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Ain sweated as he climbed the dune, the comfort of clean, hot sand surrounding him. At first, the walls of the small crater had been much firmer and cooler, but now, nearer the top, it was hot to the touch.
But despite his worry, treading the Sands once more was most welcome.
So too, the return of paths; all around him, spreading in many directions, crossing, re-crossing and thundering at first, until it receded to the usual hum where he could discern between which paths had been used the most and most recently.
Ain glanced over his shoulder, down to the travel-stone.
So far, Wayrn was yet to appear. Surely Galier would be moving swiftly. After all, it seemed the mysterious old fellow had freed the travel-stone from the dune, it should not have taken him so long to locate and send Wayrn.
Before Ain crested the top of the slope, he crouched low to peer over the edge, swirling wind at his back.
Nothing but sand stretched before him, bright beneath a blazing sun that had already dried his hair. He slid around to the north face of the dune, squinting against the breeze.
Beneath him now, a hard-packed road of stone ran deeper into dunes and hills of dark earth. Wind carried sand in unusual patterns, scattered across road and rock alike, small slides running down from the trail’s edge to where a few scattered cacti stood. Ain shivered at the memory of strong hands around his throat, and the image of green threads beneath old skin, where the plague-walkers had been taken over.
But the plants did not seem to be moving... for now.
The road turned into the nearest hillside, not too distant at all. Surely, whoever it was that had been responsible for the theft of bone and the return of the green-walkers waited somewhere within.
Few from the Cloud had occasion to travel too far north. After all, it had been generations since the mountain men of the Vakim Ranges had traded. The mountains themselves were still some distance away but it was not so far. Yet what lay beyond the path leading into the hills?
There had been a fair share of horses, camels and donkeys, carts and boots across the road over the centuries. And older paths lurked beneath him too, leading from the travel-stone toward the dark hills and the mountains beyond, or back into the desert.
Ain removed the Shali Stones from a pocket. Onyx and jasper, looking just as they had when he’d lifted them from the sun-themed altar, strangely lightweight too and unharmed by the mighty bolt of lightning they’d called down upon the beach.
Would they be enough to face what lay before him? And just as importantly, could the stones even be used safely? Their last strike had come at a significant cost.
Light blazed, noticeable even in the bright day, and Ain turned to find Wayrn standing upon the travel-stone, shielding his face. When the glow faded, Wayrn blinked up at the crater, then smiled. “Ain?”
Wayrn started up the dune and Ain slid down a little to extend a helping hand, pulling his friend up toward the crest. “Did you meet Galier?”
Wayrn nodded. “Yes. And I certainly left wondering how human he really was – especially considering the warning he wants us to pass along. He spoke as though he actually knew the Greatmask.”
“I wish he had told us what to expect here,” Ain said.
“Well, he implied to me that while he couldn’t force us to take the message the very moment we left his forest, that at least our task here would be completed swiftly.”
“Which has an ominous ring to my ear,” Ain said. “How long has it been now, since Jedda and Majid travelled north? Maybe we are going to find something tragic.”
Wayrn rested a hand upon Ain’s shoulder. “Let’s find out at last.”
“Right.”
Together, they started down the crater then along the nearby road. Ain shielded his eyes once upon firmer ground, searching for signs of life or movement, yet found nothing but dark hills and shining sands.
They soon reached shade cast from the hills, as the trail turned within, and steep walls rose up around them, twisting deeper. More greying shrubs clung to the earth here but it was the path that slowed Ain... more recent passage was growing clearer.
“A small group passed here recently.” He knelt to place a hand upon the hot earth. Something else was clear upon the path; a different group met the first a little farther on. “Quickly,” Ain said, setting off at a jog.
Wayrn kept pace as they approached a fork in the trail. “What’s wrong?”
“I think we’ll find something around the next corner,” Ain replied, already beginning to sweat with the additional effort of the modest incline. Too long away from the desert sun perhaps.
And he was right about finding something.
Ain slowed not far along the branch; there, lying in a heap beside the path were a dozen bodies. Most were emaciated with veins of green, or faces missing – replaced by tendrils of cacti, but one shape had been set off to the side. It was burial carn of rock, longbow resting upon its peak.
Ain stood over it a moment, catching his breath. There was no way to learn who lay within... Majid and Jedda had taken Palan and three warriors from the western clan. Yet, whoever it was had died to protect all people of the desert. “Sands Watch Over You,” he said.
Wayrn looked over from where he was examining the Plague-Men. “Some of these men appear to be Vakim.”
Ain joined him. Two of the figures actually bore no evidence of being corpses repurposed by the green menace, but had died with blood as red as any true human. The Vakim mountain men were not so different from the Medah, save that all wore beards and dressed in a flint grey, hammers and axes still held in their muscled arms. “Let’s keep moving,” he said with a frown.
The afternoon was wearing down already, shadows lengthening when they reached another fork in the road. This time, the path drew Ain straight ahead rather than down; toward what seemed to be a large cave system built into the hills. Similar to where the Mazu Clan had lived; windows and doorways were cut into the stone, most blocked by doors or shutters. Some balconies bore parapets too, and even what appeared to be archers’ slots.
Long, broad stairs of stone climbed up from a central pit – what would have been a courtyard in a place like Anaskar. But it was no city, more like an outpost perhaps, and as with the rest of the trip so far, Ain found no evidence of living creatures.
Yet the paths were clear – scores of people had visited recently.