His people called for him just as the sky was darkening into deep, royal blue. Sandsa was standing on top of the Maria headquarters, as he frequently did while waiting for Callista, his earpiece switched on in case anyone needed to speak with him. But this form of contact was more like a hook around his ribs, tugging and trying to topple him over the ledge. Sandsa bit his tongue, hoping the pain would help him fight the urge to succumb, but he knew he was losing.
He ripped out his earpiece and threw it onto the concrete where he crushed the device beneath a boot. Stamping his way back inside, he passed various Maria clanspeople who tried to catch his attention and ignored them, feeling glad that Callista was busy. He could not let her doubt him when she was so close to admitting out loud that she was ready to accept his immortality.
When he barrelled through the large doorway leading into the garage, he was met not by sycophants encouraging him to take this or that hovercar, but a road that was half buried by the invading desert. He realised he was somewhere on the edge of Atsa City — his domain had brought him here against his will, outside of his control.
He kicked the sand off his boots and shook out his arms, spraying the ground with the hateful specks. This done, he stormed past a decayed generator that would have contributed power to the shield that had kept Atsa safe centuries ago, and headed towards the nearby cluster of Zatzat clanspeople, all of them standing in a circle with their forearms clasped. Josh Freeman was the epicentre of this activity, but his indifferent expression was at odds with the intent ones surrounding him.
‘What are you doing?’ Sandsa demanded, grabbing Vom’s arm and tearing the large man away from the group.
‘You came!’ Vom said, his stunted powers a cord that lashed out wildly, seeking their source. ‘We are trying to contact the Desine! Will you join us?’
I wish you had not succeeded, Sandsa thought, wincing.
‘I am sorry but I cannot,’ he answered quietly.
Vom stared at him for a long moment then nodded, accepting his decision, and turned back to the circle. None of the other clanspeople spoke, but their combined efforts were a constant weight on Sandsa’s mind. They weren’t even doing it for themselves — they were doing it for Pagnus of Vieta, to help him reconnect with his past.
Sandsa took a step back, towards the road, but he had lingered too long. Sand exploded up from the ground like a geyser and fell over his arm, rotating around the limb again and again, begging him for instructions.
Come back to us, come back, the sands whispered. And tell us what to do.
For a moment, he could think of no reason to deny them.
Callista, Callista, he mentally chanted until it was all he could hear.
The Zatzat clanspeople continued to pour more will into their summoning. Why couldn’t they accept that he had abandoned them, just as they had abandoned the deserts? Why couldn’t they leave him alone?
He wanted to look away but his eyelids were frozen open, forcing him to watch.
Sandsa!
One blink. Two blinks. Callista. I won’t. I won’t do this.
I’m coming. Don’t listen, don’t let them sense you. And don’t make Vom or any of the others angry with you. We still need their support.
Sandsa released a laboured breath. She was right. He forced himself backwards — it was more of a stagger than a retreat. When his boots finally touched the road, his lungs expanded, free of grit and pressure. He even laughed. Sand skittered away from him, confused, fearful.
Then he caught a whiff of rotting seaweed.
Fayay, he said, letting the loathing lather each syllable.
Look at what you did to this man, the god of water said and tsked. And for what? So he could learn about the dangers of the galaxy and report back to his tribe? You never let him choose. You forced him off his planet and into slavery. And you think I am cruel?
Sandsa clenched his fists. ‘No. You cannot know this. You can’t read minds. Who told you?’
Who have you told, brother? Think hard.
Sandsa shook his head fiercely. Kuja would not betray me.
Fayay said nothing and let the silence grow. Growling, Sandsa stabbed deep into the Watine’s mind — and reared back. Father? Father told you? Why?
Perhaps he wants me to repair his grand design for him, Fayay remarked.
‘I will never go back!’ Sandsa spat.
The Watine’s laughter swelled in the horizon before it swept in past the oblivious mortals and slammed into Sandsa. He spat out a mouthful of freezing water, his eyes stinging with salt.
Fayay, show yourself! Or are you too afraid of me? he roared.
Afraid of a mere man? mocked Fayay from somewhere just out of sight. Next time they call for you I will answer. Then I shall whisper into their ears and punish those that refuse to obey me.
Sandsa snarled. Don’t you dare go near my people!
Are they still your people if you abandoned them?
Fine, Sandsa said, gritting his teeth. They’re yours. Now leave me alone!
Should I leave your son alone as well?
GO AWAY!
Sandsa wrenched back the hand that he had clamped over Callista’s arm. The angry red slashes his fingers had formed on her pale skin caused horror to flood through his veins. He jerked away, ashamed, but she caught his wrists and pulled him into her embrace. Sandsa breathed heavily into her neck, closing his eyes as her fingers massaged their way up onto his scalp. His shaking slowly eased under her caresses, both physical and mental. When he lifted his head, he saw that the clanspeople were milling around, their circle broken.
Vom was murmuring into Josh’s ear, a hand on the other man’s shoulder. When Josh failed to respond, Vom’s gestures became more exaggerated.
Sandsa looked back at Callista, stricken. ‘I hurt you. I can’t possibly ask you to undergo the binding when the process will also cause you pain.’
She reached up and curved her palm around his cheek. ‘A little pain is nothing compared to the joy of waking up beside you every morning until the end of time.’ Her kiss was cool against his flushed skin. Then she pulled away, creases forming on her forehead. ‘Another brother? He didn’t feel as amiable as Kuja.’
‘The Ine told Fayay about our son, which I can only imagine was meant to make me angry enough to use my powers,’ Sandsa said, aiming a sneer towards the dark horizon. He could still sense Fayay out there, lurking, thickening the air with moisture.
‘Can Vom and the others call you like this again?’ Callista asked.
‘They may try, because they felt me respond — I did not mean to!’ Sandsa drove his fist into his thigh. ‘I cannot fathom why these people, who deliberately left me before I left them, would even…it must be Fayay’s doing.’
He shot her a look when she laughed.
‘Sandsa, my love, do you realise what you inspire in our people — the people of Atsa?’ Callista clarified. ‘Ala never thought the Maria could take control of the city. It was impossible. You changed that.’
‘We changed it, my dear.’
‘Yes,’ she said, nicking his lips with her own. ‘If one man can destroy the Alcazaar, and bring peace to the city, can you imagine how possible everything looks to people now? They’re dreaming. Can’t you feel it? I do, at night — I feel their minds, full of hope. And that’s why Vom attempted to bring his god back, even though he knew it wouldn’t work.’
Sandsa sighed. ‘I almost wish I had answered them. The things I did to Josh…’
‘Does Josh want the Desine back in his life?’ Callista asked him.
‘I thought not…’
‘Go talk to him. It might make you feel better.’
‘Callista…’
She pressed a finger to his lips. ‘If you do it right now, you will have the pleasure of returning to someone who wishes to bind herself to you for eternity. I think you can manage a short separation, don’t you?’
Sandsa seized her in a brief kiss before jogging over to Josh and Vom.
Josh tossed up a hand in greeting. ‘Sandsa. I’m glad someone has a lick of sense of around here. Don’t know why I let Vom talk me into this.’
‘You do not…begrudge me standing aside when I could have joined in and helped?’ Sandsa asked, startled.
Josh shook his head. ‘No way, man. I’ve been remembering bits and pieces here and there since we last spoke. I was going to die in the desert before the slavers found me. The Desine must’ve made sure they did. And I’m grateful for that. I think I even felt his presence. But that’s over, done with, and I don’t want to return to the deserts and live a life that sounds, frankly, horrible. I didn’t get a choice back then, but the Desine’s letting me make one now. I respect that.’
Vom glanced towards the dunes in the desert, hidden from view now that night had fallen. ‘It’s not as bad as it sounds.’
‘Would you go back?’ Sandsa asked him.
‘No,’ Vom admitted, but then his expression hardened. ‘The Desine is missing, Josh. That’s why he has not come to guide you.’
Sandsa cleared his throat. ‘Perhaps it is time for the Desine’s people to move forward without him. They no longer need to bow to his demands.’
‘A father has no right to make sure his children are on the correct path?’ Vom demanded.
‘Kids’ve gotta grow up sometime,’ Josh said, shrugging. ‘Besides, not sure you lot deserve the Desine if you only call him when you want something.’
Sandsa swung a severe look at him. ‘It is not like that at all.’
‘Isn’t it? Seems to me the Desine might have a reason to stop talking to us.’
‘The Desine means something different to all of you,’ Callista said, descending the eroding sandbank and coming towards them, a hand on her visibly swelling stomach. ‘This should be discussed when tempers are not running so high.’
‘Nice words, Clan Leader Dancer,’ Vom said with a shake of his large head. ‘But that is exactly when men speak the truth, with the fires of anger lit beneath them!’
But Callista was not looking at him. The object of her gaze stepped forward.
‘Well, how ’bout you shut up and let the women deal with things more rationally,’ Diamond said, smirking. ‘Dancer’s right. Plus I got a thirst comin’ on and I mean to spend money quenching it in your club.’
Sandsa planted a mental kiss in his lover’s mind; Callista brushed it off, keeping an eye on the clanspeople as they filed away to their vehicles. No one offered a ride to Josh and nor did he chase any of those who had been so keen to help him out only an hour beforehand. One empty hovercar remained, its neon yellow paint announcing its presence far out into the desert night. Sandsa recognised it as one that Kick refused to lend to anyone except his Clan Leaders.
‘Can I ask why you took part in this if that is how you feel about the Desine?’ Sandsa quietly asked Josh.
The man sighed and scuffed the toe of his boot through the sand. ‘Ever since I ran into you, Bolt, I’ve been having weird…weird dreams. I remember the desert. My own clan’s getting sick of all my rambling so I thought I’d try out Vom’s lot.’
‘And you’ve just realised that your views are not compatible with theirs either,’ Callista said, her hand finding Sandsa’s and her fingers twining through his.
A cool pinprick touched the back of Sandsa’s hand. The drops of moisture were intermittent at first, spitting here, spitting there, but then they began falling at an increasing rate. Rain on Yalsa 5 was rare enough that Josh and Callista both peered up at the sky, startled.
Fayay. Sandsa kept his growl silent. Will you not go somewhere you’re wanted?
The answer come in the form of frigid water trickling down his spine. He grimaced.
‘Vom seems to think the Desine should follow us every second of every day, but having a god telling you what to do doesn’t really prepare you for the big bad galaxy,’ Josh said, pulling a hood over his hair to keep it from getting damp. ‘The Desine saved me. Awesome. But at what point do I become responsible for my own life?’
Sandsa nodded briskly. ‘You make an excellent point, Josh. We should not expect all the hard work to be done for us. The Desine would feel that the way you are conducting your life is payment enough for saving you all those years ago.’
I’m coming, Sandsa, taunted Fayay. Will you be able to defend yourself, hobbled as you are?
Callista flinched. ‘Sandsa…’
‘Would you like to join the Maria?’ Sandsa asked Josh, touching the man’s elbow and steering him towards the remaining hovercar. Callista stayed behind, a hand wrapped around her lasgun.
‘I thought all clans were pretty much the same unit these days,’ Josh said with a snort, though a good-natured one. ‘Gotta say, some people don’t particularly like being told what to do by Clan Leaders instead of their own subofficers.’
Sandsa winced. ‘I thought this was what people wanted. Cohesion instead of factions. Peace instead of war.’
‘There’s less dying, so that’s something.’
‘I think I did it to make her happy,’ Sandsa admitted.
Josh paused beside the hovercar and studied him for a moment. ‘There’re worse reasons to kill for.’
Sandsa punched his code into the keypad on vehicle and watched the door drop open. He indicated the driver’s seat. ‘I take it you know where our headquarters are?’
‘Really, you’d let me touch this? Drive it?’ Josh’s voice rose several notches.
‘They say that when men and women fight together a bond forms between them,’ Sandsa said, thinking of the tribes and the sayings he had given them.
They obeyed every one of your demands, because you were their god, Fayay sneered.
Sandsa gritted his teeth. ‘Josh, you should leave. Callista and I will be able to find our own transportation.’
Kuja, he sent. I need you.
Already on my way. Callista called me.
‘Goodbye, Pagnus of Vieta,’ Sandsa said softly. ‘You are Josh Freeman now and forever.’
Josh hesitated. Sandsa fought the urge to shove him bodily into the rounded compartment. Finally, the new Maria clansman asked, ‘So how come you know that name? I…I don’t know if it’s stuck with me because you called me that during the war, but I think it was my name.’
‘I still sense the Desine,’ Sandsa told him. ‘Though I try not to.’
Josh slid into the seat, but continued to hold Sandsa’s eyes. ‘I see. Good luck getting a taxicar out this far.’ His face became clouded. ‘I can sense you. A little. Let’s not tell Vom we can still do this ’cause he’d never leave us alone if he knew. Goodbye, Sandsa.’
The moment the hovercar careened around the corner, Sandsa ran back to Callista. He threw his body over hers, shielding her just as a jet of water thundered up behind him, bowing his back with the force of an irrepressible tide. As they toppled to the ground, Sandsa shouted, ‘Kuja!’
His brother helped them up, then all three of them stood together, united in a wall of flesh and power. What Sandsa sensed inside Callista frightened him. He watched as her teeth tore a fleck of skin from her lip, blood beading there as she tried to temper their unborn child’s powers.
A cascade of briny water hit the tar, scouring away any specks of sand that were clinging to the road. The torrent curled into a sodden seaweed cloak which Fayay then lowered from his face.
Ocean spray hissed from the gap between his lips. ‘Good evening, brothers.’
‘It is an evening, though I would argue it is not a good one,’ Sandsa retorted.
‘I see that living among mortals has provided you with wit and…’ Fayay’s pale tongue darted out of his mouth. ‘…an incubator.’
Fayay suddenly staggered to the side. When he whipped his head back around, he glowered at Callista who had sent a telekinetic blast his way.
‘Call me an incubator again, water god,’ she said with a very unpleasant smile.
The Watine stamped one foot. Jets of water tore apart the road, heading straight for her. Callista danced aside at the last moment and threw a laugh at him. ‘It must really gall you that he gave up the power you thought you wanted only for him to get what you actually want.’
‘I want nothing like you!’ Fayay spat.
‘You’re jealous, we can see it in your thoughts!’ Kuja said, curling his hands towards his wrists. Vines sped out of the ground at Fayay’s feet, encircling his ankles and rising up his calves. ‘And you cannot beat us, Fayay. You are just one god.’
Fayay’s pale eyes glinted. ‘For now. But I do not need help to beat one pathetic mortal.’
His next attack came hard and fast. Sandsa did not even allow himself time to blink. He threw himself in front of Callista, prepared to take the brunt of the blast, but it didn’t come. He stared up in disbelief.
The water Fayay had hurled at them could have been an icicle, had it not been sloshing and rotating in front of Sandsa’s chest, seemingly unable to complete its journey. At first Sandsa could not think of anything to say or do. Then a surge of anger belted through him and he diverted the wet missile to the ground just as he had done with so many countless lasgun bolts. The water exploded over the sand but shied from his boots, as though afraid to come near him.
‘Father has lied to all of us!’ Sandsa shouted into the stunned silence, though he knew they all heard the quaver in his voice. ‘Our domains do not need a specific sibling. If I can command water, then you can command sand, Fayay. You’re so worried about the deserts needing a god? Then fill my boots. If you can.’
The water deity shrank back, hooking his cape up over his face and using the gesture to disintegrate into a puddle. Sandsa blew out a breath and sagged. Kuja stared at him with wide eyes and asked, ‘Sandsa, have you always commanded both water and sand?’
‘Is this the first time?’ was Callista’s question.
Sandsa swallowed. ‘I was using my chipless powers to deflect the blast. That is all.’
‘I felt…’ Kuja hesitated. ‘I felt the water move in you, brother. Don’t deny it.’
Sandsa shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘Why would I be able to use both? And if we can all do this, then why has Father not told us?’
‘He doesn’t want us to know we can be replaced,’ Kuja whispered. ‘That we can be killed with no negative impact to our people.’
Callista surprised Sandsa by moving over to the Rforine and resting a hand on his shoulder. ‘You are not replaceable to your brother. I’ve seen what you mean to him in my visions.’ Her smile lit the night. ‘Sandsa, this means you don’t have to feel guilty about leaving your people. One of your brothers can take over the deserts.’
‘There is so much we do not know and we…we are supposed to be gods!’ Kuja said and burbled with laughter. ‘Maybe I can replace you, brother.’
Sandsa reached over to cuff his brother on the head. ‘Don’t get any ideas. Will you stay for the wedding? It’s in two weeks if you want to attend.’
‘I will even officiate your binding afterwards,’ Kuja said with a grin, but then his lips drooped. ‘What am I supposed to do at the mortal ceremony?’
Callista tugged the rainforest god aside and began to explain the custom of standing up beside the groom, something Sandsa had only heard about from Bock the day before. Nodding, Kuja repeated, ‘Best man. I think Mum would have agreed that I am the best of us two, brother.’
‘You behave very poorly for a seventy-year-old,’ Sandsa told him.
Kuja grinned. ‘You still behave poorly! Should I tell Callista just how old you are?’
‘No!’ Callista and Sandsa said as one.