Chapter 76 - Smoke and Shadows
The horses approached like thunder in slow motion. Hooves struck stone with a heavy rhythm, stirring dust and apprehension as they passed. Khisa rode at the front, his eyes unreadable beneath the hood, the Shadow Guard flanking him like a living wall of silent death.
They followed Tesfaye through the winding streets of Shewa, where the air stank of sweat and suspicion.
Children peered from behind cracked doors. Market traders fell silent. Soldiers gripped their spears a little tighter.
"Who are they?"
"Spies?"
"Assassins from Adal?"
"There are women among them. How can they be warriors?"
Fear moved faster than flames in a dry season. Villagers from the border had already begun trickling into Shewa, their clothes torn, their eyes wild. The sight of these strangers—too calm, too disciplined—only fed the fear.
Tesfaye raised a hand. "These warriors are not your enemies!" he called to the crowd. "They’ve killed dozens of Adal soldiers! Burned their camps to ash! From here to the border all the Adal have been wiped out! They ride with us now!"
The words helped. A little. But like all rumors, the truth twisted with every telling. By nightfall, the taverns were full of stories: that Khisa once turned invisible to slit a man’s throat, that one woman could bend arrows in flight, that the scarred warrior with the long beard never blinked once in battle.
And far below Shewa, hidden in a cellar beneath a merchant’s storehouse, the right ears listened.