by Abby Dewsnup
There was a murmur of agreement. I kept my eyes trained on the white light, stumbling with every step. The light was increasing at a rate that I wouldn’t have thought possible for how slow we were walking, and it seemed to thin out, wisping into the dark sky like a moving source.
“Oh dear,” I heard Lynx say. I followed her gaze to the light, which was now gathering in a single spot on the horizon. I watched as it began to materialize into a creature that was only faintly visible through the shifting sands. As quickly as it had come, the shape dispelled again and the light stretched back over the horizon.
All around us, fragments of the ghost light had begun to take shape. I realized it wasn’t glowing at all, but a cloud of vapor. Sand swirled through the mist, creating shapes and humanoid figures before sliding back to the ground. It was as if the sand was attempting to create a form before the wind destroyed it.
A strange, faint whisper reached my ears. A voice was being carried in the wind, passing through the writhing sand and bringing it to life. I whipped my head towards the sound, straining to hear what it was saying. Other voices had begun leaching through the rocks, whispering urgently. I spun around, trying to catch the speaker of the words. A spirit of some sort must possess the land, whispering things in the night.
“Anya,” they said.
“What?” I gasped out, stumbling backward in the sand.
“Cave-Dweller who dares step into the light.”
The sands were shifting, rushing into life. I began to see the creatures emerge, their heads bared and eyes blazing. Dragons — that’s what the sand was creating. Dragons from long past.
“Anya, are you okay?” Jay asked, grabbing my arm. His blue eyes stared into mine with urgency, and the scar across his jaw was all the more glaring beneath the moonlight. “Did you see something?”
At his touch, the voices had vanished. I fumbled for words, trying to steady my beating heart. “Did anyone else hear them?” I asked in broken, floundering words.
They glanced at each other in turn. Lake and Jaren were staring at Rose, and it seemed as if a silent conversation passed between the three of them. “Hear what?” Jaren finally asked, his voice muffled by the headscarf.
His question was interrupted by a sudden silence. The wind stopped dead in its tracks, forcing the particles of sand to shower down to the ground. The dunes halted in their shifting, and I found that I could pull myself out of the knee-deep sand. Letting my hood fall down my shoulders, I listened for a sound, any remnant of the storm that had been brewing only seconds earlier.
“I think this place is a boneyard,” I finally said.
It was true — the protruding rocks were not rocks at all, but bones, ancient skeletons of dragons and sky beasts. It didn’t make sense why a dragon graveyard would fall right outside of the Caves in such desolation.
Jay’s face had gone slack as he stared past me. “I think this place is the reason no one left the Caves,” he said in a throaty whisper.
I whipped around. Gathering on the opposite horizon was a cloud of dust, minuscule in comparison to the size of the desert. I watched as it grew in size, crashing and raging against the desert floor.
Ash shoved past me, her red hair flying behind her. “Get behind the bones!” she screamed. And then again, “Get to the bones!”
“I don’t think the bones are where we want to go,” Jay cried, his voice swept away in the wind.
The sand beneath my feet had begun to run the opposite way, as if the storm was sucking the dust away. I grasped Jay’s shoulder, using my staff to keep us on our feet. Lynx was next to me, trying in vain to keep up as we stumbled through the storm. I felt her hands grab my shirt before she was torn away.
Jay crouched and threw Lynx onto his back, hefting her through the sand with him. My feet were leaden. I knew that even if we reached the bones they wouldn’t provide much protection. The Caves were a speck on the horizon, much too far away to run to.
The sand storm rose in the sky, blotting out the moons with its expansive threads of dust that seemed to stretch to the stars. The roar of it was growing louder. I was painfully aware of the sound that the dust made as it tore through the bones, almost ripping the spine from the ground.
Lynx tugged the backpack from Jay’s shoulders with difficulty, and pulled out the dingy tarp and a roll of rope. We dove behind the rib bone as the first wave of the dust slammed into it. Breathing hard, I clutched Lynx close to me and pressed the scarf to my mouth. Jay was still on his feet, wrapping the rope around the bone with effort. He knotted the tarp to the bone and threw it over us before clambering in himself.
“Grab the edges,” he urged. “This will help keep the sand out, but even then, it isn’t much.”
“What about Rose and the others?” I shouted over the roaring wind. “We have the only tarp.”
“They’ll be okay,” he replied, but something in his gaze told me he wasn’t so sure. He opened his mouth to say something more, but he stopped himself before the words fell from his lips.
“How long do you think this will go on for?” Lynx asked, her head buried against the dragon bone.
Jay pulled his knees in closer to his chest, letting Lynx and I lean against him. “I read about sandstorms in schooling, once. The danger depends on how big it is. But I’m sure it won’t take a long time.”
The tarp was pitch black, and I could faintly make out Lynx and Jay’s silhouettes through the dust. I hoped the sun would rise soon, putting an end to the storm and the darkness. I’d seen enough of both to last a lifetime.
“We might as well hunker down, though,” Jay said. “We’ll need to rest sometime. Do you want to get some provisions from your backpack, Anya?”
I nodded and pulled it towards me, unzipping the front. Bags of dried rations tumbled out, complete with cave trail mix and packets of dried fruit. Upon seeing the fruit I realized how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten supper the previous day. I broke open a packet of dried peaches, handing them out to Lynx and Jay, and keeping a few for myself. They tasted stale, like dust in my mouth, but it was food nonetheless.
While we ate, Jay worked on staking our makeshift tarp tent into the ground. It wasn’t enough to cover all three of us, but the cloth did enough to block the sand storm.
“We need to travel north,” Jay said. “I read on the map that the Underwater Kingdom is only a few days travel from here, if we can get a horse. Maybe the High Prince can help us.”
I shook my head. “The High Prince has enslaved the entire Underwater race. He’s a rat of a leader. Why would he help us?” I pulled my pack close to me and unrolled the map across my lap. I could just make out the drawings through the glow of my orb. “Besides. We’re traveling to the Light Kingdom, so we should head East. That is where the sun rises from.”
“We can’t base all our travels off of where the sun rises and sets, Anya. The Light Kingdom isn’t some mystical realm; it’s real. We have to gather information on it throughout a few kingdoms. Someone has to know where it is.”
I sighed. “What if it is some mythical realm? I have a feeling the Light Kingdom isn’t found on any map. That’s why no one has actually, you know, found it.”
Jay’s voice was growing more strained. “The smartest thing we could do is travel north.”
Lynx shot her head up from where she nestled up against the rock. “Shut up, the both of you,” she snapped in her quiet voice. “We can decide in the morning, when we can actually see where we are going.”
I glanced at Jay. I nodded and crossed my arms. We lapsed into silence, listening to the howling wind outside.
“Your father went missing, right Lynx?” I finally asked, breaking the stillness.
“Yeah,” She sat up, her light hair a mess of dirt and grime. “Two nights ago. He never came home from the mines, and the miners said he left his station like normal. No one can figure out what happened to him. I guess I know now.” She laid back down, clasping her hands over her stomach. “He must be so scar
ed.”
“Hey, don’t worry about him. You’re the one trekking through the Fringe to rescue him,” Jay said. “Besides, I’ll bet the Light Kingdom beats this tarp.”
I laughed and leaned back against the dragon bone. “I bet you’re right.”
“And what about you, Anya?” Jay asked, looking at me. “You said you lost your little brother.”
I nodded, tracing a circle in the sand. “Hours before the rider sent for me. He was cornering a thief who stole our supper.”
“Couldn’t your parents just have purchased more supper?” Lynx commented.
“No,” I replied. “I got it myself. We don’t have any parents, you know?”
The confusion across their faces was plain to see. “If they caught your brother, he’d be sent away with other orphaned kids.” Lynx commented. “How were you living on your own?”
“Funny, huh?” I shrugged, pulling my knees closer to my chest. “I guess even the council members can be fooled. James and I didn’t want to go away until our parents came back to the Caves to get us.”
Jay was still staring at me. He looked like he wanted to ask more, but I turned my head and studied the dragon bone like it was the most fascinating object in the world. I didn’t want to talk about it, not yet.
“My brother went missing a few months ago,” Jay finally said, breaking the silence. “I have a hard time believing the Elders sent him away.”
“You think they didn’t?” Lynx asked.
Jay ran a hand through his hair, casting his eyes down. “He’s been gone so long. I just don’t think the Elders would’ve sent him off to the Kingdom of the Light half a year ago and only mention it now, that’s all. I guess he’s been dead in my head for such a long time that I can’t get past it.”
I touched his shoulder. “I know he’s alive. What’s his name?”
Jay smiled crookedly. “Kye. And your brother’s name??”
“James,” I replied. “I’m sure they’re good friends by now.”
“Bet,” Lynx said, sitting up straight. “Now stop talking, I want to get to sleep.”
I exchanged a glance with Jay and shrugged, letting Lynx stretch out by the dragon bone. I leaned against it, pulling a knee up to my chest. “We aren’t very far from the Caves. Only a day’s journey,” I whispered. “This storm is keeping us from traveling. I don’t like it.”
“We’ll leave once the storm ends,” Jay murmured, his jaw flexing in concern at the thought. “But I’m not sure where Rose, Ash, and the twins went.”
“They probably jumped ship,” I muttered. “They didn’t seem all that intent on pursuing the Light Kingdom.”
Jay grinned a crooked smile as he laid down on the sand, cradling his head in his hands. “I wouldn’t leave you guys for the world, not when people are waiting for us to succeed. Especially in a place like the Light Kingdom.” He was silent, then he said, “Besides, we weren’t sent here to take the easy way out. Nothing in the Fringe is easy.”
His words hung heavy around us. We lapsed into silence, listening to the sand beat against our tarp. I drifted to sleep as the sky outside gathered with distant murmurs, growing louder as creatures formed within the dust storm, like rising giants silhouetted against sinking moons.
4
Rise of the Red Sun
Dawn spilled through our tent, illuminating the shadows of sand piled like a wall against our tarp. The first thing I noticed was that Lynx was missing, but in the sudden blinding sunlight, I scarcely cared.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I stepped over Jay’s sleeping form, pulling apart the tarp flap with shaking hands. A faint sigh escaped me as I saw the expanse of desert surrounding us lit by golden, dripping sunlight. It fell from the mountains ahead of us, bright enough to make me cast my gaze away from it.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jay whispered from behind me.
I jumped at his voice and turned around, smiling at him with all the same wonderment I had possessed for the sunrise. “And to think all those years they buried us in the mines,” I said.
My eyes weren’t used to the sudden onslaught of light. I sat down and crossed my legs, letting the sun reach out and touch me with its twisting rays. The warmth was like a dream. In the Caves, I was used to a bitter chill. The daylight in the Fringe seemed to melt away years of cold and darkness from my bones, stripping away the part of me that insisted I was simply a Cave-Dweller. Here, in the sun, I could be anything.
Lynx was sitting a dozen feet away, leaning against a dragon bone as if it was the only thing keeping her on her feet. “It makes me dizzy,” she finally said, turning to us with a stunned expression. “I’m not sure I like it.”
I felt as if a frost was melting from my bones. For a moment, I thought the feeling was purely imaginative, but then it grew warmer, approaching scalding as the sun peeked over the horizon.
“It’s hot,” I commented, rubbing my arms with unease. “Is anyone else burning?”
“It’s nice,” Jay said, oblivious to my discomfort.
The feeling wasn’t unnatural, but I still worried as to why the sharp heat had invaded my bones. Perhaps something inside me had been dormant, and in the sunlight, it had awoken with full force. The mark the Elder’s had given me had faded, and I watched as tendrils of odd shapes crawled up my wrist and arms. They looked like the mark, only these shapes glowed from beneath my skin, like an old scar that was only visible in this bright sunlight.
Hesitantly, I tugged my sleeves down over the vine-like sun scars. Whatever they were, they weren’t dormant at all. They were very much alive and rising across my skin. I hoped they would go away.
A gaudy, loud voice interrupted my thoughts. “First time seeing the sun, eh, Cave-Dwellers?”
The three of us wheeled around to meet the voice. In an instant I pulled the staff from my pack, clutching it like a lifeline as my gaze swept across the small group of people who had gathered around us.
Each of them was wearing a potato sack mask, with eye holes cut through the mesh just enough to reveal their desert-scorched eyes. They were clad in light, hanging clothing. A staff similar to mine protruded from their back. On the tips of their weapons was a glistening rock that shone like the oil I had seen drip from the mines back home — obsidian.
Next to me, Jay had his hands on the scabbard across his waist. “What are a bunch of people like you doing in the Boneyards?” he asked loudly.
“Just passing through,” a muffled, jeering voice said. I assumed the man in the front had spoken, but the group parted to reveal a figure approaching us from the back.
“And do you children know what that specific sunrise means today?” The man said.
“That it’s going to be a great day?” I asked with a ghost of a shrug.
“That’s the red sunrise of a blood moon tonight,” the man said, coming to a stop only feet away from Jay and I. “And I take it you lot have spent the night in this graveyard, so you understand exactly what happens around here when the sun goes down.”
“The white figures, what are they?” I asked despite myself.
I couldn’t tell if the man was smiling beneath his potato sack mask, but he let out a booming laugh. “They’re called Drakon Sages, and they’re creatures of revenge. They haunt this boneyard intent on disposing of those who killed them in their previous life.”
“And who could have disposed of an entire group of dragons?” Jay asked, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he stared at the silent group.
“Your people, of course,” the man said. “Haven’t you ever wondered why you lot hide in the Caves like hermit crabs?”
Jay glanced at me, drawing his sword as we exchanged a silent conversation. I could tell he didn’t trust them, nor did I. I pushed past their bait and instead asked, “And who are you?”
There was a murmur among the masked men but the leader let out a booming laugh. “These three truly are from the Caves. They’ll buy a high price in the Glass Cages, as the othe
r four did.”
“The other four?” I thought of Rose, Ash, Lake, and Jaren. Could these men have taken them away?
“But to answer your question, miss, we’re —”
“They’re Glass Traders.” Jay slammed his sword into the sand with a frustrated sigh. “They’re like Light Smugglers back in the caves — lowly thieves. I never learned what exactly they trade, though.”
His remark stung. “What do you trade?” I asked them.
The man leaned forward, his eyes bristling. “We’re sent from the High Prince himself. He’s crafting himself an army you see. You’ll be one of the first enlisted beneath him.”
I shook my head. “And if we refuse?”
There was movement in the crowd as the men pulled their staffs from their belts in a single fluid motion. The obsidian tipped weapons glistened in the rising sunlight. The leader had withdrawn his mask, revealing a haggard, aged face. I guessed he was in his fifties. His hair was covered in grime and his eyes were desolate, as if he had yet to sleep a night. “You can’t refuse the High Prince’s sorcery, girl. He’ll carve you out from the inside, take all that makes you a person until you’re as empty as he is.” he said, his voice dark. “Now gather the lot of them, boys, and don’t forget the shrimp over there by the rocks. I want to get going before the main entrance to the Cutlass closes at noon.”
I heard Jay pull his sword from the sand, and I fingered the staff in my hands. “Let us get our stuff,” I said, taking a step towards the tarp. While the attention turned to me, Jay slammed the blunt end of his blade into the leader and smacked him upside the head with the hilt. The man crumpled to the ground as the rest of the group closed in.
“Lynx, run!” I shouted to her. She had yet to move a step, still braced against the dragon bone as if it could protect her from the approaching slave traders.
I was clumsy with the staff, still untrained. I slammed into a masked man, jumping onto his back. With the staff in hand, I braced it around his neck despite his violent protest. Slowly, he sank to the ground before passing out cold.
