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“I’ll do it.” He blurted out. “You go first and I’ll join you.”
I eyed him for a moment before nodding. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend time with your family?”
He cast his gaze down, shifting as if uncomfortable. “I’d rather finish the mission.”
“Alright then.” I wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to see them, but I wouldn’t question having an extra set of eyes. “See you on the sand then.” I glanced back once into my room where my concubine still slept before leaving, Herrath following behind me as he straightened his armor and called for Mirijana.
Twenty minutes later we were on the sand mounted on our vaniras, the black grit blowing in the morning wind. The sun had almost risen, lighting up the desert in a brilliant golden glow. The rolling dunes beneath the spiders’ feet were nearly magical, the sand shifting with the slightest breath of wind until something else caught my eye. A hint of movement at the edge of my vision that looked like a massive shadow slithering across the dunes. I blinked, and it was gone. A trick of the light, no doubt.
There hadn’t been wyrms since the Godsfall, with Thanja’s fantastical creatures dying with her. But they’d once lived here, causing sand storms with their immense wings and terrorizing anyone who dared to cross into their domain. It was said that you could still see them in the storms, riding the winds before diving back into the sand and swimming through it like water, but I’d never seen proof of it.
“Atar’s sweaty balls. I already drained half of my canteen.” Raenisa complained, her long hair tied up in a greasy tail as she fanned herself.
I tossed her the extra one I’d packed for her, expecting this. Raenisa might mock me for taking my family’s words to heart, but it’d kept me alive through the dark years after I’d been forced back into my mother’s clutches. And it prevented her from getting sunstroke at least once a month. “Was she worth it?”
“Caelia?” She sighed, her expression turning dreamy despite the dark circles under her eyes. “We just talked most of the night.”
“And drank,” Herrath said, directing his spider mount beside mine. She glared at him, but he ignored her, instead pointing toward the Red Wilds. “We spend most of our time scouring the highlands, but there are tons of places for them to hide. If we go overland straight to the Red Wilds, we can reach the place Rhazien told us about faster.”
I nodded, eager to finish this and return. Not just to my concubine, I reminded myself. But to face Zora and Oz without feeling guilty that I’d lost one of the family swords. This was my chance to find Striker and get revenge for Calyx’s death. To leave this desert, once and for all.
“Let’s go.”
Raenisa groaned as we started moving, her eyes flooding black as she touched her electrum earring. She sat straighter, no longer hunching in discomfort as the magic took hold, healing her hangover. The wind blew hot and dry around us, carrying the scent of sun-baked rock and creosote. Even though it was still early, the heat was oppressive and sweat beaded on my forehead almost immediately.
Vaernix moved quickly, happy to scuttle over the dunes and stretch her many legs.
The sun was high when we arrived at the Red Wilds, marveling at the massive mesas that towered ahead of us. They were dark red, a stark contrast against the sky and sand around them. Raenisa whistled low in admiration as we came closer, taking in the endless expanse of rock formations. Rattleweeds rolled past, larger than any I’d ever seen before.
“I’ve heard the slaves talk about this place,” Herrath said, gesturing to a cluster of stones toward the east. “The Kyrie have stories about some of these formations. I think that one is supposed to be Kearis and Cetena’s courtship, with the smaller one representing Sithos’ birth.”
“Gods, you’re boring,” Raenisa complained, stretching her back and arms as she readied for a potential fight. It had been her routine since the beginning of her training, her musical background influencing her fighting style.
He shot her an impassive look as he scanned the range, and an idea hit me.
“Are any of them for Vetia or the Inferi?” I hadn’t forgotten the man who said he’d help me years ago, only to betray us. Haemir, one of the rebel leaders, was an Inferi Remnant. It stood to reason that those stories of his goddess would draw him.
Herrath considered for a beat before pointing further west. “That cluster there of the three pillars and the smaller stone in front? That could be Vetia and her triad.”
Vetia was unique amongst the gods. She wasn’t like Rhaedos, forever searching for a mate that he never found or even her parents in a couple. Supposedly she and Sithos tried to be together, forming a chain of volcanoes in the Molten Sea with their violent lovemaking before she left him, instead shifting to her smaller form to take three lovers as her triad. It had passed on to her descendants, with Inferi females being stronger in magic, and gathering their own triads of doting males.
I’d once found the idea interesting in the abstract, but having claimed Lily... I growled low in my throat at the thought of sharing her. I’d kill any man who touched her. “Theron?” Herrath questioned.
“Good enough for me,” I replied, shaking off the anger that had gripped me. I caught his pleased smile as he hurried ahead, leading the way.
“Let’s scout it out before going any further,” Herrath called back as he looked around warily. There were stories about these mesas being home to fierce creatures like scopscions and rebels alike, but there was something else here too. An awareness that made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We were being watched.
I pointed to a narrow break in the rocks below the cluster of pillars. “There. It’s a natural choke point. They’d be able to pick us off without our numbers overwhelming them.”
Raenisa cocked her head. “Then how do we breach it?”
An animal call I’d never heard before echoed across the plains and sent a chill down my spine despite the heat. It sounded like an eagle’s call combined with something else... a wolf’s howl, perhaps?
“Fuck. They’ve spotted us.”
Herrath cursed under his breath as he drew his sword and signaled for us to retreat into the dunes. “We don’t have enough men for a full assault.”
“We don’t need one. Just to draw out Striker. He’s always at the head of each raid. If we attack, he’ll come.”
