Page 45 of Wrath of the Oracle

“Musembi raised me at the medicine yard and didn’t hide the fact that I was a castaway in the community.Why would anyone throw away a healthy child if it wasn’t cursed?” Sholei paused to steady her breathing. Apart from Tula, she had never opened up to anyone before, but she found it easier to talk to Ojore. Maybe the darkness offered her a shield. She didn’t know if she could speak up in the light.

“The only thing I have to help me trace my origins is a small armlet Musembi found on me and the drawings on my head.” Ojore’s big palm fanned across her scalp, the feeling languid.

“Is that why the other girl called you a witch?” he asked. He’d overheard her conversation with Mmbone the night he kidnapped her from Mukuru.

“You call me a witch, too.” She stiffened in his arms.

“That is because the first time I saw you, you cast a spell on me.” He shifted until she looked up at him. “How else could you occupy my every thought and haunt my dreams every time I close my eyes?”

Sholei forgot how to breathe as time stood still. Her whole being etched in every word spoken. “As beasts attack your dreams, you, Sholei, attack my whole being.”

Ojore cupped her face and lowered his mouth to hers. Sholei did not think, only reacted when his lips covered hers in a fervent kiss. His lips were soft as they moved against hers. When his tongue skimmed over her lower lip, Sholei stiffened in his embrace and released a small gasp. Ojore took advantage of her parted lips and plunged his tongue into her mouth as his arms drew her closer. Sholei wrapped her arms around his middle and melted, boneless, against his body. She sank into his warmth as he lowered her onto the makeshift bed.

Ojore groaned as his lips trailed kisses from her mouth to her neck. She panted as desire swept through her body and pooled in her pelvis. The sensations became too much when Ojore’s strong fingers skimmed underneath her shirt and danced close to her heaving breasts. With a ragged breath, Sholei sat up and straightened her clothes. Ojore let her go, his breathing labored, too.

Sholei avoided his eyes as she tried to understand what happened. The extent of her emotions left her trembling. Ojore must have thought she was cold as he placed a cloak around her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” He cleared his voice. Sholei nodded didn’t trust her voice.Did she just kiss Ojore?Sholei traced a finger on her lips where his searing touch had been a few moments before.

Why did his kiss feel familiar when it was her first?

They grew quiet for a short while, each consumed by their thoughts before Ojore reached out and pulled a small armlet from his waist pouch.

“Is this the armlet you were talking about?” he chuckled at her bewildered expression.

”Where did you get it?” Sholei blinked as she tried to reach for it, but he pulled back.

“I had to get a souvenir, to make sure you were real and not a figment of my imagination. Besides, you took my army insignia, too. Who knew you were such a heavy sleeper? It wasn’t easy to get this off you.” He laughed at her face as her eyes grew wide with recognition. What Ojore didn’t know was that night, Sholei had the most restful sleep in her life.

“I was tired from collecting herbs and healing a stubborn patient. Through the night, you kept breaking out in a fever. I was up half that night watching over you.” Sholei recalled that night as if it were yesterday. Her first encounter with Ojore was very memorable. If she hadn’t encountered him that night, would her life have turned out differently?

”If this is the link to your origins, I will help you trace your birth parents.” He tucked the armlet into his pouch.

“Can you do that?” Her voice came out fractured, afraid to ask. To hope. Musembi had always dismissed her whenever Sholei brought up the question of her parents.

“I have resources I can put to use.” He nodded, and to her surprise, she trusted his words.

“I would do anything for you.” Ojore took her hands in his and folded her fingers in his.

That was how they spent the evening. Ojore told her stories from the northern kingdom, where he traveled with the trade caravans to the desert tribes. He met different people from all over the continent. He talked of lands with men who rode camels and had long, curly dark hair. He had reached the Bahri Ocean, where the deep waters reflected the colors of the skies.

“Bahri Ocean stretches as far as the eyes can reach,” he said as he explained it. “Pirates plague it, but Hodari Trading Post has an agreement with them, and they never attack our ships.”

“Sea pirates?” Sholei’s imagination ran wild. Living deep in the grasslands, the stories of the distant lands felt like more of a myth. “Are they dangerous?” would sheencounter them on the journey to the Faye islands? Maybe it was a good idea to let Ojore accompany her.

“With me accompanying you, you’ll get to the Academy in one piece,” Ojore read her mind.

He included her in his plans as if she’d accepted his proposal. Sholei wondered if she had a choice in the matter.

He talked about how they would visit his grandfather’s home inside the largest trading post in the Dembe capital, Hodari Trading Post. From his stories, Sholei discovered he was a man with worldly experience. If he weren’t tied down as the general of the Dembe Southern Army, he would be traversing other kingdoms, trading, and socializing. He belonged to that life and yearned to return to his childhood’s simple life.

She could listen to him talk the whole night. The stoic general of Dembe’s southern army was an avid storyteller. His low drawl captivated her.

The night was warm, and a full moon brightened the sky. The absence of fire enabled them to watch the stars that graced the skies. Stargazing with Ojore was different and even more intimate. They spent the night trying to count them. A futile attempt. There were too many.

Sholei didn’t know when she fell asleep while she listened to the drawl of his voice. He held her the entire night, and that night, she dreamed of swimming deep in the Bahri Ocean with Ojore and flying high enough to touch the stars.

No black snake intruded on her sleep.

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