TLADI

Chapter 24

The now constant ebb and flow of Stima's pain was felt in Shami's heart and the tall, dark, bald man's heart lightened and darkened with the emotion. For the two were one. There was something unfathomable about their relationship with each other. The music of their heartbeats was in tune, they could hide nothing from each other except that which they hid from themselves. Sometimes it was hard for them to tell where one stopped and the other began. They were more than friends, more than brothers, they were something else. This was of course until the incident of Tladi.

"Shami, I can't shake her off."

"Try harder." Shami's voice was filled with a blissful wonder. 

Stima's voice was filled with a dead and distant suspicion. There was a pause, and then Shami, in a heavenly dazed manner said: 

"But Why?

"Because something's not right, Shami. Something's not right, and she's part of it somehow".

Shami could feel it too, he always had been the more intuitive one, he just didn't want to believe it this time. The journey through the desert seemed endless. All the children had died; all the elders save Umthunz'omnyama; the Sangoma, and Oyena had also died. The only young adults remaining were Stima, Shami and Ntombi. They were all touched with a feeling of impending doom. 

There was something magic about the texts, Tladi only caught on to a fraction of what it was. The rest of it painfully eluded her grasp. It was now certain that They needed the texts, that was why they had not destroyed them and those who carried them. Yet if they truly wielded such power, why could They not simply take the scrolls of The Most Secret Truth from those who carried them and use them for whatever it is they needed them for? Moreover, for what purpose did they need the scrolls? Tladi had more questions than answers. Something is happening here, she thought. She did not like it in the least. She felt... used. She could not explain why, but a major crossroads was coming soon and she needed to decide who she was going to be. This decision would change the future's fate...

Oyena was certain that Umthunz'omnyama had made her choice. It was evident in the fact that only one of her initiates had survived the last attack. Oyena now knew that someone else's mind was being used as a link to track them across the desert. He also knew that Tladi was alive and more powerful than ever before and that Stima was slowly waking up to this newfound yet unconfirmed truth.

"Umthunz'omnyama, I knew that all the correct choices would be made," Oyena rumbled beside the Sangoma. 

Umthunz'omnyama abruptly stopped in her tracks. She had had this suspicion deeply niggling in her head, eating away at her peace of mind like a worm in the core of an apple. She had suspected that Oyena had always known more than he had let on. That this whole persona of The-Red-eyed-Mob was just a guise to persuade everyone into believing that he was not to be taken at all seriously. 

Umthunz'omnyama believed that the man had a deep intuitive streak and perhaps the power to tell the possible events of the future. Yet Umthunz'omnyama thought that this was way too much credit to give to one person.

"What is it you speak of?" her gravelly voice questioned.

"Umthunz'omnyama, I know... everything." was all the short, wide man said.

It was then that it all became clear to Umthunz'omnyama.

"How long?" she asked him, but he was gone.

"Stima, your time is come." Oyena rumbled beside him, something about Oyena's tone caught his attention. Stima was alert now in the world into which he had disappeared. He felt something was about to happen.

Shami felt it too. He grasped Ntombi's hand and something made him say to her;

"We must choose where our loyalties lie." 

Her hand stiffened in his, instinctively he looked at her, and she looked terrified. Then her face changed again and the expression had vanished faster than it had arrived. Shami told himself that perhaps he was imagining things, yet a seed of dread grew steadily in his dark, heaving chest.

Who is this man?! Who is this man?! How does he do this?! How does he do this?! She thought desperately, suddenly aware that her expression was showing in both face and posture. She composed herself into the image of seriousness faster than her thoughts had arrived. He must have some kind of power, how can he look right into me like that? How... interrupting her thoughts, she noticed something on the horizon.

The five survivors from the village, seemingly aimlessly wandering the desert, came to an abrupt standstill. Who were all those people? The sand dune ahead of them was suddenly teeming with human bodies. They all wore white, hooded cloaks and carried long, spear-like weapons. They dressed the way Tladi used to dress. They came in serried ranks down the dune. They raised no dust and seemed to glide. A feeling of power radiated off every human body coming down the dune side. Was this it? Was this the end?