This would be an illustration I did for The Slave Prince of Zimbabwe, a historical-fiction novella I wrote as a week-long side project. Set in the Middle Ages, the story’s protagonist is an eastern European warrior named Drazhan who has been brought into bondage and shipped all the way to the Swahili sultanate of Kilwa on the southeast African coast. When his master the Sultan sends Drazhan over to Great Zimbabwe to abduct their fierce and beautiful Mambokadzi (Queen), she fights him off and then offers him an alternate path to restoring his freedom. Together, they must contend not only with the Sultan of Kilwa, but also his allies in the medieval world’s most powerful and technologically advanced empire: Song Dynasty China!