As the sun slowly retires for the night, two men on horses appear on one of the hills that surrounds the valley, which is a large expanse of land. The two men silently observe the uncountable army of warriors camped in the valley.

The bigger man whispers, "Balogun, kini a ma se (what will we do?) This people are many o, they will easily over run us."

The smaller man smiles, "ogbon lo gba (wisdom is needed) we are not going to engage them in a fair fight."

Bigger man: Ok sir, what's the plan?

Smaller man (Balogun) smiles: Strike at the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.

Bigger man: It's just me and you here sir. How do we get to their king and his commanders? They are in the middle of the camp and surrounded by seasoned warriors.

Balogun: I will excuse your fear as this is your first real life war scenario as my aide. Now, watch and learn.

Balogun pulls out a chess board from the big pouch on his horse. He opens it and it's only the white chess pieces that are in the box. He says some incantations and throws the white chess pieces to the ground. A white figure with a crown and holding a rifle and a sword drops down on her right knee in front of the Balogun.

White Queen: My king, I'm yours to command.

Balogun: bring me the head of their king and all his commanders.

White Queen: Your wish is my command my King.

The white Queen turns around to face the 14 white figures standing behind her.

White Queen: Knights, Bishops and three pawns come with me. The rest of you, guard my King.

A white storm like wind descends with speed towards the center of the camp in the valley.

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)

She enters into the room and close the door un-silently. She moves quickly and jumps into bed. She takes a deep breath and reaches out for a warm body on the other side of the bed.

She squeezes her face and rolls her eyes in exasperation. Then she turns on her side and prop her head up on her left hand. The moonlight illuminates the figure standing at the window.

"Olowo ori mi, e wa sun. Otutu yi po."

He turns from the window to look at her. She has a loosely tied wrapper around her voluptuous body.

He walks slowly to the bed, takes off his dalabia and gets into bed. He lies on his back, hands behind his head.

She moves her small frame closer to him and rest her head and bosom on his large frame. Her right leg rest between his thighs as she slowly rubs it against his groin area.

A few seconds later, she stops and pouts at him.

"My King, what is wrong? Your little man has refused to rise to the occasion."

"Balogun is yet to return."

Why do you worry about Balogun? He is an experienced warlord, who has seen many battles. He can take care of himself.

He sighs and doesn't respond. She nudges him gently with her right leg.

"Are you sure it's Balogun you are worried about? Is there something else you are not telling me?"

She moves her body fully on him, looking him in the face.

"I thought you always said I'm your favourite Olori. Yet, you hide things from me. You don't love me anymore."

She rolls off him and turns her back on him.

He clears his throat.

"I've been having the same strange dream, consecutively for the past 3 days. And the oracle has not been able to decipher it."

She turns to face him.

"What's the dream about?"

"There is a big, erect statue in a beautiful garden. The garden had trees with various birds on it. Suddenly, there is lightning and thunder and a big stick comes flying from an unknown angle and hits the big statue on the head. The statue falls face first to the ground. Two big, black crows land on the statue and starts to viciously peck at the statue to get to its heart. The statue breaks into two different parts. The part without the heart also joins the Crows to get at the heart. The dust from the broken status starts to make the garden wither and dry up. Then I wake up."

She is silent. He turns to look at her. She stares back at him.

"My King, what are you going to do?"

"I wish I knew."

"Don't let the dream bother you. I'm sure you wi figure it out soon."

"I hope so."

"Oya, let me ease your stress. You know it's my turn to have you all to myself this week. So please make it rain."

He smiles at her and she returns the smile.

He lays on his back and she gets on top of him. She kisses him passionately and he returns the kisses. She slowly pulls away and leaves a trail of kisses down his body, to settle on his "little man."

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)

The ten men move silently through the forest in a single file. Each man behind the leader of the pack, ensures there is only one set of footprint.

Their dark clothing and covered faces serve as natural camouflage.

Suddenly, they hear a sound and they go down in a squat, with weapons quickly appearing in their hands.

They listen intently to the sound a second time. The leader of the pack turns and gives a thumb up to the group. They all visibly relax and one of them did a loud bird cry as a response.

A bright light briefly appears about 100 meters in front of them. The light goes out within seconds.

The leader stands and begins to move towards the light. The others follow him stealthily and closely, carefully stepping into the footprint of the leader of the pack.

The men stop at the entrance of a cave. The light comes on again a further distance in the cave and the men walk towards it.

At a few meters from the man holding the light the leader of the pack stops. He watches the hooded man holding the light for a moment. Then with his hand on his sword he cautiously move closer.

"Never send a Lion..."

"...to do the work of a Black Mamba."

"In the meeting of spirits..."

"...humans are not invited."

"Except..."

"...they know they are spirits also."

The leader of the pack takes his hand off the sword and beckons to his group to come closer.

The hooded man with the light removes his hood.

"I will lead you through this cave into the village."

"What about guards?"

"It's a secret path, people have gotten lost and died in this cave's maze. Only few people know their way around this maze. We will exit at one of three unguarded opening."

"What about the Otunba?"

"He awaits you in the village."

The man pulls up his hood, turns and starts to walk further into the cave.

The ten men start to follow him with their hands still on their weapons.

_____________

"Where is the King?"

He should be in bed right now with his second wife.

"When do we strike?"

"I'm just waiting to be sure she tires him out. Then I will lead you to the palace and point out where his room is to you. The rest is up to you."

"Good. Very good."

"I've held up my part of the bargain. Where is the gold you promised me?"

The two men stare at each other for a moment. Then the leader of the pack hands over a black pouch to the other man.

"Here is half of what we promised. 15 pieces now and 15 pieces when you lead us to the palace."

The man grabs the pouch and looks inside. Then he nods and smiles.

"I hope I can trust you to honour your word."

"Of course Judas. Oops, sorry I meant to say, of course Otunba, we are Fidelity, we keep our word."

The men stare at each other for a moment.

"I would never have betrayed my King if not for his recent insistence to change some of our ancient laws."

"I know. I know. I'm just glad that my King doesn't have someone like you in his inner circle."

Otunba smiles.

"Have you ever considered that Judas's betrayal was supposed to be a win win?"

Otunba starts to walk away from the leader of the group when the hooded man enters into the room.

"Sir, the King is now asleep."

Otunba turns back to the men.

"Gentlemen, it is time."

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)

"You are hurting me..."

Her voice trails off as he chokes her. She grabs his hands and struggles to free his grip on her neck. He looks at her with unseeing eyes.

"Prince...you are killing me..."

She slaps him hard across the face. There is a sudden jerk of his head and he stops choking her. His eyes appear to open and he sees her. He moves quickly off her body.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I had a bad dream.

I know my Prince, I know.

She hugs his head to her bosom and softly brushes his head.

What did you see?

The Palace was under attack and I had pinned down one of the intruders. I was strangling him.

Was the King harmed?

I don't know. I was not able to reach him.

She kisses his head and continues to brush it. He removes himself from her, gets off the bed and starts to dress up.

Where are you going? It's night already.

I need to get to the Palace. I fear the King is in danger.

But if the King is in danger, so would you.

I'm not King yet.

But you are the heir apparent.

Me and my younger brother.

Your good for nothing half brother you mean.

He looks at her harshly.

Remember your place woman. I will not have you speak badly of the prince.

Apologies my prince. But you know there can only be one King.

And he will be my right hand man.

She smiles slowly and shakes her head. He stops to look questioningly at her.

What is it? Why do you smile? Speak woman.

My Prince, you are unaware of our ancient laws. But it is not my place to tell you. When you are ready, the Alapini will tell you.

He finish dressing up and stares at her.

You are lucky I love you. But don't be a Vashti, be an Esther.

I love you too my Prince, my Lord, and my Husband. When you return, I will tell you what you want to know.

He nods his head. He grabs his weapons and walk to the door.

My Prince...stay safe and come back in one piece.

Iyawo mi, I'll go with my personal guards and I'll surely come back in one piece.

She gets on her knees to pray as soon as the door closes behind him.

Culled from "The King of games is...."

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)

As they emerge from the orchard surrounding the palace, Otunba stops and points to a steep hill.

As you can see, the palace is on a hill. This leads to the back entrance.

The leader of the pack looks at the hill and back at Otunba.

What about the front entrance?

It's heavily guarded. And they will see you coming a mile away. But because here is rather steep, they don't expect anyone to scale it, so it's usually guarded by two or four guards at most. Besides, the King's floor is easily accessible from the back entrance.

The King's floor? What about his room?

He stays on the third floor, and there are seven rooms there. He changes rooms every night as a security measure.

How do we know the room he will be in?

Look out for the rug that's coloured like a chess board.

Chess board?

Yes.

________________________________________

I'm sick of this guard duty, there is never any action that happens.

The other three guards nod in agreement as they huddle together for warmth as the mist envelopes them and the harmattan breeze caress their body.

We should be part of the elite troop that goes out for war.

The others nod again.

One of them looks up, trying to see through the mist.

Did you hear that?

The others shake their head and they all fan out, hands on their weapons.

Four arrows sail through the air and each one bury itself in the neck of the four guards.

Four men emerge from the mist and crouch down to confirm their kill. Then they drop down ropes to the remaining six men. Three of then assist the others up the hill, while one of them roll the dead guards down the hill.

Moments later, they ease the back door open and silently enter into the palace.

They crouch down and listen for movements, after which they stealthily move towards staircase.

________________________________________

The King jerks awake. He looks around trying to see through the dark room.

Then he close his eyes, counts up to 10 seconds and open them.

He sees the burnt out candle on the table close to the window, and on the floor beside the table is an upturned chess board.

There is snoring and he looks beside him to see the naked buttocks of his Olori as she lies face down on the bed.

He hears movement along the corridor outside his room.

He closes his eyes again, counts up to 10 seconds and open them again.

There seems to be shadows surrounding his bed and the light of the moonlight shows the glint of a sharp axe.

The King closes his eyes and prays.

________________________________________

The bleeding bodies of six guards lay on the floor along the corridor. Their throats slashed open by knives or punctured by arrows.

The ten men gather around the door with the chess patterned door mat. They clear a path for the biggest man among them to run at the door. He runs and hits the door with his right shoulder. The door crashes open. The darkness in the room envelopes them as they all run in.

The leader of the group hears the thud of bodies hitting the room. His eyes adjust to the dark room and he runs sword in hand towards the bed. Suddenly, his head snaps back as something or someone lifts him up into the air and smash him down on the floor. He drops his sword and struggles to free himself from the barbed garrote around his neck.

The light from the corridor seeps into the room. The leader of group looks around and sees the decapitated bodies of four of his men. Another four lay against the wall trying to stuff their intestines back into the gaping hole in their belly. The last man of group is also on his knees beside the leader, screaming in agony, as the barbed garrote around his head digs into his eyes.

Alarm bells ring around the palace.

There is commotion on the corridor as armed guards rush to the entrance of the room. But none of them step into the room.

Candle lights come on and the King sits up on his bed.

The Olori is awake and looking in amazement at the scene. Her right hand is on her head, while her left hand holds the duvet around her chest.

The King grabs a nearby robe and gets to his feet.

Two rooks and three pawns drop down onto their right knee. The only knight in the room is the one holding the two barbed garrotes. He bows his head but does not drop to his knee.

The Black Queen steps forward over the dead men, and then drops down onto her right knee.

My King, the intruders had been subdued.

Thank you Black Queen.

Should we execute the captives or interrogate to know how they got into the palace?

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)