“And the red scrolls are about what? Squatting to drop a baby?”
He laugh again. They go inside. She turn back once to see two of them still there, not moving. She look twice before she see that the book master not moving either.
“Do you know where Kwash comes from? The title, not the—”
“I know you mean the title,” Sogolon say.
“Of course. Well?”
“No.”
“It comes from the founder of the line of kings. Not a man, a woman. Back when the world was young it was custom for a man to put the name of his mother before his own. Kwash was the mother of the blood of all kings, so we put the mother’s name before all other names. Of course that knowledge only live in parchment and paper, not even on the lips of griots. All great kingdoms come from the great mother.”
“She a Queen?”
“Nobody know.”
“Fitting.”
“Listen to you, you already sound like life leave you fed up.”
“People talk a lot in Fasisi.”
“And saying nothing?”
“You the one saying that.”
“You are a peculiar one, surely you know.”
“I know man keep calling me strange. I not strange. Strange is . . . strange is . . . the princess. The next king not supposed to be her son?”
“Of course. That is tradition.”
“Then how come she not regent until she give birth to a king? When she give birth to a son this King going leave?”
“So you have been reading the blue scrolls,” he say, laughing. “What you know about the regent?”
“I listen.”
“To who?”
“And why you call her the King Sister when she is Queen Mother? Sound like what she is instead of what she do. And man always get call by what they do even if all they do is be first. But the King didn’t come first, not even in birth.”
He approach her, close enough to see eyes she never see on either woman or man. Almost green, they look. He stare at her long but look away first.
“Her mind won’t move,” he say, but low, talking to himself. He mutter it again twice before he see that she hear.
“It not supposed to go anywhere,” she say.
“Indeed. Indeed.”
“The freak children keep following me.”
“The Sangomin? Do they have reason?”
“Ask them. But tell them to stop following me.”
He turn to leave, but stop and say, “Look for something bound in leather.”
“Who is Jeleza?”
Quick, quicker than a blink, but she see it. That he pause before the steps right as she say Jeleza. But he keep walking as he answer her.
“Jeleza? A whore’s name. So common in the Ibiku section that you might as well say girl.”
“Oh.”
“One of Commander Olu’s sluts, so you—”
“Where Commander Olu gone?”
“What is his whereabouts to you?”
Sogolon say nothing.
“Time is a cobra. Coiling and coiling,” he say.
As soon as he pass them, the red ochre boy run to a stop, all confused, then run again. What become of the darkchild, she don’t see. Sogolon lose her appetite for books and is about to leave when her head light afire again, painful, but not as heavy as before. She grab a pillar to steady herself, but the agony vanish in just a few blinks. The Aesi. Him it must be. He is working craft on her, but her mind won’t move.
* * *
—
When they come for night horses she is watching stars on the roof. First the commotion sound like a fire, but as Sogolon go to the latch door, it sound like thieves. But who would dare steal from the King and how would they pass the guards of the royal enclosure double in number since the coronation?
“You have to take the reins, Excellency!” the headwoman say.
“Ride the damn horse myself? Where is the caravan? Where is my chariot? No,” say Emini.
“This faster than a chariot, King Sister.”
“This King will have me like a dog? Is that what I am lowering myself to?”
“You have friends, King Sister. Some still know the King Sister rule—”
“Watch your mouth. That is blasphemy.”
“Excellency, we must go.”
The King Sister Emini standing in a long black cape while the women-in-waiting fuss around her.
“No dress, no slippers, no food, no nothing?”
“All is prepared, Excellency, we have—”
“No. This bastard will know there is one in Fasisi who is not a coward.”
“You need to get out!” the headwoman shout.
Even Sogolon jump. The waiting women silent.
“Please, Your Excellency. Please.”
A shout and a commotion, the scrape of swords drawn and the thump thump thump of arrows hitting bodies and bodies hitting the ground. Her two guard don’t draw their swords before so many arrows hit their face that there is no more face. Her women scream, then her women all fall to the floor. The King Sister is stiff. She try to stand tall but her knees buckle a little and she grab the horse to steady herself.
“You killed them!”
“Every woman will be seen to her bed and will rise tomorrow,” say the Aesi.
“Everybody scared of witchcraft when they should be scared of you.”
“They return you to your own chambers, Excellency. Escort her back,” he say.
Sogolon hear the King Sister breathe out heavy and see her shoulders slump. The soldiers clear a way and not a single one move until she leave. The Aesi’s red cape is as wide and flowing as the King Sister’s. Why do nobody burn in this heat? she think, but then he look up. She dodge out of his view quick.
In two dawns, it is all that people at court whisper when they fear being overheard, and joke when they don’t. The stable hands recount what they hear in the streets. One of them start to sing a song about how many men get trapped in her royal koo, but stop when they see Sogolon brushing a white horse, all silent. The prince consort, he don’t show his face, one of them say.
“Then you would show yours?”
“How you mean?”
“How you mean how I mean, the meaning clear, yeye boy.”
“Clear it for him, brother.”
“Maybe King Sister born slut, maybe she turn whore. Or this here prince not no prince in the royal bed.”
“The royal spear not even a dagger. Not even a toothpick.”
“Not so I hear. Dagger plenty fine, but he can’t stab nothing.”
“Nothing go so. Man can do the stabbing, but sperm might as well be piss.”
Laughter.
“Perhaps the King Sister barren?”
“Then he would be fucking the barracks full, not she, fool. Plus this here prince have plenty concubine, yet not one son. Not one. Not even a daughter.”
“They arrest General Asafa yesterday.”
“Why? He station in the Blood Swamp. Near two moons’ ride.”
“?’Cause he be General Third Leg is why.”
“And what, it stretch all the way up north to slap her poomsy?”
“So the word go in Baganda. They arrest him in the Blood Swamp.”
“What a world. Man going burn because he cock too long. What a world.”
* * *