“Are you referring to me?” Okem asked, looking around and eventually turning to face her again.
“Yes, you,” she continued yelling. “Who else could I have been speaking about? You’re an ingrate and a nonentity.”
She went on a tirade, cursing and swearing, speaking so fast I couldn’t make sense of most of the things that came out of her mouth. Okem, his arms akimbo, stood frowning before his wicked aunt. She continued to berate him, only stopping when she started gasping for breath.
“Look in the mirror and tell me if you don’t see a murderer in it,” Okem responded. “You stole my childhood, deprived my parents of their offspring while you and Ozumba positioned Albert to take over the kingdom that wasn’t his in the first place. To top it all, you murdered Ona’s grandfather. I wouldn’t be surprised if you caused the demise of my father, too.”
The moment she heard mention of the late King, she got up from the ground and faced Okem, her chains rattling as she moved. The blank look that appeared in her eyes reminded me of pure evil. It was the same look I saw in Ifedi’s eyes after we confronted her.
Okem must have seen something in it too because he screamed: “Did you kill my father, too?”
The woman hissed.
“I’m serving a life sentence already. I’ll be dead before the twenty-five years run out. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“Not quite. If I can prove that you murdered my father, I’ll add hard labor.”
* * *
Before Ekema left to serve her sentence, she confessed Ifedi’s role in my grandfather’s poisoning. She and Ozumba had promised to take Ifedi to America if she could assist Albert in seizing the throne. In return for her confession, she pleaded for Albert to be spared, claiming he was oblivious of the plot and the activities of the cabal. There wasn’t much to spare, though. Albert was fighting for his life. According to his doctor’s reports, he drifted in and out of consciousness on a regular basis. Once, I visited him, and in a conscious moment, he attempted to relay a message to me. I could tell that whatever he was trying to say to me was important, but I couldn’t make one word out of the buzzing sound coming from his throat. His eyes looked distressed, and he contorted his face as he frantically tried to get across to me. I kept saying, “huh?” and coming closer to get him to calm down and try again. Before I got the chance to ask for a pen and paper for him to write his thoughts down, his doctor whisked me away, claiming I had caused him to relapse and forcing me to promise never to visit him at the hospital again. The latest doctor’s report revealed that if he ever made it out alive, he could end up relying on a feeding tube since a vital portion of his oral cavity had been destroyed by the bullet. I felt sorry for him despite the torture he had put me through. He was basically my worst enemy, but I still wished I could save his life.
* * *
The kingmakers approved the annulment of my engagement to Albert. They agreed that a marriage between us was not ordained by the gods. Albert had been unable to pick up the staff before the King died in what they now claimed to be mysterious circumstances. The investigation that was initiated to determine if Ekema and Ozumba had a hand in the King’s death progressed smoothly until Albert’s testimony was needed to fill in the gaps. A warrant was issued for Ozumba’s arrest, and a reward was offered for anyone that could provide valid evidence of his and Ifedi’s whereabouts.
* * *
Okem and the kingmakers concluded the staff possession ceremony while hundreds of witnesses waited in the palace grounds. The kingmakers, dressed in their ceremonial attire—red wrappers and long red caps with feathers of differing lengths stuck on the side—marked their faces with chalk in artistic patterns. Whispers filled the air as Okem, in full kingly regalia, entered the sanctuary where the staff was preserved. The witnesses conversed with one another and waited with bated breath for him to emerge with the staff. I had no doubt he would succeed as he’d accomplished that task in Luenah, but no one else in the crowd knew, which explained the anxious looks on their faces as they waited for him to perform. The masses were fed up with the suffering caused by the gap left by the old King and were all eager for Okem to succeed.
Okem took the staff with ease, and emerged from the sanctuary, amidst cheers from all his supporters. He raised the staff for all to see. The kingmakers lined up one after the other to examine it and chanted blessings and adoration for the new King. They formed a tight circle around him and communed with one another, while everyone waited patiently. Ten minutes later, they broke the circle and faced the crowd.
“The road is clear,” the Chief Kingmaker announced, to which the other kingmakers, all five of them, chanted, “It is indeed clear.”
The gunslingers, strategically positioned outside, fired congratulatory gunshots to announce to the entire kingdom that a new king had been found. The shots continued at fifteen-minute intervals while the coronation ceremony was going on.
The Chief Kingmaker led Okem to the throne and crowned him King of Ide.
