The next morning and Aksil was seated on the front steps of the palace. At his side sat a beautiful, young, ebony-dark lady with long hair which she had cut at the shoulders. She was dressed in a red, cotton tunic with golden strips along it. The golden rings on her fingers were more than ten in number and the blue-black paint on her lips made her look even more beautiful.

"You look worried, Aksil," the lady said, looking at the prince.

"I am worried, Magani," the prince admitted.

"Your sister again?"

"Yes, ma'isha," he replied, turning to her and stroking her face. 'Ma'isha' was the word used when referring to a female lover.

"I hate seeing you like this, Aksil." She sounded very concerned.

"Well she is my sister and I will always be concerned for her welfare. She came into the palace yesterday and Gwafa would not ask her to rise from greeting him. People were in the throne room and it was such an embarrassment for her, but Gwafa did not care. How can someone hate their own blood like that?"

"I feel for Lunja too, but what can we really do?" Magani asked.

"I wish I knew what to do."

"Let us forget our worries for now and think about our wedding," Magani suggested, smiling now.

"Wedding," Aksil said, smiling also. "It will be big; Gwafa promised me that much."

"Romans, Persians, Egyptians, Ghanaians, Malians and even the Songhai emperor will be in attendance," the lady said, very excited.

"The Songhai," Aksil murmured. "I am not sure I want them here? I fear any move they make inside Kalari is one which will soon see them crush and conquer us."

"You cannot worry about that, Aksil. We beat the Songhai before and if they try again, we will beat them again."

"I hate war because it is uncertain. I only want war when it is a necessity."

The lady rose to her feet and stood before him, bending over and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Aksil, we are betrothed. You worry too much about everyone else. I wonder if you will be able to make out time for me when we are married."

"Oh I will certainly make out time for this," the prince said, reaching out and placing his hands on her hips.

"Stop that!" she complained, slapping his hand away and looking around, embarrassed.

Aksil laughed at the lady's embarrassment. He grabbed her and pulled her down onto his laps.

"Aksil, someone will see us!" she complained, trying to get away from him, but he held her in his laps and laughed.

"Aksil, your mother could come out, or your brother. Aksil, the guards are watching!"

The prince let go of the lady and she rose to her feet. He looked back at the guards before the front doors.

"Did you see anything?" he asked.

"Not all, Shalua!' one of them said with a grin.

"The sun is hot out here and we could have imagined anything, Shalua," said another.

All four guards were laughing sheepishly. They'd seen many, but they would not embarrass their 'Shalau' and his betrothed. Shalau being the Kalarian word for 'Prince.'

"See, Magani, they saw nothing," Aksil looked forward at his lady once more.

"I should report you to your mother," the lady threatened.

"And perhaps I should put you in my laps again," he replied.

"No!" she cried, running down the steps.

Aksil laughed hard at her reaction. She looked silly to him. Women did not like being touched and handled in certain ways by a man who was not their husband. Elders frowned at it also and would peach tirelessly to the embarrassment of the duo if they caught them. Aksil however liked to play these naughty games with Magani. She was his betrothed, bounded to him at her birth, three years after his. She had grown into a perfect, black woman and Aksil felt the most lucky man in the desert.

The palace gates opened now and everyone looked at it. Six young men were led in. They wore only their underwear and their hands were chained behind them.

Magani stopped at the base of the steps and watched the men get led across the compound, towards the left side of the palace building. "The men who stoned a wajefa," she said.

"They have no right to call anyone by that name since that barbaric rule is yet to be reinstated," Aksil corrected her.

"What will happen to them?" The lady looked up at the prince as she asked the question.

"They should be whipped and put to word in the mines for a half a year. They should be killed if the assaulted man dies eventually from his wounds, but Gwafa will not take action against them. He will lock them up and delay until his rule is reinstated then he will free them as people who acted according to tradition."

"You do not look happy, kalefa," Magani spoke, coming up the steps once more. 'Kelafa' was the word for referring to a male lover. It was the masculine word to Ma'isha.

Aksil rubbed his temples. "I am not happy, Magani. I fear we will be wed in a Kalari under old, savage rules. I know many deformed people. I would have wanted them at my wedding and if Gwafa has his way before then, they will not be around for it."

"Oh, kalefa," said the lady, sitting down by his side and pulling him close so his head rested against her bosom. "There are things we cannot control and have no just but to live with. Then there are those we can control and should simply be grateful we have them."

"Ma'isha is a philosopher now, is she?" the prince teased. "Perhaps after we are wedded I will take you to Greece so you teach their scholars a thing or two."

Magani laughed and the prince settled his head in her laps now.

"I could fall asleep and just lay here forever so I don't have to face the foolishness of the world," he mumbled.

Magani smiled and used her fingers to roll up strands of his hair. He liked when she did that.

****

Lunja was before her hut on the compound. She had brought out a small stool and sat in the shadow of the hut. Aksil's cheetah, Chi-Chi lay at her side. The princess watched people go about their daily affairs. Everything seemed to intrigue her.

"All my life, I have lived in the palace incapable of seeing simple people go about simple things, but out here I see everything and everyone. Now I understood why some people are late about certain things. They have children to feed, people to please, several jobs to do at a time. Life was not easy for the commoner, Chi-Chi."

The Cheetah made a lazy growl in reply. The princess looked down at her.

"Don't give me that lazy growl, you lazy cat," she said with a smile. "I will have Aksil make you into a jacket if you do it again."

The big cat replied with another lazy growl. Lunja laughed and looked ahead once more.

"Is that not Magani?" she thought aloud, sighting the pretty, young girl coming out the backdoor of the palace.

She rose to her feet.

"Magani?!" she yelled, but the young lady did not seem to have heard as she descended the back steps and turned to walk towards the side of the building.

"Magani?!"

Still no reply.

"Does she not hear me?" the princess wondered, looking down at Chi-Chi. The cheetah made no sound.

"In-law?!" she screamed this time, laughing as she did so.

"She likes when I call her that," she said to Chi-Chi. Yes. Magani did like when Lunja addressed her by that title, but not today. The young lady did not turn once.

Lunja's laughter died down into a smile. People further away than Magani were looking at her, but the person she was hoping would look did not.

"Perhaps she has much on her mind and is too lost in thoughts." She sat down on her stool once more. "It is not easy planning such a grand wedding as Gwafa wants to give them after all."

She watched with a smile as Magani got to the side of the long, palace building and turned the corner.

"She will make a wonderful wife for Aksil, no, Chi-Chi?" she asked the cheetah, but the animal just made a lazy growl.

"Lazy girl," Lunja teased, tapping her hide a bit hard.

She looked out at the compound again.

"Life at its simplest," she murmured, restingher back against the wall.