The Shadow Beneath the Dunes

Chapter 4: The Great Void

Once Anukha and I stepped forward, we felt the ground shift beneath our feet, as if we walked on water and our footsteps caused ripples beneath us. The female voice laughed softly and I could see the shadow of a boney finger beckoning us. It called out in its oddly familiar language, "This way. He waits. He waits."

Anu held tightly to my hand and after a while I could hear her sobbing. She was scared. I was... apprehensive - but unafraid. It's a difficult feeling to describe, the pull of fate; it's like your own thoughts mean nothing to you, they're just white noise, and instead you hear something else that urges you forward and you know it's right. Almost like a mother's voice, or that of a teacher; a voice you instinctively trust.

The ground was solid again in our next step and the wind had stopped. The female voice cackled and dispersed. Again we were in silence. Anukha shook by my side and I could feel her pressed to me, looking around, trying to see through the dark. I stared straight ahead. I could see now. I could feel him too. A great power, unlike anything I had ever felt before.

"You are the power we were sent to find." Anukha twitched at my words and held my hand tighter, "You called to my grandmother; the dark she spoke of."

The power shifted and blue embers flickered into life around us, floating in the air and gently pulsing. They gave no heat and their light seemed smothered still by the dark around us. But I saw him then. The power radiated from him; a figure made of the darkness. He resembled a human man at first glance, but had no mouth, his shoulders were wide and strong but arms were thing and too long. I saw his legs disappeared into the ground, tendris of darkness wrapped tight around his knees, yet he moved forward and they moved with him.

As he approached I could see how tall he really was. He towered over the both of us. I met his dark, lifeless eyes.

He stooped down, almost doubled over, to close the gap, "I called to one called Maibe. You are the vessel?" his voice was a quiet whisper but it echoed around us. I could still hear the echo long after he finished speaking, and it made me realised how large the area around us must be.

"Vessel?" I repeated, feeling Anukha shift around and stand behind me, "Vessel for what?"

"My vengeance." He said simply. I saw his eyes flick to Anukha and he moved around behind me to see her, "Is this an offering?" there was a tone to His whisper that resembled a smile though His face barely moved. In the new light I saw two great wings behind Him. They looked like tattered sheets, and fluttered when he moved.

"This is my sister. Maibe sent us both. She said nothing about an offering. Please tell us what you need us for."

His eyes moved back to me and he moved around us again, finally straightening up. His wings stretched out and I could see them more clearly – greying bodies hung from thick black spines which jutted from his wide shoulders, the same black tendrils which wrapped his legs, held the grey figures in their place, some hung by the neck, some by the ankles, they all were bound to each other.

He stretched his long arms outward. The blue embers moved further apart from one another and grew brighter, illuminating a dark wasteland. It was like our desert at night, but in place of sand, there was only stone.

"You stand in The Void. My realm." He began, his whisper a command, still echoing around us, "I can protect it, but only from within. For as long as there has been time, that has been enough." He paused, his brow furrowed, "that is no longer the case."

"Who threatens you? Who could be powerful enough?" I stepped forward as he began to drift backwards. Anukha moved with me, no longer shaking quite so much.

"You will learn in time. I can send minions to other realms, but they wilt in the light. I need a vessel to hold my power. To protect The Void from Surphos; your world."

"And for that you need someone who can travel between these realms without consequence. Someone like nature Herself." I understood grandmother's words now; Light must give way to dark. "You seek to restore a balance. That's why you've reached out to my people."

He nodded, and reached to me with one long arm, seemingly growing longer as it stretched, "I cannot leave here." He gestured to the tendrils around his legs, "You will be my eternal vessel. You may use my power to help your people, but then you will belong to me. You will obey me, or you will perish." His hand grasped tight around me, fingers wrapping and binding my limbs. Then he lifted me and I heard Anu call out. He brought me close to his face and spoke quieter still, "Do you accept, Shakhoru?"

The pull was strongest here, and I didn't need to think about my decision, "I accept."

Not moments were the words out of my mouth, and I felt it; His power, which had made the air thick and heavy, surged into me, winding me completely. The heavy air filled my lungs, my muscles were rigid and for a moment it seemed to overwhelm me.

"Keris! Keris get up! You have to look!" Anukha was by my side again, shaking me, and I felt the wind brush against my cheek again, the sand beneath me. I opened my eyes to the desert and the night.

"Anukha... where is He?" I looked around, neither our home nor the maze of rock were anywhere around us, or on the horizon.

"Forget Him, where are we?"

I heard His voice in my ear and jumped to my feet, looking around for him, "He's near."

"He can't be, didn't He say he couldn't leave that place?"

"You will send my offering." His whisper was unmistakable.

"You are here!" Anukha turned on the spot and I followed her gaze; the 4 servants who had left us at the labyrinth were now approaching, surprise obvious in their faces, "How did you get here?"

"You will prove your loyalty." And I obeyed without thinking. I raised a hand to the 4 servants and they stopped in their paths, their expression of surprise and joy falling immediately. Anukha stepped forward hesitantly and glanced between them and me.

I clenched my fist slowly. The 4 choked and spluttered, holding their chests as their knees gave way beneath them. They each flopped, lifeless to the sand and I opened my hand again. Bright silver streams left their mouths and floated up toward me, swirling and twirling into a cloud above my palm.

"Good," His voice purred inside my head, "send them to me."

Again, I had no need to think about the action, I simply did it with a whim. Shadows crawled from the back of my hand, through my fingers, around my palm and grabbed the silver cloud; smothering it and dragging it back down into the shadow.

Those were my first kills. Anukha was horrified; she wailed and crawled to their bodies.

As I lowered my arm again, I couldn't bring myself to understand her mourning.

"Can you not feel it, Anukha?" I asked her, approaching her to comfort her, "this is the balance we must maintain."

She wept hysterically, flinching away from my hand when I touched her shoulder, "You killed them, Kerisandra! How could you?!"

I was a cold contrast to her, I felt nothing but calm. I could feel Him growing stronger; I felt His pull on the corners of my mind, but deep in my core I felt something much greater; clarity. This was what Grandmamma had spoken about, this is what would save our people. I am ashamed to say that I left my sister there, in the sand, weeping over mortals. I travelled back to home, to tell Grandmamma of what I'd seen, and show her what I had become.