The Legend Of Dayo…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

THE LEGEND OF DAYO

SEASON 3: THE RIVALRY

CHAPTER 10

The Keepers

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Prosper Freeman put a hand on the young prince’s shoulder.

“Listen, Temi, that’s not the way it works,” he said gently. “This Chioma lady that made love to you was married, but maybe she was just smitten by your good looks and slept with you. That is against our norms, and a great sin. If Tunde had found out that his wife slept with you, out of her own volition, he would’ve killed both of you. And like I told you, the offence of sleeping with another’s wife is stoning to death.”

Temi looked at him, horrified.

“Really? You really mean that?”

“Yes, Prince Temi,” Prosper said carefully. “Because of that, you just can’t go around trying to sleep with women. You can only do that if the woman loves you, or she has agreed to be with you. We do that with our wives, and ladies we have courted. So don’t expect any woman to just drop her pants and let you slip her one. If you continue doing that, you would always get hurt or worse, fall foul of one of our major laws and risk getting killed or imprisoned.”

Some semblance of understanding dawned on Temi’s face as he took deep breaths.

“Therefore I have to find a woman and make her mine?” he asked.

Prosper’s eyes were sombre.

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“Sleeping with a woman should not be your priority now, Temi,” he said in a serious voice. “Because you’re the prince, the heir of the throne of the Dayo Empire, hopefully. We have great danger facing us, and the whole world. When that is resolved, you can have as many women as you wish, because you would be king.”

“So you mean…no more putting of my amu into any otu?” Temi asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Prosper said carefully. “Indeed, I do have a feeling that you would be putting your thing in a lot of girl things in the very near future. What I’m saying is that there are more important things than that, and so you should stop obsessing about it. Do I make myself clear?”

Temi nodded and touched his balls tenderly.

“The pain is a bit better,” he said. “Who’s that girl, the one who hit me?”

“Oh, that’s Rosemary Amaefule, one of our warriors,” Prosper replied, and Temi’s eyes opened with shock.

“She’s a warrior?” he asked, shocked.

“Yes, a very skilful warrior, and she doesn’t like boys,” Prosper said. “So you stay clear of her. Now get dressed because we’re going to the Keeper’s Centre. Time for you to meet the other Keepers.”

“She doesn’t like boys?” Temi persisted. “Meaning she is not married?”

Prosper looked at him carefully.

“She’s not married, because she is interested in only one man here,” he said carefully. “Many young men and old men, even powerful wealthy men, had tried to tie her down in marriage because she is so beautiful, but she rejected all of them. So, I’ll advise you to keep focused and not try to do anything funny with her. She simply doesn’t like other men apart from her man.”

Temi nodded and finally got off the floor.

The pain was bearable now, and as he got dressed, he wondered about this very beautiful girl called Rose who had looked at him with such utter contempt and hurt him so badly.

Prosper was right. Maybe he should steer clear of Roselyn Amaefule.

***

Temi, wearing black trousers and a white, lacy shirt with wide cuffs, and with sandals on his feet, cut a very resplendent figure beside Prosper as they crossed the grounds of The Haven.

Prosper was pointing out parts of the settlement to Temi.

“Over there is the training grounds and quarters of the warriors,” he said, pointing to a huge gate several metres away. “You’ll be spending a lot of time there in the next few weeks as we train you.”

“Train me?” Temi asked with sudden confusion. “To be what, a warrior?”

Prosper gave him a cold appraisal.

“Not just a warrior, Temi, but into the best warrior I’ve ever trained, even better than myself, and we have just a few months to do that.”

Temi was shaking his head with worry and trepidation.

“Warrior? To kill other people? Oh, no, I can’t do that, please!” he said. “I can’t kill another human, and you should know that!”

Prosper nodded bleakly.

“Tell that to The Keepers, especially the Grand Oracle, not me,” he replied.

“Who are The Keepers?” Temi asked.

“Some influential men and women who were loyal to your father, King Demi, and who managed to escape the madness of Temitayo Anubi. Temitayo and Leke Olugbade killed most of the people loyal to your father after that atrocious day in Dayo.

The Grand Oracle, Jhon Moziz, however managed to help some of them escape, and then he directed us all here to The Haven which he created and hid so that Leke O. Bally and Temitayo wouldn’t be able to find us.”

They had now arrived at a huge flat building, painted brown, and which had a wide compound.

Many horses were tied to hitching rails in front of the building. There were armed warriors on each side of the door who saluted smartly as Prosper Freeman and Temi walked past.

The interior of the room was huge and brightly-lit with the same strange fluorescent lighting Temi had seen the previous night. The floor was tiled, and the walls were covered from the ceiling-to-floor with heavy curtains, except the wall at the far end opposite the entrance, which had a portrait of King Demi sitting on a throne.

There was a huge oval-shaped table in the middle of the room, surrounded by sturdy comfortable seats. There were other leather-bound deep seats along the walls of the room, on which sat some warriors, one of whom was the strange girl, Roselyn Amaefule, who had smashed him so mercilessly.

She was now in a warrior’s uniform, and she looked splendid indeed although her eyes looked at Temi coldly and with venom.

Around the huge table were six men and four women, all of them dressed in very beautiful and expensive-looking garments. At the head of the table was a man wearing a heavy black gown decorated with gold trimmings, lines and buttons.

There was a high-peaked ceremonial cap on this man’s head. He had a shock of grey beard and moustache, but his face was crinkly and filled with gentleness as he looked up and smiled.

“Ah, finally, the cherished army commander appears,” the man said with a smile as Prosper came to a halt and bowed low once.

“I greet you, my fellow Keepers,” Prosper said, and the people around the table responded.

The man at the head of the table indicated a chair on his left.

“Come, my friend and brother, have a sit,” he said.

Prosper marched to the indicated chair and sat down.

Now all eyes turned to appraise Temidayo.

He could see the palpable shock on the faces of the Keepers as they stared at him, shock mixed with frank admiration, and sombre reflection, and yet there was something there too that he couldn’t exactly pinpoint. There was a melancholic air, yes, but also a veiled animosity.

“Indeed, you’re the son of our King Demi,” said a middle-aged woman to Temi’s right, her eyes appraising him frankly.

“Yes, indeed, it is the king brought back to life, because this man is an exact replica of our beloved departed Lord Demi!” a grey-haired man sitting next to the woman said, and the others spoke too in tones of wonder and sadness as they remembered King Demi.

“We heard of you, Prince Temidayo, from the Grand Oracle, John Moziz, who told us we have to see you,” the man at the head of the table said. “But, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I guess, introduction are in order. I’m Ayaka Nsugbe, the Chief Keeper. You’ll know the other Keepers in due course, as and when it becomes necessary. But do sit down, Prince, because we have to discuss something of utmost importance.”

They pointed to a chair at the foot of the table, and Temi slid into it, aware that they were all staring at him now, making him feel uncomfortable and threatened, like a fly in a spider’s web.

“Good,” Keeper Ayaka Nsugbe said. “Once again I welcome you to The Haven, my prince. Do forgive us, dear. This is indeed a great day for us, and we should have marked your presence in our midst with a great feast of eating, drinking and dancing well into the night, but alas, we’re faced with a problem so vast that it prevents us from even the basic of pleasures as a result. Suffice to say that once this threat is over, the son of King Demi will indeed be accorded the welcome he deserves.”

Temidayo smiled gently.

“Your words are enough welcome for me, Keeper Nsugbe, as a result no further party of welcome will be necessary,” Temi said, and there were murmurings of approvals around the great hall.

“Good, my son, good,” Ayaka Nsugbe said. “Therefore, I take it that you know a bit of the history of Dayo? Grand Oracle Jhon Moziz assured us that before you get here, you’ll be aware of the basic afflictions of our great land.”

Temi nodded sadly.

“Indeed, I know of the betrayal of Temitayo Anubi, and the part that evil man, Leke Olugbade Bally, played in it. I know of my father’s murder, my grandmother’s demise, my mother’s imprisonment in the dungeons of the old palace, and my sister’s imprisonment in a tower waiting for marriage to Temitayo because he wants to get his hands on the Royal DayoSword.”

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