The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

21.

'It wasn't a dream?'

Ushe was still standing with the lamp in his hand trying to understand what Anesu meant by his words.

'At first I thought it was but then halfway through, I realised that there was more reality to what was happening for it to be a mere dream.'

Ushe's confusion did not let up easily.

'What were you dream- what happened, then?' he asked.

'I think the gods have shown me where the missing head is,' Anesu replied, getting up and establishing a sitting position.

'May they be thanked and praised,' Ushe replied.

Ushe wanted to know more about this dream- or reality that the foreign trader had just witnessed but he felt that he wouldn't like what he would hear. He had been told enough weird stories as it was and adding more to them was not priority right now, instead, he had to find a way to get his friend exonerated at the trial later that day.

'Are you sure that is all you dreamt about?' he finally asked.

Anesu told Ushe more about his dream in less detail than he could have but he told him all he had to know. Soon enough, the sun had risen and Ushe went out to tend to his cattle and make sure that his workers were ready for another busy day. Anesu accompanied him, noting everything that he was doing, not because he wanted to replicate it but it was in his nature to learn as much as possible.

'I have never touched that in my entire upbringing,' Anesu said as he watched Ushe milk a cow that morning before he left for the palace

'Your family did not grow up with livestock? It surely doesn't seem so.'

Anesu laughed.

'Yes, we had lots of it, but I was never allowed to even consider doing any work of that manner. My father had serious delusions of grandeur, he would say "someone of a royal family can't be seen performing such lowly duties" or heavily scold me,' Anesu said.

'So you never went to herd cattle with other boys either?'

'That I did, without them knowing of course.'

Ushe was on his way to the palace in no time. The day had finally come for him to know what the palace had against his friend. He managed to arrive at the palace before a few of his counterparts did and those that had already arrived had gone straight to the Chief's chambers and they were sitting and discussing the issue at hand in low murmurs before the Chief and his advisors joined them. Apparently there was a second person on trial who nobody heard about. No one knew exactly who it was but the old men were just making assumptions and trying to connect the dots as usual.

When everyone was present, the Chief and his two advisors joined the proceedings, sitting at the far end of the twelve men who sat in an arch of six on each side. As soon as they were seated, the Chief addressed the men of the dare, one by one and then went on to apologize for the delaying of the hearing. Ushe at this point did not want to protest or raise any alarm about the gravity of the issue of not calling the upon the dare. He only waited for provocation, he was no instigator, all he needed was a little nudge in the right direction before he even considered doing or saying anything. The Chief mentioned the young man, the healer's boy who was also to appear before the council.

'As I speak to you now, the body of the village healer, Vhudzijena is cold,' he said.

Ushe couldn't hide his shock, the healer had been incredibly helpful to him when his uncle was ill, before he passed. The thought of him being murdered was just preposterous. Despite him being a little eccentric and people complaining about his irritable attitude, Ushe only remembered good things about the man and he would never have thought that anyone disliked him to the point of murder. Even the Chief openly hated the him but he would never go that far. What would the villagers do now that their only healer was gone?

In no time, the healer's son was brought in and Ushe had to listen to the arrogant Chief of the guard give his testimony of what happened. The young fellow had already recognized Ushe and he had his eyes locked on him. His eyes were endearing even in this moment, even while he was being accused of murder, it seemed like he had a different story to tell and Ushe had to hear it.

'We won't allow such nonsense accusations in the palace,' Revai said.

Ushe thwarted his efforts to silence the young fellow and soon enough, he heard his very interesting side of the story and everything suddenly made pure sense to him. Of course, after Pomerai was shot, he sought help at the healer's compound, but why would he kill the innocent man? Before Ushe could process it all, the boy said something even more interesting about the Chief's first son who supposedly died in a horrific fire. The trial was already taking a very interesting turn. It was now time for them to call in the hunter and discuss his story before they came to a conclusion about the two.
Hombarume walked in and looked at the Chief, then to his friend then down.

'Is it true that you were in the forest and shot the prince?' one of the elders said.

'I was in the forest yes, but what I shot with my arrow wasn't the prince,' he replied.

'What was it then?' the man continued with his questioning.

'He- it looked like the prince then transformed into something else, something completely different.'

'Something like what?'

'Like an animal, a beast I've never seen before, an abomination,' Hombarume said.

The Chief did not look impressed by the hunter's words.

'How dare you insinuate that my son is some beast? Urikundipumha huroyi here nhai Hombarume?'

'Why didn't you report this when it happened?' one of the advisors asked.

'I was scared that this would happen,' he said, raising his hands that were fastened together by heavy chains.

'Did you kill this beast when you shot it?' Ushe asked, finally coming out of the shadows.

'I intended to, but I'm afraid I did not,' Hombarume answered.

'So, do you believe he is- it is still alive out there?' Ushe continued.

'Elder, where are you going with this?' one of the advisors asked.

'Surely all of you can see that there's a clear connection between these two stories, either both of them are just taking us for fools or we're missing something really important here.'

Hombarume gave a coy smile and concealed it before anyone but Ushe would notice.

'Obviously, your judgement is influenced by your relationship to the man, let someone else decide,' the advisor said.

'I assure you, my friendship to the hunter does not cloud my judgement at all, surely anyone can see that there's something wrong here, two different people with one thing in common, Pomerai. Why don't we put more effort in finding Pomerai, now that we know where to start from, than send two people into exile for something that is a case for the gods?' Ushe said.

'Can the accused leave so that we can come to a decision?'

Glossary.
Urikundipumha huroyi here nhai? - Are you accusing me of witchcraft?