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“I hope she stays there. I hope she does not drag Rowali into this,” I said, not sure why I felt angry. I was confused and afraid. Having the two of them here would make things a lot worse.
“Can you keep her there?”
The question hung in the air. Then, we heard someone running and breathing heavily. Clem dragged a man towards the center of the room.
“I caught one of them,” my loyal servant grunted. He had bruises all over his body and a cut on one shoulder. There was some blood on what hopefully was a superficial wound. The man on the ground had been battered to the point that he could not even crawl. Good.
“How many were there?” I asked Clem.
“I am not sure, Your Majesty. Three or four in all, plus the young witch who looked like Rowali.”
“We will have to keep this one, then,” I eyed the man on the ground. He did not seem like a man from Rama. He had wavy brown hair and a complexion that looked more like sunburnt, not naturally swarthy. His coloring was not much different from mine.
“Who sent you?” Aruna asked. She was in no mood to play the role of a calm leader. She walked towards the man and started kicking him to consciousness. He groaned.
“I d-do not know, Head Seer,” he whimpered.
“Oh. Interesting. You know me well. You knew what you were doing.”
Aruna kneeled in front of him but not in obeisance. Instead, it felt like she was stressing her readiness to get dirty to reach her goals. Then, she rested her weight on the back of her legs and ankles. She placed her hands on either side of the man’s head. Then, she dug in with her physical hands and her mind. The man screamed. It was not because of any physical pain. I imagined that those long-fingered hands were trying to invade his mind. She was pulling the way I was pulling from the fire’s energy.
The head Seer’s eyes tolled into their sockets, leaving merely the whites eerily visible. The man shook a little. Then, his body seemed resigned to giving up its secrets. Aruna made a strange humming sound from her throat. After a few more moments, she let him go. Gently. He rested on the floor deep in sleep, spent from Aruna’s mental digging.
“And?” I asked.
“He is from the Touch,” Aruna whispered with eyes glazed with tears. She was probably hoping she was not right. Even though the Touch had never been keen on being friends with the Coven and the Seers, its members were still part of the witch community. The confirmation was a blow.
“But we suspected that already,” I muttered.
“Yes. However, the man believes that they are saving the world.”
“So, this faction believes that I should be killed?”
“Yes,” Aruna said weakly, rising from her position shakily. I suddenly remembered that she was older than my father. Her smooth face belied that fact.
“Is there only one faction?” I asked.
“No. Your Majesty, I do not believe so.”
I nodded my agreement. It could not be as simple as a group believing I could destroy continents.
“I still do not understand why the people of Arrowspear are afraid of Ninurta. Mogochislenia felt its moisture absorbed. What can Arrowspear offer?”
“Power. We have more of it. Remember, Mogochislenia’s witches had long made an exodus towards us. We have more witches and shifters. Demigods,” Aruna said. “Did you feel something else with the breeze earlier? It was not only Rowan they stole.”
“The spells? Were they not your spells? I thought I was hearing your Seers’ voices.”
“No. They were not mine. The whispers carried by the wind were theirs, as they stole from our dead while they took away Rowan.”
“What will they do with all that power? It does not sound like Arrowspear at all.”
“My king, pardon me, but you are still the same naïve young boy I knew. Rulers always wanted more power. Your father did not. He was simply biding his time so that he could pass the throne to you. Marrying your mother had made him lose some support in Prozeus. Did you know that? People had been waiting for him to offer marriage to Devorah. Your father is one of the wealthiest in Arrowspear. He ruled in peace and harmony.”
“He never wanted any trouble; that is true. But do you think that the Ninurta had anything directly to do with it?”
‘Did you feel the storm? Yes, you did. Someone was likely controlling the starving god. It has been bound for centuries, only peeking out once or twice. It no longer has the mind of a man or a god. It is simply something hungry. Someone used his power to cause drought in Mogochislenia.”
“Is it someone who wants power over all the continents?”
“It is possible. However, I suspect that Mogochislenia had never been the real target. They wanted it to seem like the Ninurta was targeting Erishkigal’s abandoned domain.”
Dawn started to signal its arrival. My men and I helped the Seers bring the bodies to the edge of the oasis. Quicksand did not often form on desert sands. It needed water. However, the Seers’ Village had underwater flowing behind the huts. Aruna wanted us to carry the bodies to sink, one body on top of the other. They would stay there in the dense, murky sand, nourishing the environment with what was left of their energies.
We rested a little once we were done, no longer caring to wash our bodies. Mud was still stuck to the surfaces of our skin. So, my men and I slept on the bare floor. The rest that I dreamed of never happened. Instead of moving towards Rama, we would be returning to Prozeus once we gained some strength.
A faction of the Touch had attacked the Seers’ Village. They might come for Prozeus soon, and I would not let them murder my people. I would give my people a chance to fight. We would not sink in quicksand, unexpected and engulfing. They would know where to tread. I thought it was better to keep them happily ignorant, but the time of peace was over. The people of Prozeus needed to know how to defend themselves.
