Chapter 1
“Blood.”
It wasn’t dropped with drama or a recognizable emotion of any sort. Rather, it was matter-of-fact, something that had to be dispensed with.
The person who declared it was Tiboki, and the addressed was Skalala.
They were the two most important people in Semeke and when one went to see the other, the village shook in anticipation of the import on them of whatever they discussed.
But this visit was as secret as could be. Anyone privy to its existence could only be by unusual fortune.
It was Skalala who went to Tiboki this time in the dark of the night without his guards and the knowledge of anyone in the palace. He used the secret exit which his father and grandfather also employed for such contingencies and which’s existence was only known to them due to its protection by the strongest of charms and an oath which they took before they could be made aware of it.
Skalala had been with Naka and about to pleasure her for the second time when he heard the drum beat summoning him urgently to Tiboki. It had been ages he heard that particular sequence deep in his soul and it consumed his mind instantly.
Naka or any other mortal couldn’t hear it because it was the spirits who beat it only for his hearing as he as the King of Semeke was one of them.
He, couldn’t communicate directly with the gods and the spirits who were their messengers, but Tiboki who they bade him for, could, and dexterously at that.
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