The royal chambers were empty.
Every hall, every corridor, every vaulted chamber had been searched three times over. Servants questioned. Guards interrogated. Hidden passages uncovered and checked. Still—nothing.
King Nzinga and his family had vanished.
Not just vanished—evaporated.
Lumingu stood in the heart of the royal palace, fists clenched behind his back as a trail of sweat slid down his spine. Around him, the smell of lamp oil and anxiety filled the war room. The palace walls, once symbols of authority, now felt like a cage of his own design.
"They were here," he growled. "We know they were here. And now they are not. So where did they go? I posted guards in every inch of this place, how did they just vanish!"
No one answered.
He turned sharply to Mobali, his second cousin and one of the nobles loyal to him. The man flinched under Lumingu's glare.
"Speak."