I Bleed For You

Chapter 15

In the land of Akozo, Akiza walked to the dragon while it curled up outside the palace building. When he came to him he saw he was feeding on a human. He knew of his mother's arrest of all the men and women that surrendered during the battle in the palace and her plan to be feeding them to her creature. As he stood there a soldier walked up to him to inform him of his mother's demand for his presence. He walked to the throne room and met her pacing angrily. She stopped and began,

"A troubling news I have received and it angers me as well; the people of Dodo are no longer with me and they have killed the officials in the palace of Dodo and equally attempted to kill the Prophetess. They have turned against me but they have made the worst mistake of their lives. How could they? have they not been told of what I did with my dragon in the palace of Dodo, do they think I can not do the same to them? I will ride to Dodo at first light and I will ride not on a horse or on a chariot but on my dragon, to spit fire on them and be done with them, after all I do not belong there, here is where I belong" The son didn't say anything but stood looking at his mother. "You have nothing to say to this?" she inquired.

"I don't know what to say mother but I keep thinking; If we kill everyone that refuses to agree with us it means we are going to have to kill off mankind for the more we kill those who do not agree with us the more those who agreed with us will change their mind and disagree with us; if that becomes the case are you going to kill the whole people in this world?"

"If that's what it will come to then that is what it's going to be son. You are to remain here and wait for you coronation while I ride to Dodo tomorrow morning"

******

In the land of Dodo, the people had set the palace of Dodo on fire too and were now heading to the house of the Priest who was lower in rank to the Prophetess. He was packing his loads on his chariot to escape when he began to hear the shouts coming to his compound. He then stopped, not because he was scared for he believed he did no wrong. When they people approached him they greeted him and one of them spoke, 

"We know you to be an upright man. You never also supported the crowning of Samata as Queen of Dodo and because of that we have come to you to lead us" the man was panting as he spoke, his body covered with sweat. The Priest looked around and then shook his head sadly before he spoke,

"I have seen madness before creep into this land and cause havoc but since I was born I have never seen anything like this; you youths of Dodo have committed a crime bigger than the one Samata committed. Samata only killed your King but now you have not only killed the officials that stood with her; your own fathers and brothers but you have also attempted to kill the Prophetess and have killed her servants. How come you have come to me now, me that is on the verge of escaping with my life for I thought this was madness and madness has no respect for anyone, for a relative or for an innocent man. I know that you all had initially thought or still think you are doing the right thing but the truth remains that it is not going to continue like that, no, if it will I can't be part of it and you can know for sure that I can't be your leader" The people looked at one another and none of them spoke. The man, having seen that his words were getting at their concience he continued, "What else do you want me to help you and lead, who else? You have already taken your madness to every town in Abumu and by so doing you have killed more people than Samata ever did. Samata is bad but you are worse. She is evil but you are worse. If you trust me to tell the truth then this which I have just told you is nothing but the truth. You all will have to leave here and find a way to undo what you did if it will ever be possible. What you did will enter the ears of Samata and when she rides back home with her dragon none of us will be safe"

The Prophetess of Dodo advised that they kept moving.

"We built this thatched hut already here and now you want us to abandon it and continue to where?" asked Lume.

"You will have to help me in this journey if you hope to receive help from me too and this is how you will do it; when I say this is what we must do you have to listen to me and do just that. I may not be perfect in all of my plans but I'm quite aware that the god of the earth speaks to me more than he speaks to any of you. We have to continue our journey and not feel comfortable here. If we relax here we might end up dying for it" They left there and headed to an unknown destination.

*****

The palace of Abumu was now vulnerable and the King and his men were being butchered. He knew he had lost and was now attempting to escape alive but he was rounded up and hacked to death. While he died he managed to take one of the enemies with him to the land of the dead. Knowing that they had come out victorious in the battle Aromo dismounted her horse and as Princess Damina watched her and Ralf both of them walked into the palace compound and there they stood. Their men brought out the three maids and the Queen of the land and forced them to kneel before Aromo. Aromo cleared her throat and began, "Pity how your mighty Kingdom fell in just one night"

"The Kingdom has not fallen, what fell is the palace. The army from the camp will soon be here" replied the Queen. Aromo looked at Ralf and Ralf shrugged. The Queen continue, "Let me help you, when they come use me as a bait to force them to surrender, that way you can easily say you have won" 

"And why do you want to help us win?" asked Aromo.

"Because I'm tired, I'm tired of having to be trapped in here and pretending everyday to be happy. I'm tired of having to explain myself and not being able to and then I'm called names and my own maids lay with my husband in my very before" She said this and then took an angry look at the maid amongst the three maids who slept with her husband that night before the invasion of the bandits. Aromo could tell that the Queen had her own personal troubles that she would like to deal with and so she drew her sword and have it to her, saying, "Go ahead, clear your head" The Queen took hold of the sword, rushed to where the maid was kneeling and ran her through. The other two maids screamed and jumped to run but they were held down. They kept begging the Queen but the Queen had taken her revenge. She handed the sword back to Aromo and nodded in thanks. Aromo took back the sword and spoke, "I like your kind, you must be someone who loves what I love and hates what I hate"

"I do, my mother was your kind and she gave birth to me twenty eight years ago, died ten years ago and I'm yet to recover from the shock" revealed the Queen. At that moment Aromo looked at her carefully and could tell that her mother was a Sister of Magic. The Queen continue, "Now you know better, yes, I have your gifts and I tried not to hurt my husband with it but he never paid attention to any of my explanations instead he hurt me all the time. I tried to spare him from the enslavement of this gift but he saw me as a tormentor who didn't want him to enjoy his marital rights with me. He is dead now and so my life here is ended, I want to join you but before that happens and to ensure that you officially take over this palace you will have to use me as a shield to get the army that is coming to surrender and when they must have surrendered then we can start from there"

Just then the army from the camp arrived and they arrived late. Having seen the condition of things in the palace they had to obey the Queen who was playing victim in the hands of Ralf with Ralf's sword on her throat. Ralf ordered them all to drop their swords on the ground and they had to obey. The bandits disarmed them and collected the swords from the ground and then told them kneel which they obeyed and remained like that.

Aromo smiled and Princess Damina who was already there with them and standing behind Aromo seized a sword from one of the bandits and ran her through from the back. Aromo held her stomach and then fell. Ralf was moved with rage and he struck Damina too but she dodged his blow only to fall into the grip of one of the bandits who held her down on the ground and arrested her. The army from the camp of Abumu could not seize that opportunity to attack because already they had been disarmed. Ralf ordered the commanders of the army to find a way to save the life of Aromo else their Queen dies. The commander of the army quickly commanded the physicians amongst them and they carried Aromo inside the house and started treating her. Her life was saved that night and Princess Damina was locked up in a cell.

*****