CHAPTER TWO (IZAGI)

"How dare you hit my bride-to-be?" He yelled at Doja who looked down unable to do anything or say anything because he was the crowned prince, a future king.

Prince Jaja walked to where Izala stood and dragged her along with him.

He took her to the Lamunde shrine, the sacred shrine where every affluent family solemnizes their marriage including the royal family, and there before the gods, he took one of the cola nuts from the hands of the gods (Tonganjan), a hand design rock in the center of the shrine and feed Izala to complete the first stage of making her his wife.

"What are you doing?" Izala shouted as she wrestled with him to free herself.

"I want to make you my wife so that you can get respect and never be treated like a slave in your own family and among your people." He replied still holding her hand in his strong grip.

"I will get respect on my own, I refuse to get married to you just to get respect," Izala said confidently.

"Sorry to disappoint you but you have no choice. Do you know why?" The crowned prince asked after he pulled her close to himself, staring strongly into her eyes. "Because you either get married to me now or your father will make you get married to me."

"I won't allow that to happen." Izala thundered moving more closer to him suddenly making the crowned prince uncomfortable.

He shifted back letting her off his grip.

"The only thing you can do is run away from the entire kingdom or you can simply just remain here as my wife."

Even after she refused again and again, she was married off to the prince who ascended his father's throne not quite long after his marriage.

"How dare you marry me and try to tie me down in your palace like all those hopeless women out there?" Izala questioned the king in anger.

"What is wrong with being a queen?" The king asked her in a low tone.

"Everything, now I am just like those useless women who can't defend themselves and keep waiting for their husbands in hiding," Izala said showing her mixed feelings of helplessness and anger.

The king watched her speak bitter words, she was truly enraged by his decision to marry her but what could he possibly do when he loved her so much and couldn't bring himself not to marry her?

"I will let you train with the kingdom's greatest warriors." The King said after a while and to her surprise.

She smiled beautifully for the first time after her wedding and the king felt relieved seeing her smile but he must not let her see his weak side.

"But." The king continued talking.

"I will never allow you to step on the battlefield for as long as I am alive." King Jaja said looking away.

"Then what use is training when I can't even fight," Izala asked, her hopes suddenly dashed.

"You will fight." The king said now looking at her.

"If ever an enemy manages to enter into the kingdom, then please defend our kingdom with your sweat and your blood without waiting for my permission."

Izala thought about this for a while, She knew she could not disagree with the king because his word was law and this was still a way for her to become a warrior, so she had to agree.

"Thank you, Your Highness," Izala said with a bow and went out of the throne room to her chambers.

Each time an enemy managed to make an entry into the kingdom, Izala, and the few warriors left back at the palace defended the kingdom, slitting the throats of their enemies and cutting their heads off as a reward for his highness when he returned.

Two years after their marriage, the queen gave birth to an heir. A healthy baby boy who brought joy and happiness to its people.

There was a grand celebration for the birth of this new soul. It was such a beautiful sight to see as the drums of the Kugama kingdom were heard beating powerfully.

One day, Queen Izala sat with her ten-year-old son waiting eagerly for the return of her dear husband.

She stood up startled when she heard the mourning song rather than the usual happy celebratory songs the warriors sang whenever they were coming back home.

Carried by four warriors in a flatbed made with bamboo branches was the corpse of King Jaja.

"Your Highness," Izala whispered when she saw his pale face as they set him down before the palace.

She covered her little son's face with her hand as she wept for the first time.

When he was alive, she never showed him that she loved him because of how their marriage occurred, they always fought but today she couldn't hide her feelings and wept like a baby.

She was told of how their dear king was murdered by a new enemy of theirs who lives in the mountains.

They are powerful and they have more than enough weapons. They also have quite some people from the Kugama kingdom as their slaves.

Izala performed the last rites of her husband, she even joined the strongest warriors in carrying the coffin of the king on their shoulders as they mourned in their white cloths with golden embroidery.

"Now that our king has gone to the world beyond, what do we do? Who do we put on the throne." Asked one of the elders at the meeting held in the palace throne room to choose a new king.

"I am not here to talk about who should be the king and who should not. I am only here to inform you that I, Queen Izala, daughter of Doja the greatest warrior and wife to His Highness, King Jaja the Fifth will go to battle against the strong enemies from the mountains and I shall not rest until I bring back the head of my dear husband's murderer." Izala declared with swiftness in the way she spoke and with confidence as she sat by her husband's chair in the throne room in her mourning clothes.

"Are you out of your mind?" One of the elders thundered at her.

"Even the king Jaja himself could not finish off our enemies and kings before him were also no match and yet a mere woman wants to go to war against one of the strongest kingdoms." Mockingly said another.

"King Jaja must have failed due to his kindness but I the Queen will show no mercy to my enemies." Said Izala not minding their words or the way they looked at her.

"We the elders will not allow it." Said the oldest elder in the meeting, who is also the advisor of the late king.

"I do not need your permission," Izala said to their surprise. She continued speaking authoritatively.

"When my son turns twenty-one years old as per tradition, he will be crowned king but until then, I will rule the kingdom and take my warriors to battle against their enemies."

"You are just planning a conspiracy, hoping for all of us to die at the mercy of those stronger kingdoms." Cried the elders.

"Whether we fight or not, we are still going to die. We keep hiding afraid to get killed and yet year after year, more than twenty or thirty of the Kugama people are being taken as slaves, even our warriors and I Izala would rather die than be a slave to anyone." Izala did not say any other thing and left the throne room with her son who couldn't leave his mother's side for even a second.

Even with his eyes covered by his mother's hand, he still saw the pale eyes of his father's corpse and that was still terrifying for him.