Chapter 28

"That's exactly why I'm here, Kabiyesi." The Chief priest answered. "The gods have revealed to me that you want a wife for your son and they have also revealed to me where you'll be able to find a very good wife for your son. In fact, they have assured me that once your son marries his sixth wife, all your troubles will cease once and for all."

"Really?" The Kabiyesi smiled, his eyes shining with delight and the chiefs nodded their heads and smiled pleasantly. "So where can I find this woman who will not only bring peace to my palace but to my entire kingdom, where?" The Kabiyesi eagerly asked. 

"Send the best of your palace guards to take a long walk along the bank of the river. Once they get to the part where the trees are growing very close to the bank, then they should wait there near the iroko tree. A very beautiful maiden will come down that path with a water pot to fetch some water."

"That's all? Is this maiden in question from this village?" The king asked.

"No, but she'll oblige to marry your son... isn't that what matters?" 

"Just like that?" The Kabiyesi eagerly asked in excitement.

"Yes Kabiyesi, just like that...sugbon (but), she'll refuse any marriage traditional rites to take place. Simply take her in to your son without anyone else seeing her, not even his mother, the Olori, and all will be well." The Chief priest advised.

"Ahan...ahan..." Otun exchanged perplexed looks with the other chiefs and said to the Chief priest. "What sort of marriage is that? Our tradition demands that we do all the marriage rites involved before the wife is to go in to her husband, how can you request that we skip all these?"

"Abi..." Another chief, Balogun, said, agreeing with Otun. "Baba, you did not even mention her family. Does she not have one? How can we just marry a strange woman without seeking the consent of her family?" He asked.

The Chief priest laughed. "What the gods see is beyond us, my chiefs. Besides, is the king not desperate to find a wife for his son since the whole village has refused to give out their daughters in marriage? My duty was to come here and deliver the message from the gods and that I've done... I take my leave now to return when peace has been restored to the palace... Kabiyesi ooo." He said with a bowed head, turned and started to walk out of the palace.

"Balogun!" Called the king after the exit of the Chief Priest. "Take Kunle and Ogunmola with you and bring me this maiden immediately... And please, make sure you treat her like royalty."

"Kabiyesi ooo..." Balogun bowed his head after taking off his cap. Then he rose, put on his cap again and left with two guards.

                                                                               ★★★

Half an hour later...

The Queen who had gone out to the farm at the back of the palace to gather some herbs herself which would aid her witchcraft suddenly straightened up. She suddenly experienced a few quick spasms in her body, then she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head as she felt something she couldn't quite comprehend. 

Whatever she was feeling pulled her attention towards the palace now. She narrowed her eyes towards the palace and squinted because of the sun. Suddenly, it dawned on her. "Yeh! Adewale!" She suddenly exclaimed, letting her gathering basket fall to the ground. Pulling the front of her wrapper up her legs, she immediately raced for the palace.

When she reached the palace, she saw the King and his men making merry. They were eating roasted bush meat which they continuously washed down with fresh palm wine. 

"Kabiyesi, where's my son?" Queen Bukunmi demanded without giving any formalities.

"Ha!" The Kabiyesi smiled when he saw his wife. "Olori, come and join us...we are celebrating the new wife we have just found with the help of the gods."

"New wife? gods?" The Queen asked, confused.

"Yes, you should be happy. Though, I want you to know that this will be Adewale's last wife! He cannot flood my palace with too many women. Even my own father only had two wives." The Kabiyesi said.

"And where's this wife? Why didn't any marriage rites take place? Why wasn't she even brought to me?" The Queen anxiously asked.

"She's in your son's Chambers, Olori, and since the Chief priest said all those were unnecessary, we simply skipped them!" The king answered.

"Yeh!" The Queen suddenly exclaimed in alarm, turned and dashed for her son's hut.

The eyes of the confused men followed her then the king chuckled and said, "Leave her be, you know how mothers act concerning their sons. They want to lord over everything and decide who's good enough for their sons." After the chiefs chuckled, the king added, "Wo, Oloye, (see, chiefs) let us continue our merriment. Let's not let the issues of women bother us."

When the queen finally reached her son's hut, she immediately ducked and entered the room, calling his name. But she stopped abruptly in shock when she saw Adewale lying on the bed with his head on a beautiful maiden's laps who kept caressing his head backward as if soothing him. "Osun!" The Queen gasped, recognizing her at once despite how simple she had dressed.

Osun, now in human form, lifted her head to smile at the queen. "Bukunmi...what a surprise. I've not set eyes upon you for four hundred and eighty-eight years now... I can see that you now give your wavering loyalty to the snake goddess." 

The Queen swallowed hard and glanced at her son, noticing how he was sweating and trembling with his eyes fixed on the ceiling. There were obvious veins lining his forehead and throat. "What have you done to my son?!" The Queen asked angrily.

"Oh relax, he's only paralyzed, though he's in severe agony right now, he can very well hear us..." Then she smirked and added. "So, it was your son all along, dear step-sister...I must commend you; you hid him well, but not well enough. It's rather a pity that you seem to forget that I'm a goddess and you are just a witch after I seized your powers for treachery and sent you on exile! I told you that I'll find him and that when I did, I'd strike when you least expected, so here I'm!"

"So, you connived with the Chief priest to get your revenge?!" The Queen asked, seething.

Osun only smiled, revealing white pearly teeth. "I was patient for seven years, Bukunmi, even though seven months on land is like seven weeks in the sea. I've come to take my own pound of flesh, dear exiled-sister of mine and I won't leave until it's done."

"Let-my-son-go!" The queen grated.

"Of course, but first, I want that which you stole from my daughter." Osun said.

"I don't know what you are talking about! I don't have anything of yours!" The Queen denied.

"Listen to me, Bukunmi, I've not come here to banter words with you... In order to show you how serious I'm, let's make this snappy, shall we?" Before the Queen could stop her, Osun dug her fingers into Adewale's chest and ripped out his heart while he made choking sounds and vomited blood which ran down the side to his jaw until he laid still and dead on the bed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" The Queen suddenly cried out in horror and despair.

"And just like your son did to me, I'll give you no last moment with him, not even with his accursed body!" Osun stated and conjured the floor of the room to quake open up, leaving a large endless crack. With one finger, she pushed Adewale off her lap and he rolled from the bed and fell into the dark abyss of the earth before the earth sealed shut again with a loud bang.

In fury, the Queen grated. "Osun, you have just begun a war! Yes, you have just created an everlasting feud between my offspring and yours! I will bring up a great-granddaughter who will contend with your granddaughter! I shall bring up a fearless and feisty warrior who will wipe out that which has become so precious to you! This is not over, OSUN, I shall be back to finish this!!!" Immediately, she placed her feet on the wall behind her, but before she could completely vanish, Osun quickly struck her and the queen let out a scream of pain but still succeeded in vanishing.

The king and his cabinet who had hurried to Adewale's hut to find out why the queen had screamed twice, lingered outside the prince's hut. Soon, Osun emerged with her bloody hand still holding Adewale's beating heart. The men stared at her in shock. Osun said nothing but handed the heart to the king then walked out of the palace with the men turning to follow her with eyes full of terror.

"Kabiyesi, did you feel that?" Otun asked in awe.

"Feel what?" Kabiyesi asked in horror as he stared down at the bloody heart in his hands, wondering whose it was and dreading his suspicion.