by Nancy Gray
Mercy nodded. “Yes. Far Cry was one of his friends. It’s just like Green Arrow to be arrogant enough to send only one person to go after you. How did you fight him? I thought according to our blood pact you couldn’t hurt any of my people.”
“Yes, according to our pact, but one of the things that I asked of your father when I made the pact with him was permission to attack those that would threaten you even if they were from his tribe. The way he worded it was anyone from his tribe that would try to hurt you wasn’t one of his own people. Since he’s the chieftain, he can make that decision.”
“Sometimes, father is too clever for his own good. But, for once I’m glad.”
“Me, too. Anyway, I changed form and flew up into the canopy and listened in. I wanted to wait to show myself at the time when it would have the greatest impact, but that’s when he started messing with you.”
Mercy frowned. “What do you mean?”
Erebus looked away and his cheeks looked a little redder.
Mercy could feel his embarrassment as he said in a whisper, “He told his other thugs that they could have the desert whore, but you were his. And he started to taking off your clothes. It made me so angry. I’ve never felt that angry before.”
“He was going to…”
She couldn’t say the words.
“I couldn’t let him do that to you. I flew down and grabbed him from behind with my legs and I lifted him up past the canopy. He couldn’t reach his daggers. He didn’t stand a chance. I dropped him right in front of the other two and Mirilee. When they realized he was being attacked by ‘one of the beast men,’ they thought it was an ambush and they let Mirilee go and ran away. She speared one in the leg while he was running.”
“So much for the loyalty of his friends. So, Green Arrow died, then?”
“I don’t know, but he was still alive when I came back down. A lot of his bones were broken. I landed in front of him, and do you know what I said?”
Mercy shook her head.
Erebus laughed. “I said to him, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to take care of Mind of Mercy for you.’ I wish you could’ve seen the look on his face. He knew exactly what I was referring to.”
Mercy couldn’t help but smile. She could almost feel Wind Runner laughing somewhere. The irony was perfect. It was as though Erebus had granted her wish that Wind Runner would be avenged, but in a better way than she could’ve ever done herself. She felt tears of gratitude running down her cheeks. Mercy reached down to stroke Erebus’ cheek, but he flinched away as though he thought that she was going to slap him.
Erebus said, in a defensive voice, “If Green Arrow does recover; he won’t be a warrior anymore; he’ll be an invalid. I just hope that he didn’t figure out that I was the same person as Walks in Darkness. I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t have done it. He was yours to fight, not mine, and I’m sorry. Anyway, after that, we bandaged you and left. I didn’t want them to know that you were traveling with me, I swear.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think he’s smart enough to figure that out, and who would believe him? People will assume that the beast man that attacked him spied on the group and knew they were looking for a young girl named Mind of Mercy. They’ll think it was a threat. He can’t explain the significance of the remark without admitting what he did, and he won’t do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Erebus, I’m not angry.”
“But, I robbed you of your revenge. I know you wanted to do it yourself, but when I saw what he was going to do to you, I just really wanted to hurt him.”
“That’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. My Wind Runner can finally be at rest, and it’s because of you. What you did was perfect, so why in this world would I be upset at you over that? Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Erebus reached over and held her hand. “I’m glad that you weren’t angry.”
Erebus sighed. Relief poured over him like a gentle breeze.
Mercy smiled at him, squeezing his hand more tightly. “I’ve been meaning to ask you one thing, though. Why are you against the enslavement of my people? I know why Cruor is against it, but the way Carmine talked made me think that you just wanted to kill us, that you thought of us as cattle.”
He flinched. “I did. I was so bitter when my mother died in a raid, that just looking at the slaves made me sick, I wanted to kill your people, but I’ve started to rethink a lot of the things she told me. You’ve had a lot to do with that.”
“I don’t think I ever told you, my mother died when your people attacked us as well. I was too young to remember what happened, but that’s why I was given an orphan’s status. They were afraid my father would favor me too much. I hated you all and I thought you were just bloodthirsty beasts. I was wrong. I know that now.”
“I guess we both were so focused on avenging someone we loved that we just couldn’t even see each other as anything but monsters. I feel like a fool.”
“What do you believe now?”
“I’ve decided to take Cruor’s stance with the senate. I want to stop the killing and the slavery. I asked your father to let me be an ambassador to your people, if they’re ever willing to talk to us about making a lasting peace. I want things to be different.”
She smiled and stroked his cheek. “I do, too.
Mercy leaned down and kissed Erebus on the forehead, and then gently on the corner of his mouth. His head and face were hot against her lips, but she could tell he wasn’t as hot as he was before. His fever was finally coming down. She felt a ripple of pleasure run through him at her kiss, mingled with disbelief.
He reached out and hugged her tightly. “You’re a better friend than I deserve. I promise I’ll be better to you. I won’t hide things anymore.”
Mercy began to say, “I’ll be a better friend to you, too,” But the words caught in her throat as she glanced up at the Glass Dunes and saw the light of a campfire in the distance.
“Someone is camping close by. It could be another ambush. I should go and see.”
Erebus gripped her hand harder. “No. Don’t go. Mirilee seemed nervous this evening. If she’s afraid of this place, I don’t want you going out there alone. How far away are they?”
“It looks like three of them. They’re not very far, but it’s hard to see any details since it’s so dark. I can see a fire going and they’re sitting next to it eating. I think if I skirt around the dunes, they won’t see me.”
“You shouldn’t go by yourself.”
Mirilee spoke up. “You should listen to Erebus for once. If you walk out into those dunes, you won’t be coming back.”
“But they haven’t seen us yet.”
Mirilee stood up. “What you’re seeing right now isn’t another group of people. It’s us.”
23
Mercy squinted, trying to see what Mirilee was talking about. With the glare from the strange lights in the clouds against the shiny surface of the glass, all she could make out clearly was the fire and that a group was sitting around it. Something about the scene seemed familiar, but she couldn’t tell exactly how.
Mirilee pointed. “Look very closely. Shield your eyes against the glare.”
Mercy put a hand just a little above her eyes and nearly screamed at the sight. The three people by the campfire looked exactly like each one of them, mimicking their movements from earlier perfectly. Mercy even saw herself spooning broth into Erebus’ mouth. The group was backwards from the way they were sitting, as though she was looking at an image of them in a reflection.
Mercy stammered. “How? I don’t understand.”
“Because, that’s what this place does. I don’t know how it happens, but it copies what it sees. It lures people in by using images of others.”
“You’re talking as if this area is a living thing.”
“Of all people, I would think that you could believe that a place is a living thing. Your people worship the forest and believe every plant and tree has s
ome sort of living essence to it. Why not the desert? It might seem barren, but I assure you it isn’t. My people believe only in the God of the Stars, but I have to admit that this place does have some sort of presence that I can’t explain.”
Mercy frowned. She had never thought of it that way before, but the desert sands did consist of eroded rocks and earth, and hundreds of small animals made it their home. Several types of unique plants lived there as well. Why not the desert?
Erebus asked in a frightened whisper, “How does it lure them in?”
“If someone lost in the desert sees this image, they’ll want to come and warm themselves by the fire or travel with a larger group. They’ll go in and as soon as they get close, they’ll see it wasn’t real and the illusion will literally melt away. Then the Glass Dunes have them.”
Mercy felt sick with fear. “What happens then?”
“I don’t know. All I do know is that most of the people that go in usually don’t come back out, and if they do, they’re never the same. There are places where the glass is brittle and will break around them, and heaven knows where they would fall. Also, there are some predators that have adapted to living in the dunes that prey on those that wander in, but there are worse things than that out there.”
She shivered and pulled her blanket around her shoulders.
“I felt despair and anger coming from this place, but I didn’t understand why. What happened here, Mirilee?”
“I don’t know how much is legend and how much is truth, but my grandfather told me that during the calamity, my people fought against the Ashen capital. They weren’t always nomadic. During that time, the glass dunes were an oasis within the desert. My people lived there and it was our capital city.”
Erebus peered at the glass dunes. “It’s hard to imagine this as an oasis.”
Mirilee nodded. “According to the legend, one day it rained fire and a dust devil of white fire as wide as the city itself swept through. They say that the Ashen People were somehow responsible for it. The fire was so hot it melted the very sand and blinded most of those that saw it. Some of the people escaped, but not many. When the place finally cooled off, the molten sand became glass, but the clouds never dissipated.”
Erebus said, “I heard that your people harvest the glass now.”
“Well, we think of it as ours. We do harvest it, but we never actually go in. We chip away at the edges and then send it to our people in Concord for a profit. It’s easier to melt existing glass back down to form new things than creating more.”
Erebus slowly sat up and glanced at their images within the dunes. Mercy followed his eyes and saw an image of herself putting a cold compress on his head. She could swear that she heard part of their conversation whispering back to them on the winds.
Erebus frowned as he watched the image. “You talk as though you know firsthand what’s in it. Did you ever go in, Mirilee?”
“Yes, when I was thirteen. I thought I saw my parents camping. The tent looked familiar, and it looked like they were wearing the same clothing that they had when they left to take the supplies to Concord. I should’ve known it was an illusion. They were missing for so long…”
Mercy said, “But, you had to see for yourself.”
Mirilee nodded. “It was a lot farther away than it looked. It was as though it went further away the closer I got, like in a dream, but you know how stubborn I am. I kept thinking that I didn’t gage the distance well because the land was so flat or because of the clouds.”
Mercy said under her breath, “Those strange colors do make it hard to tell what you’re looking at. I can’t figure out how far away the fire is in this illusion either.”
“Exactly, that’s part of the trap. I finally started to close the distance. I had to have been walking for at least an hour, but despite how tired I was, I actually ran right up to the damn thing. The closer I got, the more things didn’t look right. Colors blurred together, but the worst part was when I got up to my parents. Their skin began to ooze away from their bodies like sap running down a tree. I don’t know if the dunes remember how people looked melting in that liquid sand, but that’s how the illusions always fade away. They melt.”
Erebus muttered something under his breath in his own language. Mercy felt Mirilee’s horror at the memory, and the description was so vivid that Mercy shuttered as well.
“I was terrified. I tried to run back, but the glass broke under my feet. I still have the scars from nearly falling through that glass on my left leg. It got the worst of it.”
Mirilee pulled up her long skirt and Mercy saw the white scar tissue contrasting sharply with Mirilee’s tan skin.
Mercy looked closely, thinking of Mender of Spirits’ shaman lessons. “You were lucky it wasn’t worse. You could’ve bled to death.”
“I know. I was lucky for more than one reason. There was some sort of cavern under the glass. I was dangling above it. It smelled like death in there, old death and bone dust.”
“Erebus, could it have been one of your caves?”
Erebus shook his head. “I don’t know of any caverns beneath the desert.”
Mirilee said, “I don’t think it was a cavern, I think it was a house that sank into the sand when the city melted. I didn’t want to find out. I crawled out, but I knew I had to watch my footing. It was odd, how I could just run right in, but getting out was so much more difficult.”
Erebus said in a whisper, “Like the Glass Dunes wanted to keep you.”
“Stop it, Erebus. That isn’t helping.”
“He’s right though. It was like the place was trying to keep me there. I figured out that the areas where the glass was brittle were the darkest spots, so I had to skirt around them. It took me two days of careful walking to get out, when I had only walked in for a few hours. Something was stalking me for one of those nights, but on the second night I heard it die - you look a little pale, Mercy. Are you sure you want to hear the rest?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, please continue.”
“The worst of it was the illusions and the conversations I heard. I saw faces I had never seen before and people I used to know that had died. But then, on my last night there, I saw something worse. There was a city in the distance that looked like it was made of glass, and all of the people in it were like living glass statues, and they all turned to look at me.”
Erebus shivered and pulled the blanket closer around his shoulders. “That’s one scary story. I would think you would’ve learned your lesson about wandering around.”
Mirilee laughed a little too loudly. “I did. I never went back into the Glass Dunes. Something like that makes you realize that there are worse things than death, and it also makes you realize there aren’t many places that would be much more dangerous to explore.”
Mercy chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to look at it, I guess.”
“Besides, I’m not afraid to die. The God of the Stars will have mercy on me, because He’s so great that there is no way I can prove myself in His eyes. I have to depend on Him to forgive me. Our people live the way we do because we believe life is a gift. So, if you hear about us dancing and celebrating through the night, now you know why.”
Erebus said with a devilish grin, “And the other rumors about your people?”
Mirilee scoffed. “Well, one bad piece of desert fruit spoils the bunch. That’s all I have to say about that.”
Mercy looked back at the glass desert and realized that the illusion was gone. “We should move.”
“It wouldn’t do any good. We have to stay on the edge of the Glass Dunes; otherwise the cart will get bogged down in the sand. The only way that the Glass Dunes can hurt us is if we stop skirting along the edge. I have no intention of going in. We should get some sleep, though. We need to get up before the sun rises, if we don’t want to boil tomorrow.”
Mercy cast a concerned glance in Erebus’ direction.
He smiled. “Don’t worry, Mercy. I’m feeling much better. I don’t
think I’m ready to walk or ride the horse yet, but I’m going to be okay.”
Mirilee asked, “Do you mind watching a few more hours, Mercy? I’m pretty tired.”
Mercy shook her head and Mirilee settled into her sleeping bag.
Erebus said, “I’m alert enough to take the first watch, Mercy. You go ahead and sleep.”
Mercy nodded and settled into her sleeping bag. It seemed to her that sleeping was easier said than done. Her eyes kept moving towards the glass dunes. Even though the figures were gone, occasionally she saw a light flickering in the distance. Every time she felt as though sleep was finally going to let her forget her worries, she would start to dream about glass statues that looked like them peering at them as they slept. But, whenever she woke up, nothing was there.
Finally, she gave up on sleep when Mirilee relieved Erebus of his watch duty. Mercy pressed a hand against Erebus’ forehead when he got back into his sleeping bag and found that he seemed to be back to normal temperature. His head was slightly sweaty as well, which was a good sign that the fever had broken, but his teeth were chattering a little. Mercy cuddled closer to Erebus than she needed to. He stretched his arm out as she rested her head against it. She was surprised by his scent. He smelled slightly like moon petal flowers. They only opened at night and were a predatory plant, but their scent was overwhelmingly sweet and it drew their prey to them. Somehow that seemed appropriate for Erebus. It also reminded her to be on her guard around him. He was still a predator, and he still needed blood.
He whispered, “Thanks, I’m so cold. Are you okay? You couldn’t sleep either, huh? Let me guess, bad dreams?”
Mercy was about to tell him to go back to sleep, but then she suddenly felt the fear in his heart fluttering like a trapped moth. He didn’t want to sleep, because he was afraid he wouldn’t wake up.
Mercy managed to smile. “Yeah, I’ve never been good at forgetting a scary story, especially at night. Looks like you’re having trouble sleeping, too. Maybe we can stay up together and enjoy the cold while it lasts. It’s going to be very hot tomorrow afternoon.”
