Page 8 of Heart of the Desert

The threads of my magic tangled with the flow of her power insistently as we progressed from the first set of forms to the second. Even as the practice calmed my mind more than it had in days of exercising alone, the intermingling of our power like this seemed to feed Keera’s wildness. The gentle but inexorable stream of her magic grew to treacherous rapids—a flow one could easily get lost in.

I frowned even as our blades sliced through open air in precise arcs. The thought of having Keera at my side for the coming journey had made me hope that I could keep my power in check until we reached the ocean. Now it occurred to me that I might drag Keera toward the precipice with me. If her magic continued to grow in its wildness, perhaps I would not be the only one plagued by voices and harrowing visions—she had already experienced too many horrors, and the thought of her mind making her relive any of them made my chest burn.

Perhaps it was selfish of me to keep her near to hold my own madness at bay, just as it had been selfish of Kelvar to steal the Heart to save his wife. Doubt nested like snakes in my gut.

We moved from the second form to the third, and the worry was pushed from my mind as balance and coordination took over my focus. My breaths came faster and deeper as my muscles grew warm with the exertion.

Today, with Keera at my side, the forms succeeded in burning away some of the frenetic energy that seemed to feed the chatter in my mind. Finally, we reached the end of the time-honored exercises and stopped with the tips of our sabers pointed straight at the ground.

A smile quirked Keera’s lips, and she offered me a respectful tap of her knuckles to her brow. I returned the gesture and remembered how we had done so at an oasis what seemed like a lifetime ago, as our enmity was just beginning to thaw.

“You perform those well. It makes me feel like perhaps I should practice more.” A voice sounded behind us.

I spun in place to find Dhara standing in the space between tents. Her arms were folded over her chest, and she leaned one shoulder on a tent pole.

“I have a feeling your forms are nothing to be ashamed of,” Keera responded.

“Perhaps, but we should all be as sure of our sword skills as possible these days,” Dhara observed, pushing off the pole and taking a few steps toward us. “As soon as Elion and Aderyn reunite the clans, it will be time for war. We will need all the skilled riders we can muster.”

Keera stiffened, and we shared a glance.

“Our path does not lead us to war,” I admitted. “Not yet.”

Dhara quirked a brow. “Does this have something to do with why you ran from the fire last night?”

I bit the inside of my cheek in shame until I tasted copper.

“You said before that you could feel the way the desert frayed at the seams,” Keera spoke. “The path to fixing her does not lie in Kelvadan.”

“And where does this path lead?”

“The ocean,” I said, before hesitating for a moment. Lord Alasdar had always insisted that the true goal of restoring the Heart be kept secret—that others knowing of the Heart’s power would lead to betrayal and a race to gain its power. But his plan had failed, and he had fallen in the face of the bond I shared with Keera.

I had never cared much for how the clans saw me then—hiding behind a mask so they didn’t even know my true name. But now that mask had been left behind in Kelvadan. A knot beneath my ribs ached at the thought the clans would see me leaving them as a betrayal.

I reached into my belt and pulled out the halves of the broken Heart. Like this, they only looked like a large red gemstone, cloven neatly in two. “The Heart of the Desert must be restored to a temple that lies at the edge of the sea,” I explained.

“The Heart of the Desert is a legend,” Lord Dhara said, even as she unfolded her arms and stared down at the glittering red rock in my hand.

“A legend, but a true one,” Keera said at my side.

Dhara glanced up at her.

“And you plan on going to the ocean as well?”

Keera lifted her chin. “Where he goes, I go.”

“I know the other lords will not like it,” I admitted. “But if there is to be a city to save and clans to unite, the desert has to be healed.”

Dhara looked between the two of us. “The journey will be treacherous.”

“Even more treacherous than it has been, with the desert’s anger rousing ancient creatures,” I admitted.

“Truly a test for the fiercest warriors,” she mused.

“We will manage.” Keera set her jaw. “We bested the lava wyrm that terrorized your clan before. We can manage this.”

Dhara pursed her lips. “It was always my great shame that I could not save my clan from that monster myself. Now, I would like to save my clan from the desert’s wrath. I will come with you to the ocean.”