"For your master?" Ugegbe wrinkled her brow in a frown. "Or your mistress?" She could not comprehend what he meant to communicate, as the word he had used was an outdated version of the one common in her tongue.

The single term was ambiguous because, in its simplest form, it meant 'the one I serve.' However, it was usually reserved for men since not many women held positions where their wishes were to be obeyed. She would assume it was the same for Kamalu, but he'd already voiced the presence of a queen mother. The queen dowager could be the one he was referencing.

"It does not matter. Let us continue on our journey." He had become cold again. Icy, even. Ugegbe released a sad sigh. Mere seconds ago, she had been grateful for him, happy for his company, appreciative of him rescuing her. She still was, but it was without that feeling of not existing alone in this world. In a snap, she was back to her lonesomeness, and she feared that the echoing, resounding emptiness within might indeed swallow her.

"You are upset," Kamalu noted, like appraising people and notifying them of their demeanours was his norm.

Ugegbe twisted so only her cheek was in his view. "Perhaps I am. But worry not yourself. It is by no means any faulting of yours." In a way, she wasn't lying, but it wasn't all the truth either. She didn't like when he ignored her query. However, he also did not owe her anything.

"You might be right." He said, the rumble of his voice hanging in his chest and so melancholic that she thought she was hard of listening. "But it is regrettable that I have made it so. I feel responsible for you, Ezinwanyi. I want to protect you. It is my undoing that I do not have the power to keep you safe from harm and swine like Ifediaso." He studied her front, his lips twisted in a grimace, and she knew that her injuries were perceptible as she had predicted. "The least I can do is make him pay for laying a hand on you."

Ugegbe gaped at him, stunned into muteness. From whence did that come? She remembered to seal her open mouth only when a fly buzzed too closely for ease. Hastily, she racked her brain for some reason why he would show so much concern for her. None came to all. Worse of all, she wasn't positive that she liked it or even...wanted it.

She hated being indebted to anyone, and she knew that was how his gestures and consideration would make her feel exactly so. As much as she reasoned him a good, honest man, she wanted nothing to do with being bound all over again.

There was no desire in her to become obligated to any person, neither man nor woman, whether in riches or deeds. She wished to never become a woman beholden to another human. Not after she had sacrificed so much for this chance so she could be free to catch her breath and start over again. She could not give it up for anyone. Would never do so.

"You are silent."

Ugegbe donned a strange expression, her lips pursed as she regarded Kamalu fully. He was peering down at her, amusement twinkling in the austere blacks of his hooded eyes. She saw once again just how stunning of a man he was. The fair mark from his hairline, curving past half of his nose before angling below his eye, made him more enchanting under the sun's orange flash. He fell into the category of creatures woodcarvers would be honoured to imprint his likeness upon the finest lumber.

Reigning her thoughts in, Ugegbe managed to stop her admiration for the creature patiently waiting for her. Despite the reality that he did not make her woozy when he smiled at her or cause her anxiety that sometimes careened towards the realm of nausea, she could not deny his allures. They merely did not work on her.

"Why are you silent?" He asked when she still did not reply to him.

"You question me so when you are the one who constantly is mute. Minutes ago, you would not emit a sentence to me."

"I was tending to my musings. I often do not speak in those instances."

She nodded, understanding slowly seeping in. "I see."

"It is an awful trait of mine. Those who know me hate me for it. I get lost in my head quite a lot. No, too much." His face soured, and his features pinched as if he was in distress. "Amongst other things, including the mark I did not ask for nor do I know how to alter, I become an outcast. An oddity." Anguish splayed across his features, dark and bitter as it obscured every ounce of light in his cast.

Ugegbe held a fist against her chest as her heart squeezed in response to his despair. Her empathy provoked his pain to rub off on her, and she thought them both kindred spirits at that instant.

"Those who hate you and make you feel unloved merit nothing good! I pray for them to experience your pain someday. I wish they would encounter agony harsher than yours in hundredfold. I have nothing good to wish them. I hope the hands of fate smites them soon so that they reap what they have sowed!" She declared angrily, her chest flaring up and down as her anger erupted and exploded like a volcano.

Her indignation was fierce and intense, and unbridled. She could not remember when she'd been this provoked on anyone else's behalf. Or when it had been this uncontrolled and indiscreet. She was sullen and scornful towards people she had never met. How could they oppress a true, unpretentious man, cruelly shaming him for parts of himself that he could not change or control even if he tried? It weighed on her spirits severely.

"Ezinwanyi, Ezinwanyi," Kamalu murmured, his eyes gleaming as he laid them at her feet. "No one. No one has ever cried rage for me as you have done. None has ever mustered their wrath for the son of a titleless family they believe cursed. No other ill-humour has brought me the comfort and solace I would never have dreamed of in this lifetime. I—" He choked on what he'd made to say, halting totally in his trail, but this did not stop Ugegbe from giving him an encouraging smile. She knew he solely needed a while to contain himself and collect his considerations from wherever they might have fleed to. Then he would be ready to speak.

His shoulders heaved as he met her watch with an illumed gaze. "There is much I want to and would have said if I had the time. But today is not the day; there might never be one in my reality. However, I will always be grateful to you, Ezinwanyi. I shall forever be thankful for you and the sunset at which you saw me for who I was: a human worth defending."

"You are my friend, Kamalu." She declared, then flailed when she saw a brow raise and the corner of his lips twitch downward towards a frown. Was it too early to utter that proclamation? She considered him her friend but was it similar for him? Did he deem her a confidante? Her mind was torn in two. But since he did not protest or correct her, she set on to finish what she had started.

"I care for my friends, and I never want to see them hurting or in discomfort. Thus, I will always stand for you, Kamalu. However, you must promise to also stand up for yourself. You must not let people pull you down from your pedestal. You are no curse. You have been a blessing to me. The oddities in this kingdom are those who do not see that." She concluded with a slab of vehemence.

The broad smile that stretched Kamalu's lips was like the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm. It was a lovely view she earnestly tucked in her memory. As if on cue, a soft breeze blew in their direction, and the tears pooling from her eye ducts threatened to find an escape route, to make their exit by trickling down her cheekbones. She fought against them, but they won eventually, and she felt the wetness sloping down to her jaw.

"Do not cry." He reached to wipe her tears away, but she was ahead of him, brushing away the drops of salty water as quickly as she could afford.

"I am alright." She muttered when she had convinced the reservoir of water in her eyes to dry up.

"Good. We should get to the queen mother's palace. You will be treated well there with good herbs so that there will be no more of the marks Ifediaso inflicted on you. Do not bother about what price is to be paid. The king's mother is generous and gracious. It will take a while for her to warm up to you, but she will value you as one of her entourage when she does." His stare grew inquisitive as he scrutinised her, searching for any contention she might harbour. "Unless you have a distinct plan you were to follow, working for her might be best."

"I no longer have one. All you have said is perfect to me. Please lead me to the queen's abode." Ugegbe asserted confidently. Earlier, she had structured the evening around finding the king's palace and requesting a meeting with him. Then she would feed him the part cock-and-bull story she'd told Kamalu and Onochie on why she was in Zoro.

Her strategy had been to subsequently entreat him to grant her his blessings to ensure that she could work and live freely in the village, maybe even secure a job at the palace itself. She had to earn enough money to prudently return to Osisi inconspicuously. If Kamalu was pledging to her employment, it was a better deal for her. She would not have to plead her case if there was no necessity.

"As you wish."

They both resumed their walk; this time, the two contrasting figures were nearer than at the start, their disappearing shadows skimming against each other at intervals. Shortly after, Kamalu selected out lofty gates in the distance and announced their destination.

"Before anything else, we must visit the queen mother. It is by her permission that we will be free to take whatever steps necessary for you to settle in." His tone mellowed as he asked her confirmation. "Is this what you want, Ezinwanyi? Do you want to work at the palace?"

"Yes, I do." The certainty she pushed forth must have been compelling as worry seemed to ease off his features. "It was my plan to meet the king and ask for a job in his household, at first. Bundo informed me that the monarch's and his mother's homes are havens where all are treated fairly. There is nowhere else that would better suit me or that I would intentionally abandon a position here for."

That was indeed her logic behind wanting to work at the palace. She'd undergone unjust maltreatments in Osisi and was not given a chance to eat the fruits of her labour. But even more importantly, she was aware that servants in the palace were paid more than they would receive from other hiring opportunities. She needed money. To free herself and her father, she had to become prosperous. Whatever extra the king paid his workers would serve her well.

"It pleases me to hear." Kamalu knocked on the log barrier stowed at the entrance of the massive compound. "Open to me. It is I, Kamalu, chief guard."

Ugegbe watched a termite scramble across the wood before the soft creaks spoke of the gate being pulled out of its frame. She turned to Kamalu as she recalled a thought that had dropped in her head when he arrived to rescue her from Ifedisso. "I was not aware that you were a chief guard until today."

"I did not say because I was not asked."

A sensible answer. Ugegbe swiped a sweaty palm over her wrapper once, then recognised it was the new one she'd been gifted and prised her hand from the material. It gladdened her to count the dress's lively prints.

She mulled over Bundo's kindness, and it was instinctually that he sailed into her mind, taking precedence over all matters. She pored over his attributes. The ones that swayed her. His compassion, his beauty, his lips...

Oh, she needed him out. He had no right to occupy her like this. She wondered if jamming her brow into a wall would call for an alert and questioning of her sanity. But she was desperate. So desperate to haul him out from under her skin. She'd avoided thinking of him for as long as she could. But now,  his image burned behind her eyes, heating her up like she was lying over an open fire, a rabbit in a roasting spell.

"Are you alright?"

"I am." She speedily supplied her answer, but Kamalu did not detect her blunder. "Does Onochie work at the palace with you? Is he a guard?"

Ugegbe wasn't sure, but she thought she caught him stiffen before he surrendered a curt "no." She tried not to be disappointed by the knowledge she'd been given. It was a good thing, right? This meant she would not have to run into him in her daily activities. Her troubled emotions would settle soon, and she'd be rid of him from her memories. Eventually.

Oblivious to her internal conflict, Kamalu offered her a hand to aid her in covering the steep path that led to a magnificent building. Ugegbe let herself be marvelled at the sheer size of the structure. Only the king's palace in Osisi could compare, not his mother's or wife's. If the queen mother owned this grand palace, she could not form a single picture of the king's. It probably was gloriously opulent.

From the start of the compound to the end, the ground was made from baked clay. It was not merely smooth as she would have expected, as every now and then, she stepped on murals that had been etched into the ground, painstakingly so.

She breathed through parted lips at the coral red of the houses. They glowed with a luminescence of their own, rigid, uncompromising, persistent against all weathers as there were only occasional cracks here and there. Her eyes widened as she stopped at statues taller than she was, keeping guard, decorating every corner, and hoped her heart would not fail her when she ran into them at night.

The moulded effigies had serene faces and were garbed in clothes that mirrored those Zoro's people wore. Their faces were marked with Nzu around their eyes, on their foreheads and chin. Patterns on both the chests of the female and male models matched those that emerged on the walls. They crawled in complex, elaborate gyres and whorls, leading as they approached the barred door, fully guarded by five sentries. Even from her place, tens of feet away from them, Ugegbe could tell they were heavily armed.

"Stay here. I shall speak to the men first. Then return to you." Kamalu bade her, his attention on the grave fellows.

"I will be waiting." She said to the fragranced air cocooning her as Kamalu was already gone. It was a satisfactory development, nonetheless, as she'd caught sight of something she'd never have thought to encounter.

Her feet carried her to the plant before she could make an alternate decision. "Nna m o." She called on her father as she caressed the soft petals of the spindly flower.

It was the exact replica of one of the several plants that had given her father relief from his plague. It made her think of the man who had urged her to leave Osisi and had not taken no for an answer. He did not care that her escape could have put him in danger. All he wanted was for her to be safe. She more than deeply missed him with all that was in her.

The waterworks exploded again, and she berated herself internally. Ordinarily, she wasn't this much of a crier. In fact, judging by most standards, she rarely shed a tear. It was ironic how she'd easily let her emotions overcome her. The past few days had taken a toll on her that she could hardly keep her feelings in check. She was inclined to release the sentiments bottled up inside her at the slightest inconvenience.

"Ezinwanyi? Thank the gods! I thought I lost you." Kamalu sounded frantic, an alarming nervousness to him that she wasn't acquainted with.

Ugegbe inhaled sharply as her heart went into overdrive. It hammered in her throat as she fashioned her reply in a feeble voice. "What has happened?"

"You were crying?" Was it just a trick of her ears to have caught the brittle and patent panic registered in his voice that suddenly was wobbly?

"No." She attacked her wet face fiercely, mopping off the wateriness glazing it. "I was merely looking around."

He exhaled a sigh slowly, a mix of exhaustion and exasperation. "I am sorry, Ezinwanyi, but I cannot bring you to the queen. She is not in the state to receive guests."

"Why?" She rewarded him with pure confusion. "Is she sick?"

Kamala's lips thinned as he nodded. "You could say that she is."

"What ails her? Perhaps I might be able to help." She volunteered herself without a second thought. If there was any way she could save a life, she was willing to try. She'd already taken one. The least she could do was make a difference in another by elongating it.

Her grandfather had been a farmer and herbalist. He saved numerous lives till the end of his days. He taught the art of healing others to her father but never figured out a cure for his son's pain.

Ugegbe had sad recollections of her father that made her heart hurt: the poor man suffering through his disease alone and unaided with a little ignorant child who was even needier than he was at his side. 

By some trial and error and ample luck, he found the mix of concoctions that granted him reprieve from his throes. It was nothing short of a miracle. Her father had been so sick for most of his life that Ugegbe had to learn the benefits of various herbs and greenery from an outsider.

"I should not be saying this out loud, but you will hear of it soon through the rumours spread by gossipmongers... But it is the general consensus that the queen dowager is possessed."

"Possessed?" Ugegbe croaked in a high-pitched voice. His announcement had clobbered her at the back of the head with a pot of reality. Yet she was resolute in her knowledge of what she had to do. "Let me see her, Kamalu. Please take me to her."

"What? I do not understand you."

She stepped up to him, shoulders rolled back, chin tipped up. "I can help the queen mother."
•
A/N: Hello, lovelies. Thank you for all your comments on the previous chapter. They really made my day. Lol, I'm still smiling hard now. I hope you all know how much I appreciate youXD.
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As an aside, I edited the summary of this book to reflect the direction in which the story going. Do read it, loves. Cheers!