dark lord

chapter 2

There was a boy, I think. A boy before the man, a man before the beast. No, that’s not right. There was never a man, not truly, only a boy, I think. It was a strange thing to reach so far back into one’s own memory, only to find the landscape clouded with fog and filled with wraiths and shadows half remembered.

The winds were beating against the walls of my citadel as thunder shook its foundations. The gods were angry with me, I knew, angry with me for killing their newest champion. Good. let them rage, let thunder roll and lightning flash. Let them scream and howl on the winds, let their frustrated torment fill the world as mine once did. After all there was nothing else they could do, dead as they were.

It had been five days since the battle, since the slaughter, most of my minions stilled feasted on the corpses of the fallen, in the courtyard. Whilst I had spent the days seated on my throne. My throne had fierce look to it, as it should, it  was made from four ivory horns twice as tall as a man, polished ebony wood and hateful black iron.

My brain pounded inside my skull as it hadn’t done in years, I felt strange, disoriented as if were about to retch, as I hadn’t done in… how long? The heavy iron doors to the throne room creaked opened slow and lumbering. It groaned as it moved, like a mountain giant stirring from years of slumber. It was Eniya who enter first, gliding down the hall with long strides and absolute silence. He was dressed in a fine violet robe trimmed in gold and made of silk. Following close behind him was a procession of horrors that could stop a lion’s heart at a glance. My generals. Eniya approached the dais and bowed quietly before ascending to my side.

My generals, or at least five out of the nine, formed a line before me. It had been years, perhaps even decades since they have all been gathered in a single room. On the far right were the pale children, Neiki and Meiki, twins, male and female, white as ash, white as bone. Except for the black circles around their eyes and the single black dot on their foreheads. At times I forget which was the male, and which was the female, they were fond of switching.

Next to the twins, tall and terrible, stood Oye’wu. She of the bloody curse and devourer of the forsaken. Her form was that of a woman dressed in crimson wraps, iron armor on her left arm, a bone spear in her right hand. She wore anklets of gold and necklaces of red and orange beads. Her lips were thick and painted black, her head was shaved down low to reveal the dark skin beneath.

As I glanced in her direction she stepped forward and slammed the butt of her spear on the floor then bowed. “My lord it is and honor to stand in your presence once again.”

I gave her a small nod in return and she was about to step back into place when… “orororo hehehehehe orororor riririrri” a high pitched cackle drew our attention.

All eyes darted to the handsome young man to the left. Kishi Obi wore a smile on his smooth brown face whilst the hyena face on the back of his head cackled wildly. He wore a skirt of white cloth tied with a red sash, and on his feet he wore leather sandals. Oye’wu shot him a glare that could crack stone. “Oh come now, let's not waste the masters time with petty pleasantries,” Kishi said.

“Agreed, speak your mind quickly then leave me to my solitude.”

Yet no one spoke up, they all stood there squirming and looking to each other. Eventually one of them stepped forward, a woman, dressed in a crimson gown of silk and satin trimmed with gold. Her skin was the brown of a kola nut and her coal black hair had tight braids to the front, but to the back it was a cloud of black wool. To say that Asayaya was beautiful was to say that the surface of the sun was merely warm. “My lord,” she said as she approached the dais, with such seduction in the swaying of her hips that the stones beneath her bare feet seemed to sigh in ecstasy. “There have been some concerns among your generals,”