Page 96 of Heart of the Desert

“I’m here,” Keera murmured. “I’ll stay right here.”

And so, she sat there, with her arms wrapped around me as I gently tangled my fingers in Alza’s mane and tried to impart to my horse what little comfort I could.

The shadows were long by the time the horse master arrived. Despite the clans’ victory, they were in disarray as the injured were tended to and the two forces joined into one. Keera and I had ridden off with no explanation, and it was a while before anybody found us, kneeling in the sand just out of view of the oasis.

Keera was good to her word, not moving from my side, but Daiti had ridden off, eventually returning dragging a harried looking Aderyn with his teeth in her sleeve. She blanched immediately when she saw what had befallen us, before dashing back to the camp for help.

Clan Tibel’s horse master returned with her a few minutes later, immediately falling to his knees at Alza’s side. While I had spent the indeterminate stretch of time at Alza’s side focusing on matching my breaths with hers—slowly in and out as I tried to keep her calm against the pain—now it caught at the look in his eyes.

He looked up at me with pinched brows, and I bared my teeth.

“I won’t kill her. And if you try, your family won’t even have a body to burn.”

Keera’s arms tightened around my shoulder, and a shudder ran down the bond between us, thick with both pain and memory.

I’ll help you.

Those were the words uttered by Clan Padra’s horse master before he killed Keera’s beloved horse. I wanted to soothe her against the memory, but all I could manage right now was a dull tug on our tether.

“I will do my best,” he promised. “But we have to move her. There is little that can be done here.”

Alza’s muscles twitched under my hand, and I knew she understood. I chewed my lips.

“All right,” I struggled to my feet, legs nearly devoid of feeling after kneeling in one position so long. Automatically Alza started to thrash, trying to rise with only the use of three legs. Her snorts and squeals of pain were like daggers in my heart. Keera rushed forward, and together the three of us were able to get her to her feet. She stood, panting, on three legs for a long moment.

Then, with one hand on her shoulder, I took a careful step forward, and she followed.

It was a long, arduous hobble back to the oasis where the clans rebuilt their encampment. Alza hopped and limped, continuing to make noises of distress, even as I could tell she tried to suppress them.

She had learned too many lessons from me over the years. Daiti trailed us too, keeping the slow pace and whickering gently, despite his notorious lack of patience. It was as if he were trying to comfort his friend, even as Keera walked stalwartly at my side.

I didn’t fully release my breath until we reached a newly erected enclosure, and Alza limped through the opening in the fence and promptly lowered herself to the ground. A pained sigh escaped her, and sweat coated her sides.

“We can remove the arrow now. I just need to fetch my tools,” the horse master declared.

I just nodded.

There was a bustle of activity around me, but I could barely take it in. A few figures approached as if to ask questions, but Keera quickly put herself between me and them.

“I’ll be there in a moment,” she said, still managing to sound like the high lord she had been on the battlefield today, even when I felt the hurt and despair in her own chest echoing mine.

Then her hand landed on my shoulder. “Stay with her. I’ll handle the rest for now. Daiti will watch over you.”

I laid my hand over hers and squeezed. I ached to be by her side—to lead alongside her as I promised we would.

“Thank you,” I rasped.

A lick of golden warmth drifted down our bond, just cracking the cold that had surrounded my heart. Then she was gone, and I settled in to soothe Alza through her next ordeal.

Chapter thirty-four

Keera

For a decade of my life, going on was all I seemed to know how to do, even when I didn’t know why I bothered. I put one foot in front of the other, drew in breath after painful breath, even when it would have been so much simpler to lay down and die.

Now that my purpose was clear, I had hoped it might be easier to find the strength to continue. I had a purpose to fight for and people who cared about me, when before nobody even knew of my existence.

Somehow though, the weight lay heavier on me than ever as I picked myself up and walked through the clans where they gathered. It could barely even be called an encampment at this point. Tents lay in heaps on the ground as people delayed erecting them in favor of hauling the injured off the battlefield or weeping over fallen riders.