Sisi is stolen to be enslaved is found to have been able to speak multiple languages is being used as a translator. They are taken to a slave fort in West Africa to be a servant and translate. They watch more and more slaves be brought to the fort. While they have more freedom to walk throughout the fort than other slaves, they are still not allowed to be around other captives without permission. But one day they venture down into the where the slaves are kept. They see someone who they think is their brother, but is actually a different person they know named Kwasi, who was her brother Yao's closest friend. He looks very mistreated and unwell. Sisi tells him that she can't stay long or risk being beaten if she is caught. But she promises to get him water. She comes and brings him the water, and he tells her that her family thought she was dead. Kwasi tells her that when he and his uncle crossed into the Dahomey territory while they were trading with Adangbe, they were taken by Europeans. Sisi asks Yao was, but he tells her that he disappeared with Sisi. Before any more conversation can be had between them, Sisi is discovered. She isn't beaten because they value her too much. Sisi thinks about their childhood together, how they grew up seeing slave caravans. She remembers the intimidating female warriors called ahosi who were taking people from their villages. Later, Sisi is summoned by the governor. she arrives to his office room and stands before him an two other "cheegwa," or white men. They speak about her in Dutch, which she understands, and talk about how many languages she can speak. They talk about trading with someone named Kpengla. Sisi offers to go to Dahomey to help translate. She thinks of how she could have stopped her brother from running off to see the ahosi's weapons if she had just said the right things. She thinks of how the ahosi caught them and sold them away. She hopes to find Yao on this journey to Dahomey.