Although they had gone out as five spies and faced a lot of challenges they managed to return complete. After coming together yesterday and waiting and Jami the fifth spy didn't come back, they thought that he had been discovered and most likely executed by the king because being a spy in the kingdom is punishable by death, but on their way back today he met up with them. How happy they were on their way back to the camp.
Klean smiles and laugh as he sees some of his friends and brother again, there were days when he didn't think he would come back in one piece, but here he is, happy and grateful to be seeing everyone. Everyday for him now is a blessing from the gods.
"You've emaciated brother!" Kola, a close friend and warrior on Klean's team says, tapping his shoulder.
"Emaciation takes a longer time than just five days; besides I'm still bigger than you." He tease in return before hugging him.
"By the gods you stink." Kola says, pulling away and Klean laughs even more, but his laughter dies when his eyes catches Ajifah standing afar off, looking at him.
His heart doubles in beat as she stares at him, he'd dreamt of her this past days, but they were not good dreams, not at first, they were always about her rejection and about how duty comes first before feelings. He would wake with an aching and bruised heart, and all through the day try to keep any thought of the princess out of his head. Two nights ago he was almost discovered by the King's guard and he was strong enough to kill the two guards before they knew what was happening, but he knew that would destroy their mission and send alerting message to the king if two guards were found dead on the street, a message Princess Ajifah didn't need so he had to hide from them. His duty was much bigger than what he wanted to do and then he understood the princess's plight and in the last two days he has gotten a better understanding of how complicated her duty was and no longer resented her for rejecting him, duty was more than love and if anything, he is glad he's still here to fight for her. He dreamt of her last night, but it was peaceful she smiled at him and took his hand and they both take a quiet walk around the waterfall. He woke up with a smile and although he knows that may never happen between them he cherished the moment.
She had been worried that he volunteered for the journey and all the while he told himself, maybe she didn't love him, and he might be right about that, but she certainly did care enough to try to stop him from risking his life even though that is the duty of every warrior who swore to protect her.
He look away from the princess to Nnamdi who immediately walks into the discussion tent where the assignment was given five days ago.
"We have to go talk to the commander and the princess." He says before following the rest four into the tent of discussion.
The five spies Klean, Jami, Taiwo, Iyan and Nonso assemble and the commander of warriors who is Nnamdi are all together along with princess Ajifah, Queen Ojima and Femi and they listen to the report brought by each spies.
"How can he do that?" Ojima explodes after Taiwo, one of the spies broke the news that King Tyosar was planning to make agreement and sell the girls and boys under the age of ten in the land as slaves to King Zulu the king beyond the sea in exchange for gold and food.
King Tyosar came up with this offer a few days ago after there was shortage of food in the land and he now considers the kingdom getting overpopulated and hence needs to reduce the population by selling them out.
"He's the crowned king and the worse king the kingdom has ever had." Taiwo says.
"He's planing on increasing the taxes and the prices of food in the market." Nonso says, bringing up the reports he learnt in the past five days.
Ajifah's heart burns with grieve for her people as the news keeps getting worse. "If there is shortage of food, there is enough money in the treasury to buy more for the kingdom, that's why the people are taxed so we can afford necessary things, majority of these people are poor and putting an increase on tax and food would be sending them to their early graves."
"Not everyone thinks like you princess, he certainly doesn't and that's why he needs to go." Nonso tells Ajifah with a commending tone of voice.
"He's also planning to marry the Noble daughter Asa and in return they are to pledge to protect the throne from you princess. King Zulu has already dispatched his armies and about a thousand of them are already in the kingdom." Klean says, looking up at her and his eyes get locked in hers and he sees the much chaos in them and it stir up a fear in him because their reports were doing a lot of harm to her.
Ajifah looks away from him when he wouldn't stop staring, "He's been king for six days and he is already selling the kingdom out. When will all this deals be sealed?" She demands, getting outraged and impatient.
"They are going to seal the treaty with a Royal dinner set to take place in three nights time." Iyan one of the spies replies.
"We have to do something, we have to take the throne before that" Ajifah says before turning to Jami, "You spied on the kingdom defence Jami, how strong are the defenses?"
Jami dips his hand into his bag and brings out a map of the kingdom strongholds a vulnerable points marked out, "I have it all here."
For the next four hours the men and women in the tent try to device a plan for a proper dethroning that wouldn't give up too much information about the attack and in which Tyosar can be forced out of the throne without having to shed innocent blood, and they all seem to forget about Jami's discoveries that's the weakest point in the kingdom as well as palace.
"We don't care who's on the throne, we only care about fulfilling the oat we took which was seeing the true heir onto the throne."
As much as what he is promising feels good, there is a lot at stake, "I do not want to shed innocent blood, that is not what my father would have wanted."
"Your father the late king knew when he needs war and when he needed peace, your uncle however is not a sign of peace, a few will get hurt in the process, but many will bleed as long as he remains king of the Attah's kingdom." Nnamdi says hardly.
"The king beyond the sea had dominated and oppressed this kingdom for decades and my father fought to see his people set free and I cannot sit and watch everything he fought against come to pass; one of which is the shedding of innocent blood."
"Sacrifices has to be made to ensure victory." Nnamdi backs up his argument further.
"The blood of the people I'm fighting for will not be one of the sacrifice. If the alliance holds, king Zulu will become even more powerful, his armies is five times larger than than the armies of the whole kingdom, the King's warrior included, we will be left powerless and defenceless.
From what Klean already said earlier, King Zulu army are about one thousand and King Tyosar five thousand making a total number of six thousand men. So if we go head first into battle with them, king Tyosar and the army beyond the sea will outnumbers ours six to one. We need to device a strategy where we don't lose our heads, and storming in without first having a plan is one of them. We can do this without losing all round, I'm trying to protect my people as well and you all are one of them."
Nnamdi nods his head, "Princess you are wise, your wisdom increases with your age.
"I understand we need him gone, but we have to think about the proper way to go. We are going to overpower his defenses and we are going to attack when less expected. Were any of you discovered in your mission?" She asks looking at the five spies who shakes their head in response.
"That means he has no idea we know what we know or even be prepared when we attack." Nnamdi says, optimistically.
"If I may come in," Klean speaks up, turning their attention to him. "We can't really be optimistic of his obliviousness, we did rescue the princess, the queen and a few others so he may not expect us, but he'll be at alert, but we can over power king Tyosar, his armies will have no choice but to follow the true heir and with their number we can send King Zulu's armies out of the land and once they are gone we can then take the king to trial." Klean concludes.
"These are the weak fortresses," Jami begins to speak bringing their attention to what he has said a few hours ago which they all ignored. "We don't all need to go and just like it was during our mission five days ago, the more unnoticeable we are the better. We can storm in here, here and here." Jami explains, pointing to spots on the map showing the palace tower the Royal's gate and the citadel.
Ajifah takes notice as well and she realizes what it is they should do. "We don't need more than twenty warrior. The rest should stand at alert awaiting our signal."
"And once we have the King in surrender, the signal will be sent and they will join us and while some of us go with the princess to trial, the rest drive the armies of King Zulu out of the land." Nnamdi concludes with a big bright smile on his face.
The meeting is rounded up and the departing team which are the fastest yet strong among the warriors and are chosen and this time Ajifah chooses to be one of them.
Ojima as well as Nnamdi however are not in support of this and tries to talk her out of it and remind the stakes and the responsibilities that lies with her. "If you're spotted by the kings guard or warriors you will be killed on the spot."
"I'm not going to be spotted mother, I know how to take care of myself." Ajifah says storming off from the discussion tent. A few warrior standing around stare at them as Nnamdi and Ojima follow behind Ajifah.
"Your father wouldn't have supported this Ajifah!" Ojima exclaims following her as she enters her tent.
Ajifah doesn't mean to lose it, but that's what she does as Ojima brings him into the discussion, "Do not tell me what father wouldn't have wanted mother, one of the things he wouldn't have wanted was your absence during his funeral. I believe he wanted you to be able to pay your last respect to him before he was laid to rest, but we couldn't have that because of the rule that has kept us under bondage for hundreds of years, that's what I'm going to change."
Ojima is hurt by her reply because she is still grieving her late husband and she backs away a little. Realising the chaos her words has caused her mother, her eyes drop in remorse, "I'm sorry mother I didn't mean for the words to hurt you."
"But you did and you're right there are thing he wouldn't have wanted. This is one of them." She says and turns to Nnamdi. "Talk some sense into her." She says before leaving.
Nnamdi begins to speak calmly, trying to reason with her, as he steps closer towards her. "It is our responsibility to bring you victory, that's what we swore to your father when he was yet alive."
"I have read the history books commander, I read how princes were allowed to battle and to go to war and no one stood in their way or opposed them. Be honest and answer me this question, would you be as worried as you are now if I was a prince?"
Nnamdi opens his mouth, but there comes no response.
"Because I'm thinking the only reason that you're worried is because I'm a princess, a girl and unable to defend herself."
He bows his head in guilt, the princess was right he is worried because she's a girl, but it is more than that. "You're right princess, I worry because you're a girl, but I worry even more because you're the princess and the last living heir of your father. If something happens to you, then our hope is lost and I've failed in the promise I made to your father. I do not want that to happen because you're too precious."
She shakes her head, "I am grateful that you all believe in me and have stood by me this far, but I trained all my life to be a warrior and to be ready for battle at anytime, so I will not just sit and wait, while victory is archived, I will fight and be one of the change makers."
Three hours later
"You can come close, I promise I won't bite without provocation," Ajifah says as she hears a throat clear from behinds the trees and to her response Klean walks out from behind the tree where he was standing and Ajifah's heart doubles a beat as she sees him. She tries to keep her eyes away but she can't and they remain on him.
"Am I interrupting anything?" He asks a little skeptical as he sees her arranging her arrows and sharpening them with the sharp stones and also notices a large holder of blades on the floor close to her bedside one the fallen trees she's sitting on. She's wearing a long brown satin gown and her knuckles are bandaged with white clothes and it gets Klean worried for her.
You're interrupting alone time Ajifah almost replies, but she bits down on her tongue and shake her head.
"I heard you will be coming with us tomorrow." He starts off walking closer.
She scoffs, and drops an arrow and picks another to sharpen it. "Worried that I'm going to be a mess or slow you down? Well don't cause that won't happen."
"Neither, I think you will be a great addition."
"Don't patronise me!" She snaps, glaring up at him.
"I never do that." He says taking a seat on the fallen trees close to her. "I always tell you the truth and I believe you always tell me the truth as well."
She looks away from him and doesn't reply his word instead she begins to say. "As a child when I trained with father, he was a lot of things, but he wasn't one that broke his word and when he told me that the next time I threw down your stick, or sword, or bow or give up because a particular training was too hard, he'll order me into the wild forest unarmed and I will not be allowed to come back until I have succeeded in killing a deer, he meant it."
I was rebellious to my bow and arrow training mistress because she was thrice as fast and didn't give me a breathing space or a safe hit on target. She would make complex hits on targets and ask me to do the same even though she knew I was still a beginner. She was just like my father in training, never caring if I was understand or following the steps of the training except, she wasn't my father and so I wasn't going to just take it. After a few days and still no improvement, I cussed at her and threw my bow down and refused to train." Ajifah pauses and laughs a little.
Curious, Klean asks "What happened then?"
"When father found out of course, he was outraged with me and having said what he'll do when next I gave up in the midst of a training, he had no choice but to send me out into the thick forest to go kill a deer with no sword bow arrow or blade. I cussed at him too and I remember accusing him of hating and resenting me because I was a girl." She says, with a tear running down her face, remembering those moments she shared with her father, she knows better now.
She wipes it off and sniffs the rest back. She doesn't know why she's unable to control her emotions, but then again she knows how vulnerable she becomes because of her feelings for Klean. "He did what he did then because he believed in me, but I was fourteen, I was just a scared and stubborn little girl and I didn't know that or want to know that he did. When I went out, I was so sure that I would not make it back, I thought I would die out there with nothing to protect myself with. Every morning I'd come out to the open space in the forest and I'd see the palace afar off, but not having the grace to go back. I wanted to go home and there was only one way to do that, kill a deer and I was without any weapon.
I made my first bow and arrow without any weapon but these sharp stones." She says, showing Klean the sharp stones in her hand.
Killing the deer was a nightmare, because it was one of the fastest animals in the forest and after weeks of chasing with no avail, I was able to succeed. I killed the deer and I dragged it back home and father looked at me with so much pride and love. He hugged me and didn't care that I was dirty and filthy for the many days I spent out in the forest... And I broke down and cried in his arms."