He nodded. “At least we know what they are. It didn’t look dangerous, but looks can be deceptive. Let’s hope it’s just the local wildlife and not something more sinister.”
“Aw,” Halek said. “It was kind of cute, actually. Of course, that’s not to say it’s not dangerous,” he added, as both Raithe andI looked at him. “Some of the cutest things in the world are the most dangerous. Sand wolf cubs, for instance. And flower girls from the city of Markenth. Don’t trust those big brown eyes they flash you—you’ll find yourself waking up in an alley before you can say ‘where’s my pants?’?”
Demon Hour finally came to an end, though the temperatures dropped slowly. The air over the sands continued to shimmer as Raithe and Kysa packed up the tent, and I made sure the rock beetles were ready to go. I didn’t think Kysa had missed anything but, just to be certain, I checked all the saddlebags and tie-downs, making sure none of them looked chewed or tampered with. I wondered what kind of creature would be bold enough to climb onto a giant rock beetle’s back and rifle through its saddlebags. Or were they desperate, living in as desolate a place as this?
Ratuk huffed softly as I walked around to his saddle. I untied one of the saddlebags and reached inside for my canteen, still half full of water. I slung it over my shoulder, then rooted around in the bag until I found one of the small clay bowls we used for food.
Walking away from the rock beetles, I found a flat place in the sands and knelt, setting down the bowl and filling it halfway with our precious water. Namaia would certainly boil the liquid within soon enough, but I hoped the little rodent creatures would be able to get a few sips before it evaporated into nothing.
A shadow fell over the water bowl. I looked up to see Raithe gazing down at it, and me, an unreadable look on his face.
I swallowed. “I know,” I said before the iylvahn could say anything. Closing the canteen, I stared at the water bowl,watching the light shimmer off the surface. “This is probably a waste,” I admitted, “but it has to be hard to survive out here. I thought...”
“You don’t have to justify sympathy, Sparrow,” Raithe said. I glanced up at him, and he was smiling. “Not with me. Kysa, perhaps, but I doubt she would begrudge you showing mercy to smaller creatures.” He held out a hand and pulled me to my feet. We mounted the rock beetles with barely a glance from Kysa, and continued our journey across the desert.
As Ratuk plodded forward, I looked back to the spot where I’d set down the bowl, only to see that it was gone.
For two more days, we continued across the desert. I didn’t see any more of the little rodent creatures, either on the dunes or when it was my turn to stand guard with the rock beetles. The sands stretched on, eternal and unchanging. The wind continued to scour and build up the desert, occasionally revealing tiny glimpses of the mysterious civilization that had been here before. Thankfully, we didn’t spot any sign of the huge abomination. The skies remained painfully clear and blue, the suns unhindered as they blazed down upon us.
On the morning of the third day, a fierce, hot wind blew across the desert, and an ominous red tinge appeared against the horizon in front of us.
“There’s a sandstorm coming,” Kysa announced, stopping Rhyne to glance back at us. “We’ll have to stop and wait it out. Fatechaser, grab the tent.”
Quickly, we worked to pitch the tent, while around us, thedunes began to rise and fall like the waves in the Dust Sea. As the weather got worse, the two rock beetles moved shoulder to shoulder and buried themselves halfway into the sand, the saddlebags and the top parts of their shells poking up like giant black boulders.
“Here it comes,” Halek warned, just as we finished erecting the tent. I looked up to see a wall of sand crest the dunes and come right for us. We ducked into the tent, and the storm swallowed it, the air outside instantly turning dark.
Halek sighed, the sound nearly inaudible over the shrieking winds beyond the cloth. “Well, that was kind of close. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to be a rock beetle. Have you noticed that nothing bothers them?” He peered through gap in the tent flaps, narrowing his eyes. “I wish I could just stickmyhead in the sand to avoid a storm.”
“Sometimes I wish you could, as well.” Kysa lowered herself into a cross-legged sit against the cloth wall. “The eternal prattle would be silent for a few hours, at least.”
Halek grinned. “Ha, you would miss my stories if I wasn’t here, admit it.”
The insect rider did not deign to answer.
Raithe sat down across from Kysa. “This storm is coming from the direction of the World Scar,” he mused as I joined him. “Unusual, since the winds have been blowing in the opposite direction until now.”
Something thumped against the outside of the tent, like a rock or pebble bouncing off the side. There was another thump, and another. Frowning, I looked at Raithe, and his eyes narrowed.
“What is that?” Halek wondered, also frowning at the tent walls. “Who’s throwing rocks during a sandstorm?”
“Stay here,” Raithe muttered. Easing to the front of the tent, he hooked two fingers along the edge of the flaps and pulled one back to peer into the storm.
Something immediately crawled through the crack. A black beetle nearly the size of my fist scuttled up the wall of the tent, paused a moment, and then flew at my face with a buzz of wings.
I flinched and swatted it from the air. It flew back and landed on Halek’s leg, and he let out a yelp. But before he could leap to his feet, Kysa’s gauntleted hand snatched up the insect and squeezed, crushing it in her fist with a faintpop.
“Eww!” Halek scooted away.
The rider calmly dropped the squashed beetle in front of her, and Raithe returned to my side. The beetle lay on the floor between us, clearly dead, though I could see a pair of large, curved mandibles that looked like they would give an extremely painful bite.
“Maederyss’s mercy, I am reallynotliking this aggressive insect curse we seemed to have picked up,” Halek breathed, plopping down on the other side of the tent. He looked at me and Raithe with an exasperated grin. “I blame the pair of you. If my fate is to be eaten by giant carnivorous insects, I expect you both to sing a tragic ballad at my funeral.”
Raithe didn’t smile. More thumps echoed against the cloth outside, and I caught glimpses of beetle silhouettes against the canvas before they dropped to the sand. The storm was pickingup, which was somehow increasing the number of beetles flying through the air.
“Where is this coming from?” Raithe muttered darkly. “We saw the abomination pass overhead a few days ago, and the winds are coming from the direction of the World Scar. Does this mean the abomination is close?”
“Kysa.” I looked at the insect rider in alarm. “Rhyne and Ratuk are outside. Will they be all right in this?”
