From the floor, his soldiers hissed in reply, giving their assent for the fight to continue without them. Emboldened, the terrorist continued: ‘I heard this squad of pigeons is led by the greatest warrior of Wagadou. Reveal yourself, my friend!’ he sneered. ‘Let’s see how great you are. Are you a man or a bitch?’
Siya and Maadi locked eyes and grinned. Maadi beat his chest three times – a sign of challenge acceptance – but it was Siya who threw her bow and arrow to the forest floor, leapt from the tree branch and landed on her feet in front of the enemy.
She straightened up from her bent knees, unwrapped the scarf from her head and tied it around her waist. Her thickly locked hair fell down to her back as she unsheathed her favourite dagger – the one she called ‘Princess’。
Siya smiled at the oaf. ‘A bitch, sir.’
The gang leader looked Siya up and down, rubbed his eyes, and roared with laughter. ‘Come, now. I have another dagger for you that you’re certain to enjoy a lot more. It doesn’t have to be this way.’ His men laughed with him.
Siya’s smile chilled on her face as her soldiers dropped from the trees behind her using ropes and – under Maadi’s direction – began to fight and bind up the Snake Men. The gangster chief looked around, startled, as he observed Siya’s army of men and women expertly corral and capture his cronies. He turned back around to see Siya walking towards him. Siya spun Princess between her fingers and caught her by the hilt.
Her opponent straightened up and lifted his dagger, ready for combat, swallowing reality down and clinging to his arrogance. He snarled at Siya. ‘The Soninke people are weaker than I thought. Sending a woman to defend their land?’ He shook his head in a grotesque pastiche of regret. ‘I’m sorry to have to do this. You would have looked so pretty on your back.’
Siya laughed; it was sweet like birdsong or like the sound of a babbling brook after a long and dry expedition. It chimed through the groans and struggles echoing through the forest. She tilted her head. ‘So will you. Lifeless.’
Siya watched the blood run down the drain as she washed herself with black soap. The hot spring water, from the cave her quarters were built into, ran over her and rinsed the harshness of the night off her skin. Siya still felt the struggle inside her bones. It had been messier than usual. Tonight’s ambush had more men than previous attacks and was more aggressive. The Snake Men were led by the faceless conqueror known as Bida, who sought Wagadou’s fertile soil and gold, and Siya could sense he was getting progressively hungrier. When every shady proposition had been rejected and Wagadou had refused to sell her soul to the devil, Bida had declared war. Livestock theft had turned into outright terrorism of the tribes on the outskirts of Wagadou. So, Wagadou folded their cousins in and protected them, but the situation was escalating quickly. The Snake Men had begun kidnapping women and children, and the men of Wagadou left behind with broken hearts had started spying, turning their backs on their ancestral land to swap secrets for their family’s safe return. Bida’s Snake Men were true to their word. The traitors of Wagadou would indeed be reunited with their families; the Snake Men just failed to mention that it would be in the afterlife.
In the past year, Bida’s Snake Men had attacked Wagadou six times. Siya’s army had defeated them five times. The first attack was quelled by Siya’s father, Khina Cisse, beloved and benevolent chief warrior, Ghana of Wagadou. He died in the bloody battle. Wagadou wailed but Siya channelled her grief into creating a clear war strategy. She used all her rage to power intensive martial training. She made sure all the saltwater of her tears left her body through sweat. Her mother had died when she was young and her father had reared her as a warrior, training her with his men, taking her running on hills and gruff terrains, teaching her how to climb, and to fight; to use fear as fuel. He was the one who taught her to leap from a high distance and land on her feet without injury. To bend her knee in a certain way, lean her weight at a specific angle, strategically empty her mind so she had acute focus on that one goal. He taught her to fly. She could twist nature around herself. Where others used ropes to drop from trees, Siya communed with the wind.
So, when her father’s court and advisors ignored Siya’s qualifications, aptitude and passion for protecting her people to coronate her uncle, Dyabe Cisse, Siya knew to stay silent and act strategically. Her father’s younger brother was a jealous, lazy and power-hungry cad, who, when appointed to his position, proclaimed a motion to form a coalition with Bida. Siya’s suspicions were confirmed; Dyabe had betrayed her father. She didn’t riot as her uncle wanted her to. He’d have her sectioned and say she was mad with grief. Siya didn’t allow herself to be bound by the rules of nature, so there was no reason why she should be suppressed by the rules of a man. Instead, she immediately, diligently, secretly organised a renegade regiment. Through underground messages sent through trusted allies, she called on all who believed in her father’s mission to help her save Wagadou. She would not let his death be in vain; she would stop their great nation from bowing to the Serpent that was Bida.