The Sands of Osiris

The Sands of Osiris

BY CHLOE CATARINA

We had been walking for days in the ocean of sand since my banishment. Though, I can’t recall us speaking any words to each other after the first few. I can only hear our boots crunching against the sand as we walk forward. I don’t even know if it’s forward anymore. I don’t even know where home is behind us.

I looked over at my cousin trudging a few feet away from me and I couldn’t help but question if she was real. After all, I had been banished alone to die in the never-ending Sands of Osiris. I can remember watching the great stone walls that harbored my home for so many years closing before me. I can remember looking up at them with hot tears streaming down my face and panic in my heart. My eyes followed them all the way up to the sky as they towered above me, my new enemy.

I hadn’t been walking for long when the rumble of the stone walls parted way again and called out to me. I turned to them, though it wasn’t my home calling me back to it, but a person. A tiny figure emerged from the stone walls and ran through the sand toward me. I walked to the figure not knowing if the person was friend or foe, only to realize that the person running at me was her. My cousin, though more like a sister, was running towards me. I picked up my pace and ran to her embrace.

I can remember her first words to me as we collided with each other. I’ve got you she said through panted breathing. I squeezed her tight in that moment, an embrace I can’t remember us ever sharing even as kids. She placed her hands on my shoulders and I can remember thinking, if she let go, I would disintegrate into the sand. Her eyes, like a blue oasis amongst the dunes, stared at me sternly through her sand-colored headwrap, almost to say get it together, we’ve got this.

A rumble beneath our feet made us both turn around only to see the stone walls closing back yet again. She had voluntarily banished herself with me. Now neither of us could go back. She looked back at me and nodded. Let’s go she said with a shaky voice I hadn’t known to ever come from her. A shakiness that told me she was holding back tears too. In that moment it became clear, she was my only home now and I was hers.

Now it’s been days since then, though it feels like weeks out here. We trudged through the sand sinking with every step and sometimes bobbing into each other. I can hear the sunrays beating down on us with a hiss like a snake as it bakes the sand beneath our boots. Neither one of us looks up anymore. We just trudge forward following our feet and ducking our eyes out of the wind’s path. 

The heated days were filled with walking and at night we tried to rest. While we rationed what food she brought in her backpack, my cousin would have me recite the vows of the troop force with her. I couldn’t tell if she had us recite them because they comforted her, or if it was to distract me from the birds that circled above us. Either way, it was information we’d never need to know again. Just something that was branded into our brains since infancy. On other days, the desert liked to play tricks on me, showing me the mirages of those I longed for. Suddenly, an outstretched arm stopped my march.

“Let’s take a break here for a second. We need water,” she said swinging her backpack around and plopping it in the sand.

I plopped myself down too, feeling every pulse of my overworked muscles beating against my skin. My breath felt like fire to my lungs and the grit of sand covered my dry tongue. Even with her, one of the best soldiers in our branch, by my side, I knew there was a strong chance we wouldn’t make it out of this purgatory of sand alive. I took my boots off and watched the sand pour out of them before surrendering to the sand myself, falling over as if to make sand angels. I watched her as she pulled out a bag of white powder and flicked it with her index finger before tossing it at me.

“Here, put this in your water before you drink any,” she said and tossed me a beige canteen that made a promising sloshing sound, “It’ll multiply itself tenfold so you stay hydrated longer, but pace yourself. We don’t know how long we’ll be out here.”

She looked around squinting her eyes. I worried if she really did know a way out of here. She had been on countless missions through this desert, none of which on foot, but whatever she knew it was more than I did. I hadn’t been allowed on missions. I had failed countless trainings and had gone against every protocol I had been taught in the troop force. I was a joke to my squadron. I wasn’t even close to being allowed on missions. It dawned on me then just how much I could be holding her back and just how much she was helping me.

I sat up and mixed the white powder into the canteen. The water felt cold as it ran down my throat, slowly restoring my weary body. I fell back into the sand and reveled in this moment that could one day never come again. As I lay in the sand, my hand grazed the pocket against my pant leg. The lump gave me comfort to know I still had my treasure. I slowly pulled out the odd-shaped orb and studied the engravings on its golden surface. The reflection from the sun swam over and under the crevices like fish in the sea. My eyes studied the glow closely. I felt the ancient lines wanting to speak to me, to tell me how to unlock their secrets, but I couldn’t quite understand.

“Jesus, Iris!” she shouted throwing a cloth over my hands, “Are you insane! Do you want hunters to come right to us?! They can see anything out here. Put that thing away!”

She gave me a shove and motioned for me to put it in my bag.

“There’s no one around us for miles. Who’s gonna–”

“I said put it away!”

I rolled my eyes and shoved it back into my pocket.

“Are we getting any closer to this place yet?” I moaned in exhaustion.

She wiped the sweat from her brow before answering under her breath “Almost.”

I couldn’t tell if her whispered response was from exhaustion or from not believing her answer herself. We only sat for a moment longer before picking up our pace again.

✴︎ ✴︎ ✴︎

It was at dusk that we came upon the little village she had been talking about in the desert. She had scared me half to death when she shouted Look! There it is! And dragged me by my arm to run toward the sand-colored stucco huts. It was a much tinier village than I anticipated but a wave of relief washed over me at the thought of a nice bed and a cold bath.

As we came upon the village, native eyes followed us with unwelcome glares. Although we were banished, tired, and covered in sand, they could tell by our clothes that we were from the citadel.

“Come on, let’s head in here!” she whispered as she guided me through the doorway of a bar, never taking her eyes off the natives behind us.

The sound of voices hummed inside the darkroom and noisy dishes clanked around. A fit of laughter broke out amongst a table of drunks and beer splattered to the floor causing a commotion. The whole place wreaked but was about twenty degrees cooler than outside. We’d just have to endure the smell.

“Here…” she said handing me two gold coins and motioning to the bar, “Go get us some drinks. I’m going to see if I can download a map from someone in here.”

I took the money and headed to the bar before she pulled me back to her.

“And don’t talk to anyone but the bartender,” she whispered in my ear before releasing her grip. I flashed a sarcastic smile at her and she rolled her eyes back at me before we went our separate ways. 

As I waited for the man behind the bar to notice me, I scanned the room. Mostly commoners, beggars, and old guys but nothing threatening. My eyes hopped around the room of faces hoping maybe I’d see a familiar one, her one. And then my eyes noticed a doorway covered by black curtains in the back of the room with a faint glow coming from beneath it. 

“What can I get you?” a deep resonant voice asked jerking me from my thoughts.

The slender man before me had thick white hair that was slicked back revealing a tan leathery face. A toothpick bobbed up and down from under his white mustache as he focused on twisting a towel into a whiskey glass.

I straightened my posture as if it made me look older and said, “Two brocks on the rocks and a pitcher of water.” I slapped my gold coin on the counter and pushed it over to him hoping to make a statement. His eyes met the gold coin and then me. With raised brows, he nodded and took the coin.

“Ain’t ye a little young for all that little girl?” said a dirty old man with a ragged sun hat from the middle of the bar. He too was tan and leathery but had dark brown hair and a patchy beard. His lips spread into a wide grin, though most of his teeth were missing. He burst into a fit of laughter that bounced his whole body while he slammed his beer into the table like a gavel. I could hear my cousin’s voice in my head don’t talk to anyone but the bartender. I looked away to stop myself from speaking to him and found my eyes meeting the black curtains yet again.

As the bartender brought over my drinks I leaned in and slid him the second gold coin.

“Can I ask you something?” I lowered my voice so as to be out of the drunk man’s hearing range,

“Do you have a star scribe in your village?” The man stared at me sternly for a second before motioning over to the black curtains in the back of the room. I knew it.

“She won’t see anyone for just a gold coin though, kid,” his deep voice said.

But I knew I didn’t have just a gold coin.

I gave a tight-lipped smile, “Thank you.”

Just as I turned to leave the bar the man said, “Hey… you wouldn’t happen to be Stella’s kid, would you?”

I stopped in my tracks and felt my body go cold. Her face flashed in my mind. I hadn’t heard her referred to as Stella since my parents were married and I was a little girl. Even then, I think it was only in my father’s fits of rage towards her in the privacy of our home. I turned to face the man wondering what his relationship to her could have been.

“No, sorry.”

The water pitcher spilled a little on the table when I set the drinks down. Though my cousin didn’t seem to notice. She was biting down on her bottom lip as she squinted at her wristwatch.

“So… did you get a map, Vee?”

“Yeah it’s downloading just… wait a second!” she scoffed.

I threw my hands up in surrender.

“I was just asking, damn. ...Someone needs a nap.”

“Could you just shut up, Iris! ...I’m trying to figure this out,” she said tapping around on her watch. Suddenly, a hologram image burst between us.

“See... there! I did it!” she said, “Now I just need to figure out where the hell we are.”

I watched as she tapped around the hologram trying to get it to work, though straight through the map’s glowing marks I could see those black curtains again. I had to get back there. The scribe might know where my mother was or at least where to begin to look. It might know what the orb is. It might–

“Are you listening?” Vee said.

My eyes met her startled.

“Sorry I… I just have to go to ...the bathroom! I’ll be right back.”

She kept her eyes focused on the map and didn’t look at me as I got up.

I made my way through the crowded tables of people stepping over beer spills and dodging grabby hands. As I made my way closer to the curtains, a man sat at a table just outside them. He had a plum-colored scar slashed across his face and long brown hair. Tattoos covered his arms and I could tell he concealed a mechanical leg under the table. His eyes flashed up at me and I quickly darted mine to the curtains, though I saw enough to notice his one red eye beneath the scar. A cyborg.

This was it. Would I dodge it and change direction away from this cyborg? Or would I meet with the star scribe, the only one I’d see for who knows how long? The only chance I’d get to possibly open my orb or find out where my mom was. ...Curtains it was!

I quickened my pace as I passed the cyborg’s table as if the floor was made of lava and closed the curtains quickly behind me. I steadied my breath and found myself in a completely black room of silence. It was as though everyone in the bar had disappeared and I was the only one left. The silence was palpable. All I could hear was the shakiness of my breathing. 

Low-lit candle flames began to grow against the stucco walls and the room unveiled a woman sitting behind a table. Slowly I walked to the chair across from her and sat down trying to keep quiet as if I’d be in trouble otherwise. The woman remained still and kept her eyes closed. I studied her carefully with a quizzical brow. 

She had deep wrinkles throughout her golden tan face and droopy cheeks that hung past her jaw. Black kohl was smudged across her lips, fingertips, and crepey eyelids. A single gold line went from between her eyebrows and up into her black hair. Thick bangles adorned her wrists and each of her fingers had at least one ring on it. The smell of sage emanated from her. She remained completely unmoving.

I waved my hand in front of her closed eyes but still, nothing. I worried the woman was dead. Quietly, I sat up and leaned across the table to see if her nostrils would flare giving me some indication of life. I stood there for a moment listening for a breath. Suddenly, the woman shouted BOO!

I jumped back and fell into the seat behind me watching with horror as the woman laughed. Quite happy with herself, the woman continued as she watched me wide-eyed and clutching my chest. I gave a troubled smile in return. As she leaned her head back in amusement, her black kohl lips revealed gold foiling throughout her teeth as they shimmered in the candlelight.

“Forgive me, child, I don’t get lots of visitors!” she chuckled through a hoarse voice.

That was clear.

“Oh goodness,” she wheezed wiping her black smudgy eyes with her black smudgy fingers, “Now, what can I do for you, dear?”

I looked at her golden grin and crazy wide eyes looking down at me. Could this kook really be trusted? I figured I’d start basic before giving up the news of what rested in my pocket. I always knew a star scribe was good if they told me something about myself that I had never told anyone. I figured I’d see what she knew.

I sat up straight in the chair and rested my hands, palms up, on the table.

“I’d like a reading. Cards and rice if you have them. Or coffee if you have no rice,” I said.

She looked at me surprised.

“Very well. You’ve done this a time or two.”

I nodded.

“I have no rice or coffee for readings, though, dear. But I can offer cards and kohl.”

I should’ve guessed by her appearance. Kohl was the poor scribe’s material of choice when it came to readings. The banished can’t be choosers I suppose. It would have to do.

“That’s fine.”

I watched as her smudgy black fingers traced a line of kohl down my right hand from wrist to fingertips. She placed her deck of faceless cards in my other hand. I folded my kohl hand into a fist and gave two light knocks against the top of the black deck before spreading the cards between us.

“Pick three cards. One for past, one for present, and one for–”

“Future. Yes, I know.”

I had chosen my three before she could even finish. I felt my legs growing restless beneath the table as I watched the scribe inspecting the cards nodding her head here and there. The scribe then reached into two bowls that floated on either side of her and took a handful of powdered kohl in each hand. In a split second, she clapped her hands together and black clouds surrounded me blocking anything else from my view. Tiny little stars began to make themselves known within the dark abyss and I waited for them to share their secrets of the future with me.

The star scribe began to speak as I watched the stars play out her words, their tiny glows forming a scene I quickly understood.

“You have dealt with a great many losses, my dear child. Tsk, tsk, tsk,” she said, “So many lost to wars started by their ancestors...” Wasn’t this the life of us all? I thought to myself searching for a memory of a time when the wars weren’t going on. I wasn’t successful.

“The loss you’ve faced most recently comes from those with which you are closest. Abandonment from your fellow people has forced you into the wasteland of the sands. I don’t see you returning for many years...”

I looked away from the stars as they depicted the days leading up to my banishment.

“Though, when you do, your home is in ruins and not like the invincible fortress you’ve known it to be. A brave warrior comes through now… a mother figure!”

My eyes shot back up.

“Hair like the kohl in front of you and eyes like green olives, you bear her same features. I see her sacrificing herself to save many others, a young soldier in particular.”

I could feel a burn at the end of my nose and tears beginning to swell in my eyes.

“She is in grave danger, dear child. Her sand fleet destroyed and her army obliterated. ...But I see a great warrior, even unparalleled by her, who comes to her aid.”

I slumped back in my chair as Vee’s face came to my mind.

“This unparalleled warrior has an army that stretches across the cosmos! Her sky fleets like the stars in the sky will seem boundless. Many will flock to fight for her and the tyrants that destroyed her people will fall. This is a warrior who will begin the war to end all wars!” the scribe shouted.

I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, my cousin Vee… she’s a great warrior alright.”

I waved the black clouds of smoke out of the way and the star scribe came into view again. I set down three gold coins and turned to head for the black curtains.

“No… this is not the warrior I speak of,” she said with an unsettling laugh, “This warrior is the one who harbors the gold orb of Osiris.”

Suddenly, it felt like time stopped.

My body was frozen.

Alright, I had to admit it she was a good star scribe.

Immediately, I ran through the curtains only to be met with utter chaos. People were running around the bar screaming, fighting, and shooting at each other with ray guns. I looked around the buzzing people for Vee. Then, suddenly, I felt someone tug my shirt and pull me to the side.

“Come on! We have to get out of here!” she said frantically as she pulled me towards the doors.

“What the hell happened?!”

“Hunters, Iris! Cyborgs are coming, run!” I tried to look behind me at the booth that was by the black curtains, though the cyborg I had seen was gone. I quickened my pace and followed Vee’s lead. She pulled me in front of her and handed me leads to a horse. I looked at her with wide eyes.

“Come on, Iris, get on! Quick!”

In the distance, a man yelled, “There by the horse! She’s the one!”

I turned to see the cyborg with the purple scar on his eye. Had he overheard the star scribe? I didn’t need to find out. I quickly jumped on the horse and Vee got on another. I followed her as her horse ran through the village dodging people left and right until we were back to the ocean of sand. Behind us, cyborgs followed closely.

The rhythm of the horse’s body matched my racing heart as we picked up the pace. I felt time slow down with every hit of the horse’s hoof to the ground. I suddenly missed the luxury of having the sand be the one to take my life. Was the scribe working with the cyborg somehow? Had she told him about my orb? Had he overheard her? What did he want with the orb anyway? Would he know how to open it?

“Iris, wait! Slow down!” I heard a call from behind me. I turned to see Vee slowing down and the cyborgs looking like tiny little specks in the distance.

“Their stopping…”

“Why?” I shouted back at her.

I watched as she turned to me, her face falling and fear filled her eyes. I looked in front of us and felt my heart drop. A boundless tsunami of sand created by the gods was stampeding straight towards us.

“Sandstorm!” she screamed, “Go back! Go back!”

Quickly we turned around, our horses fleeing for our lives yet again. The stark sunlight that had been beating down on me for days was now silenced by the sand. A darkness began to close in around us and the wind’s roar grew louder. I looked over to Rae and she looked back at me through the amber-colored haze. This was a battle we could not win. As I reached my hand out to hers, I felt the sharp abrasion of the sand against my skin and took a deep breath as if I were going underwater. Then, the hellish wall of sand took us both in its embrace.