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Chapter 13
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2024-10-29 19:42:56I MOVED LIKE THE WIND, running so fast I was at the foot of the mountains and back to the starting point in a matter of seconds.
"Faster," Damola barked.
I was not sure if she was talking to me or to the others who seemed to me to be moving like bicycle in a car race—the nighthawks in our team especially—but I put more effort, throwing all my frustration and negative emotions into my legs. I was in a race not only physically, but also a mental race to empty my mind.
Damola had brought us for training away from the pressure of the mountains on the kilometers long field between the castle and the mountains, to test our speed for real life action against the cursed ones. The castle was still shut, as silent and as dreary as ever, but I have no time to throw questions about it and feed my curiosity like I would have done on a normal day.
I reached the foot of the mountains yet again, still brimming with energy, and was returning back when a sharp
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“So you are a witch,” Kudaisi murmured softly. “I always felt something about you was magical, I never knew how close to the mark I was.” He chuckled softly to himself.“So you are one of the cursed ones?” I fired back, my voice coming out flat and without the steel I hoped it would have.Kudaisi chuckled again. “They chose to call themselves chosens.”Ibrahim appeared before us like the wind, making me bite back my sharp retort. “Take.” I instinctively raised my hands and caught the bottle of water he threw to me. It was then I sensed the great pangs of thirst from my throat which had become parched from all the screaming.“Thanks.” I smiled at him.“Is there any other thing you need?”I shook my head. “I’m okay.”Ibrahim nodded, shifting a glance at Kudaisi. He turned back to me, holding my gaze. “If you would take my
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“KUDAISI AND I ARE BACK TOGETHER.”“What?”“How could you ever accept that fool back?”“You must be kidding right?”My siblings exclaimed as we rode to school Monday morning. I had taken courage to tell them so they wouldn’t hear from others later on when people saw us together.“But we spoke about you getting over him just two days ago,” Taiwo added.I smiled at their reactions. “It’s alright—” I began.“It is not alright!” Shola fired back. “You had us really scared when you broke up, moping around like a vengeful spirit. I think it’s unhealthy you continue staying with him.”“I don’t know sis,” Kenny added, frowning as he shook his head.Their heated responses made me surprised and emotional at the same time, knowing it was out of their love for me. “We didn&rsqu
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We all trooped to Kudaisi’s car. He brought a convertible today, opening up the roof during the ride. The rush of the wind felt incredible, making me close my eyes and bask in it. The beach was sparse as it usually was during weekdays, and so we had fewer eyes on us. “Let’s go into the water,” Kudaisi said as soon as we got down from the car, stripping off his shirt to reveal his lean muscled abs. “I don’t think so.” I shook my head. Lara and I did not prepare to swim today and so did not bring any swimwear. “How do you propose we go inside the water? With our clothes?” “You could go in your—” Kudaisi eyed me and then Lara. I was sure he was looking through our clothes to the lines formed below. A blush creeped unto my cheek. “You wish.” At the end of the day we simply sat on the sand and watched the boys take a dip in the water wearing their boxers shorts, as loud music blasted from the car. They soon returned thirty min
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THE ANCIENT TRAINNING GROUNDS was cast in darkness, making the whole atmosphere which was always bright to look different. A large bonfire burnt in the middle of the clearing not far from the castle, and smaller fires with roast meat on them littered the around filling the air with scent of burning meat, pepper and spice. People gathered in groups around the smaller fires, while the matrons and the council sat the center, a few feet away from the larger bonfire.We sat before one of the smaller fires at the fore front of the gathering; I, Iditan, Chike, Ramatu, Biola, Kola, Irene and Bashir, and a wild pig sat roasting on our fire as we faced the council directly. Oniko was absent, out following a lead on the cursed ones, and Damola who had been monitoring the arrangements of the whole setup with the help of some of the older nighthawks finally returned to join us.“What is this all about?” I asked Damola as soon as she came back. We had arrived at the trai
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Only Iditan remained by our spot when I returned, staring at the merry makers.The larger bonfire was blazing hard, and almost every other person was there, dancing around it. I sat down stiffly, also watching them go at it. I caught sight of Damola dancing energetically with a younger man and smiled, seeing the light in her eyes. Hers was a mood I liked—she could let lose when need be and so also be all bossy and demanding as the occasion demanded, and let loose she did right now, trying out some crazy moves.Ramatu returned a minute later to join us and watch the proceedings, and then Chike who came to cajole me to the dance, staying back after I rejected his insistent urgings. Dancing was never one of my strong suits, and I always felt conscious doing so outside.With each face I beheld making merry before the fire, I began to wonder what they were like in the real world, their dreams, their aspiration, what made them tick. I shifted my gaze to our grou
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THE UNUSUAL SILENCE and darkness on the mountains was unnerving as I flew slowly to the seventh point where I met Iditan training by herself. She continued her practice without turning around, even as I knew she sensed my arrival, so I just watched her go through her forms.Iditan’s moves were unpredictable, I saw that glaringly now. Sometimes she was slow, so slow you feel like you could strike her with twenty or more moves before she brought up a defense, and other times she was fast, like the wind. And her leg work was just a work of art, like a dance.I was so lost watching her train that I nearly missed the dagger she threw at me. It was so subtly hidden in the wind that I only sensed it at the last moment, moving my head so it passed a hairs-breath from my neck. She came at me in the same instant, the lone dagger in her hands pointed straight at my head.Was she trying to kill me now that there are no witnesses? I back-stepped fast, my senses now hei
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“CAN YOU READ MINDS?” I asked.Kudaisi turned to me, staring intently at my face with a look of amusement. We were seated at an obscure corner of the school library with books—which we just opened as camouflage and barely even read—before us, and a soundproof magic shield around us which I subtly designed to make sounds filter in but not out, and to make it look like we were reading to anyone who came around. Adeola and Lara were in the cubicle beside us, but unlike Kudaisi and I, they were really engrossed in their study.I held Kudaisi’s gaze challengingly, trying hard to clear my thoughts on the probability he really could read minds, so he would not get anything from me at that moment. Few seconds later my body temperature began to rise, a burning hot feeling running through me despite the air condition which was blowing hard not far from where we sat.My gaze travelled down from his eyes which were now twinkling s
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ONLY ONIKO AND IDITAN WERE on the seventh point when I arrived, and very few nighthawks on the other sections.“What happened?” I passed Oniko a questioning gaze as soon as I landed. He had sent a message earlier in the evening while I was at home in my room studying. ‘Come early,’ the message had said, and so I left home an hour earlier than I normally would to come here.“You’re late.” Iditan scowled evilly, wiping off the growing smile on my face as I turned to her. I had thought we had an understanding after the last time, but seeing her revert back to her normal psychotic self just after a day opened my eyes to the huge battle on my hands me when it came to becoming friends with her.“I came as early as I could,” I defended. “Captain.” I tipped my head towards Oniko who nodded back.“You and Iditan would be heading out on an important mission tonight,” Oniko began. I shifte
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I was yanked out of Kudaisi’s body as he came to. He was still in the dungeons, and the red matron stood before him with two of her apprentices.“He is not going to make it” the red matron says, looking him over wistfully. My heart skips a beat hearing her. “Someone has tampered with him or something,” she looks around, frowning.“What do we do no?” one of the apprentices asked.The red matron frowned. “Get me blood. We can’t allow him die like this. We will feed him blood to make him heal and continue.”“Okay,” the girl turned around and left the dungeon.I came awake slowly, taking a moment to get my eyes used to the dim lightning of the room. The thick pungent smell of drug and pills hit me hard, and as I tried to move my right hand a strong warm hand gently, but firmly, stopped me.“Finally you're awake.” It was Mama. She was seated on the bed by my side.
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The sound of hooting precedes Iya Agba’s arrival as she enters as a bird before morphing back into human.“I am sorry for keeping you waiting,” Iya Agba says, etching a low bow. “Let’s get this done quickly, I have somewhere else I must be.” Busari stands to his feet. “Where are the goat and the pigeons?”“They are out at the backyard, let me get them.” Yeye Omo stands to her feet and totters wildly. She is saved by the wall behind her which she leans heavily on. Giving her witch’s bead to Busari for the sacrifice had weakened her a lot.“Yeye Omo!” Iya Agba hurries to her side.“I’m okay.” Yeye Omo wards Iya Agba away with her hand.Busari sighs and points his staff to the floor before him. A midnight black goat and seven pigeons appear out of thin air. “No need, I’ve gotten them.”Kudaisi gawked at Busari, surpris
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Our wait continued until late into the night when Iya Agba came back. Yeye omo collected the materials and began to the sacrifice and invocation immediately, chanting incantations. “Why have you called me?” strong pressure descends suddenly in the room as a thick baritone voice asks gruffly, jolting them with its unexpectedness.Yeye Omo quickly comes to her feet, followed by Iya Agba who first founders on the stool nearly falling on the floor before standing.“Welcome my lord.” Yeye Omo etches a bow as a man materializes before them.Iya Agba echoes Yeye Omo’s greetings, also bowing, while Kudaisi stand there and study him.Busari Egiri, the man who has lived centuries. He wears a white top, buba, and short, Sokoto, and he looks middle aged despite the full white hairs on his head and beards. A heavy white shawl lay on his left shoulder, with a small white sack by his hip with its strap across his body
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Kudaisi growled, fighting against the invisible shackles that bound him to no avail.Yeye Omo chortled softly as she eased herself away from him and stood to her feet, using her left hand to wipe the blood trailing down her lips.Kudaisi continued his struggles against the invisible shackle to no effect.“To say I had to use this before I could stop you. You should be proud.” There was a horn in Yeye Omo’s right hand which she raised us. The horn was long with spirals like a bull’s horn. It was wrapped in black and red cloth with cowries and dry leaves around it, and it shined dimly even under the soft yellow glow of the lamps, oozing smoke from its top.“Do you know what I had to do to get this five hundred years Áse?” Yeye Omo inquired, looking grim. “It took years and years of service to get something this powerful. Long years of service, and I doubt there are many charms of its caliber around.&
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SHE IS AN OLD HAG—Yeye Omo, Iya Agba called her.She was so old, withered, and bent that Kudaisi feared she would drop dead anytime soon. The faded brown and red flower patterned blouse and wrapper she wore did nothing to hide her skeleton frame. She tottered on a worn-out wooden cane held tight in her right hand, leading Kudaisi and Iya Agba into her decrepit mud hut with lots of wide yawning cracks in its walls. A lantern hung on the left side of the door casting an iridescent glow about, with its wick fluttering under the soft night breeze.Kudaisi nearly found himself rushing to assist Yeye Omo as she weaves hard by the door, taking a moment to steady herself and enter into the hut.“Go in,” Iya Agba commanded as he paused by the entrance.Kudaisi eyed the walls for a moment, praying it holds still and doesn’t collapse and seal them to their deaths.“Sit.” Yeye Omo waved a hand t
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In Kudaisi's headIT’S TWO DAYS since he got back home with Iya Agba. The police come around to take statements the very day they return. He forces himself to look blank all through the meeting as if lost, but it is only to suppress the restlessness from the hunger and scalding thirst ravaging me—no easy feat that.Iya Agba attends to them, simply telling them I lost his memory and cannot remember much, and that a Good Samaritan found him by the roadside with his wallet which contained her number, helping him find his way back home.The policemen only direct looks of pity his way before leaving, promising to come again for more information. THey know they wouldn’t be back and only said they would for effect. The bus he boarded at the park in Lagos has still not been found, and according to the police I might just be the only survivor of a ritualist kidnapping which is not so unusual in this part of the world, and
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There was no more me, only Kudaisi. I felt what he felt, saw what he saw. I had become him.As a little boy, after spending the better parts of the day playing and running around the whole neighborhood with friends, I would end up on Iya Agba’s bed after dinner with his head on her bony thighs as she either tell me a story or sing a song while her fingers softly caress his head. She will only stop when I’m drowsing to take me to his room, or after I doze off and I will wake up the next day to find himself in his own room, on his bed.One thing about those times is, I am always secure in the warmth of her bosom, like the kind of feeling a chick has staying under the wings of its mother. I was immovable, untouchable, I was free—unrestrained.The same feeling encompass me now as Iya Agba’s scent invades his senses—the scent of home, of love, of the feeling that nothing can ever go wrong.“Kudaisi.”I groan, re
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PAIN. ANGER. REGRET.I felt his emotions, every single part of it, as the Red matron who personally oversaw his interrogation tortures him again and again, taking him just to the brink of oblivion only to drag him back from falling into the darkness. Green vines bound his hands and legs, splaying him wide in the air in nothing but his boxer shorts, and his body shivered as pain racked through him with each slightest movement. His screams resounded loud as the red matron did something to him for some long minutes before stopping.I watched everything from the shadows, unable to move, speak, or even let loose of the floodgate of tears locked behind my eyes and vent the thick stifling pain which smothered me. He refused to speak despite whatever they did to him, refused to betray his friends.An image flashed through my mind—his mind. It was his late grandmother, Iya Agba. I looked at her with familiarity like I have known her for years, feeling from
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“YOU ARE LATE,” Kudaisi said as soon as I arrived at our rendezvous point. “What’s the problem?” he asked, seeing the worried look on my face.“Kenny…” my voice broke and I stopped.“What about him?”“I found him. He is already a cursed one.”“No,” Kudaisi hissed in shock. I nodded, turning my eyes down as he stared intently at me—barely holding myself together. “Where is he?”“With the witches at Olofi. They practically sent him to them with a note stating it was a gift for me.”“The bastards!” Kudaisi cursed. “How about Shola and Taiwo?”“I don’t know yet. I- I- I hope they are fine.” I nearly broke there, until I felt the white matron determining my location with her spell. “I need your help,” I said, raising my head.“You know I would—”&nbs
