CHAPTER 15
The Bride’s Return
One night, Nasomi stretched her hand and discovered Tambo was not in bed with her. She was heavy with sleep, having been exhausted from the cooking and entertaining of guests on Meron’s seventh birthday. She thought she might have overslept and it was morning, but when she blinked and squinted, she saw it was still dark.
She would have allowed herself to return to sleep, but uneasiness seized her. Something felt wrong. She jerked upright on the bed, listened. Nothing unusual. An owl hoot, the croon of a lonely cricket, the distant bark of a dog. Then… a short sound. It was quite far to tell what it was. Maybe it came from the kitchen.
She got off the bed, covered herself and raced out of the room. Ramona's door open and when she looked inside, her daughter was not in bed. She rushed to Meron's room. He was snoring heavily, both his firestone lamps still on. She ran down the corridor, shouting, “Tambo! Mona!”
She knocked into someone rushing out a door. A manservant. He yelped and scampered from her like she was fire, his eyes wide. “What is it, Bansi?” she demanded.
“Nhhhhhn!” He struggled to finds words. He ran past her, yelling along the corridor: “A witch, My Lady! Evil in the house! Witch!”
Nasomi ran to the kitchen. Tambo had his back to her. She would remember him like that in the coming years: an ax in his left hand, his veins bulging, the dull yellow light from the firestone lamps reflecting in streaks across his dark shirtless skin; he was in nothing but short breeches. He looked like how she would picture a legendary warrior up against a nightmarish beast.
Just as well. Opposite him, having come through the door, which was now cracked wide open, stood an old woman.
Nasomi recognized Reema immediately.
Reema’s skin was grey and wrinkled. As if that wasn’t enough ugly, she was wearing brideclothes, which were dirty and frayed. She was barefoot, and her feet were cracked. Behind her, two large hyenas walked through the door. They chuckled as they flanked Reema.
Reema saw Nasomi and smiled. “There she is, our beloved wife.”
Tambo turned his head. “Nasomi, take the children, get out of here.”
“Don’t be rude, Tambo,” Reema said. Her voice was still young and sweet. “I have some business with her as well.”
“You… you died!” Nasomi said. “Those hyenas… they killed you.”
“They almost did. I... How would you know this?” She made to take a step forward. Tambo shifted the ax to his other hand.
The hyenas pried Nasomi with their yellowish-brown eyes. Reema put her clasped hands to her mouth as she pondered and studied Nasomi.
“The mages found out everything and told us,” Tambo said. He held the ax in both hands. “Nasomi, go. I will finish this.” He charged, swinging his ax. Reema slapped away the ax like it was a twig in a child’s hand. Tambo was sent against the wall.
“Stop it, my love!” Reema screamed as if shocked at her own power. “I didn’t come to kill you.”
Nasomi ran to him, but the hyenas bounded and blocked her way. She held back.
“Tonight, farm girl, I get what is mine… what you stole from me,” Reema said. She knelt to touch Tambo. He slapped her hand away. “He’s always been mine,” she said to Nasomi. “You came and ruined everything.”
“You are evil!” Nasomi spat.
“Ha! If there’s an evil person here, it is you!” She pointed a finger at Nasomi, and Nasomi felt a prick on her forehead as though Reema had actually poked her. “You husband snatcher, you! You are the evil one.”
The hyenas stalked after Nasomi. She stumbled as she tried to back away, falling hard to the floor. One of them bit into her arm as she lifted it to shield herself. When her long screaming and squirming stopped, she saw none of them were eating her to death. There was a groan in the room that wasn’t coming from her.
The hyena that had bitten her was in anguish. It coughed and jerked. Let out a pained groan. Reema stood like a statue, failing to believe what was going on.
Nasomi stood up. Tambo stood up. He shook his wrist as if to shake away the pain. He picked up the ax.
The suffering hyena gained its composure, and a deep silence fell into the room. They all stood where they were, looking at each other. A breeze wafted into the room, prickled at Nasomi’s skin. But she was hot inside, hot with fury, and the blood trickling down her arm was warm. She wanted to grab the ax and hack Reema piece by bloody piece.
“What...?” said Reema, her voice steely. Nasomi could have sworn she saw Reema’s shadow move even when Reema didn’t. “What have I just seen, Gweuka?”
“She has power,” the troubled hyena said.
“She is truly a witch then! All this time—”
“She’s one of them!” the hyena said, retreating to Reema’s side. The other followed suit. “The naturals. She has a sliver of the cosmos fabric in her.”
“What? Her?” Reema laughed. “You’re mistaken. She’s a simple, ugly farm girl.”
“I felt it!” the hyena turned at Reema, growled at her. “I know what I felt! She would have undone me!”
Reema slapped the hyena’s head. “Don’t you turn upon me like that, or I will be the one to undo you. I am your master.”
They both slunk, subservient.
“You two are the most powerful wizards I know!” she yelled, irritated. “Or was I wrong?”
“We're powerful,” the hyenas said together.
“Then kill her, whether she’s a witch or not. Finish the task I had paid you to do.”
The hyenas trembled, gaining their courage back. They snarled and giggled, looking at Nasomi like a piece of game to be eaten.
Tambo raised the ax at the distracted Reema. A tentacle from her shadow leaped at him. It elongated unnaturally, wrapping itself around his legs, slithering toward his torso. He dropped the ax as the shadow threw him down. He struggled against it.
The hyenas moved past the witch and bound toward Nasomi. She braced herself, but the hyenas stopped inches before her. They circled her, trying to decide whether to attack.
“You and I will be alone together finally,” Reema said to Tambo. She straddled him as her shadow slipped back to its normal form. She produced a piece of white cloth. “I am so sorry it has to be this way, but this is to show you how much I love you.”
“Get away from me,” Tambo moaned.
“I will show you,” Reema continued. “It had always been you and me, Tambo. You cannot imagine the things I have gone through just so I can have you back. But you will understand.”
The hyenas snapped at Nasomi when she tried to move.
“Remember this cloth, my love?” Reema said. “The words you said to me as you put it around my wrist? ‘To you I bind myself until we are wed’? Remember?”
“All I remember is I didn’t want you anymore.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Sorry that I wasn’t good enough for you… but I am now… will be. Words have meaning, Tambo, and yours were all I clung to. I can still feel the words in this cloth. Your words.” Tambo’s own shadow lifted his arm toward Reema. She tied the cloth around his wrist. “And now, you’re mine again. I have so much to tell you.”
“Mother!”
Ramona came into view from behind a cabinet. She had a knife in her hand.
“Mona!” Nasomi screamed. “What are you doing here?”
The girl came forward. “I felt something coming. I hid to see.”
“Mona, please, Nasomi, you need to go,” Tambo begged. He was in anguish, sweat beaded his brow and chest.
“Not without you,” Nasomi said.
“I can't move. She has done something to me.”
Reema stood. “That should have been my daughter! We would have had these beautiful children together, my love.” Reema moved with grace and dexterity that belied her aged looks. She came toward Nasomi, stroking the hyenas’ necks. “I will go with him now, you witch. If you try to stop me, you will not blame me for what these two will do to you. Or your girl there.”
She turned around. “Stand, Tambo. Time to go.”
Tambo stood, but not from his own will. He fought whatever spell Reema put on him. He was not strong enough against it. Reema went to him, took him by the arm. As they went to the door, as the hyenas backed away with their teasing gazes still on Nasomi, tears were hot in Nasomi’s eyes, anger was boiling in her heart.
She grabbed the knife from Ramona and charged at Reema. The hyenas parted from her and Reema turned to see the knife arc toward her face. Reema dodged, as quickly as lightning, and Nasomi stabbed into nothing. She lost balance, tumbled awkwardly forward.
Reema kicked her in the shin. The pain was searing. Nasomi heard Tambo plead, Ramona wail, the hyenas giggle. Reema kicked her again.
“Stop it Reema!” Tambo yelled.
“He's mine, you hear?” Reema screamed in Nasomi’s face. “Mine! Mine! Mine!”
Nasomi saw a hyena dash past toward Ramona. Motherly instinct lifted Nasomi from the floor. She caught the hyena's tail as it toyed with and snarled at Ramona. She pulled hard, trying to hurl it.
The hyena yelped and distanced itself from her.
Reema’s shadow began to expand toward Nasomi. “I do not want to harm you, but you are forcing me.”
“Reema, stop,” Tambo said. He was shaking. Nasomi saw that he was trying to move. “If you hurt her, I swear… I swear…”
“He’s breaking it!” one hyena said, excitedly. They both watched Tambo with gleeful anticipation, as if rooting for him to break the spell.
“He’ll be free,” the other said.
“Stop that! I command you!” Reema shouted. Her shadow turned away from Nasomi and to the hyenas and Tambo. “You are bound to me and you will not break your bondage.” She retrieved a large golden coin from her bosom. She tossed it down, and it began to glow. “You are bound to me,” she croaked. “Come to me.”
They obeyed and went to Reema. Tambo was shedding tears. “I can’t do anything,” he said to Nasomi. “She has put a spell on me.”
“Out the door, all of you!” Reema demanded. She bent down to pick the golden coin. When Tambo and the hyenas were out the door, Reema said to Nasomi, “For his sake, I spare you. I can crush you like an insect upon my fancy. But I am only happy to know you will know hurt as I have. Suffer well.”
She walked out the door. Nasomi was too weak to move, due to the loss of much blood. She fell to her knees, then to the floor, fought against the blackness that was trying to get her. She lost and was wrapped in it.
Ramona was bandaging her wound when she opened her eyes. She lay on the floor, face up.
“Mother, where has she taken him?”
Nasomi sat up. So forcefully she pushed Ramona away. She got up and ran out the door. It was cold outside. The moon was hidden by heavy clouds. A cold breeze pricked her face and skin, gnawing all the way to her bones. She didn’t know where to begin. Reema and Tambo could have gone in any direction. It was as though this had been only a dream, as though she finally woke up to a reality where Reema, Tambo and the hyenas didn't exist. Or as though her story had reverted back to when Tambo belonged to Reema and she was only a sensitive, kind and naive daughter of a farmer.
She was vaguely aware of her daughter coming to stand beside her. This is real, she told herself. I have lost my husband.
“Mother, I am sorry I couldn’t stop her.”
“What? How can you say that? She is a powerful witch. There is nothing you could have done.”
“I could have stabbed her long ago, but I was afraid. I had a bad feeling, and I went to see.”
“You’re safe, that’s what matters.”
Ramona, who asked so many questions, didn’t ask who the witch was or why she had taken Father away. Nasomi was ready to tell her everything, from the beginning. To tell her that while Nasomi was shocked that Reema was still alive, she wasn’t surprised Reema had spent the past eight years becoming a powerful witch just so she could take Tambo back.
“I need to find him, Mona. I need to bring him back.”
“And then you will come to explain everything to me,” Ramona said, hinting that she wouldn’t bother her mother with the questions now. “I want to help. I have heard so many stories about witches and how to defeat them.”
“You’ve not heard of Reema. In any case, I will not put you or your brother in danger. Let me be the one to do this.”
Yet, her mind was as cloudy as the sky above. Where would she even start?
The mages. Of course.