Page 36 of Crown of the Dunes

Still, it thrashed and fought me. My stomach lurched into my throat as a violent jerk nearly knocked me free. Out of instinct, I opened my mind, as if this were a freshly caught horse, and the tendril of the desert’s magic in it would help it calm at my mental touch.

Lightning shot through me as I found the place where the gravehawk’s mind should be. There was magic there. But this was not the comforting freedom of Alza’s consciousness—this was the madness of uncontrollable lightning in a cloudless sky and the taste of blood on my teeth.

A roar ripped its way out of my mouth, drowned out by the screech of the gravehawk below me. It banked sideways, but somehow I was ready for the sudden movement, leaning with it as it turned toward Kelvadan.

The column of clan riders wound like a dark snake through the baked earth toward the city as we flew over them, soaring toward the high walls. I squinted against the wind in my face at the approaching city, finding that its stillness had been broken. Archers now lined the top of the wall. I spotted them just in time to jerk to the side, an arrow whizzing an inch past my face.

The gravehawk was not alarmed by the attack, barreling toward the walls at top speed. It flew straight over the top of the arched gate. The strings of power in my mind pulled taut as I leaped just as it crested the edge, yanking my blades free.

I grabbed at the cords just before I hit the ground, letting them soften the blow of impact.

The two riders guarding the gate didn’t even have time to raise their swords. I swung my blades out wide to either side as I landed in a crouch, cutting their legs out from under them. They crumpled, and I paid them no mind as I turned to the barred gate.

Already the clatter of hooves on stone behind me signaled that the riders were mobilized, charging down from the palace to thwart me. But I had brought an army of my own. They would not stop me from getting to Keera. Or the Heart.

The tangle of power unspooling in my mind, somehow unwound even farther than usual by the touch of the deserts madness that was the gravehawk’s mind, made it hard to think. But it promised me that.

I grabbed the bar across the gate and threw it up before ramming my shoulder into the wood. It creaked open, solidly made, but still giving way. It would have been difficult to break down from the outside.

No sooner had it opened wide enough for two horses to ride abreast, than the thunder of hooves barreled toward me from the far side of the wall.

I jumped out of the way of the incoming clans. Seeing Alza charging alongside Izumi at the front of the column, I broke into a run. She did not even break her stride as she galloped by. I flung my arm around her neck and hurled myself into the air alongside her, letting my legs fly up and across her back until I found my seat.

Her hooves clattered on the stone of the courtyard in time with the pounding of my heart. Now, the magic of the desert truly tore loose from its leash, as I traded my knife for my saber. The strip of fabric stained with Keera’s blood fluttered on the wind as we charged up the main road through the city, and the voices in my head shouted and tumbled over one another at the reminder that we still couldn’t feel her.

Those voices brayed for blood like hunting dogs going in for a kill. I couldn’t understand their words, but I comprehended their violent meaning.

Charge. Fight. Kill. Get to her. Get our heart.

Before we had cleared the first level of the city, the oncoming riders met us, but I did not slow. Neither did Izumi beside me or the clansmen at my back.

This was the moment we had waited for—to take back our home and restore the desert. To heal the sins of the past by tearing this city to the ground.

I crashed through the first line of opposing riders effortlessly, Alza barreling through them like a sandstorm. As I raised my saber, hacking and slashing at those who would stop me, red began to seep into the corner of my vision.

My own blood and the blood of those who stood around me sang in my ears, but still, I did not stop, urging Alza forward. I could barely remember my own name, so intense was the cacophony in my skull, but I knew that I had lost something.

I had lost something, and they had taken it from me. I had to get it back, and I would if I just kept advancing.

I had to keep fighting. And so, with a roar, I charged on.

Chapter nine

Keera

Acool gust of air swept across my face, and I sucked in a rattling breath. I gulped down the air like it was water and I hadn’t drunk in days. It burned my throat, like I had recently swallowed a mouthful of fire, but I couldn’t remember why.

My eyelids fluttered at the touch of a callused hand on my forehead, pushing tendrils of hair away from my face. They stuck like they had been crusted on by sweat or tears, and I groaned.

“Keera,” a familiar voice, calming in its firmness, called me from unconsciousness.

It was nearly drowned out by another shouting, this one from deep inside, inaudible but overwhelmingly loud. Emotion poured down the bond with Erix like a wall of fire. It burned in my flesh despite the cold sweat coating my skin.

My eyes snapped open, half expecting to meet a molten silver gaze. Instead, I found Aderyn crouching before me, surrounded by stone walls with concern etched into her face.

Realizing where I was, I shivered despite the heat of Erix’s rage roiling down the bond. The weight of the mountain was palpable around me, and nausea rose in my throat at the idea of being crushed beneath it. At least the door to the hall was open, and the hazy light drifting in painted the room in dull, dusty colors.

“Keera,” Aderyn repeated.