She turned in a slow circle, searching for both men, for could their spirits not be alive in Almovaar’s Realm, as the Believers were taught when they joined the religion? But she did not see either man.
She did not see Kyroun, either. She was alone, except for the sand, and the wind, and her sorrow.
Then the wind began to pluck at her sheet, pulling it away from her body. Tiyana struggled to clasp it closer to her, but the wind was insistent, like many hands pulling in all directions. When the wind began to buffet her and the sand suddenly started to sting, she released her hold on the sheet. The wind took it from her, and blew it away like a white, flapping bird that soon became lost in the yellow sky.
Now Tiyana stood naked in the sand, self-conscious even though there was no one present to see her. No one, other than Almovaar. And she could not see Almovaar.
She dared to call to him.
“Almovaar,” she said, suddenly angry. “Show yourself!”
Again, the breeze blew around her. Again, grains of sand struck her. This time, instead of falling away, the grains adhered to her, dotting her ebony skin with numerous flecks of yellow hue. When she attempted to brush the sand away, it continued to cling to her skin and hair. She looked like the embodiment of a midnight sky speckled with golden stars.
Then, abruptly, a pillar of whirling sand formed before her, a column that grew until it towered higher than the stelae that pierced the sky in Khambawe. Gebrem and Kyroun had described their own experiences with this pillar. She knew she was now in the presence of Almovaar.
Her anger fled, and she sank to her knees before the pillar, and looked up at the mass of swirling sand. She knew she should wait for the god to speak. But she could not. There were questions to which she needed answers.
“Why did you allow my father to die?” she asked, in a voice not unlike that of a small child. “Why did you allow Keshu to die?”
I did not allow them to die, Almovaar replied.
“But you could have prevented their deaths.”
No. That is beyond my level of dominion.
Tiyana fell silent, not understanding how saving the lives of the men she loved could be beyond the “dominion” of a deity who had rescued an entire people. But she had other questions to ask.
“Why have you brought me here?”
To show you what you need to see.
Tiyana opened her mouth to ask another question ... then she closed it when she saw a shadow that was not her own grow out of the sand like a tall, dark weed. Another shadow sprouted beside it. Then another. And another. More of them sprouted, until the golden sand turned black with their numbers. They were sticklike and immobile. Tiyana feared them.
“These must be the Muvuli that are taking the lives of the tsotsis,” she whispered almost inaudibly.
They are my Children, Almovaar said. They need sustenance. They obtain that sustenance from the people of the Beyond World. And my Children sustain me.
Surrounded by the shadows, Tiyana remained silent, even as an ominous realization was beginning to take shape in her mind.
It is not only the tsotsis that fulfilled the needs of my Children, Almovaar said.
Before Tiyana’s widening eyes, a portion of the pillar that was Almovaar became transparent. And pictures began to form in the space ... pictures of the Uloan Islands ... pictures of the people Tiyana and the other Adepts had healed, and freed from their age-old hatred of the Mainland and their dependence on the evils of Legaba. Pictures of these same people, huddled in fear, fleeing from the Muvuli in their midst, shadows that came for them after dark ...
“I did that?” Tiyana cried. “If I had known ...”
You would not have done it. And when my Children finished with the tsotsis, they would have sought their sustenance elsewhere.
“Among the other people of Khambawe,” Tiyana said, a quaver in her voice reflecting the horror growing rapidly within her.
But there was no need for them to turn their hunger in that direction, Almovaar said. The sorcery you unleashed among the Uloans brought the Muvuli to them.
“And when they are finished with the Islanders ...” Tiyana said.
Almovaar was silent long enough to allow Tiyana to provide her own answer to the question she was about to ask. When he was satisfied that she knew the answer, he went on.
That is why you must make war against the Thabas. My Children will need more sustenance.
Almovaar’s words whirled through Tiyana’s head like debris uprooted in a windstorm. She could not speak. She could hardly think. Without conscious volition, her hand was raking across her brow in an attempt to dislodge the particles of sand embedded in her skin. Her efforts were not successful.
Power comes at a price, Tiyana, Almovaar said. Kyroun was willing to pay the price. So was your father, once he knew what it was. So, too, were many others before them. But the choice was always theirs, not mine. The Muvuli are the price you pay for the restoration of the Matile’s greatness. Are you willing to pay that price, Empress Tiyana?
Tiyana did not reply.
You do not have to answer now. But you must answer soon.
Before the echoes of Almovaar’s voice died, the pillar of sand vanished. So did the Shadows. Once again, Tiyana was alone in Almovaar’s Realm. She remained on her knees, with her head bowed.
Now she knew why Almovaar had been shunned before he had appeared to Kyroun in the Fidis’ faraway land. Now she knew why the Seer was being so insistent upon beginning a campaign against the Thabas. Now she knew why the tsotsis had killed her father and Keshu, and tried to kill her as well.
And now she knew her father
