The Spear

The sun beat down on his back as he crested the last of the many hills that surrounded the outskirts of his homeland. After a decade in the west, his roots seemed far away. Just over five years in Harvard brought him degrees in international business and affairs. After that, four more years were spent in various hotspots the world over: Iran, Libya, the Sudan, the Congo. Wherever he thought his unique talents could help, he convinced, connived, and cajoled his way in to service there.

Now Kanu Ashanti found himself returning to the ancient kingdom of Axion. Nestled in between three massive plateaus at the heart of the Serengeti and constantly covered by a layer of mist trapped by its high walls, Axion was a land almost impossible to access by anyone not already aware of its presence. His people liked it that way. It allowed them to continue the ways of their tribes past down over hundreds of generations while calmly embracing the technologies brought to them from the outside world. Now every young tribesperson, man or woman, who chose to could make the long journey from their homes and out in to the world. Almost all returned. After all who would not want to return to the paradise of Axion?

Kanu, for one. In his ten years both in the Americas and worldwide, he realized his skills made him far and away one of the best negotiators and peacemakers the world could know. He felt those skills were necessary still in this modern world. The Cold War was far from over, and the new American leader, this Reagan, didn’t seem like the sort to end the conflict peaceably. Such a world needed peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers, the Christians said, though he did not always see it. Better someone who knew the harm of war and the blessings of peace to be the judges of the world stage.

His first duty though was to the people of Axion, and so his return.

The valley spread out for several miles. Several villages lay near the edges of the plateaus. They formed a loose circle around the central city of Zimba Wei, capital of their ancient land. Zimba Wei proudly called itself the last unconquered land of Africa. Although the slavers approached its borders on numerous occasions, none were ever able to get past the outer limits of the city and so it remained free of all outsiders it did not choose to let in to its land. The great city remained as unspoiled as the jungle around it.

Though he lived most of his young life in Zimba Wei after he was sent to the study at the feet of the Most Wise, he still carried fond memories of his first few years in the small village of Azalin. The village lay just a few hundred feet away from the south wall’s highest peak. It was poor by the standards of Axion, but the people were a joyous, loving lot just the same. He remembered fondly playing games of soccer and elephant and mouse with his friends. Those were good days, simple days.

Now as he crested the ridge, he thought about those days with a smile on his face. It would be good to see Azalin again. To see the faces of the children he knew and now their children as well. His duties in Zimba Wei could wait a few more days while he enjoyed his childhood home.

He looked down at his tiny city. Within a moment, his demeanor turned from proud and happy to angry and fearful. A smoldering ruin lay at the plateaus base. He recognized the outlines of a few of the huts, places where family and friends once made their homes. All of them were gone now, replaced by cinders and ash some still burning.

Kanu hustled down the ridge as fast as he could. His feet somehow remembered all the paths perfectly as they had so many times before even with hiking boots covering them. He moved like the leopard, sure of foot and fast as can be. In only moments, he was at the base of the massive plateau. He hurtled towards the village at speeds even he was unaware his body could reach.

His path to Azalin, a trip that might take a hearty man a better part of a day took him only seven minutes. He paid the time no heed. His only concern lay in the pile of ash he once called home.

Memories of his mother were few as she died when he was but a small child, and his father he never knew. But two brothers and four sisters had once called this land home and now all were gone. With the strength of ten men, he threw the charred wood and the blackened remains of the thatch roof away from the smoking pile. He needed to know. He had to know.

He found the first corpse a moment later. It was little more than a skeleton in charred animal skins. The bones were brittle and burnt, but it was what lie beneath them that tore at Kanu’s heart. He found the bullets underneath the rib cage. He had seen the shells of the AK-47 many times in many lands. Never had he thought he would see it in his own home.

He struggled past the body and back in to the wreckage. He hurled the fallen pieces of the house to the side with a furious might. In only moments, he cleared the rest of the domicile and found two more corpses.

One was clearly an adult, female from the look of the surviving clothes. But the body in her hands could only be that of a child. His body was less damaged than the others as his mother obviously tried to protect him from the fire with the only thing she could, her own body. It had been to little avail. He was burnt and gone as well. Kanu doubted the boy could have been more than five. He only prayed the smoke had killed him before the tire reached his flesh.

Kanu could not bring himself to cry for his village. It was gone, and everyone he knew here was gone with it. He knew it. He could feel it in his heart. Even so, the tears wouldn’t flow. It was like something was stopping them. Something pushed at him to get to his feet, to move forward, to hunt down and find who did this. But he could not cry.

“You are not one for despair, are you?”

The voice came from behind him. Kanu turned, but saw no one.

“You are too strong for that, aren’t you? Even if you wanted to let the weakness in you could not. You are more than fear. You are more than weakness.” Again the voice came from behind Kanu, but when he turned no one was to be seen.

“Who are you?”

The sun shimmered brightly above and its rays pierced through the smoke in the air. Kanu found himself blinded by the light. When his vision recovered, he found a woman standing before him. She wore nothing and seemed unconcerned with her nakedness. Her skin was the color of ebony and her hair fell in wild tangles all the way to her lower back.

“I come to guide you to your future, Kanu, son of Axion. Your victories have been great, but now you must be a legend. For your people, for your land, and for yourself.”

“Who are you?”

The woman walked up to him and caressed Kanu’s cheek. Her touch was soft as a breeze. “I have many names to many people, but I am mother of them all.” She leaned in even closer and Kanu felt her nakedness pressed against his shirt and pants. Her face hovered only millimeters from his right ear. “But I come to you not as a mother, but as a lover.” Her teeth lightly grazed his earlobe, and Kanu felt his body lose control.

Despite everything around him, despite every thought as a rational human being, he could not resist his hunger for this mysterious woman. He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her lips to his own. He felt her hand travel down his chest. The buttons of his shirt popped open with her lightest touch. The very air crackled with electricity as their tongues danced and their bodies pressed against one another. Before she even reached for his belt, he was lost in her body. His passion boiled over and his mind became weak with lust. Only flashes of images came to him as he thrust in to her again and again. His body exploded and his mind went white.

*****

“Boy! Boy! Wake up, boy!”

Kanu blinked his eyes open to see the face of a craggy-skinned, old bearded man only inches above him. Kanu started back and hit his head against a rock.

The old man stood upright. Kanu rubbed the bag of his head as he pulled himself up in to a sitting position. Kanu looked around himself. He was in a clearing that he didn’t quite recognize. His body still seemed to throb with energy in the afterglow of his coupling with the unknown woman.

“Where am I?”

The old man smiled a toothless grin. “You’re in the true heart of Axion, boy. This is where the tree of life first bloomed and where the first evil too flight. It’s a place of contradictions, but in those contradictions, power arises. That power courses through your soul, boy.”

“What are you talking about, old man?”

“You’ve been given a gift. She only grants her powers to a chosen few. Now you will find yourself with the strength of a rhino, the speed of the cheetah, the stamina of an ox. It’s been decades since she last gave her gift. You should be honored.”

Kanu climbed to his feet and waved the old man away. “Enough of your foolishness, elder or not, be gone with you.”

The old man shook his head. “Don’t be a fool, boy. Look around you. Is this the land remember?” He gestured at Kanu’s legs. “Look at what you wear.”

Kanu found that although he was dressed, he wore clothes like he never saw before. A sleeveless tunic and a loose loincloth made up the whole of the ensemble. Both were made from some kind of tanned animal hide he didn’t recognize. “Where did this…?”

“Gifts given to you by your lady friend. The garments have been worn by many great leaders and warriors. They keep the wearer from death at any person’s hands.”

“All this mystic mumbo jumbo is great, but why am I here? I need to return to my village.”

“Azalin is gone, but its killers still roam free. I have last gift from her to give you before you go, boy.” The old man hurried off in to the brambles around the clearing. He pushed them aside as if looking for something. “Now where’d I leave it,” he mumbled to himself as he continued to search.

“Who is she?” Kanu said. “I felt like I knew her. And when we... coupled… it felt like I traveled to another world.”

The old man looked at him. “If you’ve never felt that before, you must not have been doing it right.” He cackled madly. “She has many names, boy. Olapa, Mamlambo, Asase Yaa. Whatever the name, she is the goddess of this land. I like to think of her as Veldt. It’s a name the foreigners gave to our wilderness, but I think it fits her beautifully.”

The old man jumped as he shoved another patch of brambles aside. “Ha ha, here it is!” He yanked a spear from beneath the plants. He leaped out of the brambles and towards Kanu, the spear point aimed straight out.

The old man moved with surprising speed, but Kanu moved faster. He sprang away. The spear fell harmlessly to Kanu’s side. The old man cackled again as he held the spear out to Kanu, this time by the hilt.

“This spear was given to the queen Basheeba two thousand years ago by her lover from a land far away. It has been reforged time and again, but this ancient wood still holds in it great power. The spear of Zimba Wei will be your weapon and your totem. With it you can bring justice to this land and to all peoples. You are the Sagai.”

“Sagai?” He waved the spear in front of the old man. “This is a sagai, I am a man!”

“You are her Sagai, her spear of justice. It is your destiny, Kanu Ashanti.”

Kanu couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He wanted to scream his fury to the lands. Had the site of his village destroyed driven him mad? He looked at the spear in his hands. The blade was new, but the handle was like nothing natural. It seemed to be made of several woods fused together somehow. Some of the wood appeared fresh as the branches of a tree, while others appeared to be petrified and ancient.

He remembered the speed with which he avoided the spear’s point earlier. Could this old man be telling him the truth? “How do you know this? Who are you?”

The old man smiled another toothless smile. “I told you that it had been several decades since she chose her last champion. It was fifty-four years ago that Veldt took me in her arms and the spear was passed on to me. Now I pass it on to you, Kanu. I see greatness in you. You have already accomplished more than I could ever dream. As the Sagai you possess the power to finally unite the people in peace. I can see it before me as if in a vision.”

The old man shook his head. “But first must come vengeance.” He placed his hands on Kanu’s own as they still clutched the spear. Your village’s killers approach Zimba Wei as we speak. You know as well as I that they cannot be allowed in the great city.”

Kanu did not like the old man’s words especially his talk of some mystical destiny. But he was right about Zimba Wei. These killers could not be allowed inside.

“Where can I find them?”

“You do not need my help in that. Your senses are greater now than any cat. Head north to the city and you will find them quick enough.”

“I’m only one man! I don’t even know how many…”

“It doesn’t matter. You are the Sagai, none can stand before you.”

Kanu sighed. He could tell the old man was done helping him. “I will do this thing, but after this you and I will talk more. I have no desire to be your Sagai. My calling lies elsewhere.”

The old man patted him on the shoulder. “Keep your illusions if you must. Now go.” He turned and walked away. Again the sun seemed to blaze around him and the old man was gone.

Kanu wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home at this point, but like it or not, he knew he must continue. His people deserved vengeance and he had the power to grant it.

After a moment to check his bearings, Kanu started north towards Zimba Wei.

*****

The old man was right about one thing at least. The killers were far too easy to find. They made no effort to cover their tracks whatsoever as they cut a swath through the forest. Within an hour he was following easily behind them. Within two, he could smell, hear, and occasionally see them a few hundred yards ahead.

Kanu stuck to the shadows of the trees as he crept along behind them. He kept the spear strapped to his back as he leaped from one area of cover to another. He felt like a cross between a monkey and a cat, never before had he moved with such fluidity. As he trailed them, he kept track of their number as best he could. He counted at least twelve. All of them had the look of mercenaries and all but one were men. The woman seemed to be in the lead of the group or at least their guide. But it was her bearing and her features that disturbed Kanu most. She looked and carried herself like a native of Axion which proved that much more disturbing to Kanu.

The sun was fast approaching the west, and dusk would set in soon. Kanu drew the spear, readied himself, and started to close the distance between him and the mercenaries.

It didn’t take long. The mercenaries were brazen and loud. They obviously did not expect any kind of attack on their persons, let alone one from a man with only a spear.

By the time they realized the attack had been made, Kanu was pulling the spearhead from the throat of one man, twisting, and slicing it across the eyes of another. The spear’s blade was far sharper than any blade of which Kanu knew. It sliced through the back of another mercenary’s neck with ease, severing the spine before the man could even register the pain.

A pair of mercenaries finally brought their AK-47s up and opened fire. Kanu sprung forward and out of the way of their initial fire. He sprinted towards another cluster of three mercenaries. Only one of the gunmen stopped firing in time to save his three companions. The other rained hot lead in to his fellow mercenaries. As his magazine ran down, Kanu turned and hurled the spear. It imbedded in the man’s forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Kanu sprang towards the dead man and his ally. He caught the living man in the head with a kick. He felt the mercenary’s skull crack beneath the blow. The man fell to the ground dead as Kanu reached out, yanked the spear from the dead man with ease, and turned to the surviving mercenaries.

Bullets rained down on him. He felt the first round burst through his abdomen. Strikes to the arms, legs, chest, and neck followed. Kanu felt his body twist like a leaf in the wind before he fell to the ground.

“What is this fool?” a mercenary said. “Are these people psychotic enough to attack a fully trained mercenary unit with only a spear?”

“He killed seven of you,” the woman said. “So I have to say less psychotic more highly trained. We need to be on guard now. Even if he was alone, someone might have heard the shots.”

A mercenary, one of only two Caucasians in the party, walked over to their fallen attacker. “I’m gonna at least get me this bastard’s spear as a souvenir. Hold up for a second.”

The white man leaned down over Kanu and reached for the spear. As his hand’s touched the hilt, Kanu’s eyes sprang open.

Kanu gasped as air filled his lungs again. He twisted the spear up and around. The blade pierced the man’s throat. Kanu pushed the man’s corpse off the blade as he pulled himself upright.

“A devil!” Two mercenaries dropped their weapons and ran as they saw Kanu stand.

Kanu wiped the blood from his chest. He only managed to smear it across his skin, but it was obvious to all that watched the action that his wounds were gone.

Four men and the woman remained now. Kanu moved with lightning quickness as the dumbfounded men fought to bring their weapons up to fire. He slashed out as he closed the distance. The spear caught two men across the neck and chest before swiping down in to the third man’s rifle. The barrel sliced in two at the strike. Kanu twisted and kicked the fourth man in the gut as he gutted the second man with the spear. He brought the spear up and around to the fourth man and the blade cut clean through the man’s neck. His head and body fell to the ground separately.

The surviving male, the other Caucasian, backed away as the woman dragged her pistol from its holster.

Kanu reached out and ripped the pistol from her hand and threw it in to the forest. He reached out and grabbed the white man by the front of the shirt. “Why are you here?” he said in English. “Why do you defile this land with your presence?”

The man shook his head furiously. “It’s not me, man. I’m just here for the money. It’s her. Talk to her!”

Kanu dropped the man to the ground. He scurried away as Kanu turned his attention back to the woman.

“You are a native of Axion, are you not? Why would you bring destruction to your own people?”

The woman spit on the ground in front of him. “They are not my people,” she said. “They stopped being my people when they drove me from their villages. When they refused the changes I sought to bring.”

He held the spearhead to her throat. “Of what changes do you speak?”

“Modernization. The land in this valley is the most fertile in all of Africa. With the right crop we could make millions!”

“Right crop? I assume you’re not speaking of wheat or corn?”

She grinned and licked her lip. “We both know that, don’t we? Opium could make everyone in this valley very, very rich.”

Kanu brought the spear blade down and to her waist. He sliced through her belt with ease. He pulled it away, and her knife and empty holster fell to the ground. “What is your name?”

“Diana Xho.”

“A western name?”

“I gave up my foolish African name when I left this backwards world.”

Kanu nodded. “Diana Xho, the laws of Zimba Wei prevent a citizen from killing another. Though you have violated that law I cannot. You are exiled from Axion, forevermore. You will trouble this land and its people no more. You will tell any who think to enter this valley with malice that the Sagai stands ready to destroy them. Do you understand?”

She spit in his face. “I will take that as a yes. Go now before I have time to reconsider our laws.”

She glared at him for a few moments. Kanu stood his ground and waited for her to make a move towards him. Slowly, she backed away. She looked back at him for only a moment before she ran off in to the forest.”

Kanu looked down at the spear in his hands. Blood covered both his hands and the blade. He bent down and cleaned the blade on a dead man’s shirt before strapping the spear to his back.

Ten men were dead today, all by his hand. He wondered if that thought should bother him more than it dead. He felt nothing for the dead, as he was sure they felt nothing for their victims. The vengeance offered little to ease his anger and remorse, but he knew he had served them by stopping their killers from acting again.

He yanked a canteen from a dead man’s belt and set about washing the blood from his body, both his own at that of his victims. Today his work was done. But he was Sagai now. The spear of justice, the elder had called him.

Africa knew little of the idea. Justice was a foreign ideal, something not seen in a world of mad dictators and indiscriminate killing, of famine and poverty, of this strange new disease that was ravaging thousands across the continent. Kanu knew this truly was his calling.

I am the spear of justice. I am Sagai, and my work is only just beginning.