The wind howled in Sophie’s ears. She could barely see five feet in front of her. Every attempted breath made her choke. Her lungs burned and she gasped for air, which made her choke even more. The shawl that she’d been wearing whipped about her face. She grabbed a handful of the cloth and covered her mouth with it, gratefully breathing in sand free air.
Next to her, Eolisti must have had the same idea. She tied the shawl about her nose and mouth, squinting against the wind and sand battering them. “Are you alright?” she shouted, but the howling wind nearly drowned out her voice. Sophie nodded, looking around frantically. The others were gone. Even Sahl, who’d been standing right next to her, had disappeared. The winds were strong, but they shouldn’t have been able to blow him away.
Eolisti grabbed her arm and pulled her in the direction where the horses had been before the storm hit, shielding her eyes with her other hand. She let herself be pulled along by the Anai. She could still feel the swell of energy pulsing behind the storm, but the wind and debris pelting her made it hard to concentrate.
Sophie tripped over a rock and nearly fell, but Eolisti steadied her. They stumbled forward together, nearly blind, until they found the Anai’s horse, standing with its back to the oncoming gale. Eolisti let go of Sophie’s hand and rushed to the horse, immediately going for her scabbard and shield.
A hand touched Sophie’s shoulder and she jumped, turning quickly to find herself face to face with Khalil. He, too, had tied a cloth around his nose and mouth, making his already obscured face look featureless and unsettling. “Are you hurt?!” he yelled over the wind. She shook her head. “We need to find shelter! Stay close!” He took her hand in much the same way Eolisti had and started pulling her away.
Eolisti’s hand caught Khalil’s wrist and, with one smooth movement, broke his grip. “Don’t touch her!” she shouted and pushed back on his arm, making him stumble.
He caught his balance in an instant and spun around to face the Anai. Sophie couldn’t see his expression, but she could tell by his body language that he was furious. Eolisti tilted her chin up at him, her hand firmly on the hilt of her sword as the wind whipped strands of her hair around her face. Khalil clenched his fists and the two looked moments away from attacking each other.
“Stop it!” Sophie stepped between them, one hand on each of their chests to keep them apart. Even if she didn’t fully trust Khalil, this was no time to get into a fight. “We need to find the others, and I think there’s more to this storm—”
The feeling of something slick and oily slid across Sophie’s skin, making her shiver. The energy was foul and nauseating. Sophie grabbed both Khalil and Eolisti’s shirts, pulling them down as something passed just over their heads.
The howling in her ears seemed to quiet as she stared over her shoulder at the thing that had leaped over them. The wind calmed as the figure rose to its feet, the sand seeming to change course and swirl around them in a circle. Its cloak and robes were black and tattered, seeming to float around it in the wind. Skeletal hands covered with rotting skin poked out from beneath its sleeves and under the hood, its face was wrapped in shadows. A wicked-looking jagged blade in one hand, the other pointing a finger directly at Sophie.
Come, croaked a raspy voice in her head, like the sound of leaves scraping across stone. It was all she could do not to scream. She recognized it, felt the dark energy emanating from it. The creature was a Soulless, a monster made from necromantic energy, death magic, that haunted nightmares.
The sandstorm cast the clearing in a hazy, twilight-like darkness. Khalil held his arm out in front of Sophie and gently pushed her behind him. He reached into his cloak and drew out a sword that was a little smaller than Eolisti’s. The blade was thinner at the base and widened near the tip, making it curve slightly back toward the hilt. The Soulless was closest to him, and he tried to block Sophie from its view.
Eolisti crouched low as she drew her sword and shouted, “What the hell is that thing?!”
The creature’s rattling breath sent shivers up Sophie’s spine. “It’s called a Soulless!” she yelled over the wind, trying to keep her voice steady as it drew another rattling breath. “It’s the reanimating of a human corpse with magic!” Its very existence was wrong. She’d heard stories about these creatures. Most children had. They were used to warn children not to go outside alone at night and to encourage them to stay close to their parents. Sophie had learned what they really were while she studied in Zo’rahn. “The practice is illegal in most countries since the casting usually involves ritual sacrifice.”
“Illegal?! It’s trying to kill us! I don’t think that matters to whoever is controlling it! How do we stop it?” Eolisti asked desperately, not taking her eyes off the creature. “Can we just cut off its head or something?!”
Sophie racked her brain for anything she had read about how to destroy a Soulless. “Fire!” she called over to the Anai, remembering a passage about how they hated light. “Or you can remove the source of power from its body, usually a gem embedded in their flesh or runes carved into a bone!” Her stomach lurched at the thought of cutting up the Soulless until they could find the spell’s focus. “Otherwise, overwhelming force can break the enchantment if it takes enough damage.”
“Can you use your magic to overwhelm it?” Khalil asked over his shoulder, still facing the Soulless with his back to her. He sounded much calmer than she felt.
“Maybe,” she replied, not feeling very confident. “I’ve never actually seen one before. I’m not sure what it’s capable of.”
The Soulless moved forward, it’s sword arm outstretched. It seemed to sense that she was not going to come peacefully. One more time, its rasping voice echoed in her head. Come…
Sophie covered her ears with her hands. “No!” she screamed. “I’m not going back!”
Eolisti leaned close to Sophie and pulled one of her hands away from her ear. “I’ll distract it,” she said just loudly enough for Sophie to hear. “Then, you can use your magic on it.”
“What if I can’t?” Sophie gasped, her eyes wide. “What if I can’t do anything?”
“You can.” Eolisti smiled and winked at her, turning away to face the Soulless again.
Without warning, the Soulless darted at them, it’s cloak billowing as it charged. Khalil raised his sword just in time to parry the blow, but the strength of the monster’s advance knocked his arm aside. Its weapon changed direction in a flash, and the Soulless drove the hilt of the sword toward Khalil’s face. He tried to block the strike but missed it by an inch. The weapon connected with Khalil’s cheek and sent him stumbling to the ground with a grunt of pain.
The Soulless loomed over Sophie. A long boney finger reached for her and it felt like time slowed down. She could see the rotting tendons clinging to each joint. Her only instinct was to scream, but when she opened her mouth, her voice was gone. She wanted to run or jump away or do something other than just stand there, but her legs wouldn’t move. This is it, she thought, this is the end of my journey.
A silver blade swung into her vision and time snapped back to normal speed. Eolisti’s sword came down on its outstretched arm, knocking it away from Sophie. The Anai twirled and stabbed the sword into the monster’s abdomen, then pushed with all her might. It let out a hoarse sound and staggered back. Eolisti tore her sword out of the Soulless and jumped out of reach.
The Soulless turned to Eolisti and raised its blade, seemingly unfazed by what the Anai had done to it. There was no blood that Sophie could see, and the folds of black fabric hid any visible damage. The thing pressed Eolisti, driving her back a few steps. She blocked and parried its attacks, steel ringing on steel. On the other side of Sophie, Khalil was rising to his feet.
“A little help would be nice!” Eolisti shouted as the Soulless swung at her again, and she barely dodged out of the way. She whipped her blade at its leg, causing it to stumble.
Khalil picked up his sword and dashed at its back, bringing the curved blade down right between its shoulder blades. It whirled around to face him. Without skipping a beat, Eolisti attacked while its back was to her.
They fought the Soulless in tandem. Sophie had seen Eolisti fight before, but Khalil was able to match her step for step. They worked in concert, and it was almost like a dance they both knew by heart. Eolisti would strike first and pivot away. Then as it stumbled, Khalil would step in and slash at the Soulless while it was focused on the Anai. The two dodged and wove around its blade as the black cloth flapped and billowed around them, but the creature wasn’t slowing down.
Eolisti and Khalil were.
Their dance was becoming a little less graceful, a little less coordinated the longer they fought. Their attacks were starting to miss more often and when they dodged, the counterstrikes seemed closer and closer to meeting flesh. They couldn’t keep it up for much longer.
I have to do something, Sophie thought to herself as she watched the two grow tired. She remembered Khalil’s words. “I need you to be ready to act.” But she wasn’t ready. What could she do against a monster like that?
Eolisti flicked her blade out, but the Soulless sidestepped it and turned to bring an elbow smashing into Khalil’s side. It lashed out a booted foot and swept his legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. Then it twisted around, its jagged blade slicing across Eolisti’s thigh. She cried out in pain and fell to one knee. Eolisti stared up at the Soulless. For the first time since Sophie had known her, Eolisti looked afraid.
No, Sophie thought, her insides burning as she watched the Soulless raise its sword to finish the Anai. In an instant, her mind was still, and power flickered at her fingertips. She raised her hand and concentrated as the jagged blade reached its apex. The Soulless’s cloak burst into flames.
It flung its arms out and dropped the sword, its rattling breath trying in vain to scream. Eolisti seemed to shake off her fear in time and rolled out of the way, eyes wide. Sophie stepped toward the creature as she poured more power into the spell, her fear driven away by the need to help her companions. The flames grew hotter and brighter, stinging her eyes from the brilliant light, but she didn’t blink, instead, pushing out more and more magic until the fire was white-hot, and she could feel the heat threatening to burn her skin from where she stood.
The flailing abruptly stopped. The Soulless collapsed to the ground, a burning mass of ash. Bone crackled and burst in the heat. The cold, slithering magic dissolved and the winds around them began to calm. As quickly as it came, the storm died. Sunlight peeked through the descending dust.
Within moments, everything was covered in a thick layer of sand. The pile of ash that was once the Soulless still burned, but its flames were only a dull flicker now that Sophie wasn’t pouring any power into it. She approached it cautiously. There was something in the heap that she couldn’t quite see, a bump hidden among the embers. With a flick of her wrist, a strong breeze blew the top layer of ash away, revealing a bleached-white bone. A femur by the look of it. The long bone was untouched by the fire, save for a crack down the middle, splitting the bone in two. As she had guessed, runes were carved into the bone, swirling patterns that made her nauseous to look upon. The crack marred the symbols. She leaned in closer. There was something wrapped around it. A fine red thread almost like…
Her stomach turned over, and she jumped back. Hair. Her hair. Wrapped around the bone. As she watched, the hair caught fire and sizzled away into nothing while the femur remained unaffected.
“Sophie,” Eolisti said, sounding as if it wasn’t the first time she had called her name. Sophie looked over at the Anai, who was on her feet again. She, too, was covered with sand, so much so that she looked like she had been painted with it and left to dry. Eolisti held a piece of cloth to her leg and limped toward her. “Are you all right?” she asked, pulling away the shawl that she had tied over her nose and mouth.
“Yeah…” Sophie glanced back at the bone. It was just now starting to blacken. Any trace of her hair had burned up with the still glowing embers. “Just a little shaken, I guess.”
Eolisti let out a laugh then winced. She swayed dangerously, and Sophie ran the few steps between them before she could fall. “Dammit,” Eolisti growled. “It didn’t hit an artery, but it hurts a lot.”
Khalil was suddenly on Eolisti’s other side. She glared at him but didn’t protest as he took one of her arms and helped Sophie lower her to the ground. Sophie pressed a hand to Eolisti’s, still pressing the cloth to her wound, and reached out with her senses again. “It’s not deep,” she told them. Eolisti glanced at her, eyebrows furrowed and teeth clenched in pain. “I know some healing,” she reassured her, “enough to heal this.”
She looked over at Khalil. With his back to the sun, the shadows pooled beneath his hood and reminded her of the monster they had just fought. It took her a moment to find her voice again. “Do you have water?”
He nodded and reached into his cloak, pulling out a waterskin, which he handed to her.
“Okay, Eolisti, I need you to move your hand. I need to rinse off the wound before I heal it. You don’t want any more sand getting in there.”
Eolisti grimaced but pulled her hands and the bloody cloth away, allowing Sophie to pour water onto the gash. The Anai sucked in air through her teeth and grunted, but otherwise stayed still. When she was satisfied that it was as clean as it was going to get, Sophie handed the waterskin back to Khalil, then held her hands a few inches above the wound, concentrating. The magic she used on the Soulless had tired her, especially as she had been channeling raw magic with no focus to ease the strain, but since she’d been storing all of her unused power for weeks, she still had some to give. Sophie drew in a deep breath, feeling the life swirling in the air around them. From her companions, from the hardy plants and animals living in the desert, and from herself. Sophie siphoned off some of that energy and focused it into the droplets of water that still clung to Eolisti’s skin. Then she touched the skin right above the wound, releasing her will into the Anai’s body.
Through her power, she could feel the blood vessels repair themselves and tissue knit itself back together. Sophie gave Eolisti’s body the energy it needed, but the Anai’s body knew how to repair itself. She was just speeding things up. The tricky part was making sure nothing went wrong, picking out flaws in the healing process and correcting them, otherwise it could create even more problems. Still, Eolisti’s wound closed without issue as far as Sophie could tell, and all that was left was a fine line of pink skin.
The whole process had only taken moments.
“Wow,” Eolisti said, staring at her leg. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore. That’s a useful trick.”
“You might be a little tired,” Sophie said, fighting off a bout of dizziness. She had used quite a bit of energy in the past few minutes and was beginning to feel the drain on her own body. “But you should be able to stand and walk around on it. It might be a little tender for a day or so.”
“We should find Joel and Sahl,” Khalil said, standing. “And make sure the horses haven’t run off.
Sophie helped Eolisti to her feet and gazed around, scanning the landscape. She spotted movement near some bushes about forty feet away from where they were. “Joel?! Sahl?!” She listened, hoping they could respond.
“Help!” Joel’s voice called back, frantic and high pitched. Sophie’s heart leaped into her throat.
Before she knew it, she was running with Eolisti and Khalil, her faintness forgotten.
Joel was kneeling on the ground next to Sahl, both hands covered in bloody sand caked up to his elbows. He was putting pressure on a wound in Sahl’s side, but the blood had already soaked through the initiate’s clothing, staining the sand and dust a dark, muddy brown. Joel said Sahl’s name over and over, tears streaming off his face and falling onto his hands, but Sahl was already so pale.
“What happened?” Khalil asked when he reached them.
It took Joel a second to answer and when he tried to speak, his voice cracked. “I reached Sahl a few seconds after the storm hit. He was on his knees. I think the force of the winds turned him around and he stumbled away from the group.” Sophie knelt down in the dirt across from Joel while he spoke. His eyes met hers, red and brimming with tears. “I was helping him to his feet when we heard something moving around and that thing came at us from out of the sand. We were too disoriented to get out of the way and—” He choked, and it took him a moment to catch his breath. “It stabbed the kid and disappeared back into the sandstorm.”
“Joel,” Eolisti said gently, staring down at Sahl’s wound. “I don’t think…” Her voice trailed away.
Sophie took a deep breath as her hands hovered over Sahl’s shirt. She tried to clear her mind.
“What are you doing?” Joel asked, the desperation plain in his voice.
“I’m going to try to heal his wound,” she said, fighting down the fear and doubt that surged within her. She was already exhausted from the fire and healing Eolisti’s wound, but she had some strength left. She didn’t know if she was skilled enough to heal him, but she had to try. She focused her energy and reached out a hand, but she couldn’t sense any life coming from him. When she looked at his face, his eyes half-closed, she barely managed to choke back a sob. His eyes were glassy and unseeing under the lids. No air entered or left his lips and his chest was still. Hot tears began to stain her cheeks as she turned away from him, shaking her head. They were too late. Sahl was already gone.
No amount of magic could bring a soul back from the dead.