Sogolon turn to yell, but a guard slap it out of her mouth. They don’t wait for her to stand but grab her hands and drag her along the floor and up each stone step. She struggle for five steps, then quit, her head hanging low and saying nothing. The headwoman saying something about all of last night, but Sogolon not sure what she mean. In her room, in her bed, is the princess, looking sour.
“I told them to wake me as soon as you slither through whatever hole wretches like you slither through,” she say, as she sit up on the bed. “From where you come, girl?”
“Your Highness, I—”
“What did you take?”
“Highness, I—”
“I say, what did you take?”
Sogolon lower her head. The guards pull her up to stand, but still grabbing arms.
“A part of me always suspect this about you. Watch that girl, I say. She plotting something.”
“Your Highness, I never do nothing.”
“Imagine. Every woman entered that room in reverence. To do the gods’ work.”
“I—”
“Shut up! How dare you speak when I am speaking. Every woman in the room is there to dress him for the ancestors, but you? What are you even doing there, you have no woman skill.”
“Highness, it is you—”
“You in the room to steal. From a King. From a dead man’s room? What kind of bitch give birth to you?”
The princess nod at the guard, and the one on the right quick as light punch her in the belly. Sogolon bowl over. Her legs buckle and her knees hit the floor. She cough and cough as the men pull her back up.
“Thief, what you steal? You spend all night in my father’s room, or you break into some other room? The thieving, girl, what is it? Don’t make me beat every spot on you until it fall out. What an embarrassment.”
“I didn’t take nothing, Highness!”
“Steal from the dead. Are you a witch? Only a witch steal from the dead.”
“I didn’t take nothing.”
The princess nod again and in three pulls, the guards rip off her clothes. They shake out her clothes but nothing fall out. They nod to the princess.
“What you take, girl, a trinket? An amulet? One of his rings? What kind of devilry going on in your mind that you slip away from me to search my father’s bedroom? What gall. Honestly, what gall. All that I give you and all you think to do is take take take.”
“I didn’t take nothing.”
“You didn’t take nothing, what?” say the headwoman.
“I didn’t take nothing from him,” she say, quiet and cold. The princess look at her, appalled.
“You not done with your search,” she say to the guards. “The little witch have three holes, fools. Take her from my sight.”
Sogolon have no strength when they take her, so they drag her along the floor. When the guards report that they find nothing in her, the princess declare that either she is lazy, is defiant, or is doing something with her father’s corpse, all of which fill her with anger again. She order the guards to whip her, then leave her in the stables, for that is where she will live until all of this is over and the princess heart grow warmer. Sogolon say nothing when they take her away. The guard about to swing the whip when the headwoman shout from the stable door that the princess change her mind. The girl is not to be whipped, but to be left in the stable to sleep on hay. The guards are about to leave when the headwoman say, I said not to whip her. I didn’t say not to touch her. Before Sogolon can scream, one guard knock her down and the other guard kick while the headwoman watch. Her lips crack open. She almost smile.
* * *
—
Sogolon in the stables wondering why the wind never come. It come as it wish, but even when it do, it seem to rise from some part of her desire. None of that mean anything now. Wind if it working is fickle and testy, and about as trustworthy as lightning. Or maybe she is like those stupid old diviners always looking for signs and wonders and the only wonder here is some lazy young god having fun with her twice. Or three times, now she don’t want to remember. Nor do she want to think of it, for how foolish it sound now that wind is her guardian, her protector, how different is that from men who say they hear god’s rebuke in thunder? No sense believing in that, no sense believing in nothing. The world is what it is. Soon as one see that, then one can live in a world with pain, lonesomeness, and betrayal. The two things always coming from people that you never see coming are surprise and disappointment. Sogolon look at the horses and ponder this all night. Surprise and disappointment come from the same place where also come a sudden bump on the cheek, or a lightning strike. While her belly ache and her shoulders burn from bruise, Sogolon thinking she looking at this all wrong. It’s surprise she can expect, and disappointment she can depend on. The other things, goodness, kindness, fairness, loyalty, decency, those are the things that come out of nowhere.
She feel like something new enter her head, or that she find some place in there she didn’t notice before. A place that make her consider her years, which she never knew for sure, but it don’t matter, for now she is the one age that will always count and never change: old enough. Only yesterday she thought she have news for the princess. But there is nothing that a girl from the Mitu bush could have that a woman of royal blood could want. The princess would say so herself. The world is what it is. And this stable is what it is. Sogolon consider the night, and how only one night ago she is already crafting what to do to get back in the presence of the princess that she get cruelly cut from. One night later she remember who is behind the cruelty. Besides, the stables feel warm, don’t smell much of shit, and horse don’t do much other than stand and look magnificent.