Sisters of the Sands: Book 1 of the Acolytes series

by James Villinger

  The globule of blood took the shape of a long needle and solidified. I shifted the portal closer to Korin. The needle of now solid blood flew into my chest and stabbed me through the rib cage. I let out a shriek as the incredible pain took hold.

  My control over the portal had weakened. My fingers trembled as they struggled to keep it open for a single moment longer. The portal closed and we both fell to the grass. Korin quickly rose up. I grabbed the needle protruding from my chest, but only gave myself more pain. Korin ran over and stretched both of her hands out towards whatever blood of mine she could find.

  She raised her hands up and the pool of blood ascended with them before forming into a giant blade. She pointed the tip downwards and plunged it into my stomach, causing me to jolt up and whimper. I could feel my bodily fluids seeping through my torn organs. I coughed before resting my head back onto the grass and closing my eyes.

  38. Mercy

  Tau

  Assaulting the Citadel

  Our collective stomped through the gardens. The army was unlike anything I had ever seen. There were so many. After hearing Sacet’s inspiring words in the sky, hundreds of women had left their homes to join us. Even more of the soldiers we had encountered surrendered and added to our number. They knew she was right.

  The crowd was loud, too, filled with discordant jeers and taunts towards the Citadel. It didn’t matter that most of us were unarmed, our sheer number could not be denied.

  Maya patted my back as she caught up and marched alongside me. “Tonight, everything changes.”

  “Is that Korin?” I said, pointing ahead.

  “Sacet!” Maya yelled, and we both sprinted forward. Many others followed, including the Acolytes Noor and Tetsu.

  Sacet’s body lay lifeless on the blood-stained grass. Her face, now absent of colour, had slumped to the side. Korin stepped towards her, stamped her foot on her chest and wrenched a large crystalised sword of blood into the air.

  Our crowd quickly surrounded her, eyeing her with disgust.

  “Back away from her … now!” I commanded as the group closed in.

  Korin raised her hands. “Everyone, think about this. It’s not too late to do the right thing.”

  “We are doing the right thing,” Noor said with his arms raised towards Korin. “Get on your knees!”

  Korin complied and knelt down on the grass, the floating sword of blood losing its form and splattering harmlessly onto the ground.

  “Everyone, find the Queen!” one of the Nomads roared.

  “Find her and kill her!” another added.

  The whole crowd joined in. Many entered the Citadel through a nearby hole in the wall, while others went around to the main entrance.

  Korin tilted her head. “Aren’t you the experienced healer all of a sudden. Worked out how to resurrect the others after we killed them I see.”

  I ignored her and strode over to Sacet’s body.

  “Tau, please … listen to me,” Korin pleaded. “If you resurrect her, everything will change for the worse. Leave her dead.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Tetsu said.

  Korin shook her head. “Everyone in this city will die. All this time we’ve been fighting a fake war. So what do you think will happen next? The war will become real, and none of you will survive it. But if you surrender, everyone can live. We just … want her. Don’t bring her back.”

  Maya approached Korin and grabbed her head. “Shut up!”

  “Don’t!” The colonel looked up at Maya with widened eyes, before liquifying in a swell of red water, then splashing onto the ground.

  Maya turned back to me. “I … I killed her.” She fell to her knees.

  “What was she saying about a fake war?” Noor asked.

  There was a low-pitched hum, one so loud that it echoed throughout the city. We turned and saw an ominous silhouette rise on the dark city skyline from the Military Quad. A massive airship powered on its spotlights and propelled itself towards the Citadel.

  Noor glanced back at me and pointed at Sacet. “We’ll take care of this. You just bring her back! Tetsu?”

  “Right!”

  I knelt down by Sacet. Maya, Noor and Tetsu all stood next to me. Tetsu brought both of his hands to the sides and his shield enclosed around us. The airship was now hovering over the gardens. There were many members of the rebellion still in the gardens around us. We all looked up at the ship in shock.

  I grabbed Sacet’s hands and squeezed. A warmth grew within me, tingling just as it did for the others. The feeling rushed from my stomach, up my spine and then out to my extremities. My hair flickered and turned white. My skin glowed, and a light-blue aura engulfed me.

  “Male Acolytes, surrender and you’ll be set free,” a voice echoed from the floating fortress above. “The same goes for all of you men, if you simply leave the city right now.”

  I recognised the voice − it was my former commander, Aella.

  Noor and Tetsu turned to each other and smiled.

  “They’re scared of us, brother,” Tetsu said.

  “Then let’s not disappoint them,” Noor replied. He looked up at the airship and pointed his arms at it. A mighty beam of energy blasted from his fingertips and out of the shield. The sweltering heat inside the shield was blistering. The beam ripped through the night air and smacked into the side of the craft, but it wasn’t cutting through.

  The blood that had formed around Sacet’s body receded and seeped back inside her. The large wound in her stomach closed in on itself. The split skin converged and repaired. I brought my hand under Sacet’s head and tried lifting her up. Her eyes fluttered for a moment, before opening and staring back at me.

  “We’ve known for a long time how to protect ourselves against you, Noor,” the commander’s voice boomed. “You didn’t really think you could melt everything did you?”

  There was a rapid succession of pops, followed by a high-pitched squeal as a hail of rockets shot out from the airship. The rockets hit the ground around the shield, penetrating deep into the soil. Thin poles extended from the back of the rockets, and they lit up with green light.

  Noor, who had stopped firing, looked down at his hands. Tetsu’s shield started to waver and weaken, before disappearing completely.

  “Tetsu?” Maya called out.

  “It’s not me,” he said.

  Noor ran over to Sacet. “It’s an inhibitor field. Quick, get out of it!”

  With Noor’s help, I lifted Sacet up off the ground.

  There was another flurry of pops, this time lighting up the sky in a firestorm. The rockets screamed as they tore through the air towards us, leaving blazing orange trails in their wake.

  39. Control

  Sacet

  I looked up at Tau’s worried face, trying to work out what had happened. Tau and Noor were arm in arm with me, helping me run along the grass. A crowd of the other rebels must have sensed the oncoming danger and scattered.

  “Jump!” Tau yelled as we passed a set of green poles.

  We leapt into the air, hit the ground near Maya and Tetsu and rolled. Tetsu brought up another shield. Rockets smacked into its side and a violent explosion coated our shelter in flames.

  My head was spinning, so I shook it from side to side. I leant forward and hopped up off the grass. Wait, hadn’t I been stabbed? I frantically felt around my body, examining it for wounds. There was nothing wrong with my stomach or my chest. Even my foot had been healed.

  I peered through the shield, the flames and the night sky. A giant airship hovered above, droning deafeningly. It was almost as large as the Citadel itself. I had never seen something so large fly before. But now was not the time to be awestruck.

  Noor had resumed his attack, firing his laser straight up at it. But the laser was failing to do any damage, and I don’t think I could make a portal large enough to fit around the massive ship. But I had another idea.

  I left Tau’s side. “Noor, when I tell you, you’re going to shoot into
one of my portals, got it?”

  Noor looked back at Tetsu, who shrugged, before turning back to me and nodding. “Alright.”

  I closed my eyes and held my hands out, opening one portal in my right palm pointed towards Noor, and the other in my left palm pointed at the airship.

  “Now!” I yelled.

  He redirect the beam of energy into my right hand. The beam exited out the left portal, out of our shield and smashed up into the airship, the same as before.

  “Sacet, what are you doing?” Maya called out over the deafening noise.

  “Wait!” I screamed back.

  I widened the left portal, and as I did so, Noor’s energy beam grew wider with it. As it grew, its heat intensified. The amplified laser was far more powerful now. The airship’s surfaces turned bright orange, unable to withstand the power.

  The beam’s width was now so wide it exceeded the size of the airship and engulfed the entire war machine. Its metal frame was now white hot. Clouds of smoke wafted up from the ship’s engines. It began to spin and drift downwards.

  I nodded back to Noor and he disengaged the beam. We all stood and watched as the still white-hot airship plummeted and crashed into the gardens. It ploughed into the ground, splitting it apart and tearing up everything in its path. Everything quaked so intensely that many people outside the shield fell to the ground.

  The ship continued to drive into the soil towards us, leaving a canyon of fire behind. Large chunks of dirt and plants launched into the air. The craft sizzled and hissed, and its engines had stopped their high-pitched squealing. The ruined airship finally came to a stop, and sat there, unresponsive, defeated.

  There was cheering all around us, quiet at first, then staggeringly loud from all around the city. Random people throughout the gardens yelled with elation.

  “Wow … just, wow!” Tetsu shouted, glancing around at us. “Are there more of these things to destroy?”

  I put my hands on my forehead. “This … is too much.” I turned to Tau. “Was I … was I dead? You brought me back to life?”

  She nodded and smiled.

  “Then you’re on our side?” I asked.

  Tetsu rolled his eyes. “Clearly she is.”

  Tau looked down at my feet. “I once told you that all I wanted to do was to help people. My people. Now, with resurrection possible, I’m fine with taking lives to make that a reality.”

  I smiled back. “Well, thank you.”

  Maya was distracted, staring down at a red puddle nearby. “There’s no turning back now.”

  “Come on, we’re not done yet,” Noor said, already over at the hole in the wall.

  Our group, along with a few other scattered rebels, followed him through the hole, back into the Citadel. The throne room was filled with rebels. There were male Acolytes, prisoners, women, and the Nomads, all gathered near the throne. Even Colony was there, and some of his surviving Necrolisks helped fill the chamber, which many chose to stand well away from.

  “Where is she?” I asked them all as we strode in.

  One of the Nomad chieftains approached. “We can’t find her anywhere on the ground floor,” he said.

  “My Necrolisks climbed and infiltrated the floors above,” Colony added. “Nothing!” Several of his creatures growled in frustration.

  Elder Hati stepped out of the crowd. “Without her, this rebellion will have meant nothing.”

  My second perception double-checked their claims, quickly scanning through every room of the Citadel. Aside from the rebels and many dead guards, I couldn’t find Mira.

  But then I noticed something. I found that the elevator shaft that led to the tower also went far below ground level. At the bottom of the shaft, below even the deepest recesses of the mines, there existed another room, filled with monitor screens. Mira was in the centre of the room, speaking with an old man on one of the monitors.

  “I know where she is,” I addressed to the whole crowd. “Everyone, wait here.” I opened a portal to the room, then stepped through and closed it again.

  Mira spun around towards me and pressed a button on the control panel behind her, causing the man’s face on the screen to blank out. “Ahh, Sacet. You’ve come to finish me off yourself, I see.”

  “I’m not going to kill you, yet.”

  “You intend on treating me as a prisoner then, as some kind of ironic punishment? I doubt that horde up there will agree to that.”

  “Well, let’s find out,” I said as I pictured the throne room above again and opened a portal to it. “Step through.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  I smiled, then walked through the portal alone and closed it. The crowd looked at me expectantly. While focusing on where Mira was standing, I created another portal under her feet, and dropped her into the throne room chamber.

  She screamed as she hurtled down from the second floor, before smacking into the steps surrounding the throne. The chamber echoed with the sound of the crowd’s laughter, over the top of her pained groans.

  I strolled up the steps, grabbed her hair and wrenched, forcing her upright. Mira was disguising herself in her younger form again.

  I twisted her blonde hair tightly. “Break your illusions, or I’ll drop you again!”

  She scowled, but complied, bringing the veil of deception down. Her skin morphed back to her true form, an old woman, covered in wrinkles. The fall had broken her nose and blood gushed down her creased lips and chin.

  “That’s … not the Queen,” Tetsu said, and there were murmurs throughout the chamber.

  “No, that would be me,” a voice yelled out from the far end of the chamber. The crowd throughout the room faced the broken doors. The Necrolisks turned and snarled.

  Standing below the archway, Sula strolled through, smiling. “A fantastic performance from all those involved. I watched the coup safely from the rooftops throughout the city.”

  Hati glanced back at me. “Is she friend or foe?”

  “Sula?” I said. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours,” she replied, before glancing over at the Necrolisks. “I think.”

  “You think?” I yelled back. “Then why didn’t you help us?”

  She ambled towards us, tapping her walking stick along the ground. “I didn’t want to risk putting my faith in all of you, just in case you failed.”

  As we watched in silence, she walked over and stopped several paces from our group. “Still don’t trust me? Here, I’ll put down my sword.”

  She did exactly as she said, pulling her sword from her walking stick sheath and placing it on the ground to her side. “In fact, you can have it, Sacet. A gift for you.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want it. I want an explanation.”

  She smiled. “That’s what I’m here for.” She looked over at Tau. “Tau, could you … pretty please do me a big favour and heal my face?”

  Tau looked at me and then back at her, confused. “Why?”

  “Because this isn’t how it’s supposed to look. I want to show you all who I really am.”

  I wasn’t buying it. “What if you teleport her away? You can’t take her as a prisoner.”

  Sula frowned. “After all we’ve been through, Sacet, you're still not very trusting. Fine, how about I lie on the ground and wait to be healed?”

  She followed her own suggestion again. She closed her eyes and, with great difficulty, lowered herself onto the ground flat on her stomach. She put her walking stick to the side and then placed her hands behind her back.

  I looked over at Colony. “Get your Necrolisks to touch her. If she teleports, they’ll go where she goes and they can kill her.”

  Colony seethed back at me and folded his arms. He didn’t like being ordered around.

  “Please.” I said.

  “Completely not necessary,” Sula’s muffled voice said from the ground, “but do what you have to do.”

  Colony gestured to Sula and two of his Necrolisks advanced on her from each side. They deft
ly lowered their claws onto her body.

  I nodded at Tau, who cautiously walked over and knelt beside her. The bluish white flames returned around her body, her hair and skin went white and her aura filled the room.

  When she was done, she backed away and returned, as did the Necrolisks. Sula reached for her walking stick and slowly stood up.

  Sula’s normally bulbous face, covered in hideous scars, had healed to reveal the same face as Antwin, the illusion that Mira used to rule this place.

  “Antwin?” I said in disbelief.

  “It’s the Queen,” one of the Nomads said. Murmurs returned to the hall.

  “Yes,” she said.

  Noor raised his hands towards her. “So if she's the real Queen, then why don't we kill her?”

  “No!” I yelled, raising a hand at Noor. “Let's hear her out.” I looked back at Antwin. “Answers.”

  She smiled. “And you will all get them,” she said before gesturing at everyone with a wave of the hand. “But first, this city is now torn. And unless we tell the military to stand down, the tens of thousands of troops remaining might do something drastic. Not to mention that reinforcements from other provinces have been called, too.”

  I shrugged. “Then we're willing to fight them all!” I said and many of the Nomads cheered.

  Antwin shook her head. “Many of them are innocent in all of this. They’ve just been misled for so long. Give the Female Dominion a chance to hear the truth, my truth. Most of the soldiers will choose our side after that. And the civilians that did not choose to rise up will be much more accepting of what has happened here, too.

  “It won't be long until the news is worldwide. That would be far more damaging to this regime then simply killing its leader, only for her to be replaced shortly after by someone just as corrupt.”

  “You want to speak to the people?” I asked.

  “And what would you say?” Maya asked. “What is this truth?”

  Antwin gave me a pleading stare. “Let me tell them, please.”