“The son of a prince is a prince also, fucking fool.”
“You is the fucking fool, fucking fool.”
One twin jump the other and they tumble to the floor. One roll on top and try to punch. The other grab the hand and try to kick him off. Another girl scream for them to stop and they do. When I become King, I going end you first, one of them say, Sogolon don’t know who. We born the same time, the other say.
“But I come out right before you.”
“She still won’t say who she is,” say white clay, the first she hearing his voice, which sounds like a whisper and a groan.
“I come from the princess house,” she say.
“But you not the princess.”
“I name Sogolon.”
“She name Sogolon,” a girl say with a giggle.
“Sogolon,” say Abeke with the leash, as if he is pondering on it. “Sogolon, shall you come with us?”
“Where you going?”
Nearly everybody laugh.
“Stupid girl, the question is for us, not you. You do whatever we say,” say the other twin. “We are ibeji, divine twins who come one every ten and two generations—not so my father say, nurse?”
A meek woman hiding at the back say, Yes, Highnesses.
“Give me truth,” he say, turning around. “My father just love to hear himself running his own mouth.”
Sogolon around enough mistresses and nobles and people of the court to know that whatever next come out of that woman mouth could be what send her neck to the chopping stool.
“His Highness says exactly what he needs to say, Prince, not a word less and not a word more,” she say.
“Boring. She bores us. Somebody remind me to have her flogged in the morning.”
Some of the children—they are all children—start to chant flog in a whisper. The princes look back at them. Not much taller than Sogolon, and perhaps ten and five years in age. Tomorrow they might be men, but every time they open their mouths and that whine comes out, they look younger than an infant.
“Boring. Are you boring, Sogola?”
“Sogolon she name.”
“Nobody asked you. So, Sogoli? You boring?”
“No, Highness.”
“How do you know? You come from nowhere and have nothing. It’s boring just to talk to you.”
“She own these,” say white clay, who point to her sack.
“Look like some river girl things,” say Abeke. The other prince grab it and laugh.
“She really is from just bush,” white clay say.
“You know how to fight?” ask Abeke.
“I know how to win,” and know she say a wrong thing.
“Sogolon, eh? Maybe you not so boring after all,” he say and release the leash. “Let us have fun with this one, brother. Clubs!”
Those two girls hand Prince Abeke two clubs, one almost as long as half of him. Aduke steaming but stay quiet. Sogolon don’t understand what is going on, not even when everybody start to surround them.
“A fight? This is boring,” say Aduke.
“Not so, brother. Not when I kill her,” Abeke shout with a laugh.
Sogolon jump.
“As a joke, girl. I only going to break you little and hurt you more. Brother, watch how I go as easy with her as I do with you. This fight might even last more than a blink.”
“You not giving her a weapon?” somebody ask, but nobody reply. The girl try to eat her fear, but it is too big.
The white clay man is beside her ear just like that, and he whisper, Remember he is a royal, only to be touched by the gods. Sogolon still don’t know what is happening until all of them start to chant and cheer, and Abeke rush after her.
* * *
—
Three days later, Princess Emini still laugh when she look at her, saying, Alas, the little girl find her use. Two days before, the princess herself come to rescue her from what the Aesi call a detention cell, saying to the crown prince that she is gift to the kitchen, not to him, and that he knows full well that this is his boys’ fault, so build either better fighters or better sons. As for touching the prince, surely, my brother, even you saw that it is the staff that touched him. She did not lay a finger on His Most Excellent, one day to be divine head. None of that make Sogolon feel happier or safer. Two nights in a cell where she still hear a woman moaning, laughing, and screaming. Two nights after the Aesi said she will be flogged, not killed and consider that a great mercy, girl.