Page 13 of Blood of the Sands

It had taken flight as I sent the horses back in the direction they had come with a sharp tap to their flanks, each bearing the severed head of their former rider. I assumed it would make its way back to the encampment with them to be cared for by somebody else. After all, a well-trained hunting falcon could be useful for catching small prey, especially when oryx became scarcer by the day.

Instead, the bird fluttered toward me, and I instinctively held out my arm. It landed on me without further prompting, the leather gloves I wore over my tunic protecting me from the worst of its talons. I inspected the bell tied to its leg, pondering removing it and turning it free. As the bird jumped farther up my arm and made a low kack, I exhaled heavily through my nose.

This fellow was too domesticated to survive long in the desert, clearly seeing me as a friend and not a threat. If he would follow me regardless, I wouldn’t chase him away. Perhaps I would even enjoy a little more fresh meat on my travels if I could learn how to fly him.

For now, I lowered my arm toward a pile of rocks, twisting it until he jumped off so I could finish packing up. Once my minimal supplies were secured to Alza’s back, I led her out of the cave with a hand on her neck. If Clan Tibel was close, I could afford to walk alongside her and rest her leg.

The falcon fluttered toward us, attempting to alight on Alza’s neck, but she tossed her head and snorted at the feel of talons on her skin. Next, he tried to perch on my shoulders, hooks digging through the material of my vest and robe. I winced at the weight and the pinch of him trying to grip me.

Carefully, I lifted him from his perch and set him on top of one of the packs of supplies on Alza’s back. He settled there, ruffling his feathers a few times before deciding it was an adequate perch. With that, I led us in the direction that Clan Tibel’s riders had come from.

Chapter Eight

Keera

Persistent, gnawing hunger brought me to awareness, as it usually did. My mind jumped into calculations, counting how many strips of dried oryx meat I had left to determine if I could afford to eat breakfast. While I normally liked to hunt first and save my meal for the hottest part of the day when I would hide away from the sun in my lean-to, today wouldn’t be one of those days. The hollow feeling in my belly was too intense for hunting without sustenance today. As I tried to move my limbs, they sank into the soft surface below me as if rooted there.

I froze instantly. The surface below me was far more comfortable than my barren nest of pilfered cushions and threadbare rugs. My eyes snapped open, and I drew in a sharp breath through cracked lips at the sight of solid stone above me.

“She lives!” proclaimed a male voice.

I turned my head, cheek brushing against a pillow so silky, it didn’t even chafe my perpetually sunburned face.

A brown-skinned man stood in my line of sight, smiling broadly at me, before my brief glance at him was blocked by a figure immediately beside me. She fell to her knees and cocked her head, her eyes unsmiling but kind. I recognized her as the woman who approached Daiti and me when…

Kelvadan.

That’s where I was. I struggled to sit up, arms weak as desert grass blowing in the wind. The woman helped me with firm hands on my shoulders. The touch of human hands still surprised me, and I tensed.

“You’re safe, it’s all right,” she insisted in a firm tone that still somehow managed to be comforting. Maybe it was the way her reassurances brooked no argument.

I opened my mouth to speak, but while less dry than it had been before, my swollen tongue still refused to form words. As I sat there with my mouth hanging open, I studied the woman before me, drinking in yet another new set of human features. Her hood now pooled around her shoulders, revealing a clean-shaven head; a single thick line was inked into her skin, running from her forehead across her scalp, the black stark in contrast with her pale skin. Her eyes narrowed as she examined me in turn, although I didn’t sense malice in their icy-blue depths.

Another figure coming to kneel at the side of the low couch where I lay stole my attention. The man I’d seen earlier offered me a cup, and I snatched it from him before I could stop myself. He smiled at me, the twinkle in his dark eyes almost as bright as the light reflecting off the silver beads adorning his black braids. I lifted the cup to my lips and gulped down the heart-wrenchingly delicious water inside, some overflowing the sides of my mouth to dribble down my chin.

I yanked the cup from my lips with great effort, wanting to down it all in swallow after glorious swallow, but knowing from experience that would only end in me vomiting it all up again. I knew better than to waste precious resources like that.

The woman took advantage of my distraction to explain. “I brought you back to my home after you lost consciousness. You’ve only been out for an hour or so. Shade and water can do wonders.”

“Why?” I croaked out. Some of the urgency from before I fainted returned, but it waged war in my chest with the wariness of strangers—especially ones showing this degree of unwarranted kindness.

“Kelvadan is a safe haven for all who travel the Ballan Desert,” the man exclaimed cheerfully, gesturing expansively as if he had been personally appointed to welcome weary travelers.

I blinked. Could it be possible that this city was really the paradise I had dreamed? It had seemed rather like a place of legend as I approached the mountains, but that might have just been from my exhaustion.

“It is, and it is my job to keep it that way,” the woman agreed. “I’m captain of the Kelvadan riders, and the last thing you said before collapsing was about a threat to Kelvadan.”

I opened my mouth, the determination that had carried me across the sands bolstered by the reminder of my purpose. Clan Katal would destroy this wonderful place. A place that I had dreamed for so long could offer me a home.

“She will tell us about this threat over a meal,” the man cut in before I could launch into whatever had been about to come spilling out of me. “She’s clearly had quite a journey, and it won’t do to have her collapsing in the middle of her tale.”

I swung my legs over the side of the couch, turning to take in the room where I had been resting more thoroughly. Seeing rich fabrics hanging from the walls, sheer curtains looking light as air as they billowed from the slight breeze coming through the windows, I winced at the crust of dirt I currently smeared on the couch beneath me. The bright colors and variety of textures gave the modest size room a sense of luxury despite its odd construction. It was completely hewn of gray stone, from the floor to the ceilings to the walls, with no joints to indicate a construction from blocks.

It had seemed like the city was carved directly into the mountainside as Daiti and I approached, and I could see now it was true.

“Daiti,” I gasped.

The woman shot me a question look.