KOMET’s Reviews > The Shadow King > Status Update

Days bleed away while the Italians continue building roads and bull-dozing mountains and throwing innocent people off high cliffs. They have been destroying villages and demolishing huts while constructing square homes with sharp corners and installing Italian families and merchants. --- p. 362.

A soldato pushes his way out of the gaping crowd and dances awkwardly next to Aster [one of the women warriors who had been captured by the Italians and stripped naked]. He mimics a ghastly, cruel version of eskesta, ...The men whistle and cheer. … Aster spins, feet alighting on tiptoe then heel,... as another soldier jumps into the circle and drapes an arm around her waist. His movements are sloppy and ugly.

"As Kidane's army, new recruits and seasoned fighters, prepares to separate into groups that will surround the Italians, the Shadow King and his female guard step forward onto that highest crest and gaze below. The army looks up and grows silent, awed by the presence of Emperor Haile Selassie, thrown into speechlessness by the sight of the guard who steps forward, resplendent in her uniform."