As had been agreed, Kisita was obligated to go to the capital of the Kingdom of Egypt. Emperor Nsemi made sure nothing would happen to the daughter he declared to be his pride and joy. Indeed, a small army of forty warriors and fifteen servants from Kongo would escort the princess to the Nile Valley, and the pharaoh would put three ships at her disposal for this venture.
Kisita bade farewell to her people, whom she would surely never see again. If Nsemi was revered as a god in Kongo, then Kisita was its angel. Nzuzi, her biological mother and the emperor's lawful wife, urged her to be an exemplary woman, loving, and a helpful ambassador for her native land.
The three ships left the Kongo coast for the pharaoh's country, with a single planned stopover at the great port of Senegal, the halfway point. The Lioness and her men were already there, disguised as simple merchants.
When the three Egyptian ships arrived to stock up on food for the rest of the voyage, the port's merchants rushed to the quay. A few soldiers and crew members from the princess's ships got off to explore the area and make purchases in the great port's market. That's when Shiwa and her men surreptitiously captured some of them, in order to steal their uniforms and, in that way, infiltrate the princess's boats. Once on board, they poisoned all the drink containers with Nswadi, and then they waited.
The ships took to the sea again, heading towards the Egyptian port. Two days later, when most of the ships' passengers were incapacitated by the terrible poison, unable to lift a finger, a couple of hours before they were all dead, Shiwa and her men took control of the three boats. They threw all the passengers into the sea, dead or alive, such that only Kisita remained, perishing in her royal cabin. Shiwa entered it. The princess was lying on the bed, still conscious but no longer strong enough to scream for help, when she turned to see the intruder. She understood that this masked woman who was approaching her meant to do her no good.
"What do you want from me?" she moaned.
"Do you even know who I am?" Shiwa asked, full of arrogance.
"I'll give you everything you want, if you save me," implored the princess.
"That would be very surprising to me. Even all the gold in your empire would not satisfy me," she replied mockingly.
"My father, the Emperor of Kongo, will do whatever you demand to save my life."
"Look at me, Kisita," said Shiwa, taking off her mask.
"Nzambi ya mpungu! How is this possible?" she cried, stunned.
YOU ARE READING
The Vehicle Of The Living, Part One
AventuraLiza discovers in her late mother's suitcase an object linked to the extinct clan of leopard men, the most fearsome assassins of their era. So begins a quest that will arouse malicious attention from the four corners of the world, and raise questio...
