The Hidden Relic (The Evermen Saga, Book Two) Read online

  Finally, as Ella was beginning to slump in her saddle and she could feel Afiri tiring underneath her, Jehral called a halt. He had each of them unsaddle and groom their horses with a stiff brush, before watering them a little at a time. They hobbled the horses by twisting the reins around their legs, before sinking to the sand themselves, lying back against a dune while the stars looked down from overhead.

  Ella tilted her water flask, surprised when she tipped it all the way and only a tiny trickle of water came out. She couldn't even remember drinking it. She felt Jehral's eyes on her and looked over at him.

  "The water that is left in the bags is for the horses," he said. "We do not drink again until we reach the Oasis of Lyra." He moved his saddle behind him and sank down, using it as a pillow. "Get some rest, Ella. I will wake you in four hours."

  ~

  "WE WILL reach the Oasis of Lyra sometime today," Jehral said.

  The plodding horses sweated under the morning sun. Ella's mouth was parched, her tongue dried and devoid of moisture. She was having trouble speaking, so she just nodded.

  Shani seemed to be in an even worse state. Ella nudged Afiri closer to the elementalist's horse and soundlessly handed Shani her water flask. There was little more than a few drops in there, but the Petryan seemed to instantly revive. Shani smiled her thanks.

  "Jehral," Ella whispered. She tried again. "Jehral, do you have a spare sword?"

  The desert warrior started, evidently lost in thought. Perhaps even he was succumbing. He took some time to process Ella's words, before reaching into a saddlebag. "Here," he said.

  Ella reached out as Jehral handed her a large dagger, heavy and curved. "Thank you," she said hoarsely.

  Ella placed the dagger in her saddlebag, leaving the strap unfastened so she could grab the dagger at a moment's notice. With no essence the only power she possessed was in her dress. She had a couple of flashbombs in an inner pocket, but that was all; any weapon helped.

  Jehral held up his hand, and the three riders pulled on their reins, halting their horses. "Ahead," Jehral said, his voice betraying the dryness of his throat. "The Oasis of Lyra. Do you see it?"

  Ella squinted against the bright sunlight. At first she couldn't see anything, but she held her hand over her eyes and ran her gaze slowly across the horizon. Then she saw it, a tiny speck that could have been the spikes of desert palms jutting out from the sand. "I think so," Ella said.

  "It is closer than it looks." He looked from Ella to Shani. "Are you ready?"

  Shani nodded.

  "Yes," Ella said. Even in her weakened state, she could feel her heart rate increase.

  "The plan is to ride in fast. I do not know if the sound will attract the creature more readily but speed is our only ally. I will stand guard while the two of you fill the water bags. Throw mine to me, and then we leave. Understood?"

  "It's a good plan." Shani grinned, but her voice was weak. "Simple."

  "Ready?" Jehral asked one last time. "Ride!"

  He dug his heels into the flanks of his horse and it leapt forward. Ella hardly had to kick Afiri forward; he could smell the water and wanted to follow the leader. Ella felt the wind rushing in her face as Afiri galloped over the sand, and she realised the wisdom of keeping the horses well-watered. The three travellers would live or die this day based on the strength of their steeds.

  Beside Ella, Shani's face was grim, her dark hair flying. Ella's feet jangled up and down in their stirrups and she was suddenly terrified they would slip out and she would fall off her horse. She had never galloped this fast before.

  The spikes became the jagged tops of palms, and as Ella crested a dune she could see the fissure that the grove surrounded. Without breaking stride, Jehral galloped down the side of the cleft, his horse hurtling towards the tranquil pool on the gully floor.

  He leapt off his horse and immediately took down his empty water bags. Ella and Shani reached him an instant later and slipped off their horses, following suit.

  "Here," Jehral said, tossing his water bags to Ella. He then remounted and turned his black horse in a single movement, drawing his scimitar, eyes scanning the area.

  Ella rushed down to the water, sensing Shani beside her. Ella knelt down by the water, feeling it slick and wet on her legs. She pulled the stopper off the first water bag and dunked the entire sack under the water, holding it down with one hand while she fumbled to open the next bag's stopper with the other.

  Ella filled Jehral's two water bags and then started on her own. She turned and saw that Shani had finished filling her own two bags. "Take them to the horses." Ella indicated the four full bags. "I'm almost done." Shani nodded and ran up towards where Jehral waited with sword bared, staring out at the desert.

  Ella finished filling the last two bags and reinserted the stoppers. She felt her breath coming short and fast as she put strength into her legs, running up the soft sand towards where Jehral and Shani urged her on.

  Ella's fingers fumbled as she tied the water bags to her saddle.

  "Come on," Shani said.

  "Hurry!" Jehral called.

  Ella finally put her foot in the stirrup and grabbed hold of the pommel, pulling herself up onto Afiri's back. "Go!" she cried, taking hold of the reins.

  Jehral's horse shot forward, clambering up the soft sand of the hillside with great lunges. With a lighter passenger, Ella's horse had less difficulty climbing the slope and she was the first of their group to make it out.

  Ella's eyes swept back and forth as she scanned the desert. So far, luck, and speed, were with them.

  "Keep going!" Jehral called from behind her.

  Shani was the next to reach the top. Ella kicked her horse into a gallop, and Afiri leapt over the sand as his pace picked up.

  Then the ground opened up in front of her.

  Ella suddenly found herself staring into a wide hole in the desert floor, a dozen paces wide, with sand spilling into it on all sides.

  Afiri reared as he halted mid-stride, and all Ella could do was hold on and pray Afiri wouldn't fall forward. Ella felt the horse tremble as his front legs slipped.

  Ella stared into the hole in horror as the Devil appeared.

  The first thing she saw was its head. It came out and up, mouth open and sucking as the sand poured down into its gullet. Row after row of glistening teeth lined the inside of its white lips, each the size of Ella's dagger, jagged and sharp. An eyeless head and two wide nostrils made its gaping jaw the most prominent part of its body.

  The creature shot out of the hole, knocking Ella's horse backwards and sending Ella flying through the air to land heavily on the sand.

  Ella scrambled to her feet, then dashed over to Afiri, grabbing the dagger from her saddlebags and speaking the words that would activate the protective capabilities of her dress as Afiri attempted to get back up. She turned away from the panicked horse and faced the beast.

  As the symbols that covered the silk lit up with blue and purple, the creature reared its body and plunged down at Ella, the putrid stench of its breath buffeting her as the jaws closed over her.

  Ella felt the familiar feeling of the knowledge coursing through her; she was an enchantress, and this was the dress she had enchanted with the most powerful lore she knew how to create.

  The Devil of Lyra's teeth bit down on a sheath of green armour stronger than steel. Closing her mind to the fear and her eyes to the creature's awful attack, Ella chanted in a sonorous rhythm, her voice neither quavering nor breaking stride.

  She activated the lightning.

  With a flash brighter than the sun, electric bolts and discharges covered Ella's form. The sandworm made a sound like breaking boulders and the ground trembled as it reared away in pain and its head rose high into the air.

  Ella opened her eyes. The sandworm had left her where she stood, and she ran towards Afiri. She tried to catch him, but the terrified horse shied away. Ella shouted to Jehral.

  "My horse!" she cried.

  Jehral tu
rned his own horse with a tight sweep and galloped towards Afiri.

  The giant sandworm seemed to peer sightlessly at Ella. Perhaps it had no eyes, but it could still sense her somehow.

  Then Ella heard a great whoosh, and a fireball shot through the air, screaming and roiling as the sphere of flame turned over and over, flying with a well-aimed cast at the creature's head. The fireball hit the sandworm's nostrils, bursting over them in a spray of red energy.

  The Devil of Lyra went mad.

  It cried out in pain, and the immense head twisted in the air, finally thrusting down into the sand again as the sandworm's body formed a loop, half of its body exiting the ground at one place while the rest entered at another.

  Ella turned and saw Shani behind her, still on her rearing, terrified horse; the Petryan's expression was dark as her battle instincts took over. Jehral drew to a halt beside Ella, his own horse foaming at the mouth and the reins of Ella's horse in his hand. Jehral opened his mouth to speak.

  "Look out!" Ella screamed. She rushed towards Jehral as the Devil of Lyra's pointed rear came out of the sand. The sandworm's length tapered towards the end, culminating in a long, thin tail. Ella yanked the reins of Jehral's horse, pulling it away with a sharp movement.

  The tail whipped out, and if Ella hadn't intervened, would have taken Jehral's head. As it was, the tail whipped across his chest. Blood spurted out into the air, and the desert warrior looked down at the sudden gash.

  The sandworm's body was now completely under the sand. The ground rumbled beneath them.

  "It's going to come up beneath us!" Ella cried. Shani was white-faced. "We need to get out of here! Here, take these reins!"

  Shani grabbed Jehral's reins from Ella and dug in her heels. They were racing away, when Shani realised that Ella's reins were still twisted in Jehral's hands and they were taking Ella's horse with them.

  Shani pulled the horses to a stop.

  "Keep going!" Ella shouted.

  "I won't leave you," Shani called back.

  "You have to get Jehral out of here. Don't worry, I'll catch you."

  "How will you get away?" Shani cried.

  "Don't worry. I'll find you," Ella said. With a grim smile, she spoke a command, and pulled the hood of her dress over her head.

  Ella knew she would be wavering like a mirage as she chanted, activating the shadow effect.

  Cloaked by her dress, she looked at the heavy dagger in her hand as Shani rode away with Jehral and Ella's riderless horse. Ella knew the sandworm didn't like heat, and she had seen that the inside of its body was softer than the tough, outer shell of its segmented body.

  It might not swallow the figure in the green dress if it could see her, and so this was the only option that Ella had. As she felt the sand begin to fall away from her feet, Ella knew the jaws would soon appear under her. Silently she rehearsed the sequence that in an instant would change the powers she invoked in her dress from invisibility to the searing-white heat of a zenblade.

  Ella felt her body fall; looking down, she saw the mottled pink and razor sharp rows of teeth that lined the giant sandworm's jaws. She resisted the temptation to activate the runes that would give her enchantress's dress the strength of steel.

  Ella fell into the Devil of Lyra's open jaws, sliding down its throat with the sand.

  ~

  SHANI laid Jehral down in the shade of a dune, then leapt back atop her horse. The poor creature had gone past the limits of endurance, yet she had one final task for her steed.

  Shani galloped as fast as she was able back towards the Oasis of Lyra, and the place where she had last seen Ella.

  There was nothing there.

  It was as if the fight had never taken place. The ground had resettled and even the blood of Jehral's wounding had been covered by fresh sand.

  Shani pulled up her horse and wondered what to do.

  A hundred paces away a few grains of sand shifted, quickly followed by some more. A well appeared: an opening that grew in size as Shani looked on. Finally a deep, wide hole formed, and then the sandworm's head shot into the air to come smashing back down to the earth.

  Smoke poured out of its nostrils.

  The Devil of Lyra opened its mouth, making a hacking, coughing sound, the segments of its wormlike form shifting and moving. It spat something out onto the sand; something that could have been a human form.

  Shani spoke the words without thinking, and a fireball shot out of her hands. The sandworm twisted away from the new attack, the fireball barely missing its head. Shani spurred her horse into motion.

  The figure on the ground picked itself up. Ella stood in her hooded dress, a blood-drenched dagger in her hand, facing the monster as if ready to teach it another lesson.

  The Devil of Lyra turned away, plunging back into the sand and vanishing into the desert, leaving Ella standing, her chest rising and falling as she gasped for breath.

  24

  FOUR weeks later, two women, one in red and the other in green, came out of the desert. With them was a wounded warrior who barely stayed upright in his saddle, leaning on the woman in green for support.

  Ella recognised the rust-coloured earth, stormy skies, and dark forests of Petrya, while Shani was almost overcome with emotion to be back in her homeland.

  "This is the time, Ella," Shani said. "I left, and now I've returned. I promised myself that when I returned to Tlaxor, the tiered city, it would be to bring about the demise of High Lord Haptut Alwar. Pray that this is that time."

  "Prince Ilathor is an honourable man," Ella said. "I'll speak with him. I'm sure he'll be pleased to liberate your people and treat them well."

  Ella had her own memories of Petrya. She had travelled this land with Killian, and it was here she had finally seen through his façade. She had slept with the warmth of his body close to hers as they camped at night, hunted by a strange creature, and for a time they had shared a room in the trade town of Torlac.

  "You're thinking about him," Shani said, indicating the pendant at Ella's neck with her eyes.

  Ella looked at Jehral to see if he was listening, but the desert warrior was still, his eyes closed and his expression pained.

  "It was in Petrya that I last saw him," she said.

  Suddenly Ella craved the warmth of a man with a savage intensity. She imagined Killian's strong arms and his lean body, her hands running through the fiery hair that curled down to his neck.

  "And this desert prince, Ilathor. You still don't know why he summoned you?"

  Ella remembered another night. Another man. She remembered a night in the desert when Prince Ilathor Shanti of Tarn Teharan, now leader of the army of the desert tribes, had declared his love for her.

  A love she had spurned, the very last time she and Ilathor had spoken, before Ella stole Jehral's horse and left.

  ~

  "STOP," Shani said. "Don't move. We're being watched."

  Ella reined in her horse; soon all three riders had drawn to a halt. She looked with concern at Jehral. He couldn't survive a battle.

  "How do you know?"

  "There are men in those trees there. It was only for the shortest instant, but I saw them. In fact, I don't think those trees are even real. I know the trees that grow in my land."

  "They aren't Petryans, then," Ella said. She called out, projecting her voice, "Warriors of Raj Hazara, what tarn are you?"

  The copse of trees wavered, and in its place there was suddenly a band of mounted warriors, their black clothing and scimitars betraying their origin. Their leader kicked his horse forward, his men following suit.

  They halted some distance away. "I am Ashnar of Tarn Bohta," the leader called. "We know what the woman in red is capable of. Tell her to remove her robe and the red devices at her wrists and surrender herself to us."

  Shani bristled. "There is no way I will…"

  Ella hushed her before turning back to the desert men. "She is an ally of Raj Hazara, as am I. We have one of your warriors with us. He is wo
unded and needs the attention of a healer."

  "How is it you ride horses?" Ashnar called.

  Jehral rose in his saddle and called out; it must have taken him a great effort of will. "Salute, Ashnar. I am Prince Ilathor's man, Jehral of Tarn Teharan. These people are friends. You must take us to him." He slumped back down.

  Ashnar conferred quickly with his men. "We will take you to the prince."

  "That wasn't so hard, was it?" Shani muttered. Ella silenced her with a glare.

  With a wary eye on the elementalist, the Hazarans formed up around them, gesturing for them to follow. "Where are you taking us?" Ella asked. "How far is it? Our friend needs help."

  "Hush, woman," Ashnar said. "No one asked you to speak."

  Shani opened her mouth to say something, but Ella shook her head. "Just answer me," Ella said.

  "It is not a long journey," Ashnar said. "Even at the pace you are able to travel. Prince Ilathor is with his men, perhaps a day's ride from here."

  "Where?" Shani said in exasperation. "We've just come from the desert."

  "Why, Torlac, of course," Ashnar said. "We control almost all of Petrya. The prince has based himself in the town closest to the lake. Soon we will take Tlaxor, the tiered city, and all Petrya will be ours."

  "And then?" Ella asked, paying close attention to forestall any rash actions from Shani.

  "And then, woman, we will continue fighting until the world is at our feet."

  ~

  THEY encountered more of the prince's patrols as their journey took them closer to the trade town of Torlac.

  From her last time in Petrya Ella knew that they were already on the slopes of Mount Halapusa, the mighty mountain that had erupted long ago, leaving behind a sky-blue volcanic lake with an island in the middle.