Page 56 of Heart of the Desert

Izumi’s eyes flashed, and I could tell her anger had gotten the better of her.

“Maybe the people of Kelvadan deserve to die, if they were the ones that broke it. Maybe you deserve your fate, if you were the one to let foreigners into our desert,” she spat.

“And would you not deserve even worse a fate, for subjecting hundreds to the same losses you’ve endured?” My voice rose, and I winced at the sharpness I found there. Antagonizing Izumi when I asked for her aid did not seem wise—but I had rarely been wise—only honest and determined.

Izumi’s face twisted into a snarl, but not before I saw a flicker of something like doubt flash in her eyes. “Don’t think me soft just because I let you kill Lord Alasdar to save the Viper that night in his tent. I will do what is necessary to please the desert.”

Before she left, she pulled a packet from her sash and dumped it onto the brazier that lit the inside of the tent. Then, she stormed out and I watched the canvas flap flutter in the wake of her hasty retreat. I had almost forgotten how her hands on my shoulders loosened as I lunged for Erix’s blade on the floor. Weak as I was, she easily could have stopped me before I drove the blade through Lord Alasdar’s chest to save Erix from his torture.

She hadn’t, though.

The din of an active encampment drifted in through the tent flap. Hundreds of soldiers from Doran had arrived on our shores by Izumi’s invitation. The memories mixed fitfully, just as hope and dread mixed in my chest in equal measures.

I sighed deeply in frustration, only for the strange scent of the smoke to fill my nostrils. Whatever Izumi had put on the fire, it was what she had used to render Erix and me unconscious before.

I began to cough and struggle, and a bolt of panic shot through me. The darkness pulled me under, and memories of being kept drifting on the edges of consciousness in Kelvadan’s infirmary flooded my mind. I tried to tug on the tether with Erix, but it slipped through my grasp as my consciousness rushed away.

“We’ll convince her,” Badha’s voice sounded as if very far away. “We have to.”

Chapter nineteen

Erix

“The four of us can’t just fight our way through a camp boasting over a thousand riders.”

“Then I’ll do it alone.” I sidestepped Aderyn to reach Alza and the extra weapons stowed in my packs. To my frustration, she swiveled around me, getting in my way again as Alza danced backward. Even my own horse seemed to want to thwart me today.

I clenched my fists so hard my nails bit into my palms, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Get out of my way.” I grit each word out from behind my teeth.

Aderyn crossed her arms and raised her chin at me defiantly, not cowed by the magic spilling off my skin like heat off baked earth. Perhaps it was because she couldn’t sense it. Or perhaps she was just more stubborn than I gave her credit for.

“Don’t argue with a pregnant woman,” Elion rumbled from behind me.

“How would you know?” Dhara sniped in the background, but I ignored them.

“I thought Keera was your friend too,” I said, my voice low. “We can’t abandon her. You know—” I swallowed, cutting myself off. Right now, I couldn’t think of how her parents and clan had abandoned her. My control was too thin as it was, and if I dwelt on how Lord Nathaira—who had left a girl to die of exposure because she was threatened by her power—was also in that encampment, then nothing could stop me from leveling the whole thing.

“I’m not suggesting we abandon her. I’m suggesting we take more than two breaths to make a plan,” Aderyn snapped at me.

I spun on my heel to face away from her, unable to meet the piercing iciness in her eyes. They were too perceptive, and the way they cut into me reminded me that I needed to be better. I needed control. Even just a fingerhold. Keera had been taken because I hadn’t been able to master my mind—to control my desire for Keera when I was supposed to be searching for answers—and I had left us vulnerable to whatever fumes had knocked us unconscious.

My tongue began to tingle, sparks like fire-ants crawling down my throat to my belly. If I hadn’t been on her like an animal, craving her touch when I fought to keep my distance and protect her from my madness, I might have noticed the smoke. Chittering filled my ears, and my skin was too tight to contain the magnitude of the clamoring in my mind.

The guilt that roiled within me frayed my grasp on reality, and my mind started skittering out across the desert, sensing the way the nearby surf pounded the sand and a distant herd of wild horses galloped across baked earth. I searched for my connection to Keera, but it felt far away and fuzzy, as if she were still drugged.

I used my last vestiges of concentration to pull my dirk from my belt and press the blade to my forearm. The sharp sensation brought me back all at once, and I yanked my hand back before I could sink it in too deep. The tingling abated and the burning cooled, as if I had been doused in water.

I had again broken my promise to Keera that I wouldn’t draw my own blood, but it hardly mattered if I couldn’t get her back from Izumi and Warrick.

“What do you suggest?” I grumbled, not turning back to face Aderyn, who waited behind me. Instead, I worked on wiping my dirk on my sash and pulling my sleeve over my new cut.

“The last time I spirited Keera out of a busy encampment, we had a distraction. With riders attacking, nobody noticed a single person slipping into a tent. They know you’re here, but they may not have seen the rest of us.”

“So, if I cause the distraction, the rest of you can find Keera and get her out,” I grumbled in understanding. Finally, I turned around to find Aderyn looking grim but determined.

“We don’t know where she might be, but if the three of us slip in and split up, we can cover more ground unseen,” Dhara agreed.