by Rosie Scott
“Are you okay?” I asked him, noticing he had only his underclothes on, in the form of a tunic and slacks. His skin glowed in the intense moonlight. It reminded me of his Icilic blood, and of how miserable he must have been in this heat.
“Yeah...I just wanted to make sure you heard me approach. You had your back to us.”
“I had my back to you because you are supposed to be asleep,” I mused, with a small smile. I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight, and a pleasurable ache clenched in my gut. I found myself wishing I had the confidence with which to tell him how beautiful he was. It was odd; I was so confident in my dealings with others, except when it came to him. Looking away and back toward the sands, I asked, “Is there a reason you got back up?”
“Do I need one?” Cerin replied. His answer surprised me with its forwardness.
“I suppose not. I just find it odd that you were exhausted not long ago, and here you are.”
“I wanted your company,” he said.
I glanced over to him, my heart skipping a beat with his honesty. His silver eyes gazed back at me, before he looked away, as if suddenly bashful. “This is all your fault, Kai,” he mused, after a moment.
I felt a jolt of anxiety at his vague wording. “What is?”
“You found me in the Seran Forest and insisted I come with you, so now, I have grown greedy.” His full lips formed a smile, even as he looked over the dunes ahead. “I know what it is like to have your attention, so I find myself constantly wanting more of it.”
I couldn't help but smile myself. I found Cerin's flirtations adorable. “Ah. So you are greedy, and that's my fault,” I said, placating him.
“Precisely,” he replied, before a chuckle.
“I apologize profusely,” I said, dryly. “I will give my best efforts to be insufferable.”
He laughed softly. “No, please don't do that.”
“Okay.” The two of us watched as a low desert wind picked up some sand on the next dune over, before twirling it through the air and scattering the granules toward new homes.
“It is beautiful here,” Cerin murmured. “Miserable heat, but beautiful.”
I nodded softly, happy to experience it with him. “I was thinking the same thing, not long before you came over.”
“It's such a change of scenery from Chairel,” he mused. “Don't get me wrong—Chairel is beautiful as well, with its fields of green and forests and mountain ranges. But Nahara is such a change it's shocking to the senses. I remember when I was a child, that first move from Thornwell to Sera was exciting and scary all at once. I was used to waking up to the smell of salt and fish every morning, and the ocean was so close to our house that I could constantly hear its purr. Sera is quite close to the ocean, but it's not the same.”
“You'd never know Sera was close to the ocean,” I agreed. “Parts of the Servis Ocean were visible from my bedroom at the university, when the skies were clear enough, but you couldn't hear it. I think the mountains blocked its noise.”
“I bet the view from your room was magnificent,” Cerin said.
“It was.”
“Do you miss it?”
I hesitated in answering that. I didn't even know if the tower I had once lived in still stood. My attack on Sera had ruined so much of it. I only remembered one of the towers falling, but with my destruction of much of the structure of the university, it was possible it had crumbled later on.
“Forgive me if that was too personal,” Cerin said, after I hadn't said anything.
“It wasn't,” I protested, softly. “I'm just thinking about how yes, the view was beautiful, and yes, I do miss it, but it may not be obtainable anymore.”
“Because you were ostracized,” he said.
“Because I may have destroyed it,” I corrected.
“You are still bothered by your actions in Sera,” he deduced.
“I will forever be bothered by them,” I replied. “I just don't show my emotions very well. Not a day goes by where I don't mourn Bjorn, or regret the lives lost in Sera, or feel guilt over turning against my brother. What bothers me more is that I know if I were put in the same situation all over again, I would repeat it.”
“So you did what you felt was right, but you still have regrets?” Cerin asked.
“Yes,” I admitted. “By trying to save those I loved, some died and my home city was all but destroyed. So indirectly, I caused that, but I know I'd try to save you and Bjorn all over again if I was in the same situation.”
“If it helps, whenever I start looking over my past with regrets, I simply imagine what the situation would have been like if I hadn't made the decisions I made,” Cerin replied. “Like after Sirius sent three of the Twelve after me, years ago, and I killed them. I felt awful for it, but I knew if I hadn't defended myself, I would be dead. Your decisions aren't the only ones affecting the world, Kai. If it weren't for Sirius, many of the choices you've made would never have been needed at all.”
As always, talking to Cerin was making me feel better. At the very least, he understood the internal struggles I was going through after all that had happened over the past year, because he had gone through much of the same, himself.
It wasn't long before the necromancer dozed off again, right beside me as I kept watch, with only the sand as his mattress. I thought about waking him to tell him he should go back to his tent, but I decided against it. I liked him beside me, whether or not he was awake. I felt safe and comfortable with him there. Besides, knowing he got up in the middle of the night to be near me, just to fall asleep again next to me, meant our relationship was deepening. Just a year ago, I was the one constantly going to him to try to spark up conversation, and he'd held a lot back and had cut some discussions short. Now...
I glanced over, seeing his lengthy form beside me, his slow inhales and exhales calming me. For a short moment in time, it was like I wasn't on the run from a massive army, or that I had hard decisions and work ahead of me for what I planned to do in this strange land. I had the support of Cerin, and Nyx, and Theron, and the longer Jakan stayed with us, the more we were slowly accepting him as one of us. For as long as I had such companions supporting me, it felt like I could do anything.
Accompanied only by the peaceful breaths of Cerin, I finished the remainder of my watch that night viewing the deserts of Nahara as not only beautiful, but also as a challenge.
Seven
“Kai! Cerin! Get your asses up!” Nyx's yelling abruptly broke me from sleep. I had mere seconds to figure out what was happening, and ended up staying confused when I only caught Nyx's shadow outside of my tent, darting around and gathering supplies.
“Jakan, here!” I heard her yell, before two shadows exchanged supplies, and one of the shadows ran off.
“What the hell...” I scurried off my bed mat, hurrying to pull on my armor. I heard no sounds of fighting, only of my companions rushing around. Everything had been fine hours ago, when I had switched my watch over to Nyx. Apparently, things had changed.
I hurried out of my tent moments later, only to find Cerin rushing out of his own beside me, still in the midst of pulling on his boots, his eyes darting around for danger.
Before us, Theron was in the middle of packing up his tent, and Nyx was hurrying around still gathering supplies. Jakan was toting our things to just below the next dune's crest. My ears picked up on a distant, moody rumbling, even before my eyes finally saw what was making the noise.
Above Jakan and the sand dune, some miles away in the distance of the horizon, were clouds of sand, whirling thick in the air like a wall determined to mow us all down. It wasn't a tornado, for it wasn't in the shape of a funnel. It was like the entire horizon was just a wall of vibrating sand. Behind granules of gold, lightning flickered in the dark gray skies.
“I was expecting enemies, but that looks more intimidating,” Cerin admitted in a rush, before hurrying to pack up his own tent.
“Sandstorm,” Theron called over, even as I started pac
king.
“What do we do?” I called back, rolling up my bed mat in a mess of a bundle.
“Seek shelter,” the ranger replied, even as the storm's protests loomed ever louder.
“There is no shelter!” I yelled back, trying not to panic.
“Exactly!” Theron replied, which wasn't the word I'd wanted to hear.
Cerin and I were running with supplies to add to Jakan's pile moments later. The storm rolled ever closer, vibrating the sands beneath our feet like we were expecting a stampede of large animals. The roar of the force of nature was deafening and almost demonic in its intimidation.
“Under the crest!” Jakan screamed at us, even as he hunkered down beneath the hill, preparing to let the blast of the sands pass by over his head.
I dropped my supplies beside his, before turning and watching Nyx make a mad dash for us, leaving her own tent behind, since she'd had no time. Cerin was beside me on the hill, low to the ground and holding his hood down as far as he could get it over his face. I followed suit, quickly putting on my cloak despite the thick heat, protecting my face with a flap of its fabric. Theron did the same from a few feet away.
“How long will it last?” I yelled to Jakan, since he was the one with the most experience with storms such as these.
He shrugged. “Hours,” he yelled, before screaming something else. The second set of words were lost to the storm, as it finally hit the dune behind us.
I heard Nyx scream, and I reached out for her, prepared to grab her and pull her toward us, but she'd collapsed to the ground, letting the storm blow over her, and crawling up the remainder of the hill she had left, holding her hood down over her head with both hands. The storm screamed above us, sand blowing past the crest and blocking out the sky with its thickness. I focused on breathing through my cloak, because taking a breath without it would have gotten sand lodged in my throat and kept oxygen from my lungs. My eyes fell on Nyx's tent across the valley between dunes, where the cream-colored canvas vibrated, then began to flutter, and finally ripped off of its frame to blow off into the storm.
Over the following minutes, I found it exhausting just to hold my own against the storm, fighting the sharp winds for control over my cloak. If it was true that these storms could last hours, or even more, given I hadn't heard Jakan's last words to me, we would get no travel done today at all. We would all be ready to sleep after the storm passed.
I thought of my father, Arturian, and his research on the effects of mages on the weather. I realized I could protect my friends and our things if I simply tamed the storm.
I took a deep breath through my cloak, inhaling until my lungs ached with the pressure. Then, I held both hands out, palms up, and recited two identical water spells, focusing everything on recycling the energy from the weather around me into my palms. I tried not to panic about the fact that if I attempted to breathe now, I would find no oxygen amongst the sands which whipped sharply against my face, uninhibited now that my cloak was no longer secure. I kept my eyes closed, for I knew they would be injured if I were to open them. If any of my companions saw what I was trying to do, I wouldn't know of it.
The energy built in my palms until it trembled, but still, I pulled more from the air around us. The magical barrier separating the water from my palms trembled with power, creating pressure against my hands as they continued to ask for more. My lungs burned hot with my full breath, before I slowly exhaled just a bit, relieving them of some pressure.
I released my water spells into the sky, before building two more. The storm still raged above us, though its power had halved. I siphoned its energy straight out of the air, exchanging one storm for another which was less lethal. I heard Nyx call my name, and I knew if it was safe enough for her to talk, it was safe enough for me to breathe. I exhaled the rest of the way, finally, and my heart began to pound painfully against my ribs from the effort of holding my breath. As my second set of water spells came to their fullest extent of power possible without it breaking the magical barriers over my palms and hurting me, I released them into the sky.
Finally, I opened my eyes. The sandstorm had been reduced to nothing more than a heavy wind. As I looked around to find my companions staring at me in shock, the first rains began to fall. The temperature of the desert felt like it immediately dropped twenty degrees, which had to have been a relief for Nyx and Cerin.
Jakan stared at me in shock. “How did you do that?” He asked me, confused.
“You know magic,” I replied. “You know what I did. I used the energy of the storm for my own spells. It's much better to have rain in a desert than to be stuck in the raging heat of a sandstorm for however long.”
Jakan shook his head. “I know you can use energy from the weather—it's part of the very concept of the Kilgorian Law. But—” He glanced off toward where we had come from, watching as the last winds of the storm fled, waving through sheets of rain. “That sandstorm was huge. And you—alone—used all of its energy. I am Vhiri, Kai. My people are nearly all mages. Yet I have never seen one person tame such a storm. It takes immense power. Power of...of...” he trailed off, pulling a hand through his now damp hair. “It takes the power of dozens of mages. Dozens and dozens of powerful mages. You are just one!”
I remained quiet. I figured such power came from the bloodline of the gods, but I still didn't really want that fact about me to get out. Jakan not only believed in the gods, but he worshiped a few of them. I wasn't sure how learning I was one of them would affect him, or his view of me.
Jakan glanced off through the rains when I hadn't replied, before throwing an arm out toward the new storm in disbelief. “And now, it's raining.” He laughed loudly with disbelief. “Raining. In a fucking desert!” He shook his head, before glancing toward Cerin, who was in the midst of shaking clumps of thick, wet sand off his cloak. “You were right, friend. She doesn't need numbers.”
Cerin didn't have time to respond. Behind us, somewhere past the crest of the sand dune which slowly darkened with the pelting rains, came the sound of an explosion.
“Now what?” Nyx exclaimed, irritated.
“Shit,” Jakan scrambled to stand, reaching for a small knife at his belt. “It seems Kai's rains have awakened them.”
“Who?” Cerin replied, unsheathing his scythe.
“The scorpions.”
“Won-derful,” Nyx exhaled, frustrated, pulling her daggers from her belt.
There was a clicking which sounded from across the sands separating us from viewing our new foes. The clicking was almost like a chatter, though it was oddly insect in nature. By the sounds of it, our foes were much larger. Of course, given the explanation of the Naharan scorpions from the salesman back in Comercio, I was sure they were. How had he explained them? Oh, yes...he'd said they were as large as men.
The first thing I saw of the scorpions were the long, razor-sharp stingers arced toward us from segmented tails as thick as an obese man's thigh. They rose in the sky as the scorpions followed their instincts to find us from over the crest of the dune, where their entire bodies were revealed. I had seen scorpions before in Chairel, sparingly. Those were, of course, a few inches long at most. These scorpions were larger than me, the stingers alone as long as my forearm and standing taller than my own head. The tails curled upward over bodies that were five to seven feet long, depending on the creature, and covered in a thick protective shell the color of blood which has begun to thicken and dry. Eight segmented legs scrambled along each midsection, covering ground with shelled points that seemed much too small to carry its thick armored body. Each monstrosity carried two thick pincers before two chilling black eyes, the pincers large enough to snap a person's body in two.
There were three scorpions, and five of us. We outnumbered them, but they were so large, and Jakan wasn't well prepared for a fight. The giant arachnids chattered amongst themselves for a few seconds, and one of them snapped a pincer in an intimidating pattern.
I wasn't sure if that meant anything
, but I didn't really care. I didn't want these things anywhere near me. I released death energy across the sands, unwilling to wait for the scorpions to realize they were offended by our presence. All around us, skeletons began to pull their bones out of the wet sands, leaving it in clumpy piles across the dune.
“Pierce them with blades,” Theron said, even as the scorpions began to glide down the dune toward us, effortlessly. “Barely anything else can get through their shells.”
I took that to mean the ranger had fought these ugly creatures before, which was a relief. I had no melee weapons on me, so even though the others were prepared to follow Theron's directions, I would have to figure out a different way to fight. Quickly, I started giving my companions magical shields.
“Avoid their tails at all costs,” Jakan warned, even as the arachnids and my skeletons clashed.
...or would have clashed, if the skeletons had been any match at all for them. Six skeletons had surrounded one of the scorpions, but with a snap of its two pincers and a forward jab of its tail, they were all down, their bones rolling down the dune after collapsing. None of the dead had gotten a hit in.
I inwardly cursed. And here I thought we'd be able to surround them.
Theron grunted with effort as he was the first to confront one of the creatures, jabbing one of his twin swords forward and between two thick armored plates. A sickly hiss sounded from the scorpion, before its curled tail shot forward, attempting a hit. The ranger lifted his second blade up just in time to block the tail, even as he pulled at his first sword with greater effort than usual. The weapon finally was released from between the plates, leaving the wound to bleed heavily over the sands. My eyes stuck on the blood. Instead of a normal shade of red, this creature's blood was a deep green, and sounded as if it sizzled when it hit the air.