"For though you ravish my body and wound my soul, yet my mission is greater. It will swallow your intents and drown your efforts." Culled from 'SHE FOUGHT FROM THE GRAVE' by
Chioma Onwudiwe
The queen and the prince watched the king closely, with the utmost intensity and rapt anticipation. If only they could see, what he was reading. Simply by watching his eye balls, darting from the left to the right. The queen heaved a sigh of nothing in particular, while the prince giggled. But the king was not distracted, from his reading. Then the queen sneezed, just as the prince began coughing. Meanwhile, they held on to each other.
"Are you both coming down with a cold?" Asked the king, with his eyes still glued to the parched sheet, as he read on. "Actually we are both coming down, with a serious case of curiosity. If you don't let us know soon enough, what you are reading about." The queen answered. She and her son, still looking at the king, with sheepishly pleading eyes. "And don't forget, there is also another smaller sheet still in the satchet." The queen was playfully gloating on that reminder.
"Yes I know dear. But listen, this is amazingly interesting." Began the king still looking at the sheet. "It seems like a secret puzzle, that may have answers to questions, we might not even know to ask." He finally lifted his head and looked as his wife, who had now lain back. On her royal lounge chair, in exaggerated fatigue.
Prince Amil, was almost besides himself in giggles. This was the first time, he had as much as smiled in almost a month. First it was Debeh's murder and then the disappearance of the princess. Maybe the curtain of gloom, that enveloped the palace these few weeks. Might finally shift, for a spate of light. Howbeit, a dim one for the moment. "I can help with the puzzle, father." Volunteered the prince, with an enthusiastic wave of his hand.
"Yes he can indeed," complimented the queen with an admiring tone. "And I can help usher you both out quickly, if you do not tell me what was written on the sheet." Finished the queen with a wink and a smile, at her husband. "Well it appears you were right, my dear. Debeh may have been trying, to tell us something. But if she wrote this, before she was killed......" The king paused and stared quizzically, at the queen. "Did she know, that she would be killed?" A vague silence, settled in the room for a few seconds. Before the queen reached out to the king, to take the parched sheet.
When the king handed the current object of intrigue, to his wife. She immediately began to read it out loud:
"A descendant of maids, blessed and secure
A friend to a queen scorned yet so pure
A server of kings who reigns amidst snakes
A revealer of truth for the foundation it shakes
A threat to a royal whose sorcery transcends
The child that she stole and facts she often bends
The seed of the flies will cast the fatal blow
Though his beginning and end he still does not know
The seed of the wounded will triumph above all
Through tracherous oppression to answer destiny's call
For at last in the end, when the kingdom's will meet
A treasure and it's true love will on this throne seat
The seed of darkness its weapon had brandished
What son would start the mother had finished
Though now derelict, without mother or father
Yet a golden destiny need not fret nor bother
As sure as the eagle must soar to its height
So definitely it will pass just as He did write....." (The MONITORS/2015) by Chioma Onwudiwe)
"........ Oh!" Exclaimed the queen suddenly and loudly. "What happened my love?" Responded the king, just as quickly as he moved immediately to her side. "The baby kicked, that's what happened. The baby kicked, as if Reinah had entered the room." Her majesty tried to suck in and expel air with a pout, as waves of langour cascaded through her body. "Where is Reinah by the way? You two men, took up all my time and I forgot to ask for Reinah." The queen grumbled to herself as she re-arranged her shoulder wrap and adjusted her feet on the lounge chair.
"Amil dearest, can you find Reinah for me? I bet she can help us, with the riddle or was it a puzzle? Hurry, the baby won't stop kicking." Sighed the queen, in slight irritation. The prince moved indeed, hurriedly. But only into his father's waiting arms, as they both clung to each other for respite. An answer and a way out, would have to come quickly.
Borrowed (with permission), from the 'The MONITORS/2015 by
Chioma Onwudiwe