Roa cursed these useless Firgaardians. She cursed herself for having to rely on them.
Lirabel stepped up to Roa’s side, scattering her curses.
The two friends looked into the distance, where the sun was sinking into the sand. Lirabel turned her eyes on Roa. “Do you think we’ll make it?”
“Not if the sun sets first,” said Roa, staring straight ahead at the golden orb disappearing beneath the horizon. Soon the night would drop like a curtain.
“We’re making camp,” Dax’s voice interrupted.
Both girls spun to stare at his dark silhouette. He had Oleander’s reins gathered in his fist, his face stony.
“The guards and staff all have heatstroke.”
Roa knew this. Two had fainted already, and one had vomited twice.
“We need to stop and make camp,” Dax pressed.
If they stopped now, with no fire or tents to keep the death chill away, they wouldn’t wake in the morning.
Roa shook her head. “We need to keep moving.”
“Everyone is dehydrated, Roa. They need to rest.”
Roa narrowed her eyes at him. “The longer it takes us, the less likely we are to survive. We need to move quickly.”
“Didn’t you hear me?They keep fainting.”
“Then we leave them behind.”
He stared at her, horrified. But Dax didn’t know this desert.
“If we stop and make camp for the sake of a few, it endangers the entire caravan,” Roa said. “But if we press on through thenight, we gain more ground and keep warmer on the move, increasing the chances of staying alive and making it to our destination.”
This was the sand sea. Ruthlessness was key to survival.
But Dax didn’t think like a scrublander. Dax had lived an easy, pampered life. One bolstered by the taxes—and then the sanctions—his father imposed on Roa’s people. He’d never had to make a life-or-death decision. Other people did that for him.
He loomed over her. Due to her diminished vision, he was a blurry shape in the darkening haze of dusk. “I’m not going to risk the lives under my care for the sake of your pride.”
“Youarerisking—” Roa stopped herself. “Mypride?”
Roa’s grip on Poppy’s reigns tightened. Sensing her mood, the horse pressed her ears flat against her head.
Lirabel moved closer to the queen, rubbing Poppy’s neck to calm her. “Roa’s right. It’s far more dangerous if we stop.”
“I don’t agree,” said Jas, coming up behind them, holding Lirabel’s gaze. “I think we should make camp. None of these people are in a state to keep going.”
Roa glared at her brother. “If we don’t continue on,we all die.”
“I’ll take my chances,” said Dax, turning back.
Roa was about to say that in stopping for the night, he’d already determined what his chances would be. He would never make it to his mother’s desert home. He wouldn’t even make it tomorning.
But before she could tell him so, a familiar sound pierced the encroaching night: the high-pitched screak of a hawk.
Roa’s heart kicked. She spun, searching the darkening sky.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered, afraid to trust her own ears.
