₦airaland Forum

paqman:
obehiD everything seems cool now but my curiosity is who rape the adeze does debisi knows about this

All your questions will be answered in the course of time

@doctorexcel thank you and glad you're enjoying it

@RealLordZeus thank you, and will do

@ayshow6102 thank you, same to you! Yes, I'm feeling better now, thank you for asking

@eROCK247 hmmm that's a very good question, what would make you feel a thing like that? haha...I guess only time will tell

Thank you @oluwadabira222 and @King2019 I am feeling much better now

Also, I'm working on the next update so it should be out soon (before the end of day today)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sorry, I've been MIA, I've been dealing with a number of personal crises and am just recovering from an illness, so I haven't been able to write in a while. Anyway, I'm trying to get back into it now, so will let everyone know when the next chapter is ready. Hope everyone has a restful Sunday and a great week ahead!!

@GeoSilYe I'll try with the long chapter, we'll see

@doctorexcel thank you, that really means a lot

@monalicious I'm planning on having the next update out this weekend, Sunday at the latest

I'm so sorry to have to do this, but I won't be able to update this weekend. I've been too busy to work on the next chapter. I'll try to have it out sometime during the week next week. I'm really sorry for the delay, things are really hectic for me right now. Thanks for the continuing interest, I really appreciate all of you

@GeoSilYe Really really sad. I can't wait to see what Tan does next Thanks, I'm glad you liked the blog. So the thing with writing, for me at least, is that it's hard to keep a story going without interest, and there really wasn't that much interest when I started writing Dear D, and I was writing a lot of other stories at the same time, so Dear D just got dropped. It's been so long now that I don't know if I'm going to ever finish it. But in some ways, Dear D was a stepping stone to some of the things I'm writing now (like this story) and some more stories I have planned for the future. So yeah, I wouldn't expect anymore Dear D letters, sorry (it might happen, but not anytime in the near future)

@dawno2008 thank you, that's what I aim for lol

@paqman I get those goosebumps too when I come across a story I like, so it's really humbling and flattering that you feel that way about my work. Thank you

Okay, so I just tried posting a portion of the last part with a different account (to test it out) and it was deleted and the account banned. This is like the second time it's happening in a week and it was twice with this update. I guess I'm not too surprised that it's happening with this story, lol, but this leads me to perhaps an inevitable conclusion: I'm going to try moving this story off Nairaland. I have a personal blog I've somewhat been playing around with for years now, so I'll just post the chapters on there from now on. Anyway, I'm going to try getting it set up and then I'll post a link on here to where this chapter (the full chapter) is posted.

Okay, the ban got lifted so I'm going to try to post the last part of the update now

All the evidence pointed to the contrary. I knew I shouldn’t believe him, but I couldn’t help it. I trusted him. My instincts told me that I could trust him, and my instincts had never failed me before. But if it wasn’t him, then who?

“Could there be another player?” He mumbled to himself. Then he glanced up at me, as if only then remembering that he wasn’t alone. When he continued speaking, his voice was louder. “If Taiso truly believes that I tried to kill him, that I’m spreading rumors about myself and my skill, then he’ll think I want the throne.”

“Why did he tell me you have an arrangement? He couldn’t have made it up Bi.”

Debisi’s gaze snapped to mine. A flash of red stained his cheeks. It lasted long enough for me to realize what I’d called him, and the tone I’d said it in. Then it faded. “I swore to him that I would not challenge his rule. Maybe that’s what he meant, but it wasn’t an arrangement. I told you, it was when I went to him to tell him about the nobles who wanted me to kill him. I swore to him then that I didn’t want to be Ooni.”

“But you do.” I stated.

“No!” He swore.

“I saw you in Lekki, Debisi, I saw the way you won the nobles to your side.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to win them to my side.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“I wasn’t, I swear. I was trying to win them to yours, Tan. I want us to join Bono and Isan, I want you to rule over both nations. It’s what I’ve wanted from the moment I realized that Taiso could not be Ooni.”

I was dumbstruck.

The dinner in Lekki flashed through my mind. I remembered the impassioned speech that Debisi had given. I remembered the effort he’d made to tell them that it was I who’d killed Oza Onitsha for his crimes against a Bono noble. I remembered the way the Alake and her family had looked at me. The respect, the faint traces of allegiance in their gazes. I remembered thinking that Debisi had just won me their loyalty with his statements, and at the time I’d struggled to figure out why.

I somehow managed to find the rock and get myself to sit on it while my head spun.

“What?” I struggled to come to terms with what he’d said.

“You are a good ruler Tan, a great ruler. Of course, I want you to rule over Bono. I could not do it, and even if I could, I would not want to. I am a last child. I was raised as a last child, to offer support, not to rule.”

“But why not Taiso?”

His jaw clenched. “I discovered some things about Taiso just before we left the palace. And that was before Ikeja, before I came here and heard the ogiri brimming with rumors of a reaping. When I got us barred from Ikeja, I was only doing it to try to weaken the Alake of Ikeja’s bond with my brother, I did not know that staying in the ogiri would give me the chance to learn things I could never learn in Ikeja.”

“So, it was you who kept us out of Ikeja?”

He nodded. “I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Drive a wedge between Taiso and the Alake and try to find out what exactly it is that the Alake has over my brother. I have a feeling that that’s the key to getting Taiso to renounce the throne in your favor. I just need to find it.”

I watched him carefully. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I was going to. After I’d gotten Taiso to agree to it, that is. I wanted to get that secret first. And in the event that I failed, I didn’t want Taiso connecting you to my plans. If I fail, Bono and Isan will still have to deal peacefully, I don’t want a war between our nations.” He frowned. “Not when the Nuri are a plague to us all.”

“So, you only just learnt about the reapings during this trip?”

His eyes widened. “Of course! Do you think that I would have allowed something like this to continue if I’d known about it? I would have told my father! We would have sent troops here, we would finally have captured some Nuri slavers! Bono children being sent into the Oro forest by their parents? There’s a part of me that still doesn’t believe it. My brother is a lot of things, but even I struggle with believing he could be behind something this terrible. That’s why I rode into the forest this morning. I have to see it for myself.”

“According to Ayomide, you already have.”

He frowned at me. “Who?”

“Ayomide, the teenaged girl you rescued from the reaping and sent to safety in the den of iniquity.”

His frown deepened. “I did what now?”

He looked completely at a loss. There’d been no flash of awareness when I’d mentioned Ayomide’s name. Either Debisi was the best actor I had ever seen, or the eunuch healer had been right, and someone had paid Ayomide to lie to me. I couldn’t believe that that innocent girl had lied to me. She was just a child!

“Exactly how young were you when you started playing boju-boju?” I asked Debisi.

“About six. Why?”

I ignored his question. “Do you think they play it here, in Ikeja?”

“Yes, especially here in Ikeja. In the ogiri they take the game to a whole new level. The best spies in this nation started by playing boju-boju in the ogiri of Ikeja. Why do you ask?”

It floored me to think that the eunuch healer had been right. His words from that night came back to me. There are no innocents in the ogiri of Ikeja, just hustlers and schemers. Little Ayomide. I told Debisi about Ayomide’s tale, about how she’d claimed he’d rescued her from the reaping.

Debisi gaped at me. He walked over to the rock and reclaimed his seat beside me. “I suppose there is some truth to it,” he said.

“What truth?”

“I did meet Mamus in this forest after slavers branded him. I did not know about the reaping, nothing like that, just him. I knew about the Nuri sneaking into Bono to kidnap young nobles. They’ve been doing it for years, and as far as I knew, that’s what happened to him. His father certainly didn’t send him into the Oro forest as a sacrifice, he just happened to be riding when the Nuri found him. They branded him. He said it was so painful he passed out, but when he woke up, they were gone. They left him, no explanation, no messages, nothing. They just left him branded, with his horse and weapons, alone in the Oro forest. I found him here, sitting by this pond, crying. He had a dagger in his hand, and he kept looking at it. I could tell from the way he examined it, the way he kept weighing it, tossing it around in his hands, that he planned to kill himself. He knew that the Alake would disown him if he returned to Ikeja with a brand. The Alake of Ikeja has many bastards, you see, Mamus just happens to be the one he likes most.” Debisi stopped speaking. His face took on a faraway look. “I talked him out of it. It was about three years ago now. He was sixteen, young and afraid. He reminded me of his brother Kola, my sister’s best friend. So, I helped him cover up the brand. I’ve told no one since then. I cannot even begin to imagine how this Ayomide person learned about it. And why was she told to tell you what she did? How did she know that you would come to the den of iniquity that night and that you would go looking for her? That sequence of events takes a kind of cunning and planning that I shudder to think on. I have to find the girl. I must learn who put her up to it. Whoever it is, they’re motives trouble me more than I can say.”

I replayed the events of the night before. I’d found Ayomide because the eunuch healer had gone looking for her trying to get to what she knew. If Ayomide really hadn’t been part of the reaping, then what exactly had led the eunuch healer in search of Ayomide? I thought about the way that Ayomide had revealed Debisi’s involvement. She’d called him the Alaafin throughout, speaking with so much respect, I’d believed she was in awe of him. Why did she not call him Alake? Why had she called him the Alaafin? If she was indeed sent there to place the seeds of doubts in my head about Debisi, then she should have made it clear from the start that Debisi was the one she was referring to. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t mentioned it at all. In fact, if Mede hadn’t asked which Alaafin she referred to, I would never have connected Debisi to her. Or is that just what I was supposed to believe? Would she have found a way to put Debisi in if Mede hadn’t asked? Mede asking had led to a natural disclosure, which added authenticity to the tale. Had it all really been for show?

The flapping of wings tore my attention away from my thoughts. It was a pigeon. Debisi stood to receive it. He loosened a scroll from the pigeon’s leg before releasing the bird. It flew away. I watched Debisi read the note.

“What is it?” I kept my tone light, curious to see just how forthcoming he would be without prompting.

“A message from Mamus,” he replied, his eyes zipping over the parchment. “He was finally able to set up the meeting.” He smiled.

“What meeting?”

Debisi tossed the parchment into the pond, before turning to me, his eyes gleaming triumphantly. “Remember when you asked me why I kept riding out at nights during our trip over?”

I nodded.

“I wasn’t entirely forthcoming. I’d been communicating with Mamus throughout the trip. He was the one who barred our entry to Ikeja. Anyway, he found a link to the secret the Alake of Ikeja has on my brother. A Nuri man, one of the guards that the Eze of Nuri sent to deliver Kola back to his father. The Eze sent Kola back with a retinue of four Nuri guards. The Alake of Ikeja sent Kola back to the Nuri with three. The one that remained is the only person I’ve been able to connect to the secret. Mamus has finally been able to convince the guard to confess his knowledge of the secret and agree to speak with me for a price. He agreed to meet me this morning, in half an hour, the amount of time it’ll take me to get to the clearing in the middle of the forest. It’s all coming together now Tan.”

“How did he know you’ll be here?” It was rather convenient that this message just happened to find Debisi in the Oro forest.

“I told Mamus when we met last night that I’d be coming here this morning to examine these rumors of the reaping for myself.”

I nodded. I wanted to believe Debisi, I wanted to trust in the openness that he showed me, and there was only one way I could think of to find out once and for all if he was for real. “I’m coming with you.”

He froze and shook his head. “I don’t…”

“Do you want me to trust you?”

“You know I do.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

He sighed. “Fine.” He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on. Then he walked over to me and extended his hand to help pull me up. I found myself staring at his hand, the smooth white palm, the furrows that lined the surface of his skin.

I didn’t take his hand.

I wanted to. I wanted to reach out and place my hand in his, to stroke the tender skin, to look up and smirk at the blush that would no doubt form. But I didn’t. I pushed myself up to my feet and stared down at him, watching with a slight twinge of pain as his features tightened at my rejection. We stood there, the both of us, me staring into his face, him looking down at the ground. So much had been said, excuses, justifications, explanations, but there was still a lot that had been left unsaid.

When he lifted his gaze to mine, I wondered if he would speak then, and if he did, what he would say. I watched the uncertainty in his gaze, and followed the movements of his hands as they reached to fidget with his glasses. “You still don’t believe me,” he spoke so lowly it was a struggle to hear him over the chirping sounds in the background. “But you will, the truth always comes out in the end.” He turned his back on me. “For the sake of our nations, I pray to the masquerades that it is not too late when it does.” He walked over to his horse, untied its rein, and mounted. Then he waited, staring sadly at me, as he watched me do the same.

We rode through the Oro forest in silence. My head felt as if it was filled to bursting with contrary thoughts, and my heart the same with warring emotions. It surprised me how desperately I wanted to believe Debisi. I wanted him to return to what he’d been before we left the palace, the sweet boy, my sweet boy. But it was different, I couldn’t help the doubt. The seeds had been planted during this trip and now they’d grown roots. I wanted to believe him, but I needed proof. Maybe after we met this guard and heard what he had to say, my doubts would go away. Maybe talking to Mamus would help. I knew for sure that talking to Ayomide would. If that girl had been lying, then I needed to know who’d put her up to it. I wondered if I could find the nobles from the den. If I could, I could find the niece that had supposedly heard from Debisi about his fake glasses. If I could talk to her, then I could prove Debisi’s innocence. And I wanted that. I wanted to feel the confidence I’d felt in him before. I wanted to marry him, I think there was a part of me that was starting to love him. How could I not, if he was innocent, if the words he’d spoken to me were the truth, how could I not? And I knew they were, deep down, I believed in his innocence. But the doubts had been planted and they made me question myself. Ayomide’s presence, her story, the way she’d called him Alaafin and not Alake, or Alaafin Debisi, it wasn’t the sort of thing someone would leave to chance if they were truly trying to turn me against Debisi. Yet, my brain and my heart both rebelled against the idea that Debisi could have been lying to me beside the pond.

“Revered!”

Hearing Eghe’s voice was like been doused in an ice bath. I pulled tightly on my horse’s reins, shifting around in the saddle to locate him. It turned out I didn’t have to work too hard. He tore out from behind a thick wall of bushes, his arms and legs scoured and lacerated, his appearance just as unkempt as mine. He rode in, in a cavalry pose, leaning forward with his spear gripped in his right hand, the sharp point thrust ahead, while his other hand, controlled the reins.

“Eghe!” I sighed in relief. “I feared the Oro mami watas had swallowed you up and turned you into a lion.”

His horse pulled up beside mine. He flashed a grin at me. “I would only let that happen if turning into a lion was the only way to protect you, revered.”

I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He was like a breath of fresh air, easy, uncomplicated, and completely trustworthy. After the time I’d spent with Debisi, it was nice to have someone with me whose loyalty I did not question. I turned back to face Debisi and caught a glimpse of his pain just before he buried it. I remembered then what he’d said about me and Eghe, about how it had hurt him to know that I was taking Eghe with me to a den of iniquity. I sighed.

“It’s just a few kilometers ahead,” Debisi said, looking straight ahead. Then he dug his heel in and his horse went faster.

22

My heart slammed, beating in tune to the steady rhythm of the racing horse beneath me. I watched the fume of dust kicked up by my horses spurs and dug my feet into its side, pushing it to go faster. The deeper we got into the Oro forest the denser the cloud of dust grew. We ripped through it, and for a second each time I was enveloped by the scratchy heat of moving sand granules suspended in plumes of dust. I almost choked on the dust, almost suffocated on the granules I huffed in, in my deep inhalations. Perhaps I would have, if my mind was solely focused on the simple thoughts of breathing and sustaining my life as I raced to confront Debisi.

I guess it was lucky for me that there was so much more.

I thought of Debisi’s words. His stony silence, the emotionless mask he’d donned in anger just moments before. I thought of the den, of the Bono men at the bar, of the agreement that Taiso had told me about, the endless stream of lies. They occupied my mind, filling my thoughts with a frenzy that had me blinking angrily at the wetness in my eyes when the cloud of dust sent detritus settling behind my lids.

I rode hard, clamping the horse’s sides, communicating my anger and frustrations to it, and in turn it sped ahead. Thin branches of strange trees slapped angrily at me in retaliation for my invasion. I counteracted them, jerking to the side whenever my thoughts of Debisi faded away long enough for me to pay attention to my surroundings. But those moments of lucidity where few and far between. My thoughts were so focused on rage that it took me much too long to realize that Eghe no longer rode behind me, and the thought passed as a fleeting observance, quickly buried by my ire at Debisi’s daring.

When at last I found Debisi, it was thanks in full part to my horse. I had been in a blinding rage, so vexed that I hadn’t paid much attention to my surroundings. Once I saw Debisi, once my mind cleared long enough to take in his appearance, it was as if reality crashed in on me. I looked at my arms, at the film of dirt that clung to me, like a second skin. My dress was completely stained, so browned with the dust from my speed chase that I could barely make out the rich red of the velvet material. My hair was in disarray, the hasty morning bun I’d made long since undone. The strands of my braid hung haphazardly from my head. Even these usually black locks had taken on the dirty brown of my thoughtless travail. I ran my hand through my hair and felt the rough texture of all manner of debris between my braids, the sharp rugged edges of leaves, the smooth roughness of slightly warmed pebbles, and the sharp points of broken twigs.

I could not believe how flustered I had allowed myself become. It gave me pause for a long moment, long enough for my racing heart to slow to a much more normal pace. It was not that I had gotten angry, but the extent of my anger, and its cause. That Debisi had driven me to this, that my anger at Debisi had made me ignore the sane advice of a man I trusted, a tumbler I respected, and that that same anger had caused me to ride so hard that I’d lost my single guard in the maze of this forest, that was what gave me pause. It wasn’t till that moment that I realized just how much I’d come to care for Debisi and how deeply his lies hurt me. Before I’d confronted him, I’d been able to push all the tales aside, to convince myself that it would all be better once I faced Debisi. But it hadn’t and now I had to accept the reality that it might never be.

I turned around, searching for Eghe much too late. There was no sign of him, nothing around me but foliage, a forest left for so long to its own design that there was nothing but trees, sand and grass for as far as the eye could see. Behind me that was. In front of me, there was Debisi, sitting on a large stone rock and staring into a surprisingly charming pond that had sleek black fishes swimming in it.

When exactly had I lost Eghe? Had he followed me into the Oro forest against his judgement? I knew he had. Even if I’d been riding into sure death, Eghe would have followed me. We must have gotten separated somewhere in the forest. But where? And how was I going to find him? The answer was obvious, sitting on a stone, staring straight ahead. If Debisi knew the forest well enough to find his way here, he was my best chance of finding Eghe without wasting too much time. The sun was already starting to rise. I knew that my brother would wake up to find me gone and he would worry. Would Mede worry too?

I led the Bono horse to a tree beside the pond and tied its reins around the thick stem, giving it enough room to drink from the pond, which it eagerly did. I couldn’t help noting that Debisi had done the same thing for his horse only a few trees away from the one I’d chosen.

He had to have heard my approach. The closer I drew to him, the more obvious that fact became. Dried leaves crinkled loudly against the soles of my sandals. That combined with the grinding of lose gravel beneath my shoes was enough to warn anyone of my presence. But Debisi didn’t turn around, not even when I drew to a stop behind the rock he sat on. Either he’d become deaf in his ride through the forest, or he was completely secure in his safety that he saw no reason to check for threats, or he’d already seen me coming. I had a strong feeling it was the last option.

He’d taken off the glasses, I could see that now that I stood so close. I stared down at the creamy curls of his hair and remembered all the times I’d run my fingers through it.

He sighed. It was a rough sound, drawn out, as if he found relief with the exhale, as though he released his frustrations with the air he forced out of his nostrils. It made me aware of how tranquil it had been before. The musical chirping of forest birds, the occasional splash and slap of fishes swimming.

“You should not have followed me.”

He didn’t look up, his profile remained as it had been, staring into the pond. I moved around the rock and sat on it, beside him.

“If you didn’t want me to follow you, you shouldn’t have done such a thorough job of pissing me off.”

He snorted. He still didn’t turn to face me. I was sitting now so I could see the way his hands went through sporadic jerks of clenching and releasing on his knee, the slow rise and fall of his chest. He’d ridden through the same path as me, but somehow his clothes were as clean as they’d been before, his skin fair, without the blemish of dust that coated mine.

“Sometimes I wonder what pleases the Eyo masquerade most? What human passions most entertain it? Does it glory in our successes or simply set more traps for us to overcome? Does it languish in our pain and seek to comfort us, or does it simply laugh and send us more anguish? Different oracles teach different things, but I cannot help but seek the masquerade’s truths for myself. If it enjoys the sorrows of humans, then this morning it must be feasting with its mami watas on my grief.”

I clenched my jaw.

“I should be overjoyed either way, for what am I but a servant of the Eyo masquerade, set on this earth to please it. And I do seek to please it, I seek its favor above all else,” he broke off, “well, above almost all else. Perhaps that is why this happened, perhaps this is my punishment for daring to love a human more than my masquerade.”

I could feel the anger start to rise again, the heat of that strong emotion flooding my veins. I knew what he was insinuating, and it enraged me. I clamped my mouth shut against the first string of hateful words that threatened to burst out of me.

He kept talking in the silence.

“My pride tells me to remain aloof, to shut you out, to find the words that will hurt you the way you hurt me this morning Tan. My pride tells me that you are not worth the ache in my heart. It hurts. And my brain…my brain tells me to walk, no, to run away from you. I know you’ll hurt me. You already have, and if I give you my heart, you’ll rip it to pieces, you can’t help it. You’ll never return even a fraction of the love I have for you.” He blinked, the veins in his eyelids distended, poking out beneath the skin, showing the amount of strain he was under. He blinked some more, and tears fell. I watched the trail of moisture run down his cheek. “You flirt with others in front of me.” He said. “You make it clear that I can never have you to myself. And it’s too much, I cannot share you, I cannot live with you and watch you be intimate with others. I know I should walk away, but I can’t. I just can’t. So, instead I teach myself to endure it, I tell myself that it might be different when we’re married, but it won’t, will it? How could it, when you encourage my sister in law to flirt with your brother? You have no respect for marriage, it means nothing to you, and I cannot stand it, I cannot be in a marriage like that. I stormed off last night and I knew that I should end it then, that I should walk away, that my sanity could not take it any longer. But still I found myself at your door this morning, like a beggar, desperate for whatever scrap of affection you deem fit to gift me. And what do I get in return? You tell me that you don’t know me, that to you I could be a slaver, a kidnaper, a traitor to my own nation, the vilest sort of fiend? I have shown you everything, the truest parts of me, I have allowed myself to be completely vulnerable with you, and what do I get?” He laughed through his tears. “The masquerade must be truly entertained by my follies when it comes to you Tan. Perhaps the pain is worth it for the masquerade’s favor. Sadly, the thought does not console me as it would have before I met you.”

I hated him. As soon as he was done speaking, it was the first thought that crossed my mind, the first emotion I felt. Cold hatred. But it didn’t last, it came and went, leaving a hollow emptiness and a searing pain. His tears kept falling and it broke me. I hated to see him in pain.

“So that’s your story? You stormed out of the dinner yesterday because you were angry with me, and not because the guard from the gate was conveniently waiting outside the door?”

He exhaled, letting out a choked sound that sounded like self-mocking laughter, cut short. “Is that what you thought? You are far more scheming than me then. I watched you flirt with the noble in Lekki, flirt with your tumbler Mede, and then just before dinner you made it quite obvious that you intended to frequent a den of iniquity with your male tumbler. How was that supposed to make me feel? I was angry. And my sister in law, a married woman, was throwing herself at your brother. I let out my anger on her. And you supported her! I walked away from the table angry with you. The guard just happened to be standing at the door.”

“And did the money you paid that same guard at the Ikeja gates just happen to fall out of your pocket and into the guard’s hand?”

“No. I bribed him to deliver a message to a noble in Ikeja on my behalf.”

“What message?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

“Weren’t you the one who just said you showed me the truest parts of yourself?” I teased. “Or were you just playing another role in your boju-boju game?”

His hands clenched into fists on his thighs. The tears no longer fell. All I saw in his face now was a clenched jaw and a throbbing vein in his temple. “Are you really so cruel that you would tease me with those words? Was I completely mistaken in you?”

How was it that he was the one who lied and yet he somehow managed to make me feel guilty? That was about to change. “How about you tell me about your arrangement with Taiso? According to Taiso, you’ve tried to kill him a number of times. According to others, you only wear those glasses because Taiso made you. And, contrary to what you would have me believe, your fake glasses are not quite a secret are they Debisi?”

He stood up and paced. Then he stopped in front of me. “You believe Taiso over me?”

I shrugged. “Tell me why you are lobbying nobles to your cause? I saw you do it in Lekki Debisi, so don’t you dare lie to me!”

“When have I ever lied to you?” He yelled back at me.

I rose to my feet, forcing him backwards. I was so annoyed, I wouldn’t have cared if he fell back and drowned in the pond. “You admitted to lying to me just this morning! You admitted to lying about whether or not you wanted to be Ooni!”

“I told you that I don’t want to be Ooni! I never have! Until a few days ago I was doing everything in my power to support my brother’s claim to the throne. Taiso is suspicious, and skeptical. I’ve always known this about him, and I’ve always put up with it, because he’s my brother, but I know now, that he cannot be Ooni. Still, knowing this, I do not want him dead, I just cannot allow him to succeed our father.”

“So, there is no arrangement with Taiso?”

He shook his head. “No. I chose to don glasses of my own free will, and I have told no one but you that they are fake. I swear to it on the masquerade, whose favor I value far more than my own life.”

“But others know. There are rumors, Debisi, rumors about you. Rumors that the glasses are fake, rumors that you are a great fighter. Rumors that others claim you’ve spread.”

“And you believe them over me? I swear to you Tan, I do not fight in front of people. Since I decided to wear glasses, I’ve practiced by myself, in forests, when it’s dark, when I can be assured of my solitude, only then. You and your tumblers are the first ones I’ve shown my skills to in a very long time. You are the only one who knows about the glasses. The only one.”

“I’m telling you that others know.”

“They did not learn it from me!”

We were at a standoff. I stared into his eyes, trying to see past the anger at me that glared out from those orbs. How could the man at the bar know about Debisi’s glasses if Debisi didn’t tell his niece as he claimed? Could someone else have told his niece? Could someone else know about Debisi’s secret? But who had anything to gain from spreading it? Certainly not Taiso. Debisi’s fighting skill and fake glasses were things that made people root for Debisi over Taiso. Taiso would never be behind spreading that.

Debisi frowned, his anger momentarily forgotten. “Are there truly rumors?”

I nodded.

“It wasn’t me.”

NoChill:
Please how many Alakes of Ikeja do they have, cos it's seems like they are two, Debisi and the main Alake, the father of Kola.

Please clarify me

You're right, I made a mistake in the last update. Debisi is the Alake of Ibadan, that's his title, it was a mistake when I wrote Alake of Ikeja. There's only one Alake of Ikeja, that's Kola's father

This was honestly supposed to be half of the chapter, but I've been really busy I wasn't able to write the full thing this week. I have a really full schedule right now so I'm trying to squeeze in as much writing as I can, but it's been difficult. I'm really sorry about the length

“How do you play the game?”

He tilted his head towards me and smiled. I couldn’t help but note that he blushed a little as he spoke. Another act? “Boju-boju, oloro nbo, shey kin shi?” He sang. Close your eyes, close your eyes, a masquerade is coming, should I open my eyes? It was the first time I’d heard him sing, he had a beautiful voice. “The goal of the game is to disappear completely before your opponent opens their eyes, because once they open their eyes, you know that the masquerade has come. So, you aren’t just hiding from your opponent, you’re hiding from the masquerade. But the masquerade knows you so well that the only way to hide from it is to hide from yourself. You must become someone new. You become a servant and get lost in the toils of labor. You become an orphan and convince a stranger to take you in. You become a hawker and fade into the crush of the market. I would always find Lola. She could never find me.”

“So it’s all a game to you.”

His smile faded. “Life is a game, isn’t it? What are we if not toys the masquerades use to amuse themselves? The more skilled we are at playing, the more we impress them, and the more they favor us. I seek the masquerade’s favor, Tan. In all my life, I have only ever sought a few things more than I seek the favor of the Eyo masquerade.”

The cool breeze came as a surprise to me. We’d gotten outdoors.

“Can we speak in private?”

“What?”

“Your guard, can you order him to stay behind?”

I turned to find Eghe frowning. He clenched his spear in his hand and glared at the back of Debisi’s head. I flicked my fingers, giving the order for him to back away, but not to leave. “He won’t hear what we say.”

Debisi nodded. I noted that he didn’t turn around to see for himself how far away Eghe was. He crossed his hand behind his back. “I don’t act with you Tan. I’m good at it, boju-boju, the game of the masquerade, but I don’t play it with you. It’s why I love you, I don’t have to pretend when I’m with you.”

It’s why I love you. It seemed as if my heart stopped beating when he said it. It’s why I love you, so casually, as if he was stating a fact, a nugget of information that we’d shared and exchanged so often that it could be uttered in casual conversation. My mouth dried. I found my head turning back, looking for the familiar figure that usually trailed me. But she wasn’t here, I’d driven her away last night, I’d sent her running with tears in her eyes.

“You are a fraud, Debisi.”

He stopped walking.

“I wonder if you can even help it. Maybe you played your boju-boju so much you don’t even realize you’re a fake. Or maybe you’ve gotten the lies so mixed up you can’t tell what the truth is anymore.” I was surprised to hear how calm my voice sounded. I’d thought I’d be arguing when we had this conversation, screaming, demanding the truth. I hadn’t thought I’d sound or feel like this. I was calm, accepting.

“When have I ever been fake with you?”

I couldn’t even…I was at a loss for words. “When you told me you didn’t want the throne? When you told me you would always choose your brother over power.”

He looked sad. “I don’t want the throne, I told you that, I just can’t let Taiso take it. And I would always choose my brother over power, but I won’t choose my brother over my conscience, over what is right and what is wrong, over what is best for our people. You think I want power? That I would fight with my brother for power?” He shook his head. “That’s Taiso, not me. You can’t even begin to imagine what Taiso is capable of, Tan, the things he will do to secure his hold on power,” he cast a nervous look around before returning his gaze to me, “the things he’s done here, in Ikeja.”

“Things like what?”

He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Ikejans call it the reaping. They say Oro mami watas are stealing their children, but I know it’s not true. It’s Taiso, working with the Nuri. I know it, and that’s why I cannot let him become Ooni. Anybody who is able to sacrifice innocent children cannot be allowed to rule Bono. He is my brother, and I love him, but I cannot condone the things that he has done, and I cannot let him rule.”

I laughed. I watched Debisi’s features morph to shock and then apprehension, and all the while I laughed. It was ludicrous. First it was the Alake of Ikeja working with the Nuri, then it was Debisi working with the Nuri, and now it’s Taiso working with the Nuri.

“Tan?” He looked concerned. “You’re scaring me, Tan.”

“You know, from how I’ve heard it told, you’re the one behind the reaping.”

Debisi’s mouth hung open. He took a step back. Then he straightened and he became closed off. I couldn’t read any emotion, I couldn’t even look into his eyes and tell what he was feeling. “And you believed this?” he asked, carefully.

I didn’t know what to say. Did I believe that Debisi could be behind the reaping? I liked to think not, I hoped not, but I didn’t know who or what to believe anymore. Before all of this, I’d trusted Debisi implicitly, now, I just couldn’t.

“I see.” He took a step back, apparently taking my silence for an answer. “Revered,” the formal title stunned me. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, I saw the faintest traces of despair in them, he was letting me back in. “Tan,” he stepped forward, “did you believe it?”

“Maybe.” I sighed. “For a second. The truth is, when it comes to you, I don’t know what to believe anymore Bi.”

He changed, in front of my eyes, he became something else. If I had not seen the transformation for myself, I wouldn’t have believed so fully in the boju-boju game he mentioned. It was like I was staring at a different man, one who was cold and completely unapproachable. “If you believe that I am capable of something like that, then we have no business being together.” He was silent, staring at me with cold, emotionless, eyes, from a face that grew more distant with each second that passed. I couldn’t tell if he was waiting for a response from me, or of this was just another one of his many acts?

He cleared his throat. “There will be no betrothal, revered. I will keep my word, I will follow you to Nuri and I will scour that nation until Ayisha is returned to you, but after that, we are done.” He bowed to me and backed away.

I was wrong.

No, I shook my head. Maybe I was wrong about the reaping, and I hadn’t really thought he was capable of it, but he’d lied to me about the glasses. He’d lied about not telling anyone else that they were fake. He’d lied about why he started wearing them. He’d lied about Taiso not knowing they were fake. There was so much he’d lied about and he had the nerve to storm away from me! He had the nerve to break our betrothal! To act angry when he was the one who’d lied to me about everything!

I saw him walking into the stables and I stormed off after him. If he was going to act peeved, and behave like he was all innocent, then he damned well be able to prove his innocence. He rode out of the stables right as I got there.

“Saddle my horse!” I snapped the order at no one in particular. The nerve of Debisi! I was going to make him admit the truth of his lies. I was sure his anger was just one of many ploys. I was done with it. And I didn’t need him to come to Nuri with me. As if I needed his help to get Ayisha back.

A servant led a Bono horse to me. I jumped onto the saddle, not particularly paying attention to Eghe who raced to catch up with me. I followed behind Debisi, tearing through the streets of the ogiri, scattering people with my horse.

He rode out the gates of the ogiri and I remembered that he was the one responsible for keeping us locked out of Ikeja. And he’d had the guts to say he’d never acted with me. I should have knocked him to the ground when he’d said that. I should have hit the lies right out of his mouth. All he did was lie, but he was the one angry? How dare he storm off before I had my say!

“Revered, stop!” Eghe struggled to catch his breath beside me. “Where are you going?”

I dug my heel into the horse. “I’m going after Debisi!” I yelled back.

“But he’s riding into the Oro forest. Stop, please, revered, we don’t have enough guards with us. We can wait till he comes back out.”

“Stay out here if you’re scared of mami watas!” I snapped at him. I pulled at my reins and sent the horse flying. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this angry with someone.

21

The shaking that woke me the next morning was slight. I blinked, drowsily. It took me a while to get my bearings. The first thing I heard was the sound of Tiwo’s snoring, light, like a lullaby, tempting me back to sleep. I sat up, forcing my eyes open. Bending my head to the sides, I let my eyes roam around the room and wasn’t too surprised to see a human form standing beside me.

“Good morning, sweetness.” I usually dropped the endearments after we played, but I could see from the cautious look on Eghe’s face that he’d needed it this morning. He beamed at me.

“Good morning, revered.”

We both whispered, neither one of us wanted to deal with Tiwo’s morning grumpiness. It made his wit acerbic. I could tell from the glimpses of blue I saw through the seam between the halves of the curtains that it was still very early in the morning, hours before sunrise.

“What is it?” I asked. Eghe would not wake me this early unless something was wrong.

He held a lantern, one that bathed his face in a golden glow. That lantern exposed his features and told me that he did not like what he was about to say. That feeling brought me an instant pang of dread. Was there something wrong with Ayisha? Where was Mede? Why wasn’t she the one waking me? Had something happened to her?

“His royal highness, the Alake of Ikeja, requests your presence, revered. He says it is important.”

Debisi? Eghe frowned as he said the words, and the frown deepened on Debisi’s title. How had I not noticed this animosity before? I nodded and Eghe withdrew a few steps, but he stayed in the room, holding the lantern aloft to light my way.

I rose slowly, careful not to make any sudden moves that would jerk Tiwo awake. I couldn’t help smiling at the sight of him though, he was so peaceful in sleep, like a child. I stripped out of my tunic, changing quickly into a simple velvet dress that had been at the top of my case. Then I ran my hand through my braids, untangling my night bun, and letting the strands fall. When I was done with my preparations, I nodded briskly to Eghe and led him out of the room.

Debisi paced in the hallway outside the room. His hair was in complete disarray. His white shirt was rumpled and his khakis filled with creases. He turned around and froze when he saw me. I couldn’t help but notice he’d been polishing the lenses of his fake glasses. Now he smiled, and returned those glasses to his face. He rushed forward.

“Tan,” he greeted me, with a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. The longer I stared at him the more the blush deepened. I marveled at it, that blush, the innocence it proclaimed.

“Debisi.” I uttered his name without emotion. It had only been a few hours since we’d last spoken, but in that time, it felt as if the world had turned on its head. The man standing in front of me now was a stranger. I remembered the man I’d taken on strolls in the palace, the man I’d kissed, the man I’d stripped, but that man felt like a lie. Just a costume, like the glasses he wore, like the blushes he affected.

He frowned, those creamy brows of his bent. “Debisi? What happened to ‘Bi’?” He teased.

I almost laughed at that, a dry laughter, the kind that comes out of shock, when the unexpected reaches levels so bizarre that laughter becomes the only solace. “What indeed.” I wondered if even he could realize how apt that question was. What had happened to Bi, my sweet boy, the man I’d started to imagine a life with?

Debisi stepped forward. “What’s wrong Tan? Tell me, please.”

He looked so concerned. How could anyone so false appear so honest? He kept his features open so that I could see for myself how real his confusion and concern were. It was how he’d always done it when he’d lied, he lived the lie, became it, wore the lie so honestly on his face that it became the truth. He deserved an applause for his performance. I was almost tempted to give him one.

“What do you want Debisi? I had a long night.”

He grabbed my hands in his and squeezed them. I looked into his wide eyes, into the terror in them, the fear that made them water. He dropped to his knees in front of me. “I came to apologize for how I spoke to you last night, but I can see that something is wrong. What is it Tan? Tell me.” I was stunned speechless. “You have to tell me, please, talk to me. Please.”

I wrenched my hands out of his. What was wrong with him? A look of pain contorted his features once I pulled away from him. It was real, the pain, the fear, the emotions he showed me, no one could lie like that. Could they? I hated this, I hated that I now had cause to doubt myself. I knew how to read people, I knew when I was being lied to, so how had Debisi crawled beneath my defenses and fooled me? Even now, on his knees, I couldn’t help thinking about how much I liked him like that. And he knew it too, he’d known all about me before I’d even arrived.

“Get up.” My irritation came out with the curt command.

He did. Just like that, without hesitation, he rose. It was the same way that Eghe had risen in the flagellation suite the night before. Like a slave, with his head bowed, a supplicant beseeching my favor but too lowly to gaze upon my face.

“Stop it,” I snapped.

His head reared up. He stared at me without guile, as if he couldn’t even begin to imagine what annoyed me, and that was what annoyed me.

“Stop what?” Now he looked lost. His hand rose to adjust his glasses, his nervous tell.

I sighed. “Stop the act, Debisi, you’re not fooling me any longer, so you can stop with the blushing. Stop with the submissive gestures. It’s insulting.”

“Oh.” He lowered his eyes and reached for his glasses. I watched him take them off, watched him wipe the lenses with his white shirt. He peeked up at me, like a shy school boy, and then looked away when our eyes met. “Can I ask why?”

I frowned at him. “Why what?”

He shrugged and mumbled, “why my submission insults you?”

Ahh! I wanted to slap him. I wanted to hit all thoughts of deception out of his brain. Why did he have to sound like that? The mumbling, the hint of insecurity, the tremor of despair in his voice. “Because it’s fake.”

He stopped mid-wipe and rose his gaze to mine. “It’s not. Not with you. You make me feel different Tan, like I can be my real self, like I can know who I really am. I’ve never felt like I could be this with anybody else.” My eyes narrowed. He lowered his gaze. “I’m not lying. Why do you think I am?” His voice was soft, gentle.

“You want to be Ooni,” I said.

His jaw clenched. He shrugged.

“Debisi,” I warned.

“I don’t want Taiso to be Ooni.”

I sighed. He’d said it, he’d confessed. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. A clarity of purpose perhaps? Maybe I thought that if I got him to confess then I’d know what to do with him, how to treat him. But I knew deep down in my gut, that there was more to Debisi than the schemes he was held to blame for. I could not be this bad a judge of character. I just couldn’t.

“You lied to me,” my voice had gentled. I wasn’t even sure I knew why. There was just something about Debisi that brought out my protective instincts. He made me want to fight his battles for him, to shield him from the world, as if he was too precious to muddle in the filth the rest of us did.

“I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “That’s not good enough, Bi.”

His gaze rose to mine. “What made you suspect? Was it what Taiso said to you in Lekki?”

“Partly. Partly because I saw you working the nobles while we had that dinner in Lekki. And partly because I’ve watched you keep secrets and lie to me throughout this trip. Why?”

“Can we walk? I’ll feel better talking about it outside.”

I nodded.

Eghe trailed behind us. He’d taken up post close enough to see us, but not so close that he heard what we said. I could sense Debisi’s agitation as we walked. He buried his hands in his pockets, so deep in thought that the veins in his forehead stood out.

“Lola taught me how to act you know,” he said, conversationally. I didn’t respond, but he just chuckled and smiled. His love for his sister was unfeigned. I smiled a little at the dimpled joy it brought him. There was grief in his happiness, but there was still so much joy. “I had a knack for it. Do you play boju-boju in Isan?”

“No.”

“It’s the gift of the Eyo masquerade, it’s why the Bono are so good at scheming. The Isan have tumbling, we have pretend.”

@Elvictor I'm trying to panther it too

@doctorexcel lol, it's up to you, who seems most believable

@PenHub Thank you for reading!

@cassbeat

@Oremeyii Thank you!!! I'm sooo happy you're enjoying it

@dawno2008 hahaha, all gang up to tarnish debisi's reputation really. Debisi is something else, but I'll let you decide for yourself after this one

@eROCK247 I agree oh, I really like Tiwo and Tan siblingship

@Tuhndhay haha, so before it wasn't looking like a story I crafted? Well I'm happy it's looking more like me now, I'm enjoying trying a different style. Thank you for reading!

Taniaa:
Tag me next time

Don't know if there's going to be a next time with the marked series. But you can check out my latest story on NL:
https://www.nairaland.com/5989377/masquerades-nulin-nations-18

“Who are you loyal to, eunuch healer, tell me that, if you want me to believe you?”

“I am loyal to the Eze of Nuri, I do not deny it, I am as loyal to him now, as I was to your father when I served him.”

That was the only condemnation I needed to be assured of the guilt of the Nuri. They took in child molesters, raped slaves, but kidnapping children was beyond them? Even though several witnesses had put the Nuri behind the crimes.

“Where is Ayisha?” I asked him.

“The Oyo princess? The last I heard, she was on her way to her betrothed, the Eze of Nuri.”

“And the Eze of Nuri is where exactly?”

“Right now?” he asked.

I nodded.

“In Nuri, of course.”

“Not in Ikeja.”

“Of course not, the Alake of Ikeja would never let the Eze of Nuri into Ikeja.”

“But he’d let you.”

The eunuch healer said nothing, but his silence spoke volumes.

“If the Alake of Ikeja isn’t hiding anything, then why did he turn us away from the gates.”

He seemed genuinely puzzled. “Turn you away from the gates? No one in Ikeja even knows you’re here. Why do you think I was so surprised to see you in this den? I thought you’d chosen to stay in the ogiri. Whatever his relationship with your mother, the Alake of Ikeja would never turn you, or the Alaafin Taiso, away from his gates.”

I stood up. “Tell me, eunuch healer, how is it that you’ve come to know so much about Bono politics?”

“It is my honor to call myself an advisor to the Eze of Nuri, and in that capacity, I find it is in my favor to keep myself abreast of all the goings on in the Nulin nations.”

I smirked at him. “Well said. If you will excuse me, I think I’ve had quite enough of you for one night.”

I was at the door when the eunuch healer’s parting words reached me, “heed my advice, revered, nothing here is as it seems.”

I twisted my neck slightly so I could stare at him. Then I scoffed and walked away. I tried to discard all of the eunuch healer’s words as rubbish as I made my way to the exit, but there was too much that made sense. I knew in my gut that the Alake of Ikeja would never side with the Nuri. He loathed them. But, if he hated them so much, why let the eunuch healer in? It was obvious from his sphere of influence that the eunuch healer had been to Ikeja a great deal. Why? I suppose he was Isan, so technically not Nuri, but he served the Nuri and the Alake had to know that.

I kept running through the thoughts as we joined Eghe at the stables and mounted our horses. It was a short ride back to the inn, one made somewhat soothing by the even galloping of the horses, but my mind whirred and buzzed. If the Alake of Ikeja truly was as blind to the goings on in the ogiri then who was behind the reaping? Could it be the Nuri alone? On that score the eunuch healer was right, the Nuri could not orchestrate this mass exodus of children to the forest. They could kidnap them once they were there, but they couldn’t provide the amount of fear needed in the ogiri to keep parents sending their children to the forest. So, who was behind it? Could it be Taiso?

By the time I got to my floor on the inn, I was so distracted I walked right into Mede as she held the door open. She caught me with her hands on my waist.

It took me a while to realize that she was holding me. We were as close now as we’d been in the flagellation suite when she’d tried to kiss me, as close as we’d been when I’d held her throat in my neck and squeezed, as close as we’d been when she’d climaxed. We were so close that when I leaned slightly forward, our breasts grazed. Now my mind buzzed with one need and my body buzzed with another.

I couldn’t give my mind the closure it desired, there were too many pieces, too much information I didn’t have, but my body was a whole other story. My body’s need was simple. It was her. She’d turned me on with a single look before I even went to the den and now my entire body burned for her.

There were no aphrodisiacs now, nothing to cloud her mind. She scared me, wanting her scared me, because with Mede it would never be simple. I could not have what I had with Eghe, but I also couldn’t run away. We’d reached this point, we couldn’t pretend that things were the same.

I found my courage and smiled at her. “Will you spend the night with me?” My voice was so low I feared she wouldn’t hear me. But she did, she heard every word, and I could tell, as the smile flashed over her face, as her eyes closed, her head leaning forward, I could tell exactly what her answer would be.

“I’m sorry, revered…”

I forced myself to chuckle and somehow managed not to startle at how strange it sounded. “There’s no need to be sorry Mede,” I said it because I had to, because I was the Oba, because it was not easy to refuse me, and so I had to help her. Even if my heart felt like it was being ripped apart, all over again. This was why I’d fought so hard to bury the feelings, because it fucking hurt to love someone you couldn’t have.

She released me, pulled back and ran away. I’d seen tears in her eyes. Mede, so distraught, she didn’t even realize she’d turned her back on me. I blinked mine away.

“Can I do anything?” Eghe’s voice was low. I knew what he was offering, but I shook my head. “You didn’t come, revered, you made sure I did, but you didn’t.” It was unlike him to push. “Use me, anyway you want, just get your release too, please.”

I was in too much pain to think of that now. It was strange how a person could touch you and turn your entire body on, then leave you and send pain coursing through your veins.

“No, thank you for offering.” I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “You should get some sleep, have someone else stand guard tonight.”

His jaw clenched. “Is that an order, revered?”

“Yes.”

He bowed. “As you wish.”

I grabbed his hand before he could back away. “I love having you watch over me Eghe, but we had a heavy scene. I need you to rest. Come back when you wake up. I’m not going anywhere.”

He smiled, it was one of the sweet, full, smiles that made him look so young and vulnerable. “Yes, revered. Good night.”

As I walked into my room, I tried to hold on to the image of Eghe smiling, but all I could think about was Mede saying, ‘I’m sorry, revered.’

I’d just barely gotten into my sleeping tunic when Tiwo came slumbering in. He held two iron cups and a bottle of palm wine. I watched him saunter into the room and collapse onto my bed.

“I heard Mede rejected you again, let’s drink.”

I smiled at him. “Eghe told you?”

“Who else.” He filled the glasses. “This is Isan palm wine, so you know it’s good.”

I took my cup and emptied it. Then I held it out to him for more.

“Want to talk about it?”

I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have let the feelings out again. We had the talk, Mede and I, she made it clear before that she wasn’t interested in me like that.”

“You want my advice, talk again. She didn’t follow you to the den out of concern for your safety.”

“No, I can’t push it. Do you remember the seamstress from Uzebba?”

Tiwo laughed. “The one that danced at our father’s funeral. How could I forget? You were so angry Tan, I thought you would kill her. Everyone else was mourning but not her.”

“She said she was finally free. She’d been one of father’s favorite pleasure slaves. He’d loved her. Her slavery should have been her choice, and yes, she’d never said no, she’d said yes, begged for the slavery even, but only to please him. He was Oba.”

“You cannot blame father for it. He saw a woman he liked, and he courted her. She didn’t turn him down. How was he supposed to know?”

“I don’t blame him, I just can’t be him, not in that regard. He wore her down Tiwo, he chased her till everyone she knew told her she was a fool to keep turning him down. They told her it was her duty to serve the Oba. That can’t be me.”

“Father chased a woman he loved and got the happiness of being with her. He did not worry about why she said yes, he was just grateful that she did.”

I looked into the cup of wine and swirled.

“So,” he said, “you won’t believe the conversation I had with Neka this evening.”

I frowned at him.

“You looked like you needed a distraction.”

He was right, I did. “Go on.”

“So, it turns out, your princeling has been a very bad boy.”

“Debisi?”

“Neka thinks he’s trying to sow seeds of discord between the Alake and his brother. According to Neka, Debisi is the reason we aren’t in Ikeja right now. He got some powerful Ikeja noble to convince the guards to bar our entry seemingly on the Alake’s command. It’s what he was up to on our way over, communicating with his noble on the inside, setting up lines of communications with the guards.”

“Mamus, the Alake’s heir, the one he saved, that has to be his noble on the inside.”

“What?” Tiwo looked completely lost.

“Oh, do I have a story for you, brother.” I told him about the den, about the reaping. The bar, the Bono men, their hints at Debisi’s scheming, their allegation that the Alake of Ikeja was in cahoots with the Eze of Nuri, the eunuch healer, the little girl Ayomide, the eunuch healer’s return and all his hints and insinuations.

Tiwo whistled when I was done. Then he whistled again. “You don’t think Debisi could be behind that reaping, do you?”

I shook my head. “But he’s hiding something, and I am done waiting for him to come clean about it. First thing tomorrow morning I’m going to confront him.”

“You know what I’m thinking sis?”

“What?”

“You should just go back home and marry a nice, sweet, Isan boy. There are many who will beg for the privilege. Marry Eghe. The masquerades know he’ll kill for the chance to Bleep you.” I punched him on the shoulder. He fell back onto the bed. “Seriously Tan, I’m not sure this betrothal to Debisi is such a good idea.”

“You think he’s capable of being behind something as gruesome as the reaping?” I asked.

Tiwo shook his head. “No, but I think he might be capable of taking advantage of it, which might be worse.” He yawned. “A good Isan boy, that’s what you need. Leave all this Bono scheming behind. They can tear themselves apart if they want to. Let’s go back home and secure our borders.”

I couldn’t help laughing at that. “After we get Ayisha.”

“After we get Ayisha.”

I wrapped my arm around him and smiled when I felt him do the same. I still felt the ache of Mede’s rejection, but Tiwo’s presence made it easier to bear. I thanked the masquerades for him as his light snoring lulled me into a peaceful sleep.

She shrugged and snapped her fingers as if casting off a curse. “Especially not that one.”

I nodded, trying my best to keep my features stoic. “You do know that the natural born rulers of the Nulin nations are descended of the masquerades, don’t you?”

“Yes, revered, I know.”

“Then you can share their secrets with us, without fear of breaking your oath. We are one with them.”

I watched deep lines form on her forehead. She placed her right elbow on her lap and rested her head against her palm. She was seriously thinking about it.

“I think you might be right revered,” she said finally, “because it was on the same terms that I was sworn to secrecy.”

“You were sworn to secrecy by a ruler of a Nulin nation?”
Her eyes widened, and I could see her shock. She hadn’t meant to let that slip. But she shrugged and nodded. Then she frowned and shook her head. “Not yet a ruler, revered, an Alaafin.”

Taiso. I fought against the instant wave of mistrust that followed the name. Debisi was not blameless, I reminded myself, he was scheming for the throne just as much as Taiso did. “You can tell me, but only if it feels right, if it feels in accord with the masquerades.”

“It does, revered. You are special, it is why the Alaafin brought me here, because not even the Oro mami watas trample on grounds that belong to Isan.” The Bono dens were like embassies, home to Isan slaves, and as such, under my protection.

“But you said you did not believe that it was the Oro mami watas that chose not to take you?”

She shook her head. “Not unless Oro mami watas have the skin and aha of the Nuri.”

It all came together then. I felt stupid for not putting it together before. The Bono men had specifically linked the reaping to the Nuri. They’d talked about wailing mothers, about missing children, it was the abduction. But not of nobles, of commoners, on a scale that was extremely troubling. Why did the Bono not speak of the Nuri kidnapping these children? Why did they only talk of the rare cases of the nobles getting kidnapped? If Taiso swore this girl to secrecy then he knew and he was keeping it a secret. I wouldn’t put it past Taiso, but why? And why would the Alake of Ikeja allow a kidnapping on this scale, unless he was in league with the Nuri.

“So, the Nuri just let you go?”

Her gaze lowered to her hands. “Not exactly. I was with the Alake of Ikeja’s heir, that was why they let me go. They hadn’t realized who they’d taken until after they branded him.”

I frowned at that. The Alake of Ikeja’s son and only heir was Kola, and from what I remembered of Debisi’s tale, Kola had been taken almost a decade ago, that was far too long ago to be the case that Ayomide spoke of. “I did not know that the Alake of Ikeja had a son here.”

“A bastard,” she said, “but an albino bastard, much more valuable than the brown boy.”

“The brown boy?”

“The Alake of Ikeja’s legal son, before he was disowned.”

“Kola.”

She nodded. “Yes, revered. The Alake’s new heir is his albino bastard, Mamus. When he heard Mamus had been seen going into the Oro forest during a reaping, he sent soldiers after him. I was with Mamus. The Ikeja soldiers spoke with the Nuri men and they let us go.”

I found it hard to believe that the Alake would fight so hard to retrieve a bastard son that had already been branded, just because he was an albino. When the Nuri returned his legal son to him, he’d sent Kola away, disowned him because of the slave brand he bore. But he’d gone fighting for his albino bastard. I knew the Alake of Ikeja was an albino, but it baffled me that skin pigmentation could mean so much to him, more than his own child.

“Where does the Alaafin come into this?”

She smiled. The tension in her face eased, and I could tell that Taiso had become something of a hero to her. “He was so kind and gentle, the Alaafin. He was visiting Ikeja when it happened and he came across us, running along the forest boundaries, rushing back onto Ikeja soil before the Nuri changed their minds and came back for us. Mamus was crying. He’d heard how his father disowned Kola because of the slave brand, and he was scared that the same thing would happen to him. It didn’t make sense, his father had sent soldiers after him, he wouldn’t have done that if he planned to disown him, but Mamus was convinced the Alake only sent soldiers because he thought he hadn’t been branded. The Alaafin helped Mamus hide his brand with burning and tattoos, and he brought me here, to this den, the one place free from reapings. I swore for Mamus sake that I would not tell anyone what had happened.”

There was one thing that still troubled me about these reapings. “Do people truly believe that it is Oro mami watas responsible for taking their children?”

“Only those that prefer to. Everybody else knows the truth.”

“And what is that?”

“That it is the Alake of Ikeja working with the Nuri,” she said, with as much certainty as the Bono men at the bar, who’d first brought it up.

I was still pondering on her words when a soft chime sounded.

“That is the prompt for the last showing of the dance of the Ekpo masquerade. Have you seen it revered?”

I shook my head.

“They will need my help preparing,” she said. She’d already stood, she was already walking towards the door, but she stopped in front of it and waited.

I knew she was waiting for my permission to leave, and I was just about to give it to her when Mede spoke. Her voice was the same as it had always been. Soft and direct, but it sounded different to me, now, it seemed a bit huskier, made more alluring because of the new ways I’d now heard that voice used.

“Which Alaafin was it that brought you here?” She asked.

For some reason the question made my heart stop beating and then start pounding.

“Alaafin Debisi,” Ayomide replied.

My throat felt dry all of a sudden, like I hadn’t had a drink in ages. I had not expected to hear Debisi’s name connected in anyway to this tale of kidnapping and child slavery. It was as if my brain was now filled with so many ideas, like yarn, tangled up together. The men at the bar had said the reaping only happened when Nuri visitors came to Ikeja, and that this time the Eze of Nuri himself was in Ikeja. He’d insinuated that was why we’d been turned away from the gates and I’d wondered if Ayisha was at this moment sleeping in fear behind the large Ikeja walls.

“They say that the Alake of Ikeja and the Alaafin, Taiso that is, are as thick as thieves. That is why the Ooni does nothing while the reaping in Ikeja continues. They say that Taiso protects the Alake of Ikeja, and that as the Alake of Ikeja is in league with the Nuri, so must Taiso be too. You’ve met the Alaafin, what do you think?”

I’d been thinking for so long that I hadn’t noticed Ayomide had left. Now, the eunuch healer stood by the open door, smirking at the tumblers that barred his entrance. He was the one who’d spoken.

“Surely you have nothing to fear from me, revered.” He made a mocking bow when he called my honorific, but my thoughts were too heavy to dwell on it. I flicked my fingers distractedly and my tumblers let him in.

“What do you want?” I eyed him.

“Wasn’t it obvious? I wanted to hear what wonderful secrets that lovely little gem had to tell. I had an inkling she’d spill it all to you.”

I frowned at that. “Explain yourself.”

“Surely you don’t think I’m foolish enough to think you’d let me wander around this establishment alone. I knew you’d set one of your tumblers to follow me and so I showed him what I wanted you to see. It took me a great deal of gold to even learn Ayomide’s name, so you can imagine my frustration when she kept refusing to answer my questions. I saw your presence here as the perfect opportunity to hear the pretty lies she’d been taught to say.”

‘Pretty lies she’d been taught to say’? “Interesting phrasing,” I said, ignoring his earlier remarks. “Would I be correct in assuming you eavesdropped on our conversation?”

“Of course,” he confessed without guile, “I paid the den master double her weight in gold for the privilege. Now the den master, there’s an honest woman. I offered your little actress double that and she still wouldn’t speak. That is how I know she was waiting specifically to speak with you.”

“Or maybe she takes her oath to the masquerade seriously.”

He burst out laughing. “She takes it so seriously she broke that oath to tell the secret to you? Because you are descended of the masquerade? Even if she believed that, you are descended of the wrong masquerade. It was the Eyo masquerade she swore her secrecy to, not Egbabonelimwin.” He shook his head. “No, someone paid her a lot more to selectively keep her mouth shut.”

“She’s just fourteen, no one that young and innocent could be that good an actress.”

“Fourteen? Is that how old she claims to be?” he shrugged. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all a lie. She did escape the reaping with Mamus, but the details of her escape are not quite as she presented them. Don’t deceive yourself, revered, there are no innocents in the ogiri of Ikeja, just hustlers and schemers.”

I looked at his face, at the arrogant expression, the smirk on his lips. “I suppose you’re going to tell me what actually happened?” I wondered if he thought there was any way that I would take his word over that of an innocent child. I’d watched her, seen her reactions, caught all the emotions that came out of her. She was not lying. So why did the eunuch healer want me to believe that she was? What game was he playing?

“It was not the Alake of Ikeja’s soldiers that saved Mamus and Ayomide. The Alake of Ikeja doesn’t even know about the reaping. I mean, he’s heard the rumors of children getting lost in the Oro forest, the Oro mami watas and all of that nonsense, but he believes as much as any rational person would. He thinks it’s all superstition, people sacrificing their children to mami watas. Their silly little people to him, and the Alake of Ikeja is too grand a man to concern himself with silly superstitions. It’s quite an ingenious way to bring him down, really, if you think about it. The people hold him responsible for the real kidnappings happening, and he thinks it’s all a scary tale told to make little children stay away from the Oro forest. He does nothing. Of course nothing happens behind those large marbled walls, only the commoners in the ogiri of Ikeja live with the horror. And what happens when a mistake is made and the Alake’s heir is kidnapped? He’s miraculously saved, one of the only two children ever to return from the reaping. Don’t you see what’s happening?”

“I’m sure you’re about to tell me,” I drawled.

“He’s being framed! The ogiri of Ikeja is close to a boiling point, and the Alake is playing general behind the marbled walls, preparing for war with the Nuri, not knowing that he has much more trouble brewing closer to home. One or two more reapings and the people will revolt. They’ll kill the Alake, they have no love for him, and who do you think stands to gain from all of this chaos?”

I kept quiet and watched the man talk.

“The person behind the reapings. The person who saved Mamus and Ayomide, ensuring that the Alake keeps thinking that the reaping is all just fiction. Oh, and it never hurts to have the heir to the Alake of Ikeja eternally in your debt. If you were the Alake’s heir how much gratitude will you owe the Alaafin that saved you from slavery?”

As soon as he said the final sentence, I understood what he was hinting at and burst out laughing. I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes. All of that work, the eunuch healer’s prancing about the room, weaving and waxing, telling me great tales, all to end at that.

“Do you really expect me to believe that Debisi is behind the reapings in Ikeja?”

The eunuch healer crossed over and sat on the small table opposite me. He steepled his hands together. “Please, revered, think about it. He is the only one with anything to gain from this. Taiso is tied to the Alake of Ikeja. All the other Bono nobles follow him out of fear, or greed, but the Alake of Ikeja is the only one truly in his corner. If the Alake of Ikeja goes down, Taiso loses his biggest supporter amongst the nobles and all the nobles that the Alake keeps loyal to Taiso, will turn to Debisi, like this,” he snapped his finger. “Taiso would never risk the Alake of Ikeja losing his power.” From what I’d heard, the Alake of Ikeja had something he was holding over Taiso. That was more than enough motive for Taiso to want the Alake gone, but the eunuch healer did have a point, the Alake of Ikeja seemed to be the only one supporting Taiso of his own free will. Still, Taiso did not seem like the type to endure someone holding power over him the way the Alake did. But I found it hard to believe any Bono could be behind these reapings. It stunk of the Nuri.

“I suppose you’re going to tell me that the Nuri have nothing to do with this.”

“You wouldn’t believe me,” I couldn’t help but note that he didn’t deny it, “but think about it revered. What would make the Alake of Ikeja side with the Nuri? There is no person in Bono that hates the Nuri more. It makes no sense. And the Nuri by themselves could not get into the ogiri of Ikeja and convince parents to give up their children. The Nuri do not have that kind of power in Ikeja. It is a Bono behind this.”

I stared into his eyes and tried to read it. He seemed so open, desperate even for me to believe him. But surely he had to know that there was no way I would believe him? I knew Debisi. Perhaps he wasn’t a saint, perhaps he was scheming for the throne, but this, this kidnapping and selling of children, it was a horror beyond Debisi.

20

“Why did you disobey my order and come into the suite?”

Mede gulped. Her bottom lip quivered so slightly, I ached to run my finger lightly over it. She wasn’t staring me boldly in the eyes now, but I could still remember when she had. The look of her, high on the fumes, teasing herself to a climax. The daring when she’d leaned forward, her lips so close, her yearning so palpable I could almost taste it. I had to force the images out of my head. I thought of Eghe instead, of the scene he’d earned, the one that she’d interrupted, the disappointment he’d felt when I could not finish. It was my failure, but she had a part to play in it, and I let those feelings simmer. I tried to use my anger at her to force my body under control. I told myself that I had to, I had to be able to look at Mede and not see her as she’d been in that flagellation suite, with her nipples erect, begging for my touch.

My eyes trailed down, crawling over her body, desperate to seek those points out, even as my mind fought for control.

“Revered.”

It was the way she said it, the huskiness in her voice that told of carnal knowledge which could not be unlearned. She said the word and I remembered the heat of her flesh against my palm. The firmness underneath the smooth surface of her skin. The orgasm when I choked her. ‘Revered’ it was all she said, just that word, as if it should be enough to explain why she’d disobeyed me! I wanted to look into her eyes, to impose my will on her, to force her to submission. But for the first time in my life, I was scared of what would happen if I succeeded.

I turned my back on her instead, cursing myself for a coward.

I told myself that she’d been under the influence of the aphrodisiacs when she’d entered the room, when she’d teased me, when she’d come, and I knew. The logical part of my brain knew that if she’d wanted me, she would have had me, a long time ago, but I couldn’t get the image of her climax out of my head. The feelings I’d struggled so hard to bottle up all came bubbling out and it left me shaken.

I wondered if we could ever go back to the way it had been before.

“Revered.”

A tumbler came into view and Mede’s face, flashed in my mind, as it had been in that moment, with her mouth hanging open, her pupils dilated. My heart thumped wildly.

But it wasn’t Mede. I knew it wasn’t Mede, Mede was behind me, I’d turned my back on her.

It was Osas. He walked over to me and bowed, whispering into my ear, “I found out why he was here, revered.”

I stared at Osas in a daze. For the life of me, I couldn’t even begin to fathom what he was talking about. “What?”

“The eunuch healer, revered, you asked me to follow him. He made circuitous rounds, but eventually, he got down to his goal.”

The eunuch healer?

It came back to me slowly, too slowly. Could lust really do this to my head, make me forget everything that I’d been preoccupied with before? Even Ayisha. I’d forgotten about Ayisha. I cursed myself and Mede and a few mami watas that were said to be responsible for toying with love. Once the floodgates opened, the worries poured back in, the eunuch healer’s strange presence here in Ikeja, just one amongst many.

“And what was his goal?”

“A young girl, looked to me to be about fourteen.”

I froze in my tracks, my tongue suddenly heavy in my mouth. I’d had him castrated, marked his forehead, just for this reason. “He molested her?” I asked, when my mouth was finally light enough to move.

“No,” Osas shook his head, “nothing like that. He just asked her questions.”

The knot in my chest eased. I did not know what I would have done if the eunuch healer had hurt another child right under my nose. I’d probably have done what I should have a long time again and ended his sorry existence.

“What type of questions?”

Osas frowned. “Forgive me revered, I could not move too close without being noticed, so I only picked up pieces, a word was repeated. Reaping.”

It sounded familiar. “The same reaping the Bono men had spoken off?”

“It sounded like it.”

I sighed. “Take me to the girl.”

“As you wish, revered.” He walked by my side and led me through the maze of darkened hallways, past rooms belching the familiar thuds of whippings, through a heavy darkness punctuated by the euphoric cries of a woman coming apart. In the darkness it was easy to imagine that there was a face that came with that sound, it came easily to me now, like it was tattooed on the inside of my eyelids where I could see it every time I blinked. Mede.

It was a relief to walk out of the darkness, into the blinding light of the showroom. I heard voices that were not heavy with longing, and felt myself start to relax.

We found the girl peeking into a wax room with all the furtive stealth of a deplorable spy. She gaped at it. I’d been around places like this long enough to have an idea what was going on behind the curtain she held slightly bunched in her little fist. We were a few steps away when she noticed us. She gazed at us with all the wide-eyed fear of a thief caught in the act, and I could read quite plainly how desperately she wanted to run away.

She didn’t though. She released her hold on the curtain and dropped to her knees in front of me. “How may I serve you, madam?”

“Are you a slave?” I asked. It was a purposefully dumb question, and I was happy to see that she clearly thought so, from the look she gave me.

“No, madam, I am not old enough.”

“Then why do you kneel?”

She stood up. She kept her head bowed in front of me, but I could see how much of a struggle it was. The longer I let the silence draw out, the more nervous she became. She started fidgeting, pulling at the ends of the pretty gown she wore, and raising her head slightly to snatch quick glimpses of me.

What inquiries could the eunuch healer have come to this girl for?

“What is your name, angel?”

She giggled at the endearment. “Cherry.” Cherry? I snorted at that. I cradled her chin loosely in my hand and tipped her head up till she was forced to look me in the eye. Then I simply waited. She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I wasn’t lying,” she said, squaring her shoulders, “it will be my name, after my first shearing.”

After her first shearing, which meant she wished to be an Isan slave. “And what is your name now?”

“Ayomide.”

Bono. She wasn’t albino, her coloring was a bit like the den master’s, it could easily fall on the darker spectrum of Nuri or the lighter side of Isan.

“May I please speak with you in private, Ayomide?”

Her eyes widened. She pressed her palm flat against her chest and asked, “me?” drawing it out in awe.

“Yes, please.”

“Me?” she asked again.

Osas made an impatient sound and I shut him down with a glare before he did anything to frighten the girl. She didn’t seem to notice, her wide eyes were fixed solely on me. It took her a while, but she slowly nodded. She slipped her hand into mine and pulled me along with her, to a small room with a large couch and a small wooden table.

I sat first, which I immediately regretted, because it meant I got to see Mede’s face. She looked how I felt when I’d turned my back on her. Mostly scared and uncertain, but when our eyes met, I felt the undercurrents of her anger, saw the blame she apportioned to me, and sensed the stirring of a longing so deep I immediately snapped my gaze away, and then hungrily turned back in search of. It was too late, she was already turned away from me, peering intensely into the ground as if it held answers to questions I was too scared to ask.

I turned my attention to the little girl. She stared at me with an admiration that felt wholly undeserved, especially in that moment, after what had transpired with Mede.

“So, you want to be an Isan slave?” it was not the question I had come to ask, but it was safe, an easy way to ease my thoughts away from Mede.

She nodded, her head bobbing with an eagerness that seemed almost too much for her slight frame.

“Why?”

She shrugged as if to say ‘why not?’.

“Have you ever lived anywhere outside this den? Have you considered that there might be other ways to live than what you’ve seen here?”

She frowned. I could tell from the way her lips pursed that she meant to get belligerent. So, I chuckled and spoke before she could.

“No oracle of Egbabonelimwin will deem you fit for slavery if you have not lived free and, in freedom, felt the prompting of the calling to serve.”

She crossed her hands over her chest and glared at me.

“It is the truth, little fighter, I would not lie to you.”

I watched the anger fade away, but I was surprised to see the fear that followed. “It is safe here, madam, this den is the only place in ogiri that is free. I want to live here forever.”

“Free from the reaping?” I asked.

She nodded.

“What is the reaping?” I tried to keep my voice gentle, determined not to betray the extent of my curiosity.

“Do they not have reapings in Isan?” she whispered, there was a note of wonder in her eyes when I shook my head. “Then the masquerade watches over you.”

She didn’t seem inclined to say more, but I could sense her nervousness. It made me all the more eager to know. What could make a child so scared?

“Tell me,” I said, “maybe I can help.”

She accepted my offer for help with childlike optimism. “During the reaping every family that lives in the ogiri of Ikeja must send a child into the Oro forest, to appease the Oro mami watas.”

I was stunned speechless. It took me a while to gather my wits enough to speak. “Surely some resist?”

She leaned closer to me. “A woman with five children resisted once. She left her house the morning of the reaping and when she came back, all of her children were dead. Some say the Oro mami watas left her alive so that she could make more children to gift them.”

“You mean parents actually send their children away?”

She nodded. “Sometimes, a few return, sometimes.”

I glimpsed the faraway look that crossed over her features and instantly saw the truth she hid. “And have you ever met one? One who returned?”

Her eyes flashed in alarm, and then she tried terribly to school her features, but her hands were shaking. I took her hands in mine and held them, and for a few moments she let me, then she pulled them away and jumped to her feet.

“I must return to my duties madam,” she bobbed a curtsy at me and made to walk away.

“You are one of the ones who’ve returned.” I said.

She stopped walking, then she ran to the door. Osas stopped her. He picked her up and held her away when she started screaming and clawing at his eyes. He shook her, but her fighting only got wilder. She screamed so loud I wasn’t shocked when the den master came bustling into the room.

“What is…” she took one look at me and trailed off. “Forgive me, revered, I did not mean to interrupt.” She bowed deeply and backed away from the room, closing the door behind her.

The den master’s retreat bothered me. In this instance it worked in my favor, and I understood why she did it, I was after all the Oba of Isan. While she lived and worked in Bono, all the slaves that worked in the den were my subjects, with sworn allegiances to me. Still, how could she leave so quickly without finding out why Ayomide was fighting so hard to be free? What if we’d hurt the little girl? But what could she really do if we did? I was Oba, she had no power against me. It was a humbling thought.

At least one good thing came out of the den master’s entrance, Ayomide had stopped screaming. She gaped at me now, the same way the Bono men at the bar had once my identity was revealed.

“Put her down,” I ordered.

She continued gawking at me, even as Osas lowered her to her feet.

“Will you please come and sit down? I won’t hurt you, I promise.” I patted the empty space beside me and smiled when she cautiously approached.

“You are the Oba of Isan?”

I nodded.

“But you’re so young!”

“Shh, don’t tell anyone, they think I’m older,” I winked at her, swearing her to secrecy, and smiled when she giggled.

It was hard but I forced myself not to push. I didn’t want to put pressure on her by staring, and I couldn’t look at Mede, so I kept my gaze straight ahead on the wall, not moving my head, not even by the slightest bit, until I heard Ayomide’s soft voice say, “yes, I returned, but it wasn’t because the Oro mami watas chose not to take me.”

“Then how did you return?”

“I promised to never tell.”

“You haven’t told anyone?”

She shook her head. “I swore to the Eyo masquerade, not to tell.”

“Not even the eunuch healer?”

“The who?”

I remembered he was known by a different name here. “The Eze of Nuri’s witch doctor.”

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DarkPheonix:
Dear Obehid
I've already checked it out, but I have not read it. I am reading for an exam now.

Good luck on your exam!