Page 92 of Blood of the Sands

“If we get her to lay down and stand up several times, it should correct itself. If not—well, we’ll just have to do our best to help her deliver as is.”

Koa’s expression took on a determined set. “Tell me what to do.”

For the next half hour, Koa and Erix gently coaxed the mare around the enclosure, patiently encouraging her to lay down before prodding her back up again. Badha and I did our best to help, mostly getting Erix whatever he asked for.

By the time the mare lay down on her side, refusing to get back up again, sides rippling with contractions, a small audience had formed around the enclosure. While clansmen hurried around, getting the encampment ready to move at first light, many paused as they walked by. Just like myself, they couldn’t seem to take their eyes off the masked man, supposedly the fearsome Viper, with his sleeves rolled up, helping to gently coax a new life into the world.

Badha and I joined Erix and Koa at the mare’s side as she showed signs of beginning to strain. Carefully, Erix reached up the birth canal to check the foal. We collectively held our breath, and all those hurrying by outside the enclosure paused to hear the verdict as well.

“It’s turned. She should be able to deliver nearly on her own from here.”

Koa let out a shuddering breath, and I felt myself echoing the sentiment.

In a matter of minutes, delicate front hooves came into view, followed by a pink nose. Erix carefully removed blood and humor from the foal’s nostrils so it could breathe, and the mare continued to push, Koa continually murmuring encouragement.

As the foal’s shoulders began to emerge, Erix nodded me over.

“Help me pull gently as the mother pushes. She’s beginning to tire.”

I laid my hands over his on the foal’s front legs, doing as he asked. Together, we applied gentle traction as the mare’s sides shuddered and heaved. In moments, the front half of the foal appeared already started to squirm.

“Stop,” Erix instructed me. “If we keep pulling now, we might fracture its ribs.”

With one final heave, the mare birthed the foal, a bright new colt coming into the desert in the middle of the downtrodden encampment. Koa exclaimed in joy, and murmurs of excitement ran through those who paused by the enclosure’s edge.

Incredulously, I reached out my magic, feeling the spark that lived in every horse in the Ballan Desert, small but steady in the foal. He was already proving to be a feisty one, trying and failing to push to his feet only minutes after birth.

An hour later, I sat on the makeshift fence at the edge of the enclosure next to Erix, his arms scrubbed clean and gloves firmly in place. Together, we watched the foal nurse, already walking around on thin legs that were less wobbly by the minute. Our silence was companionable, and when I reached out a tendril of magic toward Erix, I imagined I could feel a sort of contentment rolling off him that I hadn’t felt before.

“I didn’t know you knew so much about horses,” I said.

Erix shrugged, but the way his face turned to follow the foal wherever it roamed belied his indifference. “Growing up, riding was one of the few times I felt peace. It still is.”

I remembered the way Farren felt beneath me—how we would gallop under the stars in a pell-mell race to nowhere when my thoughts became too much. It was yet another sentiment we shared.

“Kai—Kaius tried to help me in his own way.” The horse master’s name seemed to catch in his throat, but I didn’t press Erix. It was the first time I had heard him speak of his parents in a way that was less than hostile, and I feared shattering the moment. “Seeing how much I liked to spend time around the horses, he would bring me to the stables to help him when he could. It was never enough but…it did help.”

We fell into silence again. A figure strode up next to us, resting their forearms on the fence next to us. I looked over to find Lord Dhara surveying the foal as well.

“I’m glad we won’t have to worry about Koa’s mare giving birth as we travel. We hope to make it to the safety of the encampment as quickly as possible,” she said.

“The foal will still be slow,” Erix pointed out.

Lord Dhara shook her head. “It will already be slow going. Many have lost their horses to the lava wyrm already and will have to take turns riding and walking. Still, with your help we might just make it.”

While the lord’s voice still held the hardness of a commander, it was laced with a little more gratitude than it had been when we first arrived.

“Come to my fire and get some food tonight. You have more than earned your keep today,” she said before striding off toward the center of the encampment.

That evening, we found ourselves sitting around one of the larger fire pits with Lord Dhara and several of the riders. We were each passed a meager portion of cooked oryx meat, but Erix wordlessly tipped his onto my plate. Apparently, the mask still stayed on around others besides me.

“What can you tell us of the lava wyrm?” he asked as I was busy licking hot grease off my fingers. I didn’t miss the way his mask darted to me as I made sure not a single dripple escaped me, running my tongue over where the juices dripped down my wrist.

“It first attacked three weeks ago, although we didn’t know it at the time,” Lord Dhara explained. “One of our hunting parties never returned, and we thought the desert had led them astray or they had been caught in a sandstorm.

“Then a few horses disappeared, only for their charred bones to be found among the sands a few days later. We didn’t see it until two weeks ago, when it grew bold enough to attack our encampment at night. We tried to fight back, but it is difficult to get close enough to land a blow when it spits molten rock, turning the ground around it into a burning death trap. We’ve tried arrows, but they just bounce off its hide. Its underbelly seems unprotected, but the moats of lava it creates around itself when we try to engage it have swallowed any riders that were brave enough to approach.

“We started sending out messengers over a week ago, but the lava wyrm is deceptively fast and sees them as easy prey. I’m afraid that the rider you encountered after the Trials was the only one to get past it alive.”