He grab her hands with one hand, and she jump. The other hand at her jaw, forcing her to face him as he stare deep. She can’t look away because his hand is still on her face. She try not to blink, but then her eyes start to burn. Sogolon don’t know what he is doing, but know he is doing it. Your mind won’t move. She remember him saying such. Sogolon try to stare right back at him but the brown in his eyes gone leaving white. Answer me, girl, you think it will rain tonight? he ask. She hear him ask it—she know he ask it, but his lips didn’t move. He staring deeper, moving in closer and she try to stare back, but the plants start changing, yellow flowers turning purple then gray, snaking plants twisting and coiling and reaching for her, but he have her hand and her neck. He is squeezing her hand now, hurting her. She try to pull away but his grip too firm. She won’t complain, she won’t cry, she won’t scream. She can feel a heat at the back of her head moving to the side and making her left ear burn. The plants turn green again, but he is slapping her forehead, one two three four times. No, one hand is still grabbing hers and the other is still at her neck. And then it come, a sharp agony in her forehead that jump to the back of her skull. The tears coming for real now, but he not saying anything. Inside her the voice is screaming. Fascinating, just fascinating, the Aesi say, but soon he quivering too. There he is, squeezing his brows, squinting his eyes, and gnashing his teeth with spit clumping the corners of his mouth. Locking me out only going make it worse for you, he shout though his mouth don’t move. He look like the one things getting worse for, but then he push her off the stool and she fall to the floor.
“Get up! Get up now!” he shout. Sogolon pull herself up on a plant, away from him, but he grab her neck and push her into the wall. But he is the one shaking and it start to shake. The stools tremble and tremble until they both lift off the floor. His frown tightening his face so hard, a tear pop out of his right eye. Both her ears are on fire but her forehead is cold and numb. Then they rise and she feel as if they are spinning. He is yelling now, or screaming, or braying like a beast. Sogolon think to pull his hand from her neck, to fight him off, but instead she release her face. She don’t know why she do it, why the best fight feel like no fight, but she release her jaw, her brows, her eyes, and her chin. His eyes roll into the back of his head and he scream so loud that they fall to the floor knocking over some of the plants.
Sogolon pick herself off the floor, out of breath. The Aesi pull himself to a stoop, but do not stand.
“Get out,” he say.
“There is no door.”
“Get out!” he say. Behind her is a door, standing open.
* * *
—
The King Sister don’t confess to nothing. Kwash Moki say his own sister has blanched out the name of Akum to nothing but white. She wash away all honor, all dignity, all that is next to divine just so she can take her hands and strangle the crown. Oh I am not meant to be your King, he say. I am not who the gods wish, but I will be your best King until the same gods have blessed a generation with a virtuous sister, pure in heart and mind to produce a vital heir, and not some bastard that she can control. Oh how she violated the sacred space of the King Sister, the highest of all titles, for from her loins come the King. Maybe I shall produce a first daughter and from the first daughter comes a true son. I was not raised for this, nor are my sons, but the times have called me to serve and serve is what I will do. For Fasisi and for the North. None of this he say officially, for the King Sister has been accused of nothing. So it go out on the lips of the messengers as a rumor of what he might have said, to what might have been the court, at what might have been an official address. But when the King is ready to give an official word, by the gods, he will give it.
* * *
—
Two doors open to the burst of quiet. No people, no servants, no lions, no magnificent birds, no monkeys, no court. At first Sogolon hearing chatter, laughter, gossip in a hush, rumor in a whisper, only to realize that she is walking through the memory of all of it. Air flowing in, sending to Sogolon’s ear nothing but breeze. The stone walls look cold and naked, for the tapestries of Kwash Kalifa are gone. Sogolon expecting at least one lion to come up behind her, but none come. She get to the final doors to find them gone, the hinges too, and remember that the doors are purple. The thought spin her around and now she see it, the purple chairs, also gone. Gone too, all the drapes that have even a hint of violet, every needlework with a purple flower, all fabric with a purple pattern no matter how small. And all the rugs, all the garlands, every drape of silk around every gold pillar to mark royalty. Stripped. Gone.
Nobody in the throne room, and from the gatehouse to here, no guards. Nobody to escort her or point where she is to go. But this is where they send her to await the King’s pleasure. They, the council. To await further direction from the King or from his right hand, the Aesi. Sogolon pick a room beside the kitchen that used to be the grain keep and throw down the only other dress she own. No servants, which mean they send her here to serve, for she see no servants. Perhaps also to spite the King Sister who banish her. With nobody to tell her where to go, she head upstairs.
“You still studying us?” the King Sister ask when Sogolon step in. She is sitting in the windowsill, looking at the doorway to the next room, where Sogolon remember a bed used to be. Disturbed sheets on the floor make her guess that this is now where the King Sister live, not where she visit.
“This is where one of my father’s whores insulted your head. Or my mother’s wet nurse. Sometimes the same women,” she say and laugh to herself.
Sogolon barely in the room before Emini hop off the sill and walk over like a drunk. Sogolon about to ask if she need help when in the quick the King Sister grab her throat.
“Who send you? Who plotting against me, bitch? Who send you? Nobody would choose to come here.”
Sogolon frightened, but the King Sister’s grip is weak. Her eyes look heavy, with crust at the corners, and her breath is foul.
“The council, Highness. The council send me.”
“To do what? You all come to some agreement to damn me, is that it? They send you to spy?”
“I don’t know, Highness.”
“You don’t know. I ask if you are a spy and you say you don’t know? Who has ever said such things to a princess?”
“They just send me here, High—”
“Of course. How fitting. I send you to the stables, they send you to court. You must be happy.”
“I rather be with the horses than any of you!”
Sogolon gasp at herself.
“Well look at you. It all comes out of little Sogolon. Even the stable girl think she can take liberty with a princess.”
“My apologies, Highness.”
“Don’t apologize. That is the first honest word I hear in more than a quartermoon. Besides, I am not a princess, I am not a King Sister, I am not even Emini. Not even nothing.”
“Highness.”
“You know what you are when you are nothing? You are bare but you not clean. A sheet, a parchment with nothing but intention. A whiteness.”
The blanket around her shoulders is but a rug, which she let drop to reveal her flimsy white gown, as misty as breath on glass. Sogolon could see her skin and a flat belly.
“My headwoman. I don’t even know her name. From when they send her to me she is always Headwoman. Not even Lady Headwoman, just Headwoman. Maybe that is why.”
“Why what, Highness?”
“Why she send word to the King. About the tunnel. After she help me do the very thing she send word about.”
She didn’t help you. You command and she obey, Sogolon think but don’t say. She shocked but only for a blink before the thought rush in that whatever come by surprise is, when you look hard enough, a long time coming. Besides, this King Sister acting like she is kind when she is simply not wicked. Still the betrayal shock Sogolon. Some who serve take the role like it is a blessing from the gods, and believe in the throne more than the one sitting on it. The headwoman seem to be that person, even as she used to sneak food into the stable. This make her feel sorry for the King Sister all of a sudden and the pity leave her mouth sour.