Part 14: THE JUDGEMENT OF SAMEGUSHA

Two hundred thousand men had fallen behind Samegusha. One hundred thousand were trampled under the feet of Kwashoom and another hundred thousand had heard the songbird or seen the flower of destruction and their hearts had burst
with too much bliss but when Samegusha arrived outside the city of Nonakdow he did so with 100,000 men still behind him and at this time the army of Hiriki that faced them was only twenty thousand; but a great army marching for pay and power have often been defeated by a little army marching for a noble cause.

“The path rushes towards us now”, said
Hiriki, “The path that will wind towards freedom, rushes towards us and those who seek their freedom have no choice but to take it but to reach our freedom we must first face the marching forest of a thousand poisonous thorns, of spearheads and arrowheads and axes but, my fellow heroes, we must not ever forget what lies beyond that dark forest; what looms, tall and splendid, over the horned heads and scowling faces of our enemies; the spires of a shining, sacred realm, the beautiful land of our freedom. Ask yourselves, while you have time to ponder, what fear you are willing to face to be free from fear and what pain you are willing to endure to be free from pain and wether your life is worth too much to risk, a life of slavery, to win a golden life of liberty, each man that approaches now is a link in the chains that bind you and if you want to be free from those chains you must raise your sword and sever those links. Look beyond today and see yourselves at the joyous
funeral of your oppressors, look further and see yourselves as honoured guests at the crowning of our liberty, look further still and see a hundred years of peace and happiness gone by and our great grandaughters telling their infants about this day. My fellow heroes, we will soon be walking back to our homes over the head of
the monster we have slain. My friends, our good friend victory approaches, so raise your swords and let us shake his hand”.

Only those who were there will remember the feeling of that day, the shared feeling of both individual fear and empowerment through brotherhood, the wonderful feeling of being a brave I among that glorious We. All at once the twenty thousand men and women of Hiriki roared and surged forward into the dream of battle, with only the thought of laying their enemy low and seeing the freedom beyond, not hearing the clatter of iron blades or the bodies round them scream and groan, just fighting until victory or heaven and then, legend says, Konjunika thrust
her spear into the ground and summoned up the spirits of all those who Samegusha and his tyranny had slain, all those who he and his soldiers had executed or tortured, all those who had died in the villages and towns and cities he had burned and then, out of the earth came their accusing spirits, dead men and women and children with anger tearing at their faces and Samegusha, who had until that moment been smiling beneath his helmet, certain of victory now saw only the face of judgement and, pulling off his helmet, tried to shield his eyes from the hateful eyes of the dead but couldn’t and it was said that he welcomed the arrow that Mazjimata fired
into his heart as he stumbled blindly about the field and smiled again for the peace brought by death and then the roar went round that Samegusha was dead and they had won.

After that the four children ruled over their land and returned those lands that Samegusha had conquered to their peoples. Hiriki returned to his forest, not as a bandit king anymore but as a duke with Konjunika as his duchess and the age that followed was truly an age to be envied for its fairness, its goodness and the happiness
of the people.