The Conqueror Series

Warriors 10

   On the dry land, beside the sea in the North, Gizza had woken up and was scared to find herself in the midst of Northern soldiers. She looked beside her and saw the Queen of Arika still lying on the ground with her eyes closed. She felt her stomach and saw it was stitched. She knew the soldiers helped her. She remembered what happened and how Zina stabbed her.

"Lay still. You still need some rest" said one of the soldiers.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked. Her eyes going from the face of one soldier to the other.

"Our commander asked us to" the soldiers said and left, exposing Davi who was standing at their back. Gizza was now staring at Davi. She began to cry. Davi went closer to her and bent over her. "It is alright" he said. But Gizza was shaking her head and crying her eyes out. Davi knew she was terribly feeling guilty but there was nothing to be done.

"You saved me" Gizza continued to cry.

"I did. Because I love you I saved you. If I did wrong by doing so then may the gods judge me" said Prince Davi.

"I killed thousands of people in the West. I killed thousands of innocent people. I killed your father.  Because of me your mother is like this" Gizza continued to weep. Davi stood up on learning that his father was dead and walked away from Gizza who continued to cry.

                  ****

In the palace of Kanju, dead bodies littered everywhere; both the bodies of maids, female and male slaves, bodyguards and ministers. Zina was now seated on the ground with tears in her eyes. The few remaining slave women who won the fight against the slave women that started the fight stood beside her with wounds on their bodies. Nabel walked down from the steps and was approaching Zina. The few slave women drew their swords to stop her but Zina asked them to stop. "I know who she is" said Zina.

"You know me?" Asked Nabel.

"Yes. You betrayed Gizza. I witnessed as you rode away with the Prince in the palace of Arika" said Zina.

"He betrayed me too and was coming to destroy you, Gizza and the rest of you at the site. What happened?" Asked Nabel. Zina stood up and walked away. "Tell me what bloody happened?! Shouted Nabel.

"Everybody is dead. Gizza is dead, Prince Davi is drowned and the Queen of Arika is dead. I killed them all by myself" said Zina.

Nabel drew her sword and said, "then you have me to fight to finish. Prince Davi was mine to kill not yours"

Zina chuckled sadly and reminded Nabel that soon the Western soldiers would sweep into the Kanju palace. "Fighting for love is not it but fighting for survival. We need to leave Kanju and across the sea" said Zina as she mounted a horse. The rest mounted theirs too. Nabel contemplated on whether to follow them. If she didn't the Western soldiers would come in and apprehend her. She mounted a horse and they rode out of the palace.

Not long after they left the Western soldiers in their thousands broke into the palace, in the company of the king if Kanju  but they found only the dead.

                      ****

When Zina and the rest reached the sea they dismounted their horses and sailed away in a ship. When the reached the site across the sea Zina asked the rest to rest while she gather firewood with Nabel for fire to keep them warm and decide on how to survive the hunger and soldiers of every kingdom on earth who was on their tail as bandits and rebels. 

Nabel and Zina while accessing the environment saw burnt sticks and tiny drops of blood on the ground. They saw footprints and Zina immediately rushed to the spot where she killed the Queen and Gizza but did not find their bodies. She was shocked. "This is where I killed Gizza and the Queen" she said while pointing towards the ground. Nabel approached her and said, "maybe wild animals ate their corpses already"

Zina was still confused when Nabel drew her sword and cut Zina's neck. Zina held her neck and fell. Nabel stabbed her again on the stomach, saying, "Davi was not yours to kill but mine to eliminate. Gizza was like a sister to me but you killed her" she drew out the sword from Zina's belly and she fell and died. Nabel went back to the rest and boldly told  them she had killed Zina and if they weren't comfortable with that they should kill her too. The ladies looked at one another but no one made a move to kill Nabel. Nabel became their leader that day as they continued to make plans on how to survive. Their aim was no longer to fight men but to escape being arrested by the soldiers of the North, West or any Kingdom interested in ending their existence.

                     ****

However something strange was beginning to happen in each kingdom of the earth. Slave women were now destroying palaces and escaping to join Nabel and the rest across the sea in the name of Gizza. To them Gizza was their goddess and they believed so much in her cause. The phrase " _all men must die__* " became a world terror. Kingdoms were heavily under threat as hundreds of thousands of slave women broke out of their prisons, killed as many men as they could, took as many gold and provisions as they could before joining Nabel and the rest in the name of Gizza. When the first thousands of slave women joined Nabel and the rest they were made to believe that Nabel was Gizza simply to keep their courage alive. Nabel was not expecting this and as more slave women joined their movement Nabel reintroduced the phrase again and this time it was " _Every Living Man Must Die"_