7 a divine voice as this man has
Rhine followed the group, but kept his distance. He saw that, leading at the front of the pack, was Brutus, walking with confident steps through the sand. Rhine peered over from behind a small dune, observing their every move, trying to unveil a chunk of mystery from the place he’d stumbled upon. It wasn’t so much that he was afraid of Brutus, in a fight he knew he could take him, but there was no way Rhine could fight his entire group of climbers alone. He wished his bandits were there, but thinking of them made him also think of how they had died. Died trying to save him.
Rhine saw that it wasn’t just the climbers, for the group was much larger than the one he’d seen on the other side of the Pillar the previous day. It had to be that at least half the town was marching alongside the steep rock, following Brutus. Rhine searched the other faces for anyone familiar. He spotted Penelope walking just beside Brutus, carrying a bag over her shoulder, but there was no sign of Onyx.
The sun continued to pierce through the horizon as Rhine followed them and, eventually, they all stopped at a place nearly halfway around the base of the Pillar. Jugs of water and crates of food were dropped. Brutus barked out orders, and a circle was formed around him and another man. The man beside Brutus took off his shirt and wiped his hands in the sand at his feet.
Brutus said something else that Rhine couldn’t hear over the breeze and handed a jug of water to the man who drank then handed it back. Suddenly, the entire group erupted into a loud cheer, and the man beside Brutus put his body against the rock and started to climb. Rhine had seen the young boys climbing it the other day, but he was still amazed at how they climbed such a steep rock face.
The man climbed quickly, going hand over hand, forcing his body higher and higher. The sun rose on the other side of the Pillar, so he climbed in the shade and was difficult to see at times with the rays of light beaming into Rhine’s face. The entire crowd below had their heads tilted upwards. The man paused a moment to adjust his footing. Rhine wondered how often they tried this, if anyone had ever made it to the top before. The man looked comfortable on the rock and climbed as if he knew the secret pattern, knew where to grab the rock where it was strong enough to hold him and not crumble off. Rhine assumed the man must had done it before.
Some of the crowd began to sit as the man continued to climb, his lean and muscular body growing fainter and fainter in the sky above. The crowd below gasped every time the man slipped, and Rhine watched him climb with a racing heart. Rhine was as curious as they all were as to what was up there, he’d been looking at the lights since he was young, many people had, but no one understood what they were. Some thought they were shooting stars or bolts of strange lightning, but Rhine never thought that.
The man slowed as he climbed higher. Rhine didn’t know how high he was, but figured it was well over a thousand feet. He had been standing there watching for a long time and the man was drawing nearer to the top, or at least what they all assumed was the top for it couldn’t be seen behind the constant swarm of thick white clouds.
Rhine felt the tension building as the crowd all stood and spoke quietly amongst themselves. He felt the wind pick up at his back, sending a sheet of sand against him. The man up on the Pillar was frozen still, adjusting his footing or catching his breath. He was close to the clouds, so close that Rhine felt that this was the day, that he would reach the top and tell them all what the mysterious lights were, what sat on top of the Pillar.
The man pressed on and Rhine felt his heart beat faster and faster. Judging by the murmuring of the crowd, few people had ever reached that high before. He could sense their excitement even from his far away hiding place behind the dune, could see their smiling faces as they turned to look at each other. With an outstretched arm the man grabbed and pulled himself into the veil of clouds. Rhine could barely see, squinting his eyes, as the man reached up with his foot, pressed down, and disappeared into the white haze. The crowd gathered around the base of the Pillar gasped in unison.
A black cloud overtook Rhine’s thoughts as the man vanished above. He fell backwards into the sand dune, his mind going hazy and dark. He saw again the frightening image he didn’t understand. He saw people unlike himself, unlike the people in Pillar’s Shadow. They looked… dangerous, threatening. The man who’d killed his men back in Canyon Land was there, his badge glistening even in the darkness. Rhine saw Peleos there as well, and suddenly the mysterious lights appeared, blinding him.
Rhine looked around him, feeling a sharp and powerful breeze pelting his body. He was high up and looking down at the distant ground below. He looked over at the two men, looked over at the lights around them. He was up there, at the top of the Pillar. Suddenly, someone else appeared out from a dark hole in the ground. A woman. Rhine thought he knew who it was, but as she approached him, he didn’t recognize her. It was a woman he’d never seen before in his life, with pale white skin and short dark hair. But… he couldn’t see her face clearly, it was still partially covered by the shadows she’d came from. The woman reached out her hand to Rhine and motioned for him to come towards her. Rhine trembled, but his body moved for her on its own, despite his efforts to stop it. Without warning the woman gave out a loud scream that rattled Rhine’s ears.
Rhine opened his eyes to intense brightness, his body sprawled out at an angle on the sand dune. Sweat drenched his forehead and his lungs struggled to catch a breath. He struggled and staggered on his hands and knees and craned his neck to look over the crest of the dune. Just as he did, another scream erupted over the land. This one real and coming from the crowd situated at the base of the Pillar.
Rhine strained his eyes to get a look, saw something moving… falling. The man had fallen out of the clouds at the top of the Pillar, he fell down the rock face, struggling to stop himself, but it was no use. The crowd fell silent as the man fell helplessly towards them, his body tumbling and twirling in a free fall. He ripped through the air, gaining speed, soaring down towards the sand below. In an incredibly loud slapping sound his body slammed into the sand at the base of the Pillar.