Page 103 of Blood of the Sands

Of course, that meant I was leaving Lord Alasdar and the clans to face Kelvadan alone. I gritted my teeth and tried to force that thought down into darkness with the constant voice of the desert where I could attempt to ignore it. After all, defeating the lava wyrm would help the desert also. I could return to Lord Alasdar after, and we would still restore the Heart.

Then I might be able to convince Keera to come with me, when innocent lives were no longer endangered by the wyrm. I knew though, that I couldn’t watch her ride away again. Seeing her silhouette shrink on the horizon had caused an ache in my chest, deeper than the root of the string of magic that now connected us. Another week with her would give me the time I needed to convince her to stand at my side with Lord Alasdar.

“Tell me about crossing the desert.” Keera broke the silence, pulling me from my ruminations. I sensed she was trying to distract herself from the trial ahead, and I couldn’t fault her for it.

“It took months,” I admitted. “I lost count of how many days we had been riding less than halfway through. Lord Alasdar had done it once before, and he insisted I complete the journey too, to see the damage done by Kelvar.

“We followed the legend, setting off in the direction of the rising sun every morning. The tales say that crossing to the sea is the greatest of tests—that it will wear you down and put many obstacles in your path to break you and see if you are worthy to carry the magic of the desert in you. After all, she only deigned to let the clans live here after the first rider made the journey from the mountains and blessed their descendants with their power.

“Along the way we faced predators and storms. I was barely in my right mind to begin with after having run off into the desert on my own, and I was plagued by hallucinations and mirages. In the shifting sands, I saw myself losing control and all the people I had known struck down by my power. I watched the land crack apart before my feet to swallow all nine clans.

“But we kept going, and at last we saw the ocean.”

I hadn’t meant to say so much, but Keera stared at me as if transfixed. “Tell me.”

“It stretches as far as the eye can see, just like the sands except sparkling and bluer than anything you’ve ever seen. When we got there, my horse splashed straight into it, bucking and playing in foamy waves.

“And right there on the shore stood a temple, beginning to crumble, one corner of the roof caved in. Lord Alasdar said it was worse than when he had first come years ago. Inside was an altar, carved of the whitest stone I had ever seen and cracked down the middle. In it was a slot for a gemstone as big as my fist, and it was empty, the indent blackened as if burned.”

Keera looked over from where she rode beside me, a combination of awe and concern on her face. I swallowed thickly, not having shared that tale with anybody before. Lord Alasdar had insisted we keep the truth about the Heart to ourselves, lest any power-hungry lord or warrior try to take it for themselves. Instead, we fed the clans half truths about why the desert unraveled at the seams.

“I want to see the ocean,” Keera said, drawing me from my thoughts.

“It’s not an easy trip.”

Keera shrugged. “I’ve survived the elements enough already, and after spending so much of my life in one place, I want to see every inch of this land.”

I itched to tell her I would cross the desert as many times as she wanted with her, but I bit it back. Only yesterday, I had nearly been drawn away from her by Lord Alasdar’s call. Even now, my brain skirted around what would happen when I returned after directly disobeying his orders. The healing scars on my back itched.

“Look, we might be able to make camp there tonight,” Keera pointed at a greenish spot on the horizon.

I nodded. The horses could use the oasis, and both Keera and I could afford a bath. We hadn’t been able to fully wash since defeating the baby lava wyrm, and the smell of smoke still clung to my hair.

The idea of chasing water droplets across Keera’s golden skin with my tongue jumped to the front of my mind, and I hardened in my pants. I shifted my weight, trying to ease the sudden ache even as I looked forward to our bath.

“No,” Keera muttered in a disbelieving tone. The undercurrent of distress spilling out of her and stirring the desert around me snapped me from my fantasy. I looked back and forth, searching for the cause of her anxiety, only to find her eyes firmly fixed on the oasis, growing closer with every step.

“What is it?”

“I’m back; it’s my oasis.”

I squinted, and the shape of the palms and brush with a scattering of rocks off to one side niggled my memory. It was the same clearing I had found Keera in months ago—the first time I felt that calming stillness that only filled me under her touch.

She urged Daiti into a canter, racing toward the unassuming campsite where so much had changed. Alza and I caught up with Keera just as she dismounted near the rocky edge. She picked around it, me following at a distance, not sure if this was a private moment but unable to step back when she was so clearly upset.

On the far side of the rocks, a ripped piece of canvas fluttered in the breeze, torn free of the propped-up stick structure of a lean-to. Keera fell to her knees in the sand, reaching into a gap in the rocks that formed one wall of the ruined structure.

When she sat back, she held a battered pack in her hands. She dumped the contents on the sands, revealing a tattered sling, dented cookware, and a few mismatched pieces of clothing. She brushed her hands over the odds and ends, a sad, stricken expression twisting her face.

“This was where I lived,” she said. “This was all I knew.”

My knees buckled, hitting the sand next to her. The anger that was always close at hand snapped against its tether. However, the blinding heat was tempered by a bone-deep sadness.

“How long?” I asked.

“Almost ten years.”

My hands shook with barely controlled rage at the evidence of how narrowly Keera had survived, barely more than a girl when she was turned out into the desert to survive alone.