Thus saying, she placed the staff in Sembele’s hand.
The staff in her right hand, Sembele flung herself upon her dying mother. Iyoke, too, knelt at the bedside, but Nunu stood.
“Mother,” Sembele pleaded. “Do not die. You alone have loved and honored me. Who on earth do I have but you?”
But Queen Mizake did die, and was buried. Thereafter, Sembele left the northern land to rule Tentuke with her husband. Her accession to the throne was accomplished with great pomp, and the common people received their Beauty with feasts, ribands, and much celebrating. But Sembele soon began to despise the size of her kingdom. True, it was larger than Hans’ country but it was not a tenth the size of Jaejoong’s land. When Sembele proposed war on a neighboring kingdom, her advisors hardly knew how to answer her. Resources were plenty, their peoples lived in harmony, why set forth to conquer?
But Sembele answered, “Have you not seen how those of the eastern kingdom have sought to encroach on our land? Have they not sent spies into the southern lands to spy out our happiness?”
The advisors had seen no such thing, but they kept silent.
Queen Sembele held forth the ebony staff of her ancestors. “All these lands of the south were once a large kingdom. Powerful and fierce, the lost great southern kingdom was impregnable and safe from attack. But now, what have we become? Small villages at the mercy of fierce kings.”
Years had passed since war had decimated towns and blood had washed away the lives of widows and orphans. The counselors had forgotten the odor of staling blood. They therefore agreed to the wisdom of consolidating the nations, whether those nations desired it or no. Nation after nation toppled and Tentuke grew larger, gorging itself on tinier kingdoms. Still, it was not half the size of Jaejoong’s kingdom.
Far across the seas, Iyoke was all too aware of her sister’s malevolence. Whether in country fields or on the cobblestone roads of her adopted homeland, tidings continually overwhelmed her. One night, as fireflies danced over rice fields, she spoke to her husband, “The kingdom adjoining Tentuke is ruled by Queen Nunu and Prince Biodun. I have no doubt my sister longs to devour it and add it to her already bloated kingdom.”
Jaejoong held her close. “Indeed, she will. But it will not remedy your sister’s ailment. For joining kingdom to kingdom will increase the territory but not the wealth.”
She looked into her husband’s face. “So, Sembele will not be satisfied.”
“Indeed, she will not.”
“I shall travel forth to my former homeland and plead with my sister to spare Nunu’s land.”
Her husband held her hands firmly and his eyes challenged hers. “Indeed, my wife, you will not travel there. For she will not listen. Rather, she will say that envy caused you to travel forth, because you feared her kingdom would rival yours.”
Days came and passed, Summer bloomed and faded. Queen Nunu sent word to Iyoke that she and King Biodun had paid Empress Sembele a visit.
“The Empress received us with great pomp and show of her kingdom’s glory,” the letter declared. “Inside the throne room, I bowed before our sister. ‘Queen Sembele,’ I said, ‘I have come to plead for the safety of my kingdom. I know that the wisdom and weaponry of Hans’ people have caused you to crush other nations, and that it is within your power to destroy us. But I plead with you to remember we shared a mother, a mother who would not want you to destroy your own sister.’
“‘The Empress answered, ‘You were never a loving sister to me. Why should I spare your kingdom or your life?’
“‘Not so, Queen Sembele,’ I answered. ‘A dear loving sister I have been to you. Even when our mother raised you high above us.’
“‘This I do not remember,’ our sister the Empress Sembele replied. She then clapped her hands and called two courtiers to her side. They came bowing, carrying goblets of gold and platters of silver.
“Then this great Empress spoke thusly, ‘And yet, because you are my sister, I will spare your life, although I have not spared the lives of the kings of the former territories.’
“So, this is the news, Dear Sister, Prince Biodun’s land has become tributary to Tentuke, and it is also rumored that the Prince himself lies servant to the Empress. Yet, our sister remains unsettled. For it is not greed or lust for power that drives her onward but envy and jealousy that you, her unworthy sister, should have been blessed with a happy life. Therefore, My Sister, beware snares. This sister of ours, this great Empress, is set to provoke war with you.”
When Iyoke read the letter, she could not imagine how war could rise. But soon, she understood.
Sembele began to seek occasion to trouble the ships that sailed to and from the eastern kingdom. Merchant ship or navy, the ships of Queen Iyoke were set upon by Tentuke pirates. The blood of King Jaejoong’s seamen – for he had become king at last—flowed congealed upon the waters. Their corpses were returned to their home shores in battered hulls, defiled by Sembele’s warriors.
“Let me go to my sister,” Iyoke begged, kneeling before the king her husband. “For am I not the cause of all
