Chapter 55 - Ashes and Vengeance
General Simiyu exhaled, the weight of the mercenary threat finally lifting off his shoulders. One enemy had been neutralized, but another loomed large. Malik.
From what he knew, Malik was a proud man, one who would not bend simply because of intelligence handed to him by an enemy. Persuasion would not be enough. To secure victory, Malik had to be eliminated.
But first, he needed to get him to the negotiating table.
King Lusweti and his ten warriors arrived in Kilwa under the cover of darkness. Their route through the ruins had been carefully planned, allowing them to slip into the city unnoticed. However, nothing could have prepared them for the devastation that awaited them.
The once-thriving coastal city had been reduced to a graveyard of ash and bone. The scent of death clung to the air, thick and suffocating. Rotting corpses littered the streets, their lifeless eyes staring into oblivion. Blood had dried in dark stains along the walls and pathways, as though the city itself had wept for its fallen.
Children lay in their parents’ embrace, their tiny bodies stiff and cold.
One of the warriors covered his mouth, his stomach churning. "By the spirits... what happened here?" he whispered, his voice barely above a breath.
Another man clutched the hilt of his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white. "This isn’t war. This is slaughter."
Lusweti sat atop his horse, his body rigid with fury. The reins trembled in his grip as he forced himself to keep his composure. His people had suffered in this war, but what had been done here was beyond cruelty. Innocents had been butchered.