The pressure of Iseye’s hand against Obolo’s mouth was cold and unwavering. In the dim light of the weaving room, his eyes didn’t look like those of the travelers she had met in the market; they were burning with a dark, ancestral hunger.
“Listen to me, Weaver,” he hissed, his voice a low but heavy whisper. “My name is not Iseye. I am the son of King Akoro, the ruler your people hunted like an animal and drove into the waste. He was a lion, and Itenwa was his pride. You called it ‘living in fear,’ but he called it order.”
Obolo struggled, but he pinned her against the heavy wooden frame of the loom.
“I have spent years in the shadows of the Western villages, gathering those who still honor my father’s name,” Iseye continued. “The troops are already at the gates, Obolo. They move like smoke through the forest. By the second cock-crow, the ‘new king’ will be a memory, and I will sit on the throne that belongs to my blood.”
He slowly released his grip, sensing she wouldn’t scream. Not out of loyalty, but out of shock. Obolo gasped for air, her mind racing. She realized why the palace felt so hollow; it wasn’t just the gray walls, it was the impending doom.
“Why tell me?” Obolo managed to breathe, her voice trembling.Caught at 6PM: Part 4
Iseye picked up the poisoned needle she had seen earlier. “Because you are the Sacred Weaver. You have access to the King’s inner chambers. You will weave the King’s new ceremonial robe tonight, and you will tip the collar with this resin. One scratch on his neck, and the throne becomes vacant before my men even fire a shot.”
He leaned in closer, his shadow stretching across the loom like a monster. “Help me, and you return to your market stall as a queen’s favorite. Refuse me, and you die with the rest of this village.”
He vanished back into the drapes of gray wool as the heavy door creaked. The guards were returning to check her progress. Obolo looked at the poisoned needle, then at the empty loom. She thought of Iyema crying in the market. She thought of the villagers who had finally found peace after years of tyranny.
She wasn’t just a weaver anymore but a traitor if she doesn’t rush to tell the king now.
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