Moon Witch, Spider King

Kwash Kagar’s palace is large enough to accommodate his family, advisors, servants, and concubines. Wearing new silk dresses, Mistress Komwono and Sogolon pass the residences of past kings. They arrive at the castle of Kwash Kalifa, the first king of the house of Akum, and Keme leads them into the royal court. As the procession approaches the dais, Mistress Komwono prostrates herself before the throne. As part of the official ritual, the Aesi recounts the divine origin story of the first king. The Aesi commands the mistress to rise, and Princess Emini takes the throne. Emini—who dominates the court over her brother, a “pale wet rat of a man” (106)—entertains Mistress Komwono’s request to be reinstated at court. The mistress presents gifts, the last of which is Sogolon herself. Forced to kneel before the throne, Sogolon silently curses the mistress for her betrayal. The Aesi grabs Sogolon, studying her for any indication of witchcraft, but Emini orders him to let her go. She sees no use for Sogolon—not as a “concubine” or cook—but she accepts her nevertheless and restores the mistress’s standing with the court. The chamber empties—all except for Sogolon and the Aesi, who tells her how fortunate she is, a child of conquered lands, to be standing amid such magnificence.

Confined to her room, Sogolon gazes at the castles of the other Akum kings. She sees no one for weeks until the princess summons her. She tries to find a use for Sogolon, eventually inviting her to sit and eat.

That evening, Sogolon explores the palace. She finds the library and bumps into Commander Olu, once the king’s greatest warrior, who now is losing his memories. He invites her to his room—he needs help finding his way. Olu’s room is covered floor to ceiling in writing as he writes down his thoughts before he forgets them. Sogolon asks him what the words mean. One passage reads, “Don’t trust them, especially the Aesi” (122). Olu confesses that an unnamed woman speaks to him in his dreams, but when Sogolon asks who she is, he can’t remember. Soon, he falls asleep, and Sogolon explores the bedchamber, finding a second necklace matching the one he wears around his neck. In the anteroom, the commander begins to talk in his sleep to someone named Jeleza.

Unable to sleep, Sogolon lies in bed but realizes something on the ceiling is watching her. A creature—yellow eyes, long arms and legs, the face of a child—lowers itself from the ceiling and reaches out to touch her. She screams and runs for the door, but the “darkchild” grabs her. She struggles to escape, and the room spins, and Sogolon topples onto the ceiling. She hurls a lantern at the creature, and it crawls out the window. She flees her room until she finds herself in a throne room with lions sleeping on the floor. She falls asleep among them.

The next morning, she wakes up in her room, unsure how she got there. She visits Olu again. He remembers Sogolon from the previous day, and she tells him about the strange spider-child in her room. She asks about the Sangomin, but that word only triggers memories of the Aesi. They search the scribblings on the walls and floor, hoping to find useful information. Indeed, they find a series of cryptic notes about the Aesi and the Sangomin’s influence on the king as well as mysterious references to “herbswomen,” who are executed by the Aesi. She sees a word repeated over and over, and Olu translates it as Jeleza, but he doesn’t remember who she is. Sogolon, however, pieces it together.

Jeleza, she reasons, is Olu’s wife and the King Sister, the woman the Aesi insists doesn’t exist. When she tells Olu her theory, he flies into a rage. He fears further mockery from the court for believing in such a conspiracy theory. Days later, Sogolon is summoned to court. The princess and the Aesi are in attendance, and moments later, the crown prince, Likud, enters with two of the Aesi’s “demon children”—the dark, spider-like creature and another, red and blue with a forked tongue. Likud assumes the throne, and Sogolon notices he is dressed like a king (no shirt, cape over one shoulder) although the true king is still alive. The princess reports the kingdom of Wakadishu is clamoring for a non-aggression treaty, but the prince fears their intentions are hostile. Sogolon, who has been listening at the door, is grabbed from behind by the spider creature and dragged into the throne room. Likud wants to execute her as a spy, but Emini defends her, claiming she is a highly skilled cook. Just then, a strong wind begins to blow both inside the palace and outside. The princess argues that the Aesi’s measures—bringing in the demon children and banishing the healers—have not cured the king. She dismisses him, and as he leaves the throne room, the wind suddenly stops. The princess then strikes Sogolon and warns her never to spy on her again under pain of death.

Days pass before she visits Olu again, time for him to forget his anger. She asks him to teach her to read, which he does, but he skips all the passages written in red. The court intrigue weighs on her, and she hasn’t seen Keme in days. He is so focused on his career that he talks of nothing else.

One night, two servants escort Sogolon to the prince’s residence. Inside, she encounters a group of boys and girls, a few of the demon children, and a young boy made of light tethered to a leash. One of the boys, Abeke, a prince’s son, challenges her to a fight but with only himself armed. Before Sogolon knows what’s happening, the boy charges at her waving his clubs, but Sogolon dodges every blow “like wind is lifting her up” (143). Likud enters and intervenes, tossing his own staff to Sogolon for defense. Likud waives the rule that any heir to the throne must never be touched and allows the fight to continue. When the boy’s tooth is knocked out, Sogolon is sent to a cell where the Aesi sentences her to a flogging, a “gift” that it’s not a death sentence. Emini frees Sogolon from her cell but warns her that Likud has sworn to kill her.

While Sogolon searches the writings in Olu’s chambers, the old warrior explains to her the royal line of ascension: The king is traditionally the eldest son of the King Sister. Without a King Sister, the eldest son of the king—in this case, Likud—takes the throne, but he is not considered legitimate. It occurs to her then that Jeleza—Olu’s wife and the King Sister—is not nonexistent but “taken.” She suspects a conspiracy between the prince and the Aesi to silence anyone who might know the truth.

That night, the “headwoman” comes to Sogolon’s room and leads her to the ruins of an old castle. After a series of detours, she is directed to a room where she finds the princess and her husband (a prince of Kalindar) having sex. After the prince falls asleep, the princess and Sogolon move to another chamber where the headwoman waits with a guard. The princess and the guard then have sex, and Sogolon realizes that the princess—the future King Sister—is trying to bear a child to bring about “restoration.” Sogolon is now in the princess’s inner circle, and Emini relies on Sogolon’s life experience for counsel. In the meantime, the king, Kwash Kagar, dies.

Funeral rites are held for Kwash Kagar, but any mention of death is forbidden. He is an ancestor now. Meanwhile, Likud fast-tracks the grieving period, despite tradition. Sogolon thinks about Jeleza and dreams of a lioness with a void where her womb should be.

When Sogolon is summoned with a group of women to wash the king’s body, she asks why. The princess strikes her, explaining that any duty in service to her king is an honor. She banishes Sogolon to a corner, admonishing her to not lay a hand on the king’s body. After the ritual washing, Emini and the women leave the chamber, forgetting about Sogolon. Afraid to leave the chamber without the leave of the princess, Sogolon stays in her corner the entire night and most of the next day. When she hears people approaching, she hides under a rug. Likud enters with the spider-child, acutely aware of being considered an illegitimate sovereign. He is aware of Emini’s plan to bear a child—even if it’s the child of an anonymous soldier born out of wedlock—and he plans to thwart her. He leaves, and Sogolon, fearing the spider-child, waits until nightfall and sneaks out of the room.

When she returns to the princess’s palace, the headwoman and a guard drag her before the princess, who accuses her of stealing from the dead king. She denies it, but the princess doesn’t believe her. She banishes Sogolon to the stables, where the guards beat her. She spends countless days sleeping among the horses, eating whatever scraps of food she can scrounge. She becomes fatalistic and resolves to bear both life’s kindness and callousness with equal measure.

The funeral rites begin at dawn the next day, but Sogolon stays away. She is lying in the stable listening to the rain when Keme enters. He reports that Alaya, his friend from the floating village, has been accused of witchcraft and is now missing. Women all over the kingdom are being rounded up as witches. The prince (soon to be king) is also dismissing the lions and replacing them with his own chosen guards, including Keme. Sogolon wants to tell him about the prince’s plans, but she is reluctant. She is angry about Keme’s ambition, which she feels he has prioritized over her. Keme, however, senses power in her, a power she doesn’t yet recognize. Later, the headwoman comes to tell Sogolon that the princess has forgiven her.

The stables bustle with activity as workers prepare for the funeral procession. The Aesi enters and orders Sogolon to saddle a horse for him. She complies, but before he rides off, he tries, unsuccessfully, to probe her mind. When he leaves, Sogolon collapses with a terrible headache.

As the procession gets underway, Sogolon has a strong desire to flee Fasisi. She runs for the gates, but just at that moment, a palanquin (a conveyance carried by poles) bearing Queen Wutu, Kwash Kagar’s widow, is carried into the gates. She sees Sogolon and beckons her inside. Together, they watch the spectacle and grandeur of Prince Likud’s coronation, the queen bemoaning the pomp of the ceremony. The prince, draped in leopard skin and sitting upon the ceremonial stool, is now officially king, bearing the royal name Kwash Moki, “he who will still the winds” (177). As the celebration continues for “three quartermoons,” Sogolon grooms the horses to earn her keep. She never returns to the princess’s (now King Sister’s) palace.