The Sands
“Hold out your hands and receive the sands within them.”
The young man looked slowly behind him to his comrades with a look as though he were asking for their permission. Two of them assented, however Gianna, the young woman among them did not. She was a firey woman with dark brown shoulder length hair with eyes to match.
“Didn’t you hear what the seer told you?!” she spat angrily. “Those grains of sands may very torment you!”
“That’s a price I’m more than willing to pay Gianna. I have to find it and those sands are my only hope of doing so!”
The young man instantly felt a strong, fierce grip upon his wrist, stopping him from approach the old seer. She spun him toward her so he might face her angered, yet worried gaze.
“I don’t understand Brinly, what in cold hells are you looking for!?”
Brinly jerked his hand back, freeing himself from her grasp. Gazing at the sands in the old woman’s wrinkled hands, he answered her.
“I’ll know once I look back! If I look back, I can possibly regain what I lost. Don’t stand in my way, not now, not when I’m this close!”
“I share his feeling,” stated another of Brinly’s allies. Gianna with her lips quivering with disbelief, held back a gasp as she turned to the man standing as he leered transfixed upon the brown substance resting in the ugly woman’s hands. “Once he has finished, I will use the sands to look back!”
“What is the matter with the both of you?!” cried Gianna. “Has this old hag put a spell on the two of you!?”
“I’ve done nothing of the sort,” stated the woman, her voice wretched and barely heard. “Of their own volition they’ve chosen to endure while peering back.”
“That’s right,” said the man. “Let Brinly go first then I will be next.”
“What is it you’re looking for? Brinly asked the man.
“It is a personal matter,” said the man simply. “Take your turn and I’ll see to it you’re not disturbed.”
“Thank you for defending me,” Brinly said to the man before he once again approached the old seer. Kneeling upon his knees, he unstrapped his sword and placed it beside him. He then extended his hands before her.
“Before we begin I must warn you once again that these sands will allow you to see everything in your life until now. You may not like what you see and the sands will amplify any feelings, happy or otherwise. You may very well wish for death. If you accept this-”
“I accept!” interrupted Brinly. Gianna moved in front of the kneeling Brinly, a look of disdain upon her features. The group had better things to do than to look back into the past for something he foolishly believed he lost. The old woman remained silent as Gianna berated Brinly.
“Enough Brinly! You’ll find nothing in those sands but regret! We mustn’t waste anymore time in this dank and dark cave with a wrinkled bitch sitting on her ass!”
A strong and firm hand plucked her from her spot, leaving Brinly to face the old woman once again.
“Unhand me!” Gianna demanded of the man. She was ignored as the man held her in place. Once again Brinly held his hands to the old woman, ignoring the shouts from Gianna. His mind was focused only on the old woman’s as she told him that the grains of sands would represent his memory. Each grain would contain a memory and he could shift through each memory as he pleased.
“I’m ready,” he told the old woman. A smile appeared upon her crooked features as she began to pour the sands. Brinly closed his eyes and focused only upon the feeling of the sands pouring into his hands. Within moments, memories of times passed began to come into his view. The images were slow, giving Brinly time to view them. As his memories flowed, he heard nothing else around him, as if he were cut off from the physical realm. He saw the day he looked upon his mother for the first time when Brinly came into the world. She was a beautiful red-haired woman with emerald eyes and fair features. He felt extremely warm when she kissed his forehead for the first time and he longed to see her again. Brinly smiled and his warm feeling was intensified, just as the old woman said it would be. When the memory vanished, the feeling that Brinly experienced left with it.
“My king…..” Brinly muttered to no one. During his teenage years he served as a servant to the king before his kingdom was overthrown by his brother who currently rules. He saw the memory where he and the king’s daughter had a midnight tryst. Once again, the feelings of pleasure were magnified tenfold and Brinly was happy to view her alluring face and body once again. When the image finally vanished, he began to feel depressed upon realizing that he had missed an opportunity that would never come again. The king’s daughter had been raped then killed by the usurper that now rules. He screamed internally as he felt the regret and by proxy the depression over his choice to venture out for a few days and not take him with her. If he had done so, she would still be alive and the pair would have made a new house from the ashes of her fallen kingdom.
“I sense that you loved this woman,” croaked the old woman. Brinly found it strange that he could hear the old hag through his trance but he ignored her voice, focusing only on the images that appeared. As he shifted through the visions of his past, he thought he found what he was looking for. Brinly watched himself making his way toward his best friend’s room when he saw a woman bolt past him. This was it, Brinly felt that he was getting closer to what he sought! Now the only thing that was left was to slow down the memories so that he could burn the image of the woman’s face in his mind. He needed another memory to be absolutely certain of who deserved his wrath.
“Just a bit further now…”
Finally, after shifting through more memories, Brinly came upon the day that had haunted him. The day he witnessed his best friend beheaded for the crime of stealing. A crime he never committed. This was what he was looking for! Brinly slowed the events of this memory so that he could get a good look. Brinly had noticed the same woman that had come from his friend’s room in the crowd the day of the beheading and he saw the smile upon the woman’s face before she fled the event. He did not get a good look at her in the hallway of the castle that day, but he did see her face. He felt himself beginning to crush the sands in his hands as the anger he felt was again magnified upon the remembrance that his friend had been set up, upon seeing the horrified look about his friend’s features before the blade fell upon his neck. As he crushed the sands, the memory he was viewing began to slow.
“Yes! Show me your face!”
The image of the woman began to become more clear. Finally, Brinly’s eyes were opened to the full image of the woman’s face. The sands stopped and Brinly slowly awoke from his trance-like state. Finding himself kneeling before the old woman, he threw the sands upon the ground as he rose angrily to his feet as he ignored the crooked laughter of the old woman. His features were a mask of revenge and death and Gianna began to feel afraid after her initial feelings of confusion had left.
“It was you!” Brinly said to her through gritted teeth, the venom evident in his voice. “You set up my best friend for death!”
Gianna, who had been released from the man’s hold during Brinly’s trance, stared at him aghast.
“Brinly, I’ve not the slightest understanding as to what it is you’re talking about!”
“Liar!” declared Brinly furiously. “I know you remember the man you had put to death! Does the name, Clouther come to mind!?”
Gianna felt a sting in the pit of her stomach but she didn’t let it show in her features. She remembered Clouther well, but answering for his death wasn’t in her plans. After all; it was his fault that he found himself without his head. She was supposed to be promoted to captain of the King’s Elite, not Clouther. Add to the fact that the young fool had much fortune; fortune he didn’t deserve.
“Who the devil are you talking about?! Who is Clouther?!”
Brinly approached Gianna, still in the grasp of their companion and with a single hand, fiercely slapped Gianna.
“The day Clouther was put to death, I saw a woman in the crowd. Clouther had told me a woman had reported that he had stolen from the royal treasury. His room was searched and the found money in his quarters! They placed him in the cells that very same day! I saw a woman running from Clouther’s room the day he was killed! This woman was also present at his beheading. I only caught a glance of her face but I couldn’t make out who she was! Now I know that it was you!”
Gianna spit blood from her mouth and onto Brinly’s face. As Brinly angrily wiped his face clean of the crimson substance she responded with an icy tone.
“And now that you have me, what are your plans?! To kill me?! As far as I’m concerned Clouther got what he deserved!”
The sound of another hand fiercely meeting flesh sounded loudly as Brinly’s hand once again clapped across her face. Gianna kicked and screamed but she was held fast by the man holding her.
“No,” Brinly said coldly. “I’m not going to kill you just yet. I’m going to let you suffer for awhile and when I’m satisfied; I’ll kill you then.”
The haggard old woman laughed to herself as she scooped up the sands from the ground with her shriveled hands.
“You have my thanks old one,” Brinly said to the old woman. There was no response from her but only slow and crooked laughter. “We’ll be leaving your cave now.”
“What about my chance at the sands?!” cried the man as he wrestled with Gianna before kicking her.
“You’ll have your turn tomorrow when we’re done with this wench!” declared Brinly. “She has deceived us, took the life of my friend and now I intend to make her pay!”
“Screw you both!” spat Gianna as the man hoisted her over his shoulder. Brinly turned to her.
“Don’t worry wench. Your life will end very soon!”
When the two men walked away, the old woman placed the sands back into the pouch. She kept one grain of sand for herself for the potion she was making in another room. Smiling to herself, she anticipated the day the potion would be ready and the lives that would be altered at the expense of those that had used her sands.
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