know how it felt like for humans who are in love since she was immortal. If she truly was oblivious about such feelings that spring up in man, how then did she took in to give birth to the twin daughters? This was questions Uju asked herself when she had, by Ajuka's facial expression, gotten what was likely to be the answer to her request from her.
"I believe you were able to detect how stupìd you sounded from the expression on my face," Ajuka said curtly, in a way that surely must have made Uju embarrassed with herself. She almost felt like crying when her words struck her heart. Was it a crime for someone to ask for a favour? Even if she wasn't willing to do it for her, she (Ajuka) would have just plainly told her that she wasn't going to do such.
"What then do you want from me?" she spoke flippantly, albeit not void of tears.
"There is no need for weeping," she said emphatically, "I do not hate you, just that I'm keen to have back that akupe onoja, the symbol of authority and influence from the hands of my enemies," Uju quickly wiped her face with her clammy fists, as she paid rapt attention to the old woman. There could possibly be a spring-up of an amazing revelation that she hadn't known about.
"Please nne, tell me more about this symbol of authority, and who are the enemies holding it," she queried eagerly.
"It is a very long story, that happened over 200 years ago, when I was at Aro," she begun reminiscising her past experience, but was cut short by the ever inquisitive Uju.
"Wait! Do you mean you were already in existence 200 years ago?" she asked in utmost bewilderment.
"I have been in existence even when Umudioga was a village under Aro," she pointed out, but it seem like it was the right time to take up the rest of the story from there, Uju was however calm and expecting further explanation from her,
"Then I was the wife of Igwe Okala the great of Aro kingdom. Before Igwe Okala married me, Aro was greatly influenced by Nri kingdom northwards, such that they also influenced our way of living, dressing, trading and celebrating festivals. To cut the tale short, we were indirectly ruled by Nri kingdom. But one day, Eze Nri came to Aro, he saw me by a stream, and told me how beautiful I was and asked me to marry him. I didn't tell him that I was married, rather I subtly asked him to give me what he had in hand, because I knew that the object which looked like an elephant tusk, was very powerful and there was an ineffable mystery behind that same object. I noticed that when he had that in hand, he got whatever he wanted, influence any kingdom he stepped his foot on and punished whomever he lost favour with. When I asked him for it, he didn't say anything but to my greatest doubt, he handed the object to me but something strange happened right there before me."
Uju dilated her eyes in rapt fascination as she had all her attention focused on Ajuka's tale. She thought right within her that the old woman had no reason to have paused her story especially now she had gone quite far.
"Right there before me," she continued, "the tusk fell off my hand and I never saw the object anywhere around me and I didn't see the man again. So I went back home dejectedly only to find out that Igwe Okala was with that same akupe onoja I'd seen with Eze Nri. I was shocked and angry and asked him to give it back to me but he was adamant, instead he banished me and my four daughters to Ezumezu forest. But for him, he became more popular all over the kingdoms and he annexed the little kingdoms. His fame continued until one fateful day when he lost the symbol. That was when his days of fame ceased to be and then I was able to make all its rulers from then till today, subject to me." Uju was still perplexed about everything she'd heard from the old lady, that she sought further dymystification to her last words.
"You see, daughter," she continued, "I have had affair with virtually all the kings of Aro after the reign of Igwe Okala and the kingdoms beyond, and our products is what make up the daughters of the scared river of Adaola."
"Then why did you make Umudioga your base when your adversaries are in Aro?" That was a sensitive and acerbic question that Uju sent to her, but she would have to tackle it cleverly but would she be keeping her promise of sincerity to her cherished daughters?
"Promise me you will keep this as a secret"
Uju acquiesced to it.
"I am here because of one person." Uju was surprised at the emphatic word, ONE. Umudioga didn't have rich and powerful personalities like Aro that would match her status, but yet she chose to sojourn in Umudioga and be humiliated by the likes of Omemgbe, and notwithstanding, she still persevered. Who could be that important person? At the moment she couldn't surmise any name from Umudioga that fit this status. If there was to be any, they were all dead.
"Who is this powerful man that gives you this much stress," she asked carefully. Ajuka mood changed suddenly, in a way that made Uju felt sorry for her questions, but the old woman would still tell her anyway.
"He is a boy from Umudioga."
That answer was contrary to what Uju had in mind, hence she couldn't conceal her shock.
"A boy?" she didn't waited for a response to her rhetorical question before asking a second, "Who is he?"
"He was the son of Ararume, your supposed father but," Uju waved any other words she wanted to say further aside, she'd just heard it enough already. If she actually heard her well, she was talking of Agunna, her long lost brother. What else did she wanted to hear after the old woman had indirectly confessed that she was responsible for the lad's disappearance. But Uju was just over-blowing her emotional pent-up, Ajuka haven't said yet if she was responsible for his disappearance.
She just remembered that she had to be sure first on where to pitch her fury and that would be after Ajuka might have dymystified her half-baked story.
"So what did you do to my brother?"
"Uju!" the old woman quickly rebuked her immediately,
"I took him in order to save your lives, as long as he stayed there, he was a threat to your life and that of your sister."
"But it never seemed like that at the first stance."
"Your problem is that you never see things beyond mortality. When Ochibiaram was dying, Agunna had all the power at his disposal to revive the old woman but I wanted her dead because of what she and her cohort, Nwabiala, did to me on the day of your delivery. I was the one who spoke through you to Agunna to go and call Eche, her brother, which he did, but it struck him back and he was running back home after he realised this but I was faster. The boy was going to revenge his mother's death on my daughters, so I had to do something fast about it. Uju, my daughter, were you blind? Didn't you see his strange behaviour towards you? Didn't you see how dearly I loved you? Would you have loved to be dead?" Uju was struck by her melancholic tone that she almost wept along with her. The old woman had really fought tooth and nail to keep them from harm. She began wondering what they would be without Ajuka. Now she knew better, that she would no longer take any member of Ararume family as hers, just as she'd always done. Going by Ajuka's word, Agunna would be of great harm to her but what more could she do. Thanks to Ajuka for keeping her in the know, lest she would have ignorantly walk up to her doom and embrace it wholeheartedly.
Soon a strange thought struck her memory and it was somewhat a suspicion, but her mind was already divided against herself before she would let out her question. She had a strange feeling about Agumba. She didn't know why or how a convincing thought of a possible or rather a striking similiarity but she would rather drive her question subtly and indirectly until she landed on the answer to her question.
"Nne why did you kill Ochibiaram, and left her accomplice, Nwabiala to go unscathed?" she asked while watching her intently.
"That monster called Agumba gave them amulets," she said bitterly as she winced apoplectically. Uju had just gotten a confirmation to her controversial mind questions. She smiled suspiciously to herself, wondering if Ajuka had really been able to surmise her suspicion,
"Nne are you not thinking what I'm thinking, that Agumba could be that same common enemy of yours, appearing in another form to humiliate you?"
"No, I made Agumba, but," she kept mute like she was in a deep thought, then she came back to complete her phrase, "you might somehow be saying the truth. It could be possible that Agunna is manipulating Agumba against me"
"So what will you do?"
"I'll show that little lad a lesson by shutting Agumba down, because he is also at my disposal." she cringed in fury.
Uju was however startled by Ajuka's reply, which sounded somehow harsh to her. If she actually meant that she was going to kill Agumba, then what guarantee was there for her own life. What if she would be the next to be influenced by Agunna, would that be the way she was going to die too? She would let her heart out of her mouth.
"There is no way he will be able to manipulate any of my daughters, he has his limit," Ajuka reassured the troubled girl. Uju didn't felt completely reassured but she had to feign a reassuring smile.
"We have been talking for a long time, I'll let you have your sleep and get ready for tomorrow's showdown." Ajuka said jovially before she varnished into thin air at the twinkle of an eye.
The night had become stormy, with ferocious wind that blew all round the four corners of the building. Wind like this was known not to be an ordinary one, its magnitude transcends normality, and the most exciting there was that it blew from all direction of the cardinal point. The cold it brought on villagers couldn't make most of them sleep, with Uju not being an exception.
She would have gone for an alternative, maybe the chimney in the kitchen would serve her well when it comes to keeping her warm from the cold weather. But how would she do that when obviously she had an enemy, a ruthless one for that matter lurking in the dark, waiting to use her up to his own pleasure and her own detriment. She would have bothered much if all she wanted was to shield herself from the cold, she could handle that, but she was also pressed tensely that it made her uncomfortable. It bothered her so much that Ocheogo had even stated it plainly that he must surely have his way unless she was going to be locked behind closed doors all the days of her life, such that she wouldn't eat, bath or get rid of body waste. The latter was what she was in need of. She was going to take her own fate into her hands, maybe she could search around the room for any container where she would urinate in and then keep it at one corner of the room until further notice.
She squatted to look for one but where would she find something like that in the king's room. She stood up dejectedly with sweat from nowhere that clad her face, only to be taken aback by the abrupt presence of a big black boa constrictor that was shown her on her face. Uju shook for fear of what she saw, as the animal kept loosing itself from its constriction, but when she thought of how possible it was for the animal to get in there, she was convinced that it wasn't an ordinary one, maybe she would stand and see what it would do to her.
She stood fearlessly with fixed gaze on the animal as it crawled towards her,
"Whoever you are, if you come closer to me, I will bruise your head," she threatened.
Suprisingly, the animal began retreating and stopping at a point, before it suddenly transformed into someone Uju knew very well.
"I know it was you, Akwanwa, and I was never afraid of you," she clapped her hands in wonder as she gave her a demeaning look. Her adversary wouldn't do any better than returning same glare.
"I know for sure that you are so desperate and pathetic, but I didn't know that you were this awful." Her eyes seemed to be focused somewhere on her body, Uju wondered what she'd done to attract so much stare from her.
OH NO, that wasn't a good sight at all, she saw her own urine cascading from her nether parts down her laps, very weird. This might have happened when she'd had few moment of fright after what she saw. She would be very ashamed of herself, having disgraced herself before Akwanwa.
Akwanwa would have a lot of story to tell and brag with.
That she could make a matured lady drain her panties with her awe appearance would be her pride and joy.
Akwanwa laughed hysterically as she saw this again, she didn't have to waste much time, for this to dry up before she could invoke some spectators from Adaola river to come and feed their eyes.
"Imeririme, Nchalla," that just happened like magic to Uju's eyes. Before she could blink her eyes, she saw two other ladies standing before her, as if they had been lying in wait all day long for her.
Akwanwa was just a troublemaker, wanting to dent Uju's image before other daughters of Adaola, at all cost. It was all just for one reason, which was to garner support from majority of the river daughters, which was walking for her anyway. She was more popular in the marine kingdom than Uju, and had much friends there while Uju would always still have cold feelings towards them.
Akwanwa had always used this to her advantage, getting all the support she needed in order to defeat Uju in her aspiration of the throne of Abodioga, as surmised by her (Akwanwa).
But could she have expected a shocking surprise, the one that had just been put up by Uju. She couldn't believe her eyes, how Uju was rapt into an eye catching queenly regalia. She looked more scintillating than ever, even more than herself. The damp skin glistened from the light of the lamp, making her appearance alight the ambience. Akwanwa was ataxic with rage, as she cringed in embarrassment, seeing that her deviced humiliation of Uju went awry. The eye-witnesses she'd called would be wondering what was going on, and what surprise it was that she wanted to show to them, of which, if she couldn't deliver she would appear silly before them. Things even got worse as the supposed ladies who were to jeer Uju, started giving her commendation for her beauty, which was now a bigger blow to Akwanwa. She didn't know when she stoned the nearest object besides her to the ground, and then, maliciously staring back at Uju,
"You are so irritating, you think you can manipulate your way into that throne with this your childish diabolics, then you are a big joker," she spat biliously, while Uju seemed to be having a good way.
"Why then do you cry as the loser already," Uju replied sardonically, "now that it is obvious to you that you are a just a bubble of mucus before me, can't you then, accord me that respect?"
"Uju, you are a shameless dreamer! You have been hunting for this throne ever since your childhood, jumping from the bed of one prince to another. Now that you irritating presence killed Aneke, you are looking for all means possible to seduce that old man because you think he will be the next in line to inherit the throne." Akwanwa laughed out hysterically, sauntering across the open space of the room. She preferred to that to sitting on the same 'contaminated' seat as Uju. Now she had sent a thought provoking word down her mind, thus she expected reaction that would make her do anything, even her worst.
TBC AT 10PM
