Part three: reaknos

Reaknos by moonlight was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The sand, stretching out forever, reflected the light, turning it silver. I saw some rocks, also painted silver by the moon, scattered here and there, breaking the vast ocean of sand. It was as if we were going from ocean to ocean, but each ocean was made of something different.
Myrie pointed to a cluster of campfires that I had not seen earlier. So there were people here. We started toward them, hoping that they would take us without problems. They did.
“Welcome, outsiders!” boomed a large, brown man. He had on robes of beautiful color and wore a white headpiece on his head. “Welcome to the Westernize Sandbuilders Tribe! Do come; we are about to eat our supper. You are free to journey with us and join in all of the festivals.” Myrie hurriedly explained that they had lots of rituals, festivals, and holidays.
“Thank you, gracious sir,” Myrie said, in the same humble voice she had used when we met Mariel. “But how much will it cost for us to travel with you?”
“Only a hand where it is needed,” the large man, the leader I guessed, said smiling. His face seemed to glow when he smiled. “Will you join us?”
“Why, yes, I think we will,” said Myrie. The man motioned us over to the camp.
“Oh Desmeela, do come here!” he called. A young girl, who looked very much like the man but thinner, came over to us.
“Yes, father?” she asked.
“I need you to take our guests and give them proper attire,” the man commanded.
“Yes, father, I shall. But where do I get their clothes?”
“Well, ask around I am sure that someone will have something for them to wear.” As Desmeela rushed off to get us clothes, the man took us to a tent.
“This is my tent. You are to stay here during your visit. You may all share the room over there,” he pointed to a doorway in the tent, “when Desmeela gets back, you put the clothes on. They are specially designed to keep your body at a comfortable temperature. By the way, my name is Shimuso. I am the tribe leader.” He ducked out of the tent, leaving us alone. Desmeela came with our clothes. We took them into our room and began to change.
“They seem very nice,” I commented, pulling the beautiful shirt I had been given over my head.
The rainbow-striped, sleeveless shirt fit perfectly. It felt like silk on my skin. The white pants fit well around my waist, too, but they were a bit long. I decided not to complain. After this I put on a long, brown robe. It went down to my ankles. I slipped into the leather sandals and wrapped the headdress around my head. Only my face and hands and toes were uncovered. When I moved my clothes made a pleasant sound like thousands of bells. I then noticed the tiny bells sowed around every edge. Myrie and Fragen were dressed mostly the same, but our clothes were different colors.
We went out of the tent to get our share of the food. Everyone seemed to know about us. when he spotted us, Shimuso came over. “Come, come, this way,” he said, pulling us to the middle of the group. Everyone got silent.
“These are the outsiders, our guests!” Shimuso yelled. I noticed that his voice could really carry if he wanted it to. “Introduce yourselves,” he commanded us.
“I am Myrie,” Myrie said.
“My name is Fragen.”
“I am Phoenix of Estubia,” I said, hoping that the ‘of Estubia’ would make me sound slightly important. More important than Myrie, at any rate.
“Welcome our guests, Myrie, Fragen, and Phoenix of Estubia!” Shimuso roared. Everyone welcomed us with various words and phrases. There were about a hundred of Sandbuilders in the camp. “And now, we eat!”
The meal was delicious. There were many different kinds of food. I wondered where some came from. I could see no trees or plants growing anywhere, yet they had fruits and vegetables. I supposed that the meat came from some animals that they had. It seemed as if everyone came up to greet us and chat. I liked the Sandbuilders.
When the meal was finished, we were directed to our room, where nightclothes waited. Our beds, thickly padded blankets spread on the floor, had many fluffy pillows and books in case we wanted to read. A small stone basin were beside our beds, with towels and soap so we could wash. It seemed as though they had thought everything out carefully and planned it so that we would be so kindly treated and not want anything. I made a mental note to thank them for their hospitality.
We all readied for bed and read a bit. My book was very interesting. It was a book about a Sandbuilder girl, detailing her daily life. I learned a bunch about their customs and tribal dealings. Myrie seemed less into her book, while Fragen dozed behind his. We extinguished the lamp and went to sleep.
A light shaking awoke me in the morning. It was Desmeela, the leader’s daughter. Myrie and Fragen had already woken up. I got into my clothes and noticed that they smelled as if they had been cleaned. This was a pleasant surprise.
When we walked out of the tent, most of the people were eating. Some had taken down their tents and packed them onto camels or into wagons. So we were moving on today. I sat down and ate the most wonderful breakfast I had ever eaten.
Soon, we were off. Fragen, Myrie, and I all sat in the leader’s own travel-carriage. It was large, supported by six wheels, and drawn by eight horses. The seats were velvet, and the floor was carpeted. Everything was decorated luxuriously. Even from the outside you could tell that this carried important people. There was what seemed like a whole library on one of the walls, a writing desk with quill pens and ink bottles and fancy paper with gold trim. I wondered what it would be like living in this luxury every day. I knew that I would not be able to stand it.
“Where do you all come from, if I may ask?” Shimuso said, trying to open a conversation. Myrie made no indication that she even heard him. Fragen shifted uncomfortably.
“Well, I came from a farm,” I said, instantly regretting it. I knew he would ask questions that we would not be willing to answer.
“How interesting. I won't press you for more information; I know that you probably wouldn’t even answer me. don’t worry, we get interesting visitors all of the time.” He added, getting a look from Myrie when he used the word interesting. I knew he really meant strange, odd, different.
“Would you like to hear about our festivals?” he asked, changing the subject. I nodded eagerly. “The one coming up next – yes, we are traveling to that spot right now – is called ‘the Festival of Living Magic’.” The name caught all of our attention. Oblivious to this, Shimuso continued without hesitation. “this festival was made because one day, when we were traveling by a certain spot, strange things started to happen. Everyone could feel the magic in the air. No one could explain it, so we made a festival. Then there is…” After this, we stopped paying attention. The other festivals did not matter to us. we had found what we were looking for.
There could be only one explanation for the Festival of Living Magic. It was held by where the Stone was. Anticipation bubbled in my stomach. I remembered the last time we had taken – I could not bring myself to use the word stolen, even though I knew that was what we did – a Stone. I shivered at the memory of the dead hands reaching, grabbing, trying to drag us back. I shuddered again and pushed the thought out of my mind.
I wished that finding the Stone here was not so easy. I liked this place, these people, everything. For once in my life I felt safe and secure. I knew it could not last forever and sighed.
Shimuso seemed to notice that we were not paying attention. He sighed and stood up. “Well, you can do whatever you want. I have some board games if you wish to play them. right now I really must write some letters. I hope you do not mind?” the last sentence was phrased as a question. Myrie shook her head.
“Can we play the board games?” I asked. Shimuso opened a cabinet. I could see different boxed stacked on each other. I could tell that the traveling part of our adventure would not be dull. Fragen and I selected one, pulled it out and began to play. It was a new game to me, called checkers by Fragen and Myrie. I liked it. We played three or four games, each ending with me as winner.
the rest of the day passed like this. That evening, when we stopped, I asked Shimuso when we would get to our destination.
“We shall be there in exactly six days,” he answered.
As we traveled each day, we formulated a plan. Shimuso was only in the wagon with us half of the time, so we had plenty of time to talk. Our plan was this: when we arrived, I would mysteriously get sick. I would stay in our little room in shimuso’s tent, while Myrie and Fragen alone tended to me. when everyone was eating, I would shift into a lizard and go looking for the Stone. Then I had to come back and tell Myrie where it was. She would sneak out while most people were sleeping and take it. I did not understand why I could not take it. However, I held my questions and followed Myrie, against my gut inclination, again.
Everything went according to schedule. On the last day of traveling, I found myself wishing that something, anything, would prevent us from getting to the place of the festival. Shimuso was away from his wagon all day, joyfully visiting his friends, making sure that the festival meal would be perfect, and keeping people from getting too excited. Apparently this was their favorite (though they would never admit it) festival of them all. It was the one that they looked forward to the most.
Fragen and I were playing checkers again. He was very tired of playing the game by this point. I wanted to play it at least ten times a day. He played every time I asked him. Most of the times, I won. I was “amazingly good”, as Shimuso put it.
“I don’t ever want to get there,” I whispered to Fragen. Myrie was napping on a couch.
“I know,” he whispered back, “I feel so comfortable and safe here.” I nodded.
“I just want to abandon this Stone thing and live with these people forever.”
Now it was Fragen’s turn to nod. “Very much agreed,” said he. We went back to the game. I quickly defeated him.
After a while, we both got bored. I pulled out the magic book and started to read. It was long and dull, but the amount of magical knowledge was amazing. I learned more from it in five minutes than five days with Myrie and Fragen. They were keeping so much from me. I read and read and read, learning countless spells and charms and helpful tips, all of which were stored in my mind.
All too soon, we were at the festival site. The wagon stopped abruptly, throwing a startled Myrie off of the couch. I snickered and she shot me an angry look. Fragen stood up and spoke.
“I can't believe how fast that trip was,” he said, stretching. I stood and stretched too. Shimuso came barging in, a smile gracing his features.
“Dear friends, we are here. Do come out and see the wonderful landscape,” he said loudly. I pondered his words. “The wonderful landscape” must mean that we were not in flat desert any more. I left the wagon room and blinked, my eyes unaccustomed to the bright sunlight.
For a second, I was overwhelmed by a strong burst of magic. It made the little hairs on my arms stand up straight. There was a loud buzz in my ears. I got dizzy and hot, the magical power overtaking me. the feeling soon passed, and I found myself sitting on the ground, with Shimuso standing over me. he looked worried. I stood up and assured him that I was fine, the sunlight had merely blinded me for a second. He muttered something about special glasses and ran off. I got a good look at my surroundings.
The landscape had changed drastically since we had started out that morning. Where there had been only sand, there were now boulders, large, slate blue, and full of holes. The boulders, or “Power Rocks”, as the Sandbuilders called them, were in different shapes. I recognized some but the others were new to me. I turned around, facing Myrie, who had come over to me when I had sat down.
“Powerful place, huh?” she said, glancing around, looking for where the stone could be.
“Yes, it is. I thought I was going to faint,” I said. she laughed, but mockingly. I frowned. “I don’t see where the stone could be. There are no caves or anything here, just rocks on sand.”
“Oh, it is here. Somewhere. You have to find it.” I had to find it. For all I knew the rocks could cover many square miles. I decided not to complain, as Shimuso was making his way back to us. He carried a pair of glasses, with dark charcoal-colored lenses. He called them sun-glasses.
“can I keep them?” I asked.
“Well, sure,” he said, smiling. I put the sun-glasses on and the world around me changed colors, darkening. The sun was not glaring in my eyes anymore. This was very nice; it enabled me to do things without having to use one hand to shade my eyes.
“You all prepare for the ceremony. It starts in three hours,” Shimuso told us. I was sad that I would miss the ceremony, because I had to sneak around to find a Stone.
I was thinking about what sort of sickness I should get. Suddenly, an idea came to me. “My head hurts,” I said, sounding weak and pathetic. Perfect.
“Oh, no, we should have you lay down!” Myrie exclaimed, catching on quickly. It took a minute more for Fragen to understand.
“I feel light-headed, too,” I said. I dropped to the ground, feigning a faint. Apparently it was very believable, because Shimuso shouted.
“She’ll be fine,” Myrie said. “Fragen will carry her back to the tent and she can rest. Hopefully she will be fine by the time the ceremony starts.” Fragen leaned down and picked me up delicately. We headed off toward the tent, Shimuso apologizing that he could not tend to me himself because he had things to do. Myrie assured him that I would be fine.
“I will send a doctor in to check on her, okay?” he insisted.
“That is not necessary, Shimuso. You see, I have had a bit of training as a doctor.” Another lie from Myrie.
“Oh, good,” said Shimuso, “now I feel better.” He hurried off. We reached the tent. Fragen carried me to our room and set me down.
“I hope I wasn’t to heavy,” I said.
“No, not at all. You were light as a feather,” he said, making me feel a bit better about this. It seemed as though my whole life was a web of lies now. We were always having to say things to make this work out right.
Night came. Fragen and Myrie left our room, assuring Shimuso and his doctors that I was fine, I just needed my rest. No one came in to check on me. I waited for the noise level to rise, then I shifted into a lizard and slunk out of the tent. Sandbuilders all around me were partying. There was loud music, good food, merry company, and enough drink to last them a while. No one would pay attention to a small lizard making its way around.
I could feel the magic around me. I searched for places where there was more magic than in others. From the book, I had learned that you could reach out with your mind and feel magic around you. I scuttled under a rock and reached my mind out, doing just what the book had said. I felt three places where the magic was greatest.
Keeping my eyes closed, I felt toward the closest of the three places. It was just a plain rock with some old enchantment on it. If you looked closely, you could see the color change from dark gray to dark green to dark blue and back again. Who would waste their time on something like that? I wondered. Then I realized that it may be some trick of some kind. I made my way toward the next magic spot.
This one was just a rock. Angry, I kicked the rock with my small lizard foot. To my surprise, my foot went through the rock. I went inside and shifted back to human form. I felt around on the rock, determining how big the door was. It was big enough to fit Myrie, just barely.
I made a small light and went down the tunnel that was inside the rock. Before I got too far, I realized that this was definitely the place. Remembering the horrible dead people that we had encountered while stealing the last Stone, I decided to go back.
I had just started to make my way back to the tent when I realized that I needed to mark the rock, so Myrie would know which one it was. I drew a small aqua blue M at the base of the rock, small enough that no one would know that it was there if they were not looking for it.
Soon, I was back to the tent. I slipped into our room and found Myrie and Fragen waiting for me.
“So, how did it go?” Myrie asked, an excited look on her face.
“It went wonderfully. I only got stepped on twice,” I answered.
“I don’t care how many times you were stepped on,” Myrie said rudely. “did you find it?”
“Yes, I did. And I am glad that you care so much about my well-being.”
“yeah, yeah, right. Where was the Stone?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” I said. Myrie looked angry. “but I marked a rock with a small blue ‘M’. there is a hidden door in it, just barely big enough to fit you.”
“Well, that is nice. What kind of things are guarding it?” Myrie asked.
“I have no clue. I didn’t go far down, but I know that is where the Stone is. I could feel it.”
“you are useless,” Myrie said, angering me.
“I am? Really? Because I somehow doubt that.”
Myrie remained silent.

Two days later, we had gotten the Stone. Myrie came back with a small scar on her leg. She refused to tell us how she got the wound. Myrie seemed to not want to remember what happened underneath the rock, because whenever we asked her what was guarding the Stone, she would get silent and shudder slightly.
Everyone kept asking me how I felt. The first few times, is started to ask them what they meant. Then I realized that they all thought I had been sick. I told them fine, but they still pampered me and fretted. This made me feel horrible. The guilt was tearing me apart.
Soon, the Sandbuilders had cleaned and packed, and we left. The festival area looked the same as when we had gotten there. Apparently the Sandbuilders wanted to keep the land clean and healthy. I admired this.
Myrie asked Shimuso how long until we would be near one of the edges. He said in a few days. We spent about a week riding in shimuso’s fancy wagon. We stopped one time for some sort of celebration. Myrie forced us to go, saying that we needed to appear normal, not guilty and distraught.
Soon we reached the Gateway to Valenque. We went down steps to the familiar underneath the ground. The lady behind the desk pulled out our papers after I started to give my name. since we had taken our horses with us, we did not have to have them transported.
the lady spoke. “You will need to pay to stable your horses here,” she said in a flat tone.
“You cannot take them to Valenque because they will freeze. For three horses, it will cost 300 weights per week. You will be billed as you leave Valenque.” We agreed to this.
The lady, who had not given us her name, stood and began to lead us down the familiar tunnel ending in the familiar iron gate. We headed through the gate and up the tunnel to the small room that waited for us. I was astounded when we saw two people, who looked like Sandbuilders, leaving Valenque. They smiled brightly and waved at us. I waved back.
Once again, I found myself walking into a new place, to steal another Stone. After we got the Stone from this side of the planet, there would only be two left. Once again, I was surprised by what I saw when we emerged.