Episode Eight: Narrow Escape

Shade knew even before she entered Tade’s room that she was not there. It was more than intuition, the back door was no longer locked from inside.

“This girl will not kill me,” she muttered then slipped into the room to see Dele sleeping deeply, the innocent boy, oblivious of the drama happening around him.

Tade was going to cause trouble for her, and she had to find a way to avert it, especially now that there was no more Tadeyanju to strengthen her weary heart. He was the only man she could do anything for, but keeping an eye on a girl who was determined to do what she pleased was asking for the impossible.

She closed the door gently to avoid waking Dele up. It was still too early in the day, and he would sleep for another two hours; enough time to go and seek counsel about this matter that had completely taken her peace. Tadeyanju would hate that she was breaking their oath, but good riddance since he would not be there to protect or comfort her if the worst happened. Married people were only together till death do them part, and they’d barely lived as one except in the early times, she surmised, remembering the good days. Yet, those memories were not enough reason for her to protect his daughter when their son could be endangered if things didn’t go well; a son he failed to acknowledge because if he did, he could easily become the better choice for Abobaku. So, she remained his sister even though he had secretly married her from one of the villages far away from Iludoyin where most citizens of Iludoyin did not have relatives.

Adeyeri might not have been the one hit by the arrow, but his head was spinning, and he struggled to stay sane, the stain of Tade’s blood still on his fingers as she lay dead in his arms.

Dead? How? 

They were literally just bantering words now. 

She was only being his guardian angel, yet he had refused to trust her, to believe that she was really trying to protect him. 

How many people were going to die because of him? 

The thought weighed down on him, heavy and depressing. No one close to him was safe. This innocent lady knew it, yet, she refused to leave his side. Her loyalty was worth more than gold.

“Tade! Tade! Tade!” Adeyeri whispered, hoping she would simply open her eyes, but she did not, and a tear dropped from his eyes, falling on her cheeks. “You said your God was powerful. What kind of powerful God allows His followers to die like this? How is He more powerful than our gods here, ehn Tade?! Answer me! Answer me!” Adeyeri screamed in a harsh whisper, the tears pouring out in torrents. “Jesu, please, if you have any power, and you are real, help me now. This girl is innocent. I don’t want her blood on my conscience. She said a Holy Spirit is always with her, where is the spirit now? Where?” Adeyeri said amidst sobs.

“Always here,” Tade whispered, her hand resting on her chest.

Adeyeri wiped his tears with one hand, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets as he opened them in shock. “You were dead. You died. How did you…?”

Tade smiled through her pain. “I fainted.”

Adeyeri adjusted her a bit to see how deep the arrow went. It was a fatal shot. He lifted her in his arms and took her back to the bench they had sat previously. He then removed his garment and tore it into two, tying it around the wound through her underarm to stop the blood from flowing.

“That’s painful,” Tade whispered, her eyes closing again as blood drained from her face.

Adeyeri cradled her face, touching her cheeks softly.. “Pain is good, Tade. In this case, the opposite is death.”

“Take out the arrow,” she whispered. 

Adeyeri kissed her brow, wishing he could take away her pain. No woman should go through this. Even some strong men have died from such pain. He however ignored her request. Pulling out the arrow to alleviate the pain would lead to more loss of blood. From his little experience in battle, taking out the arrow would deal the fatal blow. He had lost her once, he did not intend to lose her again. He needed the medicine man before he could remove the source of her pain, and Banji was his best bet, being the son of the man, but he was afraid to leave her alone  in the bush. He decided to sneak her into his room before getting Banji, but the task seemed impossible.

“Don’t worry, God will help us. Have faith,” she whispered, then her eyes closed again.

“Tade! Tade! Tade!” Adeyeri screamed her name, but she was no longer responding to him. “Please, don’t die!” he said, holding her to his chest, breathing into her face, hoping to give her life somehow, but he knew that her life was hanging on a thread, and if he didn’t get help, she would die, if she wasn’t dead already.

He had to find a way to get her to his room, bolt it, and come back with Banji to see if anything could be done for her before any of the maids came into his room to bring his breakfast.

Anike kept struggling to close her mouth as she listened to Shade’s story. Now, it was beginning to make sense. Ever since Shade arrived in Iludoyin, tongues have wagged about how it was strange that Tadeyanju’s sister came back after previously running away with their mother. Some of the girls she had played with as a child also claimed that they could no longer recognise her, but no one had read too much into it. Anike was one of the few women that was bold enough to start a friendship with Shade. She was mysterious, claiming to be a widow in need of her father’s people for shelter. She also sold good palm wine, a trade that most men did not want their wife to partake in, yet a business they depended on for their comfort. So, the people had had no choice than to grudgingly accept her, but Anike had known that there had to be a deeper story, and she loved mystery. First friendship with the only independent woman in the village was also a guilty pleasure. Shade was not like any of them. She had no father, no husband, and no family to answer to. All she had was Tadeyanju, the brother who couldn’t be bothered with her. Or so everyone thought.

“Why are you telling me this now? You hid it for so long, yet, I tell you everything. Are we even friends?” Anike asked, feigning annoyance but secretly excited to be getting such exclusive information. Wonders were secretly happening in their boring village.

“What did you expect me to do? Announce my situation to the whole village when I didn’t know who to trust? Besides, Tadeyanju didn’t want me to tell anyone.”

“Where is Chief Tadeyanju now?” Anike asked with meaning. Shade sighed and looked away.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, moving her stool closer to Shade.

They were in her garri shed where she had been roasting cassava to make garri for sale in the market later in the morning, but right now, all Anike’s previous plans paled in comparison to what Shade just told her. She wanted to be front and centre in this affair.

“Shade, you have an obligation to…”

Shade knew what she planned to say and shut her up before she could go any further, her voice breaking as she attempted but failed not to sob. “I don’t want this obligation. I just want to be happy with my son. Our lives are hard enough without a husband and father, and gradually, people are beginning to get used to us. Anike, we are beginning to have a place here, I cannot lose that,” she said, grabbing Anike’s hands as though to make her understand.

Anike covered Shade’s hands with hers in comfort and lowered her voice. “That is why you need to seize the opportunity. This is how you become relevant in our village.”

“How?” Shade asked, curious.

Anike looked around to ensure no one could hear her then whispered, “Let the Chiefs know.”

“Know what? Spell it out,” Shade stated even though she knew where Anike was going with the conversation.

“Let the Chiefs know that Tade is Tadeyeri, and that she belongs to Prince Adeyeri as his Abobaku.”

To hear out loud an impossible thought that she had been secretly toying with in the far corner of her mind made it tangible, yet Shade attempted to fight the advice. “But that means she will die. Kings die young these days. Her father wanted me to…”

Anike didn’t let her finish. “There is a clear reason why that sentence is in past tense. Her father couldn’t even save himself. Shade, you tried. Now, you have to think of yourself. There is a limit to this fake Aunty thing you are doing, especially when the girl in question is committed to disobeying you. You cannot hide what refuses to be hidden. Can you put a candle under a bushel? Her destiny is calling her, it’s very powerful. The gods are pulling her to Adeyeri. He will soon be crowned, and you and I know that he cannot be King without her. “

“Hmm…” Shade sighed.

“My dear friend, think about your son, yourself, and the cowries that will line your pocket if you declare her,” Anike continued, seeing that her words were beginning to have effect.

“I need to think about this.” 

“Take your time, but note that you do not have a lot of it anymore.”

“Please, do not tell anyone.” Shade held fast to Anike’s hand, hoping to get a fervent promise.

“Don’t you trust me?” Anike asked, and Shade nodded, hoping that she had not made a mistake by coming to Anike.

Anike carried the palm wine jar beside her friend. “Thank you for this gift. Adio is coming to visit me this morning. You have given me something to entertain him with,” she said happily.

Shade smiled. “I know he never misses coming to see you every morning before going to the palace. The love you have with him is rare. I think only my son, Dele, loves me like that.”

Anike rose and drew Shade into a hug. “That is why you have to protect him. Think about what I said, and do it for your son.”

Adeyeri was panting, out of breath, and looking like a mad man when he got to Banji. His garment was blood stained, and half torn, and in his rush to get help for Tade, he had forgotten to change his upper garment which he had torn to tie her wound so she wouldn’t bleed to death. Thankfully, Banji was outside and the only one in the compound when he got to the house he lived in with his family. If not, there would have been a panic seeing the next King of Iludoyin in rags.

“What is the problem, my Prince?” Banji asked in concern, leading Adeyeri away from the house before anyone else came out and saw him as he was.

Having run the entire distance from the palace to Banji’s house, Adeyeri struggled to say a coherent statement. “It happened so fast. I didn’t see it coming. We need to be fast,” he said, already running back to the palace and dragging Banji with him.

“What didn’t you see coming?” Banji asked, confused.

“I didn’t see her coming. The arrow just went off, and now she is almost dead in the palace. In my room.”

Banji sighed in frustration, running along with Adeyeri, trying to make sense of what he was saying. When he couldn’t keep up, he stopped, panting hard. 

“I am very confused. Aremo, what is wrong? This is wrong. You can’t be going across town like this. I understand that you are mourning your father, but this is not the way to do it. Go back to the palace, and mourn in solitude.”

Adeyeri, who had stopped running too, tried to take a deep breath, hoping it would help him regain coherence.

“This is a very crucial period in your life. If the Council of Chiefs perceive that you are acting weak, they will begin to second guess your claim to the throne. For all we know, someone is already trying to steal your throne,” Banji said.

“They are trying to steal my life!” Adeyeri snapped, rubbing his hands on his head in frustration.

“And you are making it easy for them by being openly available, away from the safety of the palace. It will be very easy for a desperate assassin to attempt to shoot an arrow even now, as we stand here, hidden on this bush path.” 

“It has happened already, are you not listening?!” 

“What do you mean?” Banji asked, scared, as he searched Adeyeri’s body, looking for the source of blood on his garment.

“The witch saved my life. She took my place and ran into the arrow to save me.”

“She’s dead?” Banji asked, shocked.

Adeyeri shook his head, looking solemn. Banji looked relieved, but only momentarily. “But she can be anytime from now if we don’t hurry,” Adeyeri said and pulled Banji into another run.

“Why are we facing the palace? Shouldn’t we go and meet her first.” Banji asked, confused about the direction that they were going

“She is in the palace,” Adeyeri replied, and Banji halted his movement in shock.

“What?”

Adeyeri didn’t let him stand there for long. He pulled him, and they broke into another run. “I hid her in my room,” he said, and Banji almost had a heart attack. 

Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, and for all their sakes, Banji prayed that Tade was still breathing.

The only reason Shade had been free enough to tell Anike her secret was because she was the only friend she had in the village, and in the past, she had kept several of Anike’s secrets. She imagined that her friend owed her this one, yet she had her fears. So, instead of going back to the house to check on her son and get ready for the day’s work, she hid behind a tree where she could easily see and hear the conversation Anike would have with her fiance, Adio. She had stood behind the tree for almost an hour, and was about to give up, when she saw Adio stroll in. Anike joined him with the jar of palm wine that Shade had given her earlier, leading him to the front of the tree where she hid behind. Shade smiled, and tiptoed to hide behind a drum near the tree so that even if they moved around the tree, they would not see her, but she was close enough to hear their conversation.

As if Anike knew that someone could be listening to them, she pulled Adio closer and whispered into his ears. From the look of shock on Adio’s face, Shade knew that Anike had told him everything she’d confided earlier, and Adio confirmed her fears with his response.

“Is this true?” he asked.

“She told me herself,” Anike replied, sighing in a manner synonymous with excited gossips.

Adio smiled excitedly. “The Chiefs will be happy to hear this.”

Anike shook her head in disagreement. “Don’t be too sure o! One of them may be nursing ambitions for the throne, and finding Adeyeri’s Abobaku will make it much more difficult for such a person.”

Adio nodded in agreement. “We need to be careful and find out who needs the information.”

“You are wrong. We need to carefully find out who will be willing to pay for the information,” Anike said, and Adio broke into a smile, hugging her from behind.

“I have always known that choosing to marry you will be the greatest achievement of my life,” he said, and Anike smiled, excited at the compliment.

She poured palm wine into two calabashes and gave one to Adio, who drank the whole content in one gulp, then she took half of her own. “There is no delaying our wedding anymore. Once we get the money, we can plan the ceremony.” 

Adio smiled, but he was already struggling with a cough, scratching his neck in discomfort. Anike was going to ask him what was wrong, but she too, began to clear her throat, unable to speak. They looked into each other’s eyes, shocked, and attempted to speak, but instead, only weird sounds came out. Actual words could no longer form as their tongues were now swollen.

As the couple struggled, Shade smiled. They were foolish to drink her palm wine. She had the antidote, and would have given it to them if they were going to be loyal, but since they had evil intentions, they were going to have to live with the consequence of the poison she’d slipped into the drink.

This unfortunate incident with Tade could ruin her life, and if anyone was going to profit from it, it would be her, not an unworthy trusted friend, and her foolish fiance.

Adeyeri and Banji succeeded in sneaking back into the palace and Adeyeri’s room without being detected, but the hardest task still lay before them. Adeyeri was constantly praying to Jesu, whom he claimed was Tade’s God, to keep her alive. Yet, beyond saving Tade’s life, the fear in Banji’s heart was how porous the palace was. The security was so weak, any one could slip in, commit an atrocity, and slip out without being detected.

“The palace is defenseless. I don’t like it,” Banji said, but Adeyeri couldn’t focus on that right now.

“Can we focus on Tade right now?” Adeyeri said, already going behind his wardrobe where he had hidden her so that just in case, for some reason, someone had the audacity to break into his room, they wouldn’t see her.

“Tade! Tade! Tade!” Adeyeri called out softly, but she did not answer.

“Is she dead?” Banji asked, panic in his voice as Adeyeri sat on the floor, lifted Tade on his laps, and put his head to her chest to confirm.

“Her heart is still beating, but not so fast,” he said to Banji, who took Tade’s wrist and held onto it for a few seconds. “What are you doing?” he asked impatiently.

“I am checking her pulse.”

“Take out the arrow. What are you waiting for? She is dying,” he said frustratedly, trying not to shout so as not to alert anyone else in the palace..

“I will take it out now, but we need a few items to hold off the bleed and stop an infection.”

“What are you waiting for? Go get it!” Adeyeri bellowed. “I can’t lose her,” he said, gathering Tade close, touching her face, willing her to open her eyes.

“I am not worried about the arrow.”

“What do you mean?” Adeyeri asked.

“If it was just the arrow, we could easily save her since it didn’t hit a fatal spot.”

“Then what is the matter?”

“See her palm, the colour is changing. This is no ordinary arrow, it is poisoned.”

“Poison! Again!” Adeyeri said, and his heart broke a thousand times. 

Someone was desperate to kill him, and the person was determined to succeed without error.