The Legend Of Dayo…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

THE LEGEND OF DAYO

FINAL SEASON:

THE REDEMPTION

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The Author

CHAPTER 23

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“No, you didn’t let us down, son,” Igwe said weakly. “Don’t ever say that again. This has nothing to do with you. The Oracles prophesied it!”

“Prophesied what?” Temi asked with a shattered soul.

“The Purge, my son,” Igwe said weakly. “The Great Purge. It will be one final war between a Catalyst – and that Catalyst is you – and the wicked spirits that plague Dayo and Earth. It prophesied that you will be most vulnerable inside The Mist, and that Rose and myself would help you, but one of us would die.”

“You knew this all along?” Temi asked painfully, tragically.

“I did, son.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then?” Temi hissed in a broken voice.

“Because I didn’t want you to turn back, son.”

“Turn back where?” Temi groaned in a tortured voice. “There was no way to turn back! I would have continued, but I would have been on my guard, and could have helped you, protected you, maybe held the Royal DayoSword in my hand!”

“The Oracles are always fulfilled, my son,” Igwe whispered with a weak smile. “You should not even think of blaming yourself. There was nothing you could do except play the role assigned to you by destiny! From here, there’s just two more stops. The Land of the Damned, and The Ashes. Beat those two, and the Dead Olive will be yours.

Beware of the Damned, because they are the prisoners who were murderers and vilest of all vile bloods. The Ashes is where you will find Leke Bally. After vanquishing them, you will get to The Desolates, and get the Dead Olive.”

“But why should the sword hurt you?” Temi asked quaveringly. “You’re royal!”

“But you’re the rightful heir, the authorized wielder of the Royal DayoSword!” Igwe said. “Anyone else who touches it will die. If you die, then as a royal I could have possessed it. But as long as you live, no one else but you can wield it!”

“I don’t understand!” Temi screamed painfully. “Rose held it and nothing happened to her because she was using it to help me! Why then, were you struck when you were also using it to save me? Were you perhaps planning to harm me with it?”

Igwe laughed, then he coughed weakly, and then shook his head.

“No, my son,” he whispered. “Rose was not spared death because she was using the sword to help you, my son, no.”

“Then why?” Temi groaned as a tear trickled down his cheek. “Why, Papa?”

“Listen, son,” Igwe said gently. “The Royal DayoSword can only be wielded by two people. The King, or the Heir Apparent, and the woman created to be his partner in his reign over Dayo.”

“What are you talking about?” Temi asked with a scowl. “Rose?”

Igwe nodded.

“Aye, aye, son. The moment a king of Dayo is born, the Creator also prepares him with his queen, who might even not be born yet at the king’s birth. The two might stay long distances apart. But, at the right time, they will always come back together. Rose was unharmed because she is the one Created to be your partner, your Queen, your love!”

“No!” Temi groaned fiercely. “I loved only twice! Neji first, and Nneka! I detest Rose Amaefule!”

“No, you don’t,” Igwe said softly. “She is the one. And from now, you will be having different feelings about her because your destinies are sealed in the belly of death. Usually, when you marry your queen, a mark will appear on your chest, over your heart, after the first night with her.

This shows that the Creator has finally bonded the two of you. But the Oracles spoke about your bonding, right here in The Mists, but I didn’t understand it until now! If I had, I would’ve known she would survive, and I would die.”

“And what did the Oracles say…about this bonding?” Temi asked as he brushed tears from his cheeks.

“Oh, it was just a phrase I’ve not understood until now,” Igwe said weakly. “After prophesying that one of us would die in The Mist, there is a curious phrase next that made no sense. It says that ‘and by the half of doves shall the bond be made apparent.’ Yes, exactly.”

“And by that you conclude that Rose and I are meant to be together?” Temi grated out.

“I think my conclusion is valid,” Igwe whispered weakly. “Wish I’m strong enough to see, but I’ll wager my last breath that by risking her life to save you, and for choosing you, she completed the bond, and it shall be evidenced by the image on your heart. But I grow weak, son. I wish you well. Perhaps, someday, we will meet again.”

“No, no, stay, please, Igwe, stay!” Temi screamed in anguish.

Igwe’s eyes filmed with happy tears as he raised a hand and touched Temi’s cheek.

“Thank you, son, for helping me get my redemption,” he whispered tenderly. “I see them coming for me. Indeed, I am going to a better place. If I had not come here, and died whilst helping you, my final destination would have been most horrible indeed for the part I played in ruining our beloved Dayo. But, with a happy countenance and a singing heart, I am redeemed, and I will have it no other way. Thank you, son.”

Igwe’s hand dropped slowly, and his eyes closed.

Temi held him tightly as tears slowly dripped down his eyes.

Igwe’s body burst into flames then. Temi did not let him go, but the fire did not burn him, but it blazed furiously and brightly as he held his uncle, and then in a moment he was gone leaving only a puff of smoke that soon became a pale tendril, and then his uncle was gone.

Temi wept silently to mourn him, and then he got to his feet slowly.

He dressed up, picked his swords, and headed out of The Mists.

Rose was waiting at the entrance, and when she saw he was alone, she began to weep, totally broken.

Temi walked up to her with a furrowed brow, and he was appalled by the inexplicable bout of tender feelings he was having toward her. He reached out suddenly and touched her vest and tried to raise it up.

She slapped his hand away and looked at him through red-rimmed eyes that dripped tears.

“Now?” she whispered fiercely. “You still want to do your silly impaling things now?”

Temi shook his head once.

“Igwe said there would be…a sign, a symbol of bonding…on your chest, above your heart,” he said softly.

She scowled and shook her head with sudden despair.

“The bonding symbols of married kings?” she asked faintly.

Temi nodded.

“You know about that?” he asked, confused.

“We learn everything about Dayo in Army training, my Lord!” she whispered fiercely. “But don’t let us delude ourselves. You and I don’t have any destinies to bond! I killed the spirit of my mother today, and for that I don’t deserve happiness! Do what you came to do, my Lord, and leave me! It is better I roam these lands with the agony I feel over my mother!”

“Stop that silliness, Roselyn,” Temi gently. “You saved me, because you love me. You love me, because the Creator linked our destinies, you and I, even at the time we hated each other!”

“We don’t have destinies!” she screamed in anguish. “I loved you, and chose you, but I don’t deserve to be happy! And I have no destiny with you! See for yourself!”

With that she ripped her warrior shirt off, dropped it, and then took off her vest!

Her beautiful breasts came into view and she stared defiantly at Temi.

“Nothing!” she hissed. “No image! Happy now?”

But he was staring with dumbfounded shock at a beautiful coloured image under her right breast!

It was the half image of a duck from half of its body to its tail with its two legs!

Rose saw his stricken gaze, and with an angry grunt she drew her knife and held its shiny side away from her breast…and then she gasped when she saw the embossed image of the half dove.

She dropped her sword, stepped forward and then pushed one edge of Temi’s shirt apart…

And there, right on his heart, was the beautifully embossed coloured half image of a dove from the tip of its short beak to its chest area, but without its half bottom!

The signs of the bondage!

“No!” Rose whispered, aghast, as she took a step back. “Don’t do this, Temi, please! Don’t give me false hope when both of us know I can’t get out of the White Lands because I’m not royal! I beg of you, please don’t you dare give me any false hopes, my Lord!”

Temi tried to hold her, but she shrugged his hands off and took off in a run in front of him.

He stood watching her for a long time, and his face was troubled.

He knew two things…

Somehow, suddenly, he did not hate Rose anymore.

And, quite surprisingly, the fact that she was avoiding his comforting arms really hurt him. Remembering Igwe’s words, he marvelled at how strongly he was feeling toward her…and he knew it was not natural!

The Creator, suddenly, had put love for her strongly into his heart!

***

They travelled for two days after that without any incident.

Rose remained cold and brooding most of the time, and during their brief rest periods Temi saw her weeping bitterly on a few occasions, and even though he tried to get close to console her, she always rebuffed his attempts at affection.

She had changed so much after the encounter with her mother, and somehow Temi felt it was expected, but it began to trouble him more and more.

She was no longer the woman who was trying so desperately to win his affections and ensure that she had a good time to remember once they were apart. It was as if she were going through the paces, and had decided she no longer wanted to be close to him, bonding symbols or not!

And yes, it was beginning to hurt him.

He hoped that she would come out of her mourning, and so he did not worry her too much.

Three days after The Mists, they came out of some tall trees and both of them stopped dead with sudden confusion. The yellow sky that had been above them was gone, and above them now was a sky that was so red that it was scary!

It was as if the sky was bleeding!

And, to make it worse, Temi realized that without warning they had arrived at some sort of a settlement.

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The terrain ahead of them was another log community, but unlike Brown Rocks which had had a semblance of order and arrangement, this place looked filthy and in total disarray. The buildings, even from that distance, looked decrepit and unplanned.

And there was even a more horrible spectacle ahead of him.

Their exit from the trees had brought them directly to a sort of arena. It was fashioned out of roughly nailed pieces of wood and what looked like a barbed wire fence.

A lot of men were grouped around the arena and screaming whilst they shook their fists and crude weapons as they watched a brutal fight in the arena. Most of them only had pieces of materials like brown sackcloth tied around their waists, and many were also either naked or wearing frayed and patched shorts.

They were mostly bearded and unkempt men, and looked like wild animals. Temi knew without a doubt that this was The Damned section that Igwe had spoken of.

These men were murderous and wicked prisoners who had been banished from Dayo, but had been too wicked to be taken to the Brown Rocks.

They had been deposited at The Damned.

Rose gasped with sudden horror when they emerged on the scene. The velocity of their screams was deafening, and Temi wondered why they had not heard it as they were coming through the trees! If they had, he would have used a different route altogether.

These were wicked souls who had been brought here to live a harsh life, and they had lost every shred of human character. They had become beasts, and were worse than maddened bulls.

As he watched, sick to his stomach, one of the combatants inside the arena threw his opponents to the ground and clamped his mouth to the younger man’s throat. And then, with a savage violent motion he ripped out the defeated man’s jugular with his bare teeth and stood up!

The great crowd cheered wildly as blood pumped out like a geyser from the throat of the vanquished combatant. He thrashed around, making gurgling sounds, and then his body burst into that strange flames Temi was now becoming used to.

He heard Rose groaning with horror behind him, and taking slow steps backward toward the trees.

“Be still, Rose,” he said fiercely. “If you run, they will chase you, and some will come for me, dividing my attention. I want you to remain close to me, and trust me. I will not let harm come to you!”

The screaming men saw Temi and Rose then.

The one who had bitten off the jugular of his opponent was huge and hairy, and was wearing thick black shorts. He was heavily bearded, like most of them, and his mean eyes bored into Temi with sudden hatred. Blood matted his beard and smeared his lips as he glared at them.

“A royal!” he whispered savagely. “Certainly, the son of that evil Demi!”

“And a wench!” another man said. “A woman! Bedamn, hasn’t seen a lass in twenty years!”

“Woman!” they began to murmur as the lust took over them!

They quickly left the arena and approached Temi and Rose.

Temi was sickened by the raw lust on their faces as they looked at the beautiful Rose. And then, much to his horror, he saw that almost all the naked men were now spotting full erections as they ogled Rose.

Even those with the cloths around their waists had distended fronts, evidence that they also had erections!

They waved clubs and savage weapons as they began to clamber toward Temi and Rose…

“Otu, otu, otu, otu, otu!” many men chanted in a deranged manner as they raced toward Temi and Rose.

“Bush meat!” others shouted.

“Puuuussyyyyyy! Puuuuuusssssyyyy!”

“Vagiiiiiiina, vagiiiiiiina, vagiiiiiiiina, vagiiiiiiiina!”

“I go first, I rape first…otuuuuuuuuu!”

“Food for amudikpe…hole for amudinkpa! Otuuuuuuuuu!!”

They raced insanely toward them!

About thirty men with savage thirty erections!

Rose began to moan feebly with horror and tremble with dread!

She was so terrified that she could not move a muscle, and remained rooted to the spot!

She had never seen so many erections in her life!

And she knew, without a any shred of doubt, that if these lust-maddened insane beasts overcame Temi, they would rape her to her death!