Chapter 23

When the Olori (Queen) hesitantly removed her hand from his mouth, she said to him in concern, "Apple of my eye, I know how difficult this is for you. Such a meal is nothing to me because I've eaten worse to fortify myself and charge my powers. I would have changed it to your best meal Iyan ati efo (pounded yam and vegetable soup) and even made it smell like it so that it will be easier for you to eat, but the potency of this meal lies in the fact that you know what you are eating and should not disguise it in any way to assuage your disgust... Now, I've to go to the river, I want you to be done eating this before I return."

After instructing her son, she stood up now, exited her room and walked around to the back of her hut, pressing her back against the wall. After she glanced left and right and was sure that there was no one around, she removed her scarf from her head and tied it around her waist, then lifted her leg, bent her knee and placed the sole of her left foot on the wall behind her then uttered a few magic words in Yoruba language.

 Immediately the words were out of her mouth, she instantly shapeshifted into an owl that had talons big enough to carry off the baby, then she took to the night sky, flapping her wings as she flew, heading for the river.

                                                                                ★★★

However, while Adewale had been out to murder the maid and cut out her heart, Enitan and Adigun's baby had floated far down the river and the baby wouldn't stop crying. Disturbed by the noise, Orisa Osun (River goddess) accompanied by two of her mermaids that were more like her ladies-in-waiting swam to the surface of the river.

"I can't sleep with all that noise! Who dares to dump a baby on my waters?! What careless mother disrespects motherhood this way?!" Orisa Osun said in irritation. She was a very beautiful woman in all her splendor and would have passed for a giantess. "Labake?" She called one of her maids waiting behind her.

"Iya." The maid answered, swimming forward with a bowed head.

"Fetch me that child that has stolen the peace of my night."

After bowing her head, the mermaid dove into the river and swam away in search of the baby, and soon returned with Ewatomi in her arms. "It's baby girl, Iya (mother), and she's just a few hours old. Her umbilical cord is still very much fresh." Said Labake.

"I should seek the foolish mother of this child and punish her gravely. Have humans now become heartless that the life of an infant matters not to them anymore?" Osun said angrily, highly displeased. "Why women who seek for children come to me in their numbers asking me to bless their womb, a foolish woman whom Olodumare (God) has blessed with a child and who's rather unworthy of one has decided to dump hers on my waters!"

"Iya, there's only one explanation to this." The other maid, Adunni, piped in. "This child might be the product of an illicit affair, Iya. Perhaps the human maiden got rid of the child to cover her shame of giving birth out of wedlock."

"Probably." Osun partially agreed.

"But Iya, she might look very much human, but she smells like one of us." The maid, Labake, who was carrying the baby said.

"What do you mean?" Osun asked with a puzzled look.

"Iya, I feel she's one of us." Labake answered with a stronger conviction this time.