Women Of Steel | ✔

XXIX

The night bazaar has been transformed into a war camp. It is the first thing I notice as we are marched into it, the stalls are gone and in place of them, tents and sheds have been erected. The smell of horse dung and sweat hangs heavy in the air making me gag, the man leading me nudges me harshly and I stumble. I ignore him and my eyes search the small crowd milling about, searching for a familiar face.

The man notices and barks cold laughter.

“The queen will not be seeing you now.” He tells me. He is mistaken and I can almost imagine Remilekun now, her face a quiet mask, hiding how pleased she must be that she has outsmarted me.

“Don’t you know that declaring an impromptu victory is ill luck,” I taunt and then fall to the ground as a he kicks his heel into my back. The sand cushions my fall and when I rise; I try to ignore the fear drumming a beat into my chest as he grabs a hold of that wrist. It is not death that I am afraid of; in fact, my fear is out of my will. I glance around but my eyes are not focused on anything in the presence, only the past. I remember being pushed like this when I was captured by the Forest People months ago, the smell of a roasting fire hits me at once and I cannot help it, I double over and spew the contents of my stomach, I dry heave, it has been days since I last ate.

Someone yanks me back but I cannot focus on it either, it is that smoke, the smell of something burning that triggers the smell of my own flesh, burning as he took hot coal to it, branding me.

I fall in the sand again and hear laughter around me.

Something slams into the side of my face and my vision darkens, I think I hear Tara’s voice shouting before I black out.

***

When I come to, I am sitting in a cage made out of wood, like the one I was put in when I first arrived in the desert. I don’t bother searching for an escape this time, or try to meet any of the hollow eyes that I know must surround me, I remember my promise, the one that I made to the girls captive in their cages, I promised to save them, to free them but I am not free from my own horrors. My chest is still tight with fear and I can still smell smoke.

When I set out of Ile Wura months ago, to convince Demilade to take the crown from my brother, I left Ile Wura knowing that I was foolish to set out alone, to an enemy land, with the possibility of capture. I still did it because I knew that Demilade had a different goal in mind, I knew she was after revenge and I saw it in her eyes every time Tadenikawo made her pay for every defiance against him, I knew she would have rather burned Ile Wura to the ground before she saved it. I thought that if she knew that there was a greater prophecy insisting that she must sit atop the throne, that I might save Ile Wura both from her destruction and from the one that Tadenikawo was slowly driving the village into.

I met the capture of the Forest King and I bore his brand. Soon after Demilade was crowned king and my brother killed, the same town I had sought out to save swiftly turned against me, asking for the absolute erasure of the late Kabiyesi Gbadamosi’s bloodline. It was Demilade who persuaded them to remember what I had done at the risk of death; she spun the tale so beautifully and made me a hero. I didn’t feel like one then and I don’t feel like one now.

I push myself into a sitting position, finding that Tara is in the same kind of cage besides me, she looks weary and I feel a stab of guilt for dragging her into this. Truthfully, I have no solid plan, I hoped that the news of our arrival would have spread throughout the camp and that the curiosity would bring Arewa to come find me, I had hoped to get through to her but the sun has risen high above us -- a pale yellow thing that does nothing to remove the glum clouds surrounding it – and there is no sight of her.

I glance down at my hands bound with ropes and sigh.

“The guards did that,” Tara tells me nonchalantly.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out.

Tara says nothing at first. Then she heaves a sigh of her own.

“Very rarely do I get to follow the commands of brilliant minds, it was what drew me to Demilade, hoe she was tricky and tried to weasel her way out of the most difficult situations. It was what drew me to her, not any revenge she offered me. You are nothing like Demilade.” Tara says.

Somehow the words don’t feel like an insult, I have compared myself to Demilade for so long that whenever I am told that I am nothing like her, I think of it as a jab. But now, I know it is nothing but the truth, I am indeed nothing like Demilade and I am still trying to understand what that makes me.

“You are twice as stubborn and your ambition to prove yourself to everyone is foolish -- if they don’t like you now, almost nothing you do will change their mind. The times that you let yourself shine through, the times that you let yourself make your own plans, you come up with the maddest plans but they always do the trick.” Tara’s voice goes lower and lower with each passing as if she is tired.

“So, what do you want to do, princess?”

She doesn’t say anything else after those words and I don’t ask her to. She is right; I have spent most of my life trying to be somebody that I am not, trying to be somebody that they want and not who I am.

I was raised to be a princess and when I stopped being one, I sought out a new identity for myself. I am Omolara, princess, demigoddess of death and I am anything I want to be. The realization does not free me from the cage I am trapped in, so I push all thoughts of self discovery and begin to plot an escape.

Twice in the afternoon, two burly guards come with calabashes of water, they spend the little time feeding us in half sips and jeers, I watch them eye us with disgusting lust, taking advantage of two women until they are left whimpering, too broken to even scream. I tighten my first and bid time, waiting for night fall when I cut my hand on the jagged end of a bamboo in my cage and smear the blood on the rod barring me inside. Bending to my power, the wood begins to wither until I can kick it open.

Quietly, I slip out of the cage, wrist still bound. I move quickly to repeat the same process with Tara’s cage but she shakes her head.

“If you free all of us, the guards will notice and we won’t all make it out of this camp alive,” She whispers hurriedly. “Find Remilekun on your own.”

I grit my teeth, hating that I am forced to choose again but knowing that Tara is right.

“You have the element of surprise on your side, find Remilekun and come back to free us.” Tara urges.

“If any man lays a finger on you, any of you because of me—“

Tara grins wickedly, hinting at something feral hiding inside the quiet looking woman. I give her a final nod and run off as quietly as I can and climbing over the small fence made out of reeds. With a slight huff, I glance around in the dark, looking for anything out of place, in the distance, there is a small fire burning and I can hear the quiet ends of a loud discussion.

I take cover behind a tent when I catch the sound drawing footsteps.

“—the third batch of troops march out tomorrow morning.” A hoarse voice says, the man besides him grunts something in answer and I don’t dare to breathe until they are gone. I wonder how many soldiers Remilekun has at her beck and call and why she is sending them out in troops when she could send all of them out at once and win. She is dragging out the battle, longer than necessary and she is deliberately keeping troops here to keep her main base secure and at the same time, she can attack the several kingdoms all at once.

When I am sure that no one else is approaching I begin to rise from my stoop, only to be pulled back and slammed against a warm chest. I struggle to break free and find a knife at my throat, with my hands still bound, I am unable to fight back. I wait for the slash on my throat but instead, my assailant lets go and cuts through the ropes on my wrist. I twist away from them swiftly and stagger to my feet.

I turn; ready to throw a blow when I hear that familiar laughter, quick and hoarse as if she never laughs.

“You’re not dead. Yet.” Arewa says to me.