Oontab [Episode 25]

Anerborlu

“You look like you just saw evil spirits.” It was the Queen that happened to be asking Aneborlu on their walk back to the palace. The servant was moping and avoiding Queen Dakumet’s eyes, a little withdrawn from the discussion the Queen had engaged the three slave escorts in.

She shook her head.

“Will you say something? Mmhh?” Queen Dakumet asked, wearing a warm smile.

“Nothing, my Queen, I am fine.” Aneborlu replied, a little shaken by the exchange.

The Queen laughed a little. “So you mean you did not hear anything we have been talking about?” She urged.

Aneborlu shook her head, “Not really.”

“Servant, what is wrong?”

She saw that the Queen was not giving up, and her partners did not seem to find reason to help her out so, “I am just a little dizzy.” She lied; dizzy with images she was fighting to get out of her mind. She was still trying to arrange information in her head to make one complete sense at a time, and it seemed hard enough, so she kept her head down as they approached the palace.

“Then you should get some rest. I will tell the guards that you are retired for the day. Go to the quarters and lie down, my dear.”

“Thank you, my Queen.” She couldn’t object to that. The two other servant girls dissolved into the palace duties, asking themselves why Aneborlu was acting strange.

One day, two particular servant girls were fed up with how their friend, another servant girl, was beginning to act.

“Aneborlu, alright, enough is enough. We don’t like how you have been squeezing your face and avoiding us lately.” One asked.

“Yes, you have to tell us something. The other day, you told the Queen you were dizzy, and if the dizziness has not gone in days, you should see the village physician or call for the Spokesman.” The Second added.

“No, no, no. I don’t have to see a physician. I am fine.” Aneborlu defended herself.

“No you are not.” The First insisted.

“I promise I am!” Aneborlu shot back politely.

“It’s not even a question of her health…” The Second began telling the First when Aneborlu threw a sarcastic look in her direction as if to say ‘talk directly to me; I am also standing here’.

“We are beginning to think you actually saw an evil spirit, if that is even possible.” The First suggested as the Second sniggered to her amusement and coughed to curb the effect of the unnerving message she thought she might have passed to Aneborlu.

“Please you both are beginning to get on my nerves…” She snapped, angry instead.

“Is that so? Uhhh… dear, this is not a fight, we are only asking you because we are not happy seeing you sad.” The First reasoned with her.

“Besides, if you think we are annoying you, then I wonder how you would feel if we decided to start doing that.” The Second added, turning her head in impatience.

Aneborlu hissed.

“Okay, there you have it. If you don’t speak up, I will tell everyone what fell into the King’s food when we were cooking last Market Day.” The Second threatened.

Aneborlu gasped in horror. “You wouldn’t!”

“Watch me…” They both started walking away when she bolted towards them.

“Wait, wait, wait! Please.” Aneborlu pleaded.

“So will you speak up?” The First almost screeched; a little upset with her friend.

Aneborlu moped.

“Ehhhhhheeee! People come oh….pppphhhhhbbblluumm…” The Second started screaming when Aneborlu covered her mouth to stop her from screaming. Her friends knew all of that was for her good. They were really not going to tell anyone that some mucus from her nose had fallen into the King’s food, even though she tried her best to remove as much of it as she could, pouring most of the affected part away. They had seen her and promised not to let anyone know.

“I will talk.” Aneborlu budged.

“Well, what’s wrong?” The Second asked, now calmed by Aneborlu’s compliance.

“I… saw something… something in the bush…” She breathed hard with every pause, shaking her hands to ease the tension.

“Ghost?!” They chorused and waited for her to continue.

“It… it…it…” She breathed faster, “It was someone…” She stammered.

“Was it something or someone?” The Second was growing impatient again.

“S..s…someone in the bush…and someone was with Queen Dakumet in the bush… and they were…” She swallowed, sweating profusely by now. They both threw themselves a wide-eyed glance across Aneborlu’s face.

There was a short pause when The First whispered, “You don’t have to say it out loud, we will keep a secret if we have to…” She said, seeing that the information had to do with the Queen, hence, it was heavier than they expected. It was now obvious that they had become more curious than they were trying to be caring for Aneborlu’s sake.

She became bold and whispered, “I saw…” It was still a heavy thing to say, “I saw… Elder Fonjam… and I think he was…” She breathed hard, “they were sleeping… he was sleeping with her…” The sky finally landed; “…in the bush,” She added as though it would make more sense to them.

“The gods! It is a lie!” The Second threw an arm over her head to reject the statement, snapping a finger to the movement.

“I swear! I saw it! When you two had gone to…to err… where you went, I went to the stream to bathe a little and swim, and… when I went to take my other clothes and beads that I had left on a rock, I heard laughing…”

“Ah! Laughing! We are finished…” The First lamented.

“…and I got curious; and when I checked, I saw them.” Aneborlu completed her story.

As they all lamented in low tones, the other two girls realized that it was worth the sadness that it caused Aneborlu, and they felt sorry for her having to see it, scolding her a little about obeying the Queen when she said they should leave her alone. It would have been better if no one saw it.

Tokisi

The stubborn girl, Tokisi, had been isolated from the groups of friends she had walked with, because of her nasty behavior. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with her, and she loved the space, as it pointed her out as a terror to young girls and women, so no one was running their mouth when she was around. She really did know how to keep people’s mouths shut. But today, she was forced to fetch from the same stream water as the other girls that happened to be there, because even if she was to go to another stream to fetch, she would have to walk another long distance to get there. She frowned and threw her careless legs towards the stream. The other girls saw her coming and braced themselves, making more discrete their gossip tale. To Tokisi, that was just the right call to listen more attentively, so she hissed like she was not intending to barge into the gist and bent herself towards the river, when five words whispered were loud enough to slip out of their gossip circle and into her ears. She almost dropped her clay pot of water when she heard them. If the clay pot did break, it would not have been the first of her stepmother’s that could have been shattered to pieces. She had her chance to shatter to pieces the life of the person that ruined her last opportunity to live a happy life.

Fonjam

Fonjam felt guilt pinging at his heart as he returned home from the council meeting one evening. He had been the one to tell Dakumet that he was done with the illicit relationship and preferred she stayed faithful to King Greda. But in the past week, they had both failed to resist their urges, and they had met to satisfy them. What bothered Fonjam was the fact that she had a child, and another yet to be born, only just recently conceived, and this time, he was glad he was not responsible for it. But he felt guilty at his treachery to the King, his own friend. He nurtured feelings for Dakumet and refused to let them die, besides, he always saw her at the council meetings, and found it difficult resisting her eyes; the ones that had drawn him to her from the start. He dreaded being caught, so he resolved to avoid her with all the will he could muster, because he still loved her.

The Betrayal 

King Greda sat at the dining table swallowing the last bite of his dinner. He dipped his hands in a shallow vessel filled with water to remove the little adhesive pieces of the food and rinse his hands clean, then he dabbed his mouth and wiped his lips clean as well. He placed his crown back on his head and pushed his seat back to rise and join the Queen in their room. Everything around the palace looked quite normal and put back in place now, as the meeting had been a little violent, and some furniture had been displaced. Nobody threw a blow, but if they had wanted to, they were on the tip of their rage, on the verge of doing so. But the King had stabilized everything with his authority and put them under his charismatic spell once more, still trying to pick out and understand his new problem with the unyielding substance Samnas had given him the other day he had paid him a visit in the shrine. He was bending his head to walk into the hallway to his room when he heard a loud-mouth lady mouth her way into the palace through the guards. 

“Let her in!” The King made sure his message reached outside, saying it loud enough. 

The woman broke their strongholds and barged in, landing bent. She breathed. 

“Your highness… My King…” She was too boyish to be a lady. She looked like a lady, even a beautiful one at that. But her composure was ruffian. 

“Is there a problem?” King Greda wondered. 

“My King… I have something to tell you.” She spat every word as though she was being pursued by a violent dog. 

“What did you say?” He barely heard her. 

Controlling her panting, she continued, “I know something you should know, Your Highness.” 

“Mm-hmmm?” He breathed. 

She calmed down to cushion the weight of the words and let them land well in the King’s ears. 

“It is about the…” She reconsidered, “It is about one of the elders…” 

“Wait! And if what you are about to say is not true, you will be severely punished for it, and for barging into my palace!” What could she possibly have to say? “I’m listening…”

 
She thought of it, but there was no reconsidering. She needed to do this and maintain her stand no matter what the truth was. “It is Elder Fonjam, Your Highness…” 

Tokisi 

Queen Dakumet was getting ready for the night’s rest when her husband called out. He had never called her out the bedroom like that before. And the tone of his voice was worrying. She picked herself up from the bed and came out of the room, first staring at their son’s door on the other side of the hallway to see if he was awake and listen for a cry. Nothing. She came out to the throne room and stood near the King, 

“My King.” She indicated her presence.

 
“This young lady has something to say… Young lady, tell me again.” He said calmly. 

She made a sympathetic face and avoided the Queen’s eyes, which were telling how confused she was. She dropped the message again, slowly and carefully. 

Queen Dakumet’s eyes widened and she raised both arms to her head, speechless. King Greda waited a few silent moments, then turned to his wife as his eyes watered, unsure if it was true.

 
“Is this true?” 

Queen Dakumet felt cornered. She had never in her life found any reason to lie, but this time,
“No.” 

The lady gasped. 

“It is a lie? Are you telling me that this lady rushed into the palace at this time to come and tell lies about something as delicate as this?!” He started raising his voice. 

“Your Highness, I swear, that is what I heard! I swear by the gods!” She pleaded, already in tears.

 
“Don’t use that language here, you! Shut up! And who told you to go by what you heard? Don’t you know that messages are distorted that way?!” King Greda barked, enraged to the fullest. 

“And as for you…” Turning to Dakumet. He had never spoken to her that way, and even he found it strange, “I will get to the bottom of this, and if I find out that it is true, I will tear you apart!!” Yes, tear her apart. How would Fonjam do such a thing to him, the King, his friend? 

Dakumet was truly dumbfounded, because it looked like she was going to talk, but she did not make a sound. She hoped he was going to send the girl home and push finding the answers till the next day, but after he gasped, he said, “What is your name?” 

“Tokisi, Y…Your Highness.” She mumbled. 

“Tokisi, where did you hear this?” 

“I was at the stream fetching water, when I overheard some girls gossiping, Your Highness, that was where I…” 

“Do you know them? Do you know where they live?” He growled. 

“My King, not today… not today… the Kingdom is asleep, let us go to bed…” The Queen begged helplessly. 

He did not oblige and his hard breathing sent terror around the room. 

There were silent sobs from both women, and even though there was a little silence, the silence was louder and tenser in the room than if it was chaotic in there. 

“Take two of my men outside…” 

“This night?” Then she added, “Your Highness.” Tokisi was struggling to repeat the title over and over again. 

“Yes, you will go to the house of the girls that you heard this gossip from – I hate gossip, but the content is most times truer than it is inaccurate – go and bring them here. When they see my guards, they should know that it is me.” 

“Yes Your Highness.” Tokisi murmured. 

Queen Dakumet could not understand it, and at that moment, she hated Tokisi. And her name was awfully familiar. Wasn’t she one of those that Fonjam had told her was troublesome when he was looking for a bride for the King? Oh, Fonjam! She had to find a way of saving him. So that was it! Tokisi was jealous! The thoughts crammed themselves up in her head and she couldn’t think straight.
When Tokisi had left, Queen Dakumet tried to reach out to her husband, “Please, Your Highness, hear me out before you do anything rash… I remember this girl, she is only hot-headed probably because she did not turn out to be the Queen! I saw her that day you called me to your presence…”
“That is not my problem, and that does not help the situation. When I find out the truth…Oh! Gods! I don’t even know what I will do with you! And Fonjam…” The King bowed his head and teared up, but nothing dropped to the floor. 

Queen Dakumet pleaded, but the King had shut his ears. She was beginning to leave but he called her back. Soon, the baby started crying and she found a chance to leave, but did not think the King would let her, so she jumped up and bolted to her son’s room, took him, and when the King came in after her, she had disappeared. 

“Guards! Go! Go! Go after the Queen and my son, bring them back, these are my orders! Do it now!”

To be continued...

- Telsum Bini