June 2018: Shifting Sands
The punch took Askaran in the ribs. He bent double, winded. A feeling of dread filled him as he heard the clang of his kukri hitting the tiled floor of the training hall.
His mother stepped back, giving him a moment to catch his breath.
"You let me get too close," Aziza warned, disappointment heavy in her voice.
Askaran retrieved his kukri and slowly stood straight despite how much his ribs ached.
"Can't swing the blade at that range," he argued, eyeing his mother's kukris. While Askaran's were training blades, Aziza's were from the time before the Enneads had come to Nanterac and had wood handles. The silver inlays drew Askaran's eyes like a distracting mirror.
"Didn't need the blade, did I?" Aziza replied.
Askaran's ribs throbbed. Despite having been training among Shifters for most of his life, Aziza's strike had landed with more strength than Askaran had expected. Every time they sparred, she always found ways of surprising him.
He had to be faster. If he could not beat her, he would continue to be trapped in the Last City by her disapproval.
As he brought himself back into a defensive stance, Askaran saw another Ennead enter the room through the bead curtain, tracking in sand on his feet. Jabare had to duck through the ancient stone doorway.
The flat of his mother's kukri slammed into Askaran's ribs, exactly where the first punch had landed. He staggered back but did not drop his kukri this time.
"Keep your eyes on the enemy," Aziza snapped.
"You keep that up," Jabare quipped, his grin wide, "and your boy will be black and blue!" He laughed at his own joke.
Black, like the blood of a Shifter. But until Aziza permitted it, Askaran would not be allowed to test himself against a demon and prove he could become one of the Shifters at all.
Frustrated, he launched back into the spar. Aziza switched grips on her kukri and blocked his slash. With her fist, she punched at his bruised ribs. Expecting it, Askaran spun away, and the strike missed. He lashed out, copying his mother's blow perfectly. He slammed his fist into Aziza's lowest rib on her right.
Aziza grunted, and Askaran saw his mother's eyes flash red.
He withdrew immediately. All demons, even Shifters in demon form, had red eyes but Askaran had never seen the feature in an Ennead form.
By the time Aziza had straightened, her eyes were again an Ennead's normal black. Askaran glanced at Jabare in uncertainty, but he did not seem to have noticed. Jabare's eyes were on Askaran.
"You're quick, Askaran," Jabare said, his smile wide like that of the grinning winged demon tattooed on his shoulder.
Askaran raised his chin. "Ready to be out on a hunt," he said. He had managed to get a strike in. Even his earlier lapse could not steal that victory from him.
Aziza sheathed her kukris. "You are not ready," she said flatly. She turned from him, removing the wraps from her hands and signaling the end of the spar.
"I am a better fighter than most of the Shifters themselves!" Askaran protested, following her. The hound demon tattoo on her shoulder seemed to be laughing at him.
"The fact that you think your fighting skills have anything to do with your readiness tells me you are not ready," Aziza answered. "A Shifter must be more than just his weapons."
He wanted to throw the practice blades aside in exasperation but instead gripped them tighter. "Then why bother with this?" Askaran snarled as he placed the kukris on their shelf with deliberate effort. "If I am to be a Shifter, I will have claws and teeth, not blades! I will not need blades!"
He regretted his outburst immediately. Aziza was the last of the Enneads from Terac, the eldest of the Shifters, and the only female among them. She was strength incarnate and carried the wisdom of centuries. Not even one of her children was permitted to defy her.
But today Aziza simply shook her head. Askaran sensed something broken in her words.
"There may be a time when you will not be able to Shift," she said. "You must be ready for that." Squaring her shoulders, Aziza looked down at Askaran. "Now go to the training grounds and trance. You will be finished when you can tell me what matters more than the kukri in our defenses of the City."
Askaran already knew the answer, but Jabare was shaking his head subtly, warning him off. Accepting that his cousin was probably right, Askaran stormed out of the hall, the bead curtain rattling in his wake.
###
Once Askaran was out of earshot, Aziza let her shoulders lower. Jabare knew enough not to be intimidated by sheer strength. She could trust him.
"What's this about a time when you will not be able to Shift?" Jabare asked delicately, his typically joshing voice serious. "I've not heard that one before."
Aziza clenched the hilt of one of her kukris as she let out a breath, but the touch of the wood did not comfort her. Along the walls, murals of jungles and wild mammals reached out to her, some with enough detail that, in the right light, they seemed to move. She focused on them, knowing she had no reply for Jabare.
"The younger Shifters started rumors, wondering why you haven't Shifted for a while, Aziza." Jabare added, following her as she ran a hand over a mural. He hesitated, pausing for a moment behind her. "Aziza," he called, "are you thinking of walking into the sands?"
Aziza paused and Jabare joined her. A shaggy ranna beast looked at them from the wall, the stone eyes glittering in gold to match Aziza and Jabare's skin.
"Might have to," she confessed. "Better to do it when I still can control the demon."
Jabare frowned. "We will carry on," he said solemnly. "We can take care of the City."
Aziza nodded weakly. "I know," she said. Trying to deny the need for her departure was futile and, worse, dangerous.
Jabare fell into step beside her as they continued to circle the sparring ring. "Is that why you train Askaran as your own? As your last?" he asked. "You never showed preference to one of your line before."
"Jabare, I have lost the last three of my sons," Aziza replied. "Perhaps I failed to share my gift with them, and they had no chance at all of becoming a Shifter. Or perhaps they were too weak of will. I do not wish that to be Askaran's fate."
A new voice joined them. "If you do not let him go on a hunt soon, you will not be there to see him try."
Aziza froze, her hand on a pillar wound with stone vines. Beside the pillar stood the Elder Rose, a woman of thirty. Her white jellabiya hung plainly over her thin frame, her black eyes like basalt stone. Unlike many of the Ennead, her gold skin was entirely unblemished by tattoos.
"I had that feeling, Rose," Aziza said, bowing her head respectfully.
The younger woman's eyes glittered as she looked at Aziza, and Aziza felt old down to her bones. This was the future of the Ennead, not her. The Roses saw the future in ways Aziza never had, the hekau of their mind stronger than any before them.
"A trial awaits us all," the Rose said. "It would be best if you attend to it."
Trying to show deference, Aziza nodded. "What do you require?" she asked.
The younger woman did not focus her eyes as she answered; "The time for hunting is now, Aziza. Askaran's time has come."
"He is not ready," Aziza objected.
"But the deserts of Nanterac are ready for him," the Rose said, her confidence unflappable.
Aziza felt the demon within her territorially lift its hackles and had to stop herself from growling. Her demon was a small hound demon and had never been motivated enough to challenge anyone. Now, it gained strength.
The Roses were blind to demons, and even Aziza's little hound demon knew it. How dare the Rose dictate the affairs of Shifters?
Since coming to Nanterac, the hekau had divided: mind and body; female and male; Desert Rose and Shifter. The sacred Desert Roses were embodiment of mind hekau now, leaving Shifters only the powers of the body.
Aziza was a Shifter, her mind hekau weakening under the onslaught of the demon's presence. She had to defer to the Rose's will.
"Then I will see it done," she said, not trusting herself to say more.
The Rose left but signaled that Jabare was to come with her.
Aziza tried to lose herself in the murals of forest canopies and waterfalls. Memories of humid air and thick rain flooded in, but she could no longer tell which hers were and which belonged to the demon.
The Rose's voice was a whisper, but the hound demon within Aziza heard it clearly.
"Stay with her, Jabare. Be ready."
Jabare's beast was a winged demon, stronger than the weak hound demon, but Aziza did not know who would win a contest between them. She hoped she would never find out yet sensed it too: she was out of time.
###
As surprised as he had been to be summoned out to the hunt outside of the City, Askaran had not asked questions, fearing his hesitation might change Aziza's mind.
They left the Last City in the dawn, the light of Mour, the white sun, reaching over the horizon. Music from the bone flutes followed them out, the citizens of the City waving stained linens in their honor. Childhood friends, abandoned when his training began, embraced Askaran as if it would be their last contact.
The smaller sun Ero crested the horizon, changing the light to red and intensifying the heat as the party reached the white markers.
Askaran paused at the white pillars, his sand clock flapping against his legs. Behind him, the irrigated fields of the City reached to the walls. Ahead, the red sands of the desert took over. Already, the wind was cutting them with the metal shards of the sand, even through their cloaks.
Jabare halted at his side while the rest of the six Shifters walked on, unconcerned. Aziza was already climbing the first of the dunes ahead.
"You're allowed beyond," Jabare said with a laugh. "You're in the company of a Shifter. Rather a lot of us, actually."
Askaran smiled and, lifting his sandaled foot, took his first step beyond the City's protected grounds.
His calves were throbbing from walking on the sands by the time they stopped for the midday heat, taking shelter using their cloaks. He slept but was awakened as dusk fell. They walked into the night.
After two days, Askaran and Jabare set camp at an oasis far enough that the activity of demons would bring no threat to the City. The others came to the edges of the water, each picking a side and so a direction. They turned their backs and walked off into the sands.
"Two days," Askaran said aloud, watching them. His heart skipped excitedly. "But what are we to do for two days, Jabare?"
"Until they return," Jabare said, "I keep training you."
Askaran adjusted his weight on his feet, testing the sand. Some of the rock made good footing around the oasis, but risked spoiling the waters if he fell in. The sand was sliding, and his legs already ached.
Still, he reached for his kukris in readiness for a spar. He was disappointed when Jabare said, "No sparring. Trance, Askaran. Prove to me you can."
Bitterly, Askaran dropped into a seat in the bank.
"You sound like Aziza," he pined.
"I know," Jabare replied. "Just don't tell her that."
With the water nearby, it was easy for Askaran to sink into the trance. He had always envisioned it as diving deep underwater, like the game of diving into the aquifer under the City, the very game that had taken up much of his childhood. How deep could he go? For how long?
The memory of the chill of the water brought him instant calm. It was this peace he would need when a demon's soul tried to steal his mind away.
Assuming, he thought, that he carried the Shifter's blood. He was Aziza's last child, but none knew if he could become Shifter. And if he was not a Shifter by nature, then the very blood he sought to key him to a demon's form would instead kill him.
He felt sick, and he opened his eyes, the hot wind of the desert sweeping away the calm of his trance.
"There," Jabare said. "By your expression, I think it finally sank in."
Askaran clenched his jaws, fighting nausea and--a new thing--fear. He dared not release his teeth to reply.
Jabare sat beside him, chuckling. "Happens to us all. Just remember you need to survive the mixing of bloods. If you let the demon kill you, you're still dead. So don't go running in. Be smart about it."
Releasing his breath carefully, Askaran asked, "What if I'm not meant to be Shifter?"
Jabare shrugged. "Then it'll kill you as surely as it kills any Ennead. You chose this path, Askaran. Now it is up to fate."
###
Aziza spent her time walking in the desert, restless. The other Shifters were seeking a demon for Askaran, and she should have been helping, but her thoughts were too scattered. She felt drawn back towards the City, yet new it was too soon to return. Something about the waves of the desert made her hesitate.
She could not travel far without Shifting and that, she was certain, was something she dared not do.
On the second day, she returned to the camp. She sensed hesitation in Askaran now, but it was masked by excitement. A rash youth despite her best efforts, he was keen to take on the demon that may kill him. Sitting by the cooking sunshields, Aziza listened as Aton arrived from the west. As Aton reported, Moswan joined them from east.
"Hound demons," Aton said. "Pack of three. Moving towards the City, but they would be easy to catch."
Aziza saw Askaran's face fall. Of all the demons, hound was the least.
"Bigger demons might look more impressive," Jabare, Askaran's mudarris for the hunt, said, "but there is nothing shameful about a hound demon!" Jabare was staring at Aziza as he spoke.
"Hound?" Moswan said, squinting at Aton. "I thought you went west."
"I did," Aton replied, his black eyes narrowing in mirror. "Why?" The winged demon tattoo on his shoulder flexed.
Moswan leaned back, frowning. "Because I found a pack of three hound demons, but in the east."
Hearing a crunch in the dawn, Aziza looked up to see Luzige arriving from the edge of the oasis.
"And a pair of winged demons in the south," Luzige added, couching among them.
Aziza's feeling of restlessness intensified. It usually took days to find a single demon for a hunt. To find eight…
"The hunt is over," Aziza said. "Moswan and Aton, take Askaran to the City directly. The rest of us will swing east first and slay the hound demons there. We will meet at the City."
The last of them, Kosey, arrived down from the north slope as Aziza gave the directions.
"Leaving, are we?" Kosey asked as the others rose to gather the supplies. "Well I hope you're not thinking about going north! I found the trail of a colossus demon. We are too few to be…"
Everyone froze. Kosey's words trailed off as he recognized the growing terror on the faces around him.
"Impossible," Jabare muttered from the cooking pit. "There have been no colossus generals on—"
"Pack up!" Aziza snapped. Her demon raised its hackles and she had to close her eyes to control it. The pull she had felt became all the more potent. Now, she recognized it. She had scented the colossus demon without knowing.
She forced her words out one at a time. "We are needed at the City swiftly."
She opened her eyes and the sweep of her gaze pushed them on. The Shifters scrambled back to their tasks.
Before the white sun had fully cleared the horizon, the Shifters had each grabbed a bite of food and were leaving the oasis, trying to travel as far as they could before the heat forced them into cover.
As the two parties split, Aziza paused to look at the trio she had sent home. The Shifters took their demon forms, skipping along the sands easily on four limbs instead of two and no longer needing the protection of cloaks. Askaran, walking behind them, carried the light clothing for the Shifters.
The Rose had been wrong, Aziza decided. She had, in this, failed him.
She would not see Askaran's hunt.
###
Askaran and his escort pushed on through the day but, by high noon, were stopped by the heat of the double suns.
He stood watch while Moswan and Aton rested, having been up overnight and now the day. Despite taking shelter by rocky outcroppings, the heat was enough to make him feel like he was breathing in a furnace.
He wondered how the others were faring, knowing the team of winged and hound demons would easily kill the pack they had found. Once they returned to the City, Askaran would ask what a colossus general was. He knew the colossus demon-- the king of all demons-- but had never seen one. Colossus demons were lured away from the City, not fought. Too many Shifters had died under their claws.
The desert fell silent in the midday heat, the wind and sand the only sound.
A rumble reached Askaran's ears. At first, he thought it was a storm, but he could find no sign of cloud haze on any horizon. It was not until he saw a horn rising over a dune that he realized the rumble was running steps.
He had only a heartbeat to react. Shouting for Aton and Moswan to rise, Askaran charged towards the demon. He didn't remember drawing his kukris, but they were in hand immediately.
The enormous demon grew as it charged him. It was scaled and hairy, with a thick, maned head. The horns atop its head were as tall as an Ennead. It had been scarred by previous battles, each a white cleft along its red-scaled hide. It roared when it spotted him, a sound that nearly terrified him into inaction.
This was no common demon. This was the colossus itself.
Askaran turned tightly, quickly losing his footing in the sand. He took to sliding down the slope, drawing the demon away. The others could escape. Winged demons were faster than this behemoth. They were needed at the City.
The shadow of the demon loomed over him as he reached the bottom of the dune, and Askaran flung himself wide to dodge a claw. Instead of flesh, the demon raked into sand, digging a deep furrow and exposing rock. Askaran let the slopes carry him, his sand cloak snatching up pebbles as he tumbled. Soon he was entirely covered by the sand cloak, the unique metals of its weave holding onto the iron sands over him and concealing his scent.
Askaran lay flat and tried to slow his breathing. He heard the beast above him snort and felt the grounds tremble as it stepped back to better check where Askaran had vanished.
A new roar reached him, that of winged demons. The thump of the enormous feet shook Askaran's hiding place as the colossus demon faced the new threat.
Peeking out from the cloak, Askaran saw that Aton had Shifted, his tattoo marking his shoulders clearly even through the scales of the demon form. He was flattered and baffled, not understanding why any Shifter would risk his lives to retrieve him when he was only a citizen.
The behemoth did not bother to defend himself from Aton's strike, the Shifter's horns not strong enough to pierce the hide of a colossus demon. The demon lashed out, cutting into Aton's skull. Only the thick plates over the winged demon's shoulders and head prevented Aton's skull from being crushed.
Aton drew back, and the colossus demon followed.
Something grabbed Askaran's back. Unable to fly well, Moswan tilted heavily as he lifted Askaran out from the dune and dragged him into the sky. Behind them, Aton continued to draw the colossus demon off.
Raised above the dunes by the winged demon carrying him, Askaran spotted one particular old wound over the back of the colossus demon. The fresher injury had striped the scales from the spine, exposing raw muscle over the shoulders.
Jabare had said to be smart when doing battle with a demon. If Askaran had any chance at killing the monster now, he would take it.
He twisted sharply, slipping from Moswan's hold. Landing atop the colossus, he scrambled to find purchase on the scales. The demon paused in apparent confusion, giving Askaran just enough time to get his feet under him.
He ran up the stooped back, slipping and nearly dropping his kukri after half a dozen steps. He caught himself astride the beast, the wounded area just within reach.
Askaran drove his kukri through the broken scales, slipping the thin edge between the bones and right into the spine. Too late, Askaran realized the wound would bleed black and he, not yet a Shifter, would be exposed.
The colossus demon arched backward, roaring in outrage. Askaran tried to hold onto the kukri for balance, but the black blood made his grip slip and he fell instead. He bounced off the side of its leg and felt something cut into his shoulder before he landed in the hard, crimson sand.
The beast roared again, flailing, but Askaran could only watch. Winded and bleeding from his shoulder, he saw the colossus demon thrash, then collapse. One winged demon moved in, his shoulder markings identifying him as Aton. The Shifter's horns cut into the thinner scales around the chin and eyes of the colossus beast.
The demon threw up its arm and tossed Aton back, leaving the Shifter with a chunk of black mane caught on his horn.
Black blood oozing from its face, the colossus demon staggered to its feet and limped into retreat.
Askaran struggled to sit up from the sands and failed, pain first coming from his back then from his shoulder. Moswan appeared over him, naked in Ennead form. He had a bruise entirely covering his tattooed shoulder, but only had a few other scratches that oozed in black blood.
The Shifter said something but Askaran could not make out the words.
Fog filled the midday light. Askaran tried to rub his eyes, only to find his hands would not move. The haze darkened, looking like distant clouds obscuring one of the moons. He tasted iron on his tongue like a mouthful of sand and felt the pressure in his head intensify.
As he lost sight, Askaran had the sudden feeling of being watched and, like a ranna beast faced by a predator, he trembled.
The soul of a colossus demon charged into his mind, tossing Askaran to the very edge of his own consciousness.
Aziza had coached him on fighting the part of a demon's soul that came with its blood. He knew he needed to bring his thoughts into focus and form a cage for the demon, releasing it only when he wanted its form. But the beast was ten times stronger than any hound or winged demon. No Shifter could hold back a colossus demon.
For the sake of his life and sanity, Askaran had to try.
He pushed back in his mind, squaring himself to do battle with the soul that would either obey him or destroy him.
###
With two Shifters wounded but no longer bleeding, Aziza returned to the City. Despite her group slaying three groups of demons, she knew more still approached. Her team was too worn to fight them now, and the loss of Kosey had broken their spirits. They needed the rest of the Shifters.
The Shifters of the City met Aziza at the gate, and Aziza blamed the Rose. Since the others had Shifted to demon forms that would be invisible to the woman and her mind hekau, Aziza assumed that she alone had been watched by the Rose from afar.
She climbed the City's sandstone walls to a vantage point over the gate, the younger generation on her heel. She was unsurprised to be met atop the parapet by the Rose, her black eyes seeing through her and into the days beyond. A Rose could not see the demons, but Aziza saw the fear in the woman's gaze. She understood the threat to the City.
Atop the walls, Aziza looked out, her heart heavy. The gates had been closed and the fields emptied. Livestock had been brought in. Only the runners had been left along the border of the pasture, and one had already marked their white post with a mirror, warning of a demon's approach.
"Rose," she said, "please gather the people indoors. This is a battle only Shifters may fight."
The Rose nodded. "It will be done," she promised.
Aziza addressed her Shifters next. "Get a Shifter to each vantage point and a runner to each gate. I will need reports of their approaches from all sides."
One of the younger Shifters left to gather the people Aziza had requested.
"The rest of you, arm yourselves and prepare for a siege. Set cleaning kits outside the walls and inside the gates. Spare food and water should be left for us there."
Once it became clear there would be no further instructions, they began to file down. No one spoke. This siege would be their first. Aziza had to ensure it was not their last.
When Aziza moved from the edge of the vantage point, she found the Rose still behind her.
"You did not ask me why I came to speak with you," the woman said, her golden hands folded in front of her.
"I was distracted," Aziza said tersely. "My apologies."
The Rose accepted her insincere apology with a nod. "I came because I cannot see you beyond this point, Aziza. Like your son, you are gone from my sight."
"I know--" Aziza stopped, her heart skipping a beat. "Like my son? Askaran? What has happened to--" A lump formed in Aziza's throat.
Aton arrived at Aziza's side silently, and she turned to him. He had been wounded, scrapes and bruising covering his back. One large gash ran from the top of his head to his brow.
"You found more demons," Aziza guessed, her breath short, "but survived. Where is Moswan? Where is Askaran?"
Aton glanced at the Rose as if seeking approval. When she nodded at him, he said softly, "Askaran's wound will heal, but he battles for dominance now." Aton paused, and the silence was thick. "Aziza, he was wounded by the colossus demon."
Although she had not thought it possible, the air grew heavier still.
Every word felt like a stab into her stomach, but Aziza choked them out. "Cut his throat. Then bring Moswan back here to help."
She turned away from Aton, not wanting to see his face. As one of the more senior Shifters, Aton had performed this duty before, although not against a potential Shifter. It was a mercy, one she would not deny her son, but it tore at her.
"He's not lost yet," Aton argued, stepping in front of her and softening his voice further. "He could--"
Aziza turned her gaze onto the Shifter. "No one has ever taken on a colossus demon," she said.
"Exactly!" Aton said. "We do not know what will happen! We do not--"
"The path is split," the Rose said, and Aton's sentence fell off. "He sleeps in nightmares. His soul is broken, now and forever." She blinked and the flickering gold in her black eyes settled. "And I cannot see him."
Aziza felt the rush of the demon under her skin, as if the words themselves were an attack. She pushed it back, then breathed deeply. She was still fighting the rise of anger when the Rose turned and left Aziza on the parapet without another word.
It was impossible. Holding back any demon's soul taxed the strongest minds. A colossus demon would have a will to crush even the best of them. Askaran, like so many before him, was lost.
Looking out into the fields, Aziza saw a second mirror set atop one of the marker pillars, warning of danger. A runner was approaching, carrying details of the threat.
She did not have time for Aton to retrieve Moswan now. She had to hope Moswan would have the sense to kill Askaran before letting him fall to the demon.
"Join the others in defense of the City," Aziza commanded Aton. "Askaran's fate is not in my hands."
Aton left at a run.
When the siege was over and the colossus general was dead, she would walk in the footsteps of her brethren, lost forever in the sands. Her time was over, that much was certain. Perhaps, somewhere out there, she would find her many dead sons.
###
Askaran had expected darkness. His trances had brought him into deep silence, lost in shadows and stillness. But here, he was surrounded by noise: the call of a bird he did not know, the rush of water nearby, the clatter of an animal in the canopy above, the slither of one in the fallen leaves below.
The light was not Maun's white nor Ero's red, but a strange orange. It fell in tiny columns through the forest canopy, where insects gathered and added their buzz to the cacophony. The air was as hot as the desert's, but stagnant and wet, turning into sweat as soon as Askaran breathed it in. He thought he had walked into a mural in the training hall, but he had never expected the humid heat to so differ from the dry of his home.
He did not know when he had come into the jungle, nor how to escape it. He knew only that he was being hunted.
The demon stalked him through the underbrush, laughing as Askaran tried to find a safe place to pause, to think. He followed the sound of water. He was met by a cliff and waterfall. When the demon came up behind him, he leapt from the cliff, plunging deep into the cool waters far below.
He heard the behemoth bellow after him.
The familiar darkness of the water brought Askaran peace. He knew this was not real. Nanterac was harsh and dry. This was an illusion of the mind, and not his own. He had never seen the jungles of their homeworld. He had never imagined them in such detail.
He was trapped in the mind of the demon.
Aziza had said to create a cage, contain the demon, but how could he build a cage so large, or one strong enough to hold this soul?
A claw snatching him by his shoulder, Askaran was dragged from the depths. Grasped in the fist of the demon, he was lifted into the air and brought face to face with the colossus itself.
In staring into the demon's red eyes, each the size of his head, Askaran felt his terror break. If he could not run, he would fight.
He twisted in the grip of the demon, slipping loose. He knew the drop to the ground should have broken his legs, but the jungle floor cushioned him. As soon as he landed, Askaran sprinted at the beast's legs, slamming himself into one.
The demon stumbled. Askaran staggered back, surprised.
The demon reached down for him, claws now brandished. Askaran rolled clear, after than the larger beast. Finding a branch as he rose, he armed himself. When the demon advanced, Askaran dodged under its grab and struck it in the knee, a knee he had not been able to reach only a moment before.
The demon's leg buckled. Askaran slammed the stick into its shoulder as it came into reach.
Pain shot down Askaran's arm from the wound he had forgotten on his shoulder. His weapon fell from his hand. He thought he heard the clink of his kukri hitting the tiled floor of the training hall.
His mind was still here, he realized. His memories were not lost. There was enough of him left to fight with.
Askaran retreated to the deep pool at the base of the falls behind him, watching the demon right itself. He felt the realization hit them both at the same time: his back to the water, Askaran was trapped. The ground dropped quickly away under the falls.
"Come get me!" Askaran shouted over the roar of the water. "I am Ennead! I am what you want! Come get me!"
The demon waded in, stopping at the edge of the drop when Askaran swam out of reach.
Askaran dove under, hearing the water mute the bellows of frustration the demon gave. Then, circling behind the beast while under water, Askaran planted his feet against the riverbed and shoved against the demon's feet.
It slipped forward off the underwater cliff and was submerged.
Now, Askaran thought as he dove after it, he would find out if demons could swim.
###
With dawn, demons attacked the City. With sunset, they retreated. Three times, the walls of the City were breached, and the Shifters spilled black blood within the walls. By night, they scrubbed the streets, singing songs as they worked. The rhymes reminded Aziza of old friends, long since gone, who had built the traditions of the Last City.
Come morning, the Shifters presented themselves to Aziza in readiness. Even those broken and bruised came. Only the dead were forgiven for their weakness.
On the second day, Aziza spotted the shadow of the colossus demon, the one that had damned her son, on the southern rise. It did not approach but paced the markers of the field, sending lesser demons in to soften the Shifters. She was certain it had let itself be seen solely to tempt her. While it waited for the Shifters to be worn down, Aziza waited for the behemoth to run out of fodder.
On the third day, a tusked demon attacked. Six Shifters died bringing it down, but it was not allowed to enter the City. That evening, Aziza felt desperation setting in. Only eleven of her Shifters remained, and all were wounded. The strongest of them was a winged demon: Jabare.
The colossus demon appeared once more on the horizon in the dawn.
Black blood was better spilled in the sand of the desert, where the winds could carry it away.
She left behind two Shifters and equipped the rest with sand cloaks. As prepared as they could be, they went seeking the colossus.
As Aziza heard the gates close behind her, she realized she may have misunderstood the Rose after all. Her demon was screaming in her mind, distracting her and driving her battle rage. While she had expected death, if she Shifted and lost control, she would also be lost to the sight of the Desert Rose. She would be one more demon.
Death was preferred, but which would come first?
Luzige volunteered to bait the lesser demons, freeing the other Shifters to attack the colossus. When they asked him why, the boy said, "I am little use against the large one, but as an Ennead I am a tempting target, and I am fast."
It reminded Aziza too much of Askaran.
Using their cloaks, the Shifters hid in the sands beyond the white markers of the field and slowly approached their target. When they were within sight of the colossus, Luzige broke from cover and ran into the desert.
The smaller demons were faster than the colossus, quickly passing between the other Shifters in pursuit of Luzige, who Shifted to flee. Aziza was impressed with the boy's control; when he felt he was losing their interest, he Shifted back. His golden skin flashed in the light of the dual suns, and the demons were drawn in once more, desperate for the blood of an Ennead.
The earth shook when the colossus moved down the slope towards the hidden Shifters. Knowing the others were waiting for her, Aziza did not move until the demon had reached the lower valley of the dunes, then she peered around her sand cloak cautiously. She was surprised to see the colossus favoring its right arm, dried black blood clinging to its face, mane and shoulder. The glint of metal shone from between the creature's shoulder blades.
Aziza spotted the kukri caught in the scales over the spine. Even at a distance, she recognized the blade as the ones she had given Askaran for his hunt. She had carved the bone handle herself.
Seeing the demon was now surrounded by her hidden Shifters, Aziza threw off her sand cloak and Shifted.
Her body felt stretched, her skin going black and thickening to bone-hard scales. Her demon roared out of its cage, straining the leash Aziza formed for it. It first lashed out at Aziza and seemed to slip her hold. Aziza tightened her grip and brought the full force of her hekau against it.
The colossus had to die. Then, and only then, could her hold on her demon weaken.
With red eyes, she brought her stare onto the colossus and forced the demon to attack the enemy of the Last City of the Ennead.
The other Shifters followed her into battle without hesitation. Winged and hound demons rose from the sands in all directions.
Aziza clamped her teeth around the foot of the colossus and pulled, while Jabare and Seb leapt onto its front. The demon brought its good arm up, tossing Seb aside before the Shifter could land. Alone, the weight of Jabare was not enough to knock it down.
The demon kicked, crushing a Shifter who had gone for the other foot. Aziza released her hold just as the demon made to lift its foot and instead, anchoring herself with her teeth, raked into the back of the demon's knee with all four of her limbs. She saw the beast reach for her with its claws and dropped low, dodging. Her attack, blocked by the impossibly thick scales of the colossus, had failed to draw blood.
The kukri's blade caught the low light of the white sun, and Aziza realized Askaran had been right to strike there, where the scales were already wounded.
She charged up the demon, using the tail as a ladder to reach the back. Under her feet, the tail slammed Seb where he had landed and caved in the Shifter's ribcage. She thought she saw Seb take a single breath before the colossus demon stomped down on the body.
Keeping to the beast's wounded right side, Aziza moved with the demon as it turned and stomped. Jabare appeared again, his plated skull protecting him from the demon's tail. He managed to ram his horns into the demon's underside and black blood oozed out.
Aziza thought to Shift back to Ennead to better use the kukri here, where it was useful, but there was no controlling her demon now. Her commands were only ideas to be acted upon by her demon if it deigned to.
She focused on how painful it would be to have the kukri sink deeper into the spine and willed her demon to accept her command.
Aziza's demon slammed both of her front feet into the buried kukri. The colossus demon howled and bucked lopsidedly, falling onto the right side as its limbs went into spasm. Aziza was tossed from its back and landed in a nearby dune.
By the time she, still in her hound form, had shaken off the sand, the colossus demon had recovered and was atop of her. The claws crashed down, pinning her to the stone through the dune in one impossible grip.
It tightened its hold, crushing her.
###
When Askaran emerged from the water, he dragged an Ennead body with him. He lay for long moments on the rocks beside the jungle river, the unconscious body beside him. Although he was no longer surrounded by water, his mind still felt like it was adrift in the currents below the waterfall.
The demon was an Ennead, a simple hunter lost in the poisoned blood.
Askaran had known since infancy that only a Shifter could be touched by black blood and live, but no one had told him how an Ennead would die, should they contact a demon's blood. No one had told him about this.
The demon was Ennead. Had all demons once been Ennead?
As he lay on the warm rocks, Askaran remembered the Shifters on the hunt with him warning of parties of demons moving against the City. He remembered the expression on his mother's face, responsibility falling on her, and her love for her people breaking her heart as the threat became known.
If demons breached the City, the last of the Enneads would become the very beasts they battled.
The body lying beside Askaran stirred. "Kill…" it muttered, its accent thick. "Kill…release…"
Before the thought was completed, the body began to change back into a demon. Askaran rolled to his feet, looking for a weapon. He found a new branch.
The colossus demon reformed, but only at half its previous height.
No, not smaller, Askaran realized. Askaran was bigger, the strength of his hekau taking form in the foreign world.
He would not let any demon enter his City. This demon's soul was his.
###
The clawed grip closed over Aziza, forcing the air from her lungs. One rib cracked, then a second, and Aziza saw sparks behind her eyes.
The world suddenly tilted, and Aziza was tossed into the sands. She gasped for air, trying to rise to face the colossus demon but finding the ground under her feet too unstable. The demon within her had lost focus and was scrambling. For a moment, Aziza was again in control.
The colossus demon was facing a second colossus. The new demon had a large gash over its shoulder, right where a Shifter would typically bear a tattoo, but was otherwise strangely unscarred.
Stumbling as the ground rocked, Aziza tried to make sense of the scene. Colossus demons were territorial but once one became a general, it would command others. Only if two generals were at odds did…
Aziza caught sight of the kukri still imbedded in the back of one of the colossus demons. A new possibility dawned on her.
"Askaran?" she choked out.
Perhaps it had not been so impossible.
Without one arm, the first demon was rapidly losing against the new Shifter. It turned to flee, but Askaran was relentless. Aziza herself had taught Askaran the law of the City; once a demon had seen the City, it could not be allowed to escape.
Askaran caught the enemy's tail and pulled the wounded beast back, digging deep clefts through its scales with his claws. He pounced atop the fallen colossus demon, his enormous teeth ripping through mane. With one crushing bite, he tore out the demon's throat.
Once the dust cleared on the desert winds, only one demon remained. His opponent had been reduced to sun-bleached bones in death.
The hound demon that was Aziza growled. She tried to shut out the raging beast within her, fighting to convert herself back to Ennead, but the demon was too filled with battle lust to obey.
Through red eyes, she saw the colossus demon change, shrinking down into an Ennead. For a moment, the hound demon within Aziza rebelled, desperate to kill something and teased by the presence of an Ennead. The deep hunger of the hound demon rose to a fevered pitch.
But this was not just any Ennead. This was Askaran. This was her son.
Something changed in the demon as recognition took hold. As if the beast understood, the hound demon relented, and Aziza felt herself take her Ennead form.
She had no words at first but embraced Askaran. At length, she released him, and Aziza studied her son anew. She saw darkness in his eyes now, knowledge tearing at him.
"You know where the demons come from," she said.
Askaran nodded miserably.
"Then you understand why we must never tell the people. When the City falls, the knowledge would cause hysteria. It would--"
"If it falls," Askaran corrected.
Aziza smiled, surprised at how foreign the gesture felt. "Perhaps with you now defending them, it will be 'if'," she said. With shaking hands, Aziza retrieved her kukris and pushed them into his hands. He looked down at them as if puzzled by the touch of wood in his hand.
Jabare had recovered enough to Shift back and was now joining them. The demon in Aziza rose aggressively at seeing someone else.
"Don't let the Rose tell you what to do," she told Askaran quickly. Before she could change her mind, Aziza turned her back on her son and walked away.
"I'm sorry I left you with so little to defend the City," she called over her shoulder. "You can make it work!"
Before she was out of earshot, she heard Jabare reach Askaran's side.
"Come on," the older Shifter said. "Let's get cleaned up and get back to the City." Aziza could hear the laugh in Jabare's voice as he added, "I can't wait to see the Rose's face when I introduce her to the first colossus demon Shifter! Do you think she'll faint?"
The desert slowly ate their conversation, surrounding Aziza with an embrace of scorching heat. Her demon struggled, but Aziza would not release it, not now.
She died as an Ennead, as a Shifter was meant to.
###
When next demons came to the City, the Rose called for Askaran, ready to demonstrate the prowess of their colossus Shifter.
He killed all three hound demons using only his kukris.
His mother stepped back, giving him a moment to catch his breath.
"You let me get too close," Aziza warned, disappointment heavy in her voice.
Askaran retrieved his kukri and slowly stood straight despite how much his ribs ached.
"Can't swing the blade at that range," he argued, eyeing his mother's kukris. While Askaran's were training blades, Aziza's were from the time before the Enneads had come to Nanterac and had wood handles. The silver inlays drew Askaran's eyes like a distracting mirror.
"Didn't need the blade, did I?" Aziza replied.
Askaran's ribs throbbed. Despite having been training among Shifters for most of his life, Aziza's strike had landed with more strength than Askaran had expected. Every time they sparred, she always found ways of surprising him.
He had to be faster. If he could not beat her, he would continue to be trapped in the Last City by her disapproval.
As he brought himself back into a defensive stance, Askaran saw another Ennead enter the room through the bead curtain, tracking in sand on his feet. Jabare had to duck through the ancient stone doorway.
The flat of his mother's kukri slammed into Askaran's ribs, exactly where the first punch had landed. He staggered back but did not drop his kukri this time.
"Keep your eyes on the enemy," Aziza snapped.
"You keep that up," Jabare quipped, his grin wide, "and your boy will be black and blue!" He laughed at his own joke.
Black, like the blood of a Shifter. But until Aziza permitted it, Askaran would not be allowed to test himself against a demon and prove he could become one of the Shifters at all.
Frustrated, he launched back into the spar. Aziza switched grips on her kukri and blocked his slash. With her fist, she punched at his bruised ribs. Expecting it, Askaran spun away, and the strike missed. He lashed out, copying his mother's blow perfectly. He slammed his fist into Aziza's lowest rib on her right.
Aziza grunted, and Askaran saw his mother's eyes flash red.
He withdrew immediately. All demons, even Shifters in demon form, had red eyes but Askaran had never seen the feature in an Ennead form.
By the time Aziza had straightened, her eyes were again an Ennead's normal black. Askaran glanced at Jabare in uncertainty, but he did not seem to have noticed. Jabare's eyes were on Askaran.
"You're quick, Askaran," Jabare said, his smile wide like that of the grinning winged demon tattooed on his shoulder.
Askaran raised his chin. "Ready to be out on a hunt," he said. He had managed to get a strike in. Even his earlier lapse could not steal that victory from him.
Aziza sheathed her kukris. "You are not ready," she said flatly. She turned from him, removing the wraps from her hands and signaling the end of the spar.
"I am a better fighter than most of the Shifters themselves!" Askaran protested, following her. The hound demon tattoo on her shoulder seemed to be laughing at him.
"The fact that you think your fighting skills have anything to do with your readiness tells me you are not ready," Aziza answered. "A Shifter must be more than just his weapons."
He wanted to throw the practice blades aside in exasperation but instead gripped them tighter. "Then why bother with this?" Askaran snarled as he placed the kukris on their shelf with deliberate effort. "If I am to be a Shifter, I will have claws and teeth, not blades! I will not need blades!"
He regretted his outburst immediately. Aziza was the last of the Enneads from Terac, the eldest of the Shifters, and the only female among them. She was strength incarnate and carried the wisdom of centuries. Not even one of her children was permitted to defy her.
But today Aziza simply shook her head. Askaran sensed something broken in her words.
"There may be a time when you will not be able to Shift," she said. "You must be ready for that." Squaring her shoulders, Aziza looked down at Askaran. "Now go to the training grounds and trance. You will be finished when you can tell me what matters more than the kukri in our defenses of the City."
Askaran already knew the answer, but Jabare was shaking his head subtly, warning him off. Accepting that his cousin was probably right, Askaran stormed out of the hall, the bead curtain rattling in his wake.
###
Once Askaran was out of earshot, Aziza let her shoulders lower. Jabare knew enough not to be intimidated by sheer strength. She could trust him.
"What's this about a time when you will not be able to Shift?" Jabare asked delicately, his typically joshing voice serious. "I've not heard that one before."
Aziza clenched the hilt of one of her kukris as she let out a breath, but the touch of the wood did not comfort her. Along the walls, murals of jungles and wild mammals reached out to her, some with enough detail that, in the right light, they seemed to move. She focused on them, knowing she had no reply for Jabare.
"The younger Shifters started rumors, wondering why you haven't Shifted for a while, Aziza." Jabare added, following her as she ran a hand over a mural. He hesitated, pausing for a moment behind her. "Aziza," he called, "are you thinking of walking into the sands?"
Aziza paused and Jabare joined her. A shaggy ranna beast looked at them from the wall, the stone eyes glittering in gold to match Aziza and Jabare's skin.
"Might have to," she confessed. "Better to do it when I still can control the demon."
Jabare frowned. "We will carry on," he said solemnly. "We can take care of the City."
Aziza nodded weakly. "I know," she said. Trying to deny the need for her departure was futile and, worse, dangerous.
Jabare fell into step beside her as they continued to circle the sparring ring. "Is that why you train Askaran as your own? As your last?" he asked. "You never showed preference to one of your line before."
"Jabare, I have lost the last three of my sons," Aziza replied. "Perhaps I failed to share my gift with them, and they had no chance at all of becoming a Shifter. Or perhaps they were too weak of will. I do not wish that to be Askaran's fate."
A new voice joined them. "If you do not let him go on a hunt soon, you will not be there to see him try."
Aziza froze, her hand on a pillar wound with stone vines. Beside the pillar stood the Elder Rose, a woman of thirty. Her white jellabiya hung plainly over her thin frame, her black eyes like basalt stone. Unlike many of the Ennead, her gold skin was entirely unblemished by tattoos.
"I had that feeling, Rose," Aziza said, bowing her head respectfully.
The younger woman's eyes glittered as she looked at Aziza, and Aziza felt old down to her bones. This was the future of the Ennead, not her. The Roses saw the future in ways Aziza never had, the hekau of their mind stronger than any before them.
"A trial awaits us all," the Rose said. "It would be best if you attend to it."
Trying to show deference, Aziza nodded. "What do you require?" she asked.
The younger woman did not focus her eyes as she answered; "The time for hunting is now, Aziza. Askaran's time has come."
"He is not ready," Aziza objected.
"But the deserts of Nanterac are ready for him," the Rose said, her confidence unflappable.
Aziza felt the demon within her territorially lift its hackles and had to stop herself from growling. Her demon was a small hound demon and had never been motivated enough to challenge anyone. Now, it gained strength.
The Roses were blind to demons, and even Aziza's little hound demon knew it. How dare the Rose dictate the affairs of Shifters?
Since coming to Nanterac, the hekau had divided: mind and body; female and male; Desert Rose and Shifter. The sacred Desert Roses were embodiment of mind hekau now, leaving Shifters only the powers of the body.
Aziza was a Shifter, her mind hekau weakening under the onslaught of the demon's presence. She had to defer to the Rose's will.
"Then I will see it done," she said, not trusting herself to say more.
The Rose left but signaled that Jabare was to come with her.
Aziza tried to lose herself in the murals of forest canopies and waterfalls. Memories of humid air and thick rain flooded in, but she could no longer tell which hers were and which belonged to the demon.
The Rose's voice was a whisper, but the hound demon within Aziza heard it clearly.
"Stay with her, Jabare. Be ready."
Jabare's beast was a winged demon, stronger than the weak hound demon, but Aziza did not know who would win a contest between them. She hoped she would never find out yet sensed it too: she was out of time.
###
As surprised as he had been to be summoned out to the hunt outside of the City, Askaran had not asked questions, fearing his hesitation might change Aziza's mind.
They left the Last City in the dawn, the light of Mour, the white sun, reaching over the horizon. Music from the bone flutes followed them out, the citizens of the City waving stained linens in their honor. Childhood friends, abandoned when his training began, embraced Askaran as if it would be their last contact.
The smaller sun Ero crested the horizon, changing the light to red and intensifying the heat as the party reached the white markers.
Askaran paused at the white pillars, his sand clock flapping against his legs. Behind him, the irrigated fields of the City reached to the walls. Ahead, the red sands of the desert took over. Already, the wind was cutting them with the metal shards of the sand, even through their cloaks.
Jabare halted at his side while the rest of the six Shifters walked on, unconcerned. Aziza was already climbing the first of the dunes ahead.
"You're allowed beyond," Jabare said with a laugh. "You're in the company of a Shifter. Rather a lot of us, actually."
Askaran smiled and, lifting his sandaled foot, took his first step beyond the City's protected grounds.
His calves were throbbing from walking on the sands by the time they stopped for the midday heat, taking shelter using their cloaks. He slept but was awakened as dusk fell. They walked into the night.
After two days, Askaran and Jabare set camp at an oasis far enough that the activity of demons would bring no threat to the City. The others came to the edges of the water, each picking a side and so a direction. They turned their backs and walked off into the sands.
"Two days," Askaran said aloud, watching them. His heart skipped excitedly. "But what are we to do for two days, Jabare?"
"Until they return," Jabare said, "I keep training you."
Askaran adjusted his weight on his feet, testing the sand. Some of the rock made good footing around the oasis, but risked spoiling the waters if he fell in. The sand was sliding, and his legs already ached.
Still, he reached for his kukris in readiness for a spar. He was disappointed when Jabare said, "No sparring. Trance, Askaran. Prove to me you can."
Bitterly, Askaran dropped into a seat in the bank.
"You sound like Aziza," he pined.
"I know," Jabare replied. "Just don't tell her that."
With the water nearby, it was easy for Askaran to sink into the trance. He had always envisioned it as diving deep underwater, like the game of diving into the aquifer under the City, the very game that had taken up much of his childhood. How deep could he go? For how long?
The memory of the chill of the water brought him instant calm. It was this peace he would need when a demon's soul tried to steal his mind away.
Assuming, he thought, that he carried the Shifter's blood. He was Aziza's last child, but none knew if he could become Shifter. And if he was not a Shifter by nature, then the very blood he sought to key him to a demon's form would instead kill him.
He felt sick, and he opened his eyes, the hot wind of the desert sweeping away the calm of his trance.
"There," Jabare said. "By your expression, I think it finally sank in."
Askaran clenched his jaws, fighting nausea and--a new thing--fear. He dared not release his teeth to reply.
Jabare sat beside him, chuckling. "Happens to us all. Just remember you need to survive the mixing of bloods. If you let the demon kill you, you're still dead. So don't go running in. Be smart about it."
Releasing his breath carefully, Askaran asked, "What if I'm not meant to be Shifter?"
Jabare shrugged. "Then it'll kill you as surely as it kills any Ennead. You chose this path, Askaran. Now it is up to fate."
###
Aziza spent her time walking in the desert, restless. The other Shifters were seeking a demon for Askaran, and she should have been helping, but her thoughts were too scattered. She felt drawn back towards the City, yet new it was too soon to return. Something about the waves of the desert made her hesitate.
She could not travel far without Shifting and that, she was certain, was something she dared not do.
On the second day, she returned to the camp. She sensed hesitation in Askaran now, but it was masked by excitement. A rash youth despite her best efforts, he was keen to take on the demon that may kill him. Sitting by the cooking sunshields, Aziza listened as Aton arrived from the west. As Aton reported, Moswan joined them from east.
"Hound demons," Aton said. "Pack of three. Moving towards the City, but they would be easy to catch."
Aziza saw Askaran's face fall. Of all the demons, hound was the least.
"Bigger demons might look more impressive," Jabare, Askaran's mudarris for the hunt, said, "but there is nothing shameful about a hound demon!" Jabare was staring at Aziza as he spoke.
"Hound?" Moswan said, squinting at Aton. "I thought you went west."
"I did," Aton replied, his black eyes narrowing in mirror. "Why?" The winged demon tattoo on his shoulder flexed.
Moswan leaned back, frowning. "Because I found a pack of three hound demons, but in the east."
Hearing a crunch in the dawn, Aziza looked up to see Luzige arriving from the edge of the oasis.
"And a pair of winged demons in the south," Luzige added, couching among them.
Aziza's feeling of restlessness intensified. It usually took days to find a single demon for a hunt. To find eight…
"The hunt is over," Aziza said. "Moswan and Aton, take Askaran to the City directly. The rest of us will swing east first and slay the hound demons there. We will meet at the City."
The last of them, Kosey, arrived down from the north slope as Aziza gave the directions.
"Leaving, are we?" Kosey asked as the others rose to gather the supplies. "Well I hope you're not thinking about going north! I found the trail of a colossus demon. We are too few to be…"
Everyone froze. Kosey's words trailed off as he recognized the growing terror on the faces around him.
"Impossible," Jabare muttered from the cooking pit. "There have been no colossus generals on—"
"Pack up!" Aziza snapped. Her demon raised its hackles and she had to close her eyes to control it. The pull she had felt became all the more potent. Now, she recognized it. She had scented the colossus demon without knowing.
She forced her words out one at a time. "We are needed at the City swiftly."
She opened her eyes and the sweep of her gaze pushed them on. The Shifters scrambled back to their tasks.
Before the white sun had fully cleared the horizon, the Shifters had each grabbed a bite of food and were leaving the oasis, trying to travel as far as they could before the heat forced them into cover.
As the two parties split, Aziza paused to look at the trio she had sent home. The Shifters took their demon forms, skipping along the sands easily on four limbs instead of two and no longer needing the protection of cloaks. Askaran, walking behind them, carried the light clothing for the Shifters.
The Rose had been wrong, Aziza decided. She had, in this, failed him.
She would not see Askaran's hunt.
###
Askaran and his escort pushed on through the day but, by high noon, were stopped by the heat of the double suns.
He stood watch while Moswan and Aton rested, having been up overnight and now the day. Despite taking shelter by rocky outcroppings, the heat was enough to make him feel like he was breathing in a furnace.
He wondered how the others were faring, knowing the team of winged and hound demons would easily kill the pack they had found. Once they returned to the City, Askaran would ask what a colossus general was. He knew the colossus demon-- the king of all demons-- but had never seen one. Colossus demons were lured away from the City, not fought. Too many Shifters had died under their claws.
The desert fell silent in the midday heat, the wind and sand the only sound.
A rumble reached Askaran's ears. At first, he thought it was a storm, but he could find no sign of cloud haze on any horizon. It was not until he saw a horn rising over a dune that he realized the rumble was running steps.
He had only a heartbeat to react. Shouting for Aton and Moswan to rise, Askaran charged towards the demon. He didn't remember drawing his kukris, but they were in hand immediately.
The enormous demon grew as it charged him. It was scaled and hairy, with a thick, maned head. The horns atop its head were as tall as an Ennead. It had been scarred by previous battles, each a white cleft along its red-scaled hide. It roared when it spotted him, a sound that nearly terrified him into inaction.
This was no common demon. This was the colossus itself.
Askaran turned tightly, quickly losing his footing in the sand. He took to sliding down the slope, drawing the demon away. The others could escape. Winged demons were faster than this behemoth. They were needed at the City.
The shadow of the demon loomed over him as he reached the bottom of the dune, and Askaran flung himself wide to dodge a claw. Instead of flesh, the demon raked into sand, digging a deep furrow and exposing rock. Askaran let the slopes carry him, his sand cloak snatching up pebbles as he tumbled. Soon he was entirely covered by the sand cloak, the unique metals of its weave holding onto the iron sands over him and concealing his scent.
Askaran lay flat and tried to slow his breathing. He heard the beast above him snort and felt the grounds tremble as it stepped back to better check where Askaran had vanished.
A new roar reached him, that of winged demons. The thump of the enormous feet shook Askaran's hiding place as the colossus demon faced the new threat.
Peeking out from the cloak, Askaran saw that Aton had Shifted, his tattoo marking his shoulders clearly even through the scales of the demon form. He was flattered and baffled, not understanding why any Shifter would risk his lives to retrieve him when he was only a citizen.
The behemoth did not bother to defend himself from Aton's strike, the Shifter's horns not strong enough to pierce the hide of a colossus demon. The demon lashed out, cutting into Aton's skull. Only the thick plates over the winged demon's shoulders and head prevented Aton's skull from being crushed.
Aton drew back, and the colossus demon followed.
Something grabbed Askaran's back. Unable to fly well, Moswan tilted heavily as he lifted Askaran out from the dune and dragged him into the sky. Behind them, Aton continued to draw the colossus demon off.
Raised above the dunes by the winged demon carrying him, Askaran spotted one particular old wound over the back of the colossus demon. The fresher injury had striped the scales from the spine, exposing raw muscle over the shoulders.
Jabare had said to be smart when doing battle with a demon. If Askaran had any chance at killing the monster now, he would take it.
He twisted sharply, slipping from Moswan's hold. Landing atop the colossus, he scrambled to find purchase on the scales. The demon paused in apparent confusion, giving Askaran just enough time to get his feet under him.
He ran up the stooped back, slipping and nearly dropping his kukri after half a dozen steps. He caught himself astride the beast, the wounded area just within reach.
Askaran drove his kukri through the broken scales, slipping the thin edge between the bones and right into the spine. Too late, Askaran realized the wound would bleed black and he, not yet a Shifter, would be exposed.
The colossus demon arched backward, roaring in outrage. Askaran tried to hold onto the kukri for balance, but the black blood made his grip slip and he fell instead. He bounced off the side of its leg and felt something cut into his shoulder before he landed in the hard, crimson sand.
The beast roared again, flailing, but Askaran could only watch. Winded and bleeding from his shoulder, he saw the colossus demon thrash, then collapse. One winged demon moved in, his shoulder markings identifying him as Aton. The Shifter's horns cut into the thinner scales around the chin and eyes of the colossus beast.
The demon threw up its arm and tossed Aton back, leaving the Shifter with a chunk of black mane caught on his horn.
Black blood oozing from its face, the colossus demon staggered to its feet and limped into retreat.
Askaran struggled to sit up from the sands and failed, pain first coming from his back then from his shoulder. Moswan appeared over him, naked in Ennead form. He had a bruise entirely covering his tattooed shoulder, but only had a few other scratches that oozed in black blood.
The Shifter said something but Askaran could not make out the words.
Fog filled the midday light. Askaran tried to rub his eyes, only to find his hands would not move. The haze darkened, looking like distant clouds obscuring one of the moons. He tasted iron on his tongue like a mouthful of sand and felt the pressure in his head intensify.
As he lost sight, Askaran had the sudden feeling of being watched and, like a ranna beast faced by a predator, he trembled.
The soul of a colossus demon charged into his mind, tossing Askaran to the very edge of his own consciousness.
Aziza had coached him on fighting the part of a demon's soul that came with its blood. He knew he needed to bring his thoughts into focus and form a cage for the demon, releasing it only when he wanted its form. But the beast was ten times stronger than any hound or winged demon. No Shifter could hold back a colossus demon.
For the sake of his life and sanity, Askaran had to try.
He pushed back in his mind, squaring himself to do battle with the soul that would either obey him or destroy him.
###
With two Shifters wounded but no longer bleeding, Aziza returned to the City. Despite her group slaying three groups of demons, she knew more still approached. Her team was too worn to fight them now, and the loss of Kosey had broken their spirits. They needed the rest of the Shifters.
The Shifters of the City met Aziza at the gate, and Aziza blamed the Rose. Since the others had Shifted to demon forms that would be invisible to the woman and her mind hekau, Aziza assumed that she alone had been watched by the Rose from afar.
She climbed the City's sandstone walls to a vantage point over the gate, the younger generation on her heel. She was unsurprised to be met atop the parapet by the Rose, her black eyes seeing through her and into the days beyond. A Rose could not see the demons, but Aziza saw the fear in the woman's gaze. She understood the threat to the City.
Atop the walls, Aziza looked out, her heart heavy. The gates had been closed and the fields emptied. Livestock had been brought in. Only the runners had been left along the border of the pasture, and one had already marked their white post with a mirror, warning of a demon's approach.
"Rose," she said, "please gather the people indoors. This is a battle only Shifters may fight."
The Rose nodded. "It will be done," she promised.
Aziza addressed her Shifters next. "Get a Shifter to each vantage point and a runner to each gate. I will need reports of their approaches from all sides."
One of the younger Shifters left to gather the people Aziza had requested.
"The rest of you, arm yourselves and prepare for a siege. Set cleaning kits outside the walls and inside the gates. Spare food and water should be left for us there."
Once it became clear there would be no further instructions, they began to file down. No one spoke. This siege would be their first. Aziza had to ensure it was not their last.
When Aziza moved from the edge of the vantage point, she found the Rose still behind her.
"You did not ask me why I came to speak with you," the woman said, her golden hands folded in front of her.
"I was distracted," Aziza said tersely. "My apologies."
The Rose accepted her insincere apology with a nod. "I came because I cannot see you beyond this point, Aziza. Like your son, you are gone from my sight."
"I know--" Aziza stopped, her heart skipping a beat. "Like my son? Askaran? What has happened to--" A lump formed in Aziza's throat.
Aton arrived at Aziza's side silently, and she turned to him. He had been wounded, scrapes and bruising covering his back. One large gash ran from the top of his head to his brow.
"You found more demons," Aziza guessed, her breath short, "but survived. Where is Moswan? Where is Askaran?"
Aton glanced at the Rose as if seeking approval. When she nodded at him, he said softly, "Askaran's wound will heal, but he battles for dominance now." Aton paused, and the silence was thick. "Aziza, he was wounded by the colossus demon."
Although she had not thought it possible, the air grew heavier still.
Every word felt like a stab into her stomach, but Aziza choked them out. "Cut his throat. Then bring Moswan back here to help."
She turned away from Aton, not wanting to see his face. As one of the more senior Shifters, Aton had performed this duty before, although not against a potential Shifter. It was a mercy, one she would not deny her son, but it tore at her.
"He's not lost yet," Aton argued, stepping in front of her and softening his voice further. "He could--"
Aziza turned her gaze onto the Shifter. "No one has ever taken on a colossus demon," she said.
"Exactly!" Aton said. "We do not know what will happen! We do not--"
"The path is split," the Rose said, and Aton's sentence fell off. "He sleeps in nightmares. His soul is broken, now and forever." She blinked and the flickering gold in her black eyes settled. "And I cannot see him."
Aziza felt the rush of the demon under her skin, as if the words themselves were an attack. She pushed it back, then breathed deeply. She was still fighting the rise of anger when the Rose turned and left Aziza on the parapet without another word.
It was impossible. Holding back any demon's soul taxed the strongest minds. A colossus demon would have a will to crush even the best of them. Askaran, like so many before him, was lost.
Looking out into the fields, Aziza saw a second mirror set atop one of the marker pillars, warning of danger. A runner was approaching, carrying details of the threat.
She did not have time for Aton to retrieve Moswan now. She had to hope Moswan would have the sense to kill Askaran before letting him fall to the demon.
"Join the others in defense of the City," Aziza commanded Aton. "Askaran's fate is not in my hands."
Aton left at a run.
When the siege was over and the colossus general was dead, she would walk in the footsteps of her brethren, lost forever in the sands. Her time was over, that much was certain. Perhaps, somewhere out there, she would find her many dead sons.
###
Askaran had expected darkness. His trances had brought him into deep silence, lost in shadows and stillness. But here, he was surrounded by noise: the call of a bird he did not know, the rush of water nearby, the clatter of an animal in the canopy above, the slither of one in the fallen leaves below.
The light was not Maun's white nor Ero's red, but a strange orange. It fell in tiny columns through the forest canopy, where insects gathered and added their buzz to the cacophony. The air was as hot as the desert's, but stagnant and wet, turning into sweat as soon as Askaran breathed it in. He thought he had walked into a mural in the training hall, but he had never expected the humid heat to so differ from the dry of his home.
He did not know when he had come into the jungle, nor how to escape it. He knew only that he was being hunted.
The demon stalked him through the underbrush, laughing as Askaran tried to find a safe place to pause, to think. He followed the sound of water. He was met by a cliff and waterfall. When the demon came up behind him, he leapt from the cliff, plunging deep into the cool waters far below.
He heard the behemoth bellow after him.
The familiar darkness of the water brought Askaran peace. He knew this was not real. Nanterac was harsh and dry. This was an illusion of the mind, and not his own. He had never seen the jungles of their homeworld. He had never imagined them in such detail.
He was trapped in the mind of the demon.
Aziza had said to create a cage, contain the demon, but how could he build a cage so large, or one strong enough to hold this soul?
A claw snatching him by his shoulder, Askaran was dragged from the depths. Grasped in the fist of the demon, he was lifted into the air and brought face to face with the colossus itself.
In staring into the demon's red eyes, each the size of his head, Askaran felt his terror break. If he could not run, he would fight.
He twisted in the grip of the demon, slipping loose. He knew the drop to the ground should have broken his legs, but the jungle floor cushioned him. As soon as he landed, Askaran sprinted at the beast's legs, slamming himself into one.
The demon stumbled. Askaran staggered back, surprised.
The demon reached down for him, claws now brandished. Askaran rolled clear, after than the larger beast. Finding a branch as he rose, he armed himself. When the demon advanced, Askaran dodged under its grab and struck it in the knee, a knee he had not been able to reach only a moment before.
The demon's leg buckled. Askaran slammed the stick into its shoulder as it came into reach.
Pain shot down Askaran's arm from the wound he had forgotten on his shoulder. His weapon fell from his hand. He thought he heard the clink of his kukri hitting the tiled floor of the training hall.
His mind was still here, he realized. His memories were not lost. There was enough of him left to fight with.
Askaran retreated to the deep pool at the base of the falls behind him, watching the demon right itself. He felt the realization hit them both at the same time: his back to the water, Askaran was trapped. The ground dropped quickly away under the falls.
"Come get me!" Askaran shouted over the roar of the water. "I am Ennead! I am what you want! Come get me!"
The demon waded in, stopping at the edge of the drop when Askaran swam out of reach.
Askaran dove under, hearing the water mute the bellows of frustration the demon gave. Then, circling behind the beast while under water, Askaran planted his feet against the riverbed and shoved against the demon's feet.
It slipped forward off the underwater cliff and was submerged.
Now, Askaran thought as he dove after it, he would find out if demons could swim.
###
With dawn, demons attacked the City. With sunset, they retreated. Three times, the walls of the City were breached, and the Shifters spilled black blood within the walls. By night, they scrubbed the streets, singing songs as they worked. The rhymes reminded Aziza of old friends, long since gone, who had built the traditions of the Last City.
Come morning, the Shifters presented themselves to Aziza in readiness. Even those broken and bruised came. Only the dead were forgiven for their weakness.
On the second day, Aziza spotted the shadow of the colossus demon, the one that had damned her son, on the southern rise. It did not approach but paced the markers of the field, sending lesser demons in to soften the Shifters. She was certain it had let itself be seen solely to tempt her. While it waited for the Shifters to be worn down, Aziza waited for the behemoth to run out of fodder.
On the third day, a tusked demon attacked. Six Shifters died bringing it down, but it was not allowed to enter the City. That evening, Aziza felt desperation setting in. Only eleven of her Shifters remained, and all were wounded. The strongest of them was a winged demon: Jabare.
The colossus demon appeared once more on the horizon in the dawn.
Black blood was better spilled in the sand of the desert, where the winds could carry it away.
She left behind two Shifters and equipped the rest with sand cloaks. As prepared as they could be, they went seeking the colossus.
As Aziza heard the gates close behind her, she realized she may have misunderstood the Rose after all. Her demon was screaming in her mind, distracting her and driving her battle rage. While she had expected death, if she Shifted and lost control, she would also be lost to the sight of the Desert Rose. She would be one more demon.
Death was preferred, but which would come first?
Luzige volunteered to bait the lesser demons, freeing the other Shifters to attack the colossus. When they asked him why, the boy said, "I am little use against the large one, but as an Ennead I am a tempting target, and I am fast."
It reminded Aziza too much of Askaran.
Using their cloaks, the Shifters hid in the sands beyond the white markers of the field and slowly approached their target. When they were within sight of the colossus, Luzige broke from cover and ran into the desert.
The smaller demons were faster than the colossus, quickly passing between the other Shifters in pursuit of Luzige, who Shifted to flee. Aziza was impressed with the boy's control; when he felt he was losing their interest, he Shifted back. His golden skin flashed in the light of the dual suns, and the demons were drawn in once more, desperate for the blood of an Ennead.
The earth shook when the colossus moved down the slope towards the hidden Shifters. Knowing the others were waiting for her, Aziza did not move until the demon had reached the lower valley of the dunes, then she peered around her sand cloak cautiously. She was surprised to see the colossus favoring its right arm, dried black blood clinging to its face, mane and shoulder. The glint of metal shone from between the creature's shoulder blades.
Aziza spotted the kukri caught in the scales over the spine. Even at a distance, she recognized the blade as the ones she had given Askaran for his hunt. She had carved the bone handle herself.
Seeing the demon was now surrounded by her hidden Shifters, Aziza threw off her sand cloak and Shifted.
Her body felt stretched, her skin going black and thickening to bone-hard scales. Her demon roared out of its cage, straining the leash Aziza formed for it. It first lashed out at Aziza and seemed to slip her hold. Aziza tightened her grip and brought the full force of her hekau against it.
The colossus had to die. Then, and only then, could her hold on her demon weaken.
With red eyes, she brought her stare onto the colossus and forced the demon to attack the enemy of the Last City of the Ennead.
The other Shifters followed her into battle without hesitation. Winged and hound demons rose from the sands in all directions.
Aziza clamped her teeth around the foot of the colossus and pulled, while Jabare and Seb leapt onto its front. The demon brought its good arm up, tossing Seb aside before the Shifter could land. Alone, the weight of Jabare was not enough to knock it down.
The demon kicked, crushing a Shifter who had gone for the other foot. Aziza released her hold just as the demon made to lift its foot and instead, anchoring herself with her teeth, raked into the back of the demon's knee with all four of her limbs. She saw the beast reach for her with its claws and dropped low, dodging. Her attack, blocked by the impossibly thick scales of the colossus, had failed to draw blood.
The kukri's blade caught the low light of the white sun, and Aziza realized Askaran had been right to strike there, where the scales were already wounded.
She charged up the demon, using the tail as a ladder to reach the back. Under her feet, the tail slammed Seb where he had landed and caved in the Shifter's ribcage. She thought she saw Seb take a single breath before the colossus demon stomped down on the body.
Keeping to the beast's wounded right side, Aziza moved with the demon as it turned and stomped. Jabare appeared again, his plated skull protecting him from the demon's tail. He managed to ram his horns into the demon's underside and black blood oozed out.
Aziza thought to Shift back to Ennead to better use the kukri here, where it was useful, but there was no controlling her demon now. Her commands were only ideas to be acted upon by her demon if it deigned to.
She focused on how painful it would be to have the kukri sink deeper into the spine and willed her demon to accept her command.
Aziza's demon slammed both of her front feet into the buried kukri. The colossus demon howled and bucked lopsidedly, falling onto the right side as its limbs went into spasm. Aziza was tossed from its back and landed in a nearby dune.
By the time she, still in her hound form, had shaken off the sand, the colossus demon had recovered and was atop of her. The claws crashed down, pinning her to the stone through the dune in one impossible grip.
It tightened its hold, crushing her.
###
When Askaran emerged from the water, he dragged an Ennead body with him. He lay for long moments on the rocks beside the jungle river, the unconscious body beside him. Although he was no longer surrounded by water, his mind still felt like it was adrift in the currents below the waterfall.
The demon was an Ennead, a simple hunter lost in the poisoned blood.
Askaran had known since infancy that only a Shifter could be touched by black blood and live, but no one had told him how an Ennead would die, should they contact a demon's blood. No one had told him about this.
The demon was Ennead. Had all demons once been Ennead?
As he lay on the warm rocks, Askaran remembered the Shifters on the hunt with him warning of parties of demons moving against the City. He remembered the expression on his mother's face, responsibility falling on her, and her love for her people breaking her heart as the threat became known.
If demons breached the City, the last of the Enneads would become the very beasts they battled.
The body lying beside Askaran stirred. "Kill…" it muttered, its accent thick. "Kill…release…"
Before the thought was completed, the body began to change back into a demon. Askaran rolled to his feet, looking for a weapon. He found a new branch.
The colossus demon reformed, but only at half its previous height.
No, not smaller, Askaran realized. Askaran was bigger, the strength of his hekau taking form in the foreign world.
He would not let any demon enter his City. This demon's soul was his.
###
The clawed grip closed over Aziza, forcing the air from her lungs. One rib cracked, then a second, and Aziza saw sparks behind her eyes.
The world suddenly tilted, and Aziza was tossed into the sands. She gasped for air, trying to rise to face the colossus demon but finding the ground under her feet too unstable. The demon within her had lost focus and was scrambling. For a moment, Aziza was again in control.
The colossus demon was facing a second colossus. The new demon had a large gash over its shoulder, right where a Shifter would typically bear a tattoo, but was otherwise strangely unscarred.
Stumbling as the ground rocked, Aziza tried to make sense of the scene. Colossus demons were territorial but once one became a general, it would command others. Only if two generals were at odds did…
Aziza caught sight of the kukri still imbedded in the back of one of the colossus demons. A new possibility dawned on her.
"Askaran?" she choked out.
Perhaps it had not been so impossible.
Without one arm, the first demon was rapidly losing against the new Shifter. It turned to flee, but Askaran was relentless. Aziza herself had taught Askaran the law of the City; once a demon had seen the City, it could not be allowed to escape.
Askaran caught the enemy's tail and pulled the wounded beast back, digging deep clefts through its scales with his claws. He pounced atop the fallen colossus demon, his enormous teeth ripping through mane. With one crushing bite, he tore out the demon's throat.
Once the dust cleared on the desert winds, only one demon remained. His opponent had been reduced to sun-bleached bones in death.
The hound demon that was Aziza growled. She tried to shut out the raging beast within her, fighting to convert herself back to Ennead, but the demon was too filled with battle lust to obey.
Through red eyes, she saw the colossus demon change, shrinking down into an Ennead. For a moment, the hound demon within Aziza rebelled, desperate to kill something and teased by the presence of an Ennead. The deep hunger of the hound demon rose to a fevered pitch.
But this was not just any Ennead. This was Askaran. This was her son.
Something changed in the demon as recognition took hold. As if the beast understood, the hound demon relented, and Aziza felt herself take her Ennead form.
She had no words at first but embraced Askaran. At length, she released him, and Aziza studied her son anew. She saw darkness in his eyes now, knowledge tearing at him.
"You know where the demons come from," she said.
Askaran nodded miserably.
"Then you understand why we must never tell the people. When the City falls, the knowledge would cause hysteria. It would--"
"If it falls," Askaran corrected.
Aziza smiled, surprised at how foreign the gesture felt. "Perhaps with you now defending them, it will be 'if'," she said. With shaking hands, Aziza retrieved her kukris and pushed them into his hands. He looked down at them as if puzzled by the touch of wood in his hand.
Jabare had recovered enough to Shift back and was now joining them. The demon in Aziza rose aggressively at seeing someone else.
"Don't let the Rose tell you what to do," she told Askaran quickly. Before she could change her mind, Aziza turned her back on her son and walked away.
"I'm sorry I left you with so little to defend the City," she called over her shoulder. "You can make it work!"
Before she was out of earshot, she heard Jabare reach Askaran's side.
"Come on," the older Shifter said. "Let's get cleaned up and get back to the City." Aziza could hear the laugh in Jabare's voice as he added, "I can't wait to see the Rose's face when I introduce her to the first colossus demon Shifter! Do you think she'll faint?"
The desert slowly ate their conversation, surrounding Aziza with an embrace of scorching heat. Her demon struggled, but Aziza would not release it, not now.
She died as an Ennead, as a Shifter was meant to.
###
When next demons came to the City, the Rose called for Askaran, ready to demonstrate the prowess of their colossus Shifter.
He killed all three hound demons using only his kukris.
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