Destiny of the Sands

by Rai Aren

Struggling to see, and coughing Mindara called out, “Children! Traeus!”

  Setar was the first to see him. “Daddy!” he shrieked as he limped slightly to Traeus’ side, tears streaking down his dust-covered face. His leg was not badly injured, only bruised and scratched.

  A heavy wooden beam had landed across Traeus’ back and his body was littered with broken pieces of stone and splintered wood. Blood streamed down his face from an angry gash in his head. His arm was outstretched, his hand bloody.

  “Daddy, are you all right?” the young boy asked, sobbing.

  Traeus blinked, then coughed, trying to answer. The rest of the family frantically gathered round to help.

  “Anjia, help me lift this!” Tramen said, as he went to reach for the beam.

  Mindara went to set Alaj down to help them lift the beam.

  “No, Tramen, stop…” his father started to say, his voice rough. He coughed. His face was scratched and bloodied.

  “What? Why? We need to free you…” Tramen started to say, but then Anjia knelt down. She touched her father’s hand. Her head bowed.

  Tramen watched her, his heart sinking.

  Her shoulders slumped. She looked up at her brother, her eyes filled with tears. She shook her head. She crumpled down beside her father, keeping her hand on his. She wept. “Daddy…”

  Tramen knelt beside her, stricken by the realization of what he was seeing unfold before his eyes.

  “I-I am sorry…” Traeus struggled to say. He choked and gasped. Every breath was now a fight.

  Mindara saw the exchange, and placed a hand over her mouth to stifle her reaction. She knelt at her husband’s side. Little Alaj wailed. His mother held him close.

  “Daddy,” Setar cried, “I am sorry for what I said, I do not hate you.”

  “I know,” Traeus managed to say, coughing more violently this time. “Please remember,” he wheezed, “none of this is your fault. We…love…you…” Traeus winced in pain and coughed up blood. “We…”

  Mindara went white. She could see that her husband must have sustained severe internal injuries. “Shhh, my love…” she said, as she tenderly caressed his cheek, “…save your strength.”

  Tramen also reached out to touch his father’s hand. His and Anjia’s hands were lightly touching on top of their father’s bloodied hand.

  Traeus pursed his lips to hide the pain. He could feel the blood seeping throughout his chest. It felt wet, as though a floodgate had burst inside him. He could no longer feel his legs. Slowly, he looked at each of them. “Take…care of each other,” Traeus’ voice was now barely a whisper. “You…are…family.”

  “My love,” Mindara said as she wept, still touching his cheek, “do not leave us, please, do not go...”

  He inhaled sharply. A bright light blurred out their faces and was replaced by a single face. It has been many years since he had seen her beautiful face. She was smiling at him. She held out her arms, welcoming him to join her. A single tear rolled down Traeus’ cheek and slowly he closed his eyes. He was gone.

  Another explosion rocked the Palace, very close by.

  Chapter 56

  Burning Sky

  TRAMEN held a protective arm over both his sister and Setar as they fled out of the collapsing Palace. Mindara and Alaj followed closely behind. It had broken their hearts to leave Traeus behind, but their own lives were now in danger. From every direction walls shook, roof beams broke free and tumbled down. Screams pierced the air. As the family tried to race to safety, they narrowly missed being hit by a falling section of wall. Dust and debris choked the air, mixing with smoke from nearby fires. A state of panic gripped everyone within the Palace.

  Anjia guided Tramen as they tried to make their escape. The rest of the group followed the twins, the building crumbling behind them as they desperately sought a way out, dodging falling objects and leaping over broken furniture, fixtures and cracked floors. Screams came from every direction.

  Once outside and clear of the Palace, they stopped in their tracks. The sight was unbelievable. There was more chaos and devastation, but on a much, much larger scale. The fighting, near as they could tell, was over. What remained of Zhek’s army had fled. The battle was over, but a new and far deadlier threat had taken its place. Dead bodies and body parts littered the charred grounds. The scene was macabre. Royal guards, Kierani citizens, Zhek’s soldiers – no side was spared. Trees and buildings were on fire. People screamed and ran wildly in every direction, not knowing where safety could be found. Large sections of land were smoking and cratered from the fiery bombardment.

  Tramen gasped.

  Setar screamed. Anjia pulled him in close to her, covering his face.

  “What kind of madness is this?” Mindara asked, as she held her arm protectively over little Alaj’s head. “What weapons could do this?” She thought back to the Pharom, the only thing she knew of that was capable of such destructive force, but she thought it was safe.

  Just then, familiar voices were heard.

  From one direction Odai called out, waving his arms wildly, “Your Majesties!” He ran over to them. Senarra was right behind him, hanging on tightly to Auraelion’s hand. “We have been looking all over for you!” he shouted.

  From the other direction, Commander Maraeven raced over. “There you all are! We must leave!” he said, panic evident in his voice. He motioned to beyond the Palace grounds, “The main temple is nothing but a smoking crater, buildings everywhere have been demolished. Countless fires are raging. The devastation is far and wide.” He was breathing heavy and was covered in dirt and ash.

  “The Sun Disk…” Odai started to say.

  The Commander shook his head, coughing hard. “There is no way we can retrieve it, it is far too dangerous. It is likely gone.”

  “It may have survived,” Odai pressed.

  “With all due respect,” the Commander said, wiping dirt and sweat from his face, “you have not seen the area. There is a massive crater where the temple was. There is nothing left, and I will not risk my men to go into a burning hot, unstable area unless lives are in danger. We need to get as far away from here as possible.”

  “Understood,” Anjia said.

  Odai bowed his head, not challenging the matter any further.

  “Is everyone here all right?” the Commander asked as he looked around. He noticed someone was missing. “Where is the King?”

  Anjia shook her head, her eyes rimmed with red, her faced streaked with ashes and tears.

  Senarra gasped. She pulled her son close to her.

  Odai felt as if he had been hit in the stomach. “No…”

  The Commander’s face fell. His weary shoulders sagged. “How…?” he started to ask.

  Seemingly out of nowhere, a single flaming boulder streaked over the sky on the horizon. They saw for the first time what their enemy was. It was huge. Far off, the explosive force was heard. Trees cracked and shattered. A massive plume of dust rose in the air.

  “That is how,” she said, agonized over the sudden loss of her father.

  Tramen put an arm around her.

  Just then she realized something. “They are getting further away,” Anjia whispered, looking to the horizon.

  Tramen looked at her quizzically.

  “What was that?” Mindara asked, shaking, her eyes scanning the smoke-filled sky.

  “Meteorites,” Anjia said, her gaze drifting to the sky.

  “What?” Commander Maraeven asked.

  “We need to get out of here!” Mindara pressed. “The next one could be right on top of us!”

  “No,” Anjia said, still staring at the sky. “They are traveling away from us. We are safer here for the moment.”

  They all looked back at where the dust and smoke cloud filled the sky. A large fire had started of
f in the distance.

  “How can you possibly know…” the Commander started to say.

  “Because the first ones hit here,” she motioned to the devastation all around them.

  He looked around, then beyond to the billowing plume in the distance. “And killed our father back in the Palace.”

  “Why did they hit here?” Tramen asked. “The odds of that happening would be astronomical…”

  Trying to push aside her pain and focus on the moment, Anjia looked at him. “I have a guess.”

  He frowned.

  “The Pharom,” she said.

  Tramen nodded. His sister had shared all she knew about the Pharom with him some time ago.

  “I do not understand,” Mindara said.

  Setar looked at his sister quizzically.

  “I believe the energy it emitted,” she said, thinking hard, “both when it was activated and when it was damaged, was cast far into the heavens. It might have attracted those meteors, redirected their path somehow.”

  “What is a Pharom?” Setar whispered to Tramen.

  “Shh…we will talk later,” Tramen answered.

  Setar frowned.

  Odai had an epiphany. The Princess was right. “The Pharom was…is…a beacon. That is what it was designed for. A beacon to reach home…”

  Anjia nodded sadly. “The devastation caused when it was mishandled by the Draxens was far worse than we realized.”

  Setar thought back to the argument Zhek had with Traeus and the device that Zhek wanted to know about. ‘Was this what they were talking about?’ he wondered.

  “But why did this only happen now?” Mindara asked. “Why not back then?”

  “The amount of time it takes matter to travel through space, which is unfathomably vast, is very long. Energy travels much faster.”

  Odai felt proud of her. “You always did excel at your studies. Assan often said you would surpass all of us one day in your knowledge and understanding of the universe.”

  She bowed her head a little in acknowledgement of his kind words, and then gazed around her at what had happened. Her heart was broken. She again looked skyward. “We bear witness to the terrible price our people had paid to reach out to the stars. We did this…”

  “Do not do that to yourself, Princess,” Odai said gently. “Your father’s vision was a great one. It was the Draxens who corrupted it. They did this.”

  The Commander decided to take charge. “Whatever the cause we must move out of this region, we do not know for certain where they will hit next. Or if more will be coming.”

  Anjia nodded.

  Mindara stepped forward. “Before we go, there is something I need to do.”

  “Your Majesty, we should begin our preparations at once,” the Commander said, his face etched with worry.

  She shook her head. “No, it is imperative I do this now.” Mindara turned to Senarra. “Would you please take Alaj for a moment?”

  “Of course,” Senarra said.

  Mindara handed Alaj to the Priestess, and then turned to Anjia. She regarded the young girl, whom she had looked after from the day she was born. “Anjia, things have changed now. I was named Queen because I was your father’s wife. Now…” her voice cracked at the pain of losing him. She continued, her lips trembling, “I think we both know that leading our people is what you were born to do.”

  Anjia looked at her thoughtfully, but did not yet reply.

  Tramen looked curiously from his sister to Mindara.

  Mindara looked sadly at the Princess, wishing she did not have to place this burden on so young a person, especially just after losing her father. “I only wanted to be married to your father, not Queen. I love…loved…love…my husband,” she stumbled over the words. The loss was not yet fully real to her. “I do not desire power nor wish to lead. You are our Chosen One, and so I am stepping down. You are the Kieranis’ rightful Queen.”

  Tramen’s eyes went wide.

  Anjia nodded. She knew what she had to do. Now was not the time for grieving. She could not let her people down. “I accept this responsibility. Mindara, thank-you…for everything.”

  Mindara bowed her head. The pain of losing her husband was overwhelming. Anjia embraced her.

  “Remember, you are not alone in this,” Mindara said, as she wiped away her tears. “We all stand behind you.”

  Those witnessing this exchange also bowed their heads in reverence of this pivotal moment and in honor of the new, young Queen. All but Setar, who looked at Mindara warily.

  Tramen stepped close to his sister, and put an arm around her. “I will be here by your side, always, Anjia.”

  She rested her head against his shoulder for a moment. “I know.”

  Setar watched their embrace. He felt…isolated, somehow, different. He envied the connection they had as twins. He knew he would never be as close to them as they were to one another. He also knew, bitterly, they did not share the same blood. The young boy was still reeling from everything that had happened. His emotions were a bewildering mix of anger, pain and fear that threatened to overwhelm him. He could not make sense of it all. He again looked at Mindara, remembering what Zhek had told him. She looked different to him now. Setar had never felt more afraid, confused, or alone than in this moment.

  Suddenly Anjia jumped and looked skywards. Her pendant, which had cooled against her skin, again surged with a warmer pulse.

  They gasped, cringing as another fiery ball streaked across the sky, this one now many miles further away from the last one. Another explosion was heard in the distance. Its impact threw up another massive column of smoke. It was followed by dozens of smaller objects that cut across the sky in its wake. They burned up in the atmosphere, never touching ground.

  Those gathered were frozen in place, watching…searching the sky for more. Uncertain if they should move.

  Then, the group watched in awe and fear as a shower of hundreds of even smaller objects chased across the sky after their bigger counterparts. The meteors lit up at the end of their cosmic journey, sparking brightly one last time before being annihilated in the atmosphere.

  The fiery assault seemed to have tapered off. All were silent for a time, holding their breath.

  Finally the Commander spoke up, “We should move on.”

  “I agree,” Tramen said.

  Anjia nodded, searching the sky. “I think it has stopped for now, but as the Commander said, we cannot be sure if it will continue or not or if it will happen again. We do not know what further effects the accident with the Pharom might have had. We should not remain here.” She looked at Commander Maraeven. “We must find a new home. All Kierani must leave. The air will be too dangerous to breathe for long.”

  They all looked up at the sky, which was now blanketed in a smoky haze. It had an unnatural fog-like quality, undulating as though alive, menacing.

  The Commander nodded, gazing around uneasily at the devastation surrounding them. “Understood, but where?”

  “I think I know,” Anjia said. “I have seen it in my dreams.” She thought of the vision she had not long ago. She had not shared it with anyone else. She had not been certain what it meant. Until now. The young Queen looked off into the distance. In her mind’s eye she focused her thoughts to the east, where she saw a long valley leading to a place of rose-colored stone, towering stone walls, and an abundant, flowing water source. She knew this fortress-like place would keep her people safe and allow them the time they needed to heal and to flourish once again. She pictured magnificent edifices carved into the imposing walls. She smiled softly, feeling a sense of purpose restored. She knew this was their path. She knew this was their new home…Sela it would be called.