CHAPTER 28
Into Tunkambe
Nasomi’s posse passed through Ozomboe, a settlement on the verge of an arid piece of land. They were moving too slowly for her liking, and she found herself expressing her agitation through biting and clicking her fingernails together.
Buyechi’s horse took an illness, could hardly walk half a mile without stopping to lay down and groan. Buyechi had not ridden it for the past three days, choosing to run by its side. They both often lagged by far and Nasomi and Wakani would have to wait for them.
“We can sell the horse, My Heart,” Buyechi said. “The locals might want its meat before it becomes too sick.”
Nasomi nodded. “And if we find no horse here?”
“Then I will ride with Wakani.”
“My horse can carry us both,” Wakani said, offering the best reassuring smile.
They know I’m impatient, Nasomi thought.
They were still a very long way from catching up to the Bride, who had already gone into Tunkambe through a dark forest and over a wide part of the river that separated the Peninsula from the continent. Reema used her shadow magic to hold some logs together to make a crude raft, and to propel it over the river. Even Tambo said he was impressed by her ability.
Gweuka was now big enough to carry both Reema and Tambo on his back. He was strong and tireless, too, propelled by Reema’s increasing powers.
Reema was quick and could make her way through and over obstacles that would give Nasomi trouble. Nasomi had to take the longer route, and even though she and her warriors rested little and rode as fast as their horses could take them, she was still a long way from catching up.
As dry as it was, Ozomboe abounded with so much life. Nasomi and her warriors moved among clustered and haphazard buildings with narrow alleys in between. Children romped and chased each other, and several of them begged to be lifted unto the horses. Huge clay pots boiled with stews over fires; people pounded food with mortars, drew water from deep wells, shouted greetings at each other from first-story windows, followed and gawked at Nasomi’s posse.
She asked if anyone would be interested in buying a horse. No one seemed to have enough wealth to do so, even when Nasomi said, “Any amount will do. Food and water for a long journey ahead,” and even though it was for a sickly horse.
She was directed toward the northern end of the town, to the “Wise Ones” who had a lot of silver and gold and, camels. Where the mashed architecture ended, a rocky patch of land began, with sparse cottages and dozens of massive gapes in the ground.
From the nearest cottage, a man dressed in a flowing robe emerged and came. “You can’t go any further,” he said.
“Why not?” From her high view on the horse, she saw what she thought was a stairway leading beneath the closest gape. She glimpsed hints of pillars and engravings on the walls where the light of the sun touched.
“It’s only for the worthy, the chosen. And we never let foreigners in there. You have come far enough. Head back to the homes.”
“We only came to sell a horse, for food and water if money won’t be found. We were told the Wise Ones would buy.”
After looking at the horse pensively, the man said, “Wait here.” He went back into the cottage.
As they waited, the men started guessing what was down the holes.
“Piles of treasure,” said Buyechi. “Lots of gold.”
“Then the town wouldn’t be very poor,” Wakani said. “I say snakes. Big, big snakes that they feed.”
“For what damn purpose?” bawled Buyechi. “Those are latrines. Look at them.”
“What?” said Nasomi, bursting into laughter. She realized she hadn’t laughed or smiled since confronting Tambo in his dream.
“The whole population has a day when they line up and take a dump in there and then go back home. Maybe after each one is given some water to drink after the deed is done. ‘Bless you,’ a Wise One will say. ‘For your holy duty.’”
“Buyechi!” Nasomi said, bending forward in mirth. “How do you even think like that?”
He grinned. “These are strange people, My Heart. Strange people.”
A taller man came with the first one from the cottage. He appraised the horse and said it would make good meat. More Wise Ones came forth, bringing dried fruits, bread, and gourds of a thick sour brew that sent a shudder through Nasomi when she tasted it. She thanked the Wise Ones, asked for the directions toward Tunkambe.
“Go east,” one of them said, indicating. “You will come upon the Yukani caravan. They are going in the direction of Tunkambe.”
“Caravan?”
“Nomads. This year they are going to Nkole, next year they travel back to Nkani.”
She thanked them once again, and she and her warriors rode away. They soon saw a long wall of dust in the distance. But she was now too tired to go on. She said she needed to rest for a bit.
Buyechi and Wakani constructed a makeshift shelter using a large piece of cloth, to shelter her from the burning sun. When she slept, she was inside one of the great holes of Ozomboe. They were temples, upside-down temples. Staircases and pillars had been hewn from solid rock, leading down into three stories. Some of the pillars were shaped into human and animal forms, and all the walls were etched in symbols she couldn’t make sense of.
The Wise Ones walked from wall to wall, reading the writing out loud. She hovered over them as they discussed the shifting of the world about six hundred years ago. How the sun moved from its original position; east was no longer east, and the days and nights became longer. How the continent broke up as the world quaked, and pieces of the land floated away. How the land folded to make the mountains of God’s Teeth; how strange creatures emerged from these mountains: the undying dragon, lions with scorpion tails, kowasa, the inkanyamba. How seasons changed.
How the land here used to be green and fertile, and wars and drought turned it into a desert, but soon a new rain would fall and the land would be full of life once again.
Nasomi realized there was nothing in the world that could be hidden from her. But she didn’t care about the world; not its history nor its future. All she desired was to find Reema and take Tambo away from her. So, she floated up and out of Ozomboe, went eastward until she found the Bride and company.
A horde of sorcerers attacked them, but Reema was undaunted. She was more powerful than the attackers’ combined effort. They fell to her magic, and of those who tried to run away, Reema screamed to Gweuka, “Hunt them down. Kill them. Kill them all!”
It was too much gore and death for Nasomi to stomach. She awoke, and her posse went on again. The Yukani caravan was a train of camels pulling wagons and carrying impossible luggage. Nasomi could see neither the end nor the beginning of it.
The Yukani were not a hostile people. They let Nasomi and her men ride among them, eat of their food, listen to their stories. The caravan rested at night, but Nasomi tried to make as many miles as she could. The going was slow. She couldn’t push the horses to a gallop, what with the lack of water and dry weather. Hard dust winds often blew, and the horses had to be stopped and shielded from them.
Nasomi and the men were invited to spend some nights in the wagons as their horses recuperated. Nasomi tried to keep her mind off the creeping journey, by participating in the Yukani women’s gossip, wearing their clothes, telling them of the goings-on in Mifirhana. They were sweet people, these, and she liked their folklore, particularly the story of Onyezi, a bright goddess who lived in a mountain, bringing sunshine upon the world. Many men tried to court Onyezi, but they always fell back because of her brightness.
One man convinced her he was the source of her brightness, and she believed him, fell in love with him, did all be bade. The man became king of the world, and all bowed before him as he was the one who had conquered the bright woman. Unsatisfied by his wealth, children, and accomplishments after he had subdued Onyezi, he tried to kill her. But in her final dying moments, she remembered who she was, and she shone so bright her light engulfed him and the entire kingdom. The man couldn’t contain the glory. He died, and his soul became so dark he tried to destroy Onyezi’s light. But she rose to rule in the sky. He followed after her, chased after her, him being the night and her the day, but never was able to catch her.
The caravan crawled for a month, and Nasomi’s impatient was as glorious as Onyezi’s ascent. She felt she was going to go insane if this journey took one more day. She decided to walk into her cousin Naena’s dream, for she remembered the comfort Naena used to give.
It took a long while to get Naena to focus on Nasomi from the rest of the kaleidoscopic dream.
“I am sorry to invade your privacy, Nae,” Nasomi said when the dreamworld became black and she was alone with Naena.
“You’re my sister, you can come to me anytime,” Naena said. She looked about, confused. “Why is everything black?”
“Please forgive me, Nae.”
“For what?”
“For not coming back soon.”
Naena suddenly remembered. “You didn’t come! Nasomi, you didn’t come!” She gave Nasomi a slap, even though Nasomi didn’t feel it.
“I deserve that.”
“Two years, Nasomi! You’ve been gone for two years.”
“I will return, Nae.”
“Where are you?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I’m in Tunkambe?”
Naena snorted. “No.” She gasped. “The children. I did my best. But I wasn’t their mother, and they do remind me every day. They… they…”
“I know, Nae. It’s all my fault for leaving.”
“Mona, she likes being by herself, won’t let anyone talk much to her. And Meron… Oh, Somi. Meron was made a mage. It was the king’s decree. I couldn’t talk him out of it.”
“Would you tell them for me that I love them and will still return?”
“Oh, I know that promise! They’ll hear it until they are old and grey.”
“No. With all seriousness, Nae, I will return. My dreams—”
“Swallow your dreams, Nasomi! I wish you never had them.”
“You think I don’t always wish that? You think I want this? I’ll promise you this one thing, Nae: I will not care how many of these dreams I have once I have Tambo back. I will stop—”
The next words she had been about to say were, “paying them attention,” but she cut herself off because she realized what she was saying.
“Oh, Mara! I’m becoming just like Reema!” She fell to her knees and cried into her palm. Naena came closer to comfort her.
Nasomi didn’t hear what Naena said, as she was being awakened by Wakani. “My Lady, we have arrived at Ndora.” She wiped off the tears flowing down her cheeks and he pretended not to notice.
Ndora was another dusty city, but the good thing about it was it was only six miles to Kawana River, which separated Ao from Tunkambe. Her posse reached the river in quick time, the horses having gained their strength back.
She paid for passage across a large raft and wasted no time in driving Nhema and the other horses at their full speed. She allowed herself and her warriors little rest, but they didn’t complain about it. They made jokes and told stories, and Buyechi played his flute during those times.
In three days, the Badjom town of Kedjaki spread out before her in its own time. She wasn’t even excited to finally be there because she knew this was less than half the journey of where she was going. Reema was still far off. But she was glad she could stay there for a few days, pack some food for the way.
The hustle and bustle of Kedjaki was a welcome sight for Nasomi. It felt good to be among people busy buying and selling and exchanging fruits, vegetables, fish, fabrics, beads. It reminded her of Nari.
Unlike Nari, though, the goings-on in Kedjaki was rather… serious. Everything was so orderly as though rehearsed: exact steps from one seller to the other, and none of these shouted their wares at the top of their voices or tried to out-hustle each other. A seller would smile at a buyer, mention the price of his or her goods, receive the money, wrap the purchase meticulously and hand it over, smile for the next customer. If someone didn’t buy, they would apologize and move on. The seller wouldn’t make a fuss about it.
She was buying plantains from a rotund boy when a girl, in the ubiquitous black garb plus a turban the women around here wore, slammed into her, spilling away the coins and plantain in her hands. Nasomi found her balance, but the girl fell and the turban flew away from her head. The girl picked up Nasomi’s goods as she scrambled up.
She would have run if Buyechi didn’t grab her. “Zje’gei!” the girl yelled in the Badjom language and then in Ao’Mu, “Leave me!”
“Should I kill her, My Heart?” Buyechi said, pointing his spear at the girl, to whom he said, “Do you know from whom you steal?”
I’m nothing like Reema, Nasomi thought. “Let her go.”
“Bring her to us,” a voice said, and Nasomi turned to see a group of robed men. The one leading them said, “Thank you for catching this thief. We will take her now to justice.”
“See what you did now!” the girl shouted to Nasomi as she was being taken away. “You let them catch me!”
“Keep quiet, Djina! This is the last time you will be tolerated.
“Wait!” Nasomi shouted, following after them. “What did you say her name is?”
“Djina.”
Nasomi laughed, looking the girl over. “I wondered when I was going to meet you.” To the robed men, she said, “I’d like her back.”
“She’s a thief who must be put to trial.”
“I’m not asking,” Nasomi said. Wakani and Buyechi took the cue and threatened the men off with their spears.
Nasomi offered the girl a hand to help her onto the horse. “What do you want with me?” Djina asked.
Nasomi was going to say she didn’t know yet, but said instead, “What was going to happen to you if I let them take you?”
“They would have cut off my hands.” She still looked doubtfully at Nasomi.
“Good for you that is not happening. Do you know the way to Ndinge kingdom?”
“The way, yes. I haven’t been there. You want I show you the road?”
“You’re coming with us.”