Reluctant Phoenix

It is the beginning of the 18th century in East Africa, and just living past 5 years is something to celebrate. Zalika is looking forward to the naming ceremony, where she will get her adult name and be presented to the people with a name of her own.

Her father and most of the village men had been lured away by a ruse. The riders came from the south with skin so light she thought they might be ghosts. Their speech sounded hard and brittle to her. When her father returned, the raiders were gone, the village was burning, and only the youngest of his children remained, her world shattered.

Zalika could not have imagined there was anything left to take from her until her father's grief drove him to something that could not be undone and would take what remained of her childhood, her future, and her humanity.

What happens when the Phoenix does not want to be reborn? Zalika, changed by magic intended to bring her mother back from the dead, is left to find out.

This is a fantasy, but I have worked to get the history correct with some creative license to tell the story. About this time, the Dutch Africans conducted their last raid up into what is now Kenya. The War of Spanish Succession is feeding the golden age of piracy. By the end of the story, that war will end, and the Spanish Inquisition will begin. My characters have no important role in any of these, but they must live with the opportunities and consequences of a war that touched most of the world.

There are no graphic descriptions of sex anywhere in this story.

This is an adventure story and includes violence and cruelty.

This was written without AI.

I do use computer proofreading tools that use AI. I don't know of any that don't use AI.