Chapter 23
He went and found Princess Mokomena eating her breakfast of groundnut porridge in the antechamber. She was a little startled to see him visit her because she hadn't seen him since the morning they woke up together and her cluelessness about my presence in the premises made her look stupid.
" Are you still eating?"
" Not really, am just picking on my food, am already full".
"Ok then...follow me".He said with purpose.
She followed him to his Chamber until they came to the wooden bed.
" I want to be intimate with you" he said without mincing his words.
Princess Mokomena looked at him shyly. Whatever my prince wants.
" You know, am just happy that you didn't die the first time we were intimate."
" Why do you say that my prince, that's a very ominous thing to say"
" Well you know why, I already talked to you about this when I met you for the first time in the visitors' quarters."
Princess Mokomena looked confused, her witchcraft wouldn't help her now.
" You said a lot of things that day, my Prince, I don't know what you are hitting at specifically"
" I did, didn't I? Hmmmm then I'll tell my Princess what I mean again"
" My father violated a maiden in his young days, promising her the seat of the Queen, but he didn't, so that maiden killed herself after cursing my father. His heir to the throne will always have an unknown pain in the chest and will not be able to perform sexually. Although I seem to have an Improvement lately I can only get healed by my wife's first blood on our wedding night but that wife can't live to see the morning sun. But look at you, still alive, doesn't that mean am healed and given my "dead" wife back?"
Princess Mokomena couldnt believe what she heard. The words gave her a cold chill.
" So now that all that is out of the way, I want to lay with my wife and actually feel things today unlike the other day. It seemed I was to drank to even notice my wife.
He really did wish everything that Princess Mokomena had told was true, just for Princess Zae's sake.
"My Prince not today... I am currently at the moon"
" At the moon?, how is that", he asked even though he knew what she meant".
" My Prince it's my menstrual...."
" Oh that," he cut her midsentence." Nature is jealous of our Princess." He said sarcastically.
" I'll take my leave now, my Prince".
" Princess Mokomena can go and rest, she has worked hard".
Yes her coming up with the plan to trap Prince Sepo was hard work and Prince Sepo meant just that. He had caught her in her own lie.
Prince Sepo didn't come straight to see me after the episode with Princess Mokomena. He went and over worked himself at his farm and went to met up with Lonki later.
"I haven't told you the first decision I have made as a Prince, I have never made a decision on my own without Queen mother fussing about it."
" What did my Prince make a decision on? The more I sit and talk to the Prince, the more the level of envy towards royals decrease."
" I know, If it was up to me, I would have taken Princess Zae far away from all this, if not for my destiny as a crown Prince".
"You mean her ghost or you meant to say Princess Mokomena?"
"No i mean Princess Zae, She is alive, you remember the rude Seke girl, I told you about?"
"The one who challenged the Queen, yes I do. How can I forget the sparkle in your eyes when you talked about her? It was the same sparkle I saw when you talked about Princess Zae"
"That's because, she is Princess Zae"
"No? really? how did you know?"
He told Lonki the story of my rescue and our marriage at the shrine.
"You married two women on the same day? Aren't you afraid of Nyambe's wrath?"
"In my defence, I don't remember marrying Princess Mokomena".
"Yes, you did look out of it that evening. If you want to protect Princess Zae, you have to announce her as Royal concubine.
"I know but how do I degrade my Wife to a concubine? I haven't done anything worth noting for her."
I know what you mean but now before you are a Prince, you are a husband and one of the attributes of being a husband is to protect your wife".
"I have to talk about it with her first". he said, weighing my reaction to this news in his head.
Because no one from the royal family and Princess Mokomena knew of my existence, I spent my time in the chamber and that's where Prince Sepo found me after his talk with Lonki.
" How are you feeling?"
" Am Ok, where did you run off to this morning? you scared me"
" I just needed to check something and am glad I did", he said sitting on the bed with his back to me.
" You said something that I didn't understand the last time you were here, what is it about?"
He told the story of the curse to me again, it wasn't an easy thing to talk about because it made him feel less of a man. He hasn't even told his good friend Lonki about it.
" Well if it makes you feel any better, no one can kill me, be it human, beast or myself."
" I wish that was the case because I have been dying to lay with you and make you mine." his honesty melted my heart.
" Am not joking, you can try and see" i told him daringly.
" I don't want to take chances with your life at stake". He was determined to not be intimate with me, He had already made up his mind.
" Am not lying to you, you can't kill me." I became embarrassed at my own desperation.
He looked at me, walking slowly to my side, he sat back down.
" I know, it's unheard of, and I feel sorry towards my wife suffering for something, she knows nothing about."
He wasn't listening to anything I was saying, maybe I wouldn't have too, if I was in his position.
