Chapter 2.
A crackling noise alerts Ayanti and she shifts from the tree, clutching her baby, protectively. She strains her eyes in the darkness, not seeing anyone. Perhaps it's an animal.
Scanning her surroundings, she recognizes she isn't far from her destination.
Gathering her already sleeping baby, Ayanti straightens and continues running. Hope surging through her as she draws closer to her refuge.
A few moments later, she reaches the wooden forts that separate the European camp from the main village.
Tired, the Queen knocks on the wooden gates, screaming on top her voice. Her cry causes the men in the camp to light oil lamps, grabbing their rifles.
Someone within the camp orders the gates open. And a delirious Ayanti briskly enters the opened gate, frightened.
When Ayanti is sure she is safely inside, she finally looks and sees a dozen weapons raised to her face.
Shrieking in fear, she manages a little word in Portuguese, stilling the men.
“Lower your guns!” She hears a loud voice say in Portuguese.
Ayanti turns her eyes in the direction of the voice, a tall man to approaching.
The golden glow from the surrounding oil lamps don't allow much, but she instantly recognizes him. He is followed by Eket, a man who stands as a translator between the locals and the Portuguese.
Turning anxious eyes to Eket, she speaks in her local dialect.
“I have come here for refuge. I am in trouble and…” She pauses, waiting for Eket to translate to the tall, intimidating man before her, whose eyes are all so familiar.
Tearing her eyes from his, she waits.
The words understood by the intimidating man, he watches her keenly, nodding for her to continue.
“James, asked me to come here for refuge, whenever I am in trouble…Lord Ro…He asked me to give you this letter…” Ayanti hesitantly says.
Then she reaches inside her wrapper, pulling out a worn out parchment.
She extends it to him, her hands shaking.
The man stares at the parchment, doubtfully, before he receives it. Someone brings an oil lamp to him, while he reads.
Recognition climbing his face, as Ayanti watches.
“This was before James died?” The man asks as he raises his eyes to her.
Eket translates and Ayanti nods.
He looks at her in a new light and closes the distance between them. The baby in her arms startles and falls into shrieks, shifting the man’s gaze.
A softness appears in his hard gaze as he watches them.
“Is this your baby and his?” The man whispers, with a shocked Eket drawing closer.
Ayanti, everyone gasps, astonished.
The man smiles a little, surprising Ayanti, who has never seen him smile, since she was first introduced to him, by the King.
No judgment in his eyes. Only Sorrow. Regret.
“I leave for Portugal, in the morning. Our ships are ready. I would be glad to carry you and the baby along with us.”
Ayanti panics. “No. Not tomorrow. Now.”
The man stares at the olive skin toned queen in confusion.
“Why?” He asks, baffled.
“Because my husband, the King, is coming for you all. As we speak, he is gathering warriors against you.” Ayanti supplies.
Everyone stares in disbelief.
“What do you mean?”
“My husband is furious because I had twins, which is a taboo here…in the kingdom. He sees it that it was my love for James that caused it. And so he took me to the gruvonga, three days ago, after I gave birth. And one of my twins was thrown in the water.” A shudder shakes her as she remembers.
Tears falling down her eyes as she narrates her grim ordeal.
She cried as one of her twins was killed by the king.
He chanted and before she could scream, he tossed the baby over the cliff.
Swallowed by the gruvonga.
Never to be seen again. Causing a scream to tear from Ayanti’s throat. He was about to toss the other twin, when the priestess of the land ordered the King to stop. To wait for the gods to be consulted, before he continued with the cleansing ritual.
The King was furious and argued against it. But he was frightened by the ominous warning of the Priestess and asked that Ayanti and the other baby be taken to her hut, where she was left alone, since that day.
However, hours ago, while she was still nursing her sorrow from the loss of her other baby three days back, the Priestess came in and helped her escape. She brought in a maid to trade in the Queen’s, asking the maid to run away and never look back.
The jewelries and clothes from the Queen were to fetch her some life of comfort elsewhere.
The priestess instructed Ayanti to run to the Portuguese camp and warn them. Asking Ayanti to never look back at the life that she would leave behind.
“Please Sir…We must leave now.” Ayanti pleads desperately as she finishes narrating her sordid tale.
Everyone looks, horror struck, after Eket has translated her words.
The men suddenly argue amongst themselves, before the intimidating man asks for silence.
“Everyone, gather what little belongings you can.” The man starts, his voice booming with command.
“We sail for Portugal tonight. I would leave with the Queen now,” he says, his eyes falling softly on her. “And the rest of you follow suit.” He barks.
Everyone falls into a frenzy, while the man softly holds Ayanti protectively by her upper arm. Guides her along with him to his hut.
Gathering what he can. A rifle in hand, the man holds her by her arm and together with a few readied men, they walk out of the camp, through the back gate. While the rest join them.
“You know a little of Portuguese?” The man rasps in fluent Portuguese.
Ayanti struggles to understand, now that Eket is nowhere in sight. She has no other kin to this man, apart from James and her baby.
Yet, she feels safe in his presence.
“A little.” She confesses, trying to calm her frayed nerves.
The man silently considers her words and fishes for the simplest way he can say the next words to her.
“My name is Lord Diego Romingue. Heir to the Marquis of Aveiro. From now on, you and the baby are under my protection.”