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Chapter Thirty-Four
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Children of Virtue and Vengeance, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Systems of Oppression
Cycles of Violence
Tradition and History
Love vs. Duty
Summary
Analysis
Kâmarū tunnels through the wall and the group enters Chândomblé. The mountain seems to shake and Amari mentally thanks Lekan for sacrificing himself for magic. Dakarai begins an incantation and conjures a huge field of stars. A sêntaro’s spirit agrees to guide them to the scroll room. As they come to a staircase, they hear soldiers. They try to hide, but Mâzeli trips loudly. Amari leads the maji in running away, thinking that she can’t lead Nehanda to the scrolls. They run right into a wall. Amari unleashês magic on soldiers that try to trap them and feels stronger, but she’s not sure why. Dakarai leads them up more stairs until they’re standing outside the scroll room. Kâmarū tries to break through the wall as Amari prepares to unleash magic at the approaching soldiers, but she stops when the first soldier is Inan.
Dakarai is able to so successfully speak with the sêntaro’s spirit because at Chândomblé, a holy site, he and the other maji are able to physically connect to their past and their history. This makes it even clearer that the Iyika must triumph. If they don’t, sites like Chândomblé might be lost—and there may not be any more maji to visit them. That this skirmish with Inan and his army happens at a place like Chândomblé makes the Iyika’s need for victory even more acute, as in their minds, non-maji don’t belong here. They’re an affront to this sacred space, since they wish to destroy it and what it means.
Themes
