Mfecane: The chronicles of the lioness and the ten orbs-Book1: First Encounters

Chapter 10: The usurper's challenge

The doorway at Muska reminded Mekonnen of the ancient artefact they discovered at one of Ib Urni’s mines. The inscriptions on the doorway were exactly like those on the artefact. Moreover, Mekonnen realized that the same was true of the gateway they left behind on Bothibelong.

A poorly clad monk entered the most sacred chamber at the Shrine of the Ancients. He had a terrible scar running across his left eye. The monk seemed overjoyed to see Yakuna Amlak. However, he gave Mekonnen a suspicious
look.

“Welcome back your holiness. I knew that you have not forsaken us. Most of my brothers lost their faith in the Many Faced One. I am now his only loyal servant even though these hooligans keep on terrorizing me” said the monk, as a piece of glass shattered outside the Holy of Holies at the shrine of ancients.

The monk quickly left the chamber to check what could be the matter.

“So I see you have visitors, old monk,” said the impertinent outlaw.

“Or are they your new recruits into your heretic ways? Have you forgotten our emperor’s decree?” The outlaw’s comrade taunted the old monk as Mekonnen and Yakuna Amlak stood behind the old monk.

“You should not have come out. I can handle them. I am afraid now your lives are in danger.” the old monk turned to his guests.

“Fear not. These are nothing but mere vermin that will be crushed through the powers of Amagi Naka; the Nameless One.” said Yakuna Amlak as he started to say an incantation that bonded the band of temple robbers in a spell that changed them into a pillar of stone.

The old monk gave his guests clothes that matched those worn by the few drifters, thieves and outlaws that now call this cursed hamlet home. Now Mekonnen and Yakuna Amlak looked like two drifters taking refuge in the Shrine of the Ancients. One of the outlaws
reminded Mekonnen of Kabede Sium Zagwe, the day he challenged Menelik Berhane nem Ahde for the right to sit on the Uluzian throne.

Mekonnen and Menelik had just returned from Ib Urni after an expedition to investigate an anomaly that appeared in a subterranean cathedral deep in one of the mines. In the subterranean cave there was an artefact built in the same fashion as the one on Bothibelong.

Next to the artefact’s chamber, in a maze of four connected catacombs there were huge codices laden with interesting astrological and scientific information. The codices written in the now dead ezeg language once spoken by the ancient astrologer priests of the Uluz were laden with unknown treasures.

Long lost star-maps chronicling positions of portals that allowed travellers to navigate enormous galactic frontiers as simple as stepping through a door. Knowledge about
eons old technologies that could bend the fabric of time and space, allowing intergalactic nomads to hop from galaxy to galaxy in a blink of an eye.

Among all the scientists that accompanied the
emperor to the subterranean cathedral, Mekonnen was the only other soul that could read and speak in ezeg beside Emperor Menelik. The emperor commanded that all mining around the subterranean cathedral be
stopped at once and all unauthorized personnel to face persecution if found in the cathedral. The emperor appointed Mekonnen as the prime custodian of the texts.

When the expedition got back to Akash, they found that Kabede Sium Zagwe had challenged Menelik Berhane nem Ahde’s birthright as the supreme commander of the Uluzian Empire. The noble houses evoked the Sovereigns’ Duel to allow fate to choose a leader for the Uluz. At the end of the Hundred Years War, after peace was finally achieved, all the surviving noble houses of Uluz agreed that never again should an Uluz send his brothers into war against each other.

If anyone lays a claim to the throne, he must face the current ruler in a combat to the death. If he wins, the throne is his in keeping with the Uluzian adage that says you keep what you kill. The house of Zagwe was one of the greatest and feared houses among the noble houses of the Uluz. Their influence was second to that
of house Nem Ahde.