The Legend of Cush

King' Isasda's Cruel Reign

 Chapter 8: King Isasda’s Cruel Reign

Meanwhile, King Isasda’s highhanded rule has thrown the whole of Alonika kingdom into desolation, and the height of his cruelty and insanity is on display. The conquered citizens of Alonika are subjected to a more brutal form of oppression by Isasda and his henchmen and the hounds released from the Underworld to Queen Aqamasi. These human-beasts are bloodsuckers, lord Memuka’s terror gang which he uses to control the underworld. They ordinarily appear human but can transform into wolves in minutes and they kill swiftly with their sharp teeth and claws.  

It is these hounds Aqamasi controls and is using atrociously to terrorize Alonika. She will frame up old an enemy, falsely accused him or her by making unfounded claims off wrongdoing and have such a person hauled forcibly before King Isasda who will sit in judgment in favor of the Queen. One day she caught up with one of the very noble lords of Alonika, Malada, among the wealthy of Alonika and a despiser of Aqamasi before her sudden rise as queen and the new it bestows status. Malada was away when Isasda invaded the kingdom, on hearing the sad news he stayed away for long but he couldn’t bear to remain in exile forever and he decided to come home.  So on this day, they cross paths with Queen Aqamasi, and like in the old days he paid him no attention, but Aqamasi took that as a slight on her new status as Queen of Alonika and immediately ordered his roving hounds to arrest Malada and take him to the palace.

Malada didn’t resist the arrest, and as they got to the palace Aqamasi reported to the king that the man standing before him insulted her which is a lie. But before long the palace was filled by the citizens, it was a rebellion and it’s against the very strict autocratic rule of Isasda. The King for once followed his mind or perhaps he saw that touching a man he knew did not commit the offense his wife is accusing him of will turn out bad for him, so he fined  Malada two ounce of gold and sent palace guards to go with him and get it. But it was just to make sure he gets home safely without Aqamasi’s intervention. It was one of the rogue nobles who intervened and fortunately,Isasda was in a merry mood as he listens to what his noble said. To kill Malada it might just mean to kill everyone. “Look outside”, he said, and he lifted his eyes to find the outside of the palace filled with people. But she wasn’t happy with the noble and her husband thereafter and it resulted in a marital problem that strained their marriage till she ran to Memuka while the war was raging without a word to the King, her husband.

From that day whoever stands in her disfavor, she summarily executed without the King’s consent either beheading on the guillotine, thrown down from a high cliff or cast into a heated oven all done secretly by his hounds. While she carried out her own evil Isasda was on his toes how to secure his kingdom from the danger of attack. As the king and queen spoil Alonika and murder their citizens, Young Alonika’s fled the kingdom and took up abode in the woods, many crossing to Matella, some to their neighbors to the south and west and some yet still formed resistance army and occasionally carried out raids in the Throne city, targeting and killing Alonikans who had conspired with the rule of Isasda to destroy their people. When finally they heard the news of Adida’s return and that he is in Matella, all found their way to Matella and were part of the army that crossed into Alonika to dislodge Isasda and his men.

The dance of the maidens, a cultural hallmark of Alonika, done every year, the only week of peace that brings respite from Isasda’s cruelty witnessed by the citizens lasted briefly after Isasda’s costly victory over Matella has evaporated, and on Alonika is let loosed the feverous dogs of war commanded by a vicious giant of a man and a sorcerer let loose on a people who formerly took her for nothing of worth and despised. Countless human sacrifices mostly of the once-proud maidens of Alonika to the god of war Zo are carried out everyday masterminded by the magician Itamadi whose counsel Isasda leaned on heavily more than his sense of thought. One day, an escapee, who crossed the hallowed Lake Tana to Matella, told a story to his captives begging for his life.

He said King Isasda and Queen Aqamasi have turned Alonika into a graveyard and further illustrated. “On this fateful day’, he narrated, ‘Isasda and has train were passing by and witnessed a pregnant woman whose time of labor came suddenly as she was about in the streets, and she went to labor surrounded by other mothers, and when Isasda looked and saw the unusual gathering, stooped his train and they looked in and lo and behold a woman gives birth to a child. When Isasda learned of the s*x to be a male, he yanked the boy from her mother, and as the mother went following him crying for her child, he commanded one of his guards to slay her and took the infant away. Alonika is hell and unlivable. We need help, and fast”, he concluded. He was let into Matella as a refugee.

King Isasda went home with the baby and commanded Aqamasi to breed the child for him.

“Queen Aqamasi”, he bellowed, brandishing the crying infant in the air like a weapon, “This Child is a sacred property of the god Zo. Take diligent care and nurture him and whatsoever is needed, ask, and it shall be given.

“Thereafter we shall hand him over to Itamadi who will turn him into a weapon of war and he shall liberate my kingdom when my bones are tired.”

Queen Aqamasi took the child, quieted him, and said, “See, in him flows the blood of a true Alonikan, how so strong and full of life, lucky are you this day, child. It is done, my lord.” She handed the child to a maid, who walks away with the child into the spacious palace.