Flapping like a maimed black crow upon the floor, the crone set up a
wailing shriek of triumph as she heard the verdict, and she tried to
regain her feet. The guards guffawed again and began to strip away the
condemned man's clothing, tearing it from his body until he stood
completely naked except for his bonds.
The crowded room now buzzed with excitement at the coming
entertainment, and the doorway and windows were packed with those who
had come in from the encampment amongst the cosa flora trees. Even the
two impassive madonnas who flanked the Ras had become animated, leaning
forward to chatter softly to each other, smiling secretly as their
dark-moon eyes shone and the full swollen breasts swung heavily under
the thin material of their blouses.
The doomed youth was whimpering softly, his head turning back and
forth, as though seeking escape, his naked body slim and finely muscled
with dark amber skin that, glowed in the lamplight, and his arms bound
tightly behind his back. His legs were long and the muscles looked
hard and beautifully sculptured, and the dark bush of curls in his
groin was dense and crisp-looking. His thick circumcised penis hung
limply, seeming to epitomize the man's despair.
Vicky tried to tear her eyes away, ashamed to look upon a human being
stripped thus of all dignity, but the spectacle was mesmeric.
The old woman hopped and flapped in front of the captive, her wrinkled
brown features contorted in an expression of utter malice and she
opened her toothless mouth and spat into his face. The spittle ran
down his cheek and dripped on to his chest.
'Please leave now,' Lij Mikhael urged Vicky, and she tried to rise, but
it seemed that her legs would not respond.
One of the Galla warriors sitting opposite Vicky drew the narrow-bladed
dagger from the tooled leather sheath on his hip. The handle was
carved from the horn of a kudu bull and bound with copper wire, the
blade was slightly curved and viciously pointed, twice the span of a
man's hand in length. He shouted to attract the woman's attention,
then sent the weapon skidding across the floor towards her and she
pounced upon it with another gleeful shriek and pranced before the
cringing youth, brandishing the knife while the watchers shouted
encouragement to her.
The captive began to twist and struggle, watching the knife with the
fixed concentration of despair and terror, but the two tall guards held
him easily, chuckling like a pair of gaunt ogres, watching the knife
also.
The old woman let out one more high-pitched shriek, and leapt at him
the long skinny black arm lunged out, the point of the blade aimed at
his heart. The woman's strength was too frail to drive it home, and
the point struck bone and glanced aside, skidding around the ribcage,
opening a long shallow cut that exposed the white bone in its depths
for the instant before blood flooded out between the lips of the wound.
A howl of delight went up from the assembled Gallas, and they goaded on
the avenger with mocking cries and yips like those of a pack of excited
jackals.
Again and again the old woman struck, and the youth kicked and
