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Chapter 30
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2024-10-29 19:42:56WE ALL STAND QUIETLY on the path leading up the dark-gloomy castle entrance as the three matrons carry out a ritual. Seven small outcropping rocks lie spread wide apart in a horizontal line at the path leading to the castle steps and Oniko with the assistance of Bashir and Biola moves to each of the rocks, taking one of the seven rams that had been made available for the ritual, slaughtering the rams upon it and letting the blood spill upon the rock while the matrons follow them from behind chanting incantations.
They step back after spilling the blood of the last ram over the final rock, leaving the rest to the three matrons who begin a singsong incantation. Powerful magic ignites on the rocks, and the bodies of the ram and their blood catch fire, burning till nothing is left of them. We all sense an invisible barrier before the castle lifted as the fire goes out.
“Opening the castle does not demand much from your magic, it is only a matter of your will p
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CRIMSON SKY Chapter 31
FOURTEEN WITCHES SEAT in a round circle, five blacks, five reds, and four whites—which we sense more from their aura than from their clothes ranging in different colors from green, blue, white, black to purple. They are all women, and there are two empty seats in the circle. “The council of sixteen,” Ramatu announces. “This is not Nigeria. This is not Africa.” Ahmed states the obvious. “But how—” Chike begins. “Quiet,” Iditan hisses softly. The five of us are still connected. We can feel ourselves but we can’t see each other, and we are hidden within the shadows by the right side of the clearing. Why are we here? What’s this all about? I try to take a step forward out of curiosity but I find I can’t move. I sigh and then take the time to study the faces of the witches. There are a few young women amongst them, youths in fact. The fear on the face of the fourteen women mirrors each othe
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 32
TWENTY-ONE CAIRNS form a formation at the center of a wide clearing. Brea stands at its center while the members of the council form a small circle outside the cairns, and over hundred witches a larger circle behind the council.The witches chant softly as Brea moves around the interior of the cairns, laying a spell. She finally stands at the center of the circle and the chanting increases in crescendo. Brea stretches her right hand forward and the World stone appears in it, still in its dull unassuming form.“Everyone send your powers now!” Catherine commands.The chanting stops and a great storm of magic rolls as the witches all transfers power towards Brea within the cairns. A green and silver glow suddenly erupts from the World stone, bathing the whole clearing in its light and drawing gasps of surprise from all the witches.“The World stone!” a few voices hiss in surprise.A silent argument rises between Anna and Tilda
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 33
“WHERE ARE WE?” Brea asks, looking around in bewilderment. They are in a thick forest not unlike the one they have left behind.She looks at Selene and another witch who has since moved on to wake the others who are unconscious. The witches come awake with groans of discomfort, before taking on a look of wariness as they remember recent events.“Magic is Back!” Brea hisses in excitement, standing to her feet. “But it now has a different feel to it. It is way stronger than before.”“Where is Cat?” she finally asks, looking around for her. Her eyes rest on the witches who are all try to evade her gaze.“Brea,” Selene begins.“Where is she? Where are the others?” Brea asks, her voice quivering.“I’m not sure where we are,” Selene begins. “Cat opened a rift with blood magic using the Heaven’s eye, and she stayed back to stop Lord Bail.”
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“NICE PLACE YOU GOT HERE. I never knew you—”“What in hell are you doing here?” I shouted, shocked. The feeling of déjà vu struck me so hard I had to steady myself on the aluminum rail of the staircase so as not to fall.“Mind your language.” Felicia who came out of the kitchen wearing an apron scolded. “I’m sure everyone in the estate could hear you from miles away.” It was one of those Saturdays when Felicia chose not to go to work so as to clean and do laundry, and so everyone else was at home except for my father.I barely answered her, staring at Kudaisi who sat on the couch and looked back at me with eyes twinkling in wicked amusement. Taiwo sat beside him on the couch, chuckling hard at my reaction alongside Shola and Kenny who were seated opposite them. Last time, it was chike making an unannounced entry into our house, now today, it was Kudaisi.I shifted a glance to
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 35
THEY WERE FIGHTING AGAIN.Felicia’s voice was louder as usual, her shrill voice resounding through the house while father’s thick baritone voice accompanied her with its vibrations. They never really fought or argued, but whenever they did we would have to make ourselves as scarce as possible, as anyone of us could readily be the focus of their anger at any moment, especially for father.The first fight would have been before we came home from the beach when father had arrived home to our absence. I had gotten back to my phone on reaching the car to eleven missed calls, nine from Felicia and two from Joseph, and with a message that we were to go to her supermart where Joseph would be waiting to bring us home on pretence that we had gone there as usual for our occasional part-time work.Felicia was scowling hard and her face red as we entered the house with terrified faces, and then another argument began when father came down and we greeted him. He h
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“You sure did take your time,” Kudaisi said when I finally appeared in the garden. I only had twenty minutes to stay. “A lady needs her time,” I replied with a forced smile, joining him on the bench where he sat. He eyed me for a moment, noting the weariness on my face. “Come here.” He drew me into his warm embrace. We sat like that without any words till it was time for me to go, and I had to reluctantly detach myself from his arms. “Be safe,” I muttered as I opened the portal that would lead me to my destination. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to stop Kudaisi from going out to look for trouble tonight or any other night no matter how hard I tried, I could only hope he would be safe. “You too.” Ahmed accosted me as soon as I arrived at our designated meeting place, a little village in the north called Dabi. “You are late,” he said, smiling in his easy self-assured way. “I’m not really, we were supposed to meet by eleven.
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 37
I WOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER DANIEL to be the fat snotty brat who hid behind his mother’s skirt with either a lollipop, a snack, or one of his fingers in his mouth, refusing to be anywhere but beside her even when she had to seat and later during dinner. It has been over five years since I last saw him, since when uncle Christopher brought him visiting with his wife to our house, and although he should be seventeen now, he was still not too far from the fat snotty brat of the time.And that snotty brat was trying to hit on me at this moment.We were currently at Uncle Christopher’s sprawling mansion at Ibadan for his wedding anniversary, and the party was in full blown after the reunion which held earlier in the afternoon—a tiring affair which mostly involved getting introduced to our father’s friends or uncles, their children, and their wives who by default became our aunts, with a lot of false smiles, forced conversations and lunch.Currentl
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WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE? My thoughts flew everywhere as I was unsure of what was really going on. It took all I had to compose myself and not break down from tension and fear as I sat inside the backseat of the highlander with Taiwo wrapping her arms around me and her head on my lap, as we waited for father and Felicia who had come to check me by the car minutes ago after Shola found them and told them I was sick and had then gone back to bid farewell to their friends before we left. Kenny and Shola stood outside the car, reclining against the side as music from the party which was still on sounded in the background.This was by far the scariest and strangest night of my life.Everyone of them had a black owl on their person; father, Felicia, Shola, Taiwo, Kenny, and the two drivers Mark and Joseph. I did not see those on Shola, Kenny and Taiwo until later when I connected to the sight, and I was sure it was the tension and fear that had made me reverse to basic
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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
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 42
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
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 41
“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
