Sand of the Soul

by Voronica Whitney-Robinson

  All that was left was for her to figure out how to get out.

  She turned around as best she could, but realized she was only guessing at which way was up. Her lungs were burning, and the weight of the shifting sand was crushing her. Like a swimmer, Tazi tried to kick her legs and stroke her arms in large, sweeping motions but she had no way of knowing if she was even making progress. Instead of panicking, as the horses did, she tried not to resist the dune, but flow with it. She wanted badly to take in a breath of air, but she knew that if she tried, her mouth, throat, and lungs would clog instantly with sand.

  Without warning, Tazi felt something grip the back of her aba. She felt herself pulled forcefully in the opposite direction from which she’d been traveling, and she fought against the pull as best she could, forgetting her strategy of a moment before. Vague images of some monster dwelling in the sand came to mind, but she was too weak to resist, and she felt herself pulled even harder. Tazi gave in.

  She no longer felt the abrasive scratch of sand on her face and risked opening an eye. She was partly free of the dune, and she took in a deep breath that ended in a coughing fit.

  “What were you thinking?” Steorf shouted at her, maintaining a firm grip on her shredded robe.

  Not expecting an answer, he scooped her up and maneuvered them out of the deadly dune onto the salt flats where Fannah was waiting. Tazi took in deep drafts of air, Steorf’s traveling sack still clutched in her fingers.

  “How did you find me?” Tazi finally asked as she tried to empty her ears of the caked sand.

  “Luck,” Steorf told her. “I reached in after you disappeared from sight and managed to grab a corner of your robe.”

  “How did you get out there so quickly?” Tazi demanded.

  “I tried to levitate across, but without a constant surface, I couldn’t maintain the spell very well,” he explained with a touch of bitterness. “But it did enable me to sort of walk to you.”

  The three of them fell silent as they watched the hypnotic movement of the dune. Sated from the meal of horseflesh and perhaps realizing that was the only meal it was going to eat there, the dune slowly deflated. Eventually, it rippled away from the flats back southward in gentle waves.

  Tazi stood up, shrugged off the tattered remains of her robe, and took inventory of what remained. Her head cloth was long gone, and while her small dagger was still stashed safely in her boot, one of her guardblades was missing.

  Steorf still had all of his weapons though his outerwear hung in shreds as well. Fannah was somewhat shaken but uninjured. Moreover, all that was left of their provisions was the sack that Tazi risked her life to retrieve. Ciredor’s manuscript was still inside, but that was all. They had not packed anything else in that bag for fear of inadvertently damaging the pages.

  “I guess we keep moving,” Tazi finally announced.

  Steorf gauged their position by the sun, and they simply kept going.

  After what felt like an hour, they mutually decided to rest near a small outcropping of stones. Both Tazi and Steorf had burned their faces. Fannah, much darker skinned than her friends, managed to avoid the painful sunburn. However, that did not protect her from the thirst that infected all of them. Not even the setting sun gave them any relief from that.

  While Fannah described to Steorf some succulent plants that they might spot along the route, Tazi got up and wandered a little way from their camp. The night brought the double-edged sword of desert life: freezing darkness after a scorching day. She wrapped her arms around herself, hissing at the painful burns along her bare arms.

  This is my fault entirely, she thought morosely. Fannah was right. Without having completed that ritual properly, I have doomed this whole mission.

  “I think we should gather up what scrub we can find and build a fire soon,” Steorf said from behind her.

  Tazi turned and came to a decision.

  “I can do that alone. What I need for you to do is take Fannah out of here right now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Steorf asked.

  “This isn’t working, and we can’t afford to gamble with Fannah’s life any longer. You were right,” she admitted. “We should’ve stayed in Calimport, translated Ciredor’s writings there, and above all else, kept Fannah safe.”

  “I am safe,” Fannah answered, moving to join Tazi and Steorf.

  “No, you’re not,” Tazi argued. “I couldn’t have made you more vulnerable than if I dropped you off on Ciredor’s doorstep, which is basically what we’re doing right now.”

  “That’s right,” Steorf growled. “We would’ve been much safer in a city where we didn’t know anybody and had no way of knowing how many of Ciredor’s minions were there. Hundreds, thousands, maybe more. That is exactly what Ciredor expected us to do: stay and hide, not root him out.”

  “Look at us,” Tazi implored them through cracked lips. “We’re dehydrated, weakened, no food, no water, and we’re on foot in the desert.”

  “We’re alive,” Fannah pointed out quietly.

  “Who knows for how long?” Tazi muttered darkly. “You two need to return to Calimport. Please see the logic in that.”

  “Tazi, we know where Ciredor is, or nearly so,” Steorf told her. “The hard part is almost over.”

  “I know,” Tazi replied, “and that’s why you can go back. I will face him alone.”

  Both Steorf and Fannah flatly refused.

  “That is not an option,” Fannah told her.

  “I think we’re alive because we’re together,” Steorf added.

  Tazi turned away from her friends.

  “You won’t go?” she finally asked. “Then I suppose we might as well collect what we can to get a fire going.”

  She could see that her friends were relieved that she had changed her mind. Tazi still felt they were making a mistake, but she saw there was no way she was going to convince them otherwise.

  While their fire crackled cheerfully, Steorf was once again engrossed in translating Ciredor’s text. Fannah had curled up near the warmth of the flames and had fallen asleep. Tazi sat with her knees drawn up against her chest and her arms wrapped around her shins. With the moon only the barest hint of a sliver like a scratch in the inky blackness, the stars were without competition and shone as brilliant points of light in the desert sky.

  Tazi thought that they looked like they were close enough to touch, if she would only stretch out her arm. She had never seen a more beautiful night. As she looked from Steorf to Fannah, she couldn’t help but think that they would never share another night like this again.

  “Trouble in paradise, little Tazi?” Ciredor asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  He gazed into a scrying sphere he had created and held balanced just above his spread fingers. Within the miniature globe, he could see Tazi, Steorf, and Fannah struggle to reach their decision of unity.

  “I think you are correct, Thazienne,” he said to the globe. “It is time for your numbers to dwindle. Rather than have Steorf escort Fannah out of the desert, I would prefer that you bring her to me. I do not think we need the boy-mage any longer. Who knows what else he might discover within those pages of mine?”

  He abruptly turned away from his scrying sphere. No longer suspended by his magic, it tumbled to the ground, disappearing before it could strike the stone floor.

  Ciredor stepped out onto the parapet of the minaret that was his personal temple. He walked to the edge and closed his eyes. With his head tilted back, he breathed in deeply of the warm smell of sand and dust. When he opened his eyes, he had reached a decision.

  Ciredor moved past his unfinished business within the tower and started the walk down to the entrance. He reviewed his mental checklist.

  “So many things to do,” he murmured, “and so little time left to finish them all. Of course, for some people, time has run out all together, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.”

  Humming an obscene tune he had learned as a child, Ciredor threw open t
he doors to the Calim and smiled. As far as he was concerned, all was right with the world.

  “I’m afraid your sorcerous companion might throw a kink into things, little Tazi,” he continued talking as though he could still see her through his sphere. “I cannot allow anything to disrupt my plans now that they have come together so perfectly. You, dear Thazienne, will be easy enough to deal with when the time comes.

  “While you have had your moments and given me some problems with your errant ways,” he admitted to the wind, “in the end, you are merely a street brawler, albeit one pleasing to the eye. There might be some use I can put you to before I am finally done.…

  “Now there is something delightful to contemplate,” he added to himself.

  Ciredor stepped onto the sand and walked a few paces away from the doors to the minaret. He knelt, placed both of his palms flat on the hot sand, and closed his eyes. The necromancer lowered his head until his brow brushed the rough grains of the Calim and appeared to be lost in deep prayer. His lips moved soundlessly, and the slightest sheen of perspiration formed on his forehead. He passed several long minutes like this.

  A low rumbling began in the distance and shook the area. Ciredor lifted his head slowly at the onset of the vibrations. The shaking localized at the minaret. Several feet in front of him sand sprayed in all directions, and two purple desert worms erupted from the ground. They were both close to the same size, and Ciredor guessed they were probably littermates.

  “Very young,” he said appraisingly, “judging by your size.”

  Each one was about eleven feet long and two feet in diameter. A series of spikes, each half a foot long, rimmed their mouths, and with them, they were able to tunnel beneath the desert sands and rip apart their prey. Their tails ended in glistening spikes that Ciredor knew could inject a deadly poison.

  He was pleased with their prompt arrival, even if they were not yet a fraction of their species’ full size. The two worms reared and writhed in front of him, apparently uncomfortable, roused from the safety of their burrows and exposed as they were. Their eyes were almost non-existent, typical of creatures that were more accustomed to life underground. Soundlessly, they undulated as he marched around them like a drill instructor inspecting his troops.

  “You’ll do,” he finally approved.

  Without warning, the worm on the right lunged for Ciredor perhaps out of hunger or anger at the summons to this location against its will. The mage was momentarily startled by the unexpected disobedience, but his lightning reflexes saved him from the boring orifice of the creature he had called. He dodged to the left, and the worm smashed into the sand where the mage had been standing a moment before. Ciredor’s smile disappeared, and he watched to see what the worm would do next.

  The renegade monster reared back and prepared to lunge again. The second worm continued to writhe in place but did nothing to help or hinder its sibling. It seemed to be waiting for the outcome.

  It didn’t have to wait long. Ciredor stood his ground and did not flinch as the worm lunged a second time.

  Without using any magic at all, Ciredor caught the worm with both of his hands just below the monster’s mouth.

  “I don’t think so,” he snarled as he strained to force the spinning row of teeth away from his face, enjoying the physical challenge.

  With a burst of strength, Ciredor wrenched the worm away and threw it to the ground. However, the monster had not yet given up.

  It reared up again and lunged a last time at Ciredor. The dark mage feinted to the right, and as the worm once again smashed into the sand, Ciredor jumped on the back of it. Like an unbroken stallion, the worm rose up in the air, bucking from side to side, but it could not shake Ciredor from its back. The mage held onto the worm’s neck with his left arm and stabbed his right arm directly into the soft head of the desert dweller. With a triumphant snarl, Ciredor yanked out most of the worm’s simple brain stem. The creature slumped limply to the sand.

  Ciredor climbed off the dead worm, right arm dripping a putrid slime. He regarded his soiled robes with a moue of distaste. With a practiced gesture, he waved his left hand first over his right arm and over every part of his stained silks. After his enspelled pass, the ebony material glistened in the starlight as though freshly spun. Then he turned to the second worm.

  The creature had lowered itself to the ground at the death of its sibling. As Ciredor regarded the creature coolly, the worm slithered docilely at his feet, curling around him like some faithful hound. Absently, Ciredor stroked its side, and the worm nearly quivered in pleasure. When the worm had passed around Ciredor’s feet a few times, it hesitantly slithered over to its deceased littermate. The creature raised up its head, obviously preparing to devour the dead relative. Nothing went to waste in the Calim.

  “That wouldn’t be wise,” Ciredor warned sweetly, wagging one finger from side to side.

  The worm halted in mid lunge and turned to regard the mage. Ciredor moved over to stand beside the young worm and leaned close to its head.

  “I don’t want anything to spoil your appetite,” he informed the creature, like a mother lecturing a naughty child. “I have something else in mind for you to dine on. You can always come back and have this one later. It’s not going anywhere.”

  Ciredor chuckled, pleased with his own joke.

  “Here’s what I want you to do,” the necromancer commanded, his voice dropping to a whisper.

  When he had given the worm its instructions, he patted it along its body.

  “Off with you now,” he ordered.

  The worm reared up and dived into the sand, disappearing completely.

  “Such a good little pet,” Ciredor said to himself.

  He paused to cast a cursory glance at the dead desert worm before turning back to enter the minaret.

  “You take care of the mage-child,” he said to the absent worm, “and Tazi will make sure Fannah arrives here unharmed. I just don’t know what I would do without such dependable servants.”

  Upon entering the absolute darkness of the tower stairway, cooler still than the desert night outside, a certainty settled over Ciredor. He flung the doors shut behind him and leaned his back against them as they latched.

  Once again in his sacred temple, he lowered his voice reverently and said, “Everything is proceeding just as it should. From all the signs you’ve sent me, it is as though you’ve already accepted me, Shar.”

  One side of his mouth turned up in a lopsided grin, and he resisted the urge to rub his hands together.

  “It’s almost time,” he whispered and bounded up the stairs two at a step, like an eager bridegroom.

  CHAPTER 14

  DEATH IN THE DESERT

  As a bloated red sun spread its rosy fingers over the sand, Tazi and her friends decided to move on. She reluctantly realized that they wouldn’t consider the absolute logic of returning to the relative safety of Calimport without her. There was no point in continuing to argue with them. It wasted the one thing they hadn’t run out of yet: time.

  “Well,” Tazi said as they threw handfuls of sand on their tiny fire, “at least it won’t take long to pack up. See? We’re done.”

  “I’ve always admired your ability to appreciate the lighter side of things,” Steorf complimented her sarcastically.

  “Do you feel that?” Fannah interrupted them with a worried look on her face.

  “What is it?” Tazi asked, immediately on guard, though she was not aware of anything unusual.

  “A rumbling,” Fannah explained to them, “not too deep in the ground. It’s getting closer. Do you feel it now?”

  “I’m not sure—” Steorf started to ask her when their former fire pit exploded.

  The force of the blast knocked Tazi and Fannah to the ground in a spray of sand and debris. Steorf barely managed to keep his footing. Rising up like some leviathan from the ocean depths, the purple desert worm reared its head. Its body eclipsed the rising sun like a storm cloud.

  �
��What is that thing?” Tazi shouted.

  Both she and Steorf drew their weapons, and Tazi realized that Fannah was unarmed.

  She reached into her boot and called out to Fannah, “Right hand, Fannah.”

  Her friend extended her hand, and Tazi tossed her razor-sharp dagger so that it landed unerringly with its hilt in Fannah’s palm. She saw her friend close her fingers around it.

  At least she has something, Tazi thought.

  The worm swung its head from one side to the other and an odd realization struck Tazi.

  It looks like the worm is trying to decide which one of us it wants to strike at first. Why would that matter?

  Tazi didn’t have any more time to contemplate the worm’s intentions before it made them very clear. The creature cocked its head and snapped it forward at Steorf. The young mage nearly failed to dodge the ring of teeth that smashed at his feet in time. None of them expected the worm to continue its descent.

  The creature burrowed under the sand, and all three of them looked about wildly, trying to anticipate where it would resurface. The ground shifted in huge waves beneath them, and Steorf lost his footing. As he tumbled, the worm burst out of the sand to his right.

  Steorf rolled furiously to the left, and the creature struck the ground where the mage had lain only a moment before. The creature was undaunted by its failure, and Steorf had to continue to roll as the creature shot after him repeatedly, each time missing the sorcerer by a narrower margin.

  Steorf was finally able to roll up into a crouching position and slash across the worm’s throat. The desert monster squealed, but the injury, a shallow cut, only made it more frenzied.

  Tazi dashed over with her guardblade in hand, Fannah trailing just behind. The worm turned, however, and released a stream of sand from its nostrils, blasting the women. Tazi screamed in pain at the stinging spray. She was temporarily blinded by it.

  The worm swung back to face Steorf, all else forgotten. As Steorf slashed at the creature again, Fannah came up behind the slithering beast. Tazi’s body had shielded her from the brunt of the sandblast the worm had released, so she was uninjured. The blind woman struck the beast multiple times along its body, with little effect, though it oozed purple at every wound.