The Sword And The Lovers

Chapter 1

Note: This story that you are about to read was written entirely from the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real names of people, places or things are coincidental and should be ignored.

Kote rose from her seat and decided that it was time to meet with her father face to face. She knew too that if her father insisted that she would not get married to the servant in the palace then she would follow the idea brought by her lover; the servant in her father's grand palace; they would run away and never come back, go to a far away land and live happily.

It all began a few years back when Kote, being the princess and only daughter of her parents, the king of Kojo kingdom and his wife, the Beauty Queen of Kojo as she was popularly called visited a lonely hurt in the village of Bara where it was said that a great Seer lived. When the king and his Queen got there with their daughter Kote waiting outside the hut, their sole aim was to ask the Seer why the gods of Kojo refused to bless them again with another child after Kote.

As they sat in the Seer's shrine the Queen kept roaming her eyes all over the hut as she felt uncomfortable in the midst of some fetish stuffs. The king realised how distasteful she looked and held her hand to calm her down. Shortly after a young boy came in to greet them and he prostrated before them. The king and the Queen did not say a word to him at first as they waited to see whether this was the Seer everyone talked about lived in the village of Bara. The young boy arose and introduced himself thus, "My name is Chere and my father is the one whom you have come to see. He sent me to welcome you both while he prepares himself to come and greet you"

"What does that mean. Are you saying we have to be kept here waiting until he is through with whatever it is that he is doing. Does it mean that what he is doing is now more important than the king of Kojo and his wife?"

The wife had already started to show her disappointment when the king of Kojo held her hand to calm her down and then turned to Chere and said, "Tell your father that the person waiting for him is the king of Kojo and that he demands that he appear before me as soon as possible"

Chere having heard that bowed again and then left. The Queen was about to flare up again but the husband held her hand tightly and said, "keep calm for you can not be seen reacting this way. You are the Queen of Kojo and I need you to calm yourself and control your temper"

The Queen then kept mute and waited. In her mind she was ready to dish it out to the Seer immediately she sets her eyes on him. The king knew this and so he kept on holding unto her hands. Shortly the same boy reappeared.

"My king and my Queen. He said he knew you are the one in his hut and waiting for him yet he asks that you must wait. He says that if you cannot wait then you have to go and come back"

The boy's revelation made the king angry this time and he rose in anger,

"You ingrate, go back in there and tell your father that I can not wait and I can not leave here and if he further keep me waiting I will have my men burn this place down to it's last wood"

Before he could say another word the father of Chere had appeared and he stood, looking at the king and the king got even angrier, feeling insulted, challenged and downgraded. He immediately shouted and his men came running into the hurt and to the shock of the Queen herself the king said, "Have this evil man arrested for he tried to strick me just now. Have him and his son bound and taken to the palace right away!!!"

The Queen watched in awe as the father and son were bounded and taken out of the hurt. The husband was about to move when the wife held his hand, knowing that it was both of them alone in the hurt.

"What was that my lord? That man did not try to strick you. He might have been rude but he did not do what you have just accused him of. Does it mean you have known him before now?"

"Woman, I keep telling you that you are yet to know the man you married.

When the king and his wife stepped out with the Seer and his son bounded and forced into one of the carriages they brought with them the king could see the confusion in the eyes of Kote, the princess as she looked from her mother and then to the father before watching to see if the Seer and his son were actually under arrest.

On their way back to the palace of Kojo Kote said to her mother. "I was shocked to see what happened. What happened mother. Why are those two being arrested? Did they do something to father?" the young girl asked and her mother turned to look at her and said just "yes"

When the king and his family returned to the palace of Kojo a lot of people were shocked to see the great Seer of Bara village being captured like a goat. He was so tightly bound that one would mistake him for a goat on it's way to be used as a sacrifice. He was forced out of the carriage alongside his son and were forced into one of the cells in the palace. The king walked into his throne room and sat there, refusing to speak to the king maker who had angrily followed him from the back to know what prompted the arrest of the man everyone in Kojo land respected. The king kept quite and refused to give reasons for his actions. The king maker wanted to go and release the Seer but the king stopped him at once.