The Bloodstone Prophecy - Book 2 (complete)

Chapter 13 - Shadow Warrior

Samuel, Chris and Kami followed Haji into a room where Haji's father sat cross-legged on a cushion. He gestured toward the wall on the opposite side of the room, where a row of orange cushions embroidered with white diamonds were lined. Kami sat down tentatively on one, finding it surprisingly comfortable. The others settled in next to her.

The floors were covered with a large rug with varying shades of blue stripes. Behind Haji's dad's back, the walls were adorned with baskets. They were interspersed with decorative rugs in bright, cheery colors. One was ringed with tassels arranged in an orange, green and maroon pattern. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, lighting the room in patches.

It was sweltering in the room. Kami pulled her shirt away from her sweaty body and wished for the cool blast of air conditioning, even if it was from the chintzy window unit back home. She squirmed and tried to get comfortable.

She couldn't understand why Haji's father looked so cool. He seemed a lot more wrapped up than she was. His body was probably conditioned to the temperature. Or maybe the type of fabric and the way it was draped kept the body cooler? He looked to be in his mid to late forties, with deep wrinkles around his eyes and an easy smile for everyone.

Haji's father cleared his throat and spoke. Haji crouched beside him and translated.

"Before I settled with my family here, we were nomads, traveling for business. One hears many things in the desert, fragments of tales told over smoldering fires, stories of hardship and bravery. Most of them are nothing more than that, tales. But sometimes you hear the same story over and over, handed down generation after generation. Some details are different, but at the heart, they are the same.

"Several hundred years ago, there was a time when evil roamed the deserts. A man would load up his camel, kiss his wife and children goodbye and embark on his journey only to vanish, never arriving at his point of destination. Caravan after caravan went missing, and the men, were alarmed. They gathered together to discuss the problem. Every man had his theory as to what was snatching the men in the desert. They argued violently with each other, and the discussions went nowhere.

"At last, one day, an important clue arrived. A man stumbled into camp, wide-eyed, with his clothes in tatters. He told a strange story of creatures that attacked at night, creatures born of the shadows.    

"Men traveled from afar to assemble in a great conference to discuss what to do. One of them, a man named Hazim, told them of warriors from the north who trained secretly in the mountains, fighters who still knew the mysteries and practiced the ancient magic. They called themselves the Khayal Muharib, or Shadow Warriors. They sent a group of men to find the warriors, to request they fight for them. The first group disappeared, but undaunted they sent a second. This group managed to make it past the creatures and convinced the warriors to return with them.

"The warriors forged weapons of an impossibly strong metal. You may have heard of Damascus steel? It is a metal known for its amazing strength and cutting ability. It is said it could slice rocks and other metals—including the blades of weaker swords—cleanly in half. The ability to create this steel was lost in the 1700s, but they say it was based on an ancient metal. This metal was more than just strong, it was imbued with magical properties. Each weapon had a magical stone welded into it. The combination of steel and the stone were unstoppable."

Kami instinctively gripped her bloodstone. Perhaps the stones in the weapons had powers similar to that of her bloodstone.

"Using their weapons, they waged war on the shadow creatures," Haji's father continued. "It took three years of bloody conflict until at last they fought their way to the source and managed to contain the evil.  

"As time passed peacefully and the warriors were no longer needed, they slipped back into the mountains to continue their training in peace. But the stories say they hid away their weapons, just in case they would ever need to take them up again."

"So, there's a way to stop these shadow creatures," Kami said. "But how?" Haji interpreted the question to his father.

"That was not in the stories," Haji's father replied.

"Are we aware of what type of stones were used?" Samuel asked. "That may help us pinpoint the powers of the weapons. It seems logical that if you want to discover something, you just backtrack and pinpoint the origin. Roll the ball of yarn back to the point before it began to unravel," Samuel said.

"So that would be the screaming girl who stole the jar in the first place," Kami said. When Haji relayed the comment to his father, he looked at her with deep interest.

Kami explained to the others what had happened at the digsite. Haji's father stroked his face thoughtfully.

"I have been hearing disturbing reports. Men I have known for years, men I trust, have told me they have seen unearthly creatures roaming the White Desert. Now Haji comes to me and tells me he has seen these creatures as well, and he told me about this woman who keeps hostages. It seems we are running out of time. The men have been planning to gather another council, much like the one that convened in ancient times in order to protect ourselves. It is time to do so. If left alone, this situation will soon be beyond our control. The problem is, unlike them, we have no Shadow Warriors to help us. Or shadow weapons."

"We don't need ancient weapons," Samuel said. "We have created modern weapons that can fight them."

"We do have my necklace," Kami said.

"True. And while it is good that Samuel and Chris are working on new weapons, we should look for the ancient weapons as well. We need all the help we can get," Haji said. "I was hoping Kami could help me try to find the missing weapons."

"Sure," she said, glad that Gedo wasn't there to stop her, for once.

"I will speak to the men and gather some help for the attack," Haji's father said.

"Good," Samuel finished, clapping his hands together. "Let's get to work."

"So when do you want to do this?" Kami asked.

"I would like to leave as soon as possible," Haji said. "Especially after that girl died, I feel a great urgency to save as many people as we can."

"Sounds good to me."

"I will pack some food and water and we will be on our way," he said.

"How far away are we going?"

He smiled.

"You will see."

They climbed into the SUV and began driving north toward Alexandria. Desert stretched on either side, a seemingly endless expanse of tan-colored sand. Dark green desert palms clustered in small groups, but the farther they drove from the oasis, the rarer tree sightings became. Sand dunes folded over one another forming a plain of hills that stretched as far as she could see. In places, the wind cut through the dunes, forming long ripples that looked like the trails of desert snakes.

"What are you getting your degree in?" Kami asked.

"Physics. I'm hoping to become a professor in a university someday. Too many of my brothers are so busy fighting they have no time to learn and contribute to our understanding. It is too bad."

"It is. So Yasmin mentioned you have someone special," Kami teased, hoping for more details.

"I have a sweetheart, living in Farafra," Haji continued hesitantly. "Her name is Nadia. She is seventeen. She is waiting for me to complete my university training, and then we will be married."

"Is she planning to go to university as well?" Kami asked.

"I would like her to. She doesn't have much of a desire right now. Her mother trained her in the ways of the Bedouin."

"What does that mean?"

"Bedouin women are traditionally in the home running the household. Nadia wants to have a large family and she thinks going to university would be a waste of money and time. She says women in the west get education and then no longer desire to be with their families, or sometimes don't even want to have a family. They have strangers tend their children. Sometimes they even have the men stay home, as if they were women that needed providing for. She thinks our ways are better because they protect the strength of the family and keep out the temptations that rip families apart."

"What do you think?" Kami asked.

"I used to think much like Nadia," Haji said. "Then I went to the university and saw the girls there. I admire the way they hunger after knowledge and their intense desire to improve the world. I want that for my Nadia, but I confess I do not know how it is possible to do both."

Kami leaned her face against the window. The desert continued to stretch indefinitely, the surface marred only by the occasional patch of scrubgrass or pile of rocks.

She could kind of see Nadia's point. She had always wished she had had a strong, whole family. Yet she chafed at the idea that a woman was born into a role. And she didn't buy for one minute that most women truly had no desire but to bear and raise children. Surely she wanted to expand her knowledge in other ways as well. Hadn't Haji's father just given a stirring speech about how it went against human nature to be forced into a way of life?

Kami thought of her cousin Yasmin, who would never be content to sit at home and let other people fight her country's battles. She couldn't be content with it either. Besides, Haji might be injured. Or die, like her father. Why were they so insistent on keeping women dependent? Didn't they know the danger that posed for those families? Didn't independent women make for a stronger society? But then, maybe Nadia and her mother chose that life because they had never seen another way.

She thought of Selma, the cousin she had never known but now mourned for. She had been forced to quit learning. Whether Selma had wanted to continue or not, it would have been best for her to have completed her education. Haji may not mistreat his wife, but others would and did. The laws were not fair if they kept women locked into bad situations because they had no other options or were too fearful of losing their children. Thinking of Selma reminded her of Yasmin in the dream, her face being molded into perfectly still wax. The haunting image from her nightmare forced her to refocus on their mission.

"So where are we going?" Kami said, changing the subject.

"The stories were all very specific of where the weapons are, or rather were. They were stored in a sealed vault in one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, in the lighthouse in Alexandria," Haji said.

"But, it doesn't even exist anymore," Kami said.

"No, but the ruins do. How good are you at diving?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Haji shook his head.

"We have to dive to look for the weapons?" Kami asked incredulously.

"Yes. Do you have experience?"

"Yeah. I've been certified for years. The desert may be your backyard, but the ocean is mine."

"Good," Haji said. "No one even knew that parts of the lighthouse were in the sea until a team of divers discovered them in 1994. The water is shallow enough that I could have swam without gear and seen the stones. But this tells you something about my country. In 700 years, no one thought to look. Now tourists can dive off the coast of Alexandria in the Mediterranean Sea and see pieces of Cleopatra's palace, where she died with the Roman general Mark Antony. Two diving instructors were married underwater there, near the Sphinx."

"You're kidding," Kami said. "That is so cool."

"Another dive has the remains of a World War II British Aeroplane that crashed into the ocean and limestone from what was once the summer palace. We are going in at Pharos Island, in the eastern harbor. You should be able to see parts of the lighthouse. There are over 6,000 pieces in the underwater museum."

"I didn't realize you were a diver," Kami said.

"I used to work there taking tourists on dives, before I started driving for the Mitchell family," Haji smiled. "Back then I searched for the weapons, but I never had any luck."

The drive was long and tiring. When the tan-colored earth finally began to ripen into green farmland, Kami knew they were approaching Alexandria. She longed to stand up and stretch her cramped legs.

By the time they arrived at Alexandria, it was late afternoon. They pulled up to a large stone fortress, which Haji informed her was the Citadel of Qaitbay, built by a man born as a slave who rose in power to become sultan. It was built on the exact spot where the Lighthouse of Alexandria once stood and was once an importance defense point for the country. Haji led her to a tall man with a prominent nose waiting near the water with two sets of scuba gear.

"There is something else I should probably tell you," Haji said as they walked toward him.

"What's that?"

"My father failed to mention that according to legend, a terrifying monster guards the weapons. It might be just a story, but after everything we have seen ..."

Kami sighed.

"It's always something, isn't it? Well, what's one more monster?"

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The media box shows the underwater Sphinx in Alexandria where the diving instructors were married. To see more pictures, check out my Pinterest account @sarahbensonbook.

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