The Nameless

Chapter Sixteen

*** Anyanwu ...

"This way."

He stops and gestures towards a hut, the only one by a large old tree. I walk closer to it.

"The princess resides here, his highness demands that you stay with her till the wedding ceremony." I turn to him.

"Wedd-what?" He moves to the entrance and bows.

"Your highness, the girl."

"Oh so we have come to a conclusion that it is a girl and not a sexless demon." A soft voice comes from within, laughter hidden beneath her tone. A servant comes out, holding up the mat for another to bring out a stool. Then she comes out. She's beautiful.

Daintily, she sits at the stool. One of the servants goes back to braiding her hair while the other resumes fanning her. Dark eyes rise to mine.

"What is your name?"

"I do not have one."

"Hm. Are you a leper?" I glance down at my skin.

"No, your highness, I was born this way." Her eyes continue to watch me, scrutinizing every inch of me.

"That stick across your chest." I touch it.

"My bow?"

"Can you use it?" I nod, a smile spreading across her face, "Show me." I take off my bow and string an arrow from my back, searching out a target. Turning back from where we came, I notice a hen leading a few chicks about. I raise the arrow and pull it back, shutting my eyes to isolate their sounds from the noise.

When I do, I let go.

The hen is screaming, clucking its grief. A woman runs out of her hut, yelling for who had pushed a stick through an innocent chick. Then she sees me and suddenly goes dumb. Stumbling, she rushes back into her hut. The princess is laughing, clapping.

"For a moment, I thought you were going to kill the hen." I turn back to her.

"Why would I do that? The chicks come from hen, if I kill her then no more chicks. Plus, the chick is a harder target and I wanted to show off." She scoffs.

"Luru, bring her a stool." The servant curtseys and leaves for it. I sit down, letting her tell me how everything runs here, from waking to sleeping. I join her for two meals through the day, meals that I hid in my rapa. She never let me out of her sight once.

Finally at night, she goes in to sleep and asks me to follow. Going in I realize the hut had been built into two on the inside, divided by a mud wall and mats for privacy. She goes into the space on the left and I go into the right. Long after she has begun to snore, I sneak out and into the trees.

When I'm far away enough, I whistle. After a while of nothing, I whistle again. And just as worry begins to burrow a hole into my stomach, I hear quick steps. Agu slows as he gets to me, he knows I don't like it much when he jumps on me. I get on my knee to stroke him.

"Quick, Agu, take me to Adinna." At the mention of her name, he starts back from where he came. I follow him to Adinna, who is sat by a tree half asleep. I kneel down to touch her. "Wake up, we need to leave." She opens her eyes, groggily taking the wrapped food I'm shoving into her hands.

"What happened, you were gone all day?"

"You were right," I breathe, leaving her to gather our things, "It was a trap, the King has ordered that I marry his son and has basically imprisoned me-we need to leave." She's still seated. "Ma!" I hiss.