***
The King sat on the high chair they had brought for him, resting his head on his palms as he tapped his feet in rhythmic succession. His Council of Elders flanked his side, three to the right with another three to the left. Those who didn't "escort" the King's guards to fetch the female, either looked at the King or gossiped amongst themselves.
Their long awaiting was in due ti when they heard the violent roars of those who marched along with the guards. The people who stayed by, craned their necks to look at the female who had done such atrocious acts. So smiled at her miserable state, while others didn't feel pity for her nor happy at her situation.
The female had a swollen eye from all the beatings and manhandling she had received from them. She couldn't walk properly, so they had to drag her along, her bare feet collecting more clouds of dust on its surface. The King sat where he was as the guards threw her at him, with the battered girl sprawled at his feet, literally. She didn't have the strength to look up at the King. Heck! She could even lift herself with her feeble muscles. Ever since her stay in the cell, they hadn't given her a lot of food to eat...
Her treatnt in the cell was more bearable than those who had committed cris more heinous than hers, or was it not?
So the question that she asked herself always was: ‘Why are they making a big deal out of it?’ It was a simple question, one which needed a concise answer. But no, all she got was this harsh treatnt. It felt as though she was being conspired against, but she couldn't do anything about it.
Thinking about this, it was then she realized that the woman who seed like her savior but wasn't, was her Ma's friend. Maybe the woman had helped her Ma to be in her good books. She pitied herself, her life...
No, it wasn't pity!
It was hatred. A deep anger that she bore in her heart, led to the sprouting of the seed called hatred. She despised them — all of them — even those who didn't feel pity or anger towards her actions, she hated them.
Maybe they could have helped her, spoken on her behalf, pleaded for her. If they had put in so good words for her, maybe just maybe, she wouldn't have been in this situation.
But no! They watched her, they doubted her, even though they knew that a single word could change her disposition.
‘They must burn, they must suffer all that she had gone through in a hundred folds. I will be their destruction. They will regret; I will make them feel despair’
The King stood up from his seating, and as he saw her struggling to stand up, he stepped on her making her lie flat on the podium. She groaned in pain, and her body ached at his actions, and she spat out a string of blood from her mouth. The King, still stepping a foot on her lower back looked at the awaiting crowd before him.
He said; “Behold, the rebel!!” The crowd, ostentatiously motivated by what he said, cheered loudly. The King kicked her so that instead of her facing his throne-like seating, she was now facing the crowd with his feet still on her back. He squatted and raised her head by her hair so that her face was visible to the mob. She gritted her teeth at the pain she felt reverberating through her skull and squinted her eyes at the figures that blurred before her sight.
“We all know that this female had done. She said that our practices are barbaric, archaic!” The crowd murmured in dissatisfaction. “Where would you go to then if you had run away, hmm?” The Igwe said pulling her by her hair further, the pain increasing with each tug. She tried to focus not on the pain, as her eyes scouted the blurred figures, trying to find one person in particular.
“Now, my people...” He paused and everyone was silent, waiting for him to continue; “I ask you all once again. Shall we forgive her of our 'barbaric practices'? Or should she leave as she had wanted to?” The silence continued to reign over the atmosphere.
“Banish her!!” A voice bood out, and others followed his decision ;
“Kill her!” ;
They shouted, and her ears painfully rang with their words in her head.
BOOM!! RUMBLE...!!!
Thunder, struck hard after its lightning flashed through the clouds. The sky darkened further and it almost looked like night ti. The people muttered at this happening, but their attention was later drawn by the King's voice.
“Look at it!” He said, pointing towards the dark sky, “The gods are angry at us. If we do not dispose of this...” He looked down at the pitiful state of the girl and sneered; “...vile creature here, we will all be dood!!” He lauded, and the people went awry from the tone he was using. The King looked at the guards and nodded his head, a ssage indiscernably passed amongst themselves.
They moved towards the girl, hoisted her up, and began to drag her to the boundaries of the Kingdom, with the King and his Council of Elders — along with the people — following behind them.
FLASH!!
A bolt of lightning glazed before their sights as the rain began to fall on them. With nothing to shield themselves from the rain, they walked under it, determined to see the girl's punishnt through. It rained harder with each step they took and their sights blurred as they could hardly see anything in front of them, but they endured.
Getting to the edge of the Kingdom, in which beyond it was the wilderness, they stopped. The girl, even though she couldn't see anything began to thrash around still within the guards' hostage. They heard a faint voice speak, and those who didn't listen well ca forward to hear what the girl was saying.
“P-please let go... I beg of you,” she whispered shakily but sohow they all heard it loud and clear.
The King said, “We are about to let you go, girl,” then he looked at the males holding the girl by her arms with a look that scread impatience. They moved closer, just an inch beyond the boundary when she started screaming.
“No...no!! Don't do this”. She struggled in their arms, but alas, they didn't heed her pleas. Amid her struggle, she caught sight of the person she was looking for in the crowd. She called out the person's na, but the person shied her face from the female. The female paused, as the realization of what was happening caught up to her.
“You will pay!!! You will all pay, I'll make sure you suffer”. She shrieked, her gaze interchanging pointedly between the King and her — forr — friend whilst talking. He shriveled lightly under her piercing gaze and was grateful that no one witnessed what had happened.
Regaining his composure, the King spoke; “Throw her away,” as if she was so dirt in his sight, and she probably was. If his Queen were to be here, she would have taken pity on the girl; perhaps she would bring the female in as her handmaiden.
But she wasn't there... He wouldn't let her — he can't let her perspective of him change to see him as that of a monster if she see this. That's why she was in the hut, being attended to by her maidens.
The boundary, which was protected from the beyond by a powerful charm made by the Onuowu, served its purpose of keeping the Kingdom safe. Those who enter from the barrier into the Kingdom, can't leave without the King's permission. You could call it a defense chanism against other Kingdoms, but the downside of it was that if the King died without bearing a successor, the barrier would fall.
With the King's permission, they cast her away from the Kingdom. As they did this, so minutes later — with them still standing at the spot — the sky rumbled violently, lightning lashed anywhere and everywhere, and the rain's downpour beca heavier until it suddenly stopped. The clouds cleared, the rumbling of thunders and flashing of lightning all paused as though it was sothing that ca out of a fairytale.
The people, even the King and his Councils, looked amongst themselves in wonder and amazent.
They should be amazed, and afraid even as the sudden thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are not supposed to happen in this season. It was the first ti that this had happened in the Kingdom's history. The first ti when rain fell in the driest season of Harmattan, when banishing the "witch" or as they would call it, "Amunsu". Now this event would be written down in the records as sothing worth rembering.
“Cha Cha Cha kwenu!” The Igwe voiced out.
“Hei,” The people chanted at what he said.
He lauded another; “Kwenu!” and was responded with “Hei!”
“Kwezuonu ohhhh!!!”
“Heiiiiiiiiiiii!!!” ;
“Praise the gods!!” A shout of reverence ca from the King and others shouted also.
“Praise the gods! Long live the King!!!” Their cheers echoed and then faded away into nothingness.
Now she was banished, all alone in the cold, harsh season of harmattan, and anyone who would co across her would call her an "exiled", a "beyonder".
While others would call her a ‘wanderer‘ thus so.
And indeed, the gods be with her.
******_******
... That was harsh! I don't know what I was feeling while I was writing this chapter. Maybe I was feeling neutral, like those people in this scene too. It's confusing srsly.
I didn't have the strength to write this, but by 1 am I just got a spurt of motivation, and I took it. 'Coz if I didn't write it then, I wouldn't write it until next ti I have motivation. Although I honestly didn't expect the chapter to be this long. My fingers hurt, a lot.
But still, thank y'all for being with up till now. I'll try not to disappoint you all... Keyword: try. I'm pretty good at disappointing sotis.😅
★Onuowu: dibia.
★Amunsu: witch.
★Cha cha cha kwenu!: A hailing chant usually said before talking to a king or addressing the Kingdom.
★Hei!: In this context, it is the response to the chant (of glorification) above, •(it is different from the one used in the other chapter.)•
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