Ikeagwu and his men destroyed many settlements in Ozalla but did minimised human murder. Ikeagwu and his men had taken advantage of their unprotected territory, they did major damages on farmlands and animals. The villagers were wise to have absconded their abode on account of the perception they had of the looming danger that had come to be a guest for the while. The bloody archers matched straight to the palace where Konaso was having meeting with two family heads, who were having land dispute. Konaso was about making decision on the apple of discord, urging the two at loggerheads to bury the hatchet, when suddenly there were loud noise from outside, where the king always relaxed during hot weather, not so long that particular place was raised down. Konaso saw strange men who were actually the force behind the violence. His heart beat fast, as he walked from pillar to post searching for talisman. The men who were the invaders were actually men from Umudioga, he knew Ikeagwu very well as the head of Umudioga's armed force, he had known him right from when he was a wrestler, and was unbeaten until he was promoted by Kalu. They smote the guards, the gatekeepers and messengers of the palace, who like Umudioga guards, all teamed up to defend their palace against some barbaric intruders. One of the family heads who held talks with the king was hit by a flying arrow, right at his neck, putting Konaso and the other in the same confused state. The dead man had gone to peep through the window to catch a glimpse of the hostility done by the archers but how unfortunate he was. Maybe his personal god could have a question or two to answer for that. Those who managed to survive were seriously injured. The archers, were done with the barriers and they were now proceeding to the unprotected king, just like in the game of chess. They never had the intention to kill him, but to abduct him as prisoner in their land were they would make big fun of him. But they were subconsciously moved aback when Konaso miraculously vanished into thin air when they wanted to lay their hands on him. Ikeagwu and his men were rekindled in mixed flames of fury and bewilderment
"I told you we should kill him instantly but you wouldn't agree with me," he blasted.
"We're sorry," the second in command who had made the suggestion on the abduction, apologised, "we never knew that he had such diabolical powers.
There was no one again left in the palace any longer, Konaso's two sons took their sister in company of two guards, to a shrine in Ohafia for genital treatment and cleansing, after her ordeal on the pathway. After what happened to her, she had been behaving so strange which was quite understandable to her father and brothers. She wouldn't eat anything no matter how she was urged by her friend. Her mother would had had a lot of role to play here only if she were alive. Konaso lost his wife to some kind of assumed kidney disease, since then, uneasy lies the head the wore the crown. Konaso didn't marry another wife because he, as he thought, was a fulfilled person having two sons and a daughter. Konaso didn't just have that gift of joviality, he couldn't give his daughter that tender care that her mother gave to her. He would run out of temper when she displayed some sort of puerile pride, and next he's on top of his voice. She would cry until any of her brothers was there to console her. Now that she was going through the trauma, her brothers agreed secretly without their father's consent to take her for treatment, even if the old man didn't care about whatever.
Konaso saw himself appear in someone's garden, supposedly close to the boundary between the two warring villages. He wondered how long he was to wait there before he could know that the troubled palace have been calmed. While he wondered, the images of some gang of broad shouldered and ugly looking archers flashed immediately in his sight. How come he had been taken this unaware? He faced his head downward so that he wouldn't behold with his eyes whatever the archers might do to him. His talisman would have helped but there were certain procedure to follow before it could work for him, but it was too late. The assailants could suspect something fishy if he wanted to make the call, and would pin him there at once. He found himself pleading before the ugly looking men.
"Chei, please don't kill me," he pleaded.
"Igwe! What are you doing here?", Keduru asked astonished at the way the king prostrate before them. Konaso looked upwards and saw Keduru and indeed his men, he held his chest and gave a big sigh of relief. How foolish he was to have disgraced himself by prostrating before his subjects. He hated himself for this.
The archers must have read it on his face, so they appended apology to their words.
"We're deeply sorry for scaring you," they apologised solemnly.
"Your apologies are the least important now," he said, while the archers dilated their eyes in anticipation to know what would be that most important thing at hand. "Leave everything you're doing now, go back to the palace and defend our territory invaded by those bloody archers from Umudioga, you won't believe they almost killed me." The men jumped in fury and zoomed off to engage their assailants in a fierce clash. The place was not far enough hence they reached there hastily. They came and met their opponents who had almost finished their rampage. They had already burnt the palace building and were dancing and round the burning house, celebrating their success as they thought they were, but how wrong they were. Keduru's side fired spears which hit a whooping eight archers from Ikeagwu's side, if not exactly uniformly, it would be at a very close interval. They were carried away in celebration and didn't know that their enemies laid ambush for them. The remaining who were alive hid themselves, while the inferno from the palace made a big demarcation between them. Ikeagwu and his men hoped that Keduru's men would want to quench the fire and therefore raise their ugly heads for death. Keduru and his men, on the other hand hoped that the their opponents would want to save their dying brothers and therefore raise their ugly heads for that same death. If death were human, he would rejoice because he/she would be at the verge of taking strong men to himself/herself. They lay in wait for themselves until it was night. Things could be hardly seen there because the inferno had gone down turning everything to ash. The two sides clashed in the palatial garden, were it was an option of either life or death. Anyone who was killed was thrown into the red hot burning ash. Ikeagwu and his men fought with all effort but it was rare for fighters to take the defeat on home soil. Unfortunately for Ikeagwu and his men, their opponents were kings of the night, hence they took the defeat. The home sides created two factions of which one side roamed like experts in the dark to the other end creating a double offensive mode. They hit their opponents from front and back. Things were getting hotter for Ikeagwu and he like a coward, made good use of the bushes to escape the boiling ground, some few others who had the perception of their leader's absense also made a good use of the night to sneak out. Umudioga's fighting power reduced as that of Ozalla overpowered theirs and a troop of over 80 archers were reduced to two save for the escapees.
"Please, don't kill me, I'll do anything for you, I can be your slave for the rest of my life." one of the two remaining fighters from Umudioga was pleading after seeing that all was as good as lost. Over 60 fighters from Umudioga had been lost on that day.
"I think they would be a great working tool for us to get all of their strong men from that village" one of Keduru's men said.
"As far as i and life is concerned, i'm made to trust noone especially in a battle line." Keduru took two spears and pin the two archers to the ground, while they screamed in pool of blood.
"We've being doing our things before without their help and we can still go on and on" he said.
The archers threw the dead men into the ash and were surprised to see so many dead bodies in the ash. It must be that of the palace workers, all of them were burnt beyond recognition.
It was quite glaring that Umudioga had lost the battle despite the damage they caused their opponents. They had lost a whooping number of 65 fighters and 120 civilians, the worst ever recorded in history of their clashes in the past. Before this, Umudioga had won them three consecutive times, but they didn't give up. Ozalla were like they expected casualities and other collateral damages, but despite that this was their best outing ever. Umudioga had the upper hand in the war because they had larger population, which was three times larger than that of their counterpart. Konaso had spent his night at Aghara, a small neighbouring hamlet that was located at north west of Ozalla. He spent the night at their ruler's palace, who was his closest pal of royal reins. The two rulers had things in common, which was that selfish desire and greediness, but what made the difference amongst the two is the ability of one to put his into action, whilst the other ride on wishes. Only if wishes were horse, wishful thinkers like him would ride on the giant one. It wasn't long before Aneke and Mba, Konaso's sons came back from their long journey with their sister accompanied by few guards. They were shocked to the sole of their feet when they couldn't behold the palace, not even the roof from afar, a lot of unanswered questions ran across their mind but they had to get there first before it will be answered. As they get closer, they saw villagers moving in and out of a used-to-be palace, which was now like a burnt piece of land. People were seen bringing out bodies and dumping them outside where family members tried hard to identify them. They were cremated beyond recognition. Most of the villages didn't know that majority of the corpse was that of men from Umudioga. For Olieke, without inquisition, she had already dashed her body to the earth, rolling in tears. She actually thought that her father must have been among the casualities but was relieved of her sorrow when a messenger from Aghara had told them that their father was hale and hearty. Despite the assurance, the young lady still insisted that she see her father, she made a childish persuasion that made her brothers obliged. They were doing all in their might to make the damsel happy since her world had been hit with traumic experience, from the death of her mother, to being molested and now their house burnt down to ashes. Meanwhile, for her brothers, it's nothing that a man cannot handle. They sauntered on the pathway into the leadway across the palm plantation which was an apian way to their destination. They were soon getting closer to Aghara. Olieze moved faster with curiosity like a hungry lion which have been invited for a banquet of meat. Olieze soon began running slowly so she could get there immediately, she never wanted to waste a second away from her father. They soon got there and Olieze broke loose from her brother's grip and run to the palace to see for herself. A guard tried to stop her but she ignored him and went straight to the reception hall where she had sighted her father from afar. And ran in high pace to embrace her father like a little child whom had seen his/her mother after so many years. Her pace and the force she applied as she jumped on his arms, overwhelmed his stamina. He and the damsel staggered backwards unto the raffia sofa which he sat on, and his king friend laughed hysterically at the drama that had just happened. Against Konaso's thought, his friend wasn't actually mocking them, but was watching both father and daughter with keen interest. He loved the relationship between the father and the daughter, and wished he was in his friend's place. Unlike Konaso, he had high tolerance for any puerile approach. Not that he didn't have children, because he had sons and daughters, and not one of them, including his last child, would come be so open hearted like this lady. Maybe it was because of his bad behaviour, but was Konaso any better?
"I just love the way you and your daughter relate." he admitted.
"You mean my grown-up baby!" Konaso said rudely.
"If I had one like this, i would be satisfied. Right now, i feel like i'm childless."
"Stop saying rubbish. Won't you be ashamed when you see a lady that's suitable for marriage behaving like a suckling child, sitting from one lap to another."
Odia laughed loud at his words.
"If you tired of carrying her, i can help you do that."
"If i need help, i won't go to you until you through with your hunt for a third wife. Onye ojo! "
Olieze couldn't conceal her disgust any longer, even her brothers were chuckling at their jokes.
Old men jokes.
"Who burned our home?" she asked, maybe with motive to stop their joke which she saw as dirty. Konaso was reluctant to give her answer, but Odia was giving him eye signal to go ahead and answer her. Konaso shook his head up and down, left to right, showing how angry he was getting to mention the name.
"It's men from Umudioga." Olieke's eyes and mouth were wide opened. Her ordeal with the men on the pathway haunted her spirit, tears were flowing down her cheeks freely.
"What have we done to this people that they wouldn't let us be? Why do they desire to cause us pains?" she weeped bitterly. Konaso, unlike him, stood from his chair and pat her back, consoling her. She in turn lean on his chest while he sit, her brothers were silent, since they had nothing to say, in order to help the situation.
Konaso patted her back gently and rubbed her shoulder with his palm.
"Don't worry, my dear, i'll never let them go unpunished." he assured. Olieze didn't say any word, only sobs.
"I'll shall raze Umudioga to the dust." he continued his chest beating.
"Yes, but remember you need a place to stay," Odia pointed out.
"And what about that?"
"Won't Kalu's edifice be of use to you and your children?"
Konaso thought about what he just said.
But will it be safe? A voice rang in his brain.
But you have your armies, another voice said.
He shrugged.
"You know one thing about you?" he directed his words to Odia. Odia paid rapt attention to catch what might be his next line of speech.
"No matter how weak and lazy your body may be, your brains are always there to cover up." he said while Odia laughed hysterically.
"Look your baby is sleeping. Go and lay her on the bed." he pointed towards Olieke who had slept off in his arms.
The news was all over, that a prince from Umudioga molested a princess from Ozalla Abo, thereby creating tensions amongst the two parties.
The three hunters who saw Olieze and her friend first after her unfortunate experience might have spearheaded the spread of this rumour, because there were no passers-by save them, Ifenna who was there to sympathize with the victim, Olieke, the victim and her friend. Olieze's friend had advised her to point Ifenna as the culprit when the hunters encountered them, since it would be more honourable to do so than mention a stinking archer like Opuji in the case. Olieze saw sense in her advise, seeing Ifenna was impressive in looks, average height, dark skinned, and most important of it, of royal bloodline. Ifenna never knew why he was pointed, but took to his heels under the perception that they were after him. They made a bow shoot severally at him, but for the trees, he went unscathed, while the flying arrows missed its target.
The magnitude at which the news circulated was quite appalling, it had gone beyond the village to other villages. All ears that heard the news condemned the culprit with the mouth and some also cursed. Uju had gone to sell her crops in Afor Ozalla, she had gone with a good number of her crop produce because she had missed the last Afor market as a result of the inter-communal clash that halted all duties for that day. Uju was really depressed to hear the news especially the way it was discussed, even amongst men. It was common for women to be the gossipmongers, but in this case, men aren't left out of it, it was also men that broke the news to the public. Uju paid partial attention to their discussion while she continued her trading.
"I've seen him with this neighbour that sells cocoyam by your right hand side."
Uju was alerted by the word by a woman who just came to buy food items, and on the process, joined the conversation. The woman was being discreet, for her words not to be heard by the wrong ears.
"Don't you think we should ask her if she knew anything about his whereabouts?"
"I think they're lovers or something else i'm yet to know, it would be very difficult to get an answer from her on that."
"Lovers? Are you sure?"
"Yes, the way they relate makes all assertion obvious." Uju had her heart in her mouth, she sweated profusely. She would have left the market, but the day was young, and her movement would be suspicious especially by her neighbours in the market. Her day in the market was doomed when the women went into whispering campaign, it was there that sales halted. Nobody was buying from her any longer, the way all eyes was on her made her develop cold feet, some eyes in suspicion, some in admiration and some in lust, some too was a combination of two or more of the aforementioned. She was highly depressed to the point that she packed all her belongings and left the market place much earlier than ever done. She'd never being this embarrassed in her life before, she felt like she had being stoned. She hastily gathered her goods and vacated the market premises, she was moving very fast to keep the eyes away from her. The path she went through was lonely even in the daytime. Uju wept as she ran back home, Ifenna must have questions to answer about this. This few days she had stayed with Ifenna had seen her become very different from what she was. Uju had become totally fond of him after Ifenna's soft words had lured her into succumbance. But now all what Ifenna had told her about his feelings for her, was becoming a rooster and bull tale.
She soon got home to see Ifenna playing with her younger sister like a kid, it was typical of him to be playful most of the time. He had united the sisters with his playfulness, but this was the very wrong time and place for doing the right thing. His life was in danger, and he was just outside here to inadvertently give himself up for mutilation. Ifenna was the first to see her approaching, he ran to her and relieved her of the heavy loads she carried, he crossed his arms round her and gave her a jovial smile not minding her depressed state of mind. Uju lost her words, she had initially thought of hitting him hard with questions and then sending him out before anything ill is heard of them. But here, his joviality had weakened her inquisitiveness, she could manage to force in a word here.
"Ifenna, why are you doing this to yourself?"
Ifenna's mood was lightened, making him pay rapt attention to her.
"I don't understand." he dragged her to a piece of wood under the shade of an orange tree, where he made her sit on his lap. Uju wasn't feeling comfortable, she winced from side to side making a fidgety display. Her boredom wasn't hidden any longer, as Ifenna noticed this. Uju didn't know how to start telling him, hence she used body language, with hope that Ifenna would ask, and he did asked.
"Uju, what is it? You look so uncomfortable." he asked with concern.
"Please, let's go inside, this place is not safe for us any longer."
"How do you mean?"
"Come inside first, pleeeeease!" she urged him, and he relented.
He went in despite the heat, Ulumma had just come from where she went to hide from Ifenna's sight, hoping he looked for her, but it didn't worked as anticipated. It was because of Uju that their play had been halted. She came and saw Uju sobbing in Ifenna's arms, while he caressed her.
Does weeping gives her more blood or what?
Ulumma shrugged and left the two to their fate, after all there was nothing she could help doing. It has become a daily routine for the two to always discuss, laugh, play and handle each other while she kept working and doing everything all alone. Uju was now unlike herself, the hardworking lady now turned lazy because of a man. Uju had shown humility these few days, she would go down on her knees begging her to finish up the work and do the cooking, only to spend more time playing with Ifenna. Maybe she could stop at that juncture since she was becoming the fool here. She went to the barn and banged the door behind her, making them wonder what came over her.
"Ifenna, i'm deeply sorry if my question would hurt your feelings, but there are talks already going about that you slept with the princess against her wish, is it true?" she couldn't look at his face while she asked. She felt a mixed feeling of guilt and shame, she thought she had asked him the wrong way making it look like she didn't trusted him.
Ifenna's mood changed and he let loose of his hold on her, looking at her with anger written all over his face. Uju hid her face from his with her palms, she hated her tongue for saying such.
"Who told you that?" he asked with fury. Uju was in dead silence, lost in words.
"Answer me!" he screamed in the way that startled her, Ulumma also came out from the barn where she was because the mood of the voice she just heard was very different from the mood of the same voice some seconds ago. Uju was dripping tears after he had made that shout, she could no longer think straight. Ifenna who was red in fury forcefully turned Uju's face to him, she resisted but took her sight downwards avoiding to come in contact with his eyes.
"Your name is all over the villages and they're seriously searching for you. Our affair is no longer hidden, as people now think that i would have answers to give about your whereabouts. Ifenna please," Uju went on her knees pleading in tears, "i've never wanted to bear the thought of parting with you but now i can't help it. For the sake of your life, please leave this place and go to a place more secure."
"I'll do no such thing. If i'm not safe, it means you aren't either, so let us join heads together to overcome our fears."
"Ifenna, please. For the sake of Umudioga, your throne, your family. It would be so sad and my spirit will never rest if you're harmed."
"Don't worry about me, i can take care of myself when there's danger. I think you should be more concerned about yourself and your sister. Look at you two, see the hut you're living in. Don't you think it would have been better if you'd move out from this cursed house."
"I would have, if i could." she muttered coldly.
Ifenna held her back to himself and caressed her,
"I'm sorry about the way i went wild on you." Uju nodded in acquiescence.
"But let's forget about this talks, let's close this topic." Uju was surprised how he meant to close the topic. Does it mean all she said meant nothing to him? She shrugged, and lay on his laps, it wasn't long she slept off.
While she slept, she first dreamt where Ifenna was at the edge of a mountain and was about to fall from the high altitude, he screamed for help. While she was on the run to rescue him, Konaso overtook her and pushed him down.
Uju's scream startled her sister and Ifenna whom was dozing.
"What is it?" he asked with concern but she shook her head and lay back on his laps.
A second dream came, but this time around it was so real that she was still dreaming while she was awake. In the dream, her youngest sister, Oby came to her holding her tommy while blood dripped so immensely from her nether regions. Uju was greatly shocked by what she saw even while half awake.
"So you don't care about me, you haven't visited me ever since."
Before she could open her mouth to explain, the teenage girl was out of sight. She sobbed slightly as it dawned on her that everything isn't alright.
GLOSSARY
Onye ojo - It literally means 'bad person' but Konaso was being playful here.
Afor Ozalla - In Igboland, a market is named by the market day in which it sells (could be Eke, Orie, Afor or Nkwo) and then the name of the place, e.g Nkwo Nnewi, Eke Oyigbo, Afor Nnobi etc.
TBC AT 2PM.
