“Aiden,'’ I cried out in a faint voice. And then total darkness.
Chapter 15
Something fast paced was happening around me, but I could not tell what. My hands were held tight in an awkward position, and it hurt. A few minutes later, the fog cleared from my eyes and I could see everything. It was an area surrounded by tall trees and lit up with large red candles. The ground was littered with fallen leaves, and the air smelled of compost and something sweet. I was closer to the bank of a large body of water. There were six other people tied up on the ground far from me, only one of them was a man.
Of the people on their feet, there were more men than women. I counted them. They were twenty and all dressed in white overalls with amulets around their necks. One of the women inspected the bodies on the ground and then joined the other men. My arms were becoming number by the second.
I wriggled around using my fading strength. The ropes did not budge or show any sign of loosening up. I cursed my captors under my breath and coughed.
The last light of the sun disappeared and night settled upon the earth like a boding sign.
“Who’s there? What is happening there? This is the Oni National Park. No one should be here at this time.”
Oni National Park was located at the outskirts of Ibadan. They had taken me to where I assumed it had all started.
The light from the torch shone through the trees and rested on me. I squinted away from it and coughed some more. The owner of the voice came through the final row of trees. He put off his torchlight and observed the area.
“Our father in heaven.” He made the sign of the cross and brought out a walkie-talkie from his pocket. “Security...” was the last thing he said before someone came behind him and knocked him out.
“An additional sacrifice is not a bad thing.” The man who hit him laughed wickedly.
I found my voice at last. “Just let him go, he didn’t do anything!” “She’s awake,” someone said.
“Just let him go,'’ I repeated.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Kolade said coming out of the crowd. “It’s time,” he announced.
“Time for what?”
The full moon rose above the trees, and its reflection fell on the water. Kolade made everyone take their places next to it. He stood at the head of the semi-circle and brought out a calabash adorned with cowries. He spoke into it and made his way towards me with a knife.
“What are you doing?”
“The first rites have already been carried out. This is a vital part of the final ritual,” he explained. I remembered something.
“Well, I know you can’t perform your ritual without another key ingredient.”
I was trying to buy some time, but for what reason, I had no idea. I figured sooner or later I would be found; perhaps more dead than alive.
“What do you mean?” he asked curiously.
“I know my blood is not the only thing you need here. You need someone else’s.”
“What else do you know?” My method of stalling was working.
“I know there’s only one surviving person with the Meje blood flowing through his veins and I know you need him.”
“You have gained some knowledge, but you’re wrong. We don't need him, well we didn’t anymore because our powers have grown immensely and you are practically the essence of Ajë, and it is more than enough. You see, we have been monitoring you ever since our unfortunate run-in with the beast. I am so sure he’ll be coming here to your rescue.”
“Please leave him out of this,” I cried, now more afraid for Aiden's safety than for mine. Kolade only laughed. I had never felt so much hate for a person.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t leave him out of this. We left him some clues for him to get here and I’m sure he will. Ajë will need to have her revenge on the people who put her away. Like you said, he is a key ingredient, for her first meal in years.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Power, my sweet girl, power. But right now it’s no concern of yours. It’s time,” he said curtly and proceeded to make a significant cut on my hand. I muffled a shriek and breathed rapidly. He placed the calabash under my bleeding hand to let the blood flow in. Then he proceeded to make several cuts on my legs and my face.
“Please stop," I pleaded.
Kolade went on without giving me a second glance. He was back at the head of the circle, calabash in hand. The gathering all took turns cutting their hands and putting drops of their blood into the calabash. Kolade was the last, after which he took it and placed it in on the ground. They all knelt down facing the lake and Kolade began an incantation where for every juncture he would place his hands inside the calabash and then wash his blood off with the water from the lake.
Íbi jiga ti Orun!
Ipetele ibi ti Aye!
Ma lo jeje ki o le da bi Iji!
Dawo duro ki o dabi omi to o son worowo!
Ajë! Olobukun eyan ti o mu ore ofe to mu Imole wa!
Bawa rin ni onon ti o mo, ti o si Okukun ni be!
I watched all this unfold with my heart in my mouth. ‘I was going to die’ was the only thought in my head. I looked from my left to my right when I noticed a sudden chill in the air.
The surface of the lake gave a bubbling sound and stopped. Kolade placed both his feet into the shallow part of the water and continued with his incantations. The bubbling resumed in full force as if the water was boiling. A white cocoon-like substance came bursting through the surface. The cocoon-like material touched the ground, and the gathering sauntered towards it. A white staff fell out of it before the frail woman who looked too familiar. She was caught by Kolade.
“Ajë.”
He looked at her like she was a newborn baby.
Her hair was whiter than her garb, her lips a dark blue and her skin appeared to be covered in scales. Kolade spoke to her in Yoruba, but it did not sound like the one I understood. She looked at the tied up abductees on the floor and was aided by Kolade toward them. She took a careful glance at the first man and what happened next frightened me so much my teeth began to clatter.
The witch bent down and sunk her protruding fangs into the hand of the man. There was no struggle from him. Her scales were becoming less prominent. She took her time with all seven of them, her mouth soaked with so much blood. Her followers were on their knees again and watched on in awe. Her fangs retracted when she was done.
“How can you kneel there and just watch?” I screamed, my fear now replaced by anger.
The witch turned her glare towards me. Kolade whispered something to her, and she smiled. She drifted in my direction with poise and grace, her staff by her side.
“Daughter of Ireti Eniola, we meet face to face,” she said, moving her eyes from my head and down to my toes. I wondered how she was able to speak English so fluently, but I had seen stranger things in the last few months that made it trivial in comparison.
“Untie her,” she ordered one of the men who hurriedly did in an attempt to impress. He bowed and backed away. I flexed my arm.
“Get up,” she said to me.
I hesitated. Without warning, a crushing pain erupted in my chest. My screams could be heard miles away. I wondered why in God’s name, I was alive to feel something so horrifying.
“Daughter of Ireti, don’t fight it.”
It felt like my heart was being held by a firm unrelenting grip, and that hand was gradually pulling it away from my body.
“I’m simply taking what’s mine,” the witch said in a soothing voice. She came down to my prone position and held my head up. The pain was so much I could not cry; I could only wish for death to come quickly. She stared directly into my bulging eyes and then the pain was gone.
I fell to the floor and was left there. Tears came flowing freely as I thought about all the things I had not done with my life. Yet among all, one seemed to take priority. I knew I would regret it if I died without telling Aiden I loved him. If only I were not dying. I c
ould still see the witch walking away in a foggy haze and then the image was gone.
***
When I opened my eyes, all I could see and feel was weighty darkness. In a few seconds, my vision became more transparent, and I could make out what was behind and ahead of me. I was in a small canoe. The canoe moved on its own accord going with the flow of the water. It soon came to a stop. The ground was full of broken works of clay, and even though I stepped on it with my bare feet, it did not hurt. There was a straight path whose end I could not see. It was enclosed on both sides by large winding plants with black leaves. Everything appeared surreal, even the sky which seemed to be absent and was replaced by a thick cloud of smoke. I walked down the path for a long time, expecting each time I heard a whooshing sound a demon or monster.
At the end of the path were more broken pieces of earthenware, and in the middle of it was a tree. Its top could not be seen because it disappeared into the cloud of smoke. Its thick broad roots rose in and out of the ground in a zigzag pattern.
A small figure ran around the base of the tree. I edged closer with caution. The apparition moved away, and I could no longer see it. The sound of laughter echoed in the damp air. It sounded like a child laughing. I climbed over a root toward the pealing laughter. It stopped, and I halted on my tracks. The laughter started again only this time it was behind me. I took a sharp turnaround to find a boy no more than five years old behind me. A black and red cloth covered his small body. His brown eyes and his chubby cheek made him look harmless.
“Hey,” I gasped. “What are you doing here? Are you alright?”
He tilted his head.
“What is this place?” He did not answer. I looked around. Nothing made sense.
“Do you know where we are?” I asked. “Do you speak English?”
The boy looked up from his bare feet and smiled.
“Am I dead?”
He stretched out his hand.
“You want me to take your hand?”
He slowly nodded.
I took his hand, and he dragged me along with him, dodging the roots as we went around the enormous tree trunk.
“Slow down,” I said.
For a child, he had the agility and strength of an older person. He stopped abruptly, and I did too. My eyes went in the direction of where his gaze lingered. There was a hole in the tree, enough to let me pass through if I bent over. The boy yanked at my hand again and dragged me along into the entrance. He let go of me once we were halfway inside.
I saw a light at the end of the tunnel and moved towards it. The tunnel opened up to a cavernous chamber. At the far end stood a large stone chair adorned with skulls. The place was illuminated by lights from the gaping mouths of more heads.
On the stone chair sat an old man smoking a pipe. The smoke coming out of his mouth formed only one pattern; a skull. The cloth on him was a lengthier version of the boy's, only he wore a wide-brimmed straw hat which shielded his eyes. I looked around for the boy, but he was nowhere to be found.
“Welcome, Iwir,” the old man's voice boomed across the room.
"Where am I?” I asked.
“Where do you think you are?” He removed his pipe from his mouth.
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.
There was a pause, and then I asked again what had been bothering me ever since I found myself on the mysterious canoe.
“Am I dead?”
“A stranger has eyes but do not see.”
I was beginning to get annoyed by his evasive answers.
“I think I’m dead,” I stated for my own benefit.
“Hmmm...”
“Where is this place?”
He puffed on his pipe and spoke. “Orun-apadi, the unseen land of potsherds. It is the path taken before reaching the spirit world. But I doubt you are dead. I would know.”
“So I’m not dead?”
“It is doubtful.”
“Who are you?” I ventured to ask.
He did not answer immediately.
“I am known as the trickster.”
“The god of duality,” a quiet laughing voice said behind me.
I looked back to find the boy, and then he was gone in a flash.
“The guide of travellers, the god of beginnings.”
The old man was back on his chair.
“The Orisha of death,” the boy said in front of me faintly, but it was strong enough to make me come to grips with who I was dealing with.
“And so on and so forth. I am Eshu, Iwir,” the old man revealed, taking a drag of smoke out of his pipe.
“I thought you were just a myth. You and all the other Orishas I have recently come to know.”
“Time is a myth, but I am not. We are all but forgotten, but that does not mean we have stopped existing.”
“And why am I here?”
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he explained.
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re here because of him.”
He looked past me. I slowly turned around and found to my greatest surprise, Aiden walking up the tunnel. His eyes widened when he saw me.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, rushing over to me and throwing his arms around me.
“If you’re here too then that means you’re probably dead,'’ I said breaking away from his embrace.
“I’m not dead. My soul was pulled into this world by Femi through some bizarre ritual to get to the axe of Sango. I never thought it would work, but here I am. He told me there would be consequences and I guess you being here is just the beginning.”
“Why did you come here?”
“To get what we need to kill the witch.”
“I thought she could not be killed.”
“There’s only one way to kill her.” He looked at Eshu who pretended to not notice us.
“How?”
Aiden moved away from me and toward the god. “I am here for the weapon.”
“You mean this weapon?” Eshu asked as an axe materialised out of thin air and into his hands. It was a double-headed axe with a curved handle. The metallic head reflected the light of the flames. “I cannot give it to you.”
“I have come prepared to do anything you ask,” Aiden said aloud.
The old man stood up for the first time. He was taller than anyone I had ever seen and seemed to get taller as he walked toward us. He took a long drag on his pipe.
“If you can answer my simple question, I may consider lending it to you.”
“Agreed.”
“And if you fail,” Eshu put up a finger, “if you give me the wrong answer, cursed one, I will take possession of your soul and hers.”
Aiden turned to me. I shook my head.
“Anyone can see the love you have for her? What would you do to save her?”
Aiden pursed his lips and then relaxed.
“Anything,” he answered. “I would do anything for her.”
“So be it.”
The boy emerged behind Aiden, and the old man disappeared.
“You have only one try, cursed one. Dried smoked fish is delicious, but what is one to eat before the fish is smoked?”
The boy who I now believed to be Eshu waited for a reply patiently. I pondered over the question and came up with nothing.
“Aiden,” I called.
“Don’t worry, Simi, I’ll figure it out,” he told me and mouthed the question over and over again.
“Just one try?” Aiden asked.
“One try cursed one.”
Aiden was in deep thought again, and for a long time, he mauled the question over in his mind, and so did I. I could only come up with one thing.
"Aiden, maybe it's a trick question. Maybe there is no definite answer.”
That seemed to have done the trick because he said with all confidence, “I have your answer.”
I froze.
“There is no answer to your question. Instead, it is a lesson. Dried smoked fish I believe represent
s the future and the fish not yet smoked represents the present. It means that while a person must think about his future, he must also remember to take care of the present.”
The old man reappeared next to his chair.
“Well done, cursed one, you have answered my question.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“The axe,” Aiden demanded.
“I remember telling you if you answer my question, I may consider lending it to you. I did not come by this,” he indicated the axe by a tilt of his head, “by accident. I came by it through careful planning and pure wit. It’s not very safe for someone who tries to double cross the god of thunder. But I did, and I got away with it. Until recently. This weapon can kill anything and anyone, including the gods themselves. Including me.”
He stopped and observed us.
“War is coming mortals, and you may all be caught in the crossfire. With this weapon which I have carefully protected for hundreds of years and a worthy army, I can be assured of victory. Now, why do you think I should give you my most prized possession?” His question was thrown at Aiden.
“Because I’m ready to give you my soul in exchange for the axe.”
“Aiden, don’t.”
“I could easily take it."
“Not without a fight."
The god seemed amused. “I like you, cursed one, and because of this, I will heed your request. However, you have a time limit. I don’t want anyone knowing the weapon is on earth,” Eshu said and threw the axe at Aiden who caught it. “You both can leave.”
The moment he said that I felt myself being pulled away by a tremendous force.
“Aiden!” I shouted, but he was already gone. I woke up with a gasp as if I had been drowning and had just come above water and received a blast of much-needed air. My throat was on fire, and my vision blurry. I was still on the ground. I leaned up to get a good view of the witch who now watched as the bodies of the dead men and the woman were thrown into a freshly dug hole.
There was a loud banging noise and from the dark emerged Femi and Aiden hand in hand. I could see the axe on Aiden’s hand.
“Kill them!” Kolade yelled at his comrades. They were no match for Aiden or Femi who had come with a gun. He fired several shots which sent the birds flying out of their nests and me cowering in a corner. The noise died down, and I looked up. They were all down on the ground; dead or maimed, save for the witch and Kolade.
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