“It was a dark night, and I had trouble making sense of anything from the bluffs,” Davin said licking his lips. “I saw three of them. The tallest stood at least ten feet tall and as thick as a tree trunk.”
Ronan’s gaze flickered to Sir Alcott awaiting his reaction, but his face remained stoic. “What did they look like?”
Davin mopped away fresh beads of sweat streaking his forehead. “Their skin looked thin, almost transparent. The tallest creature had black scales under his skin, and his nose was flat.” Davin touched his fingertips to his cheek. “His eyes glowed gold in the darkness.”
“Did he speak to Master Montgomery?” Sir Alcott said.
Davin nodded. “I think so.”
“I saw a woman on the ship too,” Davin said.
“Like the others?” Ronan said.
Davin shook his head. “She looked as human as you or me, but she didn’t look bothered by the creatures.”
Ronan glanced at Sir Alcott, but the scholar appeared as confused as Ronan felt.
“In fact, it looked like she was ordering them around. She was a tiny thing,” Davin said. “Maybe five feet tall if she stood on her tiptoes.”
“What happened next?” Ronan said.
“I ran like Elan Himself couldn’t save me,” Davin said. “I stayed off the roads in case they followed me. Here I am a month later.”
Ronan nodded. “Thank you Private Keel. You’ve done your country a great service, and you’ve brought honor to Sergeant Reed.”
Davin sat up straight and half-smiled. “Thank you Your Majesty.”
“Jeremy, would you show Private Keel to the guest quarters? I’m sure he’d like to clean up and get some rest.”
Jeremy nodded and stood. “Yes Your Majesty.” He motioned for Davin to follow.
After they’d left the room, Ronan slid onto the bench where Davin Keel sat moments earlier. He looked between Sir Alcott, Devery Tyrell, and Rika. “Well, what do you think?”
“I believe he thinks he saw something,” Sir Alcott said. “But, his story sounded like one you’d hear around a midsummer campfire. I’ve never read any accounts of these creatures he described.”
“We owe it to him to at least check it out,” Rika said. “I believe he saw Sergeant Reed die, and we should go for that reason if no other.”
“Devery?” Ronan said.
Devery Tyrell’s expression appeared haunted almost as if he’d seen the strange creature himself. “I believe every word of it.”
“You do?” Ronan said taken aback by the levelheaded commander’s strong words.
“Let me explain,” Devery said. “People from the Lost Valley, soldiers, especially, live a plain life. They’re humble people not prone to exaggeration or gossip. They don’t lie, ever. When you’ve not two coppers to rub together, your word must hold weight. If Davin says he saw these creatures, then he saw them. If he’d any doubt, he would’ve kept his mouth shut.”
Ronan’s stomach sank. Devery’s words left him stunned. “You realize what you’re committing us to?”
Devery nodded. “I knew Davin’s father and his grandfather before that. They’re simple folk, but they aren’t liars.”
“Rika, how many guardians do we have in Freehold?” Ronan said.
“Besides me? None,” Rika said. “We received word from the Prime Guardian that he sent two guardians to Freehold a few days ago.”
“Were they flying straight here?”
Rika shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“If they flew straight here, I’d expect them in a day or two at the most,” Sir Alcott said.
“We can’t wait two days,” Ronan said. “Devery, as soon as the guardians arrive, I want you and Jeremy to fly to Porthleven. You’ll meet Rika and me there.”
“You’re not going alone,” Sir Alcott said.
“There’s nobody better equipped than Rika and I to deal with this situation,” Ronan said. “Sergeant Reed sent for his king, and I won’t let him down.”
Sir Alcott shook his head. “You’re jumping straight into a hornet’s nest.”
“Rika, are you okay leaving at first light?” Ronan said.
Rika nodded.
Ronan glanced between his three friends seated across the table. “It’s settled. We’ll leave for Porthleven in the morning and unravel this mystery.”
Desert High
As Danielle soared high above the southern desert, hundreds of miles of sand stretched in every direction. No living creature stirred in the drifting ocean of blowing and twisting sand. She and Keely had flown a half-day south from the central oasis, producing empty results for their hard effort. No sign of Arber. No sign of a single plant or animal for hours. Her self-imposed deadline ticked closer by the minute, and she planned on keeping that promise. She wouldn’t place Keely in further jeopardy and compromise their hard-earned information.
A quarter-mile westward, Keely glided a few feet over the ground searching between the rolling dunes. From a higher altitude, heat waves and ever undulating sand blurred cloaking ground movement. She flew a measured crisscross pattern using Danielle's high-altitude position as a short-range compass.
On the horizon, swirling clouds massed near ground level. The clouds’ black undertones gave them a menacing deadly presence. The clouds spun forming dozens of columns of twisting air shooting seventy-five feet off the ground in seconds.
Adrenaline spiked in Danielle’s body, sending a panic alarm racing down her spine. Arber had warned her of the infamous Chukchi sandstorms. He knew more about the southern desert than anyone inside Lora’s Guard. But, Danielle couldn’t recall him ever experiencing a sandstorm firsthand.
A sandstorm could strip flesh from an unprepared man or beast leaving behind a pile of bleached white bones. Even wardens equipped with extensive armor protection skills feared the high desert winds. The sandstorms remained the primary reason few Ayralens traveled into the deep desert.
Danielle understood they’d gotten lucky with the calm winter weather. Judging by the looming black clouds, their luck ended here. She pointed her beak downward and screeched a long high-pitched wail meant to raise a warning for Keely.
Keely ignored Danielle’s signal and arced right. She shrieked a short shrill cry before circling a deep valley nestled between a pair of dunes.
Danielle loosed a second earsplitting screech as she trained a wary eye on the rapidly closing storm. Could Keely see the storm clouds flying so low to the ground?
Keely pointed her beak ahead and drifted upward on the thermal current.
Danielle followed Keely's mark, and the short hair on her stomach bristled.
On the storm’s leading edge, six long-legged beasts carried ten robed figures atop their backs.
Danielle recalled Arber’s written words. He said he dreaded climbing aboard the Paka.
The convoy stopped, and a small robed figure seated atop the lead Paka pointed toward the approaching storm. The group dismounted and the short man opened a glittering case strapped across the lanky animal’s flank.
Danielle pinned back her wings and shot past Keely gaining all the speed she could muster. As she flew over Keely’s head, she screeched arcing toward the pitch-black horizon.
Keely’s neck jerked toward the horizon, and her eyes widened. She beat her wings and pushed downward following Danielle into the deep valley between the dunes.
Danielle shifted into human form and squinted.
The hot sand whipped Danielle's face as the winds gusted.
Danielle pulled her hood tight and hunkered down.
Keely shifted into human form as she touched down and doubled over covering her eyes and face with her exposed forearm.
“The storm will bury us in the next five minutes,” Danielle yelled over the raging wind. ”If we catch the upper air current, we might outrun the storm to the north.”
Keely shook her head. “It’s coming in way too fast. We’ll never make it. Besides, Arber’s riding one of those smell
y pakas. I can feel it.” The wind increased its intensity, forcing Keely to her knees. “He can answer all our questions. We can’t turn back now.”
The wind howled pulling mountains of stinging sand from the dunes caking their hair, nose, and eyelashes.
Danielle closed her eyes and raised her voice. “Use the horned viper we learned last week. When the storms over us, burrow deep into the dune, but stay near me.”
Keely nodded, and her iris’s glowed with red and green energy before she shifted into the black and brown desert snake. She slithered between Danielle’s legs. Her forked tongue flickered, and she moved sideways up the shifting dune.
Danielle shifted into the horned viper and added a thick layer of protective cactus around her body to ward off the biting sand. As she crested the dune, the black storm front raged fifty-feet ahead.
Danielle’s heart hammered. The storm moved at speeds far greater than she’d ever imagined. If they’d taken to the sky, the storm would’ve swallowed them whole. Biting gritty sand chewed at her body ripping away layers of the cactus sheath.
Danielle’s pulse raced faster as she found herself engulfed by a storm she’d no business playing with. She cursed her stupidity. Once again, she found herself dealing with a looming disaster for which she’d no skill. She knew nothing about the desert and had underestimated the power of a real Chukchi sandstorm. Few plants and animals survived desert conditions for a reason. It showed little mercy for the ignorant fool.
Keely, a few feet in front of Danielle moments earlier, had vanished behind a daytime sky turned black.
Danielle wriggled into the sand dune keeping just ahead of the wind-born erosion. She burrowed deeper not stopping until the world fell silent. She could hold her breath for ten minutes in snake form. But, the storm could dump a mountain of sand atop her leaving her buried dozens of yards underground.
In the dune’s dark silence, she remained motionless forcing calm through her torso. Her survival hinged on the precious minutes of oxygen stored in her lungs and the speed of the storm’s violent front. But she hadn’t any idea if desert storms followed a rainstorm’s more predictable pattern. Like her every experience the past month, she made a blind guess.
Minutes passed and dizziness crept into her head. Danielle could no longer wait. She needed air or she’d die buried beneath a sea of hot dirty sand. What would happen to Lora’s magic if she died?
Danielle lurched upward carving a hole through inches of loose sand. Blood pounded in her head, and she grunted her body begging for breath. As pinpoints of white light flashed behind her eyes, she broke the surface and pulled in deep lungful’s of hot dusty air. She’d never tasted anything so sweet. Danielle breathed, and her mind cleared while the pounding blood faded.
The storm still raged, but the violence had faded, leaving behind a strong steady wind. The storm’s harsh winds had gutted the dunes, leaving behind a flat, barren sea of never ending sand. High overhead, sand flowed like a river on high-pressure currents. The sun stayed hidden behind the storm clouds draping an uneasy twilight over the dessert.
Danielle coiled into a protective ball. The storm had jumbled her sense of direction leaving her lost and disoriented. She couldn’t begin to guess Keely’s whereabouts, and the Paka convoy had disappeared. Keely couldn’t survive without air, and she didn’t have the added benefit of the warden’s protective armor.
An idea sprang to life in Danielle's mind. She channeled and opened her senses to the threads that bind those gifted with animal-born magic. She searched for Keely’s thread and gasped when the line ended a foot away. Keely’s deep green strand appeared dim and fading fast.
Danielle plunged headfirst into the sand and slithered downward toward Keely. Her forked tongue flickered outward and she touched Keely’s leathery torso. Danielle coiled her body around Keely’s and pulled her to the surface.
The forest green thread grew brighter as Keely breathed in the harsh but breathable air. She held motionless for a full minute before coiling her body into a tight circular defensive posture. Shed buried her head underneath her body and rested.
Against the grim twilight, strobes of white light flashed. Dazzling light reflected off the grains of flowing sand, creating a surreal light show on the desert sandscape. Danielle would describe the haunting light show as beautiful under less desperate circumstances.
Danielle braced herself for the inevitable thunder to follow, but it never came. Her skin crawled as something about the light felt wrong. Had these storms produced the strange light shows over the desert last autumn? No Ayralen history book had ever mentioned the freak storms. Why had they started now?
As the light flickered across the still desert floor, Danielle coiled into a tighter ball and kept one eye trained upward.
The moments crept past and the light’s intensity ebbed and flowed with the storm’s strength. An hour later, conditions calmed enough to allow Danielle and Keely to shift into their natural human form.
Danielle retrieved her staff where she found it half buried in the shifting sand a dozen yards away. The sand flowing through the sky’s upper atmosphere ruled out flight. If a thermal updraft pulled them into the currents, they wouldn’t last ten seconds. “Keely, did you see which way the paka caravan went?”
“No. Until I see the sun, I can’t tell one direction from another.”
“Care to hazard a guess?” Danielle said.
Keely shook her head. “Until we’re airborne and over this storm, I can’t. I’m sorry.” She gazed upward into the black clouds and raging sand current. “But, I don’t see an easy way of making that happen.”
On the murky horizon, faint light appeared several shades brighter than the sky overhead.
Danielle pointed toward the light. “Look over there. The sky’s much brighter. Maybe we can get above the storm if we head that way.”
Keely nodded. “I’m game.”
“We’ll make better time in cat form,” Danielle said.
“Too bad we couldn’t get closer to those Paka,” Keely said. “That form would give us a great advantage.”
“At this point I just want out of this desert. We can fly back to Ayralen as soon as the weather breaks.” Danielle secured her staff, reached into her belt pouch, and handed Keely a piece of the fruit from the oasis. “Here you go, never say I didn’t keep my end of the bargain.”
Keely laughed and gobbled down the offered fruit. “It’s even better than I remembered. Thank you.”
Danielle and Keely sat in silence eating the yellow fruit.
“How long do these storms last?” Keely said.
“Arber once told me they could last for weeks. We just need a long enough break in the clouds to pass through without turning to pulp.” Danielle finished her last bite and wiped her sticky hands against her sand-crusted shirt.
“Let’s go,” Keely said and shifted into the forest cat’s lithe form.
Danielle shifted into a sleek, pure white saber cat. Together, they bounded across the flattened desert sand at top speed.
Keely and Danielle traveled for hours toward the bright horizon without pausing. Over time, the landscape changed with subtle differences. Dark sections of exposed rock protruded from the barren sand. The desert’s composition changed from a fine powder to a coarse mixture of gritty sand, stone, and dirt.
Another hour southward revealed remarkable change. Jagged obsidian rock flecked with flakes of gold and crystal jutted from the hard packed desert floor. In the distance, larger sections of the strange crystal merged to form small hills of sharp glassy rock.
Danielle paused, changed into her human form, and pulled free a water canister from her belt. She took a long drink and offered the canister to Keely.
Keely shifted into her human form and accepted the drink. “Thanks.” She tipped back the canister and took a long swallow.
“What do you think Keely?” Danielle glanced at the fast moving clouds overhead. “Can we take to the air?”
“Ma
ybe,” Keely said. “Those clouds are moving fast, but I don’t see any sand.”
“It’s getting late, we should make camp and try our luck in the morning,” Danielle said.
“I don’t know Danielle. This place doesn’t feel right. What’s with that crazy looking rock? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Danielle knelt, scooped up a chipped piece of the strange crystal rock, and examined it resting in her palm.
The edges of the chipped sample appeared razor sharp, but the sides felt smooth as polished glass. Bits of gold and crystal hung suspended in its center. Danielle had seen glassblowers create similar effects in Freehold’s Artisan District.
“Arber never mentioned this crystal.” As Danielle slipped the sample in her belt pouch, the ground beneath her feet rumbled.
Pockets of sand-crusted earth shuddered and crumbled. Whole sections of the glittering crystal forced their way through the desert floor.
Danielle froze as adrenaline washed through her muscles. She’d heard the occasional rumble of a distant tremor, but she never experienced an earthquake.
“Keely watch out!” Danielle channeled nature magic, and a sheath of living armor sprouted from her skin. It covered her body in a writhing mass of black vines and needle-sharp thorns. She extended her heartwood staff and poured magic through it.
Keely dropped the water canister and whirled. Beneath her feet, the ground shook before splitting apart and toppling Keely. She crashed to the ground appearing too stunned to move. Between her legs a jagged point of sharp, clear blue crystal blasted through the sand.
Earthquakes didn’t push rock through the earth. Danielle reached into her pouch and tossed a hundred small seeds in a wide radius around her and Keely.
Keely barrel rolled as mounds of crystalline rock powered upward shredding the ground’s crust. She moved to her knees, running her hand along her side and leg before holding her palm before her face as if checking for blood.
A six-foot mountain of blue and silver obsidian shifted and groaned before stretching a dozen feet across. Keely shifted into cat form and eased backward, creating distance between her and the rock pile.
King Of Souls (Book 2) Page 5
