Authors: Njedeh Anthony
“Odagwe, did I say something wrong?”
“No, you did not. As I was saying, my father was a master in all forms of battle techniques, but what he was most popular for was his knowledge of the different kinds of poison and their cures.”
“So?”
“Have you ever heard of pride burn?”
“No.”
“Of course you haven’t. It is a name my father gave to a poison that melts in a man’s drink and when it enters the belly it starts burning you from the wine. It kills you in a day. It took my father years to find the antidote and even then, the antidote can only help its victim for thirty days...I think I am gliding in the wrong direction. What I am trying to tell you is that the wine you just drank contains pride burn.”
“You are a liar. I did not see you put anything inside.”
“To see me put something inside your wine is one thing, but the question is, did I or did I not.” The general was looking at Odagwe with rage in his eyes. “Think about it, Anossai, if I had decided to kill you a long time ago, it would have divided the battalions, not to mention that you were chosen by the elders. All those years we were in Ozuoba, I knew it troubled you that I was chosen to be general instead of you. You were there from the beginning, raised to be Omee from a child and I came in after you through other means. Yes, the Omees under you respect you, but with poison no one will know how you died.”
“Give me the antidote.”
“I see you are beginning to feel the burn.”
“Give me the antidote.”
“This is what you will do for me. My son is going to take over here as chief and you will give him your full support.”
The general was on the floor, holding onto his belly in pain, his voice was low.
“Antidote.”
“Stop acting like a woman. I said it takes a day to kill you, so the pain you feel now is just the appetizer.”
“Please.”
“How many times do I have to say this to you? You are valuable to me alive, so don’t worry, I won’t let it kill you. Where was I? Okay, from now on, every thirty days I will give you your antidote. So if I were you, I would be praying for me to live forever.” Odagwe squatted near the general, who was rolling around the floor grabbing his belly. “Have you started feeling like your belly wants to tear apart?”
Anossai slithered on the floor, begging without words.
Odagwe got up and went to get another calabash with wine.
“The antidote is in this calabash, but I should warn you, most herbalists you meet don’t know the poison, talk less of the cure. If you take another substitute, it might affect this one from working.”
The general drank the wine and quickly felt better.
“Get out of here and call the men waiting for me.”
Anossai got up and was heading out of the chamber, when Odagwe added, “If you ever call me by my name again, I will make sure I put both your testicles in your hand.”
Anossai nodded, knowing the assassination plans had to be forgotten; he was a prisoner for life.
Otuturex’s envoy and the elders entered, all bowing to Odagwe the way they used to do to their chief. Odagwe was now sitting on the chief’s seat and trying not to laugh because the faces of the men were filled with fear. Odagwe used his hand to tell them to rise.
“I have to admit, I was still expecting your people in battle.”
“Chief Odagwe, we had no intention to go to war with you,” the oldest elder said. “It was our late chief who made that decision and on behalf of our people. We appreciate your coming to take charge of this province.”
“I would really like to thank your people for accepting me, but I am not going to rule here. My son Mukembe will be doing that job as chief.”
“But Chief Odagwe, your son isn’t yet twenty. He is still too young for a province this large,” the youngest elder said.
“Are you trying to tell me when and who is ready to take over which and whatever I choose?”
“Great Chief Odagwe, I was only making a suggestion,” the elder answered with consternation.
“And I gave a command.” Odagwe called his Omees. “Take that old man and cut his body into small pieces so the wild animals won’t waste time tearing it.”
The youngest elder did not know what to say or do. It all seemed like Odagwe was playing a prank on him. When the Omees dragged him out of the chambers, he realized he was not going to see the next day.
“Does anyone have any suggestions? I am serious. Your suggestions are important to the betterment of the province.”
They were as quiet as a dead night, looking at the chief as though he were crazy.
“My general, Anossai, will be acting as Mukembe’s general. That’s all I have to say to you men.”
Odagwe lowered his head, stroking his beard, not noticing the men as they bowed and left. He stayed in this position thinking how cowardly the elders of this province were. It amazed him that at their old ages they still wanted to live. He wanted to die while he was Head-of-Government or else death would have been accepted earlier when he was chief.
Head-of-Government…Odagwe the Head-of-Government. Those stupid visionless Omees whom I told I would be the Head-of-Government, I wonder where they are. Probably bowing to a man above them or they are dead. I can still hear them laugh. Let them still come and laugh at the son of the Ikaza who would become Head-of-Government. My dreams are shaped for me to bite. What I have craved for from the day I was a man is now at my fingertips…the Head-of-Government.
The chief raised his head to see only the envoy still seated, comfortably for that matter.
“Did I not tell you that I am finished with you men?”
“Yes you did, but what I have to say to you is not the kind of talk that waits till the next day.”
“Then say it. I have things to do.”
The envoy looked at the Omees around them and said, “What I have to say is for your ears only.”
Odagwe stayed a short while to let his power sink in before discharging the Omees in the chamber. He couldn’t resist political gossip.
“Who are you?’
“I am Chief Otuturex’s Envoy.”
“Yes, I know you now. You are the son of Imukusade, the unshakeable warrior.”
“No.”
“Wait, do not tell me. From your looks and the way you talk, I am positive I have met your father. You are the son of Ojokei, the greatest man with the spear in all the kingdoms before his death.”
“No.” The envoy knew what the chief was trying to do and he quickly killed game. “I am the son of Tiwa the criminal.”
“Really?” Odagwe pretended to be surprised while he was proud of his attempt to humiliate the envoy.
“Chief, I will get to the point. I found out that the King did not die of natural causes. He was killed before time by a man who knows poisons.”
“But King Obi was the master of all kinds of poison. Did you not know he was raised by a man who cured different kinds of poisonous reactions?”
“Yes, I knew, but it depended on the man who gave it to him. An eagle child never wonders whether the food its mother brought is good or bad.”
“So how can we find this man?”
“That is the difficult part. He could be anyone, probably the messenger in the palace, a friend of his, anyone who could give him wine to drink.”
“Are you implying something?”
“I never said you poisoned him.” The envoy grinned. The defensive role the great Odagwe was playing made him bolder. “All I am saying is that someone was involved in the poisoning of the King and that someone did not do it by himself. He had somebody else with a mutual interest with him.”
“This is a logical deduction you have achieved, but you should be aware that such information could be dangerous for you to hold on to, especially if it is true.”
“I am a man of principles. I have to let the world know if our King was murdered and apart from that, I have men I trust with my life scattered all over the kingdom who have this information and more. So the minute I die, they will spread it to the market women and everyone else, especially the high chiefs. I also told them to emphasize my major suspect and tell to the world what I heard from certain people before they died.”
Odagwe got up from the seat and sat down near the envoy.
“I could kill you very easily.”
“If you could, I would have been dead by now. I am a very understanding man when you get to know me.” The Envoy got up. “I am aware that you knew the time he was going to die. It was disappointing that a man with a brain like yours would get involved with such a scheme and let that dunce of a general, Adu, know what happening.”
“He was the closest person to Otuturex,” Odagwe said, finally giving in.
“You could have come to me.”
“Envoy, what do you want?”
“The same thing you want, Odagwe. It’s an open verse that you want to be Head-of-Government and you planned everything from the beginning. You went to the meeting at the King’s palace with intentions to go to war with Otuturex even before you saw him.”
“That was not the question. What do you want?”
“As I said before, I am an understanding man. I want to be made the King's envoy whether you become Head-of-Government or not.”
“If I become Head-of-Government then so shall it be, but if not, there is nothing I can do.”
“Well you have to start thinking, because the only time you can evade the punishment for the murder is when you become a high chief. I guarantee you, if I don’t make it as the King's envoy, the information will leak as a rumor and then the people will accept it as a fact.”
Odagwe rose and walked toward the envoy with a devilish eye.
“I could still kill you now. First of all, I really don’t believe your story about telling anybody what you just told me; and, secondly, if you have told anyone, then the story is out in the open.”
The envoy smoothly swerved past the chief, talking as he walked away from the chambers.
“That should not be your problem. What you should be thinking of is how to convince the other chiefs to choose the boy you want as King.”
Odagwe looked at the envoy as he left and hated himself for getting involved with Otuturex’s general. He wanted to think of a way to deal with the envoy, but none came to his head. He knew the man was smart, even before he got there. The envoy was even more of an asset to him than he could imagine and the man had a point. How was he going to convince the other chiefs to choose his choice as King?
*
Chief Oludu was asleep with his wife in bed when all of a sudden his eyes opened and he carefully shifted Ugonwa’s hands off him so she would not wake. He got up and walked away from the bedroom into his private chambers as though he was being controlled. When he got there, he met a totally unkempt woman who used her clothing to show her nakedness and she was playing with the craft made by his mother who died the year before, but he did not seem surprised to see her.
She turned around and with her squeaky voice she spoke to the chief.
“What took you so long? I was planning on calling you from your bedroom.”
“What do you want, Agreshi?” Oludu asked.
“What do I want, is that the way you treat your guest?”
She walked to the other end of the chamber, still playing with the other crafts, expecting Oludu to say something, but the chief just watched her.
“Stop looking at me that way. I have not killed anyone…yet,” she said, grinning. “Did anyone ever tell you about your father? Not your grandfather, I mean your Omogor father.”
“It seems you have nothing to say, Agreshi. I have things to do with my time, so you know how you came, so follow that way out.”
“Oludu…Oludu…Oludu, how many times did I call your name?”
The chief did not reply, he just watched her seriously.
“Forget all this act of goodness you display, you and I are the same. We were raised by the same wickedness.”
“You are the witch and I am not anything like you. Your heart is darkened by the wickedness you serve.”
“And yours is supposed to be as clear as the heavens. Listen to me and listen to me well: I am a daughter of a god that gives you what you want at a price. If that’s what makes me a witch, then let it be. I was running in the bushes, a lost child, and evil welcomed me with open arms and I am grateful to it. I see beyond what these beings desire.”
“These beings…Then what are you supposed be?”
“I can be anything, but I am greater than what they can ever be. Look at their desires— power, wealth, lust and a lot of disgusting requests. They are ready to give their irreplaceable mortality, body and soul for such trivial things. I see these people and they irritate every inch of me. The big one is coming and I would be honored to be a part of their destruction. The forces above me have sent me to call you from this illusion you live in called life.”
“I knew you were a witch, but now I am sure you are a mad witch.”
“You can call me anything you want, but we are the same. The evil that made me a witch shelters you and everyone knows it, especially your dead mother. Or is she your sister? That part confuses me.”