The Shadow King

Kidane and Bekafa prepare an ambush near Debark. The Italian column is split, and the Ethiopians use the space to their advantage. As they strike, the Italian commander calls his troops to arms. The armies clash. Dawit aims the Wujigra, but it fails to fire, and he is shot, his leg splintering. Kidane prevails in battle but succumbs to nerves afterward.

Haile Selassie walks his garden, knowing that civilians are suffering from gas and poison. The specter of his late daughter, Zenebwork, whom he married to a traitor to mend family ties, haunts him. A telegram confirming Kidane and Bekafa’s victory in Debark scares him. He never gave the order to attack. He must contend with both a rebellion and an invasion. He apologizes to Zenebwork, but he cannot change his choices.

A line of trucks unfolds near Debark. Though the Italian journalist Indro Montanelli, the American journalist Herbert Matthews, and the English novelist Evelyn Waugh each looked at those hills and pronounced Mussolini Ethiopia’s only hope, Hirut knows better. All that came of Mussolini’s war is blood.