7 - The king's previous

Chapter 7 (The king’s precious.)

On top the round stone table two winged owls curved out of rock with a their eyes glowing of colored stone stood with their wings wide apart but facing outwards. They seemed to be in motion. Between them was a square block rising four feet off the stone table and on top this there was a strange black stone illuminated by light from a small opening above. 

The moment day light touched this black rock element the moment the two statues started dropping in height. The moment the light touched the rock, the water before them seemingly started slowing down and clearing as clear as glass.

The king still wore the strange white beads around his neck and this time they glowed yellowish. He walked up to this stone and raised his eyes. He shut his eyes for a few seconds until the statues stopped shifting. The moment they did, he took out his blade and cut into his wrist. He dropped the blade at his feet. 

The blade was made from rocks excavated from River Ulewo. The bead around his neck did not stop glowing. He held his wound over the black rock, which appeared like half an original. The moment the Blood touched the Stone, it started thumping like a pumping hear heart. 

On the third pumping, there started to grow some little plant. The leaves unfolded like the petals of a flower in the early morning sun’s glow. The plant looked so beautiful and green in the sunlight. Its leaves started absorbing drops of water the likes of early morning due. The moment the little plant started growing, the king levitated three feet off the ground and slightly leaned back facing the light above! Was he aware of this? Tsote asked himself internally. 

Some sort of power had taken control of the king and whatever it was he hopped it was not killing his father the day he knew him. Tsote looked puzzled just when N’dwoku lifted his arms and placed them on both their shoulders. In addition, Prince Mozia O’mondo was losing self-control too.

“Something is killing him N’dwoku…!” Mozia O’mondo spoke breathing very fast.

N’dwoku was silent for a few seconds…

“The beads…!” he stammered. They too looked confused from the way he stammered adding calmly. “Unless he hasn’t got the beads. Has he?”

“Yes he does… glowing around his neck.” They were unique compared to the ones N’dwoku wore around his neck that never glowed.

“Why doesn’t father accept that Olko beads possess power unparalleled with our Kurota?” Prince Mozia O’mondo asked.

“Again?” came N’dwoku as if he wasn’t hearing the question his very first time. “I told you, the beads conceal his mistakes from the kings…”

“Did past kings use Olko beads…”

“Yes…” N’dwoku lied.

“That’s not true.” The prince replied. “The elders said he just won’t listen but the past king would like to see his soul, mistakes and aspirations to be able to guide him.”

“Did told you so…?” Came N’dwoku. “Well, some mistakes.”

“What exactly is it he did that you won’t utter…?”

“You need to ask his best friend Thalko.” N’dwoku spoke in a deep whisper. “Tell me what is happening now…” N’dwoku demanded as though he was desperate to know what was going on.

“He, he is rising from the ground. Something is…” The prince replied

“That’s new now… you must now hush and watch to the end.” N’dwoku spoke in a whisper standing between them still blindfolded from what was going on.

“Something is strangling him…!” Mozia O’mondo spoke with worry

“Silences! Nothing is…” N’dwoku responded with a bitter whisper. Tsote felt something weird in his voice this time! Mozia O’mondo did not.

They watched while the drops of water started rising from the leaves. Each drop that rose left the spot tanning and dying away to ash vapor. The vapor rose. Each leave’s vapor increasing. The water drops levitated and came to form one larger drop of water the size of a raindrop gleaming in the light. The plant faded while the drop rose towards their father’s head. The water drop met his brow and the moment it did, they saw what N’dwoku wasn’t supposed to see. 

When the drop touched the king’s body, it started to consume him spreading from the head in patterns of black and gold. Right now, the only sound they could hear was that of the chanting above the ground. The earth below their feet vibrated.

All of a sudden, the leave of the little plant, which had turned to black and faded into ash and black vapor, started taking form. Tsote held N’dwoku’s hand on the other side of his shoulder while sixteen kingly figures dressed as if they were going for war stood around the stone table… they were the ancestors of the royal family from the day the Yakunko took over the throne from the Tonyam kings. The tales spoke about seventeen kings but there were only sixteen. 

“What do you see…?”

“I…,” Tsote stammered. “There are fifteen, seventeen.”

“Sixteen kings of the past…” Mozia O’mondo completed with an exact count.

“Count again… they are supposed to be…” N’dwoku began still.

“Sixteen, yes they are” Tsote repeated before he could even utter what the real number must have been. Tsote recalls the Yakunko tales he has heard about the emperors of the past in the Yakunko linage to this age. He was always keen! There were seventeen emperors. However, where was the seventeenths here?

“They are supposed to be seventeen…”

“Yes, yes.” N’dwoku spoke with a slight smile across his face, which Tsote alone saw. Why the smile?

“The seventeenth is he himself…” He told them and went silent. They did not seem to notice each other because they passed through each other in confusion as though they were disgusted with the King O’mondo! However, there was no difference between these figures and those Tsote saw feeding on the blood of the animals earlier in the ceremonial circle.

They notice the King and immediately started around him and touched him. Whoever touched him was sucked into the king’s chest struggling not to get in. 

They fought to exit but king O’mondo’s Kurota tried to hold them back with dark stick strands. The struggle went on until two of the past king broke free followed by three others! They were deserting him as if they always did!

Six others tore away at King O’mondo’s Kurota and disappeared too followed by the remainders. The statues and the fire burnt again and the king dropped to the ground! He started to his feet very aware of what had happened. He did not have any strength left in him. For a few seconds he could not stand up properly. N’dwoku did not wait!

“What do you see…?

“They just deserted him…!” Tsote replied.

 “Can I go help him…?” Mozia O’mondo asks.

“The ritual continues…. And your part is to witness, no further than that.” N’dwoku responded while loosening the cloth he had around his eyes.

“But…”

“We must get out of here at once!”

“…leaving him behind…?” N’dwoku asked him.

“Yes…” 

“No…” Mozia O’mondo hesitated starting away. N’dwoku grabbed his hand very fast and tightly.

“Listen very well Mozia O’mondo…” N’dwoku spoke with a voice N’dwoku has not heard him use before. “…this is Klode’s temple and you tampered with his next step and you will never become king after him. Dare to and see!” N’dwoku told him pausing for a few seconds. This is when he loosened his grip on him. The tone N’dwoku used frightened Mozia O’mondo. Just then, N’dwoku started past. 

“Follow me and quickly…”

“What will happen to him after…?” Tsote asked.

“He must meet the council of elders at the back of the temple and be immersed in the black pool… if his body rises with royal markings. That means he would have found the favor and blessings of the past Yakunko kings.” N’dwoku explained.

“What if he doesn’t…?”

“He must try again at the end of the next rain season.” N’dwoku replies as they exit the temple.

The sun was setting in the west when they returned to the palace. Thalko and his generals were getting out from a meeting. The king would be part of the war they were planning but he would join only if the Inka seed recognized him this day.

Thalko was the king’s right hand man and he handled the collection of all the general’s gifts to the king on behalf of the king because the moment the king returned, he did not stay long. He was a king of the shadows and so would return to his halls immediately. 

Therefore, he delegated much of his roles to Thalko, commander in chief of all the Yakunko Kurota warriors. Tsote looked puzzled. Nevertheless, when he glanced aside, he spotted M’boguku crossing to meet prince Mozia O’mondo both surprised and similarly excited to have met. 

The prince knew this was Commander Thalko’s oldest son and Tsote learned later that the two had achieved a certain level of friendship no one expected would come so fast as it had come from the first day M’boguku came to Sambura with his father. 

It began from a fight before the king.  M’boguku Iteti was defeated but whatever the king told  M’boguku Iteti and  Mozia O’mondo gave M’boguku lots of hope and vigor to do his best, to become the best choice Mozia O’mondo will have to make one day as his high commander. This he told Mozia O’mondo like a wish and Mozia O’mondo had taken it to heart. The king and Thalko heard but took the idea for bluff between two kids until the friendship grew from the shame of defeat into a desire for a closer friendship.

Unfortunately, Mozia O’mondo misbehaved in the past Kurotandi games when he led to the death of one of the opponents and so had to participate in this season’s games too. Many times he has requested M’boguku to move to Marakusha and become captain of the Kurotandi team from Sambura but Thalko requested Renso never to let his son leave.

A few days ago, he wounded his training partner intentionally so that he could petition the commander in chief’s son to be brought o Sambura. He needed a replacement. He needed M’boguku to move to Sambura come what may. He wanted M’boguku to disobey his father, chief Thalko but M’boguku did not have the guts to.

“I fear him…” M’boguku told him.

“You need to grow up…!” The prince told him. “-father told me, we only become greater than the normal if we can survive above the common rule and fears…”

This was a very true statement but one must have a limit that the prince did not have.  M’boguku Iteti and  Mozia O’mondo embraced themselves as if they had met for the rest of their past lives to this day or even grown up together, which looked unrealistic. 

When the Prince left, Tsote asked N’dwoku how the Yakunko got into the possession of this rock and where it came from. N’dwoku led him to the halls of tales of the Yakunko legends. There was a maze of tales in the west of the palace. Its walls were made of rock and tops fit with large blocks of stone arranged in such intricate styles. The walls were rocky and engraved with pictorial stories about the history of the Yakunko.

He shows him the most recent images of King O’mondo’s father and the arrival of the new comers as well as Commander Thalko’s father.

He started to explain to him the Yakunko tales about the origins of the Inka seed. As they left the maze of tales, he spotted the prince and M’boguku tackling each other like longtime friends.

M’boguku’s friendship with Prince Mozia O’mondo and their behavior captured Tsote’s attention so much that he almost did not realize N’dwoku requesting him to follow. They had returned to the same spot Thalko left them but he was not going to meet them any sooner. Tsote felt hungry! Many chiefs were already leaving. 

“You must be hungry…”

“Yes meshi…”

N’dwoku led him out of the palace towards the royal feeding shelters. Most of the royal elders and family relatives met here to have their meals every day. There were men and women. Tens and tens of servants bringing and taking away wooden and stone platers of food and splendid jars of drinks. There were whole roast animals, fruits and root foots arranged in amounts and formats he has never seen before. The men and women here looked wealthy and fat. 

What surprised him was M’boguku who sat next to the Prince. They were talking and laughing. The prince no longer behaving as reserved as Tsote first saw him. When he raised his face, he saw Tsote and his face changed at once. He froze in though. Tsote felt uneasy. Meanwhile N’dwoku asked him to join him through the center to some vacant space on the opposite end of the entrance they’d used.

 Half way across, the Prince hit his royal swash on a drum like instrument in the side capturing every one’s attention in the completely wide shelter. Tsote and N’dwoku froze at hearing the prince utter…

“Meshi...!”

“Yes, yes my prince.” N’dwoku responded taking a little bow. The prince scans the two from head to toe before he waved them closer up. 

“What’s his name again?”

“Tsote… but Commander Thalko anything more than his name, Commander Thalko alone can answer.” N’dwoku told him in such a clear tone.

“Commander Thalko?” He breathed out heavily glancing at M’boguku who leaned close and whispered something to the Prince. “No, no -you will introduce the boy here and now to everyone.”

“His name is Tsote O’mondo…” Came a deep voice from the entrance of the shelter. “-and is your brother from another mother.”