Chapter 32
FOUND
Ty swayed in his saddle. The heat washing over him was hotter than a forge and sent pinpricks across his skin in its wake. Heat rash, sunburn, both, Ty didn’t really think there were names for the agonies the desert sun and sand brought.
Probably because no one survived, he thought miserably.
It had been two days since the Temple of Dust. It should be called Temple Lake now, he thought. A new home for Water Elementals like Niri, who had left the Church behind. His thoughts spiraled on waves of heat.
The ground shimmered and moved sickeningly. Ty barely righted himself before he fell from his camel. It took him two tries to speak.
“Let’s stop here.”
Blinking his eyes ground the sand in deeper. There were only more dunes to see anyway and the sun, which was almost overhead. It was late to stop. Ty felt sorry for that. He was asking a lot, pushing all of them. Stopping cost them time and slowed their pace. Only movement would get them through the desert.
Ria and Lavinia dismounted as their camels sank onto the sand. Without a word, and with motions slower than the sun’s incremental journey of a day, they pulled out a cloth to erect a sunshade. Feeling no better himself, Ty fell more than dismounted before walking to where Niri’s camel was tied behind his.
She was oblivious to the world. He actually envied Niri that. After what she had done in the Temple, to the Temple, she had barely roused enough to eat or drink. She was light as feathers shaped into a woman when he lifted her down. He knew it was delirium born of the heat, but he dreamed often that Niri would evaporate like water under the desert sun. She was light enough that he half believed it.
The four of them sat in the meager shade as the brightest part of the day passed overhead. They baked like the strange twisted formations of glass that dotted the rolling dunes. The glass spirals had amazed him at first, until the day before. That was when he had seen the sun scorch the sand so intensely it had burst into flames. An inferno erupted yards from him, twirling and twisting skyward in a rising updraft. When it had burnt itself out, a tower of glass stood as a sentinel to the desert’s heat.
No doubt it froze solid last night.
Ty sighed. He wasn’t sure which was worse. The heat of the day that burned the skin and lungs or the cold of the night that threatened to freeze him to death before morning, so that he welcomed the sight of the sun as it rose. Until he felt its heat.
Lavinia handed him the canteen. Under her gaze, he tipped it up and let a dribble wash over his parched tongue. He pretended to swallow several times. Satisfied, Lavinia looked away. Ty savored the moisture in his mouth and then swallowed for real. He stashed the canteen, satisfied with its weight.
He knew Lavinia suspected he wasn’t drinking his share, but she hadn’t said anything directly. She didn’t understand. Ty had seen Niri at the oasis. He guessed that Niri’s comatose state was from more than exhaustion. A naiad lost in the desert. It worried him.
Next to him, Niri stirred, but did not fully waken. He dropped a hand onto her shoulder where she lay in the sand. She sighed and fell back asleep.
—
They stopped again for a brief break as the sand released the day’s heat, changing into the heavier clothing the approaching night required. Crossing the desert had become more important than sleep. They rarely stopped for long.
“You can sleep. You don’t need to get up.”
Lavinia was by Niri’s side when Ty turned, startled as he realized who his sister was speaking to. Awake to the world once more, Niri struggled upright, her arms barely supporting her weight. She shook her head weakly.
“No, really, I am feeling better ... comparatively.”
Lavinia handed the leather canteen to Niri, who sipped from it gingerly. Niri glanced around, her lavender eyes taking in the desert, the camels, and her companions.
“Where are we?”
“I’m not sure. Ty says west of Karakastad.” Lavinia said, voice rough.
“West?”
“Yes,” Ty said as he walked over, camel hair blankets in his arms. He knelt in front of Niri so that she would not have to turn to see him. “I thought if Sinika and the other Elemental knew we were in the Temple of Dust, then the Church must know we were in Tabook. We can’t go back.”
Niri closed her eyes as she took in what he said. “So you took us west.”
“I thought we would swing north toward Bakk, eventually. Our tracks will lead into the desert and hopefully be erased by the wind and sand.”
Niri let out a breath. It was visible in the chilling desert air.
“How long has it been since ...?”
“Two days,” Ria replied, taking Niri’s hand.
Niri did not respond, blinking a few times. She looked from Ria to Lavinia, finally resting her somber gaze on Ty’s face. He realized that she understood what he had not told Ria or his sister: how very far the distance to Bakk would be.
“Then we should keep going. We are still too close to Karakastad.”
They rode all night, drowsing in their saddles. The camels’ great breaths bellowed in the moonlight while they huddled in blankets, heading finally north. Dawn streaked the eastern sky and still they did not stop. Only the sun’s heat brought them to a standstill as they spread blankets to block out the searing light.
Even to Ty the days were beginning to blur. All thought was burned from him except to travel north, conserve water, and avoid the sun. Days were measured in hot and cold more than light and dark. Only times in-between had he witnessed life. At dusk and dawn, strange slender lizards the color of the desert rose from the sand. Ty wondered what else lived unseen deep within the vast dryness. Everything felt distant. The heat and thirst belonged to another version of himself, while he moved in a dreamlike state. The last canteen, nearly empty, chilled him awake.
It was another morning. The sun was only a faint promise of rose streaks on the eastern horizon. He guided his camel next to Niri where she rode behind Lavinia and Ria. Both girls were asleep in the saddle. Reaching out, he touched Niri on the shoulder. She sat upright abruptly.
“Niri?”
Roused, she shifted the blanket wrapped about her so that she could see him. Her lips were cracked, he saw as she moved them to form words. No sound came.
“Do you sense any water?” Worry deepened his tone, pulling his lungs so that they ached.
Niri’s eyes flicked wider. She looked at his face for a moment. Then Niri closed her eyes and bowed her head as if in prayer. Ty rode beside her, feeling the cool bite to the wind, listening to the now familiar hiss of sand moving. His chest was pulsing.
Ty hated to ask Niri to use her power, afraid the feat of calling the sea into the desert had been too much. He had feared Niri would try to use her power and either it wouldn’t be there or it would pain her. But she rode silently beside him. He swallowed, now simply worried about her answer.
He had been so afraid since he had chosen this route from Karakastad - that it was too far and he led them to their deaths. But he had seen the flashes of fire deep within the sinkhole and watched in awe as a flood of water swept between dunes, washing away dry desert buildings before hurtling down into the Temple. Niri had faced two Fire Elementals. What would be waiting for them back in Tabook? What if Ria used her power with Niri beyond reason after the strain on hers? What if they faced the Curse? The pulsing in Ty turned to a pounding in his chest that echoed in his temples. He rubbed the headache wearily, wishing he was beyond worrying.
Niri looked across the desert before she turned to answer him. There was an apology in the line between her brows. Ty bowed his head, aching with his effort not to break down. He had not realized how much he had hoped she would find something.
“How much water do we have left?” Niri asked, her voice a whisper.
Ty doubted he really needed to answer her. Niri would know, if anyone did, how much was left on the camels. He swallowed down his fear so that he could answer her in a
steady voice.
“Not much. Not enough to make it to Bakk.”
They rode side by side in silence as the sun rose. It highlighted distant buildings with fragile gold and violet spiraled turrets. Green palm tree fronds were visible above the glistening white city walls. Ty sighed.
The first morning Ty had seen the desert city, hope had burned in him hotter than the sun. They had traveled all day only to see the image at sunset, still the same distance away. Morning had brought the same vision. He watched it without hope now. It could have been Bakk or the Church of Solaire. They would never reach it. Anything that gave hope in the desert was a mirage.
—
They made it two more days before the camels refused to walk. The night sky was mesmerizing above them, the stars so clear that they hung like jewels in an indigo, velvet sky. Even over the ocean, Ty had never seen them so bright or colored like a fractured rainbow scattered across the night. Lost in beauty, it took him a second to understand what the noise was behind him.
Ty turned as Lavinia’s camel groaned and sank onto its front knees. It stopped half down, the motion unsettling Lavinia. She tumbled from her saddle into the sand. Ty was first off his camel to reach his sister, Ria tripping in her stirrup as she stumbled off her camel’s back.
Lavinia struggled upright, unhurt but rubbing her shoulder. Her camel dropped the rest of the way in a great moan. Then Niri’s did the same, followed by Ria’s and Ty’s as well as the two spare. There was no going further unless they walked, which ensured death.
Niri sank next to Lavinia in the sand. Ria put her arms around Lavinia and sat down as well. Ty remained standing, unable to give up. Finally his knees decided what his will would not accept. He collapsed into the sand.
Morning dawned with the promise of blistering heat to come. The need to protect his sister, Ria, and Niri pricked at Ty. He stacked the saddles and spread blankets over them to create a shelter. He knew it was futile though. The one thing they really needed he could not provide.
Ria and Lavinia slept side by side on a blanket spread over the sand. Lavinia sobbed dryly once. Her hand reached for her necklace, fingers gently encircling the wooden pendant. Ty ached so that he trembled as he watched his sister. Her restless motions slowed and she drifted off into a deeper sleep.
Niri was sitting, her chin against her chest as she leaned against the saddles. Ty knew she wasn’t asleep no matter the appearance. He slipped next to her, taking her hand. She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder without opening her eyes. He sat beside her, wishing he could help her search.
—
The riders came two days later after the hottest part of the afternoon. Their mounts were horses with fine, long legs and wide nostrils flared to breathe the desert air. Seeming to have risen out of the sand, five riders suddenly rode around the group in opposing circles. Dark eyes, barely seen through the cloth wound around their faces, looked down at them. Their flowing robes rippled in the breeze created at their passing.
Ty watched, unable to tell if they were from the Church or were desert riders that had stumbled upon them. For the first time in days, Ty’s pulse picked up its tempo. He had his knives and his sister her sword, but there was no way they could fight. The desert had won the battle against physical exertion days before.
One of the men pulled his horse from the circling. The horse’s haunches kicked up a plume of sand as it stopped abruptly, tossing its head and rearing. He cupped a hand to his mouth.
“Nohl takrat.”
The voice rolled on the ‘r’ with a guttural growl Ty had never heard before. Ria grabbed Niri’s hand, her olive eyes frightened. Three more riders came over the dune. The middle one pulled up his horse and looked down at the group in silence. Unlike the rest, he wore a cowled hood which cast his face in shadow.
His horse picked its way down the dune, sinking to its fetlocks in the soft sand. As he dismounted, the other riders stopped circling and stood to the side. Lavinia stirred next to Ty. She leaned forward into the sun beyond the shelter, her eyes widening. She leapt to her feet and met the cowled man halfway, throwing her arms around him as he caught her.
“Darag!”