Sybil of the Sands Ch. 01-02

Captain Laurent put a stop to further questions when he appeared with the rope. True to his word, it was slightly looser than the night before, but still tight enough to restrain me. I wiggled my legs back and forth, to see if I could loosen it further, but it wouldn't budge. I winced and laid down to sleep. The day's riding had my legs throbbing. Who knew it took such effort to sit on a horse?

I didn't wake that night.

Our days fell into a pattern. The only changes were the landscape and what foul remarks Tuluk and his brother could think up. The tension between the brothers and Captain Laurent grew every day. I still looked for escape but had no opportunity. Laurent would sleep at my back every night, and Alvidus would answer my questions over dinner, or sometimes during our rides.

They hadn't known my mother was pregnant when she'd made her escape. Alvidus wasn't sure, timing-wise, if my father was someone from his tribe or not. It had been almost twenty-one years ago. His guess was that finding herself with child could have been the final spur she needed to make her escape, and I agreed. A horrid thought occurred to me – could Alvidus be my father? Had he been with my mother? He laughed when I hesitantly voiced my worry and reassured me that he had been too young to be allowed the 'honor' of lying with a seer. He knew my mother only from his training at the stronghold where she was kept.

The strongholds were where the chieftans and their tribes lived. King Xentos was king of the Silehah Desert. I didn't understand why anyone would want to be king of a desert until Alvidus explained it to me.

"The Silehah is no ordinary desert. She is dotted with oases, rich tropical jewels in the middle of piles of sands. The oases have everything a tribe needs to live, and live well. The oases are massive, the size of a normal city, but they are just drops compared to the vastness of the Silehah. The largest and most prosperous oasis is Niacinth, where Xentos lives. It is a time-honored tradition amongst the desert tribes to try and hold Niacinth. The only way to hold Niacinth is to kill the current king and take his throne. This is why the King needs his seers so badly."

"How primeval," I commented. Seeing who could kill whom seemed like no system of governing I'd want to live under.

Alvidus shrugged. "It is tradition. Xentos has held it longer than most, but he is known to be a fierce fighter, and his guards are most diligent."

"What happens to me if Xentos is killed?"

"You would never be harmed," reassured Alvidus. "You are far too valuable. Most likely you'd be given a place in the new king's household."

"Lucky me." Despite myself, I was curious to see the desert. Until my capture, I'd seen nothing but woods and farmlands.

Two days later, I beheld it for myself, in the fading light of sunset. It was as vast as Alvidus had described, although not as hot as I had expected. I commented on the temperature and Laurent, beside me, nodded. "The Silehah is not like other deserts. Legend says that it was not heat that turned this land to sand." I waited for him to continue, but he did not.

"What does the legend say?" I asked, giving in to curiosity.

"Once there was a mighty king, so vain and proud that he thought he could challenge the very gods themselves. He amassed a vast army, the likes of which had never been seen and never will be again, and led his army to battle against the gods. He demanded that the gods make him ruler of all the earth, but the gods laughed in his face, and turned him and his army into sand." I looked at the countless grains of sand before me.

"How horrible!"

Laurent shrugged. "It's only a legend. Legend says that the gentle goddess Samaine wept tears for the loss of life, and where her tears fell, the oases formed." He turned to the soldiers. "We'll make camp for the night, and cross in the morning to Niacinth." Looking at me, he said, "Tomorrow you meet your king."

Cold dread filled me. Tomorrow, my enslavement would really begin.