Uluthando looked ahead, and what he saw almost made him drop to his knee. Well, who would have thought that the other tribe would be prepared for what was coming and what made Uluthando shocked was the man leading them was none other than Dominic?
"But how?" Uluthando whispered. He began recalling when he sold Dominic to the other tribe for money, just as what he did with Joel, but among the army, Joel was not seen.
"Your majesty please let us know what we have to do before it is too late. " The soldier who looked like he was about to bolt to only God knows where furiously said.
"It is already too late". Uluthando said. He looked around and saw his men running for their lives. Some screamed out of pain as they were being shot and others tried to stand by their guards, but to no avail.
Uluthando looked at the soldier standing beside him and commanded. "Go back and free Shaka".
The soldier looked at Uluthando as though he was mad, but resisted the edge of saying it out loud and dashed off to do as he was told.
Uluthando then fell on his knees and held his hand up and shouted. "It is not over Dominic, the war has just begun".
25 DAYS EARLIER
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The cell was dark and smelled like rusted metal as Shake sat on the only single bed. He still could not decipher the thought of being locked up when he should mourn his father and prepare to save the Kingdom. The thought about Uluthando betraying his family made him sick to the core that he pouched the wall.
'If only I saw it coming, but how could I when everything happened so fast?' Shaka thought to himself. He began to sweat all over when all he could think of at the moment was hopeless. He had stood by his father's side since he was only ten and all Uluthando could do was play around, not caring about the wellbeing of the kingdom, and now he had taken it in a twinkling of an eye.
Shaka thought that what was more terrifying was the fact that Anele was not coming to his aid, which means something had happened to her and he would never forgive himself. His only sister, who he thought looked up to him and now things have escalated.
Now that Joel was nowhere to be found, Shaka became more confused and tried to put the pieces together. It was then he remembered that his father, the King, had a meeting with the elders and they discussed Joel's issue concerning how he was the kingdom's saviour. But if he was indeed their saviour, why will he disappear?
The name Uluthando kept on ringing in Shaka's head as he tried to bring up a solution to how he was going to stop his brother before matters got worse. If Uluthando knew about what their father had said, then that would amount to Joel and Anele's sudden disappearance.
Shaka looked at his cell again, thinking of a way to escape. He noticed that at the side of the door was a needle but it was so rusted that touching it could hurt. 'Why could he not have seen it earlier?' he asked himself while he climbed on the bed to peek through the small window. It was then he realised everyone was going on about their business, not caring if there was a great storm coming, which of course, there wasn't.
The anger which began to build inside him almost made Shake dismantle the burglar proof. His grip on it was so tight he bled from the cut, which he did not notice.
The cell door suddenly opened, startling Shaka. He jumped of the bed, ready to attack whoever was at the door but stopped short when he saw who it was.
"Duduzile?" Shaka called, confused. "What are you doing..."
"Quickly, come with me. " The Priest didn't wait for Shaka to finish and turn to leave.
Shaka couldn't fathom what was going on but quickly took after the Priest. The moment he got out of the cell, illumination of the moonlight made him see clearly. Something he had longed for. He followed the path the Priest took and they ended up in a forest. The same forest Shaka and Uluthando found Joel.
Shaka became more confused. He looked at the Priest then back to the gigantic tree, then back to the Priest.
"What are we doing here, Duduzile?" Shaka asked with his brows furrowed.
The Priest then hit his stick on the ground and sparks started to form. It increasingly grew into a round fire and a portal emerged, making Shaka's mouth open wide.
"You...you are the w- witch?" Shaka stammered. He looked completely dumb folded. His legs started to give him out and he trembled in fear.
In the portal, Shaka saw a soldier standing close to a waterfall, looking back like he was telling someone there was something in it.
"This is where your sister and Joel are." At the mention of Shaka's sister, he run to where the portal was, about to jump into it, but it closed before he could get inside and the impact made him fall to the ground.
The Priest looked at him and smiled. He turned to leave but Shaka quickly got up and grabbed the Priest arm before he could disappear. "Why did you close the portal?" Shaka asked him, knelt on the floor and began to cry.
It was all coming back to Shaka. Duduzile was the witch who made the portal and also cast the spell on the Akans. But was the portal really sealed? If it was, how was Joel able to teleport into this kingdom?
Shaka had questions running in his head, but what was more important was him finding his sister and Joel but again, he was given another task.
"Before you would be able to find the two children, you would have to stop your brother first for now, your sister and your friend's fate lies in their own hands." The Priest said, looking at Shaka with tears in his eyes. He smiled one last time to him before walking away.
Shaka looked into his palms, filled with blood and wiped it on his clothes. He looked up and wondered why his life had to be so confusing. His parents were gone and the only half brother he thought he had had turned against the family. But as he continued to kneel on the ground, the anger which he could feel in his core begun emanating and he thought nothing was going to stop him now. He was going to bring justice to his father and destroy Uluthando.