Manifest

Forty-eight

All around Eddie and Dara, mbono  and ekpo were separating from each other, watching each other warily as the divide grew. If Eddie wasn't mistaken, that had been the sound of the tusk. If he remembered correctly, Abasi Isong had destroyed the tusk already. The pieces lay, right there, kicked around by the fight and scattered into the sand.

"There's no need to fight anymore," Dara said, holding her bleeding shoulder and standing up.

"TRAITOR," a woman yelled from the crowd of mbono.

When the ekpo raised their guns at the mbono, Dara held up her hand to stop them.

"I'm not a traitor. Neither are you. It's all the same faith. Put down your weapons and surrender."

"Over my dead body," another mbono said as most of them tightened their hold on their weapons.

Eddie tried to follow their conversation. By the time they started exchanging words with Dara, he couldn't keep up. Sometimes, he got the point. Other times, their words jumped over each other, turning into a chaotic mess he couldn't make sense of. A regular, slow conversation that he could have followed, normally, felt like such a hassle for him in his current condition.

A gunshot went off in the distance and, once again, the fight continued. Ekpo and mbono on the edge of the gathering were fighting again, with ekpo pressing their advantage. Spitting out more blood, Eddie looked at the men and women around and noticed they weren't looking at him. They'd all stopped fighting, their eyes glued to something behind as they all stepped back away from him.

The machete in his chest twisted till it was straight and began to unsheathe itself from the pole as it fell the moment it dislodged from Eddie. Inhaling, Eddie fell on his side. Dara looked at him and looked behind him as well. Her eyes widened in awe as she dropped to her knees.

Some mbono dropped their weapons, some knelt, but there were some who remained standing and armed.

"You don't have to kneel if you don't mean it," Enyong said, walking into Eddie's view. His voice was quiet but clearly heard. It carried over the rest of the battle as more and more mbono and ekpo began to halt, till everyone was looking towards the center of the clearing. Looking at Enyong.

Eddie tried to stand, his vision blurred again, so he sat down.

"If you wish to continue your worship of Abasi Isong alone, you're free to go," he said.

No one moved.

"I won't punish you. You have every right to remain and follow me. If you don't think I'm good enough, you should go."

Some mbono who had remained standing left. More than half of them stayed. Eddie was surprised any of them stayed at all. Considering how violently they'd been set on killing Dara and Eddie, just a few seconds ago, he hadn't thought it would be easy to get them to surrender.

"Bow," Enyong said.

Everyone in the field, beginning from Dara who was closest to Enyong, placed their heads on the ground, all the way back to the mbono and ekpo on the edge of the gathering.

Enyong tilted his head as his eyes glowed.

Eddie hadn't felt it the first time when Enyong received ekpo's worship but now? As more of them let go and surrendered, he felt the energy flow all the way from Enyong to him, connecting them together in an everlasting tether that Eddie hadn't known was there, before.

He was surprised the mbono had submitted. He'd expected some resistance. Then again, Eddie had to admit they'd gotten enough resistance. They'd gotten several threats upon their lives and even war. 

Resistance was over.

Eddie moved his leg when Enyong turned and knelt in front of him, taking Eddie's face in his hands.

"Eddie, why? Look at you."

"T-the-they..." he tried to say, breathing heavily. "They...were...tr-trying... to... k-kill us," Eddie said, relieved the moment he succeeded in pushing out all the words.

Enyong cried, wiping under Eddie's nose and his ears.

"You're bleeding."

"We... won," Eddie told him.

"Yes, we did," Enyong laughed, leaning forward and pressing his forehead to Eddie's. "You're not dying."

No, Eddie wasn't. There was a tiny bit of relief in there, somewhere.

"Give me a second, and I'll take you home."

Eddie nodded as Enyong walked to Dara and patted her on the back.

"I'm taking Eddie back with me."

"Okay," Dara said. "I'll clean up."

"No," Enyong said, waving his hand as everyone else sat up. One by one, they began to get up, on their own. "I want you to get your shoulder looked at."

"Bemini-"

"Right now."

She wanted to argue. It showed all over her face. She, however, turned away and allowed an elderly mbono to take her away.

A man struggled through the crowd, helping a woman who was bleeding in the leg. He had milky, pink skin and blood coming down the side of his head. Eddie recognized the woman from the stream. She'd daggered him. Eddie was never going to forget that face.

The man had a tusk in his hand. As he got to Enyong, he held it out as Enyong took it from him.

"I want families of the dead contacted, immediately," Enyong said. "Please coordinate with mbono."

The man hesitated.

"Joseph," Enyong said. "We are one faith, now. Those are your sisters. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Bemini."

The woman who'd come with Joseph screamed as everyone turned to find her holding on to the body of the man who'd been with Dara. The woman cried spitting out curses in benign anger. She'd fought for his safety. She'd blown the horn and yet, here he was. Dead. 

Nature? 

She called him Nature, Eddie thought, trying to follow along the poor woman's grief. Around her, mbono and ekpo watched, powerlessly. Enyong walked up behind her and leaned over her as he touched two fingers to her forehead and she went silent, slowly falling back into his arms. He knelt as the man, Joseph, came up to them.

"Take her to Itaidiok Close," Enyong said. "Keep her there till I get back."

Joseph, carefully, hefted the woman onto his shoulders and Enyong came back to Eddie, placing a hand on his shoulder as they both disappeared.