Ama by Manu Herbstein

eye.
    â€œWhat's this?” he said, examining her frankly.
    Nandzi dropped her eyes and looked at her bare feet. This was not the first time she had seen that look in a man's eyes. But this gorgeously robed man was a king. What could he want with her? How should she react? Was this a threat or, might she hope, an opportunity? She concentrated her mind and tried to summon up a vision of Itsho.
    The King put his hand under her chin and lifted her head, giving her no chance but to return his gaze.
    The Asante Consul put his arm around the King's shoulder.
    â€œNo, no, your majesty,” he said firmly, “You have not forgotten our treaty, have you?
    â€œNot just this one?” the King appealed, distracted from his projected dalliance.
    â€œI fear not,” said the Consul. “You have brought in only twenty so far. Your target this season is three hundred. You have a long way to go yet. I regret that I cannot permit any, if you will forgive me, any diminution of my master's stock. Anything in excess of three hundred, of course, is yours to dispose of as you wish, but the first three hundred: those are ours.”
    * * *
    Damba persuaded the Na and the Consul to permit him to appropriate Suba as his personal slave.
    â€œIt is because I hear their language,” Suba said proudly. “Now I am going to start learning Hausa too. And when I master that, I shall learn Asante. Then I shall know all the languages in the world.”
    Nandzi laughed. “That is wonderful news, Suba. Now you will not be sent to Kumase. Just think, if Damba were to take you with him on one of his expeditions, you might have a chance to escape and return to your home and family.”
    â€œI hadn't thought of that,” replied the boy.
    Damba was treating him kindly and his memories of home were beginning to recede: he saw a career as a court interpreter opening before him.
    â€œBut I will be sad if they take you to Kumase and leave me behind,” he said.
    In attendance on Damba, Suba now learned all the latest news. The Council of Eunuchs had completed its examination of Abdulai and other witnesses. Abdulai had been fined twenty cows and fifty goats, which would leave him impoverished. He had been demoted and his white horse and brass accoutrements had been confiscated. The two guards who had fallen asleep on duty had been sentenced to death.
    â€œDamba says it is a warning to the other warriors to do their work well and not be cowards,” explained Suba.
    The following day Nandzi was at the head of a procession of slaves, each bearing a load of firewood for the shea-butter factory. As they entered the market square there was a commotion at the far end. Their mounted warder, eager to witness what was to come, ordered them to halt.
    The Na and his court were seated in the shade of a tree. Beside the Na, on a stool, sat the Asante Consul. The two condemned men, their hands tightly bound behind their backs, were led into the square. The State Executioner, his heavily muscled body bare from the waist up, called a halt. An assistant tied the prisoners' ankles and forced them to their knees before the Na. The Chief of the Eunuchs proclaimed the charge, the verdict and the sentence in his high-pitched voice. There was a great roll of drums as the Executioner raised a heavy wooden club on high and brought it crashing down on the first man's skull, felling him with a single blow. The crowd gasped. Then it was the turn of the second victim.
    The warder had seen enough. He cracked his whip at his charges and they moved off again. Nandzi turned her head as they left the market square. The corpses had been laid face down upon the ground. The Executioner raised his axe on high. As she watched, he brought it down and, with a single mighty blow, severed the head from the corpse. A great cheer went up from the watching crowd, but when it died down, Nandzi heard women wailing. She felt faint and wanted to vomit. The warder cracked