Folktails✔️

21•

F O L K T A I L S
•Lover?•
A bitter laughter rang loud and clear through the little space that enclosed the three men. Ikenna laughed, then he laughed again, then he laughed again.

The fake merriness of his tone masked the dark reality of the act being carried out. It was loud enough to also cover the plopping of blood on the mired floor.

"What amuses you, you stupid fool?" Amobi demanded angrily. Ikenna's laughter seemed to had dampened his mood severely.

"Yes. What is the source of your amusement idiot?" Ochukwu asked and Amobi silenced him with a smothering glare. Ikenna on the other hand told his answer by pressing his lips together in a straight line.

"Will you not respond?" The strain in his words was now obvious as well as the higher pitch his voice had taken on. It was clear that though the chief guard was struggling to keep his calm, his actions still managed to show how heated he was.

"What words do you desire to force from my lips?" Ikenna's head snapped up to meet the other man's forehead which was only a few inches away from him.

"The truth and nothing else."

Then, Ikenna laughed again.

The rationalisation for Ikenna's behaviour was not even close to the assumption that he was trying to prove how stubborn he was or how far he could go against Amobi's orders. It was more of the reason that he found the question so absurd that he could not help but laugh over and over again.

"Trace it down his other arm." The command was given and Ikenna flinched as a deeper line was drawn past his elbow.

It was a bit surprising to Ikenna that the torture was not as terrible as he had thought it would be as the discomfort he felt could only be likened to the scratches he got when he wrestled with dying animals in the forest.

The activity itself however was keeping him thoroughly occupied that he found it impossible to review the escape plan he had tried to come up with, and he very certainly did not appreciate the drawback.

"Now speak." Ikenna's attention was strung back to an angry-faced Amobi.

"I have no affiliation, and neither will I ever have any with Nwakaozo. I would rather be plagued by the gods than to serve under such a shameless heathen." He replied, not because he was threatened but because he was growing bored of Amobi's outbursts.

"What do you mean by you not being on Nwakaozo's side?"

"I meant exactly what my words were. Nwakaozo and I are enemies."

"But..." a look of confusion spread across Amobi's face, making him seem more vulnerable than his ongoing act had made him out to be. "Are you not to be joined to one of his daughters? Was that not the reason for the solicitation he made to the king for you to be coronated as a chief?"

"No." Ikenna said coolly, even though it was almost like a great lake of larva was boiling inside of him. "Nwakaozo had never meant for me to marry his daughter, and he also never wished for my good with the royal title he beckoned on in the guise of being on my own behalf."

"What then did he want from you?" His question was slow like he was also considering what the answer could be. Ikenna however kept shut as he was not sure he could trust any of the guards.

Amobi had voiced his standpoint physically, but he could also be under a cloud of pretence if he chose to be so. Concocting a lie after all was not the toughest thing for a man to do.