Prologue

" Don't do this Shingi" his uncle pleaded , his voice weary from the day's tragedy.

Shingi didn't respond , he just stood there and stared at the shallow graves of his parents.

The sky above was in colours of fire and blood as the sun fell beneath the horizon, in the valley they stood in all was corpse quiet as not even a breeze dared breath past this god forsaken place.

Today he had watched his parents die, murdered by a king they had served.

it was all so painfully fresh , the sweaty smells of the jeering crowds as his parents were led to the gallows bound and tied like dogs.

Shingi clenched his fist at the memory.

" why not uncle?" he finally said

"Because this is not what they would want for you '

Shingi chuckled darkly. " The dead don't want anything ". He looked at his parents amulets. They had given them to him right before the king's men had come for them.

They were everything he needed for what he was about to do.

Shingi remembered the executioner tying the noose around the necks. He hated the king , the oh so just king , raising his hand, giving the signal to end their lives.

His screams were swallowed by the cheers if the crowd as his parents thrashed like grounded fish as the life was choked out of them.

" There's a price for their lives uncle, a price which every single member of Umtali is going to pay"

" you don't have to do this , i ask again please let your parents have their peace"

" They never had it , not after what happened today , but they will after i do what needs to be done"

He looked back at his parents graves, he thought about the way the died.

Gripping their amulets he said the words and called them back.