“We are here,” said Weila. Just inside the opening was a steep staircase leading into the dark depth of the earth. “Mind your feet. The stairs are treacherous.”
Gewey had to duck to enter the opening and his feet hung over each step. In seconds, the light from the entrance was gone and they were surrounded by pitch blackness. The air was stale and dusty, and the corridor was barely wide enough for Gewey to squeeze through. The descended for several hundred yards before the stair finally ended and flatten into a narrow hallway. The hall twisted and turned for nearly a half-mile, until Gewey could see a soft light ahead. As they approached, he realized the light emanated from the walls of a rough, rounded, natural enclosure, twenty feet high and twenty feet in diameter. At either end a tunnel disappeared into the distance. Thousands of tiny bulbs of blue crystals were embedded into the rock, each giving off a faint light, illuminating the cavern. The floor was smooth and polished, clearly made so by the hands of skilled craftsmen, with the exception a rough stripe of gritty sand that spanned the cavern and led to the entrance of each tunnel. The closer Gewey looked the more the sand appeared to move and ripple.
“That is how we will travel,” said Weila. She walked to the far right end of the cavern, where a line of round curved disks, four-feet in diameter, were leaned against the wall. She grabbed three and gave one to Gewey and Aaliyah.
“I don't understand,” said Gewey.
Weila reached in her belt, pulled out a copper and tossed it on top of the rough spot on the floor. At once it came to life, flowing like a swift river, into the tunnel. “This is the Blood of the Desert. We will ride it to the Waters of Shajir.”
Gewey and Aaliyah stared in wonder as the sand settled. Gewey bent down to touch it, but Weila quickly snatched him back.
“Do not touch it,” she warned, sternly. “It will pull you in and drag you down into the depth of the earth.” She placed her disk on the floor just beside the sand. “This is a slithas. We will ride atop them.” She motioned for them to place theirs beside hers.
Gewey closed his eyes. He could feel the flow raging all around him. He was tempted to let it in, but resisted. “This place…did your people build it?”
“No. It was here when we arrived,” Weila replied. She took several leather strips from her belt and lashed the slithas together through tiny holes along the outer edge. There are many scattered throughout the desert, though only a few are safe to use.”
“And the ones that aren't?” asked Gewey.
Weila pushed the slithas into the Blood of the Desert. Again it came to life. “They lead to a great vortex in the center of the desert. If you go there, you will not return.” She put one foot atop the lead slithas. “Now be ready.”
Gewey took the center and Aaliyah the rear. Weila nodded sharply and they all jumped aboard. They barely had time to sit, when the sands grabbed the slithas, and flung them forward. The staff and bow strapped to Gewey's pack jammed into his kidney, sending a shockwave of pain through his body.
In seconds, they were through the tunnel and the glow of the crystals vanished, replaced by utter darkness. After Gewey's eyes adjusted, he turned to Aaliyah. She was sitting, legs crossed and eyes closed.
“Have you ever heard of a place like this?” he asked.
“No.” She folded her arms and sighed. “But it is truly wonderful. I can feel the power of the earth here like in no other place I have ever been in my life. Even the jungles of my home seem dead and dreary by comparison.”
“This is where the power you steal comes from,” said Weila, with a tinge of disgust. “The desert is filled with such wonders. If my heart wasn't so heavy, I would tell you about them.” She covered her face with her hands, and shuddered. Then she heaved a sigh and wiped her eyes. “I know that it was not your fault that my son perished, Aaliyah. You made the only choice you could. If the wolves attacked, then it was due to dark forces. They are not evil creatures by nature. I would not have had Pali left alone in the desert.”
“I thank you for your understanding,” said Aaliyah. “And I hope you will journey to the Black Oasis. I believe seeing what has become of it will help heal your heart.”
“Perhaps. For now I must mourn.” She noticed the bow and staff Gewey carried. “Is that what you were after? You did not have those when we first met.”
“It was,” Aaliyah affirmed. “The Oasis guarded these things. It was what drew the evil there. It wished to possess them.”
“Is that why the Black Oasis is safe?” she asked. “Because it no longer has anything to protect?”
“Yes,” Aaliyah replied. “At least in part.”
“Then Pali died for a worthy cause.” More tears fell from Weila’s eyes.
“Your son died fighting at our side,” said Gewey. “He could have stayed within the temple, but chose to face the evil that had invaded your land. To me, that alone is worthy of pride.”
“You are wise for one so young,” said Weila. A smile crept upon her lips. “To die fighting alongside one’s friend is worthy. But to face evil, when it is easier to hide, is even more so.” She leaned forward and touched Gewey's arm. “Your words are a comfort, where I thought none could be found.”
Hours passed as the slithas sped along, twisting and winding through the bowels of the desert. The disks appeared to guide themselves, with no actions required from Weila. Gewey had never spent so much time beneath the surface, and soon had lost track of time and direction.
As they continued, he noticed the air would change from time to time. It would grow warm and dry, then later cool and moist. Gewey tried to imagine what lay above that would cause this. Occasionally, they would pass through a section of tunnel with the glowing blue crystals dotting the walls. It was then he could feel the flow intensify.
“There is so much I don't know,” he thought. “So many mysteries.”
As if reading his thoughts, Aaliyah said, “I could spend a lifetime learning about this place.”
“You could spend many lifetimes and never learn all the wonders of the desert,” remarked Weila.
Finally, Gewey looked ahead and saw the glow of another cavern approaching, rapidly. Weila crouched on her slithas, Gewey and Aaliyah did the same.
“We are traveling faster than you may realize,” said Weila. “You will have only one chance to get off. If you miss it, you will end up in the vortex. Just jump when I do and you will live.”
Gewey was unnerved by the idea of being swallowed by a vortex of sand, and allowed the flow to enter. The world slowed and he calmed his heartbeat. When they reached the cavern Weila jumped. Gewey and Aaliyah followed just in time. Even with the power of the flow raging through him, he nearly lost his footing as his boots struck rock.
The passageway out was a gentle, upward slope, a fact that relieved Gewey. Hours of sitting had caused his legs to cramp and twinge. But what it lacked in depth, it made up for in length. He guessed they walk for at least a mile, before they reached the end. As they emerged Gewey could see the stars of the night sky, shining in the heavens.
The landscape had changed from endless dunes, to flat, tightly packed sand, with patches of coarse, brown grass and thorny bushes scattered about. On the horizon, the silhouette of jagged mountains blackened the sky. Gewey had seen his father’s map of the desert when he was a child. He would bring it out when he told him stories of the fire lizards.
“We’re on the other end of the desert,” he gasped. “How…” During their passage, it didn't seem like they were traveling long enough or fast enough to have gone this far.
Weila cracked a smile. “I told you. The desert is full of wonders.”
Weila led them east along a well-trodden trail. Immediately, they could see a bright blue light, the same hue as the crystals they had seen in the caverns, cutting away the darkness, only a few miles away.
“When we arrive, you must be silent until I speak with Lyrial,” said Weila. “She will take the death of Pali no better than I.”
“Why is that?” asked Gewey.
Her face was hard and dark. “In human terms, she was his wife.”
A cold chill shot down Gewey's spine. “I see.”
“What is she exactly?” asked Aaliyah. “What authority does she possess?”
“She is the Amal Molidova,” Weila replied, reverently. “She is the spiritual leader of my people. In times when
