The Four Horsemen 3 - Famine (5 page)

with tape.
After that, he returned all the items to the kit, and stuck it in one of the wooden chests
lining the walls. He turned to look at Ekundayo, only to find him visually searching the
room.
“You’re not going to find it unless I want you to,” he told Ekundayo. “I’m not sure if
your wrist is going to heal right. You really needed to go to the hospital.”
“Why didn’t you take me there?”
Good question, and one Famine would probably be asking himself several times until
Ekundayo left. Shrugging, he went to stand by one of the many windows in the house. “Temporary insanity,” he muttered.

Ekundayo swallowed around the lump in his throat. Who was the man helping him? He couldn’t remember much from before he’d woken up in the bed.
“What’s your name again? I know you told me, but I seem to have forgotten it.” Ekundayo kept his gaze on the blanket covering him.
“I’m Fami.”
Ekundayo could feel Fami staring at him. There was something unsettling about Fami’s pitch black eyes. He knew it wasn’t a trick of shadows or poor lighting causing them to appear dark with no whites or pupils. It was like staring into the eyes of a black mamba, and understanding that the snake could kill with just one strike. Yet Fami didn’t seem inclined to hurt Ekundayo.
“Why are you hiding my things from me?” He cringed at the whining tone in his voice.
“You should be thankful I didn’t just toss the thing out into the river,” Fami pointed out. He turned his back on Ekundayo. “When I found it, I suddenly realised why you didn’t want to go to the hospital. The mine officials must be going crazy looking for you, and, if they find you, they’ll more than likely kill you. They guard their property fiercely.”
Ekundayo wanted to deny the possibility of having anything the mine companies would want. Yet Fami’s tone told Ekundayo the man wouldn’t believe him, and he wasn’t sure lying mattered any more. Fami had said he hadn’t thrown it away, so all Ekundayo had to do was wait until Fami left, and he could look around. When he found the diamond, he’d take off, and make his way to somewhere he could sell it.
“Yes. Well, you could say I’m their property as well.” He ran his fingers over the brand on his wrist.
“That’s why you were out there,” Fami said. “You were hiding from the security officers.”
Ekundayo nodded. “I had been walking to the border, but I started to have second thoughts. I turned around, and wasn’t paying attention to where I put my feet. I ended up tripping and falling down into the crevice. Somehow my wrist got stuck, and I wasn’t strong enough to pull myself free.”
“You haven’t had enough to eat or drink in a while, so you probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer if I hadn’t found you.” Fami ran his hands over his braids, his muscles rippling under his dark skin. “I need to get you some food. I can’t cook anything up here, or else I’dburn everything down.”
“Where do you cook your own meals?” Ekundayo’s strength drained out of him, and he slumped against the pillows.
Staring out of the window, Fami didn’t look at Ekundayo. He took the opportunity to study the man who’d saved him. Fami’s shoulders were broad, and his body narrowed to a slim waist and a firm ass. Ekundayo skipped over that part of Fami’s body. He didn’t want to think about how he reacted to Fami’s presence. He’d managed to ignore his attraction to other men.
It wasn’t only having stolen that could end up killing him. If anyone discovered his sexual preference, he could end up butchered by people he thought were friends. Being gay was a death sentence, and Ekundayo would rather live than risk his life for a fleeting minute of pleasure.
Fami’s thighs were thick, and his calves just as muscular. He wore sandals on his feet and a tan pair of shorts. Fami didn’t wear a shirt, and, once Ekundayo had stopped himself from being distracted by Fami’s shoulders and ass, he focused on the harsh scar running along Fami’s side. A small leather bag hung from a cord around Fami’s neck, resting on his chest between two well-developed pectoral muscles.
“I don’t eat much. What I do eat is usually cold, but you need more than that to regain your strength.” Fami whirled around, and went to the other side of the hut, crouching down next to a trapdoor in the floor. “I’m going to go and gather some food for you. Try not to hurt yourself while you look around.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Ekundayo stopped when Fami looked at him. He dipped his head and sighed. “All right. I was going to look for it.”
“You can, but, even if you find it, I’m not sure how you’d get down from here. You can only use one arm. You’ll need both to climb the tree.” Fami glanced through the opening in the floor. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“No.”
“Good, then I won’t warn you about getting close to the windows.”
Ekundayo watched as Fami climbed down through the trapdoor and shut it behind him. Where was he going? Ekundayo didn’t think Fami would just abandon him. Was he telling the truth about not getting rid of the diamond? A thought struck Ekundayo. What if Fami had hidden the diamond and planned on selling it himself?
Looking around the tree house, it certainly seemed like Fami could use whatever money he could get for it. There wasn’t anything worth keeping in the place. Ekundayo threw back the blanket and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He slowly sat up, trying to keep from passing out. He was weaker than he’d thought, and he didn’t want to add a head injury to the broken wrist.
Ekundayo cautiously pushed to his feet, holding his wrist close to his stomach in an attempt not to use it. His vision blurred as he straightened and he paused, taking deep breaths to ease his nausea. Gods, he needed to eat something. Maybe, before he searched for his diamond, he should see if he could find anything to fill his stomach.
Suddenly the trapdoor opened again, and Fami tossed two bags onto the floor at Ekundayo’s feet.
“I stored these in a different tree. Here’s some fruit and dried meat. I’m going to cook you a bigger dinner, but this should hold you until it’s done.” Fami looked him over from where Fami leaned on the edge of the opening. “Like I said, take it easy. No need to do further harm to yourself, just because you’re intent on finding something you stole to begin with.”
Ekundayo refused to duck his head and scuff his feet on the floor like Ekundayo wanted to. Fami’s opinion of him didn’t matter. It wasn’t like Fami knew Ekundayo or anything. Fami had no right to judge him, not without knowing how he’d had to live to begin with. He lifted his chin in defiance.
Fami snorted and rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. He simply disappeared down the tree again, leaving Ekundayo to wonder what Fami saw when he looked at him. He stood, staring down at the bags for a second before crouching to pick them up. He returned to the bed, and sat, removing the fruit and meat.
“Oh, try to eat slowly. Filling your stomach up too fast will just make you sick, and you’ll be back being hungry.” Fami’s voice floated up through the window.
“Yes, sir,” Ekundayo mumbled, wrinkling his nose at being treated like a child. It wasn’t like he didn’t know he shouldn’t stuff his stomach full of the food. He’d been hungry before, and more than likely he would be again.
Hunger was a natural state for most of the miners who worked for the diamond companies. There never seemed to be enough water or food to go around, and Ekundayo wanted to leave. Then inspiration struck him. When he’d sold the diamond, he would take the money and leave. Maybe he would go to America, or England. Some place where the people weren’t hungry or thirsty. He could get a job, even if it was simply manual labour, and he could have a far better life than he’d had at the mines.
At twenty-eight, Ekundayo had been mining since he was ten, and, through malnutrition and gruelling work, his body was slowly breaking down. At times, he thought he moved more like a many of eighty than a man in his twenties. Ekundayo lifted an apple from the pile of fruit on his lap. He stared at it. it had been years since Ekundayo had an apple, especially one that looked as good as the one in his hand. Usually, if he got fruit, it would be withered and dried.
He pawed through the rest of the fruit. There were oranges, figs, dates, and more apples. Where had Fami got all these different fruits? If they were near the falls, maybe Fami had got them from the resorts built along the Zambezi. Ekundayo took a bite of the apple, and swiped his chin clean as the juice tried to drip off it.
Ekundayo didn’t care to think about what kind of meat Fami had given him. Whether it was beef or something else, he didn’t want to know. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and Ekundayo couldn’t go much longer without eating something more substantial than fruit and water.
He tore a piece of meat off with his teeth, and, chewing, he stood and moved towards the chests running along the wall across from him. If Fami had hidden the diamond somewhere in the tree house, it would have to be in one of those chests. Ekundayo finished the meat and the apple while studying the different boxes. Which one looked like the most likely to be hiding an expensive rock?
After tossing the apple core out of the window, Ekundayo picked the box closest to him. He knelt in front of it, and tried opening it with one hand. He tugged, and realised it was locked. Well, that meant the rest of them were locked as well, but he moved to the next one just in case.
The top was heavy, but he got it open and he started digging through the items in the box. There were shorts and T-shirts, along with blankets and sheets. Nothing even remotely resembling his diamond.
“Of course, he wasn’t going to make it that easy,” Ekundayo mumbled as he shifted to the chest on the other side. “Why does he live in a tree? Why doesn’t he live in a village or at one of the resorts around here? Is he a fugitive as well?”
It could explain why Fami had chosen to listen to Ekundayo and not take him to a hospital. If Fami was a criminal, he would probably have more than just Ekundayo’s diamond hidden around here, though it still didn’t make any sense for the man to live in the trees like the monkeys.
All the rest of the boxes were locked, and Ekundayo was exhausted by the time he’d finished trying to open the last one. He dragged himself across the floor and flopped onto the bed with a groan. Before rolling on to his side, he tugged the blanket up over his waist. Then he drifted to sleep, unconcerned about the fact that he was still naked.
The sound of someone moving around woke Ekundayo later. The room was almost pitch black, except for one lantern gleaming on the table across from him. The falls thundered and crashed, and Ekundayo wondered how he could have slept with all that noise around him.
“I’m assuming you wore yourself out going through my stuff. You were sleeping like the dead when I got back, and that’s saying something because the falls usually keep me up for a night or two when I return home.”
Ekundayo sat up, leaning back against his pillows, and winced as he used his bad hand. Fami’s gaze dragged over Ekundayo’s chest down to where the blanket barely covered his groin. Ekundayo grabbed the edge, pulling it up almost to his armpits.
“I should probably get you a shirt or something to wear. Did you see anything you liked when you went through my clothes?” Fami dished something out of an iron pot into a bowl.
No way would he blush for looking for something that was his in the first place. It wasn’t like he’d stolen anything, though if he had found something worth selling he would have taken it. Ekundayo straightened his shoulders, and met Fami’s gaze.
“No. I wasn’t really looking at your clothes while I had the chest open,” he admitted.
Fami snorted. “Really? I’ll grab you something while you eat. I know what you were looking for, and believe me, you’re not going to find it in here, but you’re welcome to continue to search for it.”
“It’s mine. Why are you hiding it from me?” Ekundayo wished he could force Fami to give him the diamond back, but he wasn’t strong enough for that yet.
“Because you aren’t healthy enough to do anything with it. Maybe once you’re better, I’ll consider giving it back to you. Here, eat this.”
Ekundayo accepted the bowl and fork Fami handed him. The smells emanating from the food caused his stomach to growl. Fami gave him a slight smile, but didn’t say anything. The first forkful hit Ekundayo’s tongue, and he moaned.
“Don’t eat too quickly, but eat as much as your stomach will take. Don’t worry. There’s a lot of it, and I’m not hungry.” Fami turned his back and went to kneel next to the chest holding his clothes.
Ekundayo shovelled in another mouthful of food, and chewed while watching Fami dig out a shirt. Fami held up a pair of shorts, but put them back with a shake of his head.
“There’s no way you’ll be able to fit into my shorts without wrapping, like, a mile of rope around your waist to keep them up.” Fami stood and brought the shirt to him. “Here’s a shirt. It’s not like you’ll be doing a lot of walking around. You’re not strong enough yet for that, and I don’t have to worry about you climbing out of the tree just yet.”
After setting the bowl aside, Ekundayo slipped the T-shirt over his head, and tugged it down over his hips. He figured if he’d been standing it might have hit his knees. Fami was a large man, and, even if Ekundayo had been at the height of health, he wouldn’t have been as big as him. Fami took the bowl and refilled it, bringing it back along with water.
“Finish this, and a cup or two of water. Then rest.” Fami gestured to Ekundayo. “It took more than a day to get into the state you’re in, and it’s sure going to take more than a day to get back to a hundred per cent.”
“What are you going to do?”
Fami looked over at him, his eyes showing no emotion. “I’m going to the river, and washing. After being out on the savannah most of the day, I’ve ended up with grass and dirt in places I don’t want them.”
“The savannah? Why were you out there? Are you a poacher? Elephants or rhinoceros?”
Anger swelled in Ekundayo. It was one thing for him to steal a diamond. He wasn’t hurting anyone. He loathed those who made their money from killing the great animals that called the savannahs home. Those creatures had as much right to live as he did, and they didn’t deserve to die because rich people coveted parts of their bodies.
Fami shook his head. “No. I’m not a poacher. I have no interest in killing any creature. My livelihood isn’t dependent on the usual means of making money.”
Ekundayo glared at Fami. “You might not be a poacher, but I think you’re a smuggler. You use the river as your means of transporting your stolen goods.”
Fami’s chuckle was low and warm, the sound of it lodging somewhere in the lower region of Ekundayo’s gut. No, he couldn’t be attracted to him. He didn’t know anything about him, and, for all he knew, he was about to be sold into slavery. A different form of slavery from what he’d suffered at the diamond mines.
He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He should have listened to his grandmother when she’d told him not to do anything stupid, shortly before she’d died. Had she known his future or seen his destiny? Were the Gods setting him up to be conscripted into one of the genocides being committed across the continent?