It was one A.M. Chichi was referring to sunrise. “We’ll be back by then, right?” she asked.

“Let’s go,” Sasha said. “We use a veve to get there, right?”

“Yeah,” Chichi said, looking intense. “If we work together.”

Sasha knelt down and took a small bag out of his pocket. He drew on the ground by making a fist and letting the powder sift out. “This,” he said to Sunny, “is a veve, a magical drawing. The faster you draw it the better. But you can’t make a mistake.”

“You memorize them?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is it hard?”

The drawing looked like a tree with a circle around it and four Xs around the circle:

“Not for me,” he said.

“What will it-”

“Just watch.” He brought a dagger from his pocket and stabbed into the center of the veve. “One of you has to say it,” Sasha said. “I don’t speak Igbo.”

“Let Sunny,” Chichi said.

Sunny shook her head, stepping back. “Let me just watch this first time.”

“You learn faster by doing,” Chichi said, pushing her toward the veve. “Take a deep breath and loudly say, ‘Night Runner Forest come,’ in Igbo.”

Sunny started sweating. Who knew what would happen if she messed up?

“Go on,” Orlu said softly.

She spoke the words in Igbo, making sure they were loud and clear. Instantly, the veve started to rotate in the dirt. It sounded almost solid as it pushed aside pebbles and scraped over the dirt. This magic was happening because of her own words! When it stopped, the top of the tree Sasha had drawn pointed off the path and into the forest, toward a new but darker path that hadn’t been there before. Occasionally, a firefly flashed its tiny light.

“Orlu,” Sasha said, “you first. You have the best defense.”

Orlu stepped in front. “Okay,” he said, looking around. “Let’s move.” He brought out his juju knife, held it up, and moved it vertically before him. “Bring light,” he said in Igbo. A firefly rushed to him and hovered before his face, flickering orange light every few seconds. “Tomorrow is a better day to find a mate,” Orlu told it. “Tonight, please bring light for my friends and me.”

For a moment longer, it hovered, still calling its mate. Then it must have decided that Orlu’s cause was worthy, because it began to blaze the brightest light Sunny had ever seen come from an insect. She thought of the ghost hopper that lived in her house. Maybe this wasn’t the usual type of firefly.

“That lightning bug has attitude,” Sasha said. “For a second there, I thought she wasn’t going to give us light.”

Orlu shrugged. “It’s her choice, isn’t it? She has the right to think about it. Plus, the ones with attitude have the best light.”

The firefly must have been listening because it burned brighter. Orlu chuckled. They started walking. As they moved along, the trees they passed were taller, wider, and closer to the path. “So does anyone know what Kehinde looks like?” Sunny asked, wanting to break the silence and focus on something other than the creepy forest around them.

“I hear he’s very tall,” Sasha said.

“I’ve heard he’s really, really short,” Chichi said.

“Well, that helps,” Sunny said drily.

“Doesn’t matter what he looks like,” Orlu said. “This is Night Runner Forest. If he lives here, he’s powerful. If he’s passed the fourth level, he knows that the body is just the body. For all we know he could be a shape- shifter.”

“No,” Chichi said. “He’s not a shape-shifter. Kehinde was born physically perfect, no deformities or anything.”