The Sand-Rabbit (Dustsong: Len the Wanderer)

A preview of Chapter Seven of Len's novella

“I’ve got an uncanny feeling we’re being followed,” Len told the stone-beast. “But who would trouble themselves to follow our sorry selves is beyond me.”

The beast snorted but didn’t break stride. This critter won’t stop till it reaches water or nightfall. Unless today is the day it starts minding the guide. After a few seven-days, the stone-beast no longer fussed at the belt of dromedary hide in its mouth. Yet it didn’t pay attention to the directions Len gave with the guide-belt, either. I’m less liable to fall off in a dust-dazed stupor when I grip the ends, leastways.

“It must be some kind of desert critter. We haven’t seen any sign of human-folk since that tent village yesterday, and there wasn’t a soul thereabouts. And now we’re in the middle of the wastes. So why do I feel we’ve got eyes on us?” I suppose a one-sided conversation with a roving lump of leather is preferable to a two-sided conversation with myself.

Len cast a languid look over the dunes to either side. He could scarcely see anything past the midday glare. Son of a snake, this must be the hottest place in the earthly realm. Swelter and light filled the dry air so full, there wasn’t space for a drop of moisture. He wistfully imagined the desert wind coming his way. Anything was cool by comparison with the dead heat that otherwise ruled here. That’s what my existence has come to. Waiting for the next breeze, for a few moments’ relief.

He hoped the sense of being watched wasn’t some unseen spirit, like the eyes on him as he descended the Fangs. I’d ask the demon about that day if I didn’t loathe her so much. I would ask her if some servant of Livyat is tailing us now. Even then, she might not say. So I’ll just keep asking myself. I mean, the beast.

“A sand-rabbit.”

“What’s that, warden?”

Egwae waited a good several paces afore she repeated herself. “A sand-rabbit follows us,” she said, in the deliberate manner Len’s mother had spoken to him as a child.

Surely I’m not comprehending her meaning. Of course, he wasn’t about to admit as much.

“Since we left the village behind,” she explained with a weary edge to her tone.

She means human-folk? “But there wasn’t a soul in sight!”

“There was one,” she countered.

Of course she wouldn’t tell me aught of significance till the morrow after.

What kind of folk would sneak through the wastes after two strangers and a stone-beast? A hunter? It doesn’t matter. I’m not hiding from folk anymore. Though they seem to be hiding from me at present.

He shook his head. But I don’t need any distraction, either. Not from demons or spirits or folk of any kind. I’ve got a purpose to sort out.

To that end, he needed to find the rest of the dromedary-riding barbarians. The survivors of the debacle with the jackals had made themselves scarce afore dawn-break. He’d tried following their trail. Only, they knew the wastes better, and their dromedaries were faster than the stone-beast. Sand and wind made quick work of tracks.

Is that who’s following us now? Mayhap one of them warned off the villagers and that’s why the place was empty. There were too many unknowns. Len tried to muster patience and came up short.

Exasperated, he told the stone-beast, “This so-called sand-rabbit must be using the dunes for cover.” Because there isn’t so much as a rock or shrub to hide behind in these parts. “Let’s climb the dune to the south and see if we can’t flush out this mysterious fellow.” Distraction or no, I reckon I’m a mite curious.

The stone-beast sighed. Sometimes Len could swear it comprehended more than it let on.

He tugged left on the guide-belt. The stone-beast shuddered and tossed its head indignantly, but Len only tugged harder. It gets the gist, leastways. So as not to squander time, he threw in a few kicks to the shoulder and a smack on the side of the neck. After a whining bray, the critter obliged his prodding. It veered grudgingly south, toward the nearby dune. The demon kept abreast of Len and his mount without comment. Never a step closer or farther from her ward.

In irritable silence, the three of them traversed the windward slope. Len’s held a long breath with quickened pulse when the stone-beast climbed unnecessarily close to the treacherous eastern slipface. It knows better. This is its vengeance for my heavy-handed persuasion. The critter didn’t look like much of a climber, but it was sure of foot and took them to the crest without incident.

From the top of the dune, Len turned and searched for any sign of life or movement. Naught but dust.

“She’s still there,” Egwae sang afore he could comment to the contrary. She? Wright, anything but another she-demon. Fluster swelled in Len’s chest.

Ahead lay a ravine-scarred plain, which offered a few flecks of pale green. Beyond, more dune ridges and valleys stretched all the way to cloudless blue. We’re so far lost, not even the Fangs can find us.

The stone-beast didn’t linger but immediately began its descent down the far slope. Now it avoided the slipface by a wide margin. The ornery critter’s made its point, I reckon. On reaching the foot of the dune, it started across the sun-scorched plain at once. But when it came to a gully, a crack as wide as Len was tall and twice as deep, it hesitated. Egwae casually lifted her face heavenward while she waited at the edge of the chasm. As if she sees all the way into the Wright’s realm. Mayhap she does.

“Don’t stop now, you great hornless aurochs!” Len berated the stone-beast. That earned him a wholly unperturbed backward stare from a black bestial eye.

Of all the stubborn snakebit critters, I had to cross paths with this one. Len gave his mount a firm yet polite nudge with his knees. “Keep moving. If you please.” He swallowed a scowl.

The stone-beast snorted and returned its attention forward. It extended a tentative foreleg and pondered a moment. That’s it. The beast stretched itself over the gully, which left Len in a precarious spot till it achieved its footing on the other side. Its other feet followed in quick succession and carried the rest of the critter, with Len, across the divide. Egwae leapt over without effort. As easy as taking a step. Like she’s floating on a current.

On a sudden notion, he looked over his shoulder. A slight figure in a tunic slipped down the leeward side of the dune and scurried their way. The demon spoke true. Whoever it is, she couldn’t be all that threatening. But she doesn’t know who or what she’s scuttling after. Does she? They needed to press on.

Surer of itself now, the stone-beast crossed the next gully, and the one after, without trepidation or fuss.That ought to dissuade her. As if in answer, the figure bounded up to the first chasm and took a running leap. Her dark hair streamed behind her as she flew over the gap.

By the ever-living Fangs! Enough of this. Len yanked on the guide-belt with both hands, down to the left and up to the right and back to his chest. The hide strip cut into the tender flesh of the stone-beast’s mouth. With an angrified roar, it reared its head. Len ignored its distress as best he could and kept pulling the belt every which way. He hugged the base of the beast’s neck with his legs and held the guide-belt tight as the critter stomped, thrashed, and worked its jaws. Surely this’ll scare her off.

In its throes, the beast got turned about so that Len wound up facing the dune, back the way they’d come. And there, not a dozen paces distant, stood the woman.

She was a short, green-eyed wisp of a thing clad in dromedary hide. Those are the eyes I felt. Strands of tightly curled hair hung in an acorn-dark face. Len recollected the shrubby oaks that grew up the sides of the Fangs.

Instead of retreating from the stone-beast’s tantrum, the barbarian woman approached. When she came within five paces, she stopped and gave a shrill cry and barked three times. The beast recoiled and froze in place. Not what I expected, either.

The barbarian glanced at the other woman present, who hovered close by the stone-beast. Egwae placed her hands on her hips. The demon's not pleased, but when is she ever? And she's not fixing to interfere.

Without warning, the critter swooped its neck low to stare levelly at the newcomer. Would someone here start acting normal-like? Len barely kept his balance.

He thought at first the barbarian was of an age with his mother. But other than those crinkles, she has a youthful aspect. The wastes add years. Her jaw was set. Persistent as a shrub-oak, too.

Yet her expression belied something else. Fear of some kind. Fright? Awe? For the first time, their eyes met. It's not the critter she's leery of me. It's me. He touched the brim of his hat to make sure it sat as low as could be on his brow.

The woman's attention reverted to the stone-beast when it cleared its nostrils pointedly. A softly guttural stream of words poured out of her. The beast settled to the ground as if transfixed, tucking its legs carefully, as she continued the purring speech. Some rabbit. Len had assumed she was human-folk, but with such power over critters, she could be a demon. Or mayhap she simply has Father and Sceg's gift. He swallowed hard.

“Kaelii,” the woman said. She looked from him to Egwae and back again. Perplexed, Len shifted his eyes betwixt the barbarian and the inscrutable, ruddy-haired demon.

“Her name speaks she,” Egwae said as if relieving his ignorance caused her injury.  She responded to the desert-folk woman in what Len took to be the same barbarian tongue. He caught a vaguely feline-sounding “Egwae” amid the breathy intonations. The woman, Kaelii, inclined her head respectfully.

“Len,” he blurted. When she looked up, he said more slowly, “I’m Len,” and pointed to himself. Kaelii nodded, but she appeared no less trepidatious.

“Kaelii,” she said again, with a tap on her own chest. “Eg-wae,” she said, indicating the demon. She jabbed a finger at him in turn. “Len.” Then she said his name once more, but followed it with a sound like a prowler coughing up fur.

“The name she gives the creature,” Egwae explained, “is Len the Large.” The faintest glint of wry humor peeked through the demon’s indifference.

“Big Len?” Len sputtered in disbelief. We’ve only just met, and her first inclination is to call the critter Big Len?

Kaelii, nonplussed at his reaction, said something else while walking her fingers through the air. Then she indicated Len and the others.

No need to translate. “She’s wanting to come along. With us. Why in— Why would she want to do aught like that?”

Egwae and Kaelii had a brief exchange while Len hopped down from the stone-beast. He worked the bow out of his legs and tried to stretch the soreness out of his travel-weary backside.

“With a query of her own does she reply,” the demon said. “‘Why does Len want to walk the wastes with a giant and a spirit?’”

Len scowled. If only she had an inkling. The company he already kept was bother enough. And Egwae won’t protect another soul like she does me. I don’t reckon a sand-rabbit will long survive this close to demon fire.

Both Kaelii and Egwae were glaring at him. The desert-folk woman spat defiant words, which Egwae relayed as soon as Kaelii took a breath. “Stories has she heard already, of the wanderer who rides a giant and brings destruction.” The demon can say this without batting an eye?

“Her folk listen to the wind,” Egwae continued, “and it tells them many things.” The demon sniffed. “Or so she says.”

Len felt suffocated under the others’ stares, and the sun’s tendrils burned his flesh. Wright almighty, but I’d escape all this in a heartbeat. And I can’t escape any of it.

“Son of Ghrem, mayhap consider allowing her to accompany you,” Egwae added. “More good than harm may it accomplish.”

Len’s sluggish mind did its utmost to ponder the demon’s counsel. Curse the cloud that spawned her. In all the earthly realm, I reckoned she’d be the last to want more human-folk about.

Egwae was a truthsome being, but surely her advice was a trick or a trap in somewise. For me, or for the desert woman.

He met Kaelii’s bright green stare. A sand-rabbit won’t survive what we’re about, but a shrub-oak might.“I must be sun-addled,” he mumbled.

He shuffled over to her across the hot sand so only a pace and a half remained betwixt them.

“Well met, Kaelii. I reckon Big Len can carry two souls as easy as one. And you’ll be a better traveling mate than this pair, sure as dust.”

Egwae had resumed her usual, impassive demeanor. When she translated, Kaelii raised her eyebrows. Then she burst into a guffaw and slapped her knee. “Mate,” she mimicked afore another wave of laughter took her over.

Len’s cheeks warmed in a way that had naught to do with the wastes. He hadn’t a notion what was so funny. But he got the distinct impression he’d erred again.

---

Check out this post to download and read the full novella for free!