CHAPTER EIGHT : The Unquiet Ones — Continued

The Unquiet Ones — Continued

In a village beyond the hills, other lineage keepers held their own meeting.

They had gathered in the compound of Ogbuefi Madu, whose ancestors had served the shrines of their people before the present footpaths were made. An old woman sat near the doorway, breaking kola nuts into a wooden bowl while the men spoke.

One of the younger keepers was troubled.

“Our fathers taught us to seek the cause of a thing before we speak of its meaning,” he said. “If the land is giving warnings, must we not find out what it warns us against?”

Madu looked at him.

“And what have you found?”

“Nothing certain.”

“Then why are you so eager to speak?”

The young man lowered his eyes, but another keeper answered for him.

“Because doing nothing may be worse than asking questions.”

Madu shook his head.

“Do not mistake an elder's patience for idleness. We shall ask the priests what may be asked of them, and we shall search the histories. But we will not send men running from village to village with frightened tongues.”

The old woman dropped a kola nut into the bowl.

“Fear runs faster than a man,” she said. “By the time you catch it, it may have entered every compound.”

The men turned towards her.

She continued breaking the kola, as though she had said nothing important.

“Last night, my daughter's dog would not enter her hut. This morning, the fowls refused to cross the path behind her cooking shelter. When she asked the neighbours, they told her that their animals had behaved in the same way.”

Madu frowned.

“Why did you not tell us sooner?”

“Because I wanted to hear whether the land had troubled other people before I troubled you.”

No one laughed.

The youngest keeper looked towards the doorway. Beyond it, the night lay still, and the trees stood without movement.

“Do you think something is watching us?” he asked.

The old woman raised her eyes.

“I think a wise man should not assume that he is alone simply because he sees no one.”

The lamp flickered.

For a moment, a coldness passed through the room. The men felt it upon their skin, but none saw what caused it. One reached for the staff beside him. Another began to whisper a prayer to the ancestors.

The old woman covered the bowl of kola.

“Finish your meeting,” she said. “And remember what you have been taught. Not every visitor comes through the door.”

Outside, the unseen spirit withdrew.

It had hoped to hear the name of a god or the details of a prophecy. Instead, it had found people who knew that something was wrong but could not say what it was.

This angered it more than ignorance should have done.

Before the cock crowed, the spirits returned to the abandoned shrine.

One had followed the Umuezuna keepers. Another had lingered near the compound of Ogbuefi Madu. A third had wandered through the farms, listening to hunters and farmers speak of restless animals and strange dreams.

They had found no clear answer.

“The keepers have begun to search their histories,” one reported.

“Do they know what they seek?” asked the old figure.

“No.”

“Have they spoken of the children?”

“Not by name. Some spoke of old vows and forgotten customs, but none could tell us what they meant.”

The old figure's hands tightened.

“And the priests?”

“We have not seen them.”

The answer brought a low growl from the gathering.

The priests and priestesses who served the gods were hidden from the eyes of the living and from the reach of wandering spirits. Only the handmaidens and servants admitted to their sacred households could see them. Their words and movements did not lie open to every spirit that wished to know them.

Agu's priest was of particular concern. As the servant of the god who guarded Umuezuna, he watched over the land by his master's command. The evil spirits knew that he had a duty, but they had not learned everything that duty required of him.

Amadoiha's priest and Olamma's priestess remained beyond their sight as well.

“What are we to do?” one spirit cried. “The keepers remember too little, and the priests are hidden from us. Shall we wait until the gods have settled whatever matter troubles them?”

“No,” said the old figure.

Its voice was quiet, but the others fell silent.

“We shall search where memory remains. The old women who sing to children. The hunters who avoid a certain grove without knowing why. The farmers who leave an offering at a tree their grandfathers forbade them to cut. There are people who carry the past without knowing that they carry it.”

“And if we find nothing?”

“Then we shall search again.”

The old figure rose.

“Do not mistake what we cannot see for what does not exist. There are places in this world that were not made for every eye. There are names that cannot be spoken by every tongue. If the gods have begun to stir, we must learn why before the living discover what they have forgotten.”

A rumble rolled beneath the ground.

The spirits froze.

It was not thunder, though it carried the weight of thunder. Nor was it the sound of a river breaking its banks. It passed beneath their feet and was gone, leaving the roots trembling in the dark.

No spirit could say where it had come from.

The old figure looked towards the east, where the first light would soon appear.

“Continue watching,” it commanded. “Let no word spoken among the keepers escape us. Let no old song be forgotten before we have heard it. And if a name rises from the mouths of the living, bring it to me.”

The spirits departed once more.

Across Umuezuna and the neighbouring lands, they moved through the shadows of compounds and along the paths between farms. They listened to the keepers, watched the elders, and waited near the places where old customs were still observed.

They could not see the hidden river.

They did not know what had stirred beneath its sacred waters.

But they felt the earth's uneasiness, and they heard the thunder that had no storm behind it.

For the first time in many generations, the spirits that had long fed upon the forgetfulness of men were afraid that the past might return.

And they were determined to discover what it would bring with it.