According to plan

Bakoena Kingdom

The celebrations went on until late in the evening, other royals left only a few remained. Elder Simon and Lance were on the lookout for the mystery man as he told them to leave and wait for him at the palace. As they were complaining about how tired they were of waiting and how long day of a they had. A stone was thrown at their direction, they got startled as it was dark out, they looked at each other wondering who could be throwing stones at them. Another stone was thrown, and they decide to go and investigate, they saw the man they were waiting for in the bushes.

“You want to cause our hearts to stop! What are you doing throwing tones like a boy?” whisper yelled elder Simon, the poor old man was truly terrified. “What did you want me to do, walk in the front gates and ask to talk to you about bewitching the king?” sarcasm could not be missed in the man’s comment. “We do not have time for this now, someone might see us, what do you have for us?” asked the elder anxiously. “Take this, wash your faces with it, do not dry and let it dry on its own. Then take a little bit and apply it on your eyebrows but only do this when you are going to have meetings with the king. You have a week to convince him to choose a prince for the brat and agree to marry her off at the age of 16.”

Elder Lance sigh, he knew how stubborn the king can be. “Lerumo is a very stubborn man, he wont just agree to this.” He decided to voice his concern. “Are you stupid or what elder? This is to help with making him agree with anything you both say.” Answered the man annoyed by the old man’s stupid remark. “Good now we can even make him agree on the deal with the Romo king, I don’t understand why he is protecting these useless people.” Elder Lance was sceptical about the trafficking deal.

“You have not met those people therefor you cannot put your trust on them” the elder pointed out. “No, I have not met the guys however I have met the brother of the Nigerian, I was with him in prison in my youth and we kept contact. He will get me in contact with his brother who is in this business.” Said the man and elder Lance was shocked. “Please tell me this is not one of the man who got arrested for rhino horn poaching.”

The man nodded “Yes that is one of them” he confirmed “ You are to be careful those man are dangerous” said elder Simon concerned. “I know what am doing, you two do your part and I will do mine.” Said the man dismissing their concerns. He then left before any of them has a chance to say more. The elders went their separate ways with each one thinking about how dangerous the man were. But soon consoled themselves by the amount of money they will get from the deal.

That night in the king and queen’s chamber, the queen was having a nightmare. In the nightmare she was walking toward the eating chamber but stopped in her tracks when she heard voices ‘ the princess must leave this kingdom and if the king doesn’t want to then we will have to kill her’ said the voice she didn’t recognise ‘I do not care about the king, what of the chief priest’ asked another ‘He will have to die too, we are short of ancestors anyway’ the men then laughed out loud, their laughter sent shivers to the queen.

The queen felt as if she was being pulled, she jumped and almost fell off the bed. She was sweating and breathing heavy. “ Its okay my queen am here, its just a dream.” Said the king tightening his hold on her as she was shaking now.” It felt so real my king that it scared me” said the queen still shaking. “What was it regarding my queen?” he asked wanting to know what got her so frightened and the queen told him all about the nightmare she just had.

“Worry not my queen, nothing will happen, you know that no one can harm the royal family besides only one of royal blood can harm another and there are no other royals of the Bakoena kingdom besides us, the princes and the queen mother” now that she thought about it the king was right. “You are right my king, it was just a nightmare, lets go back to sleep, I just wish for a peaceful slumber this time around because the princess will wake me up early.” She laid down pulling the covers over her head. “I wish you a good slumber my queen” she only responded with ‘mmm’ as she was already dosing off.

A week later the king had been having headaches, he had agreed on marrying off the princess to his old friend’s prince of BaTloung Thabiso. Today was the day of the bride price negotiations, the king woke up from his slumber with an excruciating headache, he had difficulty opening his eyes properly as it got worse when he did. The queen woke up and saw the king sitting on the edge of the bed, she could see the pain he was in judging from the veins that were popping from his forehead.

“Sunrise greetings my king, how are you feeling?” he sigh “Sunrise greetings my queen, I am not well the pain in my head is worse today that its even difficult to open my eyes.” The queen was worried, its been a week of him suffering from this pain.

“I will go to the chief priest and ask him to make you something, we can not have you like this today when you are expecting people.” The king wished there was still time to postpone but there wasn’t since the BaTloung royals were due to arrive this day. “I would appreciate that my queen, on your way please do ask the maidens to bring me bathing water.” The queen smiled but it did not reach her eyes. “I shall do so my king.”

The queen left; she first started at the kitchen to ask maidens for bathing water for the king then went to the chief priest’s hut. She announced herself and he came out to meet her at the door. “ Sunrise greetings my queen, what brings you here this sunrise?” asked the chief priest “ Greetings wise one, my king has been having headaches for this past week, at first it was not bad but today it got worse” he sigh “ Do not play with the king’s health my queen, you should have come to me early we cant afford to risk his health when the prince is still in school and not ready to take over the throne yet.” He went into his hut to mix herbs for the king, he then gave it to the queen with instructions on how to use it.

The queen thanked him and went back to the chamber, when she got there the king was done with his bath and was busy dressing up in his royal attire. She gave him the herbs and asked him to lay down a bit. Later that afternoon the negotiations took place, and everything went accordingly and the princess was now traditionally married to prince Thabiso.

Now they had to wait for the princess to reach maturity then she can be sent off to her marital home. The king was also feeling much better the headache had subsided. On the other land elder Lance, Simon and the mystery man were celebrating the success of the first step to their plan. Everything was going well on their side, all they had to do now was to wait for the right time to move onto the second step of the plan.