Chapter 37 Ìlú-Òdì, Sixth Ring, Kingdom of Oru #2
Tofa looked at Captain Méjìlá, his personal guard in ìlú-òdì.
‘Why do I have to? The Lord General deserves this humiliation.’ He turned to see the pair fighting in the circle created for them, men all around them, cheering for their general, who was not winning.
He couldn’t help but smile at Milúà when she looked up, eyes filled with rage that seemed familiar to him.
The soldiers had formed a fighting ring around them, and it was too late for either of them to back out.
With a nod of encouragement from him, she sent the Lord General sprawling onto his back.
Captain Méjìlá urged, ‘My Crown, in a few blood moons, these men will swear loyalty to you as king. Don’t make enemies of the men who protect your kingdom. You may be their king, but that man is their god.’
Tofa sighed and shouted, ‘Enough!’
His voice reverberated through the hall, bouncing off the walls and echoing in the rafters.
Everyone froze. The cheering died out in an instant.
He heard only the heavy panting of the two fighters.
Tofa walked towards them, and the circle broke, allowing him to pass through.
He walked over to the Lord General’s body sprawled on the floor and went to Milúà.
Blood poured from her lips, and there was a deep cut across her temple where the Lord General had smashed his head into hers.
He held her face, and she let her head fall into his palm. She looked exhausted, her face swollen and bruised, but she had won the fight. He yielded and she was the last one standing.
‘The party is over. Shut this down. Shut it all down,’ he said as he scooped Milúà into his arms and carried her out of the hall.
MILúà
Milúà woke up the next day with a terrible headache. For the first few moments, she struggled to keep her eyes open. Then she turned to see Tofa sleeping on a mat a few feet from her bed, and she jumped at the sight of him.
He woke up startled and quickly rose to his feet, his eyes still heavy with sleep. Milúà raised the sheets to cover herself.
‘You are not naked, maiden,’ Tofa said, smiling and rubbing his eyes.
Milúà looked down, observing her body for the first time. He was right. She was still in her warrior’s outfit. Only her armour had been removed. But the sheer material still made her feel naked as she sat before him, and she held on to the sheets even tighter.
‘Why are you in my room?’ she scowled.
‘I’m not. You are in my room,’ Tofa replied.
‘Why am I in your bed?’ she frowned.
‘You passed out from the pain last night, maiden. You picked a fight with the Lord General in his house and won. It wasn’t safe for you to be alone.’
‘He wouldn’t dare,’ Milúà muttered, annoyed. Frowning made her head hurt even more as her skin pulled on the cut across her temple.
‘Come, let me help –’ Tofa said, but stopped when Milúà moved back from him.
He let out a long, weary sigh. ‘I’ll send the servants in to help you clean up. We must find L’?r? and Alawani today,’ he said as he headed for the door.
‘Thank you,’ Milúà blurted out. While she hadn’t needed his help, he was still the crown heir, so when he turned to face her, she let the sheets in her hand drop and bowed to him.
He frowned and nodded and walked out of the room.
She couldn’t understand him. He walked and talked like a king.
He knew what he was and who he was. She lay back in the bed, and as she closed her eyes, she could remember glimpses of the night before.
The feel of his breath on her face when he cleaned the blood from her wound with water and herbs.
Falling and thinking she’d hit the ground but landing in his arms, comforted by the solid build that held her up.
She remembered the odd feeling of safety as he held her close and sang to her, stroking her hair.
That was when she’d drifted off. He’d sung to her.
What was his problem? Her frown deepened, and she lifted her gaze when a servant entered the room.
Before the girl could speak, Milúà shouted, ‘Get out! I can clean myself.’
Milúà slumped in the bed and covered her face with her palms. Frustration made her head boil.
She shouldn’t be here. This hunt would have been over days ago if ìyá-Ayé hadn’t sent a message demanding that the Lord Regent wanted L’?r? alive.
She’d spent so much time tracking them, finding them and losing them because she couldn’t just burn them all to ash.
Her mission had been a failure from the start.
She should never have taken her eyes off Alawani. It was her fault he escaped the temple.
Images of Command flashed in her mind, and she remembered every word the woman had said.
She’d implied that àdùnní knew L’?r?’s mother.
She’d implied that there was more to the girl from òtútù than Milúà knew.
Milúà didn’t care about L’?r? other than the fact that she ruined her life.
And it vexed her that she was no longer allowed to kill her.
People had died for less by her own hands.
Milúà rubbed at her eyes. For many centuries descendants of late kings and queens moved to the sixth ring to join the army and so with so much agbára concentrated in a single place, every time she used her true sight, she was flooded with an influx of light that nearly blinded her.
Still, she knew, she could feel it in her guts. They were close. They had to be.
Just before dawn, she walked out of the fortress to meet the Lord General, Captain Méjìlá and Tofa standing together.
Turning to look at her, Tofa said, ‘Milúà will lead us to them. If they are in this city, we’ll find them.’
The Lord General growled at the sound of her name and stepped towards her. ‘Touch her and feel the burn of the sun,’ Tofa growled back, placing himself between her and the Lord General.
Milúà didn’t need him fighting for her. Did he forget she was a maiden of the Holy Order?
She was the weapon used to cut down enemies, not a damsel in distress.
As she glared at him, she noticed for the first time how handsome the crown heir was.
He stood tall in his armour. He had five chunky braids with the sides faded off in a trim cut.
His face was chiselled like the gods had created their chosen one.
But ultimately, too thin for a king, she thought.
She’d considered him much too meek, but now she was impressed by the raw venom that laced his threat.
She wanted that kind of power. She needed it.
The Lord General spat on the floor near her feet and walked away. ‘Let’s just get this over with.’
Milúà was lost in thought, staring at Tofa, and didn’t notice the group staring back at her.
Captain Méjìlá’s voice pulled her back, ‘Maiden, allow me to introduce you to my ward, Rmí,’ he said, slamming a heavy slap into the man’s back, smiling with pride. ‘He will join the hunt.’
Milúà eyed the man she hadn’t even noticed before.
He stood next to Captain Méjìlá wincing at the strike.
Something about how Rmí inched away from the man reminded her of herself when she stood next to ìyá-Ayé.
Rmí bowed to her and his locs fell to frame his face.
She nodded to him and looked away. She needed no reminders of her mother today.
‘What’s your plan, Milúà?’ Tofa asked, and the group gathered in closer.
‘We’re not leaving this keep,’ Milúà said, moving a few steps away from him and pointing at the large stretch of building before them, the ends of which faded into the horizon on account of how long it was.
On the map of Oru the Lord General’s keep was marked as a long half-crescent line in the middle of the sixth ring.
‘This is the last line of defence when leaving the kingdom. This is where we wait for them. Every inch of this building is crawling with soldiers, and with us here, they are not getting past. If they manage to do that, the graveyard will do what it’s been made for.
I imagine that your archers are poised on the last wall ready to strike as usual?
’ Milúà said to the Lord General, who grunted a nod.
‘Good. Have the guards here on alert. We’re looking for the prince àlùfáà and L’?r?.
She’s about my height, and her tribal marks are three lines for ìlú-ìm.
Last I saw her, she was wearing a clay-red ensemble.
The prince àlùfáà has the royal seal inked into his arm. They’re armed and dangerous.’
Milúà clenched her jaw, fighting the pain as she awakened her true sight. The light burned her, but she kept it on, trying to sort through the tangle of threads to find the brightest. Her eyes stung, and she squinted, forcing herself to keep them open.
‘What is she doing now?’ she heard the Lord General ask.
She walked away from the group. Back at ìlú-Idán – the fourth ring – the witch’s powers had blocked them from her sight.
But once they were out of the woman’s house, she’d quickly found them.
But now, the flood of threads and light was nearly unbearable for her.
Oddly, back at the fifth ring, the light of L’?r?’s agbára core thread was brighter than any she’d ever seen before.
Even brighter than the crown heir’s. It felt like she was looking at strands of pure sunlight floating around – just as it did now.
Milúà closed her eyes, exhaled and slowly opened them again.
She was trying to follow a star amongst a sea of them.
She could see the brightest one – the one she knew had to be L’?r?’s.
But like yarn when jumbled together, the core threads of everyone else around her crisscrossed over each other, distorting her true sight.
Milúà still wasn’t sure why L’?r?’s core looked like everyone else’s – albeit remarkably brighter and stronger.
She’d seen the girl’s evil magic. It wasn’t anything like agbára oru so why did her core look like others’?
Tofa joined her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She glared at it, and he slid it off. ‘We need to get into position on the roof if we want to see them coming this way,’ he said, avoiding her gaze.
A soldier came running to the group nearly out of breath by the time he reached them.
He greeted the crown heir first by prostrating flat on the floor, shining the light of his agbára at Tofa’s feet. Then he stood and saluted Captain Méjìlá and the Lord General. It was clear by the look on his face that he had no idea how to greet a maiden.
‘Speak, boy,’ the Lord General said. ‘What is it?’
‘Scouts from the outpost, sir; they said there’s a sandstorm on the horizon. Coming in quick.’
The men’s eyes widened.
‘Tell the men on the last wall to get inside. I want no one on the battlements,’ the Lord General said, then turned to captain Méjìlá. ‘Let the squad know we’re relocating to the inner gate keep.’
‘No!’ Milúà shouted. ‘We have a plan. We just discussed this.’
‘Damn your plans, girl,’ the Lord General said.
‘I know these storms don’t break through the magic barrier for the inner rings so you have no idea what it means to have your home flung into the wind with you in it, but out here, we don’t play silly games when the gods are angry.
’ He turned to the soldier who brought the news. ‘Go now!’
‘Will you not stop this?’ Milúà said to Tofa.
‘The crown heir has lived here among us for many blood moons,’ the Lord General scowled.
‘He knows what it means to be caught in these storms. Look at my keep,’ he said, pointing at the large building.
‘See how it’s chipped and broken in different sections.
The storms did that. With every hit, I lose more and more of my men and my home.
I’m not risking any more life for this. And there’s no way anyone survives the storm coming.
If they try to escape, the sands will strip them to their bones. ’
Milúà could see his core stirring – she could tell from how their colours changed and blended exactly what the person was planning to do. She ignited her agbára.
‘We are not stopping this hunt so your men can cower and hide in the sand,’ she said, glaring at him.
She didn’t care how strong he was or what a terrible reputation he had.
Thanks to her fight with Command, she had learned how to predict agbára attacks by using her true sight to watch the core’s movement.
So when the Lord General’s core churned again, she took a step back, recognizing the attack.
The bastard was loading up an energy blast.
‘Enough of this,’ Tofa said. ‘I’m tired of this bickering.
Lord General, you may clear the guards from the last wall; I don’t expect Alawani and L’?r? to make it to the graveyard anyway, and if they do, let the storm take them.
You may move out of this keep but leave at least a squad of men at every checkpoint between here and the inner gate keep and have your men keep up the search there as well. ’
‘And where will you be?’ the Lord General asked.
‘I’m staying here with Milúà. In case they make it this far,’ Tofa said.
Milúà frowned even as her chest tightened. She’d never been in a position where someone took her side before.
The Lord General looked at her with so much anger, she was sure he’d throw that blast he’d been brewing, but instead, he sighed, frustrated, and said to Captain Méjìlá, ‘Do as the crown heir has ordered. Take the men. I’ll stay here with two squads.’
‘You don’t have to,’ Tofa said. ‘We’ll be fine.’
‘I’m staying,’ the Lord General growled. ‘I won’t be the coward who let the future king of Oru die out in the graveyard. The Lord Regent will end my line.’
‘I’d like to help too,’ Rmí said, his voice soft in the sea of brash voices that dominated the group. ‘I’ll stay with the crown heir.’
Captain Méjìlá glared at him, the vein on his forehead nearly popping under the strain of his frown.
‘That’s fine,’ Tofa said. ‘You can stay. Captain Méjìlá, take the squad. Protect your people.’
The captain looked at the Lord General, who nodded in agreement, and then he walked back into the keep and out of sight.
Milúà stood to face the graveyard, feeling the wind pick up. This was it. The end of the road. Here she would get her revenge and complete her mission.
The Prince àlùfáà was hers.