Deleted Scene from To Raise a Banner

This scene told from the POV of James, the serving boy with a mysterious past, sets the stage for the events of To Cause a Reckoning. I hope you enjoy it.

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I banged on the door again. I had been locked up in this gilded prison for three days. I feared that Aria was right and they had proof that I was a Korade and they were going to lay it into me. Would they kill me? Or worse would they hurt my mom? Something wasn’t right and no one was telling me anything. A thousand thoughts spiraled through my head as I flipped through channels on the tv while ignoring my plate. They had someone bring up a plate every other hour but no information on what I was held for. This plush bedroom was somehow worse than the pit of a palace prison.

I was about to change the channel when there was a knock on the door. No one ever knocked because if I was able to open the order if they knocked I would have made a run for it three days ago. Then the lock moved a little then opened. If it was three days ago I would have tried to break free. I learned the hard way twice, that you did not mess with the palace guard. I stood there expectantly. What I didn’t expect was the well-groomed, well-dressed man in fron to me. He wore a green kaftan with brown patent leather shoes. I knew because I cleaned enough of them to know. A guard closed the door leaving me imprisoned with my distinguished guest. Then I recognized who he was. He was the ambassador to Auja. I got on the floor to prostate, my knee-jerk reaction to a noble elder that my mom drilled into me. “Sir”, I said in greeting.

“Rise and thank you”, he said in a smooth voice. He looked good for his age, unlike the prince who seemed to age like milk these past months but who could blame him. “Let’s sit down.” There was a dining table in my lavish cell, why I didn’t know but there was. We both sat down, while respect told me to make sure he was seated first.

“It’s been a troubling week for you hasn’t it?” Ambassador Ejaye said.

“If being put in prison on suspicion of treason is troubling then yes, it had been.” I was in a very little mood to play nice today. I couldn’t even call my mom, they said they’ll let her know the situation whatever that meant.

“I understand, this is so much to take in.” He touched each of his shimmering rings in turn. “What do you know about your father James?”

What was it with people asking about my father? I barely knew anything about the man and talking about him only caused me pain in the past. These people were forcing me to relive that pain. I kept myself indifferent; it usually worked to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

“He and my mom separated, then he died.” Ambassador Ejaye thought that over, like a groundbreaking thesis.

“That’s what your mother said”, he noted. “But she was mistaken.”

My head yanked up to his eyes. “How’d you know that?” I think my mom would have told me if my dad knew a man who would one day become an ambassador.

Ambassador Ejaye leaned forward on his green sleeves, meeting my eyes. “Because he’s in this palace.” My mouth wanted to drop and everything seemed to stop.

“What?” I said again. He nodded and now his face curved indifferently.

“In fact he's in this room.” I started to look around the room half expecting someone to crawl out of the wardrobe or a panel in the wall. In this place, I wouldn't be surprised. When I didn’t see anyone spring out from a corner or come through the door, I looked back at the ambassador. Now his eyes were softer.

Realisation hit me. “No”, my voice broke. “No.” I shot out of my seat and backed away from the table, causing something to fall. I don’t know what it was but oh well. The ambassador stood up, his gaze forced on me, keeping me frozen.

“It’s true, James.”

“You can’t,'' I stuttered.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I checked everything about you”, he said, his voice sure, with none of the regular pomposity some important people had. “I know about Helene and Amos.”

I winced at mom’s name and the way his suave voice broke at Amos’s name. “I know about the little house in Ikeja, the one with the lemon tree outside.”

That was the house I lived in all my life before we went to London. He could have found that out easily. But why would he lie about being my father? I was no one special. I don’t even have citizenship in another country if this man was a charlatan who wanted to get citizenship through a foreign-born child but as an ambassador, I don’t think he’d need to do that. So the other option was that he was telling the truth.

“There were days we went without food”, I said, “and you’re an ambassador?” He put his hands filled with jewels that could pay for mom’s surgery out in front of him.

“I understand what it must look like James”, he said with all ease gone from his face, “but you have to believe me when I tell you I left for a reason.” I threw my hands in the air.

“What, to make your fortune, is that it?”

“No, to protect you.” I reeled back and asked myself what kind of protection he would have offered? My brother’s dead body ran through my mind followed by mom’s weak one.

“I don’t know if you’ve worked this out”, he approached me with panther-like grace, “but you’re a Korade, James.” An odd smile stretched across his face. So I really was a Korade.

“You’re royalty. We’re royalty.” I continued shaking my head, not believing any of this.

“No, we’re not. The Accras…”

“Are dead.” I nearly tripped.

“What?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. I could see it looked like Amos’s. I always wished for a nose like his.

“There was a rebel attack this afternoon. The queen and the princess are dead.”

Something unearthly came out of my throat. Aria and her mother were dead? All I could see was Aria's bright smile in the kitchens, the way her skirts twirled around her like wings, her laughter, and her determination to get me out of prison. The way she made me feel normal. All of that was gone forever? It was Amos all over again.

“Wait, what about the prince then?”I asked, still beyond confused. “Is he next in line then?” “Lucky Accra has left Xavia”, Ambassador Ejaye said crisply, “on suspicon of the murder of the king.” This was all unbelievable. If my dad was a Korade and all the eligible Accra heirs have vanished due to one reason or the other. He must have had something to do with it. I didn’t have time to think about how this all worked out when my dad went to the door and opened it, the guards outside saluted and I felt more out of place than ever.

“Come on James”, my father said calmly. “There’s a lot I have to show you.”