Zimatha

Elder Zidana's maid told me that the Elder wanted to speak to me in his study. I walked into the airy large room filled with books and three desks. I sat in front of Elder Zidana's Desk. He put the book he was reading away on the shelf behind him.

"Firstly, I wanted to tell you that the Clerk who put out a hit on you has been arrested. We are not sure yet but you should be safe from any assassination attempts. I hate to do this now. But I was supposed to do it a long time ago." He said. "Just that everything going on has distracted me. You care for Ayamba yes?"

Did he see us hugging? Was Ayamba going to be stripped of his appointment?

"I know you do. I know he cares for you. Would you like to marry him?"

I looked at the table between us. I wiped my sweaty palms against my robe.

"It was my understanding that a criminal like myself could not be an elder's wife."

He laughed. "But you are pardoned. What's your answer?"

"I would like to."

"Good. I think he would like to marry you too. Tomorrow at dusk, you will be escorted to the quarters of the female betrothed to prepare."

This could not be happening.

"You cannot tell him any of this. Understand?"

I nodded my head. "Thank you."

I saw Ayamba later that day. I wanted to tell him. But I did not. Talking about Khataza filled my heart with agony. Why was I even grieving my parents' killer.

The next month, Ayamba avoided me. I began to fear that he would be disappointed when he found out it was I who was his betrothed. Maybe he had someone else in mind. I went through beauty preparation. Each day I bathed in goat milk, making the pimples on my skin disappear. They wrapped my hair in honey, eggs, okra, aloe vera, papaya all separately at least four times in that month. What was the point of all this? Ayamba had probably found someone else. These thoughts and my own melancholia over losing Khataza numbed the excitement of my betrothal and possible wedding to one of the most powerful men in Utawaleza.

The smile on Ayamba's face when he saw it was I, who was his betrothed banished my insecurities. He did care for me.

"No honeycombs today?" I asked.

Ayamba who was lying beside me shook his head. "Not today, the day is sweet enough on its own. Don't you agree?"

My lips lifted into a smile, "Yes."

"For the last two months every time I thought of my engagement I imagined you as my betrothed. But I was so afraid to pray for it."

"I am surprised that Zidana chose me."

"I am glad he did."

I placed my closed fists at my waist. "Then why were you avoiding me for the last month?"

"I thought it would be someone else. Seeing you made me more attached to you and harder to accept that I would marry another."

He asked me about my plans to live with my aunt.

"Oh, I just said that to hide that I was your betrothed." I lowered myself , lying next to him. "At Chilema why did you run off when I held your hand. Did you find me repulsive?"

"No, of course not. We were both vulnerable . I feared it would endear me to you."

I clasped his hand. "After I return from visiting my aunt, and my siblings I will begin training to be a mlenje."

"Congratulations. I am leaving Utawaleza to be in Zamania."

"What for?"

"I can't discuss it yet." He stroked my cheek.

Our foreheads pressed against each other. "Will you be here when I return?"

"I hope so."

I was not looking forward to seeing my adoptive siblings and breaking the bad news of our father's death. Demba and Khanimambo accompanied me with Orama driving the cart. My first stop was at Khataza's eldest child. As soon as I entered her compound, she began to weep. I walked up to her, holding her arms once I reached her.

"No, tell me it isn't true." She wailed.

"We should go inside." I said leading her into the hut. I told her what our Father had been up to. "He told me to tell you he loved you and wished you had more time."

"I thought he would die like this" She wiped a falling tear. She sent word to her two other siblings to come. They arrived weeping as well. Nolitha, his youngest daughter rolled in the dusty ground weeping.

"So the rumours were true? He was the one who started the Ebola outbreak." Khataza's son said.

My eyes rested on the floor of Bubile's hut. "Yes."

"Chanda took deep root in his heart." Bubile lamented. "And now he has taken him from us."

I stayed with them for a fortnight, mourning with them. Then I left for my small mother's village.

My younger motherthought I had come to stay. I told her that I had not, that I had found a husband in Mchengautuwa and would build a life there.

"Is he a good man?"

"The best." I smiled.

She asked me what he did.

My eyes darted around her village taking in the circular huts. "He is an elder's protégé."

"That's wonderful."

"Would you like to join me in Utawaleza?"

"I will visit. My life is here."

"I understand. I will visit too. There is something else I need to tell you. Demba, Khani could you leave us alone?"

They both nodded and exited the compound. I told my younger motherhow her sister died, how Khataza adopted me and paid off her mpenza.

"That wicked man." She sobbed.

"He kept me well, treated me as his own."

"So the man who killed them, he is dead."

"He was executed a few weeks back."

I stayed with her for fortnight, then we began our journey back to Mchengatuwa. How was Ayamba? Was he well? Did Zidana crush the opposition against our union? Oh how I wished I had brown skin. I lowered my head to untie my sandals. An arrow hit the cart where I had just been. Orama halted the cart.

"Stay down."Demba said. She was lying down next to me. She threw an arrow in the direction of the arrow that had almost hit me. The sky filled with more arrows. Orama rushed towards the attackers with his machete.

"They are two archers," Khani said. She slowly jumped outside the cart. I reached into my saddle of blades, grabbed one. I threw a few while lying down in the cart.

Khani hurled a spear in the direction of the archers. I heard one of our attackers groan. The unharmed one kept firing arrows at us. Before Orama reached them, he cried out in agony an arrow had hit him. The onslaught of arrows had slowed down. Demba got up and fired two arrows at the assassin. She screamed and her body hit the ground.

Demba and Khani rushed out to the two assassins. One dead by Demba's arrow. The other one gasping for air.

Demba checked their wrists to confirm our suspicions. "Amanda. Naliwa does not want you to testify at the trial."

I went Orama. His leg was bleeding. After I treated his wound, he lay down in the cart, while Khani took over the cart.

"We are a night drive away Mchengautuwa." Khani said. "We have to power through the night. In Mchengatuwa we will be safe."

"I am sorry that I got you all in this trouble. I thought that since Naliwa was arrested we would all be safe."

"Don't worry about this. This is our job." Demba said.

My eyes rested on Orama who was sleeping.

"Are you looking forward to seeing Ayamba?" Demba asked.

I nodded my head.

"Why did you accept to be betrothed to him? "

She was trying to distract me form the chaos around us.

"He is kind, gentle, meek and brave."

"And very quiet." Khani said.

"Well not with me."

They both chuckled.

"We are happy for you. It was a good match." Demba said.

"I hope that the council thinks so too." I sighed. I told them about their prejudice.

"I remember a few years back they chose a blind Lozi girl to be an elder's protégé and there was backlash from the council and general population of Mchengautuwa." Khani said.

"I remember it was for the most silly of reasons. She will require a guide always. People hate what is different. Failing to realise we are just the same on the inside." Demba placed her hand on the cart's edge. "It will be okay though."

"Have you gotten any prejudice being a Akafula in the mlenje?" I asked.

"No, because Akafula are thought to have great aim so that stereotype worked in my favour. But otherwise I think I would have gotten a lot of opposition."

In the distance we could see the gate of Mchengautuwa. We had made it.