Maame Water: The Legend Of The Fish Queen

Inside The Cave

When the King discovered that his sister was missing, he summoned forty of his best warriors. He had asked them not to carry amour-just weapons- and to wear their most furtive clothes because they were going to follow Kabu and his wife into forest unnoticed. He had received reports from the other guards which stated that the women whose husbands had disappeared were also heading to the forest. The King asked the guards to follow them surreptitiously. The guards who were watching Elder Neequaye’s quarters, however, had reported no strange behavior.

The King led his men into the forest, moving as fast as a forest cat and as silent a shadow. His men-behind him- were as silent as he was. They soon caught up with the other guards and minutes later they could make out the dark shadows of Kabu and his wife. They followed the two shadows- for they did not dare go closer- until the shadows disappeared into a frightening cave. The King breathed and said, “We are here.”

“Exactly where Your Highness?” It was Adotey’s younger brother who had spoken. “I assumed when you summoned us so late at night that you had discovered the whereabouts of the Night Killer, the fiend who murdered my brother. I however did not expect, Your Highness, that we would be chasing women in the middle of the night.” Adotey’s younger brother, like Adotey, held women in low esteem.

“We have arrived at the lair of the Night Killer.” The King replied, “Little boy, your disgraced brother was silenced by the beings he so disrespected; he was silenced by women.”

Adotey’s brother scoffed, “Surely Your Highness, you do not believe-“

“Silence!” the King snapped, “Do not test my patience boy!”

Adotey’s brother kept quiet.

“We will enter as silently as we followed,” the King said to his warriors. “We will not make our presence known until we are sure that the Night Killer is in the cave. So the King and his men melted into the shadows and disappeared into the cave.
                                 ***

The black-haired girl used a calabash to fetch water from the lagoon. She was chanting, chanting the ancient words of a powerful dark magic long forgotten by the great-grand fathers of her people. The King looked on as the black-haired girl, still chanting -with her back facing him- took out a red and black dagger and drew it across her right palm. Red blood flowed from her palm and joined the lagoon water in the calabash. Kabu and his wife were standing in the middle of the cave and from where The King crouched, he saw that Kabu was completely enchanted. At last the black-haired girl finished chanting and the potion in the calabash glowed a brilliant blue.

“My sister,” she said turning to face Kabu and his wife. The King did not hear the rest of what she said for he was overcome with shock. All his men were in a similar state- but for a totally different reason. Whereas they were taken aback by the girl’s beauty, he was surprised by who the girl actually was. She looked four years younger and much more beautiful than he remembered, but The King would never forget her face. The face that smiled at him when they had played in the palace courtyard. The face that looked smug every time its owner had beaten him in a sword fight. The face that looked to him for comfort when her husband had died. The face of his sister, his beautiful, innocent sister. She looked different now; her skin had an unnatural golden hue and her hair was blacker than he remembered-as if it had absorbed all the moonlight of the night- but she was still the sister he knew and loved.

The King, as if in a trance, watched as his sister handed the glowing potion to Kabu’s wife, saying, “Drink this sister, and you will be bound to me. You will have the strength of a thousand men, the beauty of the fairest goddess, the agility of a thousand cats and you will age no more.”
Kabu’s wife took the calabash and drunk. The King saw that with every drink, Kabu’s wife looked younger and stronger. Her once sickly skin became smoother and healthier. Her body grew firm and shapely. She looked like an adolescent now, and she was more beautiful than she had ever been. And her hair… her hair changed from dirty black into a startling… blue? No one had blue her in all the lands. What was this witchcraft?! It seemed like the King’s men had similar thoughts because they started praying to their ancestors.