"Why does it matter what family she comes from, Daa Isiguzo?" It took Akuada materialising at her side and responding on her behalf for Ugegbe to realise that she'd gone mute with apprehension.

This amounted to the conclusion of insensibleness on Ugegbe's part, as her act of silence had contrasted her plans in all manners. It was her who had decided to do everything in her might to not pass any of the rounds the maidens gathered would have to go through to reach the final stage of becoming the king's wife.

If she'd merely spoken and told the truth that she did not belong in Osisi and was an underserving woman from another kingdom with no ties to bind her here, she might have immediately been disqualified. But she'd frozen, and the moment had been hijacked by Akuada in a bid to save Ugegbe.

"What business have you interrupting when I asked of you no question? It is clear you have not changed a bit, Akuada." She called the shorter of the queen's wards by her name, referencing the past, and Ugegbe wondered where they'd first made acquaintance. "Can the maiden not speak for herself? Might she be deaf and dumb?" The bitterness with which the question was asked alerted Ugegbe that it was not merely a query. Rather, it was also meant to be an insult.

Akuada shrugged, as loose-limbed and relaxed as she would have been in the presence of a friend, not a mad mother hen rearing to peck the flesh off erring strangers. Daa Isiguzo was worse than said hen with her old-fashioned head tie and bottled anger. The creases on her face were all from frown lines. Her lips were perpetually drawn downward. Ugegbe contemplated guessing when last she smiled. It likely wasn't any time close.

"All I am trying to say is everyone is allowed to be here, regardless of their families or backgrounds. There is no need to put any maiden on the spot by asking such when it matters not. I suggest that you do your job better, Daa Isiguzo."

"With how you have spoken to your elder, it is clear that you are still as classless and distasteful as ever, Akuada." Ugegbe cringed while Akuada stiffened at the blow, but not for long. She recovered much too quickly to taunt the mistress.

"You must jest, Daa Isiguzo. I do not think you have the right to jab at me when your daughter could not boast of her flower on the day of her wedding. Or do you forget that her white cloth was unstained when it was shown to the world?"

"You conniving witch! You must have lost your senses to say such nonsense!"

There was a collective gasp through the rapt crowd. Ugegbe tried to think but could not conjure up a way to rectify the situation. There was an electrifying feeling in the air. And there was little doubt it Daa Isiguzo's burning anger was to be blamed for the heightened tension.

Unfortunately, Akuada stood tall several inches below Ugegbe-and by extension, the mistress who towered over them both-refusing to back down. Things would only get worse if no one placated both seething women. The question was who was willing to take the brunt of their anger when it was clear neither Aku nor the mistress was done saying what they wanted to each other.

"The queen mother has arrived!" Before both women could pull out the hairs on their heads, the dowager queen made her way into the presence of the keen maidens, the living embodiment of majestic grace.

A breath caught in Ugegbe's chest as her wobbly gaze rested on the king's mother. She seemed to have physically aged past the last time she communed with her. Deeper lines bracketed her mouth and grooved her face, cementing the woman's wisdom that unarguably had accumulated over the years.

It plausibly appeared so to her as this was one of the few occasions she'd bore witness to where the queen mother was neither smiling nor standing neutral-faced before her subjects. She was slightly frowning. Ugegbe wondered what Her Majesty's thoughts were.

Was she irritated by the rowdiness and display of discourtesy she probably had heard of through her messengers? She could not tell. The queen mother's emotions were unreadable through her empty mask, and she had a standoffish air cocooning her, spelling her out to be unreachable by most mortals.

Ugegbe spared a curious glance around her, lifting her head only by a fraction. Everyone was on their knees. Akuada and Daa Isiguzo bowed reverently beside her, their plans of choking each other forgotten. For now, at least. Honouring the dowager queen held precedence over everything else.

"Rise all! Maidens of Zoro kingdom, thank you for honouring my invitation! I am aware that many of you have made sacrifices to humbly present yourselves in my home today. On behalf of the king and all in his household, I extend my gratitude." The queen mother greeted eloquently with an easy smile playing on her lips. Ugegbe watched her, transfixed by her words and grace in speaking.

"While the plan had been to start this momentous occasion at late noon, with the advice of the king and his advisers, we shall begin earlier so that the maidens can return to their accommodations by dusk. Please be aware that this ceremony will span two days. You are allowed to make your bed wherever you want in preference to the rooms you will have to share with other women."

The dowager queen's smile disappeared into nothing, and Ugegbe flinched at the unexpected change in emotion. "However, note that the maiden chosen to be the king's wife will have her purity tested. I expect you, beautiful women, to mind your boundaries and bodies. Here, in the palace, you will be well-protected." Peering down at the crowd, she singled out the mistress. "Isiguzo, come forth and explain the rules the maidens must adhere to in this contest."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Daa Isiguzo lurched forward, eager to please the king's mother. "Listen and listen well, maidens," she took her place on the right side, slightly below the platform the queen dowager was on. "You must earn your privilege to be here! Nothing will be handed to you unless you work for it. Hence, you must abandon all thoughts of being treated differently from other maidens.

"We will not allow any of you to gain an unfair advantage over the person next to you. If such a case happens, then that maiden will be immediately disqualified and suspended from the palace indefinitely. Her Majesty expects the best from you, and the king deserves only the most virtuous woman to reign by his side. You all must keep this in mind, as the first round of the king's wife selection process begins now!"

A thrilling hum rived into the air. Ugegbe rubbed at her arms as goosebumps rose. This was no ordinary day. For many of the maidens, it was one filled with purpose and a precursor to a life they'd dreamt for themselves.

Ugegbe wished she could be them, sharing their hopes and yearnings for a life of convenience and comfort by the king's side. Mere days ago, she'd been the same despite her warring feelings for Onochie. It was her lot that the truth wrenched out to be more than she'd bargained for.

She could not turn a blind eye to what she'd learnt. It would hurt too much to be married to a man whose heart she could never come to possess. It hadn't mattered as much when the king was a faceless man, one she'd not once crossed paths with. But he wasn't faceless. Or nameless. He was Onochie. The man she'd been foolish enough to fall for.

Ugegbe gasped as the truth pounced on her, lacerating and mauling deep into her skin. She was suddenly light-headed as the feeling descended in the emblems of pain and ache. It was no secret. She couldn't even deny it. Not when it was this clear. She loved him. Ugegbe loved Onochie.

A lethal calmness overtook Ugegbe as she came to terms with the emotion that had been fluttering its wings against her ribcage, begging to be set free. Finally, it had received the freedom it so dearly craved. It was free. However, Ugegbe had never felt more trapped than in the present.

Was this what it was to love someone? This sensation... it was suffocating. Ugegbe wrapped her hand around her neck. It was as if she was choking, asphyxiating on nothing but a thick clot of emotions. Each breath she gulped into her lungs mushroomed into hot flames that licked her throat dry.

No, this wasn't love. She reckoned it wasn't because she could taste the tartness charring an acrid trail down her chest. This was the anguish that accompanied loving without being loved in return. The urge to cry rose with the rippling force of a flash flood.

"Maiden Ezinwanyi!" Her tear ducts sealed up at once. Ugegbe jerked her head in the direction of the angry voice. "Get in line!"

"Yes," she scrambled to get behind the long queue of women. "Pardon my misgiving, mistress."

"Keep your mind where it should be." She ignored her apology, huffing like an annoyed horse. "You will be called upon soon."

Ugegbe nodded and waited patiently behind the rapidly thinning line. It would be her turn eventually, even though she was last, and she was ready to get it over and done with, so she could put this experience behind her. Once she finished this contest, she would be allowed to return to the servants' quarters, a mercy she would be all too grateful for.

After all, she had other matters to tend to. Earlier, she'd admonished Okoh and his sisters to wait for her before dusk. By then, Ugegbe hoped to be long done with the throes of this wife-picking contest. She had zero will to spend a moment more than was required of her to become one of those disqualified. Especially now that her heart was a battered, bleeding mess.

"State your name, family lineage or father's occupation, and the area from which you hail." A guard issued the command as Ugegbe curtsied before the king's mother.

"Ezinwanyi Maduka is my name. My father is a farmer and medicine man, and I hail from Osisi, a kingdom outside of Zoro."

"Maduka?" There's a flickering in the dowager queen's wise eyes. Ugegbe wondered what memory her surname might have caused to resurface. "You say your father is a simple farmer?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, that is correct." Ugegbe agreed, apprehension kneading a stiff dough in her gut. She could not predict where this interrogation was headed, and it filled her with cold dread.

The dowager queen smiled crookedly. "Come with me, Ezinwanyi." She rose from her stool, and her procession joined her in a neat file. "We shall know what the truth is today."
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