Just as I was settling onto the sleeping mat, a guard appeared at the entrance. "The Sarkin Kano requests the presence of the
Gimbiya," he announced, his tone flat and expressionless.
My stomach clenched. The hour was late, and I was getting irritated by all these highly unusual summonings. I exchanged a worried glance with Nala, who looked equally apprehensive. Despite the dread, there was no refusing a summons from a king, especially the one I was soon to marry.
This is not about me, I do this for the people.
I rose, straightening my simple travelling clothes- dyed tunic and trousers, and walked towards the inner room.
That smell hit me immediately – thick, cloying, the unmistakable odour of palm wine hung heavy in the small, dimly lit space. The Sarkin Kano was seated on a low stool, a half-empty gourd by his side. His
eyes, bloodshot and heavy-lidded, fixed on me as I entered. There was no
calculation now, only a raw, predatory hunger in his gaze.
"Ah, little cat," he slurred, gesturing towards
the mat opposite him. "Come, sit. We have things to discuss. Things best settled privately."
But I remained standing, my arms crossed, trying to project a composure I didn't quite feel. "Sarkin Kano, it is late. Surely, matters
of state can wait until morning?"
He chuckled, a wet, unpleasant sound. "State? This is not state business, Gimbiya. This is... personal. Come here." He reached
out a hand, beckoning impatiently.
When I didn't move, his smile vanished. His face contorted with sudden, drunken anger. "Are you still playing these games? Still
pretending to be shy? I am the Sarkin Kano! You will come when I call!" He unexpectedly lunged forward, grabbing my arm with surprising speed and strength, and pulled me towards him.
I cried out, struggling against his grip. "Unhand me!"
His eyes narrowed to slits. "Impudent whore!" His free hand lashed out, sending a stinging blow across my cheek that sent me stumbling back, the taste of blood filling my
mouth.
"Still protesting? After everything? After what you are?" He rose, swaying
slightly, his rage fueling him.
"Do you know why I agreed to take you?" he
snarled, pacing the small space like a caged animal while I grabbed my cheek in
horror
"Your father begs for men, for horses, for protection, and thinks he can fob off his sheltered princess? I could crush Uzazzu like an insect if I wished! I agreed because of your people! Your warriors!"
He spat the word "warriors" as if it were a curse, yet his eyes held a grudging respect. "The Masu Jikin Karfe," he sneered, using the name whispered in fear and awe across the lands – Those with Bodies of Iron. "They say iron cannot cut them. That they possess strange powers. That they are born from the very earth!" He laughed, a harsh,
grating sound. "Legends! But they are fierce, I grant you that. Untrained, undisciplined perhaps, scattered across your insignificant little kingdom, but their potential... valuable."
I watched in horror. My mind in a haze as I processed his words.
He would crush Uzazzu?
He only wanted an alliance because of the Masu Jikin Karfe?
Ah Baba, what have we gotten ourselves into?
He stopped pacing, leaning in close, his eyes burning with avarice. "I don't just want your father's pathetic tribute, princess. I
want the Masu Jikin Karfe. I will train them. I will break them to my will. And
with their 'iron bodies' bolstering my own armies, I will sweep across the
West! Kano will rule from the Great River to the edges of the desert!" His
grip on my arm tightened again, I feared it would leave a bruise.
"And once I have their loyalty, once I have you..." He leaned closer, his voice
dropping to a chilling whisper, "Your father and his little dynasty will be... unnecessary. Obstacles easily removed. A new line will rule Uzazzu, beholden to Kano."
He shoved me away his anger momentarily outweighing his lust. "Get out! Go back to your hovel before I decide to take you here and now and be done with it!" He turned his back, swaying slightly, reaching
for the palm wine gourd.
I stumbled, my hand flying to my stinging cheek.
His words still echoed in my head
'price', 'bargain', 'property', 'Masu Jikin Karfe', 'break them to my will'. 'Your father and his little dynasty will be... unnecessary.'
He saw my people, my heritage, my family, as a commodity, a tool for his own brutal ambition, to be discarded when they were no longer useful. And he saw me as nothing more than the key to acquire it.
A sudden cold and deadly calmness settled over me. The exhaustion was gone, replaced by that same vibrating energy from the previous night, but now it felt focused, sharp.
He stood there with his back to me, arrogant in his drunken certainty that I would just simply obey everything he commanded.
On a low table nearby sat a clay gourd, the type used for water or wine, heavy and solid.
Instead of turning to leave, I moved. Quietly, swiftly. My hand closed around the neck of the gourd. It was heavier than I expected with the rough clay against my palm.
The drums of the previous night, the smoke, the hunger – it all converged in this single, silent moment. The warrior spirit didn't
whisper now; it roared, fueled by the threat to her family and kingdom.
With a strength I didn't know I possessed, fueled by fury, humiliation, and a fierce, sudden need to protect my people, to protect my father's line from this monster, I raised the gourd high.
And brought it down with all my might on the back of the Sarkin Kano's head.
He crumpled instantly, a surprised gasp escaping his lips before he hit the floor with a heavy thud. The gourd shattered, sending shards of clay and a splash of liquid across the packed earth floor. He lay still, too
still, a dark, quickly spreading stain blooming on his crimson robe where his
head met the ground. The smell of palm wine mixed sickeningly with the coppery
scent of fresh blood.
I stood there… frozen, the broken neck of the gourd still gripped in her hand and my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
The room was silent save for my ragged breathing.
I stared down at the fallen king, the man who had just claimed me as property, revealed his plan to destroy my family, and enslave my people's spirit.
Ya Allah!
Did I just kill him?