Chapter 7 The Royal Palace, Royal Island, Kingdom of Oru
The Royal Palace, Royal Island, Kingdom of Oru
L’?R?
L’?r? ran between the palace walls just like Alawani had shown her when they were younger and passed through a hidden door into a large, gilded room.
And there he was. Robed in white and knelt before the fireplace, his hand aglow with agbára, touching and whispering into the flames that held the essence of the gods.
His voice was a soft echo that filled the room.
He turned and looked at her with his eyes the colour of flame.
Her heart sank, and her vision blurred as hot tears stung her eyes. He had accepted the call.
‘What in the godsforsaken names are you doing?’ she screamed at him.
She ran towards him and knelt next to the fire he prayed to. ‘Get up.’
He ignored her.
She shoved him. ‘The things you’d have to do, Alawani. With the Order, you either survive their trials or you succumb to death. There’s no way out,’ her voice trembled. ‘To fail is to die.’ She hugged him. ‘Please don’t go. Just say no. Just say no, please.’
She held his face with both palms as tears rolled down her cheeks. His watery eyes looked everywhere but hers, though prayers stopped spilling from his lips. His head fell. She moved in closer and lifted his face again, forcing him to look at her. ‘Stay.’
‘My father –’ he started to say.
It had been many first suns since the late king died and Lord Regent Babátúndé took over control of the kingdom. And while the kingdom mourned the loss of their king for many blood moons, Alawani remained beholden to his father’s legacy – and in the shadow of the king’s last words.
‘You don’t have to do what he would have wanted,’ she said. ‘He’s got no control over you. You’re his son, not his heir. He can’t give orders from the grave! He can’t command you to join the Holy Order. They are murderers and you are not. You are not an àlùfáà!’
She followed Alawani’s gaze to the portraits of the king and the Lord Regent hanging next to each other on the wall.
Their dark eyes looked right into her soul.
She saw the unmistakable resemblance between the king and Alawani.
The law was the law, and the law demanded that the spawn of a king must never inherit the throne or be called àlùfáà.
Their system depended on it; the king or queen was always gods-chosen.
No one, no matter how powerful, could choose when a child was born or in what order the High Priest’s children would be born, so they entered this world as the gods willed, selected neither by man nor blood.
In that way, the gods had already chosen their firstborn and heir long before they arrived at birth.
Alawani was a prince in name alone, just like every prince or princess before him.
He didn’t rule or govern. He had the freedom he needed to live his life as he pleased, without duty, pain or sacrifice.
But on his deathbed, Alawani’s father had decided otherwise for reasons L’?r? could not quite understand, and from her last conversation with him, neither did Alawani.
‘I have to honour my father’s dying wish,’ Alawani replied quietly.
She peeled her bandage and raised her hand to his face. ‘Does this mean nothing to you?’ She turned to show the tattoo on her back. ‘And this? Does our oath mean nothing?’
Alawani looked up at the sand portraits.
‘The Holy Order has announced my name. I guess they used that loophole, after all. The Regent’s council agreed to support them because, as I told you, no one from this trial will ever be High Priest or Lord Regent, so there’s no chance of me getting anywhere near the throne.
So, technically, they aren’t breaking the law.
Even the people agree. They have placed the sinking sand at my doorstep. It’s already begun.’
She stared at him as he spoke. Looking into his eyes, she saw the truth. He’d accept this calling, and he would die for it. ‘You swore an oath to me! A blood oath!’
Before Alawani could speak, a temple maiden burst through the doors with guards on her heels.
She stormed in wearing a blood-red dress that plunged deep and swayed with the breeze that followed her into the room.
Her figure reminded L’?r? of Baba-ìtàn’s hourglass.
Her smouldering dark eyes pierced through L’?r? as her black braids swung in thick waves behind her.
The maiden’s every step rang with the sound of her numerous pieces of jewellery clanging together, from the drooping rings on her ears to the anklets that graced her legs.
She moved with purpose towards Alawani as though he was the only one in the room and pulled him to his feet.
‘The Order is waiting for you.’ She cupped his face in her hand. ‘Your journey to the sun begins now.’
Her voice was soft but stern, and L’?r? couldn’t help but notice how her hand lingered in his.
She immediately knew who this temple maiden was and what she’d be to Alawani.
The image left a sour taste in her mouth as she imagined the man she thought would always be in her life, binding himself to another in an oath much like the one he’d made with her.
Maidens and their priests – everyone knew what happened between maidens and their priests.
The bond that surpassed even marriage. She’d often wondered if her parents had that bond, if she’d been born out of love or duty to the Order. L’?r? cringed at the thought.
The maiden must have noticed L’?r?’s red eyes and dripping nose because she said to Alawani, ‘It’s a privilege to be chosen to journey to the sun and an even greater honour to return to the world of men to guide us. Your glory days are ahead of you.’
‘If he survives,’ L’?r? seethed.
An irritated look crossed the maiden’s face, like L’?r?’s voice was a fly buzzing in her ear.
‘And who are you?’
L’?r? stepped to her, ‘I’m his family.’
The temple maiden gripped Alawani’s hand tighter. ‘The Prince àlùfáà has a new family. Where he is going, his past cannot follow.’ She scowled. ‘He can’t be associated with cowards.’
‘Say that again!’ L’?r? shouted.
‘L’?r?, please,’ Alawani said.
‘Guards, get her out of here!’ the temple maiden shouted.
In moments, the guards had drawn their swords and stepped towards her. Alawani’s agbára shone through his raised palms, ready to protect L’?r?. ‘No!’ his voice echoed. He turned to the temple maiden, ‘I want her here.’
The temple maiden glared at L’?r?, and L’?r? glared right back.
The room stilled.
‘Please give us a moment, Milúà. I’ll come out soon,’ Alawani finally said to the temple maiden.
Milúà turned on Alawani. ‘Whatever this is. End it. Now!’ she ordered and stormed out with the guards, leaving L’?r? and Alawani alone in the prayer room.
Alawani rushed towards L’?r?. He tried to hold her, but she stepped out of his reach. ‘I’m sorry, Tèmi. I’m so sorry.’
Tèmi – my own. Her heart skipped in her chest despite her anger. How dare he call her that now? He no longer had the right to.
‘I’ll come back. I’ll survive this,’ he continued. The corners of his lips curved upward, hinting at a smile. ‘I have to, or I imagine you would wage a war with the gods so great, the sun will hide from you.’
She turned towards the door, ‘You have a new family now. I’m the past you mustn’t look back on, isn’t that it?’
He moved closer to her again and, this time, caught her in his arms.
She turned her face away from him. ‘You can say no. I don’t know how many times I need to say this for you to hear me. You don’t have to do what he wants,’ she said, pointing her chin to the king’s portrait.
‘The gods have chosen,’ he said. Before she could speak again, he added, ‘They chose me.’
‘Oh! Alawani! You know they didn’t choose you – the Holy Order did! Your grandfather is pulling your strings. Never, not once since the day of the First Sun, has a prince been chosen as àlùfáà. Why don’t you ask yourself why? Why now?’
‘I don’t know … I just – please, let me do this.’ Alawani released her from his arms, holding on to her with only his eyes.
‘Last night, you swore by blood. My blood. You promised me –’ Her eyes caught the string of white beads on his wrist. The same ones she’d asked about and he’d slipped off the night before. She looked up at him. ‘When did you get the call?’
‘What?’
‘Don’t play dumb with me, Alawani. When you swore to me, did you already know?’
He silently pulled his hand away. She could read him like a book. So when his gaze fell, and he pursed his lips and pulled his brows together, begging with his face, she knew.
Blood rushed to her head, and she kept blinking to remove the black spots that filled her vision. A quivering rage consumed her, and her voice broke, ‘You – you lied to me.’
He tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth. It just hung open like a waste basket waiting for flies.
Finally, as the tears poured from his eyes, he said, ‘I knew what was coming, but I wanted you to know – I want you to know that you – you. You are everything to me.’
She reached for the beads and pulled until they snapped and danced across the floor, bouncing like rain around them.
Alawani shut his eyes and inhaled and she thought he’d shout at her but instead, he held her face and wiped her tears.
‘If death threatens, it’s your face that I’ll cling on to.
It is for you that I’ll survive this. For you, Tèmi.
’ He leaned in so close that his nose slowly moved to touch hers.
He breathed in deeply as though inhaling all of her and exhaled in short ragged breaths.
The space between them was so insignificant that even though his lips were not touching hers, she could feel them vibrating between soft silent sobs.
The tension crackled, a charged silence enveloping them.
The world seemed to still, time slowing as they hovered, breaths mingling, on the cusp of a moment that held the promise of everything they’d dared not speak of.
She hated him for what he was doing, for shaking her world so violently, destroying the pillars that kept her hidden and safe.
Yet, she couldn’t pull away. But she couldn’t move any closer either.
Even without hearing the words, she knew he was asking, Can I kiss you?
And she desperately wanted to say yes, to do what she’d only done before in her dreams. But no.
Her first kiss with him wouldn’t also be her last. She wouldn’t have him, only to lose him.
Time stood still, and she felt her heart pounding against his chest. Or was it his pounding against her?
She held on to him so tightly she forgot to breathe, desperate to freeze time and keep him in her arms forever.
Hating herself for not giving in. Hating him for waiting so long to hold her the way he did now.
When he finally pulled away, their breaths came in short heavy gasps.
She couldn’t describe how she felt even if she tried. Fear, anger, longing – everything.
Her lips trembled, and tears rolled down her face as he placed a warm kiss on her forehead. That was what broke her. She couldn’t fight it any longer. She raised her eyes to his, and the corner of his lips twitched. He rubbed her tears away with his thumb and lifted her chin.
‘The Order is waiting. It’s time to go.’ Milúà’s voice froze them in place.
L’?r? shut her eyes and frowned. How could she hate someone she’d just met so much?
Alawani let out a deep sigh and lowered his head to rest on the nape of her neck. ‘I’m so sorry, Tèmi.’ Then he turned to follow the maiden out of the room. Those were his last words to her.
L’?r? trailed behind them through the hallway to the main doors, where the royal guards kept the crowd at the bottom of the stairs from breaking the barrier.
Milúà glared at her as she led Alawani to the balcony overlooking the cheering crowd.
‘We’re witnessing history today!’ she began, and the crowd quietened to hear her speak.
‘Our gods cannot lie. They see everything and have called our prince as one of the six who will go through the trials to become àlùfáà. Today, our ?m?’ba begins his journey to the sun! ’
Loud cries filled the surrounding air.
L’?r? stood behind them, watching from the shadows. She didn’t want the world to see her break, but the tears didn’t stop falling, and her lungs burned for air. She placed her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of her sobs.
The crowd roared, and Milúà raised Alawani’s hand above their heads. ‘Send forth your prayers!’
‘May your heart burn like the sun, bright, hot, and undying!’ the crowd yelled back.
Milúà smiled at him and led him down to the heap of weapons, trinkets and jewellery that the people had brought to be blessed. ‘Your people have brought these that you might bless them with the last of your strength.’
L’?r? could feel her heart breaking inside her chest. Poking her with its sharp broken pieces, taking her breath away.
Alawani looked back to find her, but even though she could see him, she’d hidden herself too well for him to see her.
The people took hands full of sand and tossed them into the air, spraying it over themselves and everyone who stood around them.
Alawani picked up a sword and held it over his head, releasing his agbára into the weapon.
It turned fiery red. He raised the sword higher and yelled as it got hotter and brighter until it looked like it was in a blacksmith’s fire.
The people cheered as the blade grew hot and glowed but did not melt.
Then, he fell to his knees, panting and sweating intensely.
In her mind, the bloody pillar cracked at its side as though someone had taken an axe to it, chopping it down like a tree, and she flinched as the phantom pieces flew at her.
L’?r? felt the urge to run to him and hold him up.
But when she saw Milúà do precisely that, she remembered the temple maiden’s words.
Where he is going, his past cannot follow.