Lands of Dust (The Dying World Book 1)

by John Triptych

  Erewn grimaced. “You wounded me! You have violated the promise of sanctuary!”

  “No more words,” Miri said as she stepped forward again, pushing her spear towards his neck.

  This time, Erewn sidestepped to the other way as he used a bit of his mindforce to push his opponent. Miri was unprepared for it since she had lunged too far ahead, so her body was off balance. The force of the Vis caught her left side and she tumbled sideways into the dirt. The crowd made a collective gasp as the Magus ran at her, using both hands to swing his sword downwards for the killing blow.

  Miri reacted in time as she rolled sideways, the sharp edges of the sword missing her torso by a scant few inches. She tuck rolled back into an upright position, and was able to block another swing as the shaft of her weapon tore off a few bits of obsidian from the edges of Erewn’s sword. Miri quickly stepped backwards so she could gain some distance. At close range, the sword wielder had the advantage, but if she could put a little bit more space in between them, then her longer weapon would be in a superior position.

  Erewn knew her intentions and he was having none of it. He gestured with his left hand as he used his mindforce to pull Miri in closer to him, right within range of his next swing. Just as Miri was suddenly thrust forward, she concentrated and used her mindsense to break through her opponent’s lowered mental defenses in an effort to overload the pain receptors in his mind. Now that she was in close, Erewn tried to swing his sword at Miri, but was suddenly overcome by a terrible, mind-numbing headache. With his eyes losing focus due to the flashes of pain, Miri was able to pull away from his half blind swing, as the edges of the sword ripped the upper part of her leather bodice away.

  The Magus screamed in agony while Miri retreated to a safe distance. Blood dripped down his nostrils, and it was obvious another successful mental attack would incapacitate him. Erewn was angry at himself for concentrating too much of his Vis for attacking rather than for defense. Miri continued to use her mindsense to instill pain in her opponent’s head while Erewn started to rebuild his shattered thought blocks, channeling his entire Vis for protection this time.

  As Miri started to advance on him with her spear, Erewn took out the dagger he had placed in his waist. When Miri prepared for another lunge and strike, he threw the dagger at her, using just a little of his mindforce to dramatically increase its velocity, hoping that she would not have the time to react. Miri immediately sensed the missile heading straight for her and she tried to dodge it, but she misjudged its speed. As the dagger flew past her, it made a long gash on the side of her right arm. Momentarily losing her concentration, Miri cried out as she got to one knee, blood pouring down her arm.

  With the mental attacks against him temporarily subsiding, Erewn knew he was running out of time. He needed to end this now. Gathering up his remaining reserves of Vis, he used his mindforce, coalescing it into a huge, invisible wave of power and hurled it at the Striga. Miri screamed as the cascading, invisible wall of energy struck her and sent her up into the air, body tumbling sideways. The concussive shockwave hurled her into the side of a nearby hut, just near the top edge of its roof. The force of her fall ripped through the leather tarpaulin and her back landed just at the edge of an unused fire pit in the hut’s deserted interior, her spear falling down by her side.

  Erewn saw the Striga crash into the roof of a nearby hut. Now that he had her stunned, he rechanneled his Vis, filling up his mental reserves away from the defensive thought blocks and back into a final attack. Erewn then took a running leap and used his mindforce to jump up thirty feet into the air above the ruined hut. He held his sword over his head for the killing blow. As soon as he landed on top of his victim, he would cleave her head in two.

  Miri blinked herself awake and looked up to see the Magus bearing down in a diving attack. Her opponent had leapt up into the air and was now about to bring death upon her. With less than a second, Miri’s hands felt the shaft of her spear lying nearby. There was no time left and her instincts took over. Miri’s left hand gripped the spear shaft while she brought its point up, just as Erewn landed on top of her.

  The blade of the Magus ended up just inches from the side of her head as the weapon quivered for a bit before falling down on the ground right next to her. Blood poured out of Erewn’s mouth as he realized that he had been impaled on the spear, its point having penetrated right through his ribcage and past his spine. It looked like he was leaning over her, though the spear kept him from falling down. He tried to move, but his arms and legs didn’t react to his commands. He could barely breathe and his chest was numb. Miri’s face was only a few feet away from his own and it was the last thing he saw. After a minute, Erewn closed his eyes and died.

  Miri groaned as she rolled sideways and got up. Rion came through the flap in the entryway and saw what had happened. The boy ran over to her and hugged Miri tightly. A slight breeze came though the exposed roof, and it was enough to tilt the body of the Magus when it suddenly shifted sideways and the still warm corpse fell into the wreckage around it.

  Chapter 10

  The angle of the sun indicated it was midmorning, and the assembly hall was in an uproar. People were shouting at each other to the point where any kind of intelligent conversation could no longer be understood. Miri was sitting down near the center of the fire pit. There was a foul smelling poultice that had been salved over the wound in her right arm. Devos and Zedne were beside her, offering support. The other elders faced her and their expressions ranged from bewilderment to outrage. The crowd around them were most of the adults, while the children were not present. Rion was back resting in the teller’s hut, being watched over by Nyx and Jinn.

  Elder Brar stood up and clapped his hands in an effort to restore order. “Enough! We cannot have all this shouting and talking at the same time! We must have silence! Please!”

  The crowd had quieted down to slight whispers and murmuring. Miri looked around and all she could see were faces that belied concern for the future of the tribe. Zedne placed a reassuring hand on her knee which gave her a slight feeling of confidence. This emergency assembly had been called the moment that everyone had finally recovered from their stupor. There was debate as to whether it was Miri who had initially violated the oath of sanctuary by spilling first blood, as well as the possible recriminations the Magi would seek once word that one of their own had been killed.

  Now that a sense of calm had pervaded the hall, Brar looked around to read everyone’s faces before he started talking. “Let us begin. People of the Arum Navar, we have gathered here in order to find out what had happened the night before. The sacred oath of sanctuary was violated last eventide, and now a man is dead. We mourn the passing of Erewn, a suspected Magus and last of the Silid.”

  Devos grimaced. “Suspected Magus? By the gods! I and the others who witnessed last night’s battle know for a fact that he was indeed part of the Magi. As to whether his name really was Erewn, or if he really was part of the Silid- well, that kind of information cannot be trusted! He was a wanton liar and he nearly murdered our protector!”

  The crowd erupted into shouting and recriminations once more. This time, Krag stepped forward and pounded on the floor with the shaft of his bone spear. The throng quickly became silent again.

  Brar gave a menacing look at Devos. “There will be order! Only one shall speak at a time. Chief Hunter Krag, if anyone interrupts another, you will escort the offender out of this hall.”

  Krag said nothing and merely nodded. He had three other hunters ready by his side.

  Brar nodded as he glanced at the elders sitting beside him. “Let us get to the heart of the matter. As to the exact identity of this Erewn, we may never know. But what is clear is that we gave him the oath of sanctuary, a sacred promise that was never violated once in the history of our people.” He pointed a thick finger at Devos. “You are the teller of this tribe, I would like to ask you, have there been others in our distant past that were given this oath and were later pr
oved to have been lying to us?”

  Devos sighed. He was bound by oath to tell the truth, just like everyone else. “Yes, there have been several instances in which the people have given sanctuary to someone who was not who he claimed he was.”

  Brar kept his eyes on the teller. He already knew about this tale, but wanted the others to know. “Please recount the last time this has happened, teller.”

  “Close to a hundred cycles ago, a man came out of the wastes and requested sanctuary,” Devos said. “He gave his name as Ulseig, of the Khezni. We accepted him into the tribe and he remained with us peacefully until the final cycles of his life. When we asked him what he had been doing before he came to our settlement, he claimed that he was a hunter with another tribe.”

  Brar crossed his arms. “Go on, tell us who he really was.”

  “On his deathbed, he told us that his real name was Eizg,” Devos said. “And he was not a hunter, but a Magus who had fled from the Citadel of Doss to live out his life in peace.”

  Several loud gasps were heard from the crowd. Krag glared at a few others who were murmuring too loudly.

  Elder Pir raised his hand. “So as you can see, we have given the oath of sanctuary to others who did not speak the truth before, and we never violated that promise.”

  One of the women in the crowd put up her hand. “But the people only found out that he was a liar upon his deathbed. Surely if he had told the tribe what the actual truth was before he died, then they would have surely cast him out.”

  Brar shook his head. “Never. There was a time when a hunter from the Nartos sought refuge with us when he had killed one of his own over a dispute with the man’s wife. He told us of this the moment he requested sanctuary. Our elders at that time accepted him and even defended his life when the Nartos came to our settlement, seeking his return. That was the one time when we nearly went to war with another tribe, but cooler heads prevailed. We gave the Nartos a cycle’s supply of meat, while that hunter stayed with us and lived a life of peace until his death of old age. Our people refused to violate the promise then, even if it meant going to war with our neighbors.”

  The murmurings started again. Elder Zedne raised her hand. When the crowd quieted down, she spoke. “Yes, I do not begrudge the ones in this assembly who speak about our sacred oaths. We know we cannot violate them. But that stranger who came before us, he already broke the bond when he used a kind of potion to put us into a forced sleep. Miri was one of the few who had not trusted him, and she saved the boy from being abducted.”

  Elder Oro raised his hand. “How do you know of this type of venom? We looked at the wine after we woke up, and you yourself admitted you could not find a trace of the poison in it.”

  Zedne sighed. “I am the healer of this tribe, I know about poisons. The venom in question is called the powder of dreams. I found traces of the white dust in a pouch on the stranger’s corpse. Once dissolved in liquid, this fine grain induces a long slumber. It is potent but soon dissipates once liquefied. That is why I could not find a trace of it in the wine that was not drunk.”

  Elder Etul raised his bony hand. “You know I respect your words, healer, but even if the outsider was guilty of this, he still did not violate the oath of peace. Nowhere in the sacred words did it say anything about lulling his hosts to sleep would lead to the breaking of the pledge.”

  Devos frowned as he raised his hand to counter what was just said. “When you have been made unconscious against your will or without your knowledge, does that not constitute an offense?”

  “Yet there was no violence done until Erewn was wounded by the protector,” Brar said.

  Devos was trembling with palpable anger. This time he raised a fist. “This assembly is but a mockery! It was I who the outsider first attacked. I was in my own hut when he came in and used his mindforce to hurl me into the air and throw me to the wall!”

  “There were no witnesses to that event,” Oro said softly.

  “Then I suppose he gave the bruise on his head to himself?” Miri asked. “What about the wreckage on the side of his hut, did he do all that too?”

  “Silence!’ Brar said. “Miri, you are the accused. You may not speak unless you are asked a question by one of the elders here. Obey our ways or be cast out!”

  “If what you said is true, Elder Devos,” Etul said. “Then did you not also state that when the moment you saw him, you reached for a weapon? Could the outsider’s response have been nothing more than a reaction to your threatening moves? You yourself said that you were stunned by the mindforce, and you could have easily been dispatched, yet he left you alone.”

  Devos exhaled loudly. “He left me alone because he was after the boy. Since I was knocked out senseless like the rest of you, there was no reason to kill me then.”

  “It is good that you brought up the boy, for that was Erewn’s stated reason for coming here,” Brar said. “The outsider claimed that the boy who had been found two moons ago is a Magus, and that he was merely reclaiming the child in order to return him back to the citadel. According to Elder Zedne’s own words, she along with the protector and her apprentice, was unable to use their mindsense on the boy when he first arrived. This supports the notion that the boy is indeed a Magus.”

  Miri raised her hand but the elders ignored her. She turned and whispered into Devos’s ear. Then the teller raised his hand since he was free to speak. “If you evoked the oath of sanctuary on the stranger who attacked us, then surely you remember pledging that very same promise to the boy?”

  Etul glanced at Brar, who shook his head. “We never gave the promise of sanctuary to the boy. As a child of the desert, his true parents are fit to claim him once they find out he is here. That is our way,” Brar said.

  Loud murmurings erupted from the crowd once more. Krag pounded the blunt end of his spear on the ground to silence them.

  Devos shook his head slowly as he raised his hand once more. “This whole proceeding is outrageous! We have clear evidence that the outsider lied and used venom to put most of you to sleep, then he attacked me and nearly killed our protector. Surely you can see this!”

  A middle aged farmer in the crowd raised his hand. “I may not have the wisdom of the elders, but I am afraid for my family. If the Magi hear of what has happened, they will come and slaughter us all!”

  The rest of the crowd immediately erupted. Loud curses and protests were thrown about, with multiple arguments for and against the actions of the protector. Some of the women screamed out loud, protesting their innocence in all of this and their unwillingness to support what had happened. Another man shouted at the top of his lungs that the best way to remedy the crisis was to execute Miri and send her remains to the citadel. Brar stood up and clapped his hands for a long minute, but the crowd would not be silenced.

  Oro cupped his hands and shouted at Krag. “Chief Hunter, send them away!”

  Krag nodded as he and his men began to push the wailing crowd out of the hall. There were a few protests, but on the whole the congregation filled out peacefully. After a few minutes, only Miri and the elders were left as the hunters stood guard outside to prevent anyone from entering.

  Pir smiled faintly at Miri. “As you can see, protector, the life of an elder is not an easy one. Even though we no longer toil with our bodies, the people look at us to make these hard decisions. We had to show everyone that we respect the traditions, or else the whole tribe would descend into chaos. You may speak freely now that we are by ourselves.”

  Miri nodded. She needed to stay calm and try to reason with them, even though she felt it was pointless. “I am not happy at what I did, but I had to fight that Magus. He was trying to abduct Rion, and I could not let it happen.”

  Etul’s age was at eighty-six cycles, it made him the oldest of them all. “This boy, why are you so fond of him?”

  “He is intelligent and knows how to read the glyphs,” Miri said. The four other elders gasped in surprise. “Rion can be of great value to our
people,” she said.

  It was Brar who recovered from the surprising revelation first. “I am sorry for being so harsh on you this day, Miri. But you must understand our predicament here. There are less than three hundred of us now. We have few children and our tribe is slowly dying out. The people are afraid of what had just occurred last eventide. The moment the hunting party brought back that child, there were already murmurings. I heard many whispers myself that proclaimed the end times for us. There are many in the village who believe the boy is cursed. With this last incident, it could be the final stone that gets placed above our tombs.”

  “We can hide the corpse. Once we place the separate pieces in the fungi gardens, the shrooms will cover the outsider’s bones so that it will be indistinguishable from the others,” Devos said. “Even if the Magi do come, they will find nothing if we act now.”

  Etul shook his head. “What about the boy? If they sent one of their own here, then the others will surely follow. If they know that the boy is in this settlement, then he will be found and we will all be punished for hiding him. Even though Miri is formidable, one Striga and her apprentice will not be able to withstand the might of a Magi war party.”

  “Let us not forget that the boy is also a Magus,” Brar said. “The ancient treaties we have with the Magi clearly state that if they do not come here to claim him, the child must be put to death. That is the one treaty we cannot ignore, for it will mean the annihilation of our entire tribe if we do so.”