Nyansakrom: Chapter 9

by safohen
At the royal stores, Abrewanana Nketsia and two other asafo realised that 50 spears, 15 bows and arrows, two sacks of gold dust, 3 months worth of food supplies. Fifty akofenas,machetes, twenty clothes and fifteen axes were also missing, among other items.

'They took away a lot of weapons, about twice as much as they could use individually.' realised Nketsia. 'Abakan, Amponsah, we must report our findings to Oforiwaa immediately'. 'Don't you want us to wait for Abrewanana Serwaa is done with the archives so that both reports can be done at the same time?" asked Abakan.

'I suppose we can wait a bit',she replied.If Serwaa is at the archives,then I know that we won't have to wait too long

Badu and Pokuaa reached the archives in the afternoon, with the guards ordering that the gates be opened upon noticing Pokuaa. They were surprised to discover that Abrewanana Serwaa and the asuafo had already sorted things out at their end despite the number of items present at the archives.

'From what I've heard so far , noted Oforiwaa, 'the fatekeepers took supplies including weapons outnumbering their current size of 30 and Abrewanana Serwaa and her asuafo obtained possible reasons for this from the archives. 'Abrewanana Serwaa, could you tell us what you found out?"

'The items taken include the locations of the ten hidden pathways and the current location and extended details of Mampam prison'

Aba felt a sense of dread from all the village heads gathered. She asked her aunt why this was so, in hushed tones.

'The 10 paths are the only weak points in the village's external defense. Using them, our enemies could attack the village and leave without being detected.'

'The Mampam prison is a high level security prison that holds the most dangerous elements of our village. Each inmate is believed to have created chaos in the village. 'Its location has been moved 5 times to prevent attacks on it from occurring.

'Their numbers outmatch the population of the village now.'

'We must assume that the fatekeepers plan to recruit those inmates after finding the prison's weaknesses, arm them with weapons and attack us using any of the 10 hidden paths.' noted Oforiwaa grimly.

'This is bad,' noted the Supi, head of the asafo. 'It will be nearly impossible to find and block all 10 paths even in two weeks time given their hidden nature. Also the village is still recovering from the first attack and we will not be able to withstand a full scale attack even if we miraculously manage to block all 10 paths in time!"

'I know the current location of Mampam prison!',said Serwaa.

'What?" noted the Ahintafour head. 'The location of the prison was kept hidden from the royals when the tyrant king Agor became it's first inmate. Even the current asafo, the royal family and all the village heads gathered here did not refer to the stolen archives to determine its location. 'My abrewanana revealed its location to me on the day I became an osuani' Serwaa replied.

'She had confidence in me that I would not abuse this knowledge'

'So where is it now?' asked Oforiwaa.

'Three days walk from here, in the depths of mountain Afad, guarded by the mbrewananakofour, a mixture of mbrewanana and asafo'.

'Then, noted Oforiwaa, 'Asafoakyere Dede, I will let you pick a team that will leave for the prison tonight. The remainder of our asafo, police and spies will work hard to find as many of the paths as they can at the same time as well as help to strengthen the village's defenses'.

'As Badu reached his grandmother's home, his abode ever since his parents were sentenced, he found Serwaa waiting for him. 'On my way back to the village, she began, I ran into one of the abrewananakofour (fighting sages) and she told me your parents were sent to Mampam prison and not Obour prison!"

'Are you sure?" asked a wide eyed Badu. 'the entire village heard that they had been sentenced to Obour prison'. 'How could this happen?"

'According to her', Serwaa replied,' a last minute decision was made to transfer them to Mampam prison instead of Obour prison. A decision strongly suggested by Abrewanana Adwoa!"

'Badu, the very fact that Tumi intervened in your parents' prison transfer means they have a role to play in their plans'. 'I do not need to spell out what will happen should your parents resist them'.

At the asafo headquarters, Karikari trained with Dede. Dede noticed that despite his recent injuries, his fighting skill had improved after three days of intense training. They packed their weapons and stepped outside where the rest of Dede's handpicked team were waiting.

'Alright, Serwaa noted, we will take the usual path when leaving the village, stop at a shelter and then continue to mampam prison.' 'Are there any questions minus the fact that we are setting off so late in the night?"

'What are we going to do about the cycle?', asked Antwiwaa. 'At this time ,all the wild beasts of the forest try to assert their dominance over each other, espeically the tigers and wolves'.

'I can see you've been paying attention to your wildlife lessons, young osuani' However the cycle will begin in earnest by midnight and we should reach the shelter by then.'

The rain fell heavily that night but Tumi continued their march through the forest, their blue and white attire fluttering in the wind. Ama walked ahead of them, followed by the other mbrewanana. They were in turn followed by two asafo units led by Asamoah and the 'bushfire' units of the ahintafour led by Agyeiwaa. The corrupt police officials and the convicts came last. They soon came across a huge stone building.

'What is that?" asked Oti

'The previous Mampam prison' replied Ama. 'We will rest here for a while.' 'Oti, Araba, Afua and the other asuafo will help Ato carry the 30 arrows and bows. The rest of you, bundle the special powder and other weapons in'

Later that night, the three mbrewanananom sat together , the light from the torches illuminating their faces. 'We must remember one thing, sisters',said Ama. 'There are eight particular groups of people that we must get out of Mampam'.

'Yes,we're aware' noted Adisa wearily, 'that 7 out of 8 groups will successfully lead different teams in our attack against the village using the 10 paths. 'Even on their own, they're quite dangerous'.

'Even if we get only 4 groups, we can still manage, can't we?' noted Adwoa with a wide grin.'Correct', replied Ama. We'll spread the word tonight.'

'They are: Kyeiwaa the strongest asafo captain during the 1st civil war, the 5 obrafour under King Agor, the seven rogue asafo of the 2nd civil war, the war queen Baaba, the 3 rogue ahintafour of the first 'bushfire' contingent, the 5 rogue local force okofour(warriors), the rogue abrewanana Kuukua and her brother, Panin(Elder) Baffour and Asafo Badu's parents, Sika and Abakan.

'We all agree on what must happen should the last two prove to be uncooperative, don't we?" asked Ama

'Yes, agreed Adwoa solemnly, 'there's no way around it'
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