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Chapter 18
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Only 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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We reappeared in a thick forest cast in darkness. Only the barest sunlight filtered in through the mammoth trees and broad canopies, and the sounds of birds and other animals which should be tumultuous in such a forest was lacking.“You are here.” a tall stocky boy appeared before Iditan and I like a ghost.I strengthened my shield and took a stance immediately, taking it as another of Iditan’s tests. The boy was taken aback for a second but his reaction was quick. He retreated fast, putting a distance between us, and a short glimmering broadsword appeared in his hands.“What’s going on? Who is this?” he asked.Iditan had a quirk which could go for a smile on her face as she replied. “This is Toke, one of our witchlords. Toke meet Thabiti, the first guardian from Kenya in a very long time.” Iditan introduced.I slowly stood at ease, embarrassed at my overt reactions. “I’m sorry,&rdqu
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“THIS WAS TOO EASY,” Iditan was saying to Thabiti and the middle aged captain of their nighthawks, Jaal, after the battle, when I joined them. Their only other two witchlords—a gangly boy and a mousy girl with thick huge glasses—introduced as Ben and Lilla, also stood with them while their Nighthawks cleared the battlefield, moving the body parts of the cursed ones littering the field to be thrown in the fire. The Kenyans were not as lucky as we in Nigeria, having found only three of the five witchlords, the remaining two yet unknown.“Yes, we hit them pretty hard,” Thabiti replied energetically, a smile on his face. “Finally, Kenya is free from these damned pests.”“I don’t think so.” Iditan shook her head in disagreement. “We won way too easily even with our superior strength and all, and since we found no tangible evidence or leads here my instinct tells me this is not the last of them.”
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Nub’s smile widened at their reactions. “You all missed his bastard son that year, Jap, born to his servant girl. Somehow he escaped before you came to destroy them, and having learned a little of the magic from his father and from some other evil spirits he became stronger over the years. A little over four years now, he captured me, seeking to turn me towards his magic and use me for his plans. I spent four months as his captive, and he was every way as mad as his father.” Nub’s countenance turned sour.“My best friend who was with me when he took me could not continue and she took her own life, but I made him pay in the end, when he thought he had me under his finger. He died begging for death.” “That was about the time she changed,” Iditan muttered, her words opening my eyes to see a bit of why Nub seemed so bloodthirsty during the battle against the cursed ones. The darkness in Nub’s eyes at this mom
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I TOOK A BREAK FROM OLOFI for the next few nights, and then when I returned it was to hear that all witches currently writing their school leaving exams had been given a pass to practice only for an hour each night, and spend the rest of the time studying—since keeping up with our lives outside was just as important as witching.Iditan was away for most of the time and so I had to train by myself or spar with Ramatu, Chike and the others for the one hour—which held little or no challenge now that I could win against them easily—and whenever Iditan was around she would arrive when the spar was on, and leave before I was free to chat.Lara who had recently been promoted to the sixth point and was aiming to join me at the seventh point before school was over also had me training her for thirty minutes more in our chosen secluded corner away from the mountains before we dug into studying mathematics and numerous equations—which to me w
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Sunday night, Lara and I were done for the day and were heading to the entrance of the training ground where we would open a portal to our different homes when I sensed Iditan inside the forest below. A surge of happiness ran through me because I was sure it was her act of reaching out to me. I wouldn’t have sensed her if she had not wanted me to.“Go ahead, I have somewhere I must go first before heading home,” I sent to Lara.“Ok,” She replied, too tired to ask questions.I headed down to the forest to meet Iditan seated beneath a great oak tree on a patch of green verdant grass, her eyes closed and her body relaxed as she leaned against the tree. I stared at the Oak tree which was the size of a small house, surprised to be seeing it for the first time. Ever since I have learnt to morph and fly I have never passed the way through the forest, choosing to fly over it, but still I should have seen a tree this big from above, or so I
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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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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
