When Gods Bleed

by Njedeh Anthony

  Obi walked toward him while talking.

  “Our people say, ‘A lion that is not hungry will never disturb you, but if you decide to disturb it, it will disturb you.’ Tell your King that there can be only one King in a kingdom.”

  Obi took out his sword and cut off the general’s right hand at the wrist. The man screamed in pain.

  “Give this to your King.” Obi threw the man's hand to him. “Tell him it is my time.”

  Obi left the General still screaming in agony. He carried his dead wife with him.

  When he entered Utagba Province, it was apparent that they were expecting him and they had heard the news. As he passed everybody, they all lay flat, giving the respect due to a king. He did not seem to notice anyone, including the Okpala, who was the highest authority there because they did not have a chief. Then he went to an open area and dug a grave all by himself. Nobody attempted to help him because they were not sure of his reaction. After burying her, he made an announcement to all the spectators who followed him.

  “The cursed land of Ozuoba where my wife died I will make Utagba. On this spot where my wife is buried I will build my palace, and this province I stand in will be the capital of the whole kingdom, which would be called Utagba.”

  Every man, woman and child who was present started to hail their King. As he looked around him to see the people of every status in Utagba greeting him with great enthusiasm, his mind started to work. The day I was born, I forgot. The day my Aneaton died, I forgot. The day my Ifeanyi and Nneka died, I will forget. But this day that I stand on the grave of my wife—this day I will never forget.

  Chapter 7

  Okon had nine children, all girls. He was positive that the gods did not want to fill the earth with men of his flesh and bones. His three married daughters had sons, but they belonged to their father and his people. He needed an heir before he became chief. He was a very wealthy trader like all the members of his lineage. His father was not even an Omee, but was one of the wealthiest traders in the whole kingdom. He had only five sons and they were as good as their father in the trade. They sold to a province what it did not have and bought from it what it had in excess.

  With time the trade extended beyond the different provinces to kingdoms near and far. Of the five sons, Okon was the youngest, extremely aware of every channel in their occupation. With the wealth they possessed, the Omees who respected them were the ones under their payroll. Although they were mainly traders, they indulged in different forms of business, making each son a specialist in different fields. The daughters in the family had no access to any of the transactions, but they were given anything they desired and most men that came for their hands paid a small dowry.

  On a day bright enough for a bat to see, Chief Inyang of Ndemili came to the father’s home, and the father ran out to welcome the lord of his province. The chief ignored the trader and walked into the man’s home as though it was his own. Then the chief, who was younger than Okon’s father, sat down without being asked. As a mark of respect, Okon’s father sent for his youngest bride to serve the chief wine with all his sons present. It was very rare for even a general to come to the home of a commoner unless he came to bring harm or he had you in a good place in his heart. From the way the chief’s eyes met with the eyes of the father’s most cherished wife, Okon was positive they had met in another way. He was a trader and he knew when a buyer already had the goods and wanted more. The chief did not hide his lust for the trader’s wife, and with time the girl grew bolder in the presence of the chief. It seemed only Okon was aware of what was happening. The chief requested in an authoritative fashion to be alone with the father. As all the men walked away, the brothers acted oblivious to what was going on.

  When the two men had finished talking privately, they both came out laughing. Obviously, the demands the chief made were accepted. Okon was young, but he was not stupid and neither was his father. As his father escorted the chief out, he accepted that it was one of the things that came with his trade. Apart from his father taking all forms of insult from the chief, the man also acquired the father’s prized possession—his wife.

  He initially felt his father was a coward if he was aware of the atrocity, but he thought again. He analyzed the situation. The chief offered protection from criminals and greedy chiefs, both in their province and other provinces. The only time King Burobee was involved in the trade was when the trade was between kingdoms. He thought of his father killing his bride because in the custom of the land, if a woman wronged her husband in any way, he had the power to do as he wished with her, but the woman’s family should be aware of the reason why she was being punished. Although that might eventually bring the story out into the open, such a move would have made his father lose ties with the chief. That was the day he made up his mind to become an Omee.

  He never told anyone the reason why he made such a decision. Everyone from his family except his father felt it was a stupid idea because they owned and lived well in their world and Omees lived their life according to a chief, high chief, or king’s world. They insisted that he was too old. They emphasized how he would have to start his training with children and how it would be difficult for him to start now because he has never been trained in that area. He listened to all their words, but he had already made up his mind. He joined in the training with ease through some strings he pulled. He learnt slowly, but he acquired everything.

  It took him twelve years before he became an Omee. The way he was drafted to Ndemili and how he became a general could only be explained by a something his father used to say: At the right price the goods will not find their way past you.

  Okon spent only four years as an Omee before he became the general. Inyang was at this time still the chief of the province and was strongly against Okon becoming general because he knew his father would die trying to make his son chief. None ever complained about Inyang being chief because he spread wealth to the province and the kingdom from a source and now the source’s son was the general. He tried everything in his power to prevent Okon from claiming the position, but the elders fought strongly for him. The former general retired with a wide smile on his face claiming that a man like him was not worthy of a position that required hot blood. Inyang killed him personally, under the shadow of privacy, on the tenth day after he retired. When he killed the man he looked at the traitor, disgusted with what the world was coming to. As he left the dead man escorted by his most trusted Omees, he wondered why men didn’t have pride anymore, what happened to honor. He was positive it was a cheap bribe.

  Okon’s time as general was always filled with different kind of traps that Inyang set around him, without letting any lead to him. Despite all these things, the general was up to the task. Physical attacks made on him by men who claimed to be criminals were fruitless because he was well guarded. Attacks that came in feminine form could not find their way to him; he had only two wives and he did not seem interested in any other women. Iyang kept sending him on death missions, but the general kept coming back victorious and his people were growing to love him deeply.

  The general was asked to come to his father’s house for a family meeting. It was obvious to him what they wanted to talk about, his second eldest brother. His brother had four wives. On the sixth day after his third wife’s sister’s son, Prince Nwosa, was publicity announced by the King to be his successor, his brother drove all his other wives away from his house, claiming they were witches. Then he announced his wife’s year-old son, Okonjo, would become the sole heir to everything he owned.

  If a man drove his wife away from their matrimonial home, she went to the oldest relative to report. In this case, the oldest relative was Okon’s father. As he entered his father’s home, the general apologized by lying flat on the ground because he was late and he did not want them thinking his position was going to his head. His father told him to get up; it annoyed him that a general would bring himself so low for a commoner like himself, especially for everyone to
see.

  His father’s second son came very late and did not seem apologetic about it. He did not seem to worry that he was the reason why his whole family were there. Their father made a speech about husband and wives, asking and then begging him to take the women back into his home as they had done him no wrong. Still the man was adamant. The old man’s tone of voice changed and he gave his son an ultimatum of either respecting him as a father or walking away another man’s child. The man got up and left.

  About a year later, Okon’s father died and he felt for the first time that feeling only a person in pain could understand. When Inyang heard the news, he did not know whether it was good or bad because now he did not have to worry about his general’s influence. But now he had to worry about the general’s powers because the boy was going to inherit a fortune.

  Inyang called for the Omees he could trust who were not moved by greed. As the four men approached him, he told everyone in the room to leave them alone and shut the door. In less than five minutes they heard a man scream. When the Omees and servants rushed back into the room, they saw Inyang on the floor dead with a knife in his chest. Everyone in the room looked at the chief’s most trusted Omees, who said in the most carefree manner that the man was tired of life and wanted to die.

  Nobody argued with them because they knew the man to investigate the death would be the general and no third eye was necessary to know he was behind it. What disgusted the spectators was the amateur way they committed the crime and their uncalculated lies. Everyone thought it was Okon who assassinated Inyang, while in reality, these men were under instructions from the Head-of-Government. Even the King knew a good investment when he saw one. With Okon as chief, the wealth of both his mind in trade and his inheritance went to the kingdom.

  *

  Okon was a chief accepted by every man in the province. He made Ndemili the richest province and paid the largest taxes to the King. As a great provider, the King loved him. Okon loved his third daughter most. He needed a son to carry his name and all the time he saw this daughter of his, he forgot the need for a male heir. She was always with him anytime she felt he needed her. Some of her younger sisters were already married, increasing the burden on her to get married. She was not single because she was ugly. Amongst all her sisters, she was the prettiest. Even ugly girls who were daughters of rich or powerful men easily got married. She was alone because she had a strong love for her father and she did not want him to ever feel lonely. At times the father went out of his way to bring suitors for her, but she refused them all. Whenever her father saw a father and his son, a pain scratched his heart and she could feel it.

  One sunny day she told her father that she wanted to go on a journey. He asked where. She said she did not know. Her father ordered her not to go, but she still left. The father was angry when she left. He became scared for her and missed her. He paid different men to find her, but their search was to no avail.

  She came back home after eight months. Everyone was speechless upon seeing her new figure. When Okon came out to where she was and saw her with a stomach swollen, she bowed and greeted her father. He wanted to hold her close to him and thank the gods for bringing her back to him alive, but he was chief and he had to set an example.

  “Do you think you can just walk away from my house and come back here because you are pregnant?”

  The girl did not say a word but her head was down.

  “Answer me.”

  Her head was still down.

  “Okay, where is the father of the child?” The Chief’s voice broke; even in his words, the love he had for his daughter was evident. “Did anyone force you or cause you harm in any way?”

  The girl shifted her head sideways.

  “Then why did you leave and why are you back here pregnant with no husband?”

  The girl remained motionless.

  The chief now spoke in anger. “Do you realize what you have done? You have brought shame into our home.”

  The girl finally raised her head, looked her father in the eye and left the house.

  Okon did not think before he made his next move, because if had, he would have realized that bringing his daughter back into the home openly showed that he welcomed the shame she brought.

  The elders pressured him for the sake of respect of their people in the provinces that he should send the girl away, but he refused. They then offered to provide a husband who would claim her and the child to be his. He refused, because she did not answer him when he made the request. From the day she entered the home not a word had come out of her mouth, not even to her mother. On the day before she went into labor she kept a staff on one end of the room and a knife on the other. The general conclusion from the people in the province was that she had gone mad. The day she was in labor, she locked the door and did not let anyone in. Everyone knew she was in labor and kept banging on the door, but she did not reply.

  Okon had to tell the Omees to force their way into the room before she did anything disastrous to herself. He felt guilty and swore to himself that if his daughter had harmed herself due to his constant pressure on her, he would kill himself. The Omees pushed the door open and found her on the floor covered with blood, with a crying baby. She gave birth to a boy and she finally smiled. Everyone started throwing white chalk and was happy, but her father still kept a straight face. When he spoke the noise ceased.

  “Now that you can smile I want to know who the father of this child is.”

  The girl rose and picked up her child with blood all over it and with a smile she spoke.

  “You are his father and his name is Oludu.”

  Everyone in the room seemed lost with incest on their minds. That was punishable by death of the parent.

  “I don’t understand what you mean,” Okon said truthfully.

  “I am an Omogor.” As she spoke those words, everyone in the room gasped.

  An Omogor was the single daughter of a man who had no son. She traveled to places far away where her identity was unknown. Every place she stepped into she slept with as many men as possible, not ever letting her emotions get in the way by sleeping twice with the same man. She would continue with this way of life until she was positive she was pregnant and there was no father to claim the child. Most girls who did such acts for their father never let anyone know what they did. If it was a boy, they placed a staff on the boy, telling the whole world what they did, so the child rightfully becomes their father’s heir. But if it were a girl, they committed suicide. A daughter had to love her father extremely to engage in such. Up to this time, nobody believed daughters still made such sacrifices.

  Chapter 8

  Gbangba awaited the man who trained him personally to become an Omee. Throughout that time he had nothing but hatred and fear of him. The deadliest thing about the man was not his viciousness to his enemies, neither was it his acquired skill; it was the way he reasoned. His messengers told him that this high chief came to his province with only two Omees. If it were anyone else, this would have been the flirting of a deer with a lioness. But when Arubi made such a move, you had to stop and think.

  Although Gbangba seemed to decode the power behind this daredevil move, the fact that he was an easy target tempted him. If there were an attempt on his life, the whole kingdom would be against him for making a move forbidden by the Omee code, thereby having a reason for all the other provinces to become stronger together. Then again, Arubi would expect him to think that way. That was probably why he came alone, because he was the key man to the King. Gbangba got up to welcome the fat yet agile Head-of-Government. After exchanging greetings both men sat down. They brought kola nut; he blessed it and chewed. They brought pounded yam; he laughed and ate. When he had finished, he praised the chief’s wife for the excellent cuisine.

  “There is nothing like peace within.”

  “Yes, my Head-of-Government.”

  “Please, Gbangba, I came to your Haku. I ate your kola. I drank your wine and I ate your food. Plea
se call me Arubi when we are together.”

  “It’s a title you deserve for every drop of blood you have ever spilled and every thought that has made our kingdom a better place. I am honored to call you my Head-of-Government.”

  “If you were a woman, I would have married you immediately for those words that come from the heart—yes, from the heart. Those are real and touchable, not the hypocrisy and lies that fill this generations.”

  Gbangba nodded in agreement without saying a word, but his gaze remained fixed at the Head-of-Government.

  “There is a matter that pinches my soul. Come closer.”

  Gbangba left the seat he was sitting on from a higher level to a lower one. In a louder form of whisper, the Head-of-Government continued.

  “Some people are planning to rebel against the King and destroy the harmony we have.”

  “Really?” Gbangba said, acting shocked.

  “It even gets worse. Someone has come out claiming to be the son of the King.” The Head-of-Government laughed and Gbangba joined him mechanically. “When the fool’s wife died, instead of using his brain and disappearing, he sends an Omee’s hand to the King. Our spies tell us he was crying like a baby when his wife died and I seriously feel they should check if he has a penis. They say he is a friend of yours.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  “Funny, isn’t it? I don’t think I mentioned who the person was, so how do you know he is your friend?”

  Gbangba got up and turned his back to the Head-of-Government.

  “You taught me that there were three ways to attack your enemies, either from behind his back, from within, or from the front as his enemy. I am tired of playing the fool. Everyone knows about him, so why don’t you tell me what you came here for, Head-of-Government?”