“I’ve never met a more senseless king.”
Slowly, Dax rose, pushing the hood of his mantle back from his face. His eyes fixed on her, pupils shrinking in the dazzling sunlight. “How many kings have you met, exactly?”
Roa gritted her teeth. Was this a joke to him?
“Youneverleave camp in a storm. Notever.”
“Stop shouting at me.”
“I’m not shouting!”
“I couldn’t leave Oleander—”
“The horse doesn’t matter, Dax! If a horse gets lost in the storm, we can buy another!”
“She’s my sister’s horse,” he said. “She matters to me.”
Roa stepped in close. “Horses are expendable. Kings are not.”
“I said”—he held her gaze—“she matters to me.”
His voice was a warning, daring her to challenge him again.
Roa looked to Oleander. The mare shook the sand out of her mane, oblivious.
It struck her, then.
His sister’s horse...
Asha was on the run. Dax was unlikely to ever see her again. Oleander was the only link he had left to his sister.
Roa stepped back, her anger fizzling out. It was then that she felt the watching eyes. Looking over his shoulder, she found the soldats covered in sand. Their hands on their hilts as they watched the outlander queen belittle their king.
Swallowing, Roa lowered her voice and motioned over his shoulder. “Everything’s gone.”
Dax turned to look. After a moment, he said, “We’ll have to make do.”
Make do?thought Roa.Is he truly so senseless?
“We’ll stay sheltered during the day. We’ll ration water.”
“How will we stay sheltered, Dax? We don’t have any tents. Nor do we have any water to ration.Nor do we have any horses.”
Except Poppy and Oleander.
Dax fell silent, thinking. But Roa didn’t have time for him to come up with a plan. She knew this desert. She knew the chances of surviving beneath its scorching sun without shelter or water or horses. Knew that once the sun set, the temperature would plummet, bringing the kind of cold that killed men and women in their sleep.
Their destination—his mother’s abode—was still a day’s ride away. Built by the former dragon king for his wife, it had been intended as a private place for her to retreat to. From there, it was another full day’s ride to Firgaard.
They wouldn’t make it to Dax’s mother’s abode on foot by tonight. They wouldn’t make it there at all.
In the distance, she watched Lirabel and Jas pull a single bedroll out of the sand.
They walked all day, trying to keep a steady pace. But without water and shelter, with the sun loud and hot in the sky, they’d slowed, and then slowed again. It was dusk now. Roa’s vision had long ago started to blur, and now her tongue was starting to swell—a sign of severe dehydration.
It was about to get worse, though: When the sun disappeared, they wouldn’t have any way to keep warm. No tents. No blankets. Nothing to make a fire.
Roa glanced over her shoulder to make sure the caravanwasn’t falling too far behind, then turned her attention back to the darkening horizon. To the cold that was rising.
