The Mad Giant (Shioni of Sheba Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

lion!
    In terse sentences, Shioni related how she had found the spoor of Kalcha’s overgrown hyenas by the river, followed by surprising the Wasabi patrol with Talaku, and the traps leading up to the tunnel the Wasabi had vanished into. By the time she finished, all the Captains had stopped eating and were looking to General Getu. His expression turned harder than a block of granite. Briskly, he ordered thirty warriors to rush down to the juniper thicket, clear it of traps, and support Talaku; a troop of scouts to check the spoor by the river; other scouts to be interrogated as to why they had missed a secret tunnel so close to the castle; patrols to be sent in all directions on high alert; the castle to be secured and the guard doubled… in less time than it had taken her to relate the story, Castle Asmat came to resemble a termite mound stirred by a stick.
    When his C aptains had rushed to their duties, the one-armed General rounded on Shioni. He narrowed his eye–his good eye. The left half of his face had once been terribly burned. It made him look angry even when he was not. The warriors all said he was the best General they had ever served under. As tough as old elephant hide, but also fair and upright.
    He said, “Why weren’t you paying attention when you ran into that Wasabi patrol?”
    The General was too sharp to miss the inconsistencies in her tale–as expected, Shioni thought, and quietly told him about Talaku’s strange behaviour and their race which ended amongst the Wasabi patrol. “We probably came upon them too fast for them to hide, my Lord.”
    Mama Nomuula checked for the fifth time, “But you’s fine, my pet?”
    “Hardly a scratch, Mama.”
    “You looks all shook up. Have a bite from our plate. Them Captains is missing my best!”
    “Because you and the Princess aren’t going anywhere until I’m satisfied that Wasabi patrol really has vanished into the mountain,” growled Getu, with much of an angry hound about his tone. “Eat! Eat first! Then you will accompany the Princess and Shuba to examine the stele. And you will return Princess Annakiya here before sundown without losing so much as one hair upon her head, or I will personally arrange your intestines on a platter for the vultures to pick over. Are we clear?”
    “Clear, my Lord.”
    As it seemed the General had spoken his piece, Shioni stretched out her right hand, tore off a piece of injera, used it to scoop up a portion of sauce, and popped the bundle into her mouth. Bliss! Oh, Mama’s chicken wot was the tastiest food in the whole world…
    “I will prepare my scrolls and ink,” said Shuba, the Kwegu Ascetic, appearing suddenly from a shadowy corner. Her gaunt, hollow-cheeked face, heavily scarred with tribal markings, caught the lamplight for a moment as she gave Shioni a dark, unreadable stare. Then she turned and swept out of the door with her robes swirling about her legs like black-edged wings.
    Shioni shivered. She hated it when Shuba popped out of nowhere. It gave her the shivers every time. However, it did not prevent her from taking another hurried bite. The General might become offended if she disobeyed his order to eat. And she was famished.
    But a pair of huge arms enveloped her and crushed her into a hug. “I swear you treats my girl like one of your men, Getu!” Mama accused him. “It in’t right!”
    “She’s here to serve Sheba.”
    “She’s a girl!”
    When she became angry, Mama sometimes forgot how strong she was. She was in all dimensions a huge woman, born somewhere down the southern coast, brought to the land of Abyssinia by the slave ships. Her formidable cookery and healing skills had landed her a position in the royal household. She had tree trunks for arms, and a heart as big as her frame. Shioni wished Mama were her real mother–even when she was bending her ribs like kindling for a fire!
    “Well, unlike some of the others, this one has heart, and even demonstrates a remarkably functional