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There was a small pop, a whoosh of air, and then a crack thundered in the distance. In the time it took to blink, one of the soldiers' heads disappeared. A mist of warm blood trickled down over us, the droplets streaming down my cheeks.
The dead man's body collapsed into the sand in front of us and tumbled down the dune. As the body spun down the hill, blood spurted out of the neck, creating a speckled trail that stained the sand dark crimson.
The last soldier gaped at his decapitated comrade and, without hesitation, sprinted back towards the aircraft.
He dove and landed on the ramp. 'No, not me, not me... not me!'
The pilot must have noticed the commotion, for the turbines began to whirr, preparing for take-off. A small gun turret under the nose of the ship sprung to life, and it shifted left and right, seeking a target.
There was a distant thud, followed by another whoosh of air as a projectile smacked into the side of the craft. The rocket exploded on impact, sending debris in all directions. What was left glowed red, flames spewing from every fissure.
A low-pitched creak groaned as the metal frame collapsed and exploded. One of the turbines flung into the air, narrowly whizzing past us. Another loud screech. A massive eruption shot the remaining pieces outwards.
Horrified, I sat in the sand, trying to process it all. I couldn't look away from the decapitated man. My stomach churned. Eno spewed next to me. I tore my attention away from the headless body and observed the still-exploding wreckage.
'Both of you, stay down, okay?' I said.
Cinders and fragments of the ruined aircraft still fell around us. A large plume of smoke drifted upwards and falling ash blackened the scene.
I rose and allowed my gaze to follow the smoke trail left by the devastating projectile. I had found its source.
Approaching from behind the wreckage in the nearby dunes, a group of nomads were running towards us. Were they bandits, here to loot and kill? Would they let Eno and I live? And what would they do when they discovered that Tau was our prisoner? She was still entranced by the carnage in front of us and hadn't noticed the nomads yet.
I lowered myself again. 'Eno, listen to me very carefully, nomads are coming. When they see you, raise your hands and let me do the talking. Got it?' He was still stunned, so I grabbed his shoulder and shook him. 'Have you got that?'
He gave the smallest of nods.
Tau's eyes widened. 'Wha–what do I do, Sacet? They'll kill me!'
I adjusted her robes around the collar to conceal her undersuit. 'They cannot know who and what you are. You have to act like one of us.'
Our eyes locked in silence. But then she said, 'My streaks!'
'You're right,' I said, reaching into my bag for my knife. 'They have to go.'
Tau glanced over my shoulder at the approaching strangers. 'Yes, quick!' she said as she knelt down into the sand.
I brought my knife to her forehead, clumped one of the blue streaks together in my hand, sliced it off as close to the hairline as I could, and then started on the other streak. I clenched the cut hair in my palm as Tau rose to her feet and lifted her hood over her head. Where would I dispose of the hair? Should I bury them?
It was too late. Like an apparition, a face emerged and peered through the flames. I scrunched the hairs into my left hand. The man's face was scarred and covered in unkempt, black facial hair. His skin was tanned. His thick brows were lowered, and when he saw us his frown changed into a wide grin.
He raised his giant rifle. It was camouflaged, had an elongated barrel, and a large scope on its top. The camouflage was consistent with his brown clothing. The man navigated through the wreckage towards us.
Several others followed behind him, spreading around the debris.
'Salvage anything useful!' the man shouted back at them. 'Remember, nothing traceable. Reinforcements are probably already inbound.'
The team of nomads sprang into action; they holstered their weapons and pulled out tools instead. They scavenged the wreck, separating what they could from the burnt and twisted frame. Their leader, satisfied with his instructions, turned his attention back to us.
Eno shot up from the sand and wiped the puke from his mouth. He clenched my right hand with his sticky one, and cowered behind me.
'You three pulled off a convincing job as bait,' he said, continuing to aim at us. 'Now tell me who you are, acolyte. Whose side are you on?'
We all put our hands up.
'Don't shoot!' Eno squealed.
'I – I'm Sacet,' I began, and he raised an eyebrow. I gestured at the others. '... and – and they're –'
'Out with it already, girl!' the man bellowed. 'What are you doing out here? I bet you're FD spies sent to infiltrate us.'
The man positioned his eye closer to the scope as though about to fire. My heart was pounding and I held my breath. I closed my eyes and cringed.
'Ha! That look on your faces. Brilliant,' the stranger said before he cackled. His face relaxed with a grin and he lowered his gun. Some of the nomads collecting salvage behind him laughed too. The man pointed at one of the others. 'Rolph, don't you laugh. We all remember how much you cried your first time.'
The rest of the group continued their uproarious laughter, except for the one called Rolph. A few even mimicked what he looked like when he cried.
'Pwease,' the man continued to tease. 'I'll do anything... anything!'
'So... you're not going to hurt us?' I interrupted, causing the man to turn back.
'We know who you are, Sacet.'
Tau let out a sigh of relief and I managed an appreciative laugh.
'You know us?' I asked. 'How?'
'I was part of your village a long time ago before I decided to make the pilgrimage alone. I used to know your family, too, like little Eno there. I'm surprised you two don't remember me.'
'I'm sorry, but I don't,' I said as he walked over to me with his arms spread wide. 'We thought you were bandits.'
'Us?' he said as he embraced me, pointing towards the others. 'Take advantage of three innocent children travelling alone in the desert? Not on your life. Although I suppose that would defeat the point a little.' He bent to the side and peeked at Eno. 'Besides, I'm sure your bodyguard here would have sprung to your rescue. Right, pal? Eno, last time I saw you, you were still a tiny toddler.'
Eno came out from hiding behind me, but he still gripped tightly to my hand, now as sticky as his.
The man scrutinised Tau up and down, his eyes narrowed and his smile faded.
'Didn't catch your name from your stuttering friend over here. Come here,' he said as he made his way over and embraced her tight, too.
'It's – erm – Tia,' Tau managed with a scrunched face, shrugging him off.
'Tia? Well, Tia, sorry for the scare. It's not my fault that frightening children, and Rolph, comes so naturally to me.'
Confused, Tau gave an awkward smile. 'Ha, yes. Good one.'
He took a step back. 'How do you fit into this, Tia? Where are you from?'
Tau glanced back at me and was about to respond, but I interrupted. 'We met her in Teersau. She's making the pilgrimage, like us.'
The man's face lit up and he pointed to the green mountains. 'Well, you've made it. Well done! A wise idea travelling together, too. Speaking of which, where's the rest of your village, your family? Your parents, and that old coot, Aberym? I was hoping to swap some stories with him. It's been what, six cycles?'
Eno turned away and kicked the sand.
'Our parents died a long time ago, after you left,' I explained, and his smile changed to a frown again. 'And... our grandfather... the necrolisks in Teersau... he didn't make it.
'Oh, that's terrible. I'm so sorry,' he said, bowing his head in respect. After a long pause, he gave a more reserved smile. 'I've heard some interesting stories about him. I'll tell you a few on our way back, in his honour.'
Eno let go of my hand. 'To where?'
The man turned back to the wreckage. 'Alright, enough faffing about,' he said as he jogged up the dune and cupped his hands around his mouth. 'We're done here. Not enough time for anything else. Grab anything not bolted down, let's head back.'
I led Eno up the dune after him. Maybe things were going to turn out okay after all, so long as they didn't discover Tau's real identity. Tau scanned the empty desert, as if weighing her options again, before following us up the rise.
I caught up to the man. 'So you know our names, but we don't know yours.'
The man turned back to me with another toothy grin. 'My name is too long. How about you just call me Pilgrim? Everyone calls me that.'
'He makes all of us call him that,' one of the women interrupted. 'It's like he thinks he's the only pilgrim here.' She brushed my shoulder. 'Hi, I'm Sabikah. I'll take care of you kids, okay?' She, too, had an enormous rifle stowed on her back. She had long black hair, tanned skin, and a warm smile. Pilgrim grinned even more, if it were possible. 'You can call me anything you like, Sabikah the wise. Sabikah the beautiful. Sabi–'
'Enough!'
The nomads picked up their tools and salvaged materials and slung them over their shoulders. They led us away from the wreckage and back in the direction from which they had come. We scaled up and down several dunes.
'Alright, that's far enough. Tern, scanner,' Pilgrim said.
A man pulled out a strange-looking device and handed it to Pilgrim, who proceeded to flick and poke at some of the controls.
'Scanner?' Tau inquired.
Sabikah turned to face her. 'We need to make sure this stuff isn't being tracked, or we'd lead the Dominion right to our home.'
Upon hearing this, Tau focused on the device and discreetly backed off. The nomads held up the various pieces they had salvaged, and Pilgrim ran the device over them one by one. The scanner made a number of different noises, beeping and clicking as it passed over each piece.
'Sacet, if I may ask, what made you travel so close to the nest anyway?' Pilgrim asked as he continued to scan. It was as if he knew the answer already.
'We didn't,' I lied. 'We went by the safe route, around the outer wall. Something must have made the necrolisks hunt farther out than usual.'
'Hmm, that ain't good if even the necrolisks are becoming more desperate,' Pilgrim said as he finished scanning the last piece of salvage. He raised the device up to his face and squinted the gadget's screen. 'All good, although there's some background noise. Could be that we're still too close to the wreck. Should be fine. Okay, guys, sweep it up.'
Sabikah moved to the back of the group. She threw her hands towards our footprints. The sand churned and sifted until the tracks were erased. She was an acolyte like me. Another man, the one called Tern, sighed, spun around and did the same as his comrade. Two with the same power?
I faced the rocky bluffs I had been eyeing earlier, and then down to Pilgrim by our side.
'Shouldn't be too long. You are going to love it there,' he said.
I glanced back to the other nomads and made sure they weren't looking. 'That's great. We could use a rest,' I said.
I couldn't exactly stop to bury the hair that was still clenched in my left hand, they would have seen me, so I slid it into my bag.
That evening, as we turned into what I hoped would be the last corner of this labyrinthine tunnel, the passageway opened up and revealed a bright cavern. Open skylights allowed in natural light, down onto the simple shacks and sheet metal that made up the nomads' homes.
The shanty settlement must have been here for a long time. There were almost a hundred huts. It was all lit up by torches, evenly spread among the settlement's pathways. It was certainly better than lying on the cold, wet floor of a cave like our usual accommodation.
Tau gasped. 'You hid this whole thing here?'
Eno's jaw had dropped. 'This is... amazing!'
Pilgrim turned back and smiled. 'I knew you'd love it. Welcome to our home.'
The entrance to the town was blocked by a makeshift fence constructed of metal scraps, and the fence was broken up every so often by stalagmites jutting up from the ground. There was a guard patrolling at the top of the main wall – a teenage girl. Another child, not much older than Eno, approached the chain-linked gates to open them for us. The gates scraped along the rocky cave floor as they were drawn back.
I smiled at the boy as we were about to walk through, then stopped in my tracks. His face was horribly disfigured, covered in numerous gruesome scars. A large eyepatch concealed most of the damage.
Eno and I had to deal with the repercussions of this war every day, but seeing what had been done to this child gave me pause. My smile faded and my backpack snagged on the gate. After an awkward tug to release it, I looked back at the boy with an apologetic expression.
Tau noticed him, too, and her amazed expression quickly sank. Once our group was in, the boy closed the gate behind us and resumed his guard duty.
'So, how long were you guys thinking of staying?' Pilgrim asked. 'Because as you can see, we could use all the help we can get around here. That's Teelo − kid lost his mother and an eye to a necrolisk. He's been doing whatever he can to help ever since.'
I glanced back again at the boy, who was now speaking to the girl on the wall. He had something in his hand and was showing it to her, but I couldn't make out what it was.
We continued through the village, reaching the town centre.
'He doesn't have anyone left?' I asked weakly.
Pilgrim shrugged. 'What? Of course he does! You're looking at his new dad. Everyone's family around here... I mean, you know... so long as they aren't trying to kill us.' He turned to Sabikah. 'Isn't that right, sweetie?'
Sabikah smirked. 'You're embarrassing yourself.'
Teelo ran over to us, 'Pilgrim! Guys! Wait up!'
'I told you, Teelo, you can call me Dad, remember? What's gotten you so worked up?'
Teelo pulled up in front of us. 'That girl dropped this, Dad,' he said as he opened his palm and showed a small tuft of blue hair.
How did that get there? I thought I had... no. The rip in my backpack!
Pilgrim walked over to Teelo and plucked the hairs from the boy's hand. He held them up close to his eyes, as if scrutinising their authenticity, then turned to us. His face was now absent of his usual grin... He knew.
'Sacet, Eno and... Tia... it looks like you can't be a part of our family after all.'
There was a rustle of robes as the nomads surrounded us and drew their weapons. One of them came up behind Tau and roughly began to search her. Her hood was wrenched down, revealing her undersuit.
I tugged on Pilgrim's robes. 'Please, she's not a threat, she's our prisoner.'
More villagers exited their dwellings to see what the commotion was about. Soon, a small crowd had formed around us.
Pilgrim shrugged me off and pointed at Tau. 'Take that one to the holding cell until we know what to do with her. And you two, move!' He gestured towards the entrance of the nearest building.
Eno stood close to me again, and we moved without questioning him. I looked back to Tau as she was led away by Sabikah and several others.
Tau glanced over her shoulder as she was led away, eyes bulging and shaking. 'Wait, stop! I'm not one of them anymore, please!'
Pilgrim and the remaining nomads escorted my brother and I towards a large hut. We entered through a curtained doorway, and Tau's wails were drowned out.
'Pilgrim, please. I can explain.'
He pointed into the room and corralled us in. 'Explain to him.'
The room was filled with animal pelts that hung from the walls and carpeted the floor. The walls and ceiling were made from bits of scrap metal crudely welded together. On the far side of the room, an old man slept on a bed covered with more furs. The dank and musky smell was overpowering.
Pilgrim strode ahead and jiggled him awake. 'Elder. Elder Hati? Wake up, this is important.'
Hati awoke with a snort. 'I was sleeping, haven't you any... urgh... haven't you any respect for an old man's rest? Hmm?'
The old man, decrepit with age, attempted to focus his gaze on us. 'And who might this be?' He struggled to raise a frail arm, pointing a shrivelled finger in our direction.
'This is Sacet, the teleporter I told you about from my old village. Her little brother, Eno, as well. But they have betrayed us.'
'I find that hard to believe,' Hati said. 'Two children as young as they.'
'Elder, they led a Dominion spy into the camp,' Pilgrim continued. 'She's bound to have a tracking device inside of her like the others.'
'What?' I said. 'A tracking device? But – I got rid of her armour. Please! She's our prisoner. We'll leave if that's the issue. I promise, I would kill her before she could ever tell the Dominion about this place. I swear it!'
The old man cleared his throat. 'Sacet, was it? There's something you're not grasping here. Tracking devices are often implanted inside the body. It doesn't matter if you lead her away. They will know she's been here. You've left a trail for them to follow right to our home.'
The old man's eyes widened. 'Everyone here is in jeopardy. Diyon! Yori! Instruct the others to pack their food and essentials. We need to leave for the cavern lake as soon as we can. Go!'
'Wait!' I interrupted. 'What if she doesn't have a tracking device?'
'We can't take that risk,' Hati replied, raising his hand at the others.
The other two nomads rushed outside and the old man turned his attention back to me. 'As for you two, you're obviously not working for the Dominion, you're just ignorant. In either case, I can't allow the spy to live, knowing what she knows. You, on the other hand, will accompany us to the cavern lake.'
He stared up at Pilgrim, who was still standing by his side. 'Pilgrim, you will need to take the enemy soldier out into the desert as far as you can and execute her.'
ns 15.158.61.12da2
