Sisters of the Sands: Book 1 of the Acolytes series

by James Villinger

  We followed the girl into the living room and I closed the portal behind us.

  “Aww, why did you close it?”

  Her mother was around the corner in the kitchen. “What’s that, dear? I’m busy with dinner. You can come help me by setting up the table.”

  “Awwww …”

  “Now!” the mother said. The young girl plodded into the kitchen and rifled through the draws. There were some family pictures of the girls hanging on the walls, but I couldn’t see any pictures of Maya’s father or brother.

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” Maya said to me. “Teleport to somewhere you couldn’t see?”

  “I … I guessed,” I lied.

  “Sorry about that,” the woman said with a big smile as she appeared from the kitchen. “It’s great to finally meet you both. I’m Hana.”

  I smiled back. “I’m Sacet. This is … a wonderful home you have here.”

  Hana nodded solemnly. “Yes, well, that’s the price you pay when you split your family in half. And you must be Tau, right?”

  “You’ve heard about me?” Tau said, bewildered.

  “Of course, my daughters have told me a lot about you both. It doesn’t hurt that you’re fairly famous, too. Dinner’s just about ready, so why don’t you all take a seat at the table?”

  Maya led us to the adjoining room of the kitchen where there was a dining table and chairs. I took a seat and looked out the window at the city’s alleyways. Maya returned to the kitchen and helped Kowi bring in the plates and cutlery.

  “So, I see you finally got your new streaks,” I said as Tau pulled out a chair and sat down next to me. Her streaks were now purple with blue tips, the same colour as mine and Maya’s.

  “Yeah, someone came to visit me while I was working,” Tau said.

  Maya placed some cutlery on the table. “I’m surprised they haven’t promoted you to corporal for all the people you’ve helped. I bet you’re happy that you caught up to us.”

  Hana brought in two large plates of food and placed them down in the middle of the table. “Good, good. Everyone sit.” The family took their seats beside us and started shovelling food onto their plates. “I’ve cooked up some spicy anatocarni and made a fresh mycin salad. I’m sorry, girls? Is something wrong? Here, I’ll put some on your plates for you.” Hana reached out, took my plate and then Tau’s, and started filling them with pieces of meat and vegetables.

  I leant over my plate and picked up my knife. I plucked up a piece of meat, placed it my mouth and chewed. There it was again, that strange aftertaste. Ever since I had arrived in this city, there was something off about the food, delicious though it was. Maybe I was imagining it.

  I gave a quick, courteous bow to Hana. “Thank-you, sorry, I … didn’t know where to start, it all looks so good.”

  “Oh, thank-you, Sacet. Do you say that because Maya isn’t feeding you properly?” Hana said as she scowled over at her. “Maya, what are you feeding this poor girl? She’s got barely any definition on her.”

  Maya finished chewing her food. “Mother, I make sure she gets a balanced diet, I promise you. Don’t I, Sacet?”

  “Uh, yes?”

  “Alright, fine. Maya, you should take your sister out after dinner. She hardly gets to see you lately.”

  “Yesh!” Kowi agreed with a mouth full of food before swallowing. “You can meet my friends.”

  “Do I have to?” Maya whined.

  “Yes! That’s how you can make it up to me. To both of us,” Hana said.

  “Make what up?” Tau asked.

  Maya turned to us, also with a mouth full of food. “My mother thinks it’s my fault that they’re both being forced to be in the tournament’s audience tomorrow … just because I’m in the military. But I keep telling her that everyone has to attend.”

  “And what my daughter isn’t telling you is that if she’s in the military then she supports everything they do.”

  I raised my finger to interrupt. “Erm, I don’t support the military … at all. I was forced to join it.”

  “Oh, I know dear, and I’m sorry about that. But Maya here joined it willingly. Very different.”

  Maya sighed. “And you’ve reminded me about it every time I come over here. You asked me why I don’t like to visit, and now you know.”

  “Stop being so melodramatic, Maya. We have guests,” Hana said.

  “I’m sorry … back up,” I said. “Did you say everyone is going to be there?”

  Maya shook her head. “Well, obviously not everyone in the city. A lot of people watch from their homes. The Queen insists on it, saying something about inspiring our people.”

  “She inspires me to put my foot up her arse is what she does,” Hana said.

  “Mother! Don’t talk like that. Treason is a crime. If you ever get caught …”

  “Yes, yes, I know. But every time this awful tournament comes around, Kowi and I have to sit there and be subjected to that overly zealous drivel. I have to turn her head away for practically the whole thing. How can they consider murdering people as entertainment, honestly?”

  The table went silent aside from the clattering of plates as we ate. My perception drifted throughout the home, examining the family’s belongings. On a small bedside table in Hana’s bedroom there were two pictures, one of the father and one of the brother. The men were depicted against a white backdrop. They looked sad; it must have been taken when they were captured. It was the only picture the family had of them.

  Maya and Kowi were still eating but Hana had stopped.

  Later that night

  In the Commercial Quad

  The buildings towered all around us. I had to tilt my neck up to see the tops. Billboards covered in neon lights flashed and shimmered down to the congested walkways. Every metal surface reflected the vibrant shower of colours. The smell of food permeated the streets, as did the colossal noise from thousands of pedestrians coming and going.

  One billboard in particular caught Tau’s eye, stopping her in her tracks. Maya and I followed her gaze. It was a giant picture of Tau, with her aura activated, standing over a hospital patient. Underneath were the words “A Healing Hope” in bold letters.

  “Quite the hero now, huh?” I said, jabbing Tau in the side.

  Tau shook her head in disbelief. “That’s not why I heal people. I’m going to complain about this, they didn’t even ask me if they could put it up.”

  Maya pointed up at the billboard with a smile. “She’s not the only one.” The screen Tau’s picture was on changed, now showing a picture of me. I was in full armour, standing over Colony in the gardens. This time the words said “New Allies Join the Fight”.

  I shrugged. “How did they even get that picture?”

  The picture changed again, this time to a soldier I didn’t recognise and a new tagline.

  Maya giggled. “I remember when they advertised me up there, too. They like to show off all the newbies in the lead-up to the tournament.”

  “Great,” I drawled.

  The billboards were certainly doing their job. The three of us were becoming increasingly aware of how much people in the street were staring at us as they passed by. Some even stopped and smiled, awestruck.

  “Hey, come on!” Kowi yelled from the other side of the crowd, breaking us away from the billboard.

  We did our best to follow her, negotiating our way through the people. Why was there such a big hurry to play a game?

  My mind drifted, and my second perception sped through and above our surroundings. There was so much to see around here, but there was only one thing I cared about. On the far side of the quad I sensed the stadium where tomorrow’s event would be. It was immense.

  Kowi stopped in front of a storefront. It was a large gallery of lit screens and electronic noises. This arcade they were telling me about was filled with happy kids, all of them interacting with colourful machines and boxes. A consistent, deep thumping droned from the speakers inside.

  T
wo kids came out of the arcade and approached us. Kowi immediately ran over and hugged them. They must have been her friends. The kids beamed at Tau and I.

  With a proud look on her face, Kowi gestured back at us. “You know my sister, Maya. This is Sacet, and that’s Tau.”

  “Wow!” the kids exclaimed in unison.

  Kowi folded her arms, nodded and smiled. “I know, right?”

  “Hi! It’s so awesome to meet you,” one of the girls said, grinning with glee. “Tau, you’re amazing! Thank you so much for healing my mother.”

  Tau smiled back. “You’re welcome.”

  I didn’t want to be here right now. What were we doing anyway? Didn’t these children know I had far worse things to be thinking of right now?

  The other child ran over and stopped uncomfortably close to me. “You’re my hero, Sacet. Capturing all of those enemies like they were nothing.”

  “Your hero?” I replied, before shrugging at Maya, who nodded back.

  “Of course!” the girl squealed. “You’re so famous. The whole city is talking about you … and Tau as well.”

  Kowi impatiently gestured inside. “Come on, we need to make the others jealous. Let’s play!”

  The kids led the three of us in and through the arcade. We caught looks from many of the kids, who dropped their jaws at the sight of us. Meanwhile, Kowi and her friends smugly strutted, leading us to every corner of the crowded, noisy place.

  My attention wandered again, back to the stadium. Beneath it, underground passages weaved throughout, and there was a large central chamber under the arena. It was filled with hundreds of men, their bodies huddled together like prisoners in a cell. This was awful. I couldn’t let them commit mass murder like this.

  But how could I save them? They would know it was me in an instant if I created a portal, unless they escaped while the event was going on above with me in it. They didn’t know I could see through walls, and they especially didn’t know I could teleport the men as far away as I wanted to. But what if they found out it was me? I would be putting Eno’s life at risk again.

  “Ready?” one of the kids interrupted.

  “What?” I said. She handed me a plastic gun and pointed at a doorway in front of us. Inside, the dark corridor lit up like the neon lights from the billboards outside. “What do I do with this?”

  “You’ve got to shoot the bad guys inside,” she yelled back over the pulsating bass. “Go for the red ones, they’re worth the most points.”

  The others made a circle. They were all smiling, but I had no idea what was going on.

  Kowi leant in. “We’ll beat her score this time, I’m sure of it. Go for all the easy shots, unless you see a red one, got it?” She acted like she was our leader. “Now that we’ve got Sacet, we can’t lose!”

  The kids cheered, and Maya noticed my bewildered look. She leant over to me. “Iya holds the record for this game.”

  “Iya does this?” I replied, following our makeshift squad into the neon corridor. “And here I thought she was a ruthless killer.”

  Maya sneered as she readied her weapon. “Yeah, well, everything’s just a game to her. I ended up asking her about what happened the other day. She looked me right in the eye and said she was going to kill me. I mean, was she joking? If she was, she has a terrible sense of humour.”

  “Terrible is an understatement,” I replied.

  We reached the end of the corridor and entered a neon-lit, smoke-filled chamber. Artificial chest-high walls were strewn about the maze-like complex. There was a loud beeping noise and the others ran for cover. I did the same, diving for the nearest barricade.

  The room filled with fake laser projectiles. Several figures appeared in different positions around the maze. They were men, enemy soldiers, but they were made entirely of light. Some were blue, green, yellow, and so on. Each took cover like we did before returning fire on our position.

  I raised the small plastic firearm and shot into the maelstrom of colours, producing a harmless red beam. I downed one of the soldiers, creating a satisfying explosion of light.

  A chime rang above us. Hanging from the ceiling was a scoreboard, and its number was already rising.

  “Good shot!” Maya called out to me, before continuing to fire with precision accuracy, taking out three more enemies.

  Tau fired sporadically, not seeming to care too much about the game.

  The kids, meanwhile, jumped in and out of cover, firing inaccurately and taking risks. A laser soldier was ready to flank them from the side, so I took aim and shot him before he could act. The girls noticed the explosion and smiled back at me.

  I stopped and lowered my weapon. Maybe there was a way we could beat Iya?

  I thought back to my training when Sula made me create an exit portal larger than its entrance. It didn’t modify the size of the object but it did modify the image … that meant it modified the light coming through, too. I opened a small entrance portal in front of my gun, then stretched the exit in front of me as large as the room’s ceiling would allow.

  I clicked the trigger as fast as I could, firing the beam into the portal. The laser exited at least 100 times its original size and filled with the room with blinding red. The wave of light swept across the room, downing every enemy combatant, even those in cover.

  As the scoreboard ticked higher, more and more enemies appeared, but as soon as I caught sight of them, I simply tilted my exit portal, and each disintegrated almost immediately upon entering the battlefield. The rest of my group abandoned their cover to cheer me on and watch the lightshow.

  The enemies wouldn’t stop coming, no matter how many of them I killed and scattered back into nonexistence. I expanded the exit portal even larger. I clicked as fast as I could. I gritted my teeth and growled in frustration. Stop, enough of all of you!

  “Just die, already!”

  There was a loud beep and the lights ceased, then gently faded to green. It seemed as though the game was over, so I closed my portals and took my finger off the trigger. The beeping noises continued and the scoreboard flashed above.

  “Yes! We did it!” Kowi said as the kids cheered.

  As our group made their way back to the corridor, Maya put an arm around me and smiled. “Cheater … thanks.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t mention it. I’m going to enjoy seeing the look on Iya’s stupid face.”

  A crowd of children were waiting for us back in the main arcade area. When they saw us, a swell of cheers filled the building.

  One of Kowi’s friends grabbed my wrist to get my attention. “You quadrupled Iya’s score! How did you do that?”

  I smirked. “A lot of skill. Maya calls it cheating.”

  Tau pointed her pistol in the air. “How about another game?”

  The crowd cheered again, and many of the kids were requesting to join us.

  Maya gave me a firm pat on the back. “That was fun, right? Come on, let’s beat your score.”

  I smiled back. “Yeah, sure.”

  29. Pilgrimage

  The next day

  In the stadium

  Yet again I was surrounded by hundreds of Acolytes. We all sat in organised rows, on steel benches that overlooked the arena in the centre of the stadium. The arena was broken into quarters. Each section was made of steel and elevated above the artificial grass on the stadium ground.

  I had never seen this many people before. The bevy of spectators sounded like a huge, groaning mass, their diverse array of voices forming a cacophony. The crowd was divided into partitions, the front rows filled with soldiers and a sea of the Queen’s loyal followers. They cheered and shouted to the Acolytes down in the grounds and in the pews. The second and third tiers of the stadium were packed with the city’s residents, who were far more reserved than the soldiers.

  I prodded Maya. “Is there any particular order to this?”

  “Hmm, what? We get called up by those screens up there. I’m not sure what the order is,” she said.

 
“Have you ever done this before?”

  “This will be my third time,” Maya replied, looking away from me.

  I almost choked. “How … how many people have you killed?”

  She shrugged, as though it was no big deal. “Here? Only the two. But I think … in total, at least 30 men?”

  “Please stand in silence for the Queen’s entrance,” an echoing voice boomed.

  The crowd quietened and gazed to the upper terrace, where a separate podium had been raised. There were seven seats, one of them a large golden throne placed between the other six. The Queen, followed by her commanders, appeared from a cordoned entrance at the rear of the podium, and she made her way to the throne.

  “I, Queen Antwin, welcome you all to this glorious event,” she announced with gusto. “I will start by saying that the unquestionable loyalty of my armies before me stands as a testament to our power, but like steel, that loyalty must be tempered so as to not succumb to a dull edge. Our vehicles of war must be maintained, our energy weapons must be recharged and our bombs must be tested. Likewise, our Acolytes must prove their worth. Our enemies outnumber our people, and as a society we need to show them how capable we are of tipping the scales.

  “Although today’s punishments will be carried out upon the weak and feeble, they also include the likes of the dissident and rebellious. May the actions of our faithful Acolytes act as a reminder of our commitment to end the terror the Male Dominion has wrought. Thank you.”

  The crowd around me erupted in cheers and applause. Even Maya stood, clapped and nodded.

  My perspective shifted below the stadium, where some of the men were being driven out of the chamber and through the tunnels. I needed to do something or they were all going to die, one by one.

  “I would like to reiterate the Queen’s gracious welcome to you all on this fine day,” another voice echoed. “The first event, which is an execution, will be run simultaneously on four arenas. As always, we will start with the pride of our military, the youth.”

  As the announcement ended, the crowd roared once more. Back at the benches, three young Initiates stood up. Beside them, Iya had stood as well. She turned back to lock eyes with me. She narrowed her gaze and smiled before turning away again.