by Lee LaCroix
Shortly, at the top of another dune, Kayten looked out over the land. The heat rising on the distance plains rippled before her eyes like reflections upon the waved sea. She was desperate to see anything on the northern horizon like towers or buildings, but all she could see were the endless waves of the sand ocean. Partially panicked, she looked about for anything. Although she had to squint, she swore she could see blots of colour like black, brown, and white flags wavering from afar. As it was the first time she had seen anything but sand since leaving the seaside forest, she decided to head towards it. Although her burdened trek made her entire body seem afire, those markers on the horizon began to enlarge until they became fully formed figures on nearby hills. A caravan of donkeys, with riders astride, clopped through the desert. Bulging cloth sacks containing a large cache of goods were tied to the donkey’s back with rope or were carried by of the traveling salesman and merchants.
“Come on, Novas. Hurry now,” Kayten urged the barely conscious man on.
“Hey there! Wait! Please! Wait!” Kayten yelled as she waved one of her arms, climbing up a dune towards them.
The deep braying of the donkey and the terse chirping of their drivers were heard as Kayten approached the caravans. The travelers seemed to be astonished as if she were a mirage walking out of the desert. The trail of donkeys stopped, but their drivers all looked out at her without speaking.
“Please help us. He is sick, bitten by a poisonous lizard with black and gold scales. We need to go to Nacosst. Can you help us?” Kayten begged as she covered Novas in shadow on the desert floor.
The merchants spoke in the Vandarian tongue. Back and forth, they conversed, shouted, and made pointed gestures. One of the merchants, a squat man with coarse hair and a white robe shuffled off his donkey and approached her.
“I may be able to help you, girl. It would be costly for my mule here to take on any more weight, but it could. But it will cost,” the trader propositioned.
“We need help, but we have no coin. But I have never seen him so weak,” Kayten pleaded.
“Then I am sorry, I cannot help,” the merchant replied and climbed his donkey.
There was a short yip from the front of the caravan, and it started to move forward again. None of the traders came forth to help Kayten, and she began to grit her teeth and look down at Novas with worry. A hand appeared first, donning an ash gray band with a ruby red stone. A second hand soon appeared, and Novas was lifted into the air. Kayten looked up to see a tall man dressed with in a white robe with black cloth underneath looking down at her with blood red eyes.
“Come. Help me put him upon my animal,” the man asked as he turned back to the mule.
Kayten went around the other side and positioned Novas as the man threw him over the donkey’s back. Novas’ breathing was faint and worn, but he did not have to trudge along any further at least. Kayten made her way to the other side of the donkey where the man stood, who now walked beside it with his reins in his hand.
“Thank you. I don’t know what we would have done without your aid,” Kayten spoke.
“Think nothing of it. I have a feeling it was not your wishes to be here in the first place,” the man replied, looking between two and their garments.
“We are not headed to Nacosst, are we?” Kayten surmised, losing sight of the shore.
“No, we have actually just come from Nacosst. I met these travelers there and hired this donkey for the ride. We should arrive at the oasis city of Erawal before sunset.” he replied.
As they were now headed away from the direction she and Novas had come from and away from the sea, she could only surmise they were now headed southwest. As much as she wanted to go to Nacosst to hopefully meet up with Garreth, Ilsa, and the rest of the crew, she knew that Novas could not travel much longer and hoped his condition would improve now that he was off his feet.
“What is your name, traveler?” the man asked after a period of silence.
“It is Kayten, and that is Novas. And yours?” she asked in return.
“I am Malic,” he replied.
Malic took a breath to say something else but then declined to do so. Noticing his hesitance, Kayten did not press Malic for anymore conversation but instead tried to check up on Novas and get him to swallow some more water. She succeeded but noticed Novas has begun to run a fever when she adjusted his head.
“Put this around him. It should protect him from the sun,” Malic explained before he handed Kayten a black cloth that was sewn into the shape of a hood from his bundle.
“Thank you,” Kayten replied.
“You say he was poisoned? By an animal with black and gold scales?” Malic inquired.
“Yes, we slept in a cool, dark cave, and we must have disturbed its nest. It suddenly bit Novas, and he said something about his wound being poisoned. He got really sick as we traveled along, much more than just weariness, and I had to carry him here,” Kayten explained.
“That sounds like a midasbane gilo. They are known to nest in caves and feature those colors. The poison can be fatal if left untreated. Fortunately, however, the midasbane is common to this area as is the antidote to expunge such toxins. You should be able to find some in the market at Erawal,” Malic told her.
“That is very good to know. However, as I said earlier, we have no coin. And I really don’t want to press my luck stealing,” Kayten responded.
Malic reached into his white robe and the inner pockets of his black cloth. He pulled out a clenched hand, squeezed a silver coin between two fingers, and then placed it in Kayten’s palm. Kayten flipped around the coin. On one face, there was a caricature of a mountain with spiky trees. On the other, there was a face of a man she did not recognize.
“Thank you,” Kayten offered with a low bow.
“Think nothing of it,” Malic replied.
Kayten saw the reaching green first. A stretching grove of wavering trees settled around a wide pond of water that looked like glass from afar. Around its edges, there were tall bushes with gnarled branches and thin leaves and people washing their clothes or filling jugs with water. The desert wood continued up a hill and covered the trees, the pond, and part of the city in shadow. The town, tucked into the valley of this dune, seemed to be of oval shape with the pond at its southern end where there were also rows of date palms and grapefruit trees. Like Nacosst, it was a walled city with square-based buildings reaching two to four floors that were covered in clay with jutting wood and brick. As the caravan began to approach the Vandari around the gate to Erawal, Malic went into his pack and withdrew a black robe.
“Hurry, throw this over your armour and give me your weapons,” Malic insisted.
Kayten nodded, donned the cloak, and pulled the hood up over her head, letting her face hang low. With the rest of the caravan, they headed into the city and went directly into the market. Soon after, the leader of the caravan met with Malic. After a conversation in the Vandarian tongue, Malic withdrew his gear and Novas from the donkey and completed their deal. Kayten stood Novas up against the wall of a building but found him to be very lucid. After the caravaneer had departed, Malic handed Kayten’s sword and shield back to her. Kayten then went to take off the robe but was stopped by Malic.
“Please, keep it. The shine of your armour is bound to attract many eyes,” Malic explained.
Kayten nodded and she kept the robe on. Its material was so light that she hardly noticed it.
“Well, I must be going now. Please give Novas my best regards,” the man stated.
“Thank you for all you’ve done. Be well,” Kayten offered with a wave.
The man nodded, turned away, and made his way into the market further than she could see. She immediately regretted letting him get away so easily, for she looked around at the various vendors that were advertised in language of Kal’resh or Vandar she could not understand and realized she could have used his help further. But she knew she had already relied on the stranger too much and decided to set out on her own
. She shouldered Novas into the shade of nearby alley. Behind the crates of a vendor, she set Novas down in the cool sands.
“Drink all of the water you need to. I’ll be back soon and then you’ll feel much better, I promise,” Kayten told Novas as she looked down upon his slouched body.
She made her way out of the alley and started to search along the rows of vendors that she found there. There were rug makers with rolls of pattered prints hanging across the three inner walls of their tents, jewellery crafters who prepared new necklaces and trinkets and adorned pretty stones and wood carvings onto string, and tailors and leatherworkers who sewed together the most common and frequently purchased fashions around the town. From the assortment of liquids, dusts, and powders that were bottled and on display, Kayten figured she had found her way to an alchemist. He smiled as she approached but soon had a blank look upon his face.
“Midasbane? Midasbane?” she asked, unsure if he understood her words at all.
He looked up and down the street from his booth and then leaned in close.
“The poison or the medicine?” he whispered as his eyes darted up and down the street.
“The cure, please,” Kayten asked.
The man nodded and went into a chest behind the desk. He pulled out a small vial and looked at the sun through the light purple shade that looked similar to the colour of the beast’s mouth.
“That will be fifteen raluns,” the man spoke.
Although Kayten had no idea what a ralun was, she guessed it was a currency and withdrew the piece of silver.
“Will this do?” She asked as withheld the coin.
He nodded in agreement and the exchange was made. She bowed to the man and made her way back to through the emptying market and the darkening streets to the alley where she had left Novas. In the blackness of the coming night, she could barely see Novas slouched against the wall, hidden in a corner of darkness behind a crate. She gasped after she fell to her knees and felt at his forehead. His fever had increased, and he was even more pale and sweating profusely now. Kayten picked up the canteen and found it empty.
“Novas, Novas, please. Drink this. It is the antidote. It is the cure,” she begged of him.
Novas’ head nodded up from his chest for a moment and then thudded back against the wall. His eyes fluttered, and his breathing seemed thin and worn. Kayten opened his hand and placed the vial inside his hand, and he grasped it. Even though slowed and confused by his state of advancing delirium, Novas managed to bring the vial to his mouth, knocking it against his teeth, and let the light purple liquid flow into his mouth. He coughed and wretched as he swallowed the potion, but it seemed to stay down, and Kayten was relieved.
“I don’t know how that tastes, but you’ll probably want some more water to wash that down, and I’m feeling a little thirsty myself. I’ll be back in a moment. Rest up and keep quiet,” Kayten whispered to Novas as she sat next to him.
She got up from her sandy seat next to the wall and made her way out into the street. There were few people left in the market when she made her way through including a group of traders moving their barrow filled with pomegranate and spoiled melons, the day’s unpurchased produce, out to the edge of town. Even in the shroud of evening, Kayten did not trust the Vandari enough to walk by them as they made their patrol and lit streetside lamps and torches along the way. She made her way through the market in a zig-zag pattern and kept out of sight as her dark robe resembled a fleeting shadow. She made her way out of Erawal’s gate and down to the pond where she replenished the canteen and drank away her thirst before filling up the canteen to the brim again.
Under the watchful eyes of the Vandarian sentries at the city gate, Kayten pulled up the hood of her robe and stared at the sandy floor as she paced back into Erawal. She looked behind her to see the guards looking at her as well, and she turned into an alleyway to lose sight of them. It did not take her much longer to reach Novas, and she found him unchanged like before she left; the antidote would need some time to work, she surmised. She felt at his face and noticed his breathing seemed to be deep and steady though.
“Come Novas, drink up. There is lots of water so don’t hold back,” Kayten explained.
With a little more coordination, Novas put the canteen to his lips, gulped the water down, and then opened his eyes a slit before sinking down against the wall again. Kayten sighed, slid against the wall beside him, and looked up into the dark sky above them and down each end of the alley. There was nowhere else they could go but there. They had no money for an inn, and she did not want to press her luck with begging for charity in this strange place. It was the first time she had to spend a night without a bed or a roof over her head, and she recalled all the youths in the Lower Quarter who once had to go many nights without the same. At least it was not cold and damp here, she thought. As her head slowly slid into Novas’ shoulder, she found herself nodding off before she was startled by a bright light.
At the end of the alley opposite to the market, a flaming torch lit the narrow passageway, exposing Kayten and Novas to its revealing eye. There were short bursts in the Vandarian tongue, and Kayten stood up to face them, holding her hand up to block out the overwhelming glare. The two Vandari kept shouting at her. Due to her incompliance, they drew their swords on her. Kayten withdrew her sword and the shield and tossed the black robe off her body, revealing the radiant splendor of her armour.
“What do you want? I don’t understand,” she asked.
The two guards looked at each other, and one stepped forward, pointing his sword at her.
“You are not from around here. Your hair… such a shade is not found in these parts. We would like you to come with us for questioning,” the guard stated.
Kayten could recall the last time she had been brought in for “questioning”. She could not forget her kidnapping from the Upper Quarter by the corrupt Queen’s Aegis under the influence of the Blackwoods and the treacherous leadership of Lord Vyse. She grit her teeth as she remembered the interrogation in the back room of the Courthouse where her unwillingness to betray her fellow allies was met with scorn and balled fists. She was determined not to end up hung from the walls of a dungeon once again, and she answered loud and clear.
“Forget that you saw us here. We have harmed no one and plan to leave at first light. Go on your way,” she demanded.
The guards looked at each other and then paced in towards her shoulder to shoulder in the narrow alleyway. The leftmost one stepped forward with a thrust, but it was pushed aside by Kayten’s shield. Before she could step in for a counter attack, the one on the right launched a downwards slash, which Kayten used her sword to parry, pushing the strike away from her. Back where they had started, the two guards decided to attack at once, but Kayten absorbed each blow and gave them the least amount of area to strike at. They soon became spiteful. The same terse shouts that she had heard during the Vandarian invasion soon resounded down that narrow hall again.
The left one tried to rush to Kayten’s side in order to get behind her guard, but Kayten was too alert, and she bashed him against the wall with her shield. The right one rushed at her side, but Kayten lifted her sword as his fell towards her shoulder, and she deflected its course behind her back before unwinding a stab, which landed on a crease of the leather breastplate and pierced its way through. The skewered one gasped and screamed before falling to the floor, his blood not pooling far from resting Novas, while the other one began to call for help. Kayten rushed at the lone man, wishing to end his calls before the commotion would become too public, but his defense was sturdy in the narrow alley as well.
It was not long before there was a burst of language from the other end of the alley, and Kayten had a quick glance at the two guards who now moved to meet her backside. There was no way she could guard herself from both sides, and she could not get around the lone guard without leaving Novas undefended. As the two guards crept in, they walked past Novas without noticing him. The three guards had Kay
ten surrounded and pinned against the wall. She held her shield out towards the two and her sword aloft at the other, prepared to strike or defend in a moment. Every breath passed by in slow motion, like the rising and falling of waves in the nearby ocean, as she watched them move in and tease out her weakness.
They all shouted at once as they leapt towards her with swords primed for a strike wherever she could not defend. As the swords of the two guards to her left fell, they came down hard and settled in the sand in front of her. Kayten struck out at the sword to her right, pushing it to the side, before locking her elbow in place and charging in with her shield. Knocking the lone guard off balance and onto the ground, she put knee into his groin and a sword into his chest. Kayten spun around to see what had become of the two other guards. In the light of the two fallen torches, a mass of shadow stood kneeling over their bodies with clenched fists hovering above their fallen heads. As the figure stood up, it withdrew its daggers from the skulls of the men, and its hood flipped back as it stood.
“Malic!” Kayten called out.
“Quite the trouble you have gotten yourself into, Kayten,” he said as he extended his hand.
As his red ring glowed in the fire light, Kayten took his hand and got up to her feet. She looked over the man. His white robe was nowhere to be found. Instead, the cloth he wore under was frayed and tapered; it reminded her much of Ilsa’s cloth, but it was less fitting, more flowing, and seemed to be common to the area’s fashion.
“Thank you for saving us,” Kayten said with a bow.
“Think nothing of it. We should leave before we attract anymore undue attention,” Malic suggested as he kneeled and lifted Novas over his shoulder.
Regardless of Novas’ sword or armour, Malic lifted him with ease. Soon, they were moving through the alleys to a nearby inn and tavern. They stopped outside a long building with a large tapestry hung from its front that featured a rising sand dune flanked by palm trees and a black rodent near a pond at its bottom. The Sand Rat, Malic read as they passed the sign and made their way inside. They made their way through the quiet tavern where two customers sat conversing in the old tongue with the barkeep who worked at shining the bar with a rag. They made their way up to the second floor, and Malic unlocked the second door on the left and went inside. Kayten followed him inside and watched him place Novas upon the bed. The room was small and contained a bed in one corner, a desk with a matching chair below a window, and a bucket of standing water for washing. The walls were of the smooth clay that formed the outside of many buildings of Erawal. A small vase with some straws of wheat and a single desert flower stood on the table that was wooden and shiny with use and age.