No thanks to Konaso, who had made Umudioga, as well as Ozalla, war zones. He had with his dictatorial power, imposed himself as the king of the two villages, and had made strict rules to guide any possible show of defiance that may arise, especially for the oppressed village.
Umudioga had lost several of their men especially their young ones, a huge number of their elders had already been killed, making the place a village of widows and fatherless. The elders left to live were the ones who pledged allegiance to the tyrant, and had handed over their symbol of power, the odudu eze to the king.
Konaso in his time had turned to be Ozalla's greatest king ever, having conquered the entire kingdom of Umudioga which his predecessors had failed in many attempts.
He came with an inventive to merge the two kingdoms as one and also make a family head each in all the clans, which they'll automatically become the elders and the kingmakers of the proposed kingdom. This was indeed a revolution that he was about to carry out. The people of Umudioga protested the new idea of Konaso, some put their lives in the line in defiance of his order. Konaso, nevertheless, still punished those who were not loyal to him.
From the nine clans of Umudioga, nine elderly men were appointed and were installed with the ichie title. From Ozalla, six elderly men from the six clans were also picked for the honour, making all fifteen clans. Many men from Ozalla didn't welcome this new development. They had close to sixteen elders and now only six were selected, meaning that the remaining ten were automatically relieved of their position. This led to gruesome tussle for power, of which two of the appointed ichies from Ozalla were victims.
While the saga of the revolution still kindled, the shocking news of Mba's death broke to the palace and the entire villages. It came to the hearing of the villagers also that he was stabbed, but by who?
He was killed with one of his guard but he went with two guards, which made the one alive be the suspect. The guard himself was aware of this fact, that was why he didn't absconded like he originally planned, on seeing the corpses.
Under prison custody, he was threatened with heavy punishment should there be any concealation the truth.
"We were all together," he began, "going through the palm plantations in search of a big grasscutter that broke loose of my prince's trap just as we were approaching it. We chased all the way deep into the forest, then inside there, we saw a hut, not too far from the stream. My prince told us to check if someone lived there, but we refused going, telling him our fears about been attacked by evil spirits. As we discussed, we saw a very beautiful lady working on a farm. Her beauty made us thought it was one of the river goddesses, but my prince didn't listen to us. Instead, he approached her and was trying to do some dirty things to her, before she hurt him and ran away. We thought he had fallen victim of the weird lady, but we met him unconscious and we revived him, but he still insisted that he was going after the lady. I didn't go with him, it was only my colleague that went. Not too long, i saw the same weird lady running through the bush path with someone i recognised as the son of the late Igwe Kalu, if my eyes weren't deceiving me. I went to the hut when i didn't see the prince coming out, only to find their corpses lying. That's all." he carefully skipped the part where he had fallen deep asleep, in order not to be charged for carelessness.
Everybody shook their head in grief and disbelief, the guard sounded sincere, having narrated the whole scenario, but yet most of them weren't convince at his speech. How would they be going together and suddenly death took two and leave one. By the etiquette of guardmanship, if there was two to die, it should be the two guards and the one to live would be the prince.
The whole narration was half-proved, as the narrator came close to being vindicated. A delegation of over twenty armed men were sent to the hut, and they were surprised to have found dresses worn by someone of royal background.
The guard really knew what he was saying, they thought.
So that was the right time to hunt Ifenna. He had not been forgiven for Olieze's molestation as asserted and
now he had
striked again, a
prince, who knows who's next? Maybe the king himself.
That was the thought that ran through Konaso's mind, he saw the men from Umudioga he had allowed in his cabinet, as suspected informant to Ifenna, but what was he to do. Dismissing Umudioga men from his cabinet was just tantamount to dashing his agenda of the merged kingdoms, to the mud.
One day he called all his warriors and guards together, of which he made nine of them, who were from Umudioga kneel before the eyes of all his warriors. He passed his judgement on them.
"Which one of you have been giving out information to the enemies of this household?" he said in the most unfriendly way, while the men trembled.
"No, not me!" they all said serially. Konaso ordered the men to beat them thoroughly.
"Now you know i'm not joking with you boys." he said with chagrin, "If you don't tell me the truth, i'll mutilate you right under this hot sun." the men were crying like babies, swearing with the earth, sky, water, just to prove their innocence. They attracted sympathy from the palace cooks, who were young women, especially one of them, called Inene, who had been weeping at each glimpse of their torture. One of the tortured men was her secret lover, whom had made known his intention to marry her.
Inene, a daughter of a late Ozalla farmer, did what was considered the rarest thing to do, by agreeing to marry someone from Umudioga. That is why they had been reticent about their affairs, especially to the king, who might possibly frown at such idea.
"You have twelve hours to live on the earth crust before you join your ancestors." Konaso worsened their fear as he threatened further. Inene was looking pleadingly at Konaso, she wanted to go forward to kneel before him to plead on her lover's behalf.
Sooner, all eyes were redirected to the king's courtyard were a lady was been dragged in hostily, Aneke's eyes went straight to her fair skin, curvaceous sides and graceful hips.
This guards didn't have respect for people at all, he wondered what was made him felt like having her to himself, even when he knew nothing about her background. All eyes were still fixed on her, and the lady felt a wave of embarrassment streaming through her neurons.
"Igwe, this is the lady that have been with Kalu's son" one of them introduced her to Konaso. She was dressed in royal attire, and full of radiance, many who looked towards her couldn't take their eyes off her, making her getting more embarrassed.
"Little child, would you tell us who you are?" Konaso grimaced. She was at first reluctant to speak for fear, her great fear outwitted her speech, that she could say nothing but to drip tears from her deep black eyes.
"Come here, you" he was speaking to the guard who had witnessed her and Ifenna escaping from the hut, "is this the lady?" he nodded excitedly.
"Now, the ten of you will go down to the dust by the down, if you keep on hiding my enemy. Guards! Cast them into the dungeon until tomorrow morning."
**************************
All pressure were on Uju, coming from her fellow inmates. They kept pressing her to speak up, but she still remained reticent. Aneke overheard their uproar and guessed as well who would be the oppressed.
"You think he's more important to you than us? What would you gain if you save him and lose your life?"
"Happiness." she voiced out for the very first time.
How lame she thought. She wasn't even having a modicum of remorse for the problem she's making them to pass through. Is she really aware that they just from then till the morning to breath on the surface of the earth, and here she was talking about happiness. What stupidity of high magnitude.
"Stop troubling the lady!" they were startled by the word, turning to see Aneke by the door of the prison. Aneke sighted Uju in the extreme edge of the prison wall, he gestured her to come closer to where he was standing. She reluctantly crawled to the door and stood out of the inn.
He called for privacy with the lady, he was rapt in wave of excitement, speaking with her. He lost his words, and couldn't help his stutter, her eyes fixed on his, was like a piercing rod. His over-excitement swallowed his confidence with it. Uju who had been in an isolated end of the building with him, had begun running out of patience. She wondered what on earth she looked like that intimidated him. Though he wasn't the first person she had noticed this with, she had also seen this character from Ifenna when he first met her, and even her father when he was alive, even in Ulumma, before she began growing wings to confront her.
"Are you alright?" she found herself asking him question. He was seriously shivering like he was suffering from pneumonia.
She left him in his fever and was heading back to the prison inn, she walked with confidence and grace like she was going into her beautifully adorned room.
"Please, Uju, i want to marry you," he called out.
This word halted her motion, coupled with the shock and amazement that struck her nerves. She turned and chuckled, clapping her hands gently and repeatedly, and then gasped. What shocked her most was how he mentioned her name like they've been old friends, she had never met him before, not to talk of giving him, her name. But she made her expression seem like she was dazed by his sudden proposal, even without introduction. She could just managed to voice out from her intense shock,
"Are you well at all?" she rhetoricized.
"Yes, i'm fine." he smiled sheepishly, but later diminishing as the joviality in her voice was fading. Uju dilated her eyes, anticipating him to be more precise. Her eyes was now fixed keenly on him, while he tried hard to regain his morale.
"I like you very much, Uju, and i'll do anything to make you my wife," he pleaded solemnly. Uju pitied him, while he pleaded. She had learnt one thing in her stay at Amihie these few days, and that was, to speak like royalty when she had any relationship with one. Humility to submissiveness, was a good trait to possess, but people tend to take advantage of people who possessed this trait. Ifenna's grandfather had despised her when she had come in her usual portray of 'the holy sheep'. Ifenna, who of course, never wanted his grandfather to fall out with her, forged a name for him which would suit royalty. Uju had danced along with the forgery and had prided herself in the same. Uju overplayed her ostentation, as she was forced to tonguelash one of her lover's cousin who made an infernal comment on her hidden agenda to get undeserved favour from the royal family. Ifenna was fast enough to calm her down, and admonish her.
But this time around, it wasn't any of those troublemakers of Amihie, but the ever wanting prince, Aneke. For her, it was better to stay in that lonely inn of the prison yard than to waste precious time standing with a confused man. But she still had a question on her mind not answered, which she would ask him.
"How did you know my name?"
"The moon have no friend on earth, but its radiance in the thick dark of the night makes it more famous than the greatest ruler on earth." he was almost soliloquizing.
"But you didn't answer my question." she said in a more serious tone.
"Don't be mean my princess. I made enquiries about you when i first saw you buying and selling in our market. I never knew that the gods have a plan for us, to bring us together, even when all hope of seeing your beautiful face once again was gone."
"Hmmm," was all she could mutter.
"How manage, princess, were you totally transformed from the market woman that I always go past the market just to have a look on her beautiful face, to a princess shining like the sun?" Uju recollected her experience in Ozalla market, when she had always seen a young man, whom people greeted as the prince, passing always in that same lane of the market. People wondered if he had no guard to run the errand for him. Uju had never caught his stare on her, except when she greeted him, where he would just reply with smile and pass. Or could it have been that he had been admiring her at a distance? So all that was about her, to poor she didn't notice all this passes before now.
"Please, can I go now?"
"Just agree to be my wife, and i'll be the happiest man on earth." Aneke didn't know when his voice had risen louder to the hearing of Olieze, who was coming out of her bed.
"And who do you want to marry, my brother?" she said as she approached them, "is it this witch?" she pointed her left index finger towards Uju in despise.
Uju didn't rush to reply her, she kept calm, knowing that Aneke would defend her.
"Stop that, Olieze! I'm older than you and you should respect me, and not barge into our discussion in such manner." he cautioned her.
"Aneke, i'm sure you aren't with your senses. How could you be planning to take a beast who murdered our brother in the most gruesome manner, as your wife?" this time tears were flowing profusely down her cheek.
"Its my life, i choose what i want, and nobody interferes in my decision." his word made her burst into tears, and in the process, threw herself on the floor. Uju couldn't help imagining how so serious she really took all these, knowing quite well that she wasn't in any way involved. She just took her leave, paving way for them to continue their crying and consoling play. She went back to the little hut they had kept her in, to find out that there was no single person in it. The men she was locked up with had all escaped, but how? She remembered how Aneke opened the door for her, and he must have left it open. They were so lucky. She wanted to make a move to escape, but a cold and rough hand gripped her in a way that startled her. It was the strong hand of a guard who had sensed her intention. He pushed her into the hut and locked it himself.
Uju felt foolish, having blown away her opportunity for escape by standing there for too long, watching the two siblings. Her most worry was about Ifenna and what he would think. She had been abducted by Konaso's men when she was sighted alone along the pathway in Umudioga village. Her intention was to visit her old friends, whom she assumed, might have grown so big by now, after seven years of being apart. She knew that the declaration of her banishment from Umudioga soil was now invalid, now that there had been a revolution in the entire kingdom, and a new government had taken over. She had excepted to see a better village, but contrary to that she saw a village that looks lifeless, and with a grave-like ambience. Much noise by children weren't heard, and the playground also of the good old days, were now growing weeds.
What had really happen to Umudioga?
She was quite aware of the war, but she wasn't aware that it would be this serious.
While on her way, she saw herself in the middle of hefty men who barricaded her. They questioned her identity because she looked strange, and dressed in a royal attire, she must have one or two information to give out to them, as they thought. She innocently and unsuspectedly gave a honest detail about herself. Only if she knew before then what she was getting herself into.
And that was how unlucky she was to get herself into this. She began sobbing slightly, with pain in her heart, anytime she remembered Ifenna. That day was to be the day of formal introduction to Ifenna's grandfather, the king of Amihie. She consoled herself with a song she had learnt from her mother, which she sang when she was distressed.
Her lament was halted when she heard a bigger lament, presumably coming from the palace. She paid rapt attention, it was Olieze's voice, she could remember. She was weeping like someone died. Uju knew quite well what had gone between her and her brother, and she felt it was just an appendage of their, whatever they were doing when she left them there.
She cut off her attention from there. But the situation was sounding more serious, because the guards were now running helter-skelter.
The only word she could gather from them was,
"Igwe! Igwe! Igwe!", others were footsteps. This would have been her best opportunity to cover up for her mistake, but she was locked in.
The next word she heard was so shocking and unbelievable.
One of the guards exclaimed,
"Igwe is dead!"
The sun was high at the peak of its horizon which means the inhabitants of the earth were at receiving end of the massive scorch from the sun.
Agumba took shade under the mango tree, at his obi, waiting almost impatiently for his anticipated visiting friend.
Akika his closest friend was like him, young but was older, he would be estimated to be in his mid thirties. He was like a friend, a brother and a father to Agumba, when he sought some fatherly counselling. No matter how someone may be, and spiritually endowed, he must surely, one day, need advice from someone older than him in the land of the living. There are also things mortals can do that immortals can't do, like sleeping, getting aroused, eating and many of them, this was one of the hypotheses of mortality Akika was trying to prove to his insistent friend, but Agumba still insisted that he was no mortal, no matter how he related with humans. Agumba believed he was one of the son of the indestructible spirits of the forests.
He administered healing and divination under the jurisdiction of chiekpe, the host god of Aro kingdom, and he also paid homage to Eze Nri and all his family members.
Chiekpe, unlike several gods was very toleratant, permitting its subjects to pay homage to other deities, as long as it doesn't take its own proportion of rites that belongs to it. The aforementioned god could be deadly when pushed to the wall, hence considered to be slow but dangerous.
Agumba's power and influence was hiked when he came in contact with Nee Ajuka, a powerful river goddess of Nri kingdom. She was the second wife of Eze Nri the first, and was also believed to have reincarnated severally, across many kingdoms outside Nri. She had met Agumba and had promised to increase his rank in the spirit world if he would be instrumental to the tracking down of her earthly adversaries.
She had also narrated a touching story of her life on earth, the most touching was when she said about her ordeal during child birth. She conceived and bore twin daughters after seven years of pregnancy.
What abomination in the land of Aro! She was thought by everyone to be a beast, and they went after her and her daughters. She loved her daughters so much that she never wanted to loose any of them to the treacherous law of the land, so she escaped with them by night to a land which she never knew. On getting there, she saw someone whom she presumed was a midwife through her dressing. She had gotten there and told the midwife about her ordeal with her babies, the midwife had compassion on the her and the babies. She looked at the babies, and they were super beautiful like goddesses, but they looked unidentical, as noticed by the midwife. Nee Ajuka didn't noticed this earlier, but she was glad that she could move around with twins who would be seen as two different babies, and would be comfortable to term one, the elder over the other.
But all her hope and joy was snatched away from her when two dead babies were brought before her, as her babies. She denied the dead babies, because it did not look like hers in anyway. When she tried to voice out, two women different from the first midwife, poisoned her in the absense of the midwife. She watched in the spiritual realm how they buried her body in the sand, and how they accused the midwife falsely, of witchcraft and baby eating when she threatened to expose them.
The two women prevailed because of their wealth and influence, and the midwife was banished.
Nee Ajuka narrated also why she decided to spare their life, which was for the sake of her daughters, but instead she put confusion and enmity between the families of the two women.
TBC TOMORROW AT 11AM.
