Royal Linkage

HLANO

Everyone ran into their homes to hide, my mother carried the prophetess's body to our house and laid her down in the kitchen, knowing nobody would hurt her with all the markings on her body, everyone knew what they meant and knew the price of ever harming a healer.

She grabbed some of her weapons from the display and dragged us into her room, she pushed aside the heavy statue they had in the room, all I saw behind it was the wall, until she began pushing at the wall too, grunting with laboured breath she kept pushing at the wall, her feet kept slipping and all I remember was the rebel crying sounding louder and closer, I looked behind me and stared out into the darkness, waiting to die. When I eventually broke out of my trance and looked at my mother again, the wall had begun moving, I ran over and helped her push, eventually revealing a small opening, like a hole in the wall. I didn't realise we even had, the tunnel was dark and cold with spiderwebs everywhere she shoved us in there and started pushing the wall back into place, I didn't even realise that she wasn't joining us until I heard the wall slide shut. I banged on the wall so hard the bones in my fingers broke, I begged her not to leave us, for her to come back "Mama! Mama! Mama! Bowa! Ska tsamaya!" (Don't leave) but she was long gone, and my pleas began to die out as the sound of screams of my people and the laughter of the rebels became more prominent.
I held my young brother close, I wasn't sure who I was trying to console but I figured he needed me.

All night we stood in the dingy hole, cried and lost pieces of ourselves. All night we listened to the slaughter of the aunts who raised us, friends we played with, people we knew, our people. The screaming began to blend together to form a melody, a sorrowful melody, the song of darkness. 

Then a different cry sounded, the kind that resonated throughout all the kingdoms because it was so mighty, someone was sounding the Kingdoms Horn. The horn was huge, I'd seen it once at the king's compound, every compound had one, it was only ever used in these situations, few people knew how to blow that thing, when I heard it I knew my mother was alive and the hunters were returning because they couldn't have missed it, the horn was too powerful.

Safe to say the rebels wouldn't be pleased. They began setting the houses on fire and turning what was once my village into a grave. They stopped raping the women they'd found and slit their throats instead, I knew they were dead because one second they were screaming and abruptly they'd just stop. Quickly the song of their inhuman pleas for the men to stop died and the hunters cry could now be heard, they were here, they would save what was left of us but the smoke from the fire was replacing the air in the hole and making it impossible to breath, there was barely any space at all and it wouldn't take long for it to kill us.

The rebels decided they'd had enough and now seemed like a good time to leave, but not before they got to the rat that ended their fun. They followed the sound of the horn, even though it only sounded once, it was easy to pinpoint where it had originated, my mother was no runner, instead of leaving the compound, she stayed to protect the women there, knowing she'd put them in danger. She wasn't weak either, she took down fifteen of them before they laid a hand on her, and that's all they needed, they knocked her to the ground and tied her up, threw her over one of their shoulders and left the compound, just as the hunters made it into the kingdom.

The wall began moving again and I thought my mother was back, when it finally opened I carried my younger brother out, he'd already passed out and although he was unconscious, I knew he was far from dead, he had the heart of a lion, he wouldn't die on me. But I could barely breathe myself and once I'd handed him to my dad, I fell to knees and coughed all while grasping for air, my dad carried us both out of the house, I couldn't get my breathing under control or stop coughing, I wanted to stay awake and help my dad who was trying to wake my brother, but I was so dizzy.
After what felt like hours, I stopped coughing and almost immediately my brother woke up, grasping for air and once he had enough of it in his lungs, he let out a horrifying scream, I'd never seen so much fear in his eyes.
My father carried us and we all went to look for my mother, I understand why he took us with, the last time he left us, he damn near lost us but oh I wish he would've left us.

We looked everywhere but we couldn't find her, she wasn't in the kings compound or anywhere else in the village, we searched the best we could, we looked everywhere and turned that village upside down but couldn't seem to locate her, eventually we went back to the compound so we could rest but when we arrived everyone looked at us with such sorrow that I knew she was gone, but I knew she died so all the other villagers could live, there would be nobody left if it weren't for her, what I couldn't understand was since we had all lost something or someone, why people would look at us with such pity.
Eventually someone came us to and told my father where her body was, suggested he go alone but he wouldn't let us out of his sight. We all went behind the compound where the exist was to see a large crowd had formed near the big tree that was a gateway into the kingdom was, we made our way to the centre and finally saw what everyone was looking at and why my father shouldn't have brought us with.
 
They didn't rape her, no that would've been too kind. Their manhood's were too precious for her, but their knives weren't. They ripped her dress to shreds and mercilessly thrusted their vile weapon up her canal messily.
They ruined her.
But that was not enough, she had dared to swing a weapon at them, the consequences had to be far greater for her, her death had to be painful, so they skinned her face and arms like you would an animal then left the skin hanging off her body.
They dragged her to the tree that marked the entrance of our kingdom and hung her up on the tree where her soul finally left her body before they left and were never heard from again.

That's how we found her. My father was never the same, none of us were.