Chapter 5: Conspiracy 

“Werewolves! How is that even possible?” Anu scoffed, making the younger battlemages around her burst into laughter.

“This is not even the time for that!” Tara turned a heated gaze at her. The look she gave her was so powerful that it silenced everyone laughing, and for the first time, Anu drew back. 

“Are you here to stand around like fools or to join the search for clues?” Tara barked at the battlemages who mumbled incoherently and quickly beat a hasty retreat, heading deep into the forest.

It was dark now. The burial ended hours ago, the fake body of her grandmother deep in the ground, and the gravesite empty. Witches prowled the whole area, searching for clues with their magic, and the security guards who watched the place had been put to sleep with magic so they could commence the whole investigation.

 “Don’t you dare talk-” Anu was saying as she turned to Tara.

Tara scuffed walked away unceremoniously, leaving her standing there.

Ella who had been standing silently behind Tara followed her, but not before sniggering to the hearing of Anu in an act of mockery.

“You!” Anu barked. But they both ignored her and headed to another side of the forest where Tara had last seen Boma directing a group of battlemages.

“That was beautiful! You should have seen her face,” Ella was saying animatedly as soon as they were several feet away from Anu who has stopped away in the opposite direction.

Tara looked around, searching. Boma was nowhere to be found.

“You should do that more often. She will be-”

“I’m trying to think here!” Tara cut in coldly, making Ella taper off.

“Oh…” Ella hissed.

“I think you should go home, you’re really not doing anything here, and Asake is going to be worried.”

“Wow! So now I’m being a bother, disturbing you?” Ella challenged, making Tara stop and turn to her.

Tara sighed. “I’m not saying-”

“You know what? Fine. I’m going home.” Ella wrung her hands in anger and turned around, ignoring Tara as she reached for her. A few steps away, she created a magic portal and entered, heading home. 

It was when she had stepped into the portal and left that Tara remembered she would need her to go home since she could not use her own magic in front of others just yet, until she understood it and could control it to an extent.

I shouldn’t have spoken to her like that, Tara shook her head. Just like anytime she heard the faintest mention of werewolves' sightings in the country, the image of the wolves that killed her parents always dominated her mind, making her wrathful and sometimes inconsiderate about others until she has seen to it, or gotten news that the wolves are dead.

Tara looked up as Elda, Anu’s grandmother came up to her with two other elders of the council by her sides. “We caught up on something but it’s very faint. We can’t say for sure that it was wolves.”

Can they really not sense their imprint? Tara eyed them thoughtfully, and then turned to look around her. Although it was not concentrated, she could still sense the werewolves in the air very strongly. But it seemed they really couldn’t sense it. The powers her grandmother had transferred to her shouldn’t have made her so powerful only she could sense it, should it?

 What would her grandmother do in this kind of situation? Tara thought.

“How can you even be sure that it was werewolves? Especially looking at the distance from the gravesite to this forest,” Jonas, one of the two elders on the council standing with Elda began, pointing towards the general direction of the grace site several hundred feet away. 

“Except if you were breaking the law by using magic publicly in front of humans you shouldn’t have been sure as to what they were from that distance,” Jonas added.

“They call it gut feeling,” Tara hissed back, ignoring the frown that crossed Jonas's lean face. “And why are the other council members not here again? Why was it that only a handful of the high-ranking witches attended the burial?” Tara fired, looking from Elda to the other two elders.

“Maybe they were busy,” Jonas replied sarcastically.

“Tara,” the hard-master came to join them at that moment.

“Leke.” She turned to him, filing away and promising to bring her displeasure at them all up at a later time. Although this wasn’t the real burial of her grandmother, as that one would hold at Orun Isu, only five of the council elders had come, something she saw as a great disrespect. Now she had sent a message that every one of them come here to lend their hands in the search for clues on the werewolves, but still, only Elda and these two had shown up; two of the weakest and lower elders.

“We have found nothing,” Leke said.

Tara nodded. “I want you to check with everyone in the ports, borders, and transport sectors. Every one of our people must be on the lookout for clues, and no matter how little, I want you to relate everything back to me.

“Okay.” Leke nodded.

“Go now.”

Leke beat a fist to his chest, turned around, and left.

“You should consult with us first before you give such orders,” Jonas said in a disproving tone as soon as Leke was out of earshot.

Tara sent him a steely gaze. “Why? Does the Matron need permission to give an order on something as basic as this?” 

“You are not the Matron just yet,” the second elder, Adenike, spoke up for the first time.

“But I will be.”

Jonas scuffed hoarsely. “That remains to be seen.”

The direction of the conversation began to brew suspicion in Tara’s heart. She remembered Alake telling her some days ago that she suspected something foul underfoot at Orun Isu as the council has been converging too frequently of recent, but she had dismissed it as preparations for her to take over as the new matron.   

“What do you mean? What’re these all about?” Tara turned to Elda who had been silent all through the exchange. The second had her old wizened face schooled into a mask of blandness, giving off nothing about her thoughts.

“Tara!” a voice screamed her name, breaking the tension in the air.

Tara turned around and saw Ella running towards them looking ruffled.

“What is it, Ella?” 

“Your house- a- attack.” Ella stuttered.

“What?” Tara, Elda, and the two elders blurted in shock, turning a questioning look at one another. 

Who would dare attack the Matron’s apartment? Not a witch; and definitely not humans.

“Yes… my- my grandmother,” Ella replied.

“gods…” Tara hissed. She had left Alake at the house with the others. She turned to Elda, “Take us there, now!”

The air whipped gently around them as Elda performed the teleportation spell noncommittally, gathering everyone around them in the spell.

“Tara!” Boma’s voice traveled to them just as they winked out of the forest.

*****

The nine of them lay spineless on the floor; Alake, Sade, Ben, Ireti, and the five humans who had stayed back at the house after the whole burial ceremony. 

“How are they?” Tara asked as Elda stood up after checking them.

“They will we alright, they’re just in coma,” Elda replied.

“So what happened?” Tara’s heart fell as she saw Ella bend to the floor and reach for her grandmother, sobbing softly.

Elda sighed and turned to Jonas and Adenike as they also rose from the humans they were checking. 

“It was magic, powerful magic. None of them saw the attacker,” Adenike said.

“Just as we guessed.” Tara nodded. Anyone who could enter the grounds easily had to have magic, and for them to even be able to attack despite all the wards around, then the magic had to be very powerful. 

“Powerful magic,” Tara muttered to herself. Could it been one of the three powerful magic users she sensed during the burial?

“Looking through their memories, they never even sensed it coming,” Jonas added.

“Who do you think could have done this?” Tara asked the three elders. The three of them passed between themselves a look which Tara could not really place, and then they turned back to her.

“We can’t say for sure,” Jonas began.

“But who do you suspect?” Tara pressed.

“I-” Jonas started, turned to Elda, and stopped. “I don’t know.” He shrugged.

Elda cleared her throat, drawing Tara’s attention. “The question is; what did whosoever did this want?” she asked thoughtfully, looking about. She and the two elders had jointly scanned the whole house and grounds with magic as soon as they arrived, finding nothing. Leke had then taken the battlemages to search all the rooms and grounds physical for clues.

They are hiding something, Tara thought, studying the three elders suspiciously. “We need to interrogate all the elders and powerful witches amongst us who can be prime suspects, and know where each and every one of them was during the time of the attack,” Tara said testily.

“That might be tricky and not really the best way to get result. Anyone who did this would surely have an alibi,” Elda responded in a dismissive tone. 

“But how could they pass through the wards on the grounds and even those in the house?” Ella asked, looking up at Elda and the other two from where she cradled her grandmother. Sorrow had made her to momentarily forget her fear and usual reverence for the elders. 

“The wards are at their weakest because there’s no one controlling it. Until a matron has been officially installed and takes charge of the scepter of Osoro which powers the wards and several others even at Orun Ise, they will all be at their weakest,” Adenike replied.

“The more reason why-” 

“Tara, Elders.” Boma saluted as he came from inside the house with the battlemages who had gone to search.

“Anything?” Elda asked. 

“We have checked everywhere except for the master bedroom, nothing seems out of place,” Boma replied.

“O- The master bedroom…” Tara hissed, remembering what her grandmother’s voice had said the last time she wanted to use magic during the burial. Something about her quarters.

Without a word, Tara turned and ran for the master bedroom with a heavy heart.

Nothing seemed out of place as she headed fast for the room. She finally arrived before the huge metal doors which had carved upon it an oak tree with full leaves.

She paused, taking a deep breath. She had not entered the room ever since her grandmother died, evading it like a pandemic. But she had to enter now.

The others arrived behind her just as she reached her hand forwards and ran her fingers across the oak patterns on the door. Tara remembered like yesterday the first time she had come here and her grandmother had explained how the door worked to her.

The oak door itself was a protective treasure, it housed a powerful spirit and protected the room. Only those who have the blood of Osoro, or the current master of the scepter of Osoro could enter the room freely. Any other person needed to be invited in. But she had never seen her grandmother invite anyone in.

Something was wrong. The door felt cold beneath Tara’s hand, and it took a moment before the spirit responded weakly.

The door opened and she stepped inside the dark room. She clapped her hands so the light orbs all around the walls and ceiling of the room came on, casting the room in soft light as only a few came on. Her mouth fell wide open as she sized the room. 

It was like a hurricane had passed through the room! 

The wardrobe was wide open with its doors hanging off their hinges and the clothes that should be hanging inside it strewn about. The bed was torn and its cotton and metal frame out in the open, wall frames lay on the floor with their glasses broken, the roofing were haphazardly torn off, the cabinets and other furniture having their contents on the floor. 

Everywhere was a mess.

Hot tears of anger fell from Tara’s eyes as she stared at the destruction for long moments.

“This is where they came for,” Jonas hissed. “But what were they looking for?”

Tara ignored them and walked slowly into the room, looking around. She stopped before her parent’s picture frame which lay broken on the floor, picking it up carefully. 

The glass was totally broken, leaving only the picture. Tara removed it from the wooden frame and stared at it picture lovingly. The photographer had captured a very soul-stirring moment. In the picture her parent’s eye glowed with love as the stared at each other, and she sat on her mother’s lap as a little girl, laughing wildly as she reached for her father.

“They didn’t find what they were looking for.” A voice resounded in her head quietly. It was the spirit of the oak door, protector of the room.

“Who was it?” Tara inquired.

“I didn’t see their face.” The spirit sent images to her mind, showing two shapes covered in dark clothes and masks as they attacked and it fought back against them only to lose. The two figures then broke into the room and rummaged everywhere with their magic. 

“It’s not here… we need to go now!” one of the figures said to the other who cursed loudly, sending a burst of magic to destroy more of the ceiling for effect as they left.

They are young! Tara thought. 

The voices and shapes did not look or sound anything like the old wizened elders who sat on the council. It sounded middle-aged at best. But then they could have shape-changed or cast an illusion on themselves to mislead everyone.

The tears continued silently as she basked in the mix of sadness anger that coursed through her. Why did everything seem to be going south just as soon her grandmother died? What was she supposed to do?

She just wanted to leave everything and go somewhere far away, run as far as possible without turning ever turning back. But could she? Her father and mother had tried it once and death still found them.

“You have to be strong, powerful, and wise. That is the surest and only means to protect yourself.” Tara remembered her grandmother saying this to her those times she came back home from training and she immediately made her go through several practice routines she never understood.

She remembered, this time with love and not the anger that the trainings usually brought, as her grandmother would lead her through the routines in a slow motion right since she was a kid to even three months back when she slowly began to lose her strength, making her start from the beginning over and over again until she perfected every single one of them. 

And her grandmother had even commanded her never to practice the routines elsewhere away from home or infuse it in any of her battles or practices, not that she could do so anyways since the moves lacked coherence to her.

The quarters. The thought resounded in Tara’s mind, bringing her back to the present.

If whatever they were looking for was not here, then it had to be in the Matron’s quarters at Orun Isu. 

Tara turned to around. Everyone had left except for Boma, Ella, and Leke who had joined at some point. His eyes were red with fury.

“Where have Elda and the two elders gone to?” She asked.

Boma shrugged. “They wouldn’t say, they left in a hurry.

Tara nodded, thinking for a moment. “Take me to Orun Isu.”

“Tara you need to take time to rest, you have been up and about since yesterday,” Boma said, his face creased with worry.

Tara felt her heart soften. “It’s real important I go to Orun Isu right now, there’s something I to do there.”

Boma held her gaze for a few seconds. “Okay.” He nodded.

“Ella, Leke, take care of this place, I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Tara said to the duo just before Boma teleported the both of them away.

Tara hurried to the Matrons’ quarters as soon as they arrived at Orun Isu, ignoring the battlemages who were staring at her as she passed through.

It had been thirteen days since her grandmother died, thirteen days since she stepped foot here. 

Four battlemages stood at the entrance of the Matron’s quarters when she arrived there. She acknowledged them with a nod and moved to continue inside, but they stepped forward and blocked her.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Tara asked in a steely voice,

One of the battlemages who Tara recognized as a relation of Elda’s smirked. “The council has given an order that nobody step into this quarters except with their explicit order.”

“Are you crazy or something? Does she look like just anybody?” Boma barked, stepping forward just as Tara moved to reply him.

“I’m only following orders.” the battlemages stood where they were, unmoving.

“Move away this very minute!” Boma reached for the sword by his waist, eying them menacingly. They all recoiled under his intense gaze, but they still didn’t move away.

“See, Boma, this isn’t our fight,” another of the men stepped forward after a second or so. “We have been tasked with not allowing anybody in on the pain of death, and so if it comes down to fighting we would have to do so with our lives on the line. It is best you take it up with the council,” he said.

“You!” Boma hissed, lost and unsure what to do for a moment, seeing the men’s unshaking resolve.

All through these, Tara was shivering visibly from wrath as she watched the whole thing develop. She turned to Boma. “Take me to the council hall, now!”

Boma nodded and turned to lead the way on foot.

“No, teleportation.”

His held her gaze calmly for a moment, and then he nodded.

They reappeared outside the council hall to meet Elda outside with Dada, another elder seemingly having an animated discussion which came to a stop as soon as they showed up.

“Breaking the rules now are we?” Elda said 

“Who gave the rule that I not be allowed into the matrons’ quarters?” Tara challenged immediately.

Elda shrugged. “It was an anonymous decision by the council.”

“And you also supported such a stupid decision? To what end?” Tara barked in righteous rage,

Thick air suddenly whipped around them as Elda’s countenance suddenly changed from its usual soft, matronly looks, becoming hard and wicked. “Little girl watch how you talk to me,” she said, moving towards Tara with each word.

The aura Elda effused was very powerful, sending great pressure against Tara that it sought to bring her to her knees. She gritted her teeth, staring hard at Elda through it all. She could not use her magic just yet, she could not give herself away until she understood everything going on and what her grandmother had left for her.

But from how everything was heading, the snide comments of Jonas and Adenike the other time and the order to ban anyone including herself from entering into the Matron’s quarters, Tara knew that there was a conspiracy going on, and she could already hazard a guess as to what it was.

“I would also say the same to you,” Boma stepped forward. His dark skin glowed as the blue arcane marks synonymous with the guardian families lit up, bringing the full extent of his magic to bear against Elda. 

Elda scoffed and her own silver marks lit up over her skin, the magic and pressure doubling.

The tension in the air between the two of them thickened till it became palpable. Boma held off Elda with great efforts, and he also had to protect Tara as she stood behind him.

“Elda have you gone nuts? She is the heir, the Matron now!” Boma hissed.

“That’s enough! Enough I say!” Dada came forward, his own magic also fully roaring, and he stepped in between the two parties.

Elda scoffed and turned away, releasing her magic.

Boma also stepped back and everything went quiet.

Tara found herself so angry to an extent of a strange calmness. She continued staring at Elda and saw the quick look of surprise that ran through Elda’s visage which she quickly hid.

“Elda what is going on here, I want to know,” Tara asked coolly. She was surprised at how even her own voice sounded despite everything. Even Boma turned her a side glance.

“The council reached an anonymous decision to seal off the matron’s quarters for security reasons,” it was Dada who replied her.

Tara turned to him. “I am Matron,” she declared.

Dada sighed, the creases of her face becoming more pronounced. “I- we- They-” she shook her head and stopped.

Tara waited, but nothing was forthcoming. She turned to Elda who was still looking at her strangely, as if sizing her up, and then back to Dada. “Inform the entire council that I will meet with them tomorrow, an emergency meeting. If anyone is absent I promise to deal with them using the Darin code,” she said, evoking the code that bound all the witches.

“Boma, Home.” Tara turned to him without any more words to the duo.

Boma took a second to stare at Elda and Dada before he drew his magic and teleported them back to appear at the gates of her estate. Because of the wards anyone could teleport out of the house but they could not teleport inside except if allowed. If it was Tara who had teleported them then she would have been able to teleport directly inside, and as her guardian, once she became Matron she would be able to make it so Boma could come in directly just like Alake and Ella did anytime they wanted to visit.

 “Boma I-” Tara turned to him. “What’s wrong with you?”

His face was pale, his body quivering a little. “I-” he began and stopped, spurting a jet of blood.

“Boma!” Tara reached for him fast, holidng him to her even as he struggled against her. Her heart was galloping fast as fear enveloped her like a blanket. “What is wrong with you?”

“E- Elda. She is too powerful,” Boma hissed through clenched teeth.

“Elda,” Tara growled. She looked up as the battlemages Leke had put around came running towards them. “Help him inside,” She commanded.

“No. I’m- I can-” Boma struggled against their help.

“Leave him.” Tara sighed, pushing all of them away. She forced him to lean against her and supported him by herself all the way inside.