SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part I}

COME TO THE LIGHT*19*

1891: Coming Out Of The Dark

Everyday, for the next four days. Justice Hall's anger against the Chief, the king's warrior and the evil shaman increased. It was difficult to persuade Idara to return to Mission House with him, but he didn't think she can deal with her parents compound, or the shield maidens in the healing caves, right now.

"A penny for your thoughts, Lord Hall...?"

When they returned from the forest, the Chief's wife, upon seeing her daughter's glowing eyes, fainted. Mary led Akanimo, who bore the unconscious Unyime in his arms, to the compound of her husband, Chief Attah. It has been four days. Justice Hall sits in Mary's kitchen, watching her flit about to begin the makings of a light porridge dinner. The brave, determined Scott Missionary relegated the young woman to the other guest room. That is, indefinitely. Well. At least until they knew what to do. With her and those...eyes.

He is thinking about Chief Attah. The father who did not confront Hogan in open combat. He is thinking about Unyime Attah, who, before succumbing to a dead faint, kept telling Mary in a voice that quivered, "Not me...! Ette-Obong does it! Not me oh God, not me...!"

"You understand what I want for this woman, Mary."

"Aye, 'tis for the good Lord to save her soul. I should want that even more than you."

"Have you ever encountered this kind of thing before?"

Mary heaves a sigh, the knife peeling yam pausing in mid air for about ten seconds, "No...the witches here, they use their craft to get spouses, to maintain their marriages, making even the businesses they do, to be successful."

The yam will be boiled, then pounded until smooth and a bit elastic, to be eaten with a beef vegetable soup called Afang, for lunch tomorrow.

Now, she is peeling unripe plantain, for a light porridge.
Justice's stomach grumbles. He ignores it,
"That's the witch -craft. But I'm talking about her eyes, it's transforming. Is it similar to the curse of the windigo or the werewolf?"

"She told you the Codex was used by the shaman?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"It's a very rare plant that looks like purple cotton. In the blood, it acts as a sort of adhesive, or mingling agent, that allows foreign DNA to graft in, if, and only if, that foreign DNA is mimicked, I think, within twenty one days. The old high priestess, while yet alive, told me this."

Unwannah told a variation of biblical Adam and Eve, as well, according to Canaan beliefs and traditions. In it, Satan wanted to destroy mankind's blueprint, so he corrupted the lineage of man, and Cain truly 'was of the wicked one.' This is why it was standard practice to kill twins at birth, because, the first twins were Cain and his brother, Abel, but how will they know which baby is Cain; which baby has demon genes in it? Canaan didn't kill twins anymore. Mary put a full stop to that!

"So, Satan then corrupted a certain plant, and uses it to try to introduce devilish genes into humans. The evil plant is outlawed; I wonder that it still exists!"

"It takes twenty one days, for it to make the devilish DNA set?" Mary nods her head in affirmation, "I see. Do you know when the shaman and the Chief gave it to her?"

"I think it was seven days ago, my Lord."

"And after twenty-one days?"

"The Codex loses its potency. It can no longer bind that which does not wish to be bound, or so the legend says, but I prefer to rely on God's mercy in such situations."