Chapter 37
September 11, 1258 - Morning
In Evangeline's madness to escape she seemed to have dredged up some measure of feral instincts, driving her dismayed companions deeper into the desert throughout the night with no apparent plan but certainly some purpose. As the sun rose ahead and to the party's left it didn't take Borcha's sharp eyes to see that they were being followed. In the distance behind them moved a number of small groups scouting ahead of an overwhelming host, several times as many as the enemies that ambushed them half a day ago. The sun glinted off armor and weapons there while Evangeline's small group produced little dust and no reflections at all. Seeing the movement behind them, she seemed to only take note of it but take no action other than to continue pushing forward.
Her companions began to grumble in concern. They were being pursued and though the enemy did not seem to know where precisely they were, with a host that size it was only a matter of time. On foot without shelter, supplies, or even their weapons and led by one who seemed insane and had already willingly sacrificed others to save herself, Evangeline's party seemed utterly doomed. In the late morning as exhaustion began to set in the party found themselves facing larger and larger dunes, rising like a mountain range before them. These dunes were always blocking the path Evangeline refused to stray from. Instead of giving them ridgelines to walk along they always found themselves either slogging up or stumbling down one large pile of sand or another. Baheshtur broke first. "Evangeline Bahadur!" he called ahead to her. She stopped where she was but did not turn. He trudged wearily up beside her. "Evangeline, my liege, we will die out her for sure." He hated to suggest that they surrender but there seemed no other option "If we -"
"There will be a storm." She croaked, her voice strained from the furious screaming the day before and dry from disuse and dehydration. Everyone who heard her quickly scanned the horizons for sign of her claim. "And there is an oasis." She said louder, her voice stronger as she turned her head towards him more fully. Again, bewildered, the party searched for this miracle but if she were proceeding towards these things directly then the large dunes before them most assuredly blocked any view. As Baheshtur began to question her further he stepped around to see her face. Where he had expected to see anger and delusion he instead saw intelligent determination with an edge of despair. He lowered his voice. "How can you know?" he asked quietly as the trusted friend of this dangerous woman. She shook her head and looked down as if saying that she couldn't explain now. Extending one foot in front of the other she stumbled and nearly fell but righted herself and began to climb the large dune in front of her. Baheshtur fell in behind her and the others followed suit, too tired to reason through this problem they faced.
An hour later they stumbled down the last of the large dunes and at its base Ymira suddenly sank up to her waist in a perfectly invisible pit of quicksand. When Evangeline turned to see what the commotion was all about she croaked out a squeal of delight that briefly halted rescue efforts as a number of the party turned to stare in disbelief that she would even attempt such a noise. Already two of the men had slipped into the same mire and everyone involved was struggling furiously to avoid being swallowed. The situation quickly deteriorating to panic, Evangeline summoned what was left of her voice to bellow her order. "STOP! MOVING!" Most obeyed but Lezalit, sunk up to his thighs, continued to thrash. "Lezalit! Stop it! Now! You are only making things worse! Be still!" Evangeline's voice could barely be heard at the end, almost forcing him to quiet down just to hear her.
Evangeline tested her voice and found she barely had one. She pointed at the quicksand. "This is good, it is water and sand." Everyone greedily eyed the hazard before them. "We cannot get water out of it to drink but it means the oasis is nearby." She squinted up at the sun almost directly overhead. "That also means we are in greater danger than before on the open desert." She pointed around the horizon where it seemed they were in a long valley ringed by large dunes, all facing inward. The valley seemed to slope up gently on its northeast end where wind-smoothed outcroppings of rock made short and shallow shelves out of themselves. These were the bones of the snow-covered and heavily-clouded mountains that could be seen in the distance. The valley leveled somewhat and seemed to bulge out to the southeast, south, and southwest with its floor a stiff ocean of small sand dunes.
"This entire area is suffused with water but all of it below the surface and most of it in the form of quicksand. An ancient river ran here but desert has encroached to cover and fill it. The air here is cooler because of the water but that is why it is so dangerous: after storms in the mountains chill the air there that air descends quickly and much of it is channeled through here because of the cooler air already present. This mass of air strikes the hot desert all around this place and starts to roll on itself while pushing outward."Evangeline could see comprehension dawn suddenly in the faces of those who had lived closest to these deserts and heard of the huge dust storms that it contained: Borcha and Baheshtur. The color drained from their faces.
"That rolling air picks up sand and flings it outward so powerfully that it can kill, hence the large dunes all around and the many large dunes we climbed to get here. Now," she said with finality. "We must all hold on to each other's hands and move as far in toward the center of this valley as possible." Several of the party began groping for hands quickly, desperately. "Midday storms are common in the mountains," she continued. "Which means we'll soon be flayed alive by the sand if we don't get away from the edge. Everyone, grab the hands of two other people and form a chain. Do not let go and help pull them up when they fall but do not move from the solid ground you stand upon."Everyone quickly obeyed her nearly whispered orders.
As Rolf came up to take her hand and link up with the partly-submerged Firentis on the other side he grinned and said "Those Khergits following us, they'll be torn to shreds by the storm!" Evangeline shook her head even as Artimenner pulled on her other hand as he tried to hoist Ymira up. Count Floris interposed himself between the trapped damsel and older man to take the brunt of the work. "They aren't Khergits." He grunted. Rolf glowered to be contradicted so. "They wouldn't dare spare such a force from the defense of their own lands," Floris continued. "They'll be Sarranids for sure and considering our history with Emir Dhiyul and the power he wields through his extensive family, I'd lay a sure bet it is him. And like any good Sarranid, they'll know to stay clear of the storm Evangeline is predicting." With a mighty pull Ymira was dragged free. As Floris caught his breath and began to speak again Alayan picked up his thought. "Unfortunately, they might also know about this place and might know a way to get to us either around or after the storm." Floris nodded and straightened. Evangeline spoke up but couldn't be heard. When asked to repeat what she had said she merely smiled and pulled the two men she had attached herself to onward, deeper into the deadliest place in all the Sarranid deserts.
Moving in a line abreast the group trudged on with new hope: a storm to drive their enemies away and water enough beneath their feet that it caused the ground to soften perilously. Evangeline's full intentions for getting them out of there alive were unclear but things were certainly looking up and most of her party wore expressions that were something between joy and renewed determination. For almost an hour more they struggled on, frequently stopping to heave one or more of their number out of some deadly hole or another. A dire moment arrived when Evangeline herself and half the rest of the party's number all suddenly found themselves in desperate straits. Floris, Artimenner, Ymira, and Lezalit again proved their strength by one by one rescuing the rest of the party and hauling them up on solid land.
After that tremendous effort and as the 10 of them lay in the blistering sun feeling closer to death than ever before, a cool and barely perceptible breeze blew across their exposed skin. Nearly two dozen anxious eyes quickly turned to look up the valley toward the mountains in the distance. Lightning and dark, heavy clouds could be seen there. If Evangeline was right, their savior dust storm was soon to begin and even she didn't seem sure if they could survive it in the open as they were. Evangeline lurched to her feet, grabbed the two hands closest to her that belonged to different people, and began to drag them toward those raging mountains. The party tapped the last of their energies, gripped each other's hands, and forced themselves onward.
The invisible quicksand came more frequently but also became more predictable as the outline of one bank of the ancient river seemed to emerge. The dangerous water-and-sand traps lay in the lowest areas and were largely level so remaining on the higher and rumpled dunes seemed to be the safest solution. Now, walking into the slowing growing breeze, the party could follow sandy ridgelines as they had never before been allowed, giving them their longest break of people not needing rescue since entering this horrible place. However, as they pushed on under Evangeline's lead they stumbled more and more often and forgot to hold on to each other as tightly as they should, causing her to finally call for a complete halt before someone fell in the quicksand again and they were all too tired to get them out. Half a mile a head lay the mouth of the valley and the dubious shelter the rock shelves would provide. There was no way they were going to make it.
The merciless sun beat down, the dust began to rise on the edge of the valley's bowl, curling back on itself, and Artimenner finally succumbed and collapsed, landing face-first in a low portion of the land. A few scrambled wearily to help him but the others including Evangeline just watched, believing they were seeing him die. When pulled back and rolled over, however, the old man was laughing between fits of coughing up sand and there was water on his lips. Still sputtering and hacking joyfully, he flapped his hand about and tried to speak. Jeremus understood first and spoke it out loud: "A shirt!" He exclaimed. "And a rock! We need a rock!" None understood what he was getting at and all were loathe to expose any more of themselves to the hateful sun overhead, preferring instead to languish on the high ground and try not to die.
Just then the temperature of air dropped several degrees and the thin breeze that had been teasing them broke into a firm wind blowing down from the mountains. The cool air was such a shock, few could do anything other than gasp then groan with pleasure. One of those few who retained both thought and speech was Jeremus. He stripped his shirt off and threw it onto the surface of the quicksand exactly where Artimenner had face-planted. Stumbling over and falling to his knees next the older man, he pressed a bit too firmly on the shirt and began to sink quickly. The same people who had saved the man laying beside him - now nodding wildly - saved him as well, cursing his stupidity. Then they all stopped when they saw that the shirt in his hand was wet. "A rock!" he exclaimed again. "And helpers!" No one moved. "I can get us water!" Immediately everyone fell to motion though for some it was nothing more than rolling over and crawling to the site of this miracle.
As the air continued to cool the sun became quite tolerable and as the sand rose in great billowing walls around the edge of the valley Jeremus carefully spread his shirt across the surface of the quicksand and instructed his plethora of helpers to keep it stretched out. In answer to his thrice repeated request for a rock he received Evangeline's boot, thrown at him from where she rested against a small dune. Declaring it to be too small and not heavy enough he suddenly found Rolf's large boot laid before him. The stench boiling up from inside it was enough to make him delay his idea a little longer. "Can't we get a rock?" He pleaded. Rolf snatched the boot back, filled it with sand and gruffly returned it. Jeremus nodded and smiled his thanks and placed it in the center of the shirt, instructing his helpers to let the center of the shirt sink but not the sides. As the boot slowly descended, gritty water began to pool around it, separated from most of the sand by the course shirt-filter.
Attempting to drink the liquid where it lay proved problematic in the extreme as thirsty desperation vied against the delicate contraption that required at least 3 people to operate at all but currently was using 5. Summoning a regal strength, Evangeline stood, barefoot now, and walked over to them. She bent, one of her boots in each hand and filled them both with the warm and sediment-filled water. Her companions looked on eager and envioius as she drank briefly, water dribbling down her cheeks and chin. When she had finished she surveyed them for a moment as the only person standing then handed one of her boots to Firentis who sat nearby. He drank greedily but she stopped him after a few hurried gulps and passed the boot on to Ymira beside him. She drank a few deep swallows, met Evangeline's eyes, smiled her thanks, and passed the boot on. Evangeline nodded and smiled her favor then knelt to pour some into Artimenner's eager and parched mouth where he lay holding one corner of Jeremus' shirt. In his ecstasy, he let the corner go, eliciting a groan from Jeremus as sand poured into the little basin.
Placing her calming hand upon Jeremus's shoulder Evangeline's ragged voice whispered gently, encouragingly, while giving a command: "Do it again." He met her eyes and was baffled but felt himself drawn toward her. Suddenly in their hour of desperation she seemed like some sort of loving and life-giving mother figure when mere hours ago she had been a homicidal, raving, and disloyal madwoman he only followed because mere minutes before that she had been a inspirational and unkillable revolutionary leader and battle queen. She continued smiling and nodded at him, forcing his mind back to the task she had willed be done. Organizing his desperate and distracted helpers, he created a makeshift waterhole even deeper than the last one. After removing Rolf's flavorful boot there was plenty of space to fill Evangeline's boots once they were emptied. With Jeremus dictating who drank when and who held the shirt, everyone traded out jobs at least once until all had drunk to their satisfaction.
Relieved, encouraged, and proud of himself, Jeremus pulled the shirt up and slapped it across is back, sitting back to see the same sight everyone else beheld: Towering walls of sand boiling lazily all around the rim of the valley, reaching from earth to sky, blotting out and scouring clean the land beneath them. The sand storm raged on all sides but for the valley's entrance where the cool wind that fed it poured freely down the granite flanks of the mountains then across the sand and sandstone and over the small group of grateful humans below that. It made the heat of the desert day almost pleasantly cool for the 10 survivors of Evangeline's first conquest where they lay slurping water out of mud and drinking it from her boots. Evangeline stood before them looking out into the valley and watching the brown clouds rise and turn, pushing ever outward.
She turned toward her cohorts but looked past them up the long ridgelines to the forested green where the rain fell. Standing beaten and worn but unbowed, incomprehensible and yet stirring, with an astonishing natural wonder behind her that she had used to stifle their enemies and had led them to avoid themselves by crossing the impossible morass of quicksand, Evangeline appeared to her companions more powerfully than she ever would again. The image of her there and the memories of everything that had happened in the last day became firmly stamped into the minds of everyone present. From all this it was clear that Evangeline was a force to be reckoned with, one that could not be defeated and one that consumed anyone who got too close and was not strong enough. "God have mercy on us and her enemies..." Jeremus muttered, looking down on his hands and nevertheless positive that he would follow her until such devotion killed him. Though he was sure he had not spoken loud enough for anyone to hear when he looked back up he caught Evangeline looking at him with a wry smile on her lips. She held his glance for a moment before turning to find a place to lay down and rest herself.
