XXVIII. TOWARDS EAST

  Clavo overlooked the workmen’s crates, his dirty fingers running along the seams of his eyepatch. Nia took another small pace back; when Clavo was in a mood this dark it normally preceded violence. Foreman Vir watched nervously as the legate paced around the crates. He held up a golden bangle, delicate and masterfully crafted with fine gems, and hurled it against the far wall. Vir flinched. Clavo grabbed the crate off the table and threw it to the ground. “It’s all useless! Get it out of here.”

  The foreman whistled and two legionnaires carried out the crates. Clavo wiped the sweat off of his scalp. “And there isn’t any other tunnel we can shove her into?”

  Nia frowned. Vir looked down at his boots. “We’ve already searched everywhere.”

  “Well it has to be here.”

  Vir fidgeted with his cap. “We get the orders where to dig from the legion. Our sources have run dry. We have dug everywhere you have ordered us to.”

  “I’m well aware, thank you.”

  “My men tell me that the legendary general is deceased. Stormlord bless him.” Vir continued. Clavo’s jaw tightened. “Sir. He was our last tie to—”

  “Don’t you think I know that? I’ve already written to my father.” Clavo snapped.

  Lero crossed his arms. “Legate, are we in danger?”

  Clavo glowered at him. “This conversation does not concern you.”

  “I think it does. Is my sister, your wife, your son in danger?” Lero pushed. “Legate, what is the Conqueror making us look for?”

  Clavo straightened his spine and faced them and for the first time Nia could see near panic in his eye. “A star.” He said shortly. “The Conqueror has ordered me to procure him a star.”

  “A star?” Lero couldn’t contain his surprise. “The Emperor’s having you dig up the desert for a star? Like one in the sky?” He pointed to the ceiling of the burial chamber. “What does that even mean?”

  Vir held his hands up defeated. “Only his esteemed imminence knows.”

  “Foreman.” Clavo growled.

  “Well, do you know what this mythical weapon looks like? For all we know you just shattered it into a million pieces!” Vir pointed to the broken bangle.

  “That girlish bracelet is not what the Conqueror covers.” Clavo scoffed.

  “How do you know?” Vir’s voice squeaked.

  “I’m supposed to know when I see it!”

  “That’s not enough to go off of!” Vir said. “We’ve been at this for years.”

  “No.” Clavo admitted. “I suppose not.”

  “Did Legate Xur not keep careful accounts of the siege of Anu-Uro-Set?” Vir asked.

  “Of course he did.”

  “And do you not have these records?”

  “No. I?” Clavo began to pace. His hands ran along his bald scalp. Nia and Lero exchanged nervous looks. “The legate was the last one alive to see the star. His records are kept with the other histories in the great libraries. We could ask him ourselves had he not just died.” Clavo grit his teeth. “If we could get our hands on the journals then it could lead us where we need to look. The journals are property of the scholars.”

  “I have men to spare.” Vir offered. “To grab them.”

  “I cannot send some legionnaire with a matter this important.” The Legate quickly dismissed. “And I can hardly go myself. There is so much that needs to be done here. I’d need to send a representative from the house directly, to show the Governor the severity of the situation.” Clavo’s pale eye landed on Nia and Lero.

  “Me?” Nia squeaked.

  “Yes. You’ve already been instrumental in the search, whether or not you realized it. You’ll both go. I’ll write you a letter to deliver to the Governor personally. You will go to Ash-Kai and request copies of Legate Xur’s siege of Anu-Uro-Set. With luck it will give us enough time to locate the Conqueror’s tribute by the time he arrives.”

  He wanted to send her to Ash-Kai. Nia swallowed her objections. She was bound by her mercy to Clavo. If she did not go, her family would be punished. If she failed to succeed her family would be punished. If Clavo did not find the star, whatever that was, then her family would be punished by the Conqueror. The ugly severity of the situation weighed down on her shoulders. She looked at the panic in Clavo’s pale eye. Maybe they were in even worse danger than she had realized. The thought of it slid chills down her spine.

  By the time they left the necropolis it was already late afternoon. Lero said nothing as he saddled his horse, his anger mirroring her own. At the top of the crater Nia cleared her throat. “I’m going to ride for a while, clearing my head.”

  Lero turned his head sharply. “You pick now to run?” He whispered furiously.

  Nia schooled her chin. “I’m not running.” But the aker wants to murder Clavo, and I need to go before I let her.

  “Let her go Lero. It is by my mercy you breathe. She knows the stakes.” Clavo nodded, as if it was his will being carried out.

  Nia hated him. The aker’s rage was so sharp, so close to the surface that she kicked into Ajaxi’s sides. She had to get away from the man who had cost her everything.

  As she rode she allowed her fury to fester. She could not believe that Clavo would send her to the Kai’s. Nia held no love for the House. They had surrendered to the Conqueror during the war. It was their fault that she had no control over her life. That Cythe was a wife and her brother a soldier and her a thief.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It was nearly an hour later when Nia spotted the vertical structure. She spurred Ajaxi forward. The two story guard tower sunk into the earth at an uneven angle. Its spire, which one would have born a flag and firepit, laid further off in the dunes. Nia dismounted at her respite. The watchtower had been one of the first structures she had added to her maps when she had first started searching for a way through the Dunelands. It was far enough into the dunes that Clavo’s men wouldn’t strive from their familiar trails to find it. She had claimed the old building as her own.

  The first floor was covered in a thick layer of sand. Ajaxi harrumphed and laid in the shade. Nia wiped down his coat and fed him. Once he was content Nia climbed the ladder up to the next floor. The square room bore a similar scene to many she had discovered over the past four years. Remnants from a violent struggle. On the far wall a soot covered mural displayed a ram. The watchtower had once bellowed to the Great House of Xur. When Nia had first discovered the space, she had twisted her ankle tripping over a legionnaire’s shield.

  Nia undressed slowly, placing her clothes neatly inside one of the cedar chests. Although she was prepared for it, the aiya still hurt like hell as the aker manifested. Her bones cracked as they were stretched and reformed; her mouth bled as teeth broke through her tender gums. She sank into the dark red sand of the Tuat as her consciousness was clawed away from her.

  Some time later Nia awoke naked. Her memory of the aker had already faded, but there were new scratch marks on the floor tiles. Nia got dressed and muscled herself up to where the roof had once been. She sat on the petrified wood support beam and dangled her feet in the open air.

  Night fell over the Dunelands. She fell deep in thought. The Conqueror’s legionnaires had torched every settlement north of De-Asha during the Conquering. Xur was nothing but rubble and sun dried corpses. Where was there to go but Aker-San?

  Nia let out a frustrated sigh. It was only a matter of time before she displeased the Legate, or the aker got its vengeance. Nia wasn’t strong enough to possibly stop the monster. And where in the Empire could she possibly go? She was kerai. Her existence was a death sentence.

  She was hit by the Peddler’s clear disappointment. And then Lero’s. Honestly, the two of them would have gotten along swimmingly.

  Promise me you won’t abandon us Nia.

  Was it abandonment if it was just survival?

  Nia unsheathed the Peddler’s dagger and spun it on the beam. Instinctively she knew the blade faced east. Nia tilted her head back out to the Dunelands. She could search them for a thousand lifetimes and still not find the pathia. She stared overhead at the Ashenian sky, out into the Ker dunes and back at the blade. Nia spun it again. East. A third time. East.

  Nia sheathed the dagger and frowned. Something niggled at the back of her mind. Something Clavo had said about the records from the Conquering being kept in Ash-Kai? The Conqueror had killed the navigators; burnt their schools; confiscated their maps. What if the way to Aker-San was not in the Dunelands, but on Ashenian soil?

  When Nia arrived back to De-Asha the following morning, her first stop was to confirm her working theory. “You’re still alive.” Merka said from behind his stall.

  “Is that anyway to greet an old friend?”

  Merka waved her in from the street. He lifted up the countertop and walked Nia through the alleyway to his residence. He waved her inside. Nia coughed into her hand. The sweet smell of opium that clung to Merka and around his home always gave her a headache.

  The front room of Merka’s hair was sparse, intentionally bare. A small alcove by the door held a shrine to the Ashenian lars. Thick rugs covered the mud brick floor. Upstairs Nia heard his girls chatting as they prepared for another workday. Nia eased herself down onto a colorful indigo and turquoise cushion. She knew beneath the rug was a trapdoor that led to an underground storeroom packed to the brim with treasure and opium. Nia watched the stout merchant return from the back of the house with two cups. She scrunched her nose at the bitter tea.

  “I was beginning to think the Legate finally tired of you seeing how infrequently I see you.”

  “He keeps me busy.”

  Merka eased down on his own cushion. “And here I thought you were neglecting our friendship.”

  “Our friendship has not been neglected.” Nia cupped her mug.

  “If you’ve come to ask a favor I have half the mind to report you to the Legate myself.” The merchant said.

  “So we can both lose our fingers?” Nia’s eyes darted to his missing pinky.

  Merka frowned. “One was plenty.” He eased back onto his elbow. “Tell me. What service can I provide you? Perhaps you can finally take up my offer and journey upstairs?”

  His look was downright lecherous. Nia’s cheeks pinked. “I think I’ll pass.”

  “I have boys. Girls, too.” He said after a moment. “Both, if you’d prefer.”

  “I prefer neither, old friend.”

  “Perhaps if you preferred one or the other you’d stop being so tense.” Merka laughed at her expression.

  “If only it were that easy.” Nia said tightly. She cradled the tea cup closer to her chest. “I’ve come to ask you a question concerning our arrangement.”

  “Oh?”

  “I-” She paused. “After the war, the navigators were wiped out. But the maps, they had to have gone somewhere, yes?”

  Merka startled. “Of course they did. The Conqueror ordered all the maps to be centralized in Ash-Kai.” Merka tilted his head to the side. “Certainly you already know this? How else do you think your precious legate gets his routes? As to others, well, with influence? The rest of the Houses trade in goods, but the House of Kai trades in knowledge.”

  “Of course.” Nia said hurriedly. “The Empire works to keep those maps under lock and key.”

  “They do. Hya, it wouldn’t do for the conquered to relearn how to navigate the Dunelands. Might spur some dangerous ideas.” Merka’s brows rose. “Why do you have such thoughts in your womanish skull? You cannot possibly be thinking of stealing from the Kai’s!”

  “What?” Nia squeaked. “Come now Merka. I'm not that stupid.”

  Merka looked doubtful. “So I will not be seeing you for some time.”

  Nia leaned forward. “No. The legate is sending me on business.”

  “I see.” Merka’s eyebrows narrowed. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “That’s not all.”

  “More treason? How delightful.”

  “I want to see the rest of my supply.” She flipped over her satchel on the table. It was the collection of grave goods she had been keeping at the watchtower. Fine jewelry; necklaces, rings, bangles, earrings; golden shras, thin knives. Nia had thought she would need the items later. Later was now.

  Merka picked at a small lion amulet, turning it over in his palms. “You are planning on leaving soon, aren’t you?” His voice was gruff, but there was some unspoken emotional undertone to it. Merka sorted through the goods, his hands flying in and out of his robes. Onyx, gold, ivory. “My clients will not be interested in all of this.” He said coolly, four fingers holding up a coin.

  “I understand.”

  Merka met her eyes. “But I will buy it all. On one condition.”

  Nia bit her lip. The aker stirred. “Name it.”

  “While you are in As-Kai, you must keep an ear to the ground for information. Anything you find you must share. It’s for business you see.”

  Business. Nia gulped, her eyes traveling to the stairwell behind him. Upstairs the girls were no longer laughing. She found her resolve. This was the trade she would have to make for her freedom. “I accept.”