Women Of Steel | ✔

XLVI

Double update! I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, enjoy this chapter :-)

"Your trial is this evening." Tara tells me, she stands at the doorway, watching me with a hawk's gaze. Freshly bathed, I sit on my bamboo bed, I relish in the feeling of the soft fur bedsheets against my skin.

The room smells of Tara, not the smell specifically but her aura, Tara has made it homey in the way I never did and she has brightened it by adding her little touches, like the small flower pot on the window and the curtain has been drawn aside, letting sunlight into the room. The pretty mat that used to be at the foot of my bed has been replaced with a far colourful mat of blue and yellow and I hate it.

My lips lift in disdain as I glance at around, yet another place where I am not welcome.

"I thought your chambers needed some brightening." She says, noticing my stares. I turn to her, surprised. Tara never speaks about trivial matters and is always straight to the point, this Tara is not the bitter Tara I knew or I thought I knew.

"There is a reason why is is called my chambers, respect that." I snap childishly but I sigh and mutter a low apology. Being back in Ile Wura, in this palace for a different reason and a different is unsettling and I cannot still grasp the notion that I am supposed to be king.

"Sade is dead, isn't she?"

I suck in a breath and rub my head. "I am standing before seven stuffy men and listen to my future cabinet count my sins and judge me." I ignore her words.

I see the sympathy twinkling in her eyes, I used to think of Tara as a woman after my heart, a woman like me but now I am not so certain. I hate this Tara, I hate myself.

"Then prepare to rule with Tobiloba as your consort." She shrugs, a hint of the old Tara.

"I hate this, why should I answer to anyone, let alone men." I scoff the last word like a plague.

Tara narrows her eyes. "Because this is not about you, Oba," She seems to mock me with her words and it only vexes me further, because she is right. By now, I should be ready to give up my selfish ways and put Ile Wura first but the Yoruba say something about how it is hard to bend a smoked fish back into shape, it will only break. Bending me into a hero is impossible, I walk the thin line between evil and good, occasionally stepping into one and moving to the other.

"They better make this quick," I grumble under my breath.

Tara shakes her head. "I thought you had changed."

"Tara, dear Tara, you don't come out of fire brand new, you come out scarred and burned, whatever is left of you is a grotesque being, a monster."

"Scarred not dead, it is not over until you breathe your last." She counters.

I swing my legs calmly. "You are right, but someone once told me that I am all bad things rolled into one, I am the monster Ile Wura needs." I drop my mask of indifference, letting her see the pain seeping through and the wall that lies in crumbles. "I am nothing, I have had so much taken from me that I have so little left to give. This mask that I wear is all that is left of me and I hold it together for the sake of Ile Wura. If I am a monster for the sake of my kingdom then so be it."

Tara smiles slow, "Those are the most unselfish words you have ever said."

***

My trial takes place in the war room, with the seven kingmakers and whatever is left of Tadenikawo's cabinet. They sit on the benches on each side leading up to the small throne that has been shifted to the end and seven stools arranged in place where the seven kingmakers sit. I stand in the centre, stance straight and stiff like a criminal before a jury.

Tara is absent, but Ifatunji sits besides Ogundeji; the only familiar chief on the cabinet. A sadist at that.

"The cabinet bares its disapproval in the open and accuse you of insubordination and stubbornness, what do you have to say in your defence." The first man rasps.

I raise my chin, exhausted of having to fake bravado, I have done it for most of my life but the price never wanes.

"With all due respect to the council, and to the cabinet. If I was a man, all these faults you have mentioned you would sing my praises to the hills and crown me your king."

I continue haughtily. "Half of the men on this cabinet hate me for what I stand for, they see a woman strong enough to fight and they cower and quake in their seats, half of them stood by and savoured my pain while I was whipped and tortured by my husband. These men should have no say or sway in this trial."

The murmurs begin with Ogundeji's being the highest in the room, scaring away the gecko in the mud wall.

"You see the way she speaks with no regard for authority, this woman needs a good beating. Crown her as king and we are doomed forever." He rants.

"But the gods have approved of her, will you save us instead?" Ifatunji says, feigning innocence. Ogundeji splutters and his mouth gapes open and shut in surprise, he cannot point an accusing finger at Ifatunji, because indirectly he disrespects the oracle. He settles with glowering in my direction.

"I speak the way a king speaks, if you have a problem with how I speak then maybe it is you, Ogundeji who has no regard for authority." I deadpan. I turn to the council who watch on with half curious gazes and feign boredom, letting my dead eyes speak for me.

"You need me, Ile Wura needs me, and you will only have me on my terms, not barter me around like a prized ram. I will have no consort or no husband unless I chose to, my rule begins and ends with me, whatever children I might have will not ascend the throne unless Ile Wura wishes it." I command. "My rule will be fair and I demand a new and fair cabinet, and I wish to appoint Omotara as my first chief. You either accept my terms or burn in hell."

Silence. Unadulterated silence echoes back at me, mouths drop open and eyes bulge wide. I look straight ahead at the kingmakers, fixing my stare at the first man sitting and wearing white robes like his companions. A single necklace made of shells rests on his neck, the only difference that sets his attire from his companions.

Slowly, the third man on the kingmakers council claps. "I have heard the tale of Demilade Adegboyega and all her defiance but I never expected the queen to be this fierce. The gods have chosen wisely."

The fourth man continues, the council never seems to speak out of turn. "Demilade Adegboyega shall be queen and anyone who stands against the kingmakers decision shall burn in hell."

The fifth picks up where the fourth stopped. "You have learnt to stand your ground and let your will be made clear, and now, you must break the curse and set Ile Wura free."

"Your coronation is at dawn and after that. . ." the sixth mumbles, after a nerve wracking cough. Ifatunji eyes the old man in concern. The kingmakers are over eighty but as agile as a man their age can be.

"You will learn to kill a king. To become king and break the bloodline curse of Gbadamosi, you must kill Tadenikawo."