The Legend Of Dayo…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

THE LEGEND OF DAYO

FINAL SEASON:

THE REDEMPTION

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The Author

CHAPTER 3

“But I am responsible, mother, I am!” Temi said and pulled away furiously for her and shook his head numbly. “It’s all my fault! I hesitated! There are a million things I could have done to prevent Daniel and Nneka from dying, but my fear crippled me! And now you want me to go to the White Lands after some dead olive plant?

At what cost, Mama? Whose life would be lost to achieve that plant, and after I bring it what shows another plague wouldn’t set in, requiring someone else to die? I’m tired of it all, Mama! I’m tired and fed up! If we have fifty days, so be it! We would all turn to stone and live the rest of our lives in dead peace!”

“Temi, my brother, please!” Princess Akenzua said desperately. “Nothing could be helped! It was all bound to happen. Don’t blame yourself, please! Dayo needs you!”

Temi whirled on her furiously.

“Dayo needs me? At what cost?” he grated out in a harsh, terrible roar of a voice. “Maybe you will die, or maybe my mother will die, right? Enough is enough! I’m not doing this anymore. The least the Creator could have done was spare Nneka, but she died, and my son died too! I will never forgive Him for that. Never!”

“Temi!” Princess Akenzua screamed in anguish.

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“Let me blaspheme, damn it!” Temi shouted furiously. “She was a woman I loved, and she was carrying a son, my son! Oh, yes, allow me to bloody blaspheme!”

He stepped past them and ran quickly toward the entrance.

The Queen embraced her daughter, and then she wiped tears from her cheeks.

“Your brother is in too much pain,” she said sadly. “I understand that pain, my dear. Nothing will assuage his heart unless he finds new love, maybe. Oh, we’re in trouble!”

Weeping, the Princess held her mother tight.

“Let’s not lose hope, Mama!” she said gently. “The Creator will make a way. He always does!”

“I hope so, daughter,” the Queen said miserably. “I pray so.”

***

It was the dead of night, witch hour, and three dark figures could be seen on the upper tenements of the palace. They looked upon the dark reaches of the kingdom.

They spoke in very low tones.

“Heard you got more survivors today, Commander,” Emmanuel Suncity said softly.

“Yes, fifty survivors, but very little food,” Prosper Freeman said with a sigh. “We’re running out of stock, and water will soon become a problem. All sources of water have turned to stone, except for the little brook in the garden of the palace. I wonder how long it will hold out.”

“Twenty days now, Grand Oracle,” Suncity said. “Situation now becoming dire.”

“And the prince?” Prosper asked in a worried voice. “He has now locked himself inside the western wing. I worry for him. His continuous grieving makes things bleaker for Dayo and for us. What do we do, Grand Oracle.”

Jhon Moziz put a foot on the ledge and leaned forward slightly.

“There was a girl, an earthling, the last place I hid him,” he said softly.

“Yes, I remember,” Prosper said suddenly. “The day he came through the portal, he mentioned her name.”

“He did?” Jhon Moziz said, surprised for a moment.

“Yes, he did, and he scared the hell out of me,” Prosper said softly.

“An earthling maiden?” Suncity asked, intrigued. “The prince loved her?”

“He did, first love,” Jhon Moziz said softly. “Neji Helen. For her sake he refused to come through the portal. Theirs was a scary kind of love, and I feared she might side-track him out of his mission, and so I did what I thought was the best solution.”

“You killed her?” Suncity asked, horrified.

“Oh, come off it!” Jhon Moziz said, exasperated. “What do you take me for, a murderer? Of course not. I just took their memories of each other away.”

There was a stunned silence, and in the dim moonlight Prosper and Suncity exchanged glances.

“And he loved her, maybe more than he did Nneka?” Suncity asked numbly.

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“He did,” Jhon Moziz said. “Even when he was fatally wounded, before the impartation, he used to have visions of her. Indeed, the situation is becoming dire. Maybe, if I give them back their memories, it will rekindle the spirit within his breast and make him embrace his destiny again.”

“That sounds like a perfect alternative,” Prosper said softly. “My only problem is, can she come through the portal? No earthling has ever come through, you know?”

“I can’t open a portal, in reality. Portals can be opened by a Dayan King using the Royal DayoSword, or by the kind mercies of the Creator which occurs every eighteen years. I will have to open a Gateway, which would be very unstable like all illegal gateways. She can come through, if she’s of pure heart,” Jhon Moziz said softly.

“We have wasted twenty days waiting for the Heir Apparent, and he still grieves. I saw this, and tried to divert Nneka, but she wouldn’t listen. Well, I have no choice then. Tomorrow, I’ll open the gateway and head back to the Nigerian town of Asawka. Perhaps, if I bring Neji Helen through, she’ll help solve our problems.”

“And I say you have waited long enough,” Suncity said with reproach in his voice. “We do not know how the prince is going to fair beyond the wall. Maybe, he will need all the sixty days, and we’ve wasted twenty already. I’m of the disposition that maybe you should open the gateway now, and go find this earthling maiden now.”

“Tomorrow is already here, Suncity,” Jhon Moziz said levelly. “A word of caution. I want this to be known by only the three of us, for now. Is it understood?”

“It is,” Prosper said softly. “Now, tell us exactly what you plan to do.”

“I’ll open an illegal Gateway to Earth,” Jhon Moziz said softly. “Since it is just a Gateway, it will be wildly unstable, and could close any minute, and so I would have to be fast. You two should stand wait and watch. If the Gateway turns red, it means it would be closing up, and you would need to thrust my staff through the hole. It would jar me up, and I’ll come back immediately.”

Again, Suncity and Prosper exchanged glances.

“If it is that dangerous then I think you shouldn’t go,” Prosper Freeman said in a worried voice. “It would be absolutely disastrous if you get trapped on the planet earth.”

“There’s nothing else I can do,” Jhon Moziz said bleakly. “What has to be done, will be done.”

***

It was around two o’clock at dawn.

They were in the Dayo Square, all alone.

Prosper and Suncity watched in awe and uneasiness as the Grand Oracle stood in front of the Rock of Redemption and whirled his staff in both hands faster and faster.

The rod cut through the air with a whistling sound and a low underlying sound that sounded like a growl. As he swirled the staff, he whispered the strange words that none of them understood. They saw that the fierce circle the staff made in the air was suddenly filled with amber flames on its edge, and that a kind of deep hole was opening up within the circle.

They could see shadowy figures moving within the hole in the circle.

Now the outer edges of the circle was completely on fire, and Jhon Moziz suddenly pulled the rod free and stepped back.

The Gateway was still open!

Jhon Moziz, face grim in the darkness, gave the staff to Prosper Freeman.

“Watch the edges of the circle, please!” he said carefully. “If the amber fire on the edges turn to red flames, throw the staff into the Gateway.”

“It will be done according to your wishes, Grand Oracle,” Prosper Freeman said.

“Keep watch, and don’t move an inch until I get back!” Jhon Moziz said, and before any of them could utter a word, he pushed his right arm through the gaping circle.

He uttered a cry of sudden alarm as he was sucked into the hole, and then he began to fall freely.

“Goodness me!” Emma Suncity stood up with sudden fire as the Gateway emitted deep thunderous thunder and blinding flashes of lightning.

“May the Creator go with you,” Prosper Freeman said.

“Yes, let it be so,” Emma Suncity replied grimly.

***

It was dinner time in the house of Mr. Segun Osuolale.

His wife, Grace Opurum, had prepared a sumptuous meal of yam and fried ripe plantain with red oil leaf stew. Uche Joseph was sitting with a plate of food in front of him.

Mr. Osuolale was at the head of the table, looking resplendent in his white African gown and skewed cap.

“Uche, glutton king, can’t you wait for your sister?” he said with a shake of his head.

“A hungry stomach has no conscience, Baba,” Uche said, drawing a peal of laughter from Grace.

Hovering on the ceiling, invisible to them, Jhon Moziz glided slowly out of the dining-room, through the corridor, and up the stairs.

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They had done very well, he could see. Their store is bigger. They have expanded the house. They looked healthy and strong and prosperous, and he had expected nothing less. The Cloud of Goodness he had showered on the family for taking care of Temi was still hanging over them, and would keep them provided till the end of their years.

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