Wielder's Rising (7 page)

“What’s happening?” the philosopher mumbled, disoriented in the dark with the screaming wind all around him.

“It’s a sandstorm!” Traven yelled back.  “Just stay still.”

The two of them waited under their shelter, holding the blanket down as tightly as they could, trying not to let any sand in.  The wind outside continued to howl as it rushed over them, blasting everything with sand.  Traven wondered how long it would last.  The blanket kept getting heavier and heavier as the storm deposited more and more sand on top of them.  The stuffiness and darkness made it hard not to imagine that they would suffocate.  He tried not to think about it.  Instead he attempted to make out any sounds from their horses, but he could hear nothing above the screaming of the wind.  He hoped that their mounts would be okay and that none of their gear would be lost.

He was stunned by the suddenness and fierceness of the sandstorm.  He had never seen anything like it.  It went on and on as it swept over them.  Just when he began to wonder if the storm would ever let up, it abruptly stopped.  The silence seemed more acute than normal after the incessant howling of the wind.  Traven pushed himself up on his hands and knees and heaved the sand covered blanket off of him.  The brightness of the sun temporarily blinded him, and he blinked away the tears that sprouted in his eyes.  He pulled the blanket the rest of the way off of the philosopher and helped him to his feet.  They both drank in the fresh air as they surveyed their surroundings.

Traven was relieved to find the horses in exactly the same position he had left them in with the blankets still covering them.  He hurried to pull the sand covered blankets off of them and allow them to also breathe in the fresh air.  The horses proceeded to shake the rest of the sand from their bodies as they snorted.

“Well now,” Studell said as he stared to the east and brushed the sand off of his shirt and pants.  “I felt like I was being buried alive.  How exciting this trip is turning out to be!”

Traven shook his head at the philosopher’s excitement.  The man could have suffocated in the sandstorm moments ago and yet now he was as giddy as a little kid on his birthday.  He joined Studell in watching the diminishing wall of sand speed away to the east.  He hoped that they wouldn’t run into any other sandstorms.  He anxiously checked their gear and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was all still securely tied to the horses.

Deciding that it was still too hot to travel, Traven put their makeshift shelter back up, and they rested for a few more hours.  When the sun began to get low on the horizon, they ate a small dinner, packed up their camp, and continued north.  It was still warm but not as oppressively hot as it had been earlier.  They talked of the sandstorm and the sand dunes that looked like the waves of the ocean as their horses plodded along in the soft sand.

As the sun began to set, the heat began to fade more quickly.  By the time night fully arrived, it was actually cool enough that Traven was grateful for the thick robe.  The coolness soon turned to cold.  He was taken aback by the dramatic change in temperature.  He wondered how it could be so hot during the day and yet so cold at night.

“It’s the dry air,” Studell explained.  “There’s not enough moisture in the sand or the air to retain the heat from the sun.  Once the sun has set, the heat rapidly rises back into the sky leaving it cold.”

“I wish the temperature wouldn’t change so much,” Traven stated.

“That’s how deserts are, extreme heat during the day and extreme cold at night.  I expect it will get even colder before the night is over.”

Traven hoped that the philosopher was wrong but knew that he was probably right.  Luckily the dry, clear air also allowed the stars to shine brightly down on them.  There was no moon, but the bright stars gave off plenty of light for him to lead them north across the now cold desert.  Several hours later it had indeed gotten colder.  Traven wrapped his robes as tight as he could, but still couldn’t keep from shivering.  Looking back he saw that the philosopher was shaking even more than he was.

He wished that there was wood or something else to burn.  A warm fire would definitely be welcomed.  It would be good to give the horses a break and to warm up a little.  Traven scanned the barren landscape in vain for anything that would burn.  However, he knew that it was hopeless to look.  He hadn’t seen anything but sand since venturing into the dunes.  As the cold continued to seep in, he wished he had thought to bring along some of the driftwood from the beach.  He could easily create a flame with the ambience and start a raging fire like he had that morning.

He suddenly had an interesting thought.  He didn’t need wood to produce a flame with the ambience.  He only needed wood to keep the flame burning.  Or did he?  Was it possible to keep the flame burning without wood?  A fuzzy memory of flames floating in the air came back to him.  Where had he seen that?  He tried to remember but couldn’t.  Perhaps it had been in a dream.  Regardless, he decided that he might as well try.

He focused on the air in front of him and concentrated on creating a flame.  He then pulled it into existence.  The small flame burst into life, shining brightly in stark contrast to the dark desert night.  Pennon reared in surprise, and Traven almost fell off.  The flame immediately winked back out, and Traven worked to calm his surprised mount.

“What was that?” Studell questioned from behind.  “Did you run into something?”

“No, I just made a flame with the ambience and surprised Pennon,” Traven replied.  He decided that if he was going to experiment, they should probably stop.  “Let’s take a short break.  I want to try something.”

They both dismounted, and Traven walked a short distance away along the ridge of the dune.  He knelt down in the starlight and thought about what he wanted to do.  He obviously could make a flame appear easily, but could he keep it burning?  He had never tried to hold the flame once he’d created it.  He took a deep breath and attempted it.  He pictured the flame and concentrated as the air thickened and swirled around it.  He focused on keeping the flame in his mind’s eye as he pulled it into reality.

The flame burst into life and continued burning in front of him at eye level.  Traven smiled with excitement, and the flame began to sputter.  He quickly regained his focus on the flame, and it burned brightly once again.  He wondered if he could make it larger and proceeded to picture it growing.  The fabric of the air spun faster around the flame and it slowly began to grow.  It grew and grew until it was the size of his head.  He focused on it, keeping it steady and bright.  He smiled as he warmed his hands under it and felt the heat from it warming his face.

However, his smile faded as he began to feel the strain on his body.  He broke out in a sweat from the effort and started to feel sleepy.  A dull throbbing also began in his head.  He knew if he held onto the flame any longer it would only get worse, so he let the flame disappear.  He took several deep breaths as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness that once again surrounded him.

“That was amazing!” Studell exclaimed from behind him.  “Do it again.  I definitely wouldn’t mind warming my hands over a nice, hot flame.”

Traven rubbed his temples trying to massage away the dull headache.  He wondered how bad it would get if he tried to recreate the flame for Studell.

“I’ll try to do it again,” he said.  “But I probably won’t be able to hold it very long.  Using the ambience in such a way drains me quickly.”

Traven concentrated on a spot in front of Studell and pulled a large flame into reality.  The philosopher jumped back with a surprised gasp but then grinned and stepped towards the bright flame.  He only had a chance to rub his hands in front of it for a few seconds before it disappeared.  Traven walked back over to the philosopher and the horses.  He was breathing hard and the extra effort had caused him an even worse headache.  He was grateful for the dark night and cool air that wouldn’t agitate his pain.  He heaved himself up onto Pennon’s back.

“We better keep moving,” he said quietly.  “That took a lot out of me.  I’d like to ride as far as we can before it gets too hot in the morning.”

Studell agreed and thanked him for creating the flame.  Their horses were soon once again plodding through the soft sand along the ridges of the dunes in a northward direction.  As the night wore on, Traven’s headache slowly began to fade.  When it was finally no more than a dull ache, he began searching the far horizon for the next marker along their journey, the Keeper’s Staff.

He wondered how close they would have to get to the tall rock formation to see it in the dark.  He kept scanning the horizon hoping to see it soon.  If they weren’t able to locate the formation, they wouldn’t be able to continue following the map to the ruins.  About an hour later Traven noticed a thin, dark line rising up from the horizon.  He couldn’t see it well enough to guarantee that it was the formation known as the Keeper’s Staff, but he changed their course slightly to the west so that they would be going directly toward it.

He smiled with relief as the sky finally began to lighten ever so slightly, foretelling the coming of dawn.  With the extra light he could tell that it was indeed a tall, crooked rock formation rising up out of the desert.  Studell still couldn’t see it but trusted Traven’s declaration that they were indeed going in the correct direction.  Within a short time, their surroundings began to change.  The high sandy dunes began to get smaller and smaller, and rocks began to poke through every so often.

Just before sunrise, the horses’ hooves left the soft sand of the dunes and began to clink against the solid rock of the changing landscape.  It was still as barren and void of life as the sand dunes had been, but the flat landscape was interspersed with boulders and small rock formations.  The single, most prominent formation of them all was a tall, narrow rock configuration that made its way crookedly up towards the sky.  Even though it was still a ways into the rocky terrain, it was now clearly visible to the philosopher as well.

“You’ve got good eyes,” he said to Traven as they continued riding towards it.  “I would have to say that is definitely the Keeper’s Staff.”

The sight gave hope to Traven that the map truly was accurate.  He hoped more than anything that the spring on the far side of the Keeper’s Staff still existed and would be easy to find.  They paused, as the sun was rising, to eat breakfast and refresh themselves.  Then they made their last push towards the Keeper’s Staff.  They wanted to get as far as they could before stopping to sleep during the hottest time of the day.  The warmth of the sun was welcome after the chill of the night, but as they continued onwards and the temperature continued to rise, Traven was reminded of why they had decided it was best to travel at night.

By midmorning the heat began to bother the philosopher, and they decided to stop and sleep.  They were both exhausted from the lack of rest during the night.  They set up a quick camp in the shadow of a tall boulder and collapsed onto their bedrolls.  Despite the hard rockiness of the terrain, they were both soon fast asleep.

6

Traven woke up in the late afternoon feeling much better.  His headache was completely gone and much of his weariness had been chased away by the sleep.  He mostly just felt hungry and very thirsty.  He took a sip of water and began munching on nuts and dried fruit.  Beside him, the elderly philosopher continued snoring quietly.  Traven was happy to see how well the philosopher had held up so far.  What he lacked in physical stamina, he had made up for with his enthusiasm for adventure.  Traven decided to let him sleep a little longer before waking him.  It was still too hot to travel.

He stood up and watered the thirsty horses.  He watched with a grimace as they greedily lapped up the water he offered.  He worried that the water might not even last them to the spring, if the spring even existed.  He shook his head trying to erase the depressing thought from his mind.  He had to believe it existed where the map said.  If not, their journey would be over.  He knew that if the spring wasn’t there, they might not even be able to make it back to the coast alive.  He glanced at the crooked formation rising up out of the desert to the north.  Hopefully they would reach it sometime during the night.

He didn’t think Studell would wake up for awhile, so he reached into one of his saddlebags and pulled out the golden chest.  He opened it and pulled out the two might stones.  He had been meaning to study them again since he had discovered that he was a wielder.  The stones’ magic no longer seemed as mysterious as they had the first time he had seen them.  He took the two stones and sat back down in the shade of the small shelter.

He set the orange one down and focused on the green stone.  He turned it over several times in his hands.  The light green might stone was interspersed with veins of yellow that were moving.  He stared at it for awhile, mesmerized by the movement.  It was so strange and different from anything he had ever seen.  He wondered what special powers the stone possessed.

It didn’t glow like his father’s might stone had, but it did feel like it gave off a small amount of heat.  He closed his hand around it and shut his eyes.  He could feel warmth emanating from it, and it made his hand tingle slightly.  As he continued to hold it and concentrate, he felt a wave of energy wash over him.  His eyes snapped open.  He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he had immediately felt refreshed and anxious to get moving.  He looked at the stone and smiled.  Perhaps he would have to hand the stone to the philosopher the next time he wanted to rest and see if it had the same effect on him.

Traven set the green stone down beside him and picked up the other might stone.  It was a deep orange that glowed slightly.  He cupped it in his hands and put his eye up to it.  It didn’t seem to give off any heat, but it definitely gave off light.  He pulled it away from his eye and turned it over several times in his hands.  He then closed his eyes and focused on it like he had the other.  He didn’t notice anything different and reopened his eyes.  He had no idea what powers the stone might possess.