Zimatha

My room had a simple kama, a stool, a cloth covering the entrance and a satchel full of clothes. The steward who had led me here told me that meals were served in the large room with tables and stools that we had passed on the way to my room. Mindlessly I noticed the women and young children who were in the other rooms. The steward told me they were refugees; most slaves liberated from the Vukutu and tribal vicinities that insisted on keeping slaves despite it being illegal. And some were ran away child brides.

“Some are just women running away from cruel husbands and relations. They will be trained and either become a clerk or a soldier or a steward like myself.”

I nodded to show her I was listening. Ayamba. Maybe I should have gone with him. The steward showed me my room and left. Would he return? If he didn’t…no don’t think that. Maybe I should have hugged him twice. I pulled my stool to the window. Ayamba was already gone. I starred at the river to the west of the compounds before me. “Life is unpredictable as a river, sometimes out of nowhere the course changes.” Nyauzemb’s swam in my mind. I had no idea what she meant. No idea where my life would take me. I had lost my past. I was not satisfied with the future I was about to build because Aya would not be in it. He, the man I thought was the personification of megalomania.

“I didn’t see you at supper.”

I turned to face the speaker, she was a young woman not much older than I.

“I didn’t feel like eating.” I said.

She sat on my kama. “Who was the guy who escorted you here?”

I made no reply.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“Look I don’t know who you are and I don’t feel…”

“How rude of me. I am Tinashe. I am in the room to the right.”

“I am Zimatha. He is my friend.”

“Your friend is an elder protégé. I could tell from the red robe he had on.”

“Why were you asking me if you knew the answer?”

Tinashe laughed at this. “You look like someone who needs company to take her mind off things. Have you seen the water fall outside?”

I shook my head.

“Let me show it you.”

“Maybe another time.” I feigned a smile.

“Alright Tomorrow then. Good night.” Her footsteps trailed off, each step less louder than the last till silence returned.

The Phoka lieutenant knelt, his nose leaning on mine, I tried to look at the ground I was seating on but I could not. Reluctantly I looked at him.

“Tomorrow you will cry to all your ancestors to save you from the pain you will feel.”

I starred him down, hiding the fear inside me from my eyes. A smile stretched his lips. He withdrew his head. I looked down at the restraints holding me against the pole.

“Why? What have I done to you?” I asked making my voice sound innocent.

“You and your father spread that vile disease killing our loved ones.” He glanced down at me. I felt so small against his height. “Tomorrow I will make you bleed just like my sister bled because of that disease of yours.”

I woke up with a start. Someone was standing beside my kama with a dagger. I jumped out of kama missing their attempt to plunge the dagger into my heart. It was Tinashe. She turned, her cheerful disposition was gone in its place was an emotionless expression. She lunged towards me, swiping the knife towards my heart. I blocked her attack with my left arm. I kicked her down with my legs. In the fall, she dropped the knife. She rushed towards it, I held her arm preventing her from reaching it. She elbowed my stomach making me let her go. She had taken the knife. By the time she turned to stab me with it. I had taken the stool nearby. I hurled it into her head with all my might. I did this twice till she passed out. I rushed to her limp body. Taking her left hand, I held it to the moonlight through my window. Her wrist had a pynthon inscribed in circular bumps on her skin. She was Amanda. I run to Elder Zidana’s house through the midnight light. I was planning on banging on his door, when a guard grabbed me. Breathlessly I explained to him and his colleague, who joined us, why I needed to see the Elder. They looked at each other.

“She is still in my room. She could escape at any moment.”

They knocked on his door. As soon as I told him what happened. He told his guard to bring the assassin to his quarters.

“I don’t understand, I already delivered the cure why would they want me dead.” I said.

“It means the person thinks you know something that could reveal their identity.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“No, this person wouldn’t risk an attack in Mchengautuwa if you knew nothing.” Zidana told me that he thought someone in the council was working with Khataza. “Do you remember anyone from the council meeting Khataza.”

I closed my eyes and thought back. I remembered no elder coming to meet Khataza. I shook my head.

“Okay.” He got up and left the living room. I drew my breath in, it was still erratic. Zidana returned with his wife who looked still sleepy.

“What a healer can do with the body, I can do with the mind.” Shamiso said. She motioned me to follow her. Zidana stayed in the living room. She took me through the corridor into a room, with a Kama, Kalimba and several herbs on the wall. She told me to lay down on the kama. I did. I saw her take a herb I did not recognise and she light it. As the grey smoke rose through the room, she began playing a melody on the Kalimba.

“Focus on my voice.” She said. I closed my eyes. “Khataza had many meetings. But surely one of them must have stuck out. The person maybe bore an air of importance, maybe they looked very uncomfortable.”

Khataza’s image appeared in my mind. “Yes I remember. There was a man who came alone. He wore rugged clothes like the Vukutu but his skin it showed that he was well taken care of. He seemed angry that I had seen him, he was yao.”

“You’ve seen all the elders, was this man there?”

I shook my head. “I am sorry.”

“No you’ve done well.” She said. She helped me up.

“It’s almost dawn but you can sleep in our spare room if you like.”

“I can’t sleep after what happened. If I had not woken up, she would have killed me.”

Shamiso stroked my arm. “You are safe here.”

“I just want to know if the guards found her.” I stood up. We went to the living room, Zidana and the guard who had been sent to collect the assassin were talking. Zidana dismissed the guard.

“Where is she?” I asked my eyes darting from the guard to Zidana.

“She was not there.” Zidana said gently.

“I should have killed her.” I muttered.

“They are still searching for her throughout Mchengautuwa.”

“If she is Amanda, she has already left Mchengautuwa by now. I wish I had noticed it before. She was so friendly and she tried to get me to follow her the water fall at the river, to be alone with her I guess. Who goes to a river at night? That should have been the indicant.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You handled yourself pretty well evidenced by you surviving.” Elder Zidana said. “How did the memory recovery go?”

I was about to answer when I noticed he was looking at his wife.

“Very well. I think Khataza was working with a clerk. She said the clerk is yao. So Atusunje’s clerk.” His wife retorted.

“You should go rest.” Zidana said his eyes meeting mine.

“I can’t sleep. I am still in shock.”

“Me too. The shelter we sent you to was supposed to be safe.” He lowered himself into a stool. “And the Council is supposed to be impenetrable.”

His wife left.

“And Utawaleza is supposed to be off bounds and yet here we are at war with metal men.”

I looked up at the grey haired man. The words pouring out of him seemed like thoughts and not segments of conversation. His wife returned with three cups placed on a wooden tray.

“It’s a herbal infusion should help all of us relax.” She said giving Zidana then me a cup.

I sipped the sweet smelling drink. After sometime, my heart was beating normally and my mind beginning to function again. It was dawn, but I went to take a nap.

I awoke too close to noon for my liking. I walked into the living room.

“I wish you woke me.” I said to their maid.

“Mistress said you needed your rest. Lunch will be served shortly.”

She exited the sitting room. Elder Zidana walked in from his study. The walls of the living room were decorated with manganja art predominantly, images of Makewana and Mbona. But I also saw shona, tumbuka and ronga art.

“Good you are awake.” He said with a smile. He was seated behind the table at the centre of the room. “We are scheduled to meet the Council immediately after lunch so they can give your immunity.”

I nodded my head. After lunch, which was millet nsima, cow offal and some vegetables. We walked to the Court room. It was filled with the fifty elders. The woman who spoke for them in my first meeting with them, did so this time too. She gave me a piece of paper that signified my immunity from all legal persecution. I walked out of the courtroom with a small smile.

“Congratulations.” Zidana said shaking my hand. He had walked out just after me. We exited the courtroom together. “So what are your plans? I was certain you would ask to leave Utawaleza and go to Zamania.”

“I want to be a soldier if it’s allowed.”

“After what you went through to bring the plant cure here, it will be allowed for you.” He smiled down at me.

My eyes focused on the dirt road beneath our feet. After what Ayamba and I had gone through together would it also be allowed that I should be his wife. I turned my gaze to the different stone buildings we passed by. Why would they want him to connect with another woman when he had already connected with me? Yes I was criminal but maybe that would show the outside world that Mchengautuwa was for everyone. That the elders could represent the concerns of all mzati. I drew my breath in, exhaled releasing my foolish thoughts.

“Tomorrow I would like to go Songani. I want to help them fight the outbreak. They are greatly overwhelmed. I know a little about herbs because of umm…Khataza.”

He turned to face me. “It’s too dangerous. The assassin is still out there. We don’t know how many they are.”

“I can handle myself. Moreover those people need me. It’s partly my fault they are suffering.”

“I will let you go, if you take two mlenje with you.”

I nodded in agreement.

At dawn the next day, me and my escorts left for Songani.

Creator's Note

Do you think Zimatha has changed significantly? which version of her do you prefer?

What do you think she should to make sure she ends up with Ayamba?

Do you ship her and Ayamba, if so why? if not, why not?

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