73

He snaps his fingers, and the cloud of confusion that’s been trapping me evaporates.
I stand still, terrified in spot. My eyes take in the unfamiliar room — yes I know it is Papa's study but I've never stepped foot in it before, it isn't something I'd do willingly either. Memories of the life I missed out on were locked in this room. Pictures of what Papa and Mama looked like.
I hold utterly still but my eyes sweep the room, frantic.
"Mama?!" I cry in shock, the familiar woman no longer a face without a name.
Mama struggles against the shuttles bounding her hands behind her back and the rope at her feet, she says something, a single word but it disappears under the force of the gag.
I think she says; run.
I take an involuntary step forward, his sharp eyes flicker down to catch the movement.
"Don't even think about it," Papa speaks in chilling tones as I take another step towards Mama.
I take complete immobility.
“I must apologise, Imani, I’m a gentleman, really, it’s sad that I had to get ya here without yer permission. If I had asked nicely, ya would have told D'ziko and there would've been a mess.” He is smiling down at me now, his voice very kind. "Isn't it brilliant this way?"
"Ja." My voice is low, calm. "Now this is between me and ya. Just let my mother go, she's got nothing to do with this."
I ghost forward again and then freeze. His eyes are abruptly on my feet.
"ya must not want me to get angry," Papa says pleasantly... still calm. Maybe a bit too calm. "See, I used my unique skills to hypnotize ya."
"Oh," I says in a faint voice.
"Ugh, ya're slow... but,"— he raises his index finger vertically — "because it's ya..." — he turns the finger to point at me — "I'll explain," he mumbles in a delighted, happy voice. "I have a soft spot for ya... always," his voice continues in that soft purr, very kind. "The real hypnosis is the worry I instilled in ya. It is when I told ya to worry about Rowena, to worry that I'd hurt her. To come straight here after training. The 'dream' was only there to intensify the urgency, the uncertainty. The fear I witnessed all day in yer eyes was thrilling. It's amazingly brilliant!"
I stare in shock. He is just so... happy. It isn't consistent with the Papa I've always known.
He turns his misty eyes toward Mama and then grins. His whole face brightening— becoming ecstatic.
"Ah, Imani." He grins, shifting the eyes to me. "ya are such a joy to me. ya brighten up my day. Truly ya do. Ya thought ya could stop me with those lame silencers? Ya underestimate me. The only reason I didn't hypnotise ya and lover boy was because I wanted ya to think ya were above my skills. I wanted ya to chase me into the forest. If ya'd persisted ya'd have bumped into Mawu burying his wife and child. And the mother feeding on cats."
I take another casual step forward. Papa doesn't miss it. He sighs, almost with impatience.
"I like it — the fire in yer eyes — when ya're angry."
I don't say anything. I’m not angry at all. I am calculating, determined to get Mama out of this alive.
"ya want to save yer mother," he asks, still casual, his eyes studying me with keen interest now. "And ya believe ya can."
"Ja," I answer honestly. He has Kaseke's gift anyway, he'll know when I'm lying. I try to make my voice light, relaxed, but it reveals my panic and pitches two tones higher.
"ya think ya can fight me off?" he asks.
I know I can't. "Not really."
He takes a step forward and closes the distance between us, he traps a loose strand behind my ear. I am too scared to even manage a shiver of disgust.
He moves to the back corner and leans against the wall, his legs crossed. He doesn't think I’ll try to run, and he knows if I am stupid enough to try, it will be futile. He has my mother. I wouldn't leave her with him.
"Then?" He seems genuinely interested.
"I am hoping ya'll choose to kill me instead of murdering my mother."
"Murder!" he is outraged, his face twisting to a scowl. "Imani, it's not murder. ya make me sound like a lunatic. I'm hurt. It's called corrective killing."
He is silent for a moment, his eyes watching me.
"ya know, seventeen years ago, when I first started my mission, I thought it was going to be an effortless job. Find out what happened to my parents and that would be the end of my mission. But to my surprise, as the years went by, ya caught the interest of the Sky-God's kid. I had thought it is a stupid teenage crush. As it turns out I was wrong. So wrong! And that's not good!
"I would've let it go." he continues, his voice very calm. "I'm a reasonable man. But I had worked hard at getting rid of Leza. At preserving the throne. ya didn't honestly think, I, Sithole the Great would settle for someone's sloppy seconds, did ya? That I'd marry that old, disgusting witch to be husband number three, did ya?
"Traditionally I was drawn to his gift, D'ziko now, is it not? Once he's eighteen, he'll be eligible to lead Africa. I started following him, listening to all his conversations. Very boring I must admit... but still rewarding. What better way to be rewarded than the knowledge that he's not only the son of a merciless God, but his father killed mine. Things worked out far better than I would’ve thought.
"This" — he gestures to Mama — "wasn't my intention. She had followed me when she saw me living yer room this morning, imagine she had a sword, don't know why she didn't call the wendigos. Women can be stupid." His eyes widen in excitement and he wiggles his fingers. "She wanted to kill me. Wow. Can ya imagine? And now here she is, subjected to sit here helplessly and watch as I finish what yer father started."
My father? What is he on about?
I stare at Papa in horror, still too scared to even blink. He walks toward me and stands in front of me again. His eyes are bright with anticipation, the way a predator would look at prey in the final moment before attacking.
My heart staggers. If I don't run, I'll have a heart attack.
“Women are truly pathetic, ya lot just don’t know how to keep yerselves safe — ya especially, ya’re a magnet for danger. Just look at the kind of men ya attract.”
He shakes his head disapprovingly, his mouth pressed into a hard, unimpressed line, the way a scolding father would look.
"I see that I'm confusing ya. yer father is responsible for my mother's arrest. Ah, I didn't tell ya about daddy, did I? Well... sorry darling. yer father, Whele, busted my parents for giving the Dutch Intel about Leza's arrival, about her plans to free Noddon from slavery. Thor killed my father. Mom was cursed, she's now the Black shuck. Without much of a human brain. She's Noddon’s servant. When dad had D'ziko's mother killed in vengeance, a month before ya were born, Thor killed my father. He made it look like suicide."
My stomach twists with unease. The blow of his words shooting raw edges to the fresh grief of Leza's death. It takes me a second to compose myself.
“ya wanted to kill the Black Shuck.”
“I’d never kill my own mother,” he says in a voice that makes it clear I should already know this. “Mom just got in the way. She protected ya.”
So those blades weren't coming to me by accident? Why am I so surprised?
“How'd ya get the soldiers to turn against me? To agree to kill me?”
He glares at me. I'm slow. “Hypnosis.”
Breathe, Imani. Just breathe.
"So my...my... Whele got yer mother cursed. yer dad had Leza killed. Thor killed yer father. So now ya want to kill me and D'ziko?"
It doesn't seem... plausible, at least not the last part. Why doesn't Sithole just kill Whele? Why do D'ziko and I have to pay for our parents’ sins? Will the cycle of revenge ever end?
"Ya forgot to add Commodore. He was yer father's pride and joy,” he says, proud of himself. “I pulled in a few strings and boom he's found dead. Suicide. The third brat.”
Mama struggles violently against her restraints, muffled words against the gag.
This amuses Sithole. He watches her with curious eyes and then walks behind me toward Mama.
I turn to follow his movement, to watch him. He crouches over Mama and removes the gag.
"Did ya want to say something?"
Mama spits at him.
He wipes his eye with the back of his hand, disgusted.
"yer daughter will pay handsomely for that."
"I'm going to kill ya," Mama vows.
Sithole shrugs and pulls the gag back in place.
"How rude Rowena is," he says nonchalantly. "I was willing to forgive yer father. If only yer mother didn't trade my bed for his. But instead she betrayed me with the man that's responsible for my parent's demise. It didn't take long for me to figure out ya three brats aren't even mine."
I am sick to my stomach.
“Why’d yer parents betray Noddon?”
Sithole glares at me.“Mom didn't betray y'all. She just chose dad.”
Then I realise. “Yer mother was Noddon and yer father Dutch.”
No wonder he’s so light-skinned. Sithole. Half white. Half black.
He takes a threatening step forward, toward me and stops a few inches away and then he smiles. “Ya don’t know how long I’ve waited for ya to grow up. I've always known ya are D'ziko's life mate. I've always known I'd kill ya. I've always known ya'd be my key to the throne.”
A smile of satisfaction spreads across his face as he meets my frightened stare. He leans back, his eyes wide and thrilled as he scrutinises my face. I can see it in his eyes — the pain they promise. My knees are weak, not the way they usually are when D'ziko touches me.
No. This is different. They are weak with fear.
"Give me the shield," he says, the excitement fresh in his eyes.
I shake my head in disbelief and take a step back. Though I can’t control my gift yet, I don't want to part with it. This irritates him. Makes him angry. I turn back to the door and hurry toward it. I nearly run. I am desperate to get the hell out of here.
"Now..." he roars behind me.
I don't see him come at me. I don't even hear his usually heavy footsteps behind me.
Instead, I hear a sudden sound, sharp and piercing break through the room as he breaks my pinkie finger and moves on to my index finger and then my thumb. My whole hand is numb with adrenaline. The pain hasn't hit yet.