Chapter 22
The following morning, he woke up to Princess Mokomena by his side. Jolted by the sudden nakedness of a Prince looking Princess Mokomena.
"What are you doing here?"he asked his eyes falling on his own nakeness. He took his chitenge that was laying on the floor and covered himself embarrassed.
" Am your wife, I must sleep with my husband the Prince in his chamber, on our first night.
" What do you mean First night and when did I marry you? he asked searching around the room for answers thinking maybe it wasn't his room.
"The last thing I remember is being in your chamber at the Visitor's quarters."
" You came to tell me how, you couldn't wait to marry me, I swear, those are the words you told me when you came that afternoon."
Prince Sepo was confused.
" Did we...?"He couldnt bring himself to say it.
" Ofcourse we did my Prince..." she said shyly as she uncovered the little white Dakanya cloth under her. A blood stain, very visible, one can see standing behind a closed door.
Something was not adding up Prince Sepo thought.
First, I can not remember anything about what happened the last time I met this woman, then I can't remember our supposed night together and Princess Zae.
"Yes Princess Zae, where is she?" he thought getting out of bed
He dressed and left Princess Mokomena in his chamber and hurriedly left the chamber with guilty chasing after him. He asked the maidservants about princess Zae's whereabouts, but no one had seen the Princess since the previous morning.
Maybe she left because of his marriage to the Letuyako princess. He hadn't fulfilled his promise to her, he felt unworthy of her.
"But even if that is true, Princess Zae is my wife, I married her first traditionally, she is my Queen when I inherit the throne." That seemed to give Prince Sepo a little hope.
He went to the farmers' huts and met Thabo on her way to the river to fetch water.
" Where is Zae?"he asked, even though he knew she couldn't be anywhere else.
" She is inside the hut, she is sick and hasn't woken up since the previous morning." She said, concerned.
"What'swrong with her he asked going into the hut?"
"I don't know, she was clenching her chest in pain and fell to the ground after that."
" What herbs have you given her"
When he went inside, I was laying on a reed mat, sweating and breathing heavily..."
" I was told back in Kele, that this happens sometimes, she sleeps for four days straight, and when she wakes up,she is fine".
That Morning, he took me back to his premises and laid me on a bed, in one of the ladies' quarter chambers and assigned a handmaiden to me whose name was Namakau.
He hadn't seen such a condition as mine that left him powerless to do anything to help...
Four days later, after having breakfast, the breakfast that Princess Mokomena personally supervised the cooks to make, he came back to my chamber. I had just woken up and Namakau was preparing me a bath. He found me seated on the wooden bed.
" You are back to us" he said with the sweetest facial expressions.
" Was I gone? it is my belief that I was always here."I replied, stretching my stiff neck muscles.
" Wait,you will break your neck, let me help you. We do this a lot at the training grounds". He said it so casually, that it felt like we had known each other for a long time.
He must have forgotten, I was a woman or he had gotten too physical with me when I lay sleeping on the bed those three nights, because when he came to my back and held my stiffened neck to massage it, he did it like it was the most natural thing for him. But not for long, his eyes had wandered from the neck to my bare back. His hands jolted from my neck like a plague, I was startled.
He stopped and walked abruptly from my back. He looked flustered.
" There is something, I have to tell you" he said, his facial expressions changing from being gentle to angrily looking at nothing on the floor. A flash of disappointment.
" Was it for me?"I thought.
Looking at his face, I could tell it was nothing good.
"You married Princess Mokomena, didn't you?"I signed. He needed not tell me more, I already knew, with a mother like that nothing can go this obedient Prince's way. But I was wrong, Queen Maliwa was nothing to the tremor that stayed lerking nearby.
" Will you believe me if I told you, I don't know how I ended up marring Princess Mokomena?"
When the words finally came out of his mouth, my heart broke in a numerous pieces. It was me who said "I didn't care if he married the woman, but I wished I had kept him in that chamber the whole day, yes I had the means, if only I hadn't thought more about the revenge and less about our union, he wouldn't have married the woman.
I had no reason to blame him, I had brought it upon myself.
" It's ok..." I finally said. "As long as we love each other".
Wait!
Love? Love each other?
What was I talking about?did I get switched up when I met Kuku and the great one? Because I felt totally different towards Prince Sepo coming out of that realm of Kuku and the great one.
A great tenderness welled up within him and caught his throat. He moved his hand which he had to steady against the shaking. I grasped his hand and directed it to my cheek.
"Am I bewitched?" I thought, am doing really unusual things. I said smiling at him.
His mind wanted him to leave the chamber as soon as possible if he did not want to regret, but his body rooted him to the floor and instinctively gave him the feeling that has become relative to him.
" I have something else to tell you, I can't lay with you." his glowing face turning to a dark visage.
He explained about his father's curse on him and it's consequences.
Then something came into his mind
"If I indeed was intimate with Princess Mokomena, she should be dead by now" He didn't wait for me to say anything and strode away without saying anything more.