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I t had only been a few days, but it felt like years to Sholei. She tried to question the guards about the situation, but they ignored her. Apart from offering her meager food and water once a day, they didn’t say much. They didn’t bring her up for questioning anymore, which gave her a reprieve. Sholei spent her days gazing out the small window and prayed for Tula to reach Gane. The journey took a couple of days on a fast horse. He was the only man who could release her from the wretched prison.

In the room’s silence, she tried not to think about Ojore and how he fared. The sleeping potion she gave him would have worn off, and he would have returned to the battlefield. He would hate her after what she had done to him, Sholei thought, and her heart sank. She hated herself more, and she was being punished for it.

She had taken a chance to return to her homeland only to find herself imprisoned. Sholei didn’t know how long she would be held before being released, and that was if she would be released. She wasn’t allowed to see Musembi, and she was treated as a traitor by her people.

A chaotic noise outside the cell stopped her train of thought. She turned, Musembi\ strode in with her favorite cane in hand, and she held a cloth covered with white powder. Her mentor covered her nose and mouth with a piece of cloth. Sholei’s eyes misted with the emotions accosting her.

Musembi, the ever-straight arrow, bent and used poison against her teachings. Months ago, Sholei used the same tactic, to poison the Dembe soldiers to get away from them in the caves. Musembi wielded the same powder to weaken the guards outside the door.

“Sholei, are you okay?” Musembi tucked the powdered cloth inside her robes and opened the wooden cell door. She fumbled with the chains and cursed under her breath.

“You shouldn’t be here. What if someone sees you?” Sholei’s voice quivered with emotion. It struck her how she missed the woman who played the role of guardian throughout her life.

Musembi managed to open the door, and in tears, Sholei flung her arms around her mentor. Musembi hesitated before she returned the embrace and patted Sholei on the back. Sholei couldn’t remember the last time Musembi held her. Ever since she could remember, the older woman treated her like a bother .

“Easy now, stop crying.” Musembi’s gentle words intensified Sholei’s tears. She tightened her hold as her shoulders shook with emotion.

“I thought I would never see you again,” Sholei sobbed. The ever-present scent of herbs clung to Musembi’s clothes and invaded Sholei’s nose, reminding her of the medicine yard. Her home.

“I’m here.” Musembi pulled away from Sholei’s tight hold. “Let me take a good look at you. You have lost so much weight.” Musembi examined her from head to toe. If she noticed the change in Sholei’s clothing, she didn’t mention it.

Through blurry eyes, Sholei looked at her mentor. Her smooth face aged since she last saw her. She recalled their last argument, and for months, Sholei blamed herself for not treating Musembi right.

“I didn’t suffer much in the Dembe military camp.” She grabbed Musembi’s callused hands. Hands that taught her everything she knew about medicine.

“I tried everything to get the court to send soldiers to save you, but my request was denied.” Musembi held Sholei’s gaze and squeezed her hand.

“I came back with Tula. She went to search for Prince Gane to help plead my case. I believe he’ll come to my defense if he learns about my arrest.” Sholei sniffed back tears.

”Don’t hold on to that hope. The Dembe have taken over the Keseve Market for the second time.” Musembi took a deep breath.

“So soon?” Sholei whispered .

“The alliance has fallen. I am breaking you from prison because I don’t know how things will turn out after Keseve.” Musembi’s gaze went to the door. “The soldiers from other cities will rush to protect their borders. A useless attempt, if you ask me. As soon as the Alliance failed to protect the market, they lost Mukuru and her cities.”

“Has the Dembe army broken through Mukuru City?” Sholei’s heart thundered in her chest. Ojore acted faster than she predicted.

“Not yet, but it won’t be long. The handful of city guards won’t stop the onslaught.” Musembi’s jaw ticked. Mukuru’s capital was no longer safe. Sholei swallowed and contemplated the grim possibility of Prince Gane’s death. With the fall of Mukuru, Gane wouldn’t make it.

‘ All the males in the palace will be killed,’ Ojore had said on the night of his sister’s wedding.

What about Tula? Did she send her friend to her death? Cold sweat broke on Sholei’s back.

“From what I’ve heard, the king is not keen on giving up. Even though we have suffered great causalities in this war, everyone wishes for it to end.” Musembi turned to Sholei. “That is why I must get you out of here. If the alliance loses, you will be at the mercy of the Dembe again.”

“I’m a fugitive beyond these walls. Where can I possibly go? What shall become of me…us?” Sholei asked. Gane was supposed to win the war and stop Dembe. With the collapse of Mukuru, Sholei hadn’t planned that far. If she stayed in the prison cells, Ojore was bound to find her. What would he do then ?

“Anywhere, so long as it’s far removed from here. We’ll leave Dembe and Mukuru kingdoms behind and start a new life.” Musembi waved her arms.

“But Mukuru is our home,” Sholei protested. She had risked everything to come back.

“Not when it falls in the hands of the Dembe,” Musembi said in one breath. “Do you want to stay here and wait to be killed? I’m sure you didn’t just leave the Dembe camp like that. You must have done something to get away.” Musembi stopped and faced Sholei. “How did you escape?” Her voice got lower.

When Sholei didn’t answer and shifted her eyes, Musembi took her by the shoulders and shook her, apprehension all over her face.

“How did you get away from General Ojore?” Panic registered on Musembi’s face.

“I prepared the sumu powder and administered it to Ojore’s food,” Sholei confessed, her shoulders slumped. She was ashamed of her actions, but what could she have done to save Tula’s life? Ojore would never let Tula go unpunished.

“The same man who kidnapped you? Does he have tattoos of wings on his back?” Musembi’s voice strained.

“How did you know about Ojore’s tattoos?” Sholei whispered back.

“I want you to be very specific and tell me the exact amount of potion you fed him. Be very clear, Sholei.” The older woman swallowed. “It’s important.”

“Enough to make him sleep for several days,” Sholei said and Musembi released a strangled cry. She released Sholei’s shoulders and paced around the small room .

“If I didn’t poison him, how could I escape with Tula? We managed to get away, didn’t we?” Why was Musembi surprised? Hadn’t she used poison to break her out of the prison, too?

“You possess a gift, Sholei. Every potion you make is amplified tenfold. Your medicine can heal, but when turned to poison, it becomes potent enough to kill a man,” Musembi wrung her fingers in worry.

“What?” Sholei stumbled on her feet, confused at Musembi’s words.

“Have you never wondered why your medicine works exceptionally well on others, but their effects are profound when it comes to General Ojore?” Musembi stopped and turned to Sholei.

Sholei recalled meeting Ojore in the forest. His wound had been fatal, but after a night, he was healed enough to ride back to his camp. She thought he was quick to recover because he was a soldier in perfect physical condition.

After he ingested the poisoned food on the night of her escape, he fell unconscious faster than she had anticipated. A grim realization hit her. She could have harmed him more than she thought.

“Your gift is a curse, Sholei,” Musembi whispered. “For Ojore, you might have triggered a bigger problem than you thought.”

“It wasn’t poison, but a sleeping potion. It’s just that I included the sumu herb to make it more potent,” Sholei said and Musembi shook her head. “I swear I didn’t mean to cause him much harm.” The latter sentence was more to herself than for the older woman .

“There is much you need to learn, but there’s no time now. We must escape.” Musembi grabbed Sholei’s hand and pulled her toward the door.

“What are you not telling me?” Sholei steeled her voice. Musembi kept secrets from her for far too long, and now Sholei demanded answers.

”It’s not Ojore I am worried about, but something else.” Musembi paused. “Like fire and water, your destinies clash.”

“What do you know about destinies? I thought you didn’t believe in gods and divinities.” Sholei grew angry. Musembi was being evasive like before. She fed Sholei a handful of information and left her to figure out the rest.

“A beast crawls under Ojore’s skin, and it is etched on his tattoos. A creature that won’t stop hunting you until death,” Musembi replied, fear behind her eyes. “Your poisoning might have awakened it; we can’t stand and wait for it to attack.”

“What are you going on about?” Sholei asked. Cold tremors ran through her spine at Musembi’s voice. “What beast? Why would it want me dead?”

“There is a reason why you get headaches when you come across the statue of Keita the eagle and Asaa the snake. There is a reason you have tattoos on your head and you keep getting the nightmares of a black snake chasing you.” Musembi grabbed Sholei by the shoulders and shook her.

”The marks on my head are connected to my dreams?” Sholei ripped her scarf away. ”Every time I speak to you about my dreams, you turn me away. You know the green-eyed snake haunts me. Asaa… ”

“You can only mention her name if you’re ready for her to claim you.” Musembi covered Sholei’s mouth. Her eyes darted to the dark corners where light didn’t reach the small room.

Sholei’s words were muffled by Musembi’s hand. With force, she ripped Musembi’s hands from her mouth.

“If you’re still dreaming of the snake chasing you, Ojore isn’t dead. High Lord Keita is still in pursuit.” Musembi fixed her eyes on the lone lantern in the room. After her escape, Sholei’s nightmares grew worse and robbed her of sleep. Sholei hated closing her eyes only to face the beast in her dreams.

“The snake is pushing you toward Ojore. It will relent only upon his death and you claiming Asaa.” Musembi tried to pull Sholei toward the door, but Sholei didn’t move. The information she received swam in her head.

“Why are you telling me now?” Sholei pulled out of Musembi’s grasp. “You aren’t making sense of anything.”

“When you were three months old, I consulted a priest during your naming ceremony. He said you are the reincarnation of Asaa, the condemned daughter of the water god, and the man with winged tattoos is the reincarnation of High Lord Keita. You weren’t meant to meet, but destiny brought you together. The priest who revealed all this died before I could gather more information. He was struck by lightning. One thing he insisted before he died was for you to keep out of the way of the man with moving tattoos to survive.”

”You spent time with him. You must have noticed something unnatural about him, didn’t you?” Musembi asked. Sholei recalled Ojore’s change in eye color according to his moods, the huge eagle that followed him everywhere.

“Why should I believe anything you say? You haven’t been forthcoming with much information besides lying and evading my questions.” Sholei’s ground grew shaky. “You also refused to reveal my birth parents.”

“I haven’t lied about your origins because I don’t know, either. The Oracle placed you in my arms when you were days old. She alone knows your birth parents and your destiny,” Musembi said. “Your kidnapping and captivity are destiny. The times you have shared with Ojore in his camp were to create a chance for you to take him out. With your poisoning, Ojore shouldn’t be able to recover.” Musembi’s voice turned desperate. “But if he does, imagine how angry he’ll be with you.”

“If what you’re saying is true, then my whole life is a big lie.” Sholei took a step back from Musembi.

”You have a cruel destiny. I thought I could shield you from it, but I failed.” Musembi reached for her again. “We have to get away before Ojore gets here.”

“I will not go anywhere with you.” Sholei rushed for the door and left Musembi behind. She wanted to leave Musembi, her secrets, and the lies.

She hadn’t stepped outside the cell door into the night before a group of alliance soldiers surrounded her. Their weapons were drawn, and their attire streaked with blood, torn and burned. Each sported visible, fresh wounds. Their grim faces twisted in angry scowls directed at her .

“Are you trying to escape?” the leader asked her, his voice stern. He approached her with a drawn sword. He had lost his helmet, revealing his wild hair that had been charred by flames.

“I don’t have any quarrel with you,” Sholei answered, her eyes fixated on the blood-coated sword. One wrong move, and she would die.

“She is a traitor and deserves to die, General Kangemi,” a younger soldier screamed, an ugly gash on his head.

In a blind fury, he charged forward, his weapon directed at Sholei’s chest.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she shouted, her voice desperate as she dodged his aim. The sharp blade sliced her upper arm and tore at her clothes. She removed the small dagger Tula handed her and braced herself. She wasn’t going down without a fight.

“You countered the poison meant to kill Dembe soldiers. We know you healed them, and because of that, our people are being slaughtered in the battle.” General Kangemi breathed and flexed the sword in his red right hand. Sholei’s pulse thundered in her throat. She couldn’t die, not yet.

“We barely survived the Dembe onslaught, but if we are going to die, we are taking you down with us.” He pointed his sword at Sholei. “You set free the beast that annihilated your people.”

Musembi came out and was surrounded and pushed toward Sholei. “Cover your face,” she murmured to Sholei, who obliged, knowing what was coming next .

Musembi sprayed the powder from her waist around her and created a white mist that spread all over them. The soldiers coughed and spat as the poison entered their eyes and noses. One by one, they fell to the ground.

“Let’s go.” Musembi dragged her by the wrist from the fallen soldiers.

Under the shroud of night, they navigated out of the prison. Sholei had been confined outside the palace grounds. She followed Musembi’s lead as they used the back streets to avoid everyone. The routes they took were silent, and hardly anyone was in sight. With the threat of Dembe at their gates, everyone retreated to the safety of their homes.

Sholei’s legs felt as if they were encased in leaden shackles, each step an arduous endeavor. Were it not for Musembi’s support, she might not have been able to move at all. Apart from the Dembe, they had to watch for the alliance soldiers. Sholei wanted to curse the wind.

“If we could get to the lake, I know someone who would help us cross to the other side,” Musembi explained when they reached the edges of the forest. They steered clear of the medicine yard in case more soldiers were after them.

“Since my fate is this cruel, you don’t have to share it.” Sholei snapped from her dreamlike state. With the Dembe occupation, it wouldn’t be safe if she stayed around. She didn’t know what the future held for her, but Musembi didn’t have to go through the trenches with her. Musembi forsook everything she knew and her home for her—a castaway child .

“How about we journey to the Faye Islands? Don’t you have dreams of being an Imperial Physician?” Musembi asked, and Sholei stopped in her tracks. “The Imperial Physicians are protected by a special code and spared the continent’s politics. No one will dare to attack you if you take refuge there.”

“How can you bring up the Faye Islands at this time when you’ve done everything to try to stall my dreams?” Sholei tried to control the anger in her voice. “Why did you raise me, Musembi? It seemed like I was an inconvenience to you from the beginning.”

“Do you think I wanted to be saddled with a child like you?” Musembi’s jaws ticked. “You are more trouble than it’s worth, but I concede. I’m at fault for not speaking up due to my fears. When you were kidnapped, I knew I couldn’t keep shielding you from your destiny.”

“There is no use saying this now.” Sholei sighed. She didn’t want to fight with Musembi anymore. “If you return to Mukuru, you’ll resume your life and won’t have to deal with this trouble anymore.”

“And where will you go?” Musembi’s eyes glinted in the dark.

”There is no safe place for me in this world. I have managed to anger everyone. To the alliance, I messed with their plans to eradicate the Dembe soldiers. To the Dembe, I doubt if Ojore will let me go. Tula might be dead trying to help me, and now I have made you a traitor. Tell me again, where can I go?” Sholei lamented in the cool evening. The half-moon provided light, but the heavy foliage prevented it from reaching the forest floor. It was by muscle memory they remembered the path they took while they foraged for herbs.

“That is why we are getting away from all of this. It will be a fresh start for both of us” Musembi stepped over an overgrown tree root. “The priest also said you will find more answers in the Faye Islands, but your journey will be rife with danger. That was the reason I prevented you from going to the islands. I thought if you stayed put in the medicine yard, you could evade your fate, but it seems your fate is attached to the islands. I can’t stop it.”

“Even if I become a physician, with my reputation, who will dare employ me in their court?” Sholei chuckled sarcastically. “And if you’re right about the prophecy, how will I outrun destiny? Nothing but death waits me down this path.”

“You’re going to give up? That’s not your style,” Musembi said. “The Faye Islands have always been your dream.”

“If I am going to make the journey with you, you have to tell me everything about my dreams and tattoos,” Sholei said. When Musembi opened her mouth to protest, she added, “I mean everything, from the beginning to the end.”

“Very well, but you must remember I can only tell what I learned by chance. It might not be the entire story,” Musembi said.

“Do you know the poem of eagles and snakes? Can you recite it?” Musembi asked.

Sholei nodded and began to recite the words scribbled underneath the statue of Lord Keita and Asaa .

Snakes don’t fly with eagles.

Snakes crawl on the ground as eagles soar the sky.

But what happens when they meet?

Will the snake drag the eagle to the ground? Or will they soar in the heavens together?

A never-ending battle, forever locked in a vicious cycle.

“The words are written on the base of Lord Keita’s statues across the land. Even the high priests don’t know who composed these words. After the great battle of the sky gods and Keita, the words appeared,” Musembi said. “Haven’t you wondered why, out of all the numerous gods we worship, High Lord Keita and the other sky gods are most revered?”

“You warned me against visiting the temples or ancestral shrines in the medicine yard. How could I learn about the gods?” Sholei cast Musembi an accusing glance. It was too late to blame the woman. Since Sholei never had the motivation to learn about the gods, she cared about being an Imperial Physician more.

“I kept a statue of Lord Keita in your room, and you kept getting headaches whenever you came across it. I didn’t know if the other gods would affect you the same way, so I closed the ancestral shrine room and warned you against visiting the temples.” Musembi shrugged her shoulders. “It’s said that when Joka, the water god, threatened to flood this world, the sky gods, led by Lord Keita, stopped him. They managed to lock Joka away, but before that, he placed a curse on Keita. Keita was to experience a cycle of love and death until the water god broke off his bonds and returned to this world. ”

“Where does Asaa fit in this story?” Sholei raised her eyebrows at Musembi. “Or the Oracle?”

“The water god’s daughter can bring him back to life. It’s just that she has never succeeded in her quest, and Lord Keita keeps stopping her. The Oracle kept saying fate is a fickle lord. Because why did Asaa have to be Keita’s love? The two have been locked in a battle for ages, with Asaa losing each time. The Oracle is the previous reincarnation of Asaa.”

“Let me get this clear.” Sholei narrowed her eyes at Musembi. “Asaa is the water god’s daughter and Lord Keita’s enemy. But since the water god cursed Lord Keita, he also directly endangered his daughter?”

“I told you I don’t know the entire story. Every priest has a different version. Lord Keita must stop Asaa from awakening her father. He must stop the snake in your dreams, and, in turn, you,” Musembi finished in a chilly voice. A shudder ran through Sholei’s body.

“Why hasn’t Keita made an appearance until now?” Sholei asked in a small voice.

“I don’t have the answers to all your questions, Sholei, but I will tell you this. Lord Keita possesses Ojore’s body in this lifetime, and I don’t think your meeting was a coincidence. The Oracle keeps calling him the Star from the North. Maybe Keita’s biding his time before he attacks.” Musembi shrugged her shoulders.

“There is a reason the Oracle insists you kill Ojore as soon as possible before Keita takes over. But once he does, I don’t know what will happen to you.”

”Ojore and I don’t deserve this.” Sholei shook her head. “Why do we have to bear the burden of the gods? Why can’t we be Sholei, the Imperial Physician, and Ojore, the Prince of Dembe?”

“The next time you dream of the snake in your dreams, stop and confront it. Maybe the Oracle will reveal herself to you. She is ever in the presence of Asaa.”