Abyssinia, 1540

The Mouth
That Drinks
Silence

A novel by N’Jaia Smith

A queen, a seer and a soldier enter a village where the silence has become a presence. Before them lies a past that has not finished with the living.

Enter the reading room Meet the characters

The cover of The Mouth That Drinks Silence by N’Jaia Smith, in cream, navy, orange, magenta and teal

Whatever had happened in Aba Wenz had not finished happening.

From Chapter 1
Dream and Shadow

The Zewditu Books · Book I

01 / The novel

The past has a life
of its own.

In sixteenth-century Abyssinia, Queen Asebiyah rides from Ghedde to a border village that has fallen silent. Beside her are Wubit, a seer whose warnings pass through her hands, and Mehari, a soldier caught between the Queen’s command and his desire to protect her.

The Mouth That Drinks Silence opens The Zewditu Books, a literary historical series in which memory, faith and power reach into the most intimate parts of a life. The mythic presence gathers through dreams, ritual and the senses, leaving its characters to meet what they cannot fully explain.

Find a thread to follow

Book I · Begin here

Book II

Planned for late March / early April 2027

Book III

Planned for May 2027

Three lives at the opening

Meet the characters. Follow their words.

Queen Asebiyah with dark eyes, piled braids, gold cross earrings, a gold nose ring and woven cloth in blue, ochre, cream and muted green — The Queen
Asebiyah Select the portrait to enlarge

Wubit looking over her shoulder, with amber-hazel eyes, beaded hair and gold ornaments — The seer from Smoke Hollow
Wubit Select the portrait to enlarge

A close portrait of Mehari with pale eyes, gold-highlighted brown curls, a silver earring, a blue shamma and leather straps — The soldier
Mehari Select the portrait to enlarge

At court and on the road

More lives and presences in Book I.

Ras Gebremariam in a purple turban and violet robes, with rings on his hands — Commander and counsellor
Ras Gebremariam

Abba Kidane with a white beard, white shamma and wooden cross — The priest from Debre Berhan
Abba Kidane

Kassa on horseback with dark curls, white facial markings and layered cream and blue cloth — The young soldier from Woleka
Kassa

A close portrait of Bekele, with greying curls and beard, speckled cheeks, white cloth and a crimson shamma — The older scout
Azmach Bekele

Azmach Haileyesus with a shaven head, short greying beard, brass earring and cream and blue cloth — The trusted azmach
Azmach Haileyesus

The Jackal of Adal beneath a hyena-hide hood, with scars and iron rings — A name carried by fear
The Jackal of Adal

Qasbora · Afar

The Salt Mothers

Across the white flats of Afar, the Salt Mothers keep a memory older than crowns. Women of every season of life, their braids whitened by salt and ritual, they read the ground where others seek only a road, and remind sovereigns of what a kingdom can inherit without ever possessing.

Meet the Salt Mothers

The youngest Salt Mother with blue eyes, white braids, pale spiral markings and layered bone-coloured ornaments — The youngest Salt Mother
Select the portrait to enlarge

The middle Salt Mother with pale eyes, salt-white braids, forehead markings and layered beads — The middle Salt Mother
Select the portrait to enlarge

The eldest Salt Mother with green eyes, white hair, pale facial markings and layered beads — The eldest Salt Mother
Select the portrait to enlarge

02 / Explore the book

Find your way in.

Choose a character, a theme or a place.
Follow its connections into the prose.

Explore the maps

Select a map, then zoom in to read its details.

The Lands of Hamera, a landscape map showing realms, roads and far places — The Lands of Hamera
The Zewditu Books

Ghedde Palace, a landscape map showing courts, gardens and the surrounding city of Hamera — Ghedde Palace
The Zewditu Books

03 / From the manuscript

The reading room.

Five paragraphs from the opening of Book I.
A first glimpse of Dream and Shadow.

Chapter 1 · Opening

Dream and Shadow

The first five paragraphs of The Mouth That Drinks Silence.

AT FIRST, THE SCOUTS thought it was a dog, a scrap of fur or cloth caught beneath the collapsed roof of the storehouse. But then Mehari, fitawrari of the vanguard, charged with securing the road before steel was drawn, brushed aside the barley chaff and saw the curve of a shoulder, the burnt skin stretched like parchment, and the empty sockets where the boy’s eyes should have been.

The border village of Aba Wenz had sent no tribute for two moons. No messengers. No tidings. The Queen had ridden out from Ghedde with a small company, three sunrises along the old trade road that had once carried salt and hymns between Gojjam and the central highlands. His order was clear: delay the Queen.

If what they found was unclean, he was to hold her back until the priests arrived. Let her hear reports, not breathe this air herself. Already the ruin had begun to work its way into the mouth and nose, sour and sweet at once, as if the village had been left too long beneath a wet cloth.

He thought of the Queen, how she listened to reports with her veil lowered, how she asked for the smallest detail as if each word were a stone taken from a wall. He knew she would come whether he forbade it or not. Better she step into truth than stand in the shadow of his cowardice.

“Cover the body,” he said at last. “Leave nothing moved.”

Follow a thread

04 / Stay close to the story

The first book.
The beginning of
something larger.

The Mouth That Drinks Silence
Forthcoming 25 February 2027

For publication news and further excerpts from N’Jaia Smith’s forthcoming novel, join the email list on the Black Sapphire Press book page.

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The MouthThat DrinksSilence

The past has a lifeof its own.

Three lives at the opening

At court and on the road

The Salt Mothers

The youngest Salt Mother

The middle Salt Mother

The eldest Salt Mother