Slaves to the Sword

by Jack Cage

  “Yes, the Kuno tribe. They are a strange group of people you have not met before,” Coffa explained as he surveyed the mountainside for a place the group could take a break. “The Kuno’s land is next to the big water—the largest watering hole in the land. There is so much water, you cannot see the end of it.”

  “Do the Kuno and Ema tribes get along?”

  “At one point in history, yes, but eventually the two tribes fought, and have been enemies for many years.” Coffa sat down on the ground. The Ema land was full of life, and it was providing for their people very well. The Kuno had many meats from the big water, but they did not have water to drink freely like the Ema did.” The rest of the Sefu men sat nearby to listen to their conversation.

  “So, they fought over water?” Amri asked.

  “Yes. Without water, all will perish. There is a waterfall nearby, we should go there and drink before the sun breaks through the clouds,” said Coffa. The group of men stood and headed up the path.

  As the Sefu men descended down the mountain toward Ema territory, Amri was visibly on edge. His eyes were constantly scanning the foreign surroundings, looking for the slightest threat.

  “Keep your peace, Nephew,” Coffa whispered.

  “That is not possible right now, Uncle. When Endesha and I were little, you told us not to feed the animals because they would always come back for more, and if we did not have any food for them, they may turn on us,” said Amri.

  “That is the truth. It is something all young people should learn about—how the land provides for us and how that balance can be affected by our actions,” Coffa explained as he stepped down the hillside slowly.

  “I can’t help but feel like the Ema are the animal that will turn on us once we run out of food,” Amri replied boldly. A few of the Sefu men snickered with hushed laughter at Amri’s bold tone with the Sefu chief.

  Coffa immediately stopped walking, looked up to Amri’s scarred face, and said, “Nephew, remember my position, and do not lose your respect for me the same way your tongue is losing faith in my decisions.” Amri was almost a foot and a half taller than his uncle. He weighed over 50 pounds more than him as well. However, he loved and respected his uncle, and was remorseful for any disrespect he may have shown his uncle in front of his men.

  “My apologies, Uncle,” Amri said quietly.

  “You must trust your instincts, Amri. I share some of your concerns, but this is the only way to avoid war—so we must try to help the Ema.”

  He placed his hand on Amri’s shoulder for balance as they walked down the hillside.

  The sun was slowly descending into the afternoon sky as the Sefu men approached the Ema village.

  Their children were visible from the distance, and their stature was significantly smaller than the Sefu tribe that lived just a few miles to the south.

  Amri could see the Ema children had not been eating as well as the children in his village. His attention was quickly diverted to the group of men approaching.

  “Greetings, Chief Coffa,” said Kahina, one of Ema elders. “Follow me to Chief Ameqran’s hut. You and your men can rest there.” He smiled and walked with the Sefu men.

  Now, closer to the village, Amri could easily see how thin the Ema people were, and they could not help but notice Amri’s physical size, and the scars on his face and body. There were very few children, and the ones he saw stared and pointed in amazement. Amri did not show any expression on his face as he walked behind the Sefu contingent.

  He did not understand the dialect the Ema people were speaking very well. It was a mixture of the language the Sefu spoke with some words that he, along with a few of the younger men, did not fully understand.

  The Sefu men were led to Chief Ameqran’s dwelling. It was made from wood and grasses that were tied with strands of animal hair or some vine-like material.

  Chief Ameqran was a svelte older man with wrinkled black skin. He had a full head of coarse gray hair, His neck was adorned with lion’s fangs and ornate stones. The two groups sat, and as they did, Amri never broke his stare from Chief Ameqran.

  The two leaders began to talk, and Amri decided to take inventory of what he’d seen as they entered the village. Six men outside, maybe twenty within the immediate area, no real threats seen. There were many children outside but no women visible—no women, Amri thought to himself. The lack of women was a point of concern for him.

  He was not going to second guess his uncle again—especially while he was conducting diplomatic activities—so he kept his concerns to himself.

  As the conversation went on and pleasantries were shared, Coffa turned to the Ema leader, and said, “Chief Ameqran we brought an offering of food for you and your people.”

  “We thank you for your generosity, but I do not understand why you traveled so far to bring us this offering.”

  “We have been seeing your hunters near our watering hole, and figured the only reason your men would travel so far south is because hunting in your territory was not productive.” Coffa smiled kindly, and continued, “Is that not the case?”

  “I’m sorry, my friend, that is not the case.”

  The Sefu contingent looked puzzled—all except for Amri. He could only understand the last sentence of the conversation, and started to have a very unsettled feeling in his spirit. Amri was looked to his uncle, and waited for his response to the Ema chief’s statement. Coffa remained pleasant, and stately yet slightly unsettled by the chief’s words. Wisely, Coffa switched back to the Sefu dialect, so Amri and the others could understand as he questioned Ameqran. “May I ask why your men were near the boarders of our territory if they were not hunting?” Coffa asked sincerely.

  “For many years the Sefu tribe has controlled the watering hole and the entire southern valley.

  We have stood by and watched your people thrive under your leadership, and now, even more so because of him,” Ameqran said, and pointed to Amri. “That man there is the key to your tribe’s livelihood.” Amri stared at the Ema chief with fierce intensity.

  “I do not understand,” Coffa replied.

  “Chief Coffa, no other tribe would dare attack the Sefu people because they fear the Black Lion. He is the reason why you felt so comfortable in sharing your food. You know he will aid you in finding more.” Ameqran looked directly at Amri, returning his stare.

  The tension in the room was tangible. Kahina, along with another Ema tribesman, sat on the opposite side of the hut and looked visibly nervous. Amri was now starting to question his remorse for going against his uncle’s decision. Coffa, now concerned, wanted to get to the point of Ameqran’s words. “Fortunately for us, Amri is a Sefu man, and his reputation does proceed him. However, we are not interested in warring with other tribes, nor do we aspire to expand our territory.”

  Chief Ameqran nodded his head, and replied, “The Ema are interested in expanding our territory.”

  “You what? I do not understand.”

  Ameqran went on to say, “We have interest in expanding our territory, and we know we cannot be successful in doing that with your Black Lion protecting your people.” The Sefu men looked at each other, and though Amri could not understand all of their conversation, he knew his instincts had been correct.

  “Imagine how surprised we were to see you brought your special protector right to us. You will not leave this place today, Chief Coffa.” His guards nervously produced their spears. “You are surrounded, and there is no escape,” Ameqran warned.

  Coffa was surprised by his friend’s betrayal. He immediately thought about his nephew’s statements on the way to the Ema village, and before he could replay the conversation in his mind, Amri calmly said, “Us being surrounded does not mean you are safe.”

  “Did you not hear me? You are surrounded, and there is no way for you to get out of this village alive,” Ameqran said with an emboldened tone.

  “I do not see it that way,” Amri said as he pieced together the words the Ema chief was saying. “The w
ay I see it, you are the one that is trapped. You are trapped in here with me.” In a flash, Amri took his spear and slashed the ankle of the nearest Ema guard.

  As the guard quickly dropped to one knee, Amri drove the spear up into his neck. He turned toward his left shoulder, and, as he did, he spun the spear in the palm of his hand to an underhand position and threw it across the room, striking Kahina in the chest. The force of Amri’s spear penetrated the Ema elder’s chest and lodged him against the wall of the hut. Coffa tossed a sharpened stone blade to Amri, and in one swift movement, the Sefu warrior picked up the urine moistened tribal chief, turned him around, and held the blade to his neck.

  The Ema guards were outside waiting with spears in hand, they could see the blood seeping from the base of the hut, but they were not sure if it was Ema or Sefu blood.

  A brave Ema man pondered the notion of going inside blindly, but reason, and a firm arm grab with a head shake “no” from his fellow tribesman kept him waiting for the slightest sign of Sefu flesh.

  Suddenly, the Ema men heard a familiar voice; it was their leader, but his voice was trembling, and it sounded like he was in danger.

  “Move away from the opening!” Ameqran commanded. There was a gurgle in his voice, and he was in obvious distress. “We are coming out. Put down your spears!”

  Moments later, the Ema’s chief emerged from the hut with Amri’s left arm around his neck. When his men saw their chief, some of them screamed in horror. Even as warriors, seeing their chief’s innards dangling from his body was too much savagery to witness. Amri turned toward the Ema men, his back to the south—his Sefu tribesmen behind him, and when he spoke, his voice echoed across the northern land. “We came to you in peace, and you tried to kill us! For what? Our land? We trusted you, we even brought you food we could not afford to give, yet this is how you repay us?” Amri bellowed in vicious anger.

  Amri knew they were outnumbered, and that they had to retreat quickly before the Emu tribe got over their shock, and remembered their courage. He noticed the sky—it would be dark soon—they would use this to their advantage. He looked at his uncle and countrymen and glanced at the southern mountains behind them. They understood and nodded their agreement to him. “Your chief does not want our food, so he must not need his stomach anymore!” Amri yelled. Violently, Amri cut into the Ema chief and retrieved his stomach.

  With what little life he had left, Chief Ameqran screamed in horror as the massive Sefu warrior lived up to The Killer of Death mystique.

  Amri threw the eviscerated chief toward his countrymen, and the entire Sefu contingent took off for the southern mountains behind them. All of the Sefu warriors ran—except one—Amri Sefu. He stood in front of the Ema men, slowly walking backward, expecting them to follow. None did.

  Nor did any member of the Ema tribe attempt to pick up their spears—they were not going to challenge the Sefu warrior.

  Amri turned slowly before bolting into the darkness toward his village on the other side of the southern mountains.

  12

  T he moonlight was particularly bright during the trek back to the Sefu village. This was very useful for the Sefu contingent on their escape into the mountain pass that divided the Ema and Sefu lands. Chief Coffa and his men gathered at the waterfall for a chance to regroup and gather themselves. The men drank their fill and sat in the moonlight in silence. They worried for Amri. His sacrifice for their escape left them sullen but thankful. He had not yet rejoined them, and they wondered his fate. They were not sure if they were being chased, and remaining idle made them nervous. They still had a significant march back to their village ahead of them.

  “Chief Coffa, should we continue down the mountain?” asked one of the Sefu men.

  “No… not yet,” he said hesitantly.

  “Do you think Amri is on his way here?” asked another.

  “I don’t know what to think of my nephew at the moment.” His reply was quiet and reserved. “It is best we wait a moment and gather our breath before we depart from this place.” Coffa sat in silence as his tribesmen chatted quietly around him.

  “Did you see what Amri did to the Ema chief?” was whispered, and followed by, “What about the two men he killed inside the hut?”

  The men had so many questions, and Chief Coffa had no answers. He had no understanding as to why his plan was a failure.

  He also had no idea why the man he considered a friend, Chief Ameqran, would betray him.

  He replayed the day’s events many times in his head, and the only thing he could recall was the sheer violent nature of the little boy he watched being birthed twenty years ago. The speed, power, and bravery that Amri showed made Coffa, a man twenty-three years his senior, question his role as the Sefu chief.

  Coffa was still in heavy thought when they suddenly heard a noise close by. The men immediately moved into a defensive crouch with their faces and chests hovering inches over the ground. Using the shadows from the moonlight as camouflage, invisible to anyone searching for them in the darkness. The sound of a bird was heard—a distinctive sound. One that only a man from the southern valley would know. It was Amri. Coffa whistled back at him and the Sefu men rose from the shadows.

  There were many hugs and jubilation from his tribesmen, and he was glad to see they were okay. Parched and out of breath, he used both hands to drink deeply from the waterfall, and told his friends he had run up the mountain without stopping. He was hoping to catch up with them at some point because, even the bright moon, he could not navigate his way down the mountainside.

  “How are you, Nephew?” Coffa asked as he placed his hand on Amri’s shoulder.

  “I am fine, Uncle,” Amri responded as he took in large breaths of air.

  “I am sorry, Amri, I should have listened more closely to you. I honestly felt Ameqran would welcome our offering. I never knew that he wanted Sefu land,” he said.

  “Your instincts are your best defense against attack, Amri, and that is something I taught you many years ago. I forgot my own lesson and took us into a trap. This will not sit well with the village elders.”

  “We cannot focus on that now, Chief. War is coming from behind us, and we have to get back to the village to warn our people and prepare. We do not have much time,” Amri warned.

  “Agreed. We should be on our way. Let’s go brothers, we do not have much time!” Coffa commanded.

  The Sefu men continued down the mountainside in the moonlit darkness. Coffa skillfully guided the group with a renewed sense of purpose, and was determined to get back to the village to prepare for the upcoming battle with the Ema tribe.

  Amri’s mind was already preparing for the fight that would be soon upon the Sefu people. He was mentally strategizing how he would take on the Ema, and he knew they did not have much time.

  Hours later, the Sefu contingent made it back to their village. The villagers knew something was wrong when they saw their chief return without the ceremonial garb he had left with. Furaha was the first to greet the men. “What happened? You look frightened brother,” she said before scanning the group of men to find her eldest son. She finally saw him walking toward her with a serious look on his face and blood that was not his on his body.

  “Hello, Mother.” He greeted her kindly, then made his way to a water to rinse his body off.

  “Gather the elders. We bring important news,” Coffa commanded. He then walked over to Zuberi and said quietly, “We need to speak. Now.”

  Zuberi did not understand why his brother’s tone was so tense, but he gathered his wife and the trio went to a secluded area of the village to converse before the meeting with the elders. When they found Coffa, he was pacing back and forth with nervous energy.

  He looked at his brother with tears welling in his eyes and summoned as much courage as he could, then said, “The child you had twenty years ago died the night the lion attacked.”

  Zuberi was puzzled by his brother’s words. “What are you talking about, Coffa?”

/>   Coffa stopped pacing, looked directly into Furaha’s eyes, and said, “The things people say about Amri are true.” He then looked Zuberi in the eyes and said, “Amri is a monster, a beast without a master.” Coffa was visibly shaking as he went on to say, “Amri is evil with a conscience.”

  “What are you saying brother?” Zuberi asked.

  “Your son has traded places with the lion that attacked him, he is now the lion. The people are correct in calling him the Black Lion. I witnessed it myself in the Ema village” Coffa went on to recant the events from earlier in the day. “Your son showed so much bravery in getting us out of a terrible trap—a trap that he warned me about, and I did not listen to him,” Coffa said softly.

  Furaha reached for his hands and held them close to her heart. Coffa looked into her eyes. “Amri’s savagery saved us from certain death today. I have never seen someone so skilled at killing before. He saved us today. I must go prepare for the meeting with the elders, but I wanted to let you know what happened first.

  My intention is not to scare you, but you deserve to know who Amri is now.” Coffa let go of Furaha’s hands and quickly walked away.

  Zuberi watched his brother hurry away as Furaha stared at the ground, both lost in thought. After a moment of silence, Zuberi finally spoke, “I remember how big a baby he was—so strong from the start. I knew he would grow to be something special one day.” Furaha took her husband’s hand, and waited for him to continue.

  “He was so different, even as a child. Always aware of his environment, and mindful of people; he invited competition and relished opportunities to exert his will on others. And always ready to prove himself. It made him an excellent student for Coffa and me.” He sighed and turned his face to the sky—Furaha joined him in looking.

  “I remember his desire for independence and his loving nature,” she replied. “I still see that loving nature from time to time, but I believe he has lost much of his humanity. I knew he would be a warrior, but I never thought I would hear him described as a monster.” The two parents looked at each other, and Zuberi could see the sadness in her eyes. “War is coming?” she asked.