Kambili walked the clear path she saw ahead of her as she climbed down the kingdom walls.
This was her first time down the palace walls and honestly, she didn't even have a second hand knowledge of where she was going to.
All she knew was that she was finally out of the palace' confinement, her prison..
A part of her mind judged her for hiding despite her promise to her wet nurse not to, but she shrugged it off.
She did what she had to do because it was the only possible solution she could think of at tbag moment.
She had lived her whole life locked up in solitary confinement, why would her foster mother suddenly take interest in her now and marry her off to man faraway.
She had no interests in the throne or ruling the kingdom nor it's people she had never seen except when she was eight.
And even if she had, how was she going to make that possible?
She wasn't even a child of the king's.
Nkechi had told her that some of the people believed that she was because the king had no heirs like her mother had cursed.
And when he had one and put everyone's accusing fingers at her late mother, her prophecy had sapped the life out of the little boy.
The king himself could do nothing to save his reputation that was being talked about disrespectfully amongst his people. He was nicknamed the oathbreaker by some, though all in secret because a decree had been passed and anyone found speaking I'll of the king was killed on sight.
The same fate awaited those who discussed the vital incidents the king wanted the people to forget.
"Anyi elutewago. Anyi werre umu nwoke na umu nwanyi, anyi ga ereta ezigbo ego mgbe anyi ga elechaare ha ncha na ahia"
(-- We are almost approaching. We have both men and women and we will make a huge sum after auctioning then off)
Kambili didn't speak the native tongue with her wet nurse but she had read alot of the stolen books she snuggled in to her room to be able to understand the language she heard from the noise approaching her.
She bent over and immediately hid in the grass, taking out her blindfold from the breast of her pocket and returning it to it's position on her eyes.
She felt the darkness she was used to once more, the moment the blind covered her eyes.
She waited behind in the grass patiently while keeping her ears open to when she would overhear sounds and footsteps no more.
The moment seemed to come and when she raised her head from the grass to notice the movement from her blindfolded eyes, she felt a huge palm grip her forehead.
Next she felt her hands being tied amongst the people being dragged by the men on horses that neighed non-stop.
It didn't take her time to realize she had been captured.
"Take off her blindfold!" An order came and she identified the voice as that of the band leader, from the way the tone of his voice came.
"Don't" she responded as she felt a man approaching her to do what they had been commanded.
He paused and she sighed that he truly did. She feared her eyes and sometimes she hated herself because of them.
Guards who had come into the solitary room once had all died from her prophecies. Every single one of them from the prophecy of her eyes.
She had believed she were caused because of it and accepted the solitary room as her punishment for being cursed.
Being in the midst of people, she feared her blindfold being taken and whose miserable death she would have to see and watch the knowledge torture her while she awaited the date the person would die.
"What are you still waiting for? Rip the blindfold off already. I don't want any worthless hole stalling us from reaching Talabitha this evening" the man's condescending voice came again.
From the murmurs and writhing some of the courageous prisoners were able to mouth, Kambili could tell that wherever Talabitha was, it just be far and it was no place they would be able to reach on foot and in the same day.
She overheard the man's footstep approaching her further and she reached out and hit him with her hand, not knowing what to say to stop him from approaching.
The gang leader seemed to have seen this and this got him annoyed.
Getting off his horse and walking angrily to where Kambili stops at the middle of the long line she had been tied, he was stopped when Kambili mustered courage and spoke.
"Don't take off the blindfold. I can walk even with it on, please" she pleaded with all sincerity she could muster.
She didn't want to go through the torment of her curse if she were to mistakenly lock eyes with any of them. She hated it.
But the middle aged broad man didn't seem to want to hear what she said. Perhaps his stubborness stemmed from his mockery of Kambili who was his prisoner, giving him an order.
He found it funny and without caution, he stretched his arm out towards her face but Kambili had sensed his hand coming and had shifted her face.
This led to him being angered and before Kambili could tell what he was thinking up next, she felt a slap land on her face.
For Kambili, it was a surprise. She had never been slept before. Not since the incident that happened when she was eight.
The king had slapped her severally before he tied her eyes tightly with a lace material and then pushed her into the solitary room and locked her in.
The slap brought memories to her and the pain she felt from it made her realize she wasn't immune to pain. She just never experienced pain while in solitary confinement.
Next she felt her blindfold being harshly ripped off with a knife. As it fell, the gang leader brought a lantern close to her face to study it and deduce how much she would fetch for him when sold.
"This one looks beautiful. Would reach atleast a 50 in gold bars. If not that she's stubborn, I would have kept her amongst my collections and make her my whore forever" he laughed and his words angered Kambili so much that she spat on his face.
He slept her again immediately and raised her head to face him while pointing the lantern he carried on her face in the dark grassy path.
Now, Kambili had been trying to o hide her eyes from him since he removed her blindfold but as he raised her head to face him after his slap, and the lantern on her face, it wasn't hard for her to stare into his eyes and peer into his soul.
"Under the crescent moon, a hand will come from the clouds and rip your heart off your chest and your body will be left for the vultures and birds of the air while your heart will be chewed down the stomach of a thousand years old demon!"
The man lost his balance for a while but regained it and began laughing in mockery.
His men joined him as well.
" There are no moons in the cloud girl and there is no thousand year old demon. You need to do better threatening with plots off the fictional books you read" one laughed and the others joined him in.
The gang leader we t to his horse and picked a whip which he intended spanking Kambili with.
"I have seen lots of girls like you during my slave trips and I always knew the remedy for their stubborness. Yours won't be different. I will cure you of this madness here and now!!!"
As he raised his hand to land the whip on her body, a hand emerged from a smoke swirling from the cloud.
The horses neighed and ran off as the windy smoke came and as it descended, a loud shriek of horror was heard across the field and this sent the birds hiding in trees to flight.
The remaining men who hadn't ran off with their horses watched as the body on the floor became clearer.
It was the gang leader lying motionless with his face pointed to the heaven, chest open.
The people looked up at the sky and there was a crescent moon, the same way the gang leaders chest was open from his heart that had been stolen from his body, fulfilling Kambili's words.
However, Kambili's attention was distracted from people who marvelled at the "miracle" she had performed to the mysterious shadow that had appeared from the clouds.
"You have beautiful eyes," she heard him say, staring deeply into her hazelnut brown eyes that were without the blindfold, as if he could tell their colour in the night.
He was without figure and Kambili could not see his legs nor his face, but she noticed that his eyes sparkled.
So much that even when she tried to pretend, she was compelled to look.
She returned his gaze and watched intently at his sparkling eyes but something startled her.
She could see nothing.
It was as if there was no soul in the body. No death, no end, no doom.