SOLOMON'S BRIDGE {Part I}

BURNING CLAWS *10*

1891: What Happened After

Not again.
"Please leave, Father!"
But it was the shield maidens who left instead. One by one, they got up from their raffia mats, tip toeing away from the garden of knowledge, out of ear shot, towards the hot springs and healing pools. She rolled up the scrolls, the holy parchments, the Nsibidi markings she folded neatly, placing each sacred item into their respective pigeon holes carved into the cave walls in intricate design, the different patterns themselves having a secret function.
"Men are not allowed--"

"It's not sundown, daughter. I'm glad your sisters in arms still remember how to show respect to a father. You, are a lost cause."

She sighed, weary of him already. Bowing her head an inch, in a quiet voice, "What do you want?" She asked.

"What any father will want, do you think I enjoy hearing the rumours? Do you know what they are saying about you now?" He was referring to the gossip spread thick all across the seven villages. The high priestess is dead. Idara Eyam Attah, the Aydee, was the last person to see her alive. Res Ipsa Loquitur. The thing speaks for itself: the Aydee did it...

Chief Eyam Attah waved his hands about the cavernous space, "-this is nothing but an illusion, Idara! Real power does not fall into your laps, you have to seize it by the horns! Do you think yourself safe, in here?"

Not this, again.
"You meet me at my duty post, father. You tell me, if I am in any danger. I did not kill Unwannah, I serve the Tripod king. The council has already sat, on this issue."

"Your father, until our high priestess Unwannah's abrupt demise, was part of the kings council. After being excluded from your interrogation, I heard the question of loyalty arose, and of course, our Ibibio origins!"

It did.
And much more besides.

She looked at his pulsating, angry chest, his faded orange wrapper, his salt and pepper hair. Her face softened. Their family has been through hell, and it all started when her beloved younger brother, the chief's only son, was brutally murdered. That is why he is here. Revenge. Her father thinks of nothing else.

"I am not afraid of our detractors." Her voice is low, lacking conviction. He laughs sadly, calling her dear dead brother's name. Victorious, Victorious! Victorious, come and see your father's shame.

"Come and see your father's shame, my son! In my old age, the gods have left me a woman wearing a warriors armour, without having a warriors heart!"

She rolls her eyes, "Father! It is almost sundown!"

"I want you to come with me, to Ufot Akaan. Something is there that you must see!"

"No!"

He nods his head, expecting her refusal, prepared for it, "I blame your mother, who never listens to me. Did I not say we should name my son after Itu, the river god's first devotee? And did I not say, we should dedicate the boy to Anansa, Atakpo or even better, Okpenon? Now see it, Hogan has taken him from me! Just like that! Gone with the wind! And... I am telling you what you must do, Idara my daughter."

No. Never. Not happening.
"Father, please, you have to leave, it is sundown."

He stubbornly folded his hands at the elbows, "I am only waiting for you." This is the reason why she decided to train to be chosen as the fifteenth shield maiden. The fifteenth shield maiden can never be dedicated to any ancestral deities. Truly, the fifteenth shield maiden can never be covenanted within any agreement as a person; she is standing in the gap for the people. Her whole life, is for the people. As the Tribe Custodian, she is, the people.