Chapter 27

The mermaids broke into every house killing every firstborn. Most polygamous families even lost three or more in a day. While the vengeful mermaids went on with their onslaught, none of the villagers really saw them because the mermaids were very swift. 

The village was flooded and the rain added to the destruction by destroying farm crops. The strong wind tore off several roofs and the water destroyed several fences. Trees were uprooted and thrown down and water filled up the houses of all the people, including the palace. 

There was chaos and wailing could be heard from every house. After wreaking enough havoc, the mermaids seized Adewale's four friends and forcefully took them to the river where Osun who had already fed, dressed and put the baby to sleep was waiting on her high throne which she had conjured to the surface.

The men were thrown before Osun on the shallow bank and the mermaids moved into the water to form a semi-circle around the goddess. Osun scrutinized the trembling men who cowered in her presence in trepidation for a minute.

"Taiye, Alabi, Durojaye and Olumide." Osun spoke now, addressing each man by his first name. "Do you know who I'm?" She asked. When the men continued to tremble, afraid to look up at her, she suddenly yelled, making them shake in fear. "LOOK AT ME OR I'LL HAVE MY DAUGHTERS BEHEAD YOU AND BRING YOUR HEADS CLOSER SO THAT YOU CAN LOOK ME IN THE EYE, YOU COWARDS!"

Swallowing hard, the men reluctantly lifted their heads and beheld her. 

"I ask you again, do you know who I am?" Osun asked.

The men quickly nodded in dread. 

"Then who am I?" Asked Osun.

"You are the river goddess, Osun." Alabi, the second man answered.

"Do you know that you are the ones who have brought calamity upon your village and curses upon your families and generations yet to come?"

The men nodded, lowering their gazes again. Meanwhile, the Queen was watching what was going on at the river through a magic pot filled with water.

"You killed my daughter!" Osun angrily said. "You took my heiress from me, you callous and heartless men."

"Please Osun, have mercy! Have mercy, please!" They all began to plead.

Osun gave a peal of wicked laughter. "Mercy you say? Did you have mercy on Enitan when you attacked her unprovoked? Did you have mercy on her when you chopped off her tail and set her ablaze? Did you?!" She roared.

"Forgive us, Osun..." Taiye who was still nursing the painful stumps of his bitten-off fingers said in tears. "We were only acting on orders."

"Orders, eh? On the orders of who?!" Osun demanded.

As the men glanced at each other, contemplating whether to spill or not, the queen took four little effigies, held them together in one hand and began to wrap a thick thread around their necks. 

"SPEAK!" Osun barked and the men flinched in fear.

Durojaye slowly lifted a finger. He knew that if they were going to go down, it would be very unfair to spare the prince. "Osun, it was no other person but the-" before he could finish his words, the queen suddenly held both ends of the thick thread which she had wrapped around the necks of the effigies representing each man, and with both hands, she pulled with all her might. 

The hands of the men suddenly flew to hold their throats and they began to cough and gag as if they were being choked. They all fell in the water and began to cough and writhe as they struggled to breathe while the queen spiritually choked them from the palace through the effigies.

Realizing what was happening, Osun rose from her throne now. "Ehn! EWO! EWOOOR!!! (Abomination! pronounced as A-wor). She cried out as her eyes searched the sky beyond. "WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?! WHO'S BEHIND THIS?! WHO'S TRYING TO SILENCE THEM?! SHOW YOURSELF!"

"Iya, please do something, the men are dying!" Labake anxiously said to Osun when she saw the eyes of the men almost bulging out of their sockets as they helplessly struggled the more for breath. 

"Die?" Osun said. "They can't die! They are yet to pay for their crimes and death is too easy a way to let them off! Oya, mo tu n yi n! (I set you loose!)" Osun pronounced loudly, pointing her staff down at the men. Immediately, the thread suddenly snapped in the Queen's hands and the effigies broke loose and dropped to the floor, but the force which the thread had snapped had been so sudden that it had caused the queen to tumble backwards from the small stool onto the floor with her legs lifted in the air.

Now free from the spiritual choke, the men managed to get back on their knees still coughing and rubbing their throats, overwhelmed by their near-death experience. Osun stared down at them and scoffed now, lifting a part of her lip in a sneer. 

She returned her gaze towards the village, also stretching her small scepter towards it just as the Queen pulled herself off the floor and resumed her position on the stool again to stare into her magical pot. "Gbo mi! (Listen) WHOEVER YOU ARE, WHEREVER YOU ARE, I KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE DARKNESS HIDING WHOEVER KILLED MY DAUGHTER. BUT KNOW THIS, YOU CAN'T HIDE HIM FOREVER, SHO O GBO MI? (Can you hear me?) YOU CAN'T HIDE HIM FROM ME FOREVER. BE REST ASSURED THAT I'LL FIND HIM, AND WHEN I DO, I'LL DEFINITELY STRIKE WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT! MARK MY WORDS!!!"

After hearing the goddess' threat, the queen swept her hand in the pot of water and the image vanished then she rose and went to check on her son. Osun stared down at the other men now and with a sinister look in her eyes, she said, "Let your woes begin." Inclining her upper body forward, she blew a thick spray of cold air out of her mouth at the four men. 

"You are now leprous. Your skin shall slowly eat away before your eyes and then other calamities shall befall you and your families and three generations to come." She sat down on her throne again and smirked when she saw the men begin to anxiously check their bodies and feel their faces with hands. "Daughters, let's return to where we belong. From now on, every one of you is banned from coming to the surface without authorization and none of you are ever to mingle with mankind."

"As Iya wishes." The mermaids said in unison with bowed heads and they all turned and started swimming away while Osun's throne moved easily in the water. They all swam out until they disappeared into the deepest part of the river. 

                                                                             ★★★

Seven Months Later...

After the disaster from Osun's wrath occurred several months ago, the villagers had buried their dead and there had been almost a thousand deaths. They had also managed to rebuild their houses and replant the crops and trees that had been destroyed. Trees that were too big to handle were chopped down for firewood. It took seven days for the flood to dry out from the village after the rain had stopped twenty-four hours later.

The king sought the counsel of the chief priest on what to do and several sacrifices were offered to appease Osun. When the four leprous men were discovered to be the cause of the punishment which was suffered by all, they with their families were forever banished from the village. 

While all these were going on, the prince hardly left the safety of the palace out of fear. He was always wary and jittery. Not only had he been having nightmares ever since Enitan's death but he was also almost losing his sanity. To soothe his fears and also in an attempt to cheer him up, his mother convinced the king to let the prince marry a sixth wife.

After much persistence from his wife, the king finally gave in. But when he sent his guards in search of a bride in the village, no father was willing to give out his daughter to the royal family in marriage. They had the strong conviction that if Adewale's friends could be stricken by Osun, then Adewale's hands were definitely not clean too. 

But how he had escaped being punished, also baffled them. After sending Otun and two other chiefs to almost every house to seek the hand of a grown-up daughter, they returned to deliver the bad news to the king that the villagers had sworn not to have anything to do with the cursed royal family.

The king heaved a sigh of resignation. He understood the fear of his subjects and he couldn't blame them too for refusing a marriage tie. His son had really sullied the name of the royal family and it would take more than just the intervention from the gods to make things right. 

As he was thinking about how to get another wife for his son by probably sending his chiefs to the neighboring village, the old Chief priest arrived in the palace.

"Kabiyesi ooo! I greet you!" The Chief priest said, paying his respect by bowing his head. Unlike the others, he never prostrated.

"Ha! Eyes and ears of the gods! It's good that you are here!" The Kabiyesi said in relief. He believed that the old man always had a solution to every problem. "I've been trying to find a new wife for my son, but none of my subjects will give me their daughters." He complained.