Sisters of the Sands

by Villinger, James

  I started to walk up the path. “Right. When the Citadel is clear you should come inside. It won’t be safe out here forever.”

  “I’ll decide when it’s safe. And when this is all over, you’re going to give my Necrolisks a new home here … a nest,” he called out.

  What was he talking about? A nest here in the city? What would they eat? That couldn’t possibly work.

  “There’s no point making promises if we get killed during all of this. We’ll discuss it later,” I called back.

  I looked back to the Citadel and quickened my pace into a run.

  36. Alight

  The oversized Citadel doors were locked and the horde of Necrolisks was piling up against them, trying to force their way inside. The throng of bugs smacked against the golden gates one by one and then circled around the building’s sides, looking for an alternative entrance.

  On the other side of the gates, I could sense a large locking mechanism to keep the doors barred.

  There were numerous skirmishes taking place between the Necrolisks and the Royal Guards throughout the gardens. The beasts were overwhelming the women with ease and destroying the powered-down turrets on the Citadel’s outer walls.

  I sensed that the hall inside was devoid of any people, but in its centre was a glowing, white orb as wide as the chamber’s red carpet. The orb sparkled; it was like a shifting vial of white sand. Small fibres of the orb casing flicked away before folding back to their origin. The white noise and speckles inside glistened like brilliant star bursts.

  My focus shifted to the Queen’s chamber high up in the tower; Queen Antwin wasn’t there either. I searched high and low for her. Throughout the corridors and tunnels, in each individual room. Nothing. Could she be hiding inside the orb? It was probably a trap. But I wasn’t going in there alone.

  Teleporting the Necrolisks inside one at a time wasn’t going to work, there were too many and even more on the way. These doors needed to come down, but how? I opened a portal face down on the ground. I put the exit in the palm of my hand facing the door. I stretched both of them as large as I could and then propelled the one in my hand towards the doors as hard as I could.

  The portal smacked into the doors, which caused a slight shift, but it wasn’t enough. The door itself appeared undamaged. I closed the portals and looked around. I would need to think of another way to open them. The Necrolisks, now realising I was trying to break the door down, receded from it to give me more room to operate.

  I closed my eyes and focused on one of the fallen pillars back in the gardens. I put a portal under one of them. It exited far above me and plummeted down. As the mass of rubble was about to reach the ground, I placed another portal above my head for it to fall into. The giant pillar was now in perpetual free-fall. I waited until it reached a good speed, and then pointed the top portal towards the gates.

  The momentum carried the pillar into the doors, bursting them off their hinges. The ground quaked. The pillar tumbled into the Citadel and across the hall’s floor. Hundreds of stone tiles instantly fractured, sending sharp-edged chips flying everywhere. The pillar rolled into the white orb but was deflected to the side of the room. The rumbling stopped. The orb was unaffected.

  The mass of Necrolisks at my side stormed through the open doorway and filled the hall. I ran inside with them. The bugs funnelled through every interior door, every corridor and even climbed the pillars on the chamber’s sides to reach the higher levels. A number even tried piercing and slashing at the white orb, but their attacks were futile.

  The dim, grey room, until now only illuminated by the presence of the mysterious white sphere, began to brighten. The mechanical turrets that were suspended from the ceiling’s corners started to whirr and swivel to life. What? I thought I had destroyed the reactor? The power was coming back on!

  The orb in the middle of the room was shrinking. It grew smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing completely, revealing six women within. It was Queen Antwin, along with five Acolyte colonels. They all ducked to the ground, bar one colonel, who stretched her arms to the sides.

  Long, thin strands of a black ooze extended from her hands to the walls of the chamber. The ooze was initially shapeless, but it sharpened along its long edges like giant swords. A pair of small contraptions were attached to her wrists. She clicked them and ignited the oil. She started spinning in place, and as she did, the long strands spun with her. The strange blades sliced through the Necrolisk’s bodies, causing a trail of green blood to follow in the blades’ wake.

  I ducked just in time for the blazing black oil to pass over me. The Necrolisks around me squealed and shrieked as they were carved to pieces by the boiling oil. The colonel continued spinning as more of the Necrolisks tried closing in. Their attempts to reach the women were ineffective, for the blades dismembered each creature as it got close.

  The turrets in the ceiling corners opened fire. The Necrolisks on the second level tried climbing the walls to reach the turrets above but were dispatched by the rapid-fire cannons. The Necrolisks created a writhing mound as they piled onto each other’s slaughtered bodies in their desperate attempts to reach the turrets.

  The colonel in the centre of the women stopped spinning, and the others stood up. The Queen retreated back from the others. I couldn’t see Mira or Korin. But Neva was there, and her body dissolved into sand, left her armour and then proceeded to attack and melt the nearby Necrolisks.

  Another woman stepped forward and threw her arms towards me, a bright spectrum of colours shooting out of her hands, above my head, and landing at the base of the entrance to the hall. The bright purple, blue and red bands of energy then morphed into a wall and blocked further Necrolisks from entering. The creatures on the outside struck the energy wall with their claws but their attempts produced nothing more than bright swirls.

  Meanwhile, the Necrolisks above had been successful in disabling the turrets, and leapt down from the second floor to re-join the conflict below. The oil-flinging colonel shot more strands out of her hands at the descending creatures. Rather than turning it into a blade again, she set the line of oil on fire and the creatures along with it. They squealed hideously.

  There were two other colonels who hadn’t done anything yet. They were just standing there and watching me. The Queen had strolled back to her throne. She sat down and smiled, confident the remaining Necrolisks were no threat. If I didn’t act now, I would have no more Necrolisks left to help me. I would have to crush Antwin now while some of the others were distracted.

  I opened a portal on the ground and sent another one flying towards her from my hand to crush her. As it flew over the colonels, one woman lifted her hands and the portal trembled in mid-air. My control over the portal was lost and it disappeared. Strange, I didn’t see her do anything, but she had somehow disrupted my attack. It was like a shockwave of energy.

  The final colonel ran at me, jumping over Necrolisk bodies and severed claws. I tried opening a portal under her feet, but she leapt over it. The shockwave colonel instantly disrupted the portal again.

  She was closing in quickly. I launched another portal at her, and she would not avoid it in time. But as it was about to hit her, she stretched out her hands and her body turned white. The area surrounding her turned back into a white orb and she was suspended in her mid-jump. The portal smacked into the side of the orb and had no effect. She took herself out of the suspended animation again and continued to run.

  She was almost on top of me. I focused on the second level of the chamber, ready to teleport away, but when she was only a few steps away, she threw her hands out again. I opened the portal above my head.

  The white orb expanded again and encased us both. I tried moving, breathing and teleporting myself to safety … but I couldn’t move. It felt as if the blood had stopped coursing through my veins, and yet I was still left with my thoughts. I was surrounded by a translucent bubble of the white energy. The shockwave colonel shot her power towards the portal
overhead and dispelled it yet again.

  The other woman was stuck inside the bubble with me with a smile frozen on her face.

  “You got her. Great! Just hold it there,” The Queen called out from her throne. “The rest of you, get rid of these Necrolisks and then get into a kill position. Quickly!”

  The others sliced and melted their way through the remaining Necrolisks.

  Rather than reforming inside her suit again, Neva reformed without it. Her sand moulded some robes around her. They glistened in the light. The other colonels, except for the one maintaining the energy wall, ran over to the both of us frozen in the orb. The oil colonel created a pair of long sharpened scythes, clicked the mechanisms on her wrists and lit them ablaze.

  I couldn’t be sure, but by now the Teersau portal outside would have probably closed. This fight was taking all my concentration, so I had probably lost it.

  Although I couldn’t move, I didn’t need to if I wanted to create portals. Also, though my eyes were locked in place, I could still use my second perception to see outside the orb. I pictured the Teersau nest again from my memories. The shockwave, sand and oil colonels closed in around the orb.

  “Wait for my mark,” the oil colonel said as she took her stance by the orb’s side and raised her flame scythes above her head in preparation to strike.

  She wasn’t going to get the chance because I was going to send her to her grave. I opened a portal beneath her feet. She lost her balance and fell through. Her hardened scythe blades got caught on the way through and she hung from the portal’s rim with the nest cavern below her. A look of terror spread upon her face as she looked down into the writhing nest.

  Before she had a chance to pull herself back out, I closed the portal and cut the oil scythes in two, causing her to fall again. The tips of the scythes splattered onto the ground, bubbled for a moment and then dispersed as the flames expired. The other two colonels stood in disbelief.

  “Release her and kill her now! Do it, Neva, kill her!” Antwin called out from her throne.

  “Now!” Neva said before exploding into a shower of sand and surrounding the orb.

  The orb shrunk. I was released, but before Neva had the chance to melt me, I opened a portal above my head and flew it down over my body. But before the portal had completely transported me, Neva’s sand caught on my ankles.

  After the portal closed, I fell onto the second floor and screamed. The sand was still dissolving the flesh around my foot. A pool of blood formed. My screams were heard by the three colonels below, who faced my new hiding spot on the second floor.

  I was losing this fight. I needed a better strategy. The one creating the shield − if she was dealt with, the Necrolisks outside could assist me. My mind shifted over to the woman in the middle of the chamber. She was still maintaining the shield around the door. Picturing Teersau again, I opened a portal under her feet and she fell through. The colourful shield fell.

  I tried slowly standing but as soon as put pressure on my right foot, I fell back down, shrieking again. There was a soft sprinkling sound. Neva’s cloud form already loomed above me. I quickly teleported away downstairs.

  I landed on the floor in the middle of the main chamber. More silhouettes had gathered at the main entrance. Good, more reinforcements. The two colonels in front of me turned around to look as well, as did Neva, who had reformed on the second floor.

  The Necrolisks that trapped outside the entrance were now dead. Standing now in their place were Korin and Kalek. Korin had a stream of green Necrolisk blood orbiting her like a shield. The other three colonels turned back to face me and Antwin cackled from her throne.

  37. Void

  I hobbled to the side of the throne room one painful step at a time. I hid behind one of the crumbling, golden pillars, and rested on it. Mira was still on her throne, smiling at the “entertainment”. Neva had rejoined the others on the main floor, and I could sense them all striding over to surround me.

  Korin noticed the trail of blood leading towards my hiding spot. She threw her hands to the side, and the green ooze she had been collecting from felled Necrolisks sprayed away. “Oh, what’s this?” she said as she bent down and examined closer. “Your blood, huh? Not long now, Sacet. Your trauma is almost over.”

  I looked down at my bleeding ankle, which didn’t show any sign of stopping. Korin was right. I wasn’t going to be able to take much more of this. I was outmatched and outnumbered. I struggled to my feet, but stayed hidden behind the pillar.

  “Sacet,” the Queen said from her throne, “just give up.”

  I turned to face her and she gave a warm smile.

  “Let go,” she continued, “you have proved your worth. Your death is not the end. We have … so many plans for you.”

  She was distracting me, I saw through her ruse. All this time, something had felt off about her, now I knew what. My eyes were lying to me. She was an illusion. My second perception revealed the truth.

  An invisible figure was at my side, standing over me. It raised a pistol and pointed it at my head. I whipped my arm at the “empty” air, forcing the gun upwards. It discharged and flew out of the figure’s hand.

  The Queen sitting in the throne faded and the invisible figure emerged from the air just as quickly. She was an old blonde woman wearing the Queen’s garments. It was Mira, but … an elderly version of her. Her face was covered in wrinkles and her frail hands were bony. The beautiful image of Mira that I had come to know was a lie. This was her true form.

  She backed away in shock. “Wha … what?”

  “Your illusions don’t work on me anymore, Mira.”

  The rest of my enemies joined by Mira’s side. As they prepared to attack, Mira raised her wrinkly hand. “Wait!”

  The others looked confused, but stopped nonetheless.

  “No one has ever seen through my abilities,” she said. “How?”

  “Tell me your secrets first,” I said. “You’ve been working with the men all along. I don’t understand. Why?”

  Mira cackled. “Oh, Sacet. My secrets are far more important than yours.” She took a few steps back so that the Acolytes were in front of her. “I’ll find out your truth soon enough. Kill her!”

  I was going to pass out before too long. I grimaced. “Do it then!” I yelled before taking a deep breath.

  “Fine with me,” Kalek replied.

  He bolted at me, quaking the ground. I quickly wrapped a portal around me, the exit in a nearby wall. Kalek charged through the pillar and right into me, collecting my protected body with his arm.

  He smashed us through the wall and back out into the gardens. I tumbled on the grass and into a low stone wall before losing control of the portal around me. The other colonels stepped through the gaping hole the gargantuan had created. Kalek stood over me victorious as I spat up blood onto the ground.

  “You’re done,” Kalek said with a frown.

  I rested my head on the soft grass and looked up at the stars. My thoughts shifted far from the Citadel to the desert where my grandfather had taken care of me all of these cycles. Where I played and guarded my little brother. But alas, here I was, dying in the Queen’s garden. The last place I would have ever expected to be.

  The windows of the city buildings had lit back up again. They were in neat rows and columns, symmetrical. Everyone in their place.

  It was in such contrast to the stars, which didn’t conform to any particular pattern. The stars were individuals, able to choose their own path through the sky. When they came together, they did so in the most beautiful of ways, as constellations. Their gravity affected those around them, but did not control them.

  Like the sights around me, I sensed the stars and all the empty space in between. I pictured it in my mind and felt as though I had been there before.

  “This isn’t fun anymore; finish her,” Korin said.

  I closed my eyes and sensed Neva walking over to my broken body, ready to deliver the final blow. “Allow me.”
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br />   There was a nearby explosion, catching the attention of everyone around me. I opened my eyes and tried to sit up. On the far side of the gardens, one of the gates had burst open, and hundreds of people were storming in. There were male Acolytes, Nomads, and even women from the city itself.

  “I thought we crushed them on the way through?” Korin said.

  “Me, too,” Kalek replied. “Hurry up and kill her then, and then we can deal with the others a second time.”

  Neva turned back to me and morphed into sand.

  I gripped the low stone wall with one hand as hard as I could, and then threw my other hand towards my enemies. In the middle of all of us I created the largest portal I could. A rapid gust of wind whipped around us as the air was drawn into the portal. In her sand form, Neva was sucked into the vacuum of space first.

  I widened the portal as far as I could, increasing the pressure. I watched as the others struggled against it. Korin had latched onto the Citadel wall. The others desperately grasped at the grass. But one by one they lost their footing and were sucked into the void. Like Korin, my legs dangled towards the portal.

  As the shockwave colonel flew past and into the hole, she tried using her powers to destabilise the portal. I almost lost control at first, it trembled and wobbled, but I was able to maintain. I could feel my fingers slipping on the wall.

  The grass Kalek was grabbing ripped and he flew into the hole, bellowing. The orb colonel went next, but before she reached the portal, she immobilised herself in another white orb. It was unaffected by the vacuum, completely motionless, so I shifted the portal closer and enveloped her. Even Necrolisk bodies from the throne room were being sucked out of the hole in the wall and into the vacuum, too.

  Korin was still hanging onto the Citadel wall, but now she had pointed one arm towards me. My heart rate quickened and my veins throbbed painfully. The blood that was coming out of my injured foot and other wounds floated up in front of me in a stream. Korin was pulling the blood right out of my veins.