Episode Nineteen: The Throne Is Mine!

Wuraola couldn’t move. She stayed rooted to a spot, wondering if her imagination was playing tricks on her, or if she was in a trance. She felt as if she was part of a bad dream, however, the sight of the heavyweight fighter standing across her, looking like a hawk about to descend on its prey, was enough to remind her that this was all real. Adeloye had told one of his men to stay back and guard her so she wouldn’t run away or get a chance to alert Adeyeri to his presence.

“No matter what she does, don’t kill her, but you can teach her a lesson as long as I don’t see any blood. She used to be my mother, but soon, she will be my wife, and I want her to look beautiful for the wedding.”

Those were his final words before he led his men to battle; men who had trooped in through her window, she had gotten tired of counting when she reached ninety-two. Adeloye had truly come for war, and he was prepared. His men looked like they lived to fight and to die. They didn’t seem like people who had families. Like Adeloye, they were not men of compassion. Yet, she decided to try her luck with the one that was told to guard her. There was no way she would stay behind to marry her own son. It would be the worst punishment for all the sins she had committed over the years. To be banished from the land and homeless was better than what Adeloye was proposing.

“My son, may the gods never leave you. I beg of you, take pity on me and let me escape. You heard what Adeloye said before leaving. It is an abomination.” The man didn’t dignify her with a reaction. It was as though she hadn’t spoken, so to get his attention, she moved closer to him. “Adeloye is my son, but he has gone mad. I need to…” 

Wuraola didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence before the man struck her and she tasted blood. It took all her willpower not to faint, but a stray tear dropped from her eyes. If she could find a knife, she would end her life right away. There really wasn’t much to live for anymore. She turned away from the guard as she brushed the tear away, and that was when she saw him. Her son, Adeyeri, the one who was not really her son, as he jumped in through the window.

“You dare touch my mother?” he said as he charged at the man and the two of them began a sword fight. 

He came for me!

The son she wanted to destroy!

The son that was not her son!

Wuraola was transfixed, unable to move as Adeyeri fought. He had finally landed a blow at his opponent who staggered and fell when the door opened and two of Adeloye’s fighters came in.

“Run, mother! Run to Awele forest, I will meet you there,” Adeyeri said between breaths, and without looking back, Wuraola jumped out through the window and ran.

The men didn’t even bother chasing after her. They had gotten their prize, for they knew that Adeyeri was the Prince that their leader, Adeloye, needed to kill before he could rule the land.

Tade could hear the sound of her own heart beating. Adeyeri had been gone for two hours, yet there was no sign of him. From where she was hiding with Banji and Tadeyanju, they could see people running away from the palace. The sound of war was beginning to reduce, and she  wondered why Adeyeri had not returned.

Has he been captured?

“Are you still going to refuse to speak to me?” Tadeyanju asked. He had been trying to get her attention and a private audience with her since Adeyeri left. However, Tade didn’t want to speak to him. Being in close proximity with him was a chance for her to get answers to questions she had previously thought she would never have a chance to ask. Yet, in the face of the ongoing battle, nothing else mattered compared to Adeyeri walking out of the palace alive.

“Go and run the Prince’s errand. If he makes it out alive, he will need that money to escape Iludoyin while I take this chance to speak to my daughter alone,” Tadeyanju said to Banji, but Tade held Banji’s shoulder.

“Please, don’t leave me with him,” she begged him for the second time. 

Banji had wanted to leave as soon as the Prince left, but Tade had begged him to stay, and he had indulged her, but even without Tadeyanju’s prodding, he knew that he had to go and prepare for a possible escape with Adeyeri, and they would need money, lots of it, to succeed.

“My Princess, let me go and obey your husband. I will be fast, and you will be safe with him.”

Tade blushed at the sound of him calling her Princess. “I am not your Princess.”

“You are married to the crowned Prince of our land. Of course, you are my Princess.”

Tade sighed. “I am not really married to him. It’s a temporary arrangement to reverse my fate. Prince Adeyeri did it to save me, but…”

Banji didn’t let her finish. “He might have done it to save you, but he must have also done it because he wanted you. I have never seen him react around a woman the way he reacts around you. You matter to him. He values you, he needs you, and even though you think I don’t like you, I do, because you will be good for him,” Banji said, and Tade beheld him with gratitude. She hadn’t known that she needed to hear the kind words he spoke.

“Don’t leave your Princess with this man. Take me with you,” she begged.

Tadeyanju scowled at being referred to as ‘this man,’ and Tade shuddered, stepping back.

“You need to remain here, just in case Adeyeri comes back before me. We don’t want him thinking that we have abandoned him,” Banji said, hoping to convince Tade to stay, but she still wasn’t having it.

“What if he takes me away? Who will protect me from him?” she asked, pointing towards Tadeyanju, who immediately laughed at her statement.

“Trust me, my daughter, if I wanted to take you away from here, this young man is not going to be a slight hindrance. I can take both of you without assistance,” he boasted.

Banji scowled, but knew that he was right. Tadeyanju was the strongest man in the land, after the late Balogun who died before Banji was born. Tadeyanju would have easily gotten the Balogun title if not that he was an Abobaku. He was a natural warrior.

“Boy, go and run the Prince’s errand. We will wait here for both of you. I will protect my daughter, and will remain with her here till you come back,” he assured.

“So you are promising not to steal me away?” Tade asked, trying to trust Tadeyanju’s words, but struggling.

“I will not take you away if the Prince returns,” he promised.

Tade sighed deeply. “You make it sound like you are convinced that he will not return,” she said warily.

Tadeyanju sighed too. He didn’t want to break the heart of the daughter who already hated him, but lying to her wouldn’t help either. “The Prince knew what he was getting into when he left here. No one enters the lion’s den and comes out alive except the gods are with him.”

“Then he will be fine, because the Most High God is with him. He will never leave him nor forsake him.”

She was still speaking when they began to hear footsteps. Someone was running towards the hiding place. Tadeyanju pulled out his sword, while Banji pulled out his knife. Tade rolled her eyes at them.

“Why are you standing by to fight? Aren’t we expecting the Prince?” They didn’t get a chance to reply when Wuraola ran into the cave and fell to the ground. “Your Highness.” Tade rushed to assess her briefly to be sure she had no wound then rose as if to leave the cave, but Tadeyanju held her back. “Where is Prince Adeyeri?” she asked, her heart almost leaping out of her chest, in fear of the worst.

Adeyeri stilled as the twenty-seventh lash landed on his back. Despite the pain, he was determined not to show any emotion. He knew that this so-called rightful Prince, as he was quick to proclaim, was trying to humiliate him.

Who was he?

Why did he think he had the right?

“Leave him for now!” Adeloye said to the man who wielded the cane, but it didn’t stop another lash from landing on Adeyeri’s back. The man was excited to be torturing a Prince, and was irritated that Adeyeri wasn’t reacting to the pain. “I said leave him!” Adeloye bellowed. “I need him to be strong enough to watch his Chiefs die, and tell my people that he is no longer the heir apparent to the throne.”

Adeyeri laughed mockingly.

Adeloye scowled. “What is funny?” he bellowed at Adeyeri.

“I will never renounce my throne.”

“Oh! It’s your throne now? I thought it was his throne!” he said mockingly, pointing towards Otun, who was thoroughly beaten, and was sitting in a corner, all his men dead beside him. “Bring him forward!” he instructed, and some men quickly brought Otun to him. “Now, both of you need to agree on whose throne it really is so that I know who to kill for the fun of it, and who to kill for my throne.”

Adeyeri looked into Otun’s face, but he had no words for him. The fool that held them captive had succeeded because the house was already divided. Chiefs who should defend the kingdom killed their King and plotted to take the Kingdom. It would have been impossible to invade Iludoyin if the land was united.

“The throne is mine!” Otun boasted as loud as he could with his broken jaw. He was resigned to die, yet he refused to die a coward. In his mind, he deserved the throne.

“So you killed my father, and betrayed us!” Adeyeri found himself saying. He didn’t want to dignify Otun with a conversation in front of the psychopath who was simply biding his time to kill them both, but he couldn’t stop himself. “My father trusted you. You were his most decorated Chief and confidante. How could you?”

Otun looked away, no sign of guilt noticeable. The pain of betrayal stung deeper than the pain on his back from the lashes. Adeloye laughed, seeing that Otun was getting to Adeyeri more than anything they had done to him previously, so he decided to press on. 

“Shouldn’t you be used to betrayal by now? Your own mother is not really your mother, but mine. She led me here.”

Adeyeri saw red. The bastard had the audacity to drag his mother into this. “Don’t you dare say my mother’s name.”

Adeloye laughed, then suddenly feigned seriousness. “You really don’t know? No one told you? Wuraola is not your mother, she is mine.”

Adeyeri looked away, wishing he could close his ears. The evil man was trying to steal his birthright and his mother.

“You don’t believe me,” he continued, and then with the back of his hand, he slapped one of his men. “If you didn’t let Wuraola escape, she would have been here by herself to tell the truth about what really happened.”

The man was good, Adeyeri had to give it to him. He was acting convincingly.

“Bring in the three Chiefs you tied outside,” he said to one of the guards, and without wasting time, Iyalode, Osi, and the Chief Priest were brought forward.

Seeing the Chiefs so ridiculed broke Adeyeri’s heart further. The mighty Iludoyin Kingdom was falling. However, the one that shocked him was how they were able to subdue the most powerful man in the land, the Chief Priest of the gods and the people. Before now, Adeyeri tried to avoid getting scared of Adeloye, but he was beginning to get there. 

“I was going to kill you all, but on second thought, if you agree to serve me, I will let you live on one condition,” Adeloye said, and even though the Chiefs didn’t say anything, it was obvious they couldn’t wait to hear the condition. “Tell your Prince the truth about my birth! Let him know that Wuraola is not his mother.”

They all looked away in silence, and Adeloye scowled at their lack of response and pulled the sword from one of the fighters beside him then swung it to cut off Otun’s head. The Chiefs screamed in fear and shock, huddling together. Adeloye laughed then threw the bloodied sword back to the man he took it from. 

To the remaining Chiefs, he said, “I can smell your fear, as it should be. I thought it would be good to introduce myself properly since I will be your ruler from now on till I die. And unlike my father, I will live long,” he sneered then turned to Adeyeri. “You are dying next, but first, I want to see your face when you hear the truth about my mother, the one you have been borrowing. She has been sending me information about this kingdom so I can have all the arsenal to take my rightful place as the King. After that, you will watch me be crowned King. Give me your blessings, and I will make your death as uninteresting as our father’s own.”

“She is not your mother,” Iyalode said with a shaky voice as she looked at Adeyeri.

Adeyeri needed to unhear what she just said, but Osi found his voice and joined the conversation.

“He is her son, your older brother. Your own mother died as soon as she gave birth to you, and we…”

“Stop!” Adeyeri bellowed, the words piercing his heart.

Adeloye laughed again. He was obviously having fun. “My brother says stop, you can stop,” he said to Osi then faced the Chief Priest. “You will crown me King now!”

“We can’t crown a new King without an Abokaku,” the Chief Priest replied in a shaky voice.

Adeloye hissed. “I hereby abolish that stupid tradition. There is currently no Abobaku. Didn’t you marry her already?” he muttered, looking in Adeyeri’s direction.  “Wuraola told me,” he said in response to the shocked, puzzled look in Adeyeri’s eyes.

“That’s who you married?” Iyalode whispered, but all Adeyeri could think about was the fact that it would seem that Adeloye was right about his mother. She was the only one who knew that he married his Abobaku.

“This is all a joke,” he thought, but said the words out loud.

“The joke is on you, brother,” Adeloye said, smiling at him. He then summoned the Chief Priest. “Get on with it. Crown me King right away. I am itching to kill your beloved Prince, I hate him as much as I love the throne,” he said then faced Adeyeri, his face contorted with bitterness and rage. “How dare you live the life I was denied? How dare you think that you can become King?”