Onochie wanted to throw all of his guts up on the palace floor. "Tell me again what you just said. Repeat it so my ears may be convinced that they heard well." There was a faint tremor in his voice as it rumbled through the enclosed walls. But it was from rage, not fear. The men before him trembled, grasping the gravity of their present situation.

"Your Majesty," they both knelt with their heads on the ground. "Please forgive us. Please have mercy on your poor servants. We were only doing as we were ordered."

"So you raped and killed helpless maidens because you were told to? You dismembered and butchered dead bodies, dishonouring them and ultimately leaving them to rot in mass graves because you were ordered to?" Onochie growled, fury threatening to incinerate the organs within him. He was so incensed that he could barely breathe.

With the amount of anger surging through him, he was inclined to cut down these two men, who were evidently reincarnations of evil, right in the middle of his palace. "I ought to end your miserable lives this instant."

"No! Please, no!"

"Have mercy, Your Majesty. Please spare us." They both begged for leniency, but Onochie noted in disgust that they did not show the servants they killed a drop of mercy when they tore them into pieces and ruined the futures they could have had. No clemency was granted when they removed those innocents from the earth before it was their time to leave.

"Cease your noise," Onochie cut in coldly. "Unless you want your next breath to be the last." The bastards glanced about them in fear as the stationed guards had drawn their machetes, waiting patiently on an order to spring into action.

"Yes, Your Majesty. P-please f-forgive our insolence."

Onochie ignored them. It was difficult to speak when he was fuming from the depths of his soul. Rage was such a dark thing, he mused silently, intrigued by the deadly urge that had risen in his wrenched heart.

He could think of nothing else but killing both men, despite knowing it would not yield any fruitful result. It would satisfy him, perhaps, but it would not bring him closer to impounding Iwegbuna. Worse, it would make him almost as guilty as the lecherous chief for committing murder and getting away with it.

"Kamalu, bring in the maiden." He commanded, and the guard bowed before taking leave of his presence. The men's persistent pleas fell on deaf ears, for as far as Onochie was concerned, they did not deserve pardon. He would mete out justice on them as they so deserved, and he would not regret doing so in any measure.

The court fell silent as the Commander returned with a woman trailing him. Onochie was relieved to register that she was in a better state than she had been upon rescue. Her hair was carefully arranged in cornrows, and her tattered wrapper had been replaced with a gorgeous green print. While no beads were found on her, he could see that she'd adopted a stateliness to her body language. She held her head up gracefully, staring down the perpetrators before her.

"Your Majesty, I am grateful for your kindness to me and my family," her hands cradled her stomach protectively as she spoke. Onochie nearly smiled at the sight. A growing womb was always a cause for celebration. Except when the child had not formed of the woman's will.

"You know why you are here, do you not?" He queried, watching her closely, hoping to mark the slightest shift in her expression. If he noted any hesitation on her part, there would be no second spared in pushing the decision to send her back.

Though he could not grasp the extent of her pain, Onochie had a faint idea of what it felt like to be subject to the cruelty of injustice. It was why, years ago, he had taken the law into his own hands and dealt justice as he'd thought fit.

While the outcome had been more than he'd bargained for, Onochie did not regret what he had done. Especially not now after he had met Ezinwanyi. He would be marrying her soon, and he wanted to be a man worthy of her hand. He suspected he might never be, but he would die trying and do his best however possible.

Starting with these three before him. Onochie had only one plan: to right the wrong that had been perpetuated. This time, he would do so according to the customs of the land. Only the wicked would be hurt by the punishments he would inflict upon them.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I am here to testify against Chief Iwegbuna. I have detailed accounts of his wicked deeds and those he has brought to harm. I stand before you today, my lord, on behalf of the men and women I call my brothers and sisters to reveal his abominable acts. I wish to expose the head chief of Zoro for the evil spawn h-he really is..." she trailed off on a sob that caught in her chest. Onochie was touched; his heart squeezed at her display of anguish, and anger flared like wildfires that spread in the wake of harmattans. Oh, how he wanted to end Iwegbuna with his bare hands.

Concerned about the woman before him, he implored, "If you desire a rest, you can—"

"No, Your Majesty!" She interjected sharply. "I-I will speak, my lord. I must, or all I have done to survive will be for naught."

Onochie nodded, understanding her need to expose the chief now that she had the opportunity to do so. "Then you shall."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I know what I say might harm your council, but I cannot hide the truth that Iwegbuna is a monster. The things he has done to the women who have worked as his servants... My mouth cannot speak of them, my lord. They are much too vile to voice. I-I fear they will stain my tongue with filth if I let them leave as words."

Onochie shut his eyes momentarily, trying not to think about her statement. Trying not to dwell on the gravity of those words. "Speak only of what you will," he said finally after he had collected himself together. "I give you my oath that you will not be forced to say whatever you do not wish to. And as I have said before, you will be under my protection from today onwards. No harm shall come to you as a result of your testimony."

"You are too kind to me, Your Majesty." She bowed low to the floor in gratitude. "Your mercy and the faith of those I love have given me great strength, my lord. My people and I will forever be grateful to you for paying mind to a mere servant and taking her for her word."

A wistful smile tipped the king's lips upward. He wished he could have done more. If only he could have prevented these tragedies from occurring in the first place. If only he could have stopped Iwegbuna long before he'd gone this far.

Still, he knew he could not take responsibility for this burden. Iwegbuna was deep in his sins and atrocities long before he was born. There was no way he would have prevented the deaths and pain that arose from his decisions.

Squaring her shoulders and drawing in a deep breath, the woman seemed to compose herself at once. "My name is Anwuli. I was born a slave to Uloma, who was one of the favoured servants of Chief Iwegbuna while she was younger." She paused as if to gather the strength to reveal what she had to say next. "I am also the daughter of the head chief of Zoro."

"Liar!" One of the kneeling perpetrators yelled from the back of the room. Onochie merely had to direct his stare toward the end of the palace for a guard to do the expected of silencing the fool with a blow.

He waited until a cloth had been shoved into both men's mouths to gag them. Good. His nod was imperceptible. Now, there would be no more interruptions. "Continue, Anwuli." He bade the woman who had stilled like prey in the thick of the night, aware it was trapped in its predator's gaze. He sought to reassure her. "They can do you no harm. So then, speak so I might hear you."

Her gaze dropped lower, but she heeded his instruction. "Decades ago, Iwegbuna raped my mother while she served him. She fell pregnant and bore the child but did not reveal to anyone who the father was. I grew up as a bastard, working alongside my mother for scraps at building sites and begging for arms when we could. As despicable as he was, Iwegbuna had not hesitated to toss my mother aside when he heard of her pregnancy.

"When I was thirteen, I made the biggest mistake of my life..." she smiled, the expression thin and humourless. "I disobeyed my mother and ignored her warnings to never step into Chief Iwegbuna's home. I visited and requested a job working for him as a servant. He—my father—noticed me soon enough."

No. Onochie did not want to imagine where her story was headed. His stomach clenched, and nausea swamped him violently. "You do not have to speak if you do not want to." He reminded her, watching closely as her chin wobbled.

"No, my lord. I do. I desire to speak of it today." She trembled before ejecting the truth out of her. "Chief Iwegbuna took advantage of me. I had no choice but to bear my first child, my father's seed that had grown in my womb."

Onochie struggled to keep his expression blank. He did not want her to be struck off her balance by identifying any traces of the repulsion roiling within him. He knew this was not the moment to let his aversion for Iwegbuna shine through. There would be enough of the future for that.

At the moment, he had to ensure that he either appeared to her as an impartial judge or an empathetic audience that was wholly on her side. He could not let her doubt that his anger and disgust were for Iwegbuna and Iwegbuna alone. And so, Onochie chose the first option.

Calmly, he inquired, "Did Iwegbuna ever learn that you were his daughter?"

Anwuli's lips twisted into a frown even as her jaw clenched at the question. "He did, Your Majesty, and that was the beginning of the nightmare that became my life." She appeared so grey and faint that Onochie worried she would collapse soon.

"You," he snapped, and a guard came running. "Fetch her a stool immediately!"

There was no protest from Anwuli, which was a sign that it was indeed needed. "Thank you, my lord," she said just as the guard returned with a seat for her. "As I was saying, Your Majesty... Iwegbuna found out about my identity because I told him myself. My mother forced me to do so after I divulged to her what had happened. Till today, I wish she had confided in me who my father was. I would not have gone to the head chief's house and brought calamity upon myself.

"For Iwegbuna was enraged once he came to know who I was. He blamed me for his mistake, claiming I seduced him and deserved to die for my artifice. I begged him to spare my life, if only for my child's sake. He did, but he must have planned to make me regret choosing to live because he made me pay."

Onochie watched in terror as she paused shortly, then resumed as if she had never stopped. "There was not a single day I was not used by Iwegbuna's men. They took pleasure in ruining me as they did the other maidens I had befriended. It did not take long for me to realise we were breeding slaves.

"Those who attempted to escape the prison we were stored in were killed without a second thought, all on the head chief's orders. Our children were taken away from us before we could even lay eyes on them. Fighting was useless because we knew we stood no chance against the great chief, the most influential figure in the kingdom after the king.

"The brave women who opposed his evilness were slaughtered senselessly and buried without honour. T-they only..." she broke off as a wretched sob racked her visibly to the core. Anwuli wept into her wrapper with a startling passion. The guards stationed above averted their gazes, palpably disconcerted by the patent display of agony.

Onochie, in contrast, did not dare blink. He allowed himself to adopt her pain as his own. He would not turn away while she cried because he needed to remember this feeling of rage. He had to bottle it up, to save his wrath in wait for Iwegbuna.

"Return to your chambers and rest, Anwuli." His voice was the roaring of a storm. "I shall send for you on the morrow. I make you this vow before all who breathe here that Iwegbuna will pay for his sins." Indeed, he would ensure justice was served, even if it was the last thing he accomplished by his might. But first...

He had to marry his queen.
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