Verses of the Black Sands

TW: Themes of violence and gore. The following is a work of fiction.

Four Days Later:

It gripped her and wouldn’t let go. The shame. Like a half starved serpent.

The deaths of her people laid surely on her hands. For her pride, and moment of bitterness that had led to her miss the signs of imminent danger. She had failed them. She deserved death as surely as the murderer who shared a camel with her.

But as the storm rolled in, she began to think. She pointed to the ruins carved into the great rock formation to the east. Then to the grey haze on the horizon to the south. They needed to take shelter. Now.

As the dust storm enveloped Hrathen, Urla took her chance. Laukey and his men were distracted with settling the camels for the night. She’d been bound, not trusted even for a small moment. Such distrust was rightfully placed. She had successfully slipped a knife from one of Laukey’s men as he tied her.

She used the blade to free herself and slunk quietly off, disappearing into the depths of the ruins. Urla did not know Hrathen but she knew the lands beyond. To the southeast she knew there to be Capelli settlements. Most of her people were nomadic but some were like those of Belfin who stayed for a prolonged time, on land that had been made to yield grass along the banks of a river fed from underground sources. Her people bred and reared horses there, animals made to be fast and enduring of the desert’s hostilities. The animals were long legged and sleek, a revered symbol of her people.

Urla’s scheme relied on the reality that sandstorms rarely lasted long in the Black Sands or lands surrounding it. They were fierce but brief. As she headed for the south-easternmost point of the ruins she noted the surrounds were strewn generously with rotting wood and crumbled stone. As she made her way forth she collected what good timber there was along with some dry grass that had managed to grow at the base of a wall. She salvaged a piece of flint, squinting through the darkness to find such treasures, the sandstorm was already lessening but dusk had set in.

Laukey’s men had most likely noticed her absence by the time she strode quickly through a vast, many pillared hall. It would take time for them to find her, but she had to work quickly nonetheless. She reached a courtyard with narrow steps cut from the rock on the far end, leading upwards. The stairs led to a great room carved into the stone. Rock walls had fallen away, opening it up to the south but also back to the north. It was no doubt the work of large siege weapons, catapulting huge pieces of rock at the structure. She would have to work quickly. Once the fire was lit, she would be a beacon for more than just her Capelli kin.