Women Of Steel | ✔

VIII

Kosoko's unconscious body lies feet away with his colourful tunic spread out around him like a blanket and his legs are wide apart from each other, oh how the mighty have fallen.

A wicked smile tugs at my lips, seeing him helpless and vulnerable is addicting, it makes my blood hum. It is in this moment that I know that having my revenge will a sweet one, the feeling of having my enemies to their feet will not disappoint. Frankly, I cannot wait for that feeling.

My hand finds the tiny bruises on my neck, caressing them halfheartedly. Tara watches me with an emotionless expression, she grips a hoe in one hand and cradles a basket on her other arm. She was most likely farming or about to before she found me, or more accurately; Kosoko strangling me. If Tara were some other woman, I would most likely be shamefaced that someone who is supposed to look up to me and fear me saw me in my lowest. But this is Tara; nothing can make her respect me any less, as nothing can make me respect her any less.

While I can confide in Sade about my problems, she has never truly seen the real me, the me at my worst.

But Tara is me, and I am Tara. Whatever I have suffered, Tara has suffered worse.

I stiffen my spine I watch Kosoko stirs slightly. I notice that my skirts have loosened and now lie on the grass.

Shrugging, I unfold my sokoto and straighten them. The knife hidden in them falls to the ground and I crouch to pick it, twirling the metal in my fingers.

"I want to tie him, teach him a lesson." I tell Tara. "Do you happen to have a rope in your basket?"

Wordlessly, Tara hands me a rope and with a smile, I begin to tie and gag Kosoko tightly, I only wish I could see his face when he awakens, tied, most especially by a woman, the species he is supposed to dominate.

The sneer on his face remains even as he is unconscious, even in sleep, he remains a monster. With one last distasteful glance at him, I spit on his face and rise, remaining every inch of the queen I am.

"To what do I owe the honor oloori," Tara's quiet voice calls from behind me, judging from her low pitched voice, one would never guess Tara to be the strong woman she is, her body is not built like Sade's plumpy body. Tara is tall, even taller than I am with skin darker from toiling tirelessly under the sun, she looks nothing like a woman that can take down a full bodied man easily.

The female warrior has a face that reminds me of a man's, angular and sharp facial features, thin lips that are always pressed in a line and catlike eyes.

Tara was accused of being a witch and cast here because of her strange powers to see certain future happenings, what is more threatening to men than a woman? A woman with power. This is what makes her a very formidable ally.

"I need answers," I tell her, my eyes still watch Kosoko's form. "There are certain happenings in the village that strike me as strange and I need your wisdom and your skills."

Tara nods slowly, but she is quick to cover the look confusion on her face, it is rare for me to ask for anybody's help, even rarer from her. I would not call Tara a friend, but an ally, a woman I respect.

"I am at your service your Majesty, follow me." Tara begins walking but she pauses and turns to look at my bemused look. "What will happen to your horses?"

Startled, I realise I have forgotten the horses we came with, I shake my head, amused as I see that my mare has cozied up to Kosoko's much bigger horse. Damn women, we still cannot stay away from the men; be it to love them or to kill them.

-----

Tara's home is a little hut near a small stream, there is a small shed with several patches in the thatched roof. The shed is perhaps where she does the cooking, that explains the flickering fire and smoke from the wood and the clay pot atop the firewood. Something sweet like the scent of oranges from her cooking smells in the air around, it gives a homey feeling to the daunting trees around Tara's hut.

The sun has already began to set, I have to return before Tadenikawo notices my absence.

I sit on the long wooden bench besides the pot, I watch Tara move about, dropping her basket and checking on her cooking before she settles besides me, sharpening her cutlass with a thin slab of stone.

"What is it that you wish to know?" She asks.

"I have heard rumours from the palace about the disappearance of people from the village, most especially at night hours," I explain to her, exhaling in frustration. "The rumours say these disappearances are because of the king's curse."

Tara makes a noise between a snort and a scoff, shaking her head in indignation.

"You have heard recycled lies your Grace," Tara states. "There is nothing magical about the disappearances in the village, I believe the king had a meeting about this issue a day ago. This is a cause of the forest people."

My mouth hangs open in shock, I snap it shut, shaking my head in disbelief.

The forest people are another legend in the village, not so much a legend anyway. The forest people are a reclusive tribe that used to enslave, kidnap and steal from the village until a peace treaty was signed among the leaders. Their name is from their way of dressing; their clothes are made from leaves from trees, only leaves cover their bodies, they were once believed to be spirits. Also from their way of life, the forest people live among animals in the forest and treat animals like family, they do not believe in our way of life.

"The whispers say that the forest people' king wants a wife from this village in peace offering," Tara tells me.

Why are women continually used as peace offerings to greedy kings?

What bothers me more is why Tadenikawo has not offered some random woman as a sacrifice to this mad king, after all, to him and every other man, women are spoils of war to be gifted like animals.

When Tara does not say anything else, I rise to my full height, her next words halts me in my step.

"The king's curse will soon begin it's reign, nobody will not be spared."

I walk away with her ominous words of doom ringing in my head, not even passing Kosoko's muffled, threatening voice demanding to be freed makes me smile. The king's curse is coming.
I have new knowledge now, one that tests my morals; a woman could be sold off any time to appease an angry king and I can choose stop it, but do I want to?
I claim to fight for women, but only when it benefits my greed for power and revenge.

She mo ma jeki obirin bi temi je iya?

When I arrive back at the palace grounds absolutely conflicted, Tadenikawo awaits me in my personal chambers, gold eyes furiously glinting.

Translations

She mo ma jeki obirin bi temi je iya? - Will I let a woman like me suffer?