Tijene,

Kalari

Kalari was a fairly large kingdom on the edge of the Sahara desert. The Capital, Tijene was walled in by solid walls of large mud bricks. The gates were made of wood and iron and the walls were patrolled by members of the Musondal; elite troops of the Kalari kingdom. The city was made up of block-shaped mud houses of different intricate sizes and structure. The palace was made of mud, wood and stone bricks. The kingdom sat in the path of a lucrative trade route which went to Mali, Egypt, Libya and Morocco thus they had the materials to build, dress and live exotically. Different types of palm trees were frequent in Tijene as it was one of the few nice plants which grew out here in the desert.

The city streets were wide, or narrow, depending on the activities which took place in that region. All streets in the capital were covered by cobblestones. No expense was spared in the building of Tijene and the people were proud of it, but the winds of change were blowing and it was not at all for the better.

It was a hot afternoon as were all afternoons in the desert, when the gates of the palace were opened to let in twelve brilliant, white horses. The riders were led by a tall, athletic, lanky black man with a wrap around his head, held by a golden circlet to hold it in place. The man's bright grey, red wrapper went around his waist and was tied at the left shoulder. The straps of his leather sandals wound up his lower legs and at his side hung his magnificent sword. His arms were adorned with bands of gold and his ears were pierced with rings of gold also. Around his eyes, black paint was applied to help against glare from the sun, but it served to beautify the man. Up the lower part of his right arm ran a nasty scar and the little finger on the hand of that same arm was missing. This was King Gwafa, ruler of Kalari and one of the finest the kingdom had seen.

The King stopped his horse and so did those who followed. He alighted and they followed. They walked towards the front doors of the massive three storey palace. It was a marvelous work of stone, mud and wood. The windows were small and rectangular, but a few large ones were cared in the walls for special rooms. The walls were bare and red as most of it was mud. There were no pillars, but there were towers, eight of them in all. The walls of the palace were 10ft high and just as wide. The compound was large and though a few smaller buildings stood on it, they were at the sides and the back, not on the front compound.

"Enukal!" said the four guards at the front door. This was the title of king among the Kalari tribe, who were distant descendants of the greater Berber tribe of Northern African.

Gwafa waved a hand at the guards and walked into the palace. The hall behind the front doors was magnificent. It was three stories high and very wide. Beautiful rugs lined the sides of it and in the walls, archways led into other corridors. There were bronze statues of past kings at the sides of the archways, crafted in Egypt and brought down here. Red materials with yellow spots were draped from the ceiling and they were beautiful. This room was among the grandest in the palace.

Gwafa passed into the massive archway at the other end of the foyer and that brought him to a wide hallway. In the wall across from this archway was a set of large wooden doors with carvings and drawings etched into it. There were four small stools on each side of the door with Musondal seated on them. These were the doors to the Kalarian throne room.

"Enukal!" said the Musondal, rising to their feet as Gwafa approached. The Musondal were known by their long, green tunics with red sashes around their waists and black open tunics over the rest. The golden wraps around their heads and white cords which held them in place, were the true symbol of their order. Their swords were fixed in the sides of their sashes and their leather sands were curved at the front.

As he'd done with the guards at the door, the king waved a hand at them and turned to head down the left side of the hallway. At both ends of this hallway were stairs which went upstairs.

Once at the stairs, Gwafa went up to the second floor and straight to the door of his mother's bedroom. Before the door were low stools with two simple guards and three maids. These guards, like those at the palace doors were dressed different from the Musondal. Simple guards wore white tunics under grey open ones and their sashes were black in color. The maids were dressed in white shirts and skirts with yellow and blue embroideries. Their faces were adorned with lines and, designs and dots done with blue-black paint. The pattern of lines and dotting differed with each maid.

"Enukal!" greeted the guards, rising to their feet.

"Enukal!" said the maid, dropping to their knees.

The presence of the maids was sign the queen was around.

"I want to see my mother," said the king and one of the maids rose to her feet. She opened the door and led the king in.

Inside the room, there was a seating area made up of wide, thick pillows spread out on the floor. There was a metal bed frame against one wall with a mattress on it. Two large boxes were in one corner of the room and beautiful drawing of patterns and designs were done on the red walls with black paint. The other decorations on the wall were masks and colored clothes. Spears were arranged on racks on one part of the wall and in a big cane chair sat eighty-four year old Kahima, queen of Kalari and mother of King Gwafa.

"Mame," said Gwafa, dropping to one knee and bowing to the old woman in the cane chair.

"I can already imagine why you are here, Gwafa," said the woman. She was strong for her age. She still walked around and did everything on her own. Her green tunic was lined with golden threads and her arms were displays for several thin, golden bracelets.

"As queen, you should do what is best for Kalari, mame," said the king. Gwafa was married, but as long as his mother lived, she would hold the position of queen.

"Including the reinstatement of a rule which was abolished by your father and the kingdom suffered nothing for it?"

Gwafa smiled now and looked at the maid who'd brought him in.

"Turn around, maid," he said and the lady obeyed, doing a slow 360. She was a beauty to behold; tall with a full chest and curves which her fitted skirt accentuated. Her skin was like the queen's creamy chocolate. Like the queen, this maid was of Semitic and Negroid descent. Her hair was very long, but black. Her lips were small, but her nose, slightly broad. She was beautiful.

"Do you see this mame?" asked the king, looking at his mother with a smile. "This is how a woman should be." He took off his head dress and threw it on his mother's bed. His hair was coiled and short, his nose, broad, his lips thick, his skin ebony black. He spread his hands. "This is what a man should be."

"So a woman must be light-skinned and a man, dark?" asked his mother with a raised eyebrow.

Gwafa laughed.

"Mame, you know what I mean," he said.

"If you and I understood one another, we would not be having this discussion," she replied.

"I mean the perfection, mame. Like this maid, I have no blemish, no limb missing from birth, no oversized parts; just perfection."

"Perfection is as each views it," said the woman.

"What good is a one-legged man in the army, the farms, the palace?" asked the king.

"Who said we had to put a one-legged man in the army, farms, or palace?" his mother asked back. "There are places they can serve. The dye pits, the cloth houses, pottery houses, market places, management, need I go on?"

The king's smile vanished now.

"And the spiritual filth they bring to the kingdom?" he asked.

"Spiritual filth measured by what exactly?"

"Since my Papa let these abominations live among us, the trade caravans going by Kalari has reduced.

"Yes and this has nothing to do with the fact that Egypt shut her ports as a result of her standoff with Persia," the queen spoke.

"You will defend them no matter what," he said.

"And you want them dead no matter what I say," she replied.

The king walked to the bed and picked up his head-wrap. He held it in both hands and separated the golden circlet from it. The circlet was thick and of solid gold. Etched into it were Kalri writing.

"You sided with papa when he removed that great law, but now you stand against me and make it difficult." he looked at his mother now. "Do you not love me, mame?"

It was the old woman's turn to smile, but rather than just smile, she burst into laughter. Her son was confused b her reaction.

"Mame?' he called.

"You imagine you can guilt trip me into succumbing?" the woman asked him. "You know me better than that, Gwafa. My name means soothsayer and my parents were not fools to name me so, but you are a fool to think I don't know everything before you even think it."

Gwafa frowned now.

"If you do not support me, I will have the council accept and the law will still be reinstated!" he snapped.

"I will take as many days as my refusal gets me," the woman replied with a smug smile. "As long as I am queen, you cannot overrule me without the council unless of course you wish to dissolve the council, dissolve their autonomy and begin an empire like the one we now serve."

"I do not serve the Songhai!" Gwafa barked. "We are allies."

"Kalari is a vassal state of the Songahi, Gwafa, not an ally. you need to understand this and it will help you know that you need your people now more than ever. If you attack the autonomy of the council of chiefs, the towns could revolt and the Songhai will back them so they defeat the kingdom and seize complete power."

Gwafa could not argue with that. His mother was right. Any mistakes by him and Kalari would come under Songhai control proper. She was a very smart woman and he always took her advice, but not the one advising him to leave this law as it was.

"I will have my way in the end," he said. "You have already admitted that much." He turned to leave.

"I do not know where I went wrong with you and caused you to hate your own blood so," his mother said behind him.

He stopped at her words, but did not look back.

"It's not about her," he said after a long pause then he continued towards the exit.

The king exited the room and the queen was left with her maid. The woman's long gray hair made her look like an old, regal, but still capable horse.

"The king does not seem too happy, Tanin," said the maid. "Tanin" being the word for queen among the Kalari.

"Since mounting the throne, Gwafa has never been happy," the queen stated.

The maid came close to her queen and knelt by the chair. "May I speak my mind, Tanin?" she asked permission.

"Speak."

"The king will eventually get the support of the council as many of them support his view."

"I will overrule him because the majority of those chiefs rose to power on my support," the queen spoke confidently.

"And the elder council?" asked the maid.

The queen looked her in the eyes now. The old woman did not look as confident as before.

"Now that is a realm beyond my control," shestated.