The City of Zirdai

by Maria V. Snyder

  “Come in, Rendor. I’m awake,” she said, raising her mental barrier again.

  He swept the curtain aside. “Did I—”

  “No, you didn’t wake me.” She sat up. “Thanks for bringing food and water, but I don’t need it.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said, stepping into her room. “You haven’t been eating or drinking as much as you should. How can you function properly without sustenance? People are relying on you.”

  He’d noticed. “I don’t—”

  “Have a headache? Aren’t hungry?”

  Now that he mentioned it, the dull ache flared to a sharp pounding, and her stomach rumbled. Loudly. At least he didn’t gloat. “How did you know?”

  “I’m observant and can count.” He handed her the skin.

  She took a couple sips of water, but it tasted bitter.

  Rendor crouched down beside her. “I know you think you’re helping the others by not taking your full share, but you’re not. You’re making all the decisions. Important ones that shouldn’t be made when you’re weak and dehydrated.”

  The desire to grump at him pushed up her throat. But he was right and she had been skipping meals. So she gulped down a few more mouthfuls of water and chewed on the dried jerky.

  When he stood to leave, she suddenly didn’t want to be alone. “What time is it?” she asked between bites.

  “Around angle three hundred.”

  “Have you gotten any sleep?”

  He hesitated. “Not yet. I wanted to talk to Jaft and Elek about joining my team before their shift.”

  The two men had been acolytes when they’d volunteered to help Shyla rescue Banqui and then they joined the Invisible Sword after she’d woken the power of The Eyes. “Good choices.”

  “I need strong men. Water is heavy.”

  “Are you taking the cart?”

  “No. That’s too difficult to conceal and the water jugs are too awkward to carry. I’ve another idea.”

  “What is it?”

  He smiled. “I need to figure out if I can get the right materials first. If not, then I’ll have to think of something else.”

  In other words, he would tell her only when he was ready. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “I will.” He left.

  She hugged her arms to her chest as a sudden chill raced up her spine. The room seemed colder without him. Shyla resisted calling him back. She’d slept so much better with him beside her. However, many of the Invisible Swords didn’t like or trust him despite her repeated assurances that he was sincere. And they wouldn’t be happy about him staying in her room even if all they did was sleep.

  The Invisible Swords believed in the power of The Eyes, yet she was learning that they needed to experience certain things for themselves like Rendor. Which shouldn’t have been a surprise as she’d been the same way. Hanif had warned her that the citizens of Zirdai wouldn’t welcome a sun-kissed, but she left the monastery anyway, determined to change everyone’s mind. It took her two circuits to admit he was right.

  Eventually, she slept. In her dreams, a sand storm chased her. She tried to run away from it, but her feet sank into the soft surface, slowing her down. Soon the storm caught up to her and she was lost in a dense fog of sand that obscured everything and cut her off from everyone—the worst part, until the airborne grains filled her nose and blocked her throat. Unable to breathe, she woke with a strangled cry, clawing at her neck, convinced she was suffocating.

  Hands grabbed her wrists and pulled her fingers away from her skin.

  “Easy there,” Jayden said. “It’s just a dream.”

  She stilled and focused on him as her heart slowed to normal. He knelt next to her mat. When she no longer gasped for breath, she said, “Thanks.”

  Jayden released her and sat back on his heels. “I came to check on you. It’s angle ten.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I’m—”

  “Still recovering?”

  “I don’t think so. I couldn’t sleep, but when I did, it wasn’t restful.” Far from it. She wondered if her bad dream was a symptom of using too much magic. Jayden stood and brushed the sand off his knees. “Do you want another sun jump to rest?”

  “No.” Remembering Rendor’s comment about taking care of herself, she said, “Just give me five angles and I’ll meet you.”

  Shyla hurried to change and eat. When she reached the surface, she paused to drink in the sunlight. It warmed her even though the air around her was still cool from the darkness. A breeze blew the sand, the ribbons flowing over the surface like translucent snakes. She breathed in the familiar scent of ginger mixed with anise.

  Nearby, the first crew cleared sand. Rendor was among them. She wondered if he’d gotten any sleep. As if feeling her gaze on him, he glanced up and smiled at her. She returned it. What a sap.

  Jayden was helping to smooth out the piles of sand that had been brought up from the temple. He used his magic to move the grains, making it appear to be undisturbed—a small dune in a series of equally unimposing dunes.

  She joined him. “Is that the same as erasing tracks?”

  “Yes, except you have to control more of the sand so it takes more concentration. And you need to envision the end result.” He swept a hand out to the miniature dunes. “As we clear the sand from the temple, I’m building these just like if they were etched by the wind. Slowly, gradually, angled perpendicular to the dominant wind direction. So if anyone noticed this patch of the desert over time, the dunes would not appear suddenly from one sun jump to the next.”

  Gurice trudged over with another bucket and dumped it onto a new pile. “Must be nice to stand around doing nothing, enjoying the view,” she snarked.

  “Yes. It’s lovely.” Jayden didn’t rise to the bait.

  “You know I can make dunes while you schlep heavy buckets,” Gurice said.

  “I know.” He turned to Shyla. “Gurice can make dunes as well, but, while I created four small dunes in a few angles without much effort, it would take her longer and sap all her strength.”

  “Yeah, well, moving sand grains isn’t my forte,” she grumped.

  “Can you erase your tracks?” Shyla asked.

  “Yeah, but it’s harder than making a person see what I want them to see.” Her green eyes glowed with mischief. “That’s my specialty.”

  “But, again, she can only do a few people at a time, while I can influence a dozen.”

  “Rub it in.” Gurice strode away, muttering.

  “She’s a little sensitive,” Jayden said.

  “Does everyone have a specialty like Gurice?” Shyla asked.

  “Yes. Everyone can do one thing better than the other skills. A few can only do one or two things. The weaker the magic, the more limited the person.”

  “What’s your specialty?”

  “I’m rare in that I can do all things equally well.”

  “How rare?”

  “Before the ambush, there were four of us. After…” He stared into the distance. “It’s just me and Ximen now.” Grief thickened his words and dragged them through the air.

  “How many people could wield magic before?”

  “Twenty total.”

  She stared at him in shock. “That’s it? I thought the Invisible Sword had—”

  “We don’t. While there were dozens of people in the different levels of our organization, we didn’t have many that could wield magic.”

  And there were only eleven of them left. Twelve if she counted Zhek. His ability to heal had to be magical. Then there was Mojag and his sensitive nose. Which made her wonder… “What are the ‘things’ you keep mentioning?”

  “Magical skills. There are three of them—influence, manipulation, and movement. You already know about influencing a person’s perceptions, making them see or not see what you want them to, making them smell an odor, fall asleep, or sit down, things like that. Influence also allows us to ‘sense’ a person like we did when we were at our old headquarters.

&n
bsp; “Manipulation is more advanced as it goes into a person’s thoughts and emotions, changing their memories, causing fear or happiness. Movement is what we do with the sand.” Jayden smoothed out Gurice’s small pile. “Reverting the sand to its undisturbed state is a lifesaving skill. You already know how to erase tracks in the sand, but there are a few other skills that are essential. Remember when we ambushed you and Rendor on that dune?”

  “Hard to forget.” Her tone held an edge. Rendor had almost died.

  Jayden ignored it. “When you crested the dune, the sand was undisturbed. But just under the surface were twelve Invisible Swords.”

  She perked up. Was he going to teach her how to travel through the sand?

  “This is how we did it.” Jayden stepped a couple meters away. He pulled the hood of his sun cloak over his head and down so it covered his face as well. He gestured. A thick cloud of sand rose up in front of him, leaving behind a shallow depression. Shyla moved back, instinctively covering her nose and mouth. But the grains remained near Jayden.

  Then he stretched out in the dip in the sand on his stomach. Resting on his elbows, he held out the edge of the hood. It resembled a tent around his head. The sand cloud settled over him and dissipated.

  She stared at the sand. It was smooth, pristine. Jayden had disappeared. Nothing happened for an angle, then the sand exploded into the air, obscuring her view. When the sand settled, Jayden stood there. The spot around him was once again undisturbed.

  “That was impressive,” Shyla said. “How long can you stay under the sand?”

  “It depends on how deep you are. I was pretty close to the surface and you saw that I trapped a pocket of air with my hood. I could have stayed under for about ten angles. Once you go deeper, you have less air and less time.”

  Fascinated, she asked, “How deep can you go?”

  “Only as deep as the loose sand. Once you hit the hard stone, that’s it.”

  That didn’t add up. “But when they captured me, we traveled through the ground.”

  Jayden gave her a wry smile. “That’s what you were supposed to think. It was a bit of a show.”

  “A show?” She tried and failed to keep the outrage from her voice.

  “Remember fear and desperation trigger magic. Come on.” Jayden strode away, heading for a large dune.

  She followed. They climbed to the top.

  Jayden faced her. “When I disappear, look over the side.” He pointed. Then he pulled his hood down. A cloud of grains spiraled into the air. It wasn’t thick enough to block the sight of Jayden sinking into the sand.

  Even though she’d seen it before, it still startled her and she had to stifle the desire to rush over and grab his arms. When any other person sank, it meant the poor soul had stumbled into a patch of unstable sluff sand, which, if he was alone, meant he would soon suffocate and die.

  Once Jayden vanished, the cloud settled and the sand rushed to fill the hole, leaving behind no sign he’d been there at all. Shyla hurried to the dune’s edge and peered over. After a couple heart-pounding moments, sand poured from the side as if the dune was bleeding. Then a man-sized slit opened and Jayden sauntered out. The grains reversed direction, plugging the gap.

  He turned toward her and held his arms out wide. “Ta da!”

  Show-off. But she had to admit it was impressive. She slid down the side of the dune until she reached him. “Why did the sand run out of the dune before you exited?”

  “My body took up space inside the dune. The sand will compress to a certain point, but the rest has to go somewhere. When I sank, the sand moved to give me room. Some of it went into the air so I could cover my passage, and the rest went out the side.”

  “So, after the ambush, I was taken through the dune?”

  “Yes. Payatt took you with him, then he erased your memories of the trip to the testing chamber.”

  A nice name for what it really was—a prison—but she kept quiet. Instead she focused on the fact Payatt had erased her memories. It was strange to think she had an experience that she no longer remembered. Unease grew, knotting her stomach. “Was that the only time my memory was altered?”

  He hesitated and a longing to read his soul gripped her. She studied him, searching for any indication he was about to lie.

  “I think so,” he finally said.

  “Think?”

  “I wasn’t with you the entire time. Plus you moped in your room those three sun jumps after we rescued Banqui. Someone could have visited you to find out how much you knew about our organization.”

  Shyla recalled the events after Banqui’s rescue, but something nagged at her. A detail that…didn’t quite fit. It clicked.

  “Why didn’t you erase my memories?” she asked him. “You can do manipulation as well as the other two skills. But you told me it wasn’t your specialty.”

  “I lied. I was furious at you for that stunt you pulled with the Water Prince. If I’d accessed your memories, there was a very good chance I would have wiped everything.” He swiped his hand through the air in one harsh chop. “Clean slate. Baby fresh.”

  Stunned, she grappled with his admission. So much there… She’d known he was angry, but this was on an entirely different level. Also the fact that a person’s mind could be obliterated back to infancy… Scary.

  She regained some of her composure. “I don’t regret that stunt. It saved us all.”

  “So you say.”

  Yes, she did. The Water Prince had been wearing armor under his tunic. But she hadn’t woken The Eyes yet, so Jayden hadn’t believed her. Obviously, he was still upset. It explained why he argued with her on everything. And why he didn’t fully trust her. It occurred to her that Jayden was the only one who hadn’t witnessed her sacrifice for The Eyes. Hanif had been right to invite the Invisible Swords to watch. It’d made a difference in how they treated her.

  “Do you think The Eyes made a mistake choosing me?” she asked.

  “I think The Eyes don’t choose. I think they’ll work for anyone who is brave and conceited enough to allow another person to cut out their eyeballs.”

  Six

  Shyla thought she’d been astounded before. This was so far beyond it she didn’t have a word to describe it.

  “I’m being honest,” he said into the silence.

  Recovering slightly, she said, “I got that. But what about all the warnings that The Eyes might fail to work and leave a person blind?”

  “That’s where the brave part comes in. That supposed risk kept so many people from trying. From even touching them.” He shook his head. “And it put doubts into their heads so even if The Eyes stirred to their touch, they still wouldn’t go through with it.”

  “And the conceit? Where does that come in?”

  “Believing that you’re so special that there is no doubt they’ll work for you. Having the conceit to actually go through with it.”

  It hadn’t been like that for her. She’d had lots of doubts about whether they would wake, but she went through with the sacrifice despite them. Unlike now when she doubted Jayden would believe her even if she tried to enlighten him. His bitterness explained so much.

  “You wanted to wake The Eyes,” she said.

  “Yes. It should have been me.” He flicked his fingers. Sand burst into the air. “I’ve spent my entire life working to make the people of Zirdai’s lives better.”

  There was nothing she could say that would ease his anger. Best to keep quiet and let him get it out. The grains formed the shape of an arrow and zipped around them. One part of her wanted to ask him to teach her how to do that, and the other wanted to duck and cover.

  “The Invisible Sword leaders thought I was too young. Too inexperienced. They wouldn’t even let me touch them.” The arrow swooped close to the surface, sucking up more sand. It grew larger. “And then you came along. No experience. Younger than me. You couldn’t care less about people’s lives. Just your own agenda.” He laughed, but it was a humorless sound. “After
all that, you really did steal The Eyes of Tamburah.” The arrow slammed into the dune. Sand sprayed out in all directions, leaving behind a sunburst pattern.

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she asked.

  He rounded on her. “What could I say? You did it to rescue me. I’d come off as an ungrateful jerk.” Scrubbing a hand through his hair, Jayden glanced around as if searching for a reason for his outburst. “I can’t believe I’m saying all this now.”

  She touched his arm. “You needed to say it.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not like it’s going to change anything.”

  It already had for her and she suspected for him as well. “Rescuing you was only one of the reasons I sacrificed my eyes. Dyani, the little girl who was poisoned, was another. And I realized I not only wanted to help the vagrants and the Invisible Swords, but that I could. Huh. I guess that was conceited.”

  “See?” He gave her a wan smile.

  “You’re right, bravery and conceit.” And, according to Rendor, insanity. “I never felt I was special, though.”

  “But you’re sun-kissed.”

  “That makes me an outcast, unwanted, and, if you believe the Heliacal Priestess, cursed. Not special.” She thought about why he’d think that. “Do I act like I am?” That would be terrible.

  “No.”

  One positive. Probably not enough for Jayden. “If you leave, I’ll understand.”

  “Why would I leave?”

  “You think I stole The Eyes from you.”

  “You did.”

  “My point exactly.”

  “I’m upset but not stupid. We’re stronger together. Besides, who’s going to teach you how to move sand? Gurice? Ximen? I think not.”

  “But you said Ximen can do all three magical techniques equally well.”

  “He can, but I’m twice as strong as him.”

  “Now who’s conceited?”