Chapter 32
Enoch found Azul in the throne room. It was strange to see her standing before the empty seat of Borjigin power as if she had every right to be there. The morning light streamed through the high windows, catching the gold in her eyes and setting them alight.
She wasn’t in chains; she wasn’t guarded, and she looked like a true princess of the Borjigin, with gold layered and stacked on her limbs and neck.
She giggled to herself. “The Of?? Really?”
He wondered who she was talking to, or perhaps she kept herself company. Making his footsteps loud enough to be recognised, he called out. "Akwaugo, the Ugoeze is willing to see you now."
The cells beneath the palace were suffocating with the weight of despair.
The Ugoeze's cell was at the end of the corridor, set apart from the others. She sat on a low bench, her fine robes exchanged for rough prison cloth, her hair unbound and tangled. But her spine was straight, and her eyes, when they found Azul, held nothing but contempt.
"Come to gloat?" Her voice was dry. "How predictable."
Azul gestured, and the guards stepped back, leaving them alone. Enoch remained by the door, close enough to intervene if necessary.
"Ugoeze, I wanted to thank you."
The Ugoeze's eyes narrowed. "Thank me?"
"If not for you, it would've been much harder to get rid of the reputation you crowned me with." Azul smiled. "Before I even set foot in this place, everyone already knew me as a vixen, and I suppose everything that happened after became a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"No? Then let me clarify." Azul began to pace, her footsteps soft on the stone. "You wanted me dead from the moment I arrived. Not because of anything I'd done—but because the Dowager needs my blood spilt. Am I right?"
The Ugoeze said nothing.
"So you set Iyom against me. Fed her fears. Encouraged her cruelty. Let her believe that destroying me would save her son from the vixen." Azul paused, tilting her head. "And when that didn't work, when I survived poison and starvation and public humiliation, you escalated."
"You can't prove any of this."
"I don't need to." Azul's smile widened. "Iyom is dead. Her father is dead. The Fourth Prince is dead. Your husband is dead. And here you sit, in a cell, while I walk free."
The Ugoeze's hands clenched in her lap.
"You think you've won," she spat. "You don’t know anything!"
"The pregnancy."
The Ugoeze went still. "What?"
"Your pregnancy. The one you've been hiding for months. The one you thought no one knew about."
The Ugoeze's face drained of colour, her hands beginning to shake.
"You see, that's the problem with secrets." Azul crouched before her, bringing their faces level. "They have a way of coming out. And this particular secret—" She paused. "Is what you’ve been hoping will save you from your sorry position as the Dowager’s pawn."
"How do you—no one knows—I've been so careful—"
"Careful isn't careful enough." Azul straightened. "Not with me."
Enoch shuddered.
Azul turned to the door. "Guards. Open the cell."
The Ugoeze scrambled back as they entered, her fear fully realised. "What are you doing? You can't! I'm still the Ugoeze!"
Azul produced a small vial from her sleeve. "Drink this."
"No!" The Ugoeze fought as the guards seized her arms, forcing her still. "No, please—whatever it is—I'll do anything—"
"Drink."
The guards forced her mouth open. The liquid went down.
For a moment, nothing happened. Azul stepped back, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry it took so long; I was trying to understand why the Igwe didn’t want any of his wives to have any more children.”
Suddenly, the Ugoeze hunched over, hands around her belly.
“Now I understand. He didn't know. He had no idea, just how much his imperial mother despised him.” Azul continued, her lips stretching wider. “Ugoeze, you played well. It's just unfortunate; you were on the wrong side.”
The Ugoeze let out a blood-curdling scream.
Her body convulsed, doubling over; she crumpled to the floor, writhing and weeping.
Azul did not watch any longer; she left.
Enoch followed, his heart pounding. He did not ask what was in the vial. He did not want to know.
In truth, Azul had no allies in the harem, so everyone, according to her, was on the wrong side.
Behind them, the Ugoeze's screams echoed off the stone walls long after they climbed the stairs.
The Third Wife's quarters were modest—not the grand chambers of the Ugoeze or Iyom, but comfortable enough for a woman of her station. Nnenna sat rigid on a cushioned seat, her hands wrapped around a cup of tea she had not touched, her eyes fixed on Azul with barely concealed terror.
Chinedu was nowhere to be seen. Kept safe from the horror that had just walked through her door.
Azul settled onto a cushion across from her, accepting the cup of tea Nnenna's shaking servant offered. She did not drink. Simply held it, letting the warmth seep into her fingers, watching Nnenna squirm beneath her gaze.
"You're afraid of me," Azul observed.
Nnenna swallowed. "I—" As she tried to speak, the teaspoon in her cup clattered violently.
Azul set the tea down, untouched. "I'm going to ask you a question, Third Wife. I want you to think carefully before you answer."
Nnenna nodded.
"Do you want to live?"
Nnenna's face crumpled. She slid from her seat, falling to her knees before Azul, her forehead pressing to the floor. Her voice, when it came, was muffled by tears and terror.
"Please. I don't care what happens to me. But my son—he's innocent—he's just a child—please, save him, and I'll do anything. I'll never act against you again."
Azul looked down at her; she didn’t mind the poisoning attempts or how she used her son to try and throw her off her trail. Azul was more concerned with the woman she owed a debt to.
The Fourth Wife had died thanks to Nnenna’s schemes.
Azul eyed the room; the toys had been beautifully put away, and Chinedu’s practice scripts hung on the wall, showing his handwriting progress.
The more Azul watched, the more she wondered how brilliant the children in the Fourth Wife’s belly would’ve been if they had had the chance to live.
"Rise," Azul said quietly. "Your son will live." Chinedu would live as long as the rest of the Borjigin did, which was not very long.
Nnenna looked up, tears streaming down her face, hope warring with disbelief.
"Tomorrow," Azul continued, "the council will hold the Ugoeze’s trial. It is in your best interest to tell them everything. You will write it in blood, and you will sign it with your name."
Nnenna nodded frantically. "I will, Akwaugo."
Azul didn’t have anything else to say; intelligent people always knew when to advance or retreat, and the more she stayed in that place, the greater the urge she had to drive her hairpin into the woman’s eyes.
So she quickly took her leave.
Nkiru lay unconscious. Her skin was pale, her injuries bound in clean bandages. A healer worked over her, applying salves and lighting incense.
Azul entered silently.
She crossed to the cot and sat on its edge, her hip pressing against the mattress, her hand reaching out to touch Nkiru's matted hair. The girl did not stir.
Azul leaned down and rested her head beside the girl's. Her lips moved, too soft for Enoch to hear, but he caught the shape of the words, "Good job."
Enoch froze.
According to his memories, the girl had confessed, hadn’t she? She had condemned Azul to death in front of the entire council.
At that thought, his lips parted.
The girl had done exactly what Azul told her to do. Nkiru hadn't betrayed Azul. She had obeyed her. Every word of that confession, every damning accusation, every lie that should have sent Azul to the executioner's block—it was all part of the plan.
Could it be that the anger of the people towards her would be so great that, once transferred, the Ugoeze would have no choice but to die?
Enoch stood in the doorway, watching Azul rest her head beside her sleeping servant, and felt the world shift beneath his feet. She had endorsed everything.
And no one even knew.
No one but him.
Azul's eyes opened. Without turning, without moving, she spoke.
"You understand now."
Enoch swallowed. "Yes, Khatun."
"Do you know what comes next?"
He did.
Her next ploy would result in the Okpalaeze’s death.
The council chamber was packed the next morning.
Every noble, every elder, every person of consequence in the Borjigin court had gathered to witness the day's proceedings. The air crackled with anticipation as Nnenna walked to the centre of the chamber. In her hands she carried a scroll—a long one.
She unrolled it.
The writing was red. And at the bottom, her signature, written in the same crimson ink.
"I, Nnenna, Third Wife of the Borjigin, do hereby confess to the following crimes, committed at the command of the Ugoeze, under threat of my son's life and my own."
She paused, drawing a breath that seemed to hurt.
"Item the first: I administered poison to the Fourth Prince."
Enoch glanced at Azul.
Lie.
A ripple of horror passed through the chamber. Nnenna did not stop.
"The poison was slow-acting. It made him sick for three days before it killed him."
Lie.
Tears streamed down her face, but her voice remained steady.
"Item the second: I planted the murder weapon in the well behind the shrine, as the Ugoeze instructed. She wanted it found. She wanted it traced to the Akwaugo. But someone moved it before your men could search, and for that, I am grateful."
Lie.
She swallowed.
"Item the third: I committed the ritual that killed the Igwe."
Lie.
The chamber erupted. Guards moved forward, but the Elders waved them back. This was too important to interrupt.
"Item the fourth: I mutilated his body after death."
Lie.
"The Ugoeze ordered it. She said the people needed to believe a devil had killed him—that the Oracle's words would carry more weight if the Igwe's death looked like the work of something inhuman. I made him look like he had been eaten by a monster."
Lie.
"Item the fifth: I paid the guards who looked away when the Fourth Prince was killed. I bribed the officials who altered the records."
Lie.
"Item the sixth: I revealed the trafficking operation at the Ugoeze's command.
She had known about it for years—had used it, even, to secure funds and favours.
But when Iyom's father became a liability, she ordered me to leak the information to the Elder of Justice.
She wanted Iyom destroyed. She wanted the chaos.
She wanted everyone looking elsewhere while she moved her pieces into place. "
Lie.
Nnenna's hands tightened on the scroll.
"Item the seventh: I fed Iyom's fears for years.
The Ugoeze instructed me to befriend her, to listen to her complaints, and to whisper in her ear about threats and enemies.
I told her the Akwaugo was dangerous. I told her the First Prince was plotting against her son.
I told her many things—all of them lies, all of them designed to push her toward violence.
The Ugoeze wanted Iyom to be the blade. She wanted someone else to take the fall. "
Truth.
She looked up, meeting the eyes of the Elders.
"Item the eighth: I sent the assassin who shot the arrow at the Akwaugo."
Lie.
"Item the ninth: I arranged a poisoning attempt through Iyom's 'medicine.
' The Ugoeze knew Iyom would try to kill the Akwaugo herself—she had spent years making Iyom fearful enough to strike.
So she made sure the medicine Iyom gave the maid was poison.
She wanted the Akwaugo dead, and she wanted Iyom to take the blame. Two birds, one stone."
Lie.
"Item the tenth,” Nnenna shook terribly, fearing for her life. “I leaked the First Prince's mission to Orda Naiman's forces."
Treason.
Lie.
"The Ugoeze had correspondents in the enemy camp—a woman who signed her letters with a viper.
She gave me the names, the routes, and the timing.
I passed them to Naiman's people through a contact in the merchant quarter.
The First Prince walked into a trap because of me.
Because of her. He is dead because we killed him. "
This moved the Elders to shouts, pointing, and spitting. Saliva landed on Nnenna’s face. A dagger flew from somewhere in the crowd, and she screamed in fear, falling to her knees.
Only after the Elders had calmed down did she dare speak again.
"I have signed this confession in my own blood," she tried to speak through her tears. "As proof that every word is true. As proof that I will carry the weight of these sins to my grave."
She rolled the scroll carefully and deliberately and held it out.
"I am sorry," she whispered. "I am so sorry. For all of it. For all of you."
Azul looked up, meeting Nnenna’s gaze, mouthing the next few words to her. “May Ukhel kiss your corpse.”
Nnenna surged to her feet—a burst of frantic energy that no one expected from a woman who had been trembling for the last quarter hour. Two stumbling steps to the stone pillar at the edge of the dais.
The sound of a skull slamming against a solid mass was quieter than Azul expected.
Screams erupted, and chairs scraped as people tried to avoid the splatter of blood. The younger princesses turned away. The Elder of Justice stood frozen with the scroll still in his hands.
Azul did not move.
She watched the body slide down the pillar, leaving a dark streak on the pale stone.
Then she watched the blood spread slowly across the polished floor toward the hem of her red gown.
She thought, distantly, that red had been the correct choice this morning; it suited her white robes quite beautifully.
Nnenna had made only one mistake. She had chosen the wrong patron.
Azul cocked her head to the shocked Elder of Justice.
"I believe," she said quietly, "the council has what it needs to execute the devil."
The last three lines—not read from the scroll—were as follows.
I followed the wrong person.
May you forgive me and my bloodline; I will pay my debt in full.
Leita, the only name written in blood. I hope to see you in Ukhel’s embrace.
The Ugoeze’s name.