“Why were you and your master out in the desert?” Katie asked. She didn’t know a lot about her master’s past, all things considered. He didn’t like to talk about the time he’d spent with his master, but she was certain that was because of how thoroughly unpleasant the man had been. Not even other necromancers had liked him, and her master had admitted to not raising a single finger to help him when he’d been eaten by one of his own zombies. It had been a zombie python-goat, or something similar.
“Have you heard of the Heart of the Desert?” he asked. Her master had a wistful expression on his face that he usually only wore when he was talking about something extremely rare or exotic. More often than not, it was followed by them going out and trying to get that extremely rare or exotic thing, which was in turn followed by them being chased by things that wanted to murder them.
“The Heart of the Desert?” Katie searched her memory but came up with a big blank. “What is it? I haven’t heard of it before.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s not widely known, and so much of what we think we know about the creation of the Desert of Glass is nothing more than myth, legend, and wild conjecture. Tell me, what do you know about how the Desert of Glass was made?”
“It was left behind after an ancient empire that predates even the elves destroyed themselves, most likely through some titanic magical mishap.”
“That is the most popular story, isn’t it?” Timmy quickly led their camels past a store selling food before any of the animals could help themselves. “My master was fascinated with ancient relics. He wanted to gather as many as he could. He was convinced that the ancients – the ones who had wiped themselves out over the years – had discovered bits and pieces of what could be the ultimate power. He believed that if he gathered enough of their relics and grew to understand them, then he would be able to surpass all of the ancient scholars, mages, and warriors and transcend the limits of mortal power to become a god.”
“He sounds crazy.” Katie used her shadows to help guide the camels along the crowded street. She was careful, however, to do it as subtly as she could, thinning her shadows until they resembled dark ropes. “But it would also explain the collection we have back home.”
The castle did indeed have an extensive collection of ancient relics, many of which were so evil and powerful that they had to be kept deep within the castle behind many layers of protection. Katie had studied some of them, and she had plans to study even more of them as she grew older and more powerful. Her master, who was far more familiar with them, had even put some of them to work powering the castle’s defences and performing other tasks.
“My master uncovered legends suggesting that the destruction of the ancient empire was caused by a weapon, not unlike the one that the rats Avraniel likes put together, only orders of magnitude more powerful.”
Katie shuddered. She liked all of the rats, but she’d been forced to have a few difficult conversations with the group widely referred to as the demolition rats due to their tendency to demolish things with explosives. If they wanted to continue experimenting with increasingly powerful explosives, then they needed to move farther from the castle. They meant well, but their explosives had grown by leaps and bounds now that Avraniel was around to help power them up. There was no telling what they might come up with next, especially if Spot was involved. Although Katie was reasonably confident that the castle would survive – her master had recently increased the strength of its magical defences to ensure it could withstand even a direct hit from the things the demolition rats came up with – the same could not be said for the surrounding countryside and the villagers who occupied it.
“The Heart of the Desert was the magical artefact, which formed the core of that weapon. My master believed that unlike the bombs our rodent friends have come up with, the ancient weapon could be fired multiple times and across great distances. He even found some very rough descriptions of the Heart and what it did.”
“Really?” Katie turned to glare at one of the camels. The dromedary had decided that her hair was very interesting – as food. Rembrandt poked it in the nose to make it let go of her hair, but the camel simply ignored her glare and made another attempt at her hair. “Stop chewing my hair!”
“The fragments of text that my master found described the Heart as the soul of a star which had fallen to earth. The ancients said that it had three forms. In its first form, it had the appearance of mere amber. When heated enough, it would turn to molten gold. And if heated even further, it took on the appearance of gleaming crystal filled with all of the fire and brilliance of the sun.”
“I’ve definitely never seen anything like that before,” Katie said. “On the upside, it’s not like we can miss it if we run into it.”
“No, I don’t think anyone could miss it. Now, come on. If we dawdle any longer, that camel might leave you bald.”
Chapter Nine
“It’s hot – really, really hot.”
Timmy laughed and leaned to the side on his camel to avoid the shadow his adorable apprentice half-heartedly swiped in his direction. Everton had four distinct seasons, but even summer in Everton was nothing compared to the scorching, unrelenting heat of the desert.
“Consider yourself lucky. It’s only dry heat.” He grinned as Katie shot him the most murderous glare she could muster. It was good to see that she had enough energy to glare. He’d have been worried otherwise. Besides, they’d only been riding for a few hours. “My master once dragged me off to a tropical jungle to rob the tomb of an ancient king. The heat was every bit as bad there as it is now, but the humidity made things far more miserable. And don’t even get me started on all of the giant mosquitoes, giant snakes, giant spiders, giant centipedes, and other giant animals that wanted to make a meal out of us.”
“You need to tell me where that tomb is, master, so I can make sure to never go near it.” Katie was using her shadows to provide herself with an extra bit of shade, but she could have wrapped her shadows around herself to absorb the heat directly. A day or two of using her magic like that would have been fine, but they had a solid week of travel ahead of them, not to mention all of the fighting they’d have to do once they reached the Nameless Citadel. “It doesn’t help that those two are so… so…”
“Cheerful?” Old Man cut a cheerful figure himself on his camel, which was a touch older than the others. He’d even bought the animal a wide-brimmed straw hat to match the one he wore although he’d been forced to tie both hats into place after several powerful gusts of wind had nearly blown them away. The animal even had the same temperament as Old Man, and it was plodding along with what Timmy strongly suspected was the camel equivalent of an easy-going smile.
“Yes.” Katie huffed. “That’s the word I was looking for.”
The two people in question were Avraniel and Spot. The elf hadn’t bothered to alter her clothing, and her fair skin hadn’t so much as reddened despite hours of exposure to the brutally bright sun. Katie must have found the whole thing horribly unfair. The girl’s pale skin sunburned easily, and there was Avraniel without a care in the world. It most likely had something to do with her magic. People with fire magic tended to be at least somewhat resistant to heat-related injuries, and Avraniel’s fire magic was stronger than anyone Timmy had ever met. She could probably stick her hand into boiling water without being burned, and Timmy had seen her handle dragon fire when she used her magic.
As for Spot, he was a dragon. Dragons were not only completely impervious to petty inconveniences like sunburn but they were also reptiles. They typically enjoyed hot weather like this. Timmy had even come across a theory that argued that dragons could absorb energy like sunlight via some exotic magical and metabolic process. No one had ever tested those theories – dragon researchers had by the far the shortest expected lifespans amongst animal researchers although kraken researchers weren’t far behind – but perhaps he’d have a chance to test them. If nothing else, he had a decent shot at becoming the worl
d’s foremost dragon expert since he was in the enviable position of not being on Spot’s menu. It could prove to be a lucrative career move if he ever wanted to get out of being a necromancer. It would certainly pay better than carpentry.
And then there was Gerald. If Katie were having a hard time handling the heat, then it would be fair to say that Gerald had it even worse. The unfortunate bureaucrat had been forced to lather himself in salve that took the bite out of the sun’s rays. It smelled too much like healing salve for Timmy to like it – he had many, many unpleasant memories about healing salve after all of the insane training exercises his master had subjected him to. Spot didn’t like it either. The dragon had licked Gerald’s face and recoiled at the taste. It was probably for the best since apparently eating the salve could lead to vomiting. Vomiting was fairly horrible for most people, but it was an absolute menace when it involved a fire-breathing dragon.
“Is there anything we should be watching for?” Gerald asked. He was handling his camel with surprising aplomb although he was helped by how utterly docile the dromedary was. It had accepted Gerald without complaint and had proceeded to set a truly lazy pace until prodded into swifter movement. Timmy had a feeling that it wouldn’t have minded one bit if it was roped onto the other camels and dragged along through the sand. “I thought there would be more people. There is a trading route here, isn’t there?”
Timmy studied the landscape. They appeared to be the only ones out there. “There aren’t any permanent settlements in the Desert of Glass. Things don’t grow well there, and the things that do grow don’t turn out right. The local wildlife is also less than friendly. Most trading routes either go around the desert or stick to several well-travelled routes that go from one oasis to the next. We won’t be taking any of those routes.”
“Wait.” Gerald pulled out a map. “You say that we won’t be taking any of those routes. Does that mean we aren’t in the Desert of Glass yet? This map says that we are.”
“That’s a common misconception.” Timmy caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced at Avraniel. Her inhumanly keen eyes skimmed over the landscape, and she mouthed ‘jackal’ before continuing her conversation with Spot who was alternating between walking and slithering through the loose sand. Jackals were easy enough to deal with, and he expected some trouble. The animals here would take whatever food they could get. “Because it’s easier and more convenient, the Desert of Glass is often used to describe the entire desert. However, the actual Desert of Glass – the one everyone talks about – is something we won’t reach until tomorrow. You’ll notice a change in the wildlife when we get there too. Whatever the ancients did, it altered the animals there as much as it altered the landscape.”
Gerald paled. “What kind of animals do we have to worry about?” He looked about furtively before steering his camel into the middle of the group next to Katie. They had an understanding in that it was usually she or the rats that were in charge of keeping all of his limbs intact and his head on his shoulders. “I’m assuming most of them will try to eat us.”
“It sounds like you’re beginning to understand how this works,” Timmy replied cheerfully. “We won’t have to worry about the little critters. Not many of them will want to get too close once they catch Spot’s scent. I know he’s not very big yet, but he’s still a dragon. The vast majority of animals, even hungry ones, aren’t crazy enough to fight a dragon. I’m guessing most of the trouble will come from the bigger nasties, like sand hydras.”
“Sand hydras?”
“You only find them in areas where there is a lot of sand. They’re big, poisonous, and they usually have at least three or four heads. They won’t beat a forest or a rock hydra in a straight up fight, but that’s not how they attack. They make burrows in the sand and then burst out to attack when they sense prey passing overhead.” Timmy patted the shovel on his back fondly and gave Gerald a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. My earth magic works on sand too, and this shovel is my sand shovel.”
Unlike his other shovels, the runes and seals on this one were optimised to control sand, as opposed to rock, dirt, and mud. “I’ll notice if there’s anything big buried in the sand nearby, and Spot should notice since he’s walking on the ground. There are also all of the usual things like snakes, lions, jackals, and you’ll even find a few salamanders out here as well. In the Desert of Glass, the animals are going to be larger and more vicious. They might also look a bit… odd. But they should back off once we show them we’re stronger, and, like I said, the smaller ones shouldn’t even come near us once they smell Spot.”
“But won’t they notice how small he is?” Gerald asked. Spot wasn’t small compared to something like a cat or a dog, but he was tiny for a dragon. “If these animals are as hungry as you say…”
“It doesn’t matter if Spot is small. Everyone knows that dragons are extremely possessive of their young. They’ll avoid Spot not only because he’s a dragon but also because they’ll assume that somewhere nearby is another bigger, scarier dragon that will absolutely massacre them if something happens to Spot. It’s simply not worth the risk. From what I’ve read, the main predators of young dragons are full-grown drakes, wyverns, hydras, and other dragons.” Timmy bit back a smile. True, they didn’t have an adult dragon, but they did have Avraniel. She might be an elf, but he would bet on her in a fight against almost any dragon. “All you have to do is stay alert, Gerald. If you see something, tell me or the others.”
“All right.”
The bureaucrat relaxed ever so slightly, and Timmy chuckled. He had learned that although Gerald could be extremely twitchy and almost everything terrified him, the older man was no coward. Oh, he’d scream and wail, but he wouldn’t run. If Timmy asked him to do something in the heat of battle, Gerald would do his best to follow orders, no matter how terrified he was. And wasn’t that courage? Timmy thought so. Gerald summoned a gourd of water with his magic and took a sip from it before he returned it to wherever it was his magic put things. All of them were carrying water on their camels, and Timmy was confident he could use his magic to find more, but Gerald was a nice backup plan. The bureaucrat had stored enough water to last them an extra two months in the desert.
“Are we going to be travelling at night?” Gerald slathered on some more salve. Timmy winced. Gerald had so much of the salve on that Timmy could smell it from yards away. He might have to ask Katie to drape a shadow over Gerald or something. Then again, the terrible taste might help prevent anything from eating Gerald. “Wouldn’t it be easier than travelling during the day?” Beside Gerald, Katie nodded. It was cold at night, but the cold was easier for her to handle than the heat. If it got cold enough, she could ask Spot to ride on her camel with her and share some of his warmth.
“Travel at night in the Desert of Glass?” Timmy laughed and shook his head. “No. That’s a terrible idea. Do you want to know why?”
Gerald opened his mouth and then closed it. Finally, he spoke. “I won’t like the reason, will I?”
Timmy laughed again. “I’ll tell you if it comes up. Otherwise, you’re better off not knowing. You’ll actually be able to sleep at night.”
Night fell, and with it came a sharp drop in temperature. It was almost comical how quickly Katie went from whining about the heat to grumbling about the cold. As they huddled around their campfire in a campsite protected by makeshift walls that Timmy had created with his magic, Katie continued to grumble. She only stopped when Spot ambled over and draped himself across her lap. It wasn’t long before Gerald settled into place beside Katie, and Spot gleefully draped himself over the two of them, his body radiating warmth.
The rats had spread out along the walls to keep watch, and a few of them had gone off to look for something to eat. Based on the gestures they’d made, Timmy had a feeling they’d be coming back with whichever snake made the mistake of attacking them first. It was fine. Roast snake could be surprisingly tasty, and he trusted the rats to cook it right. I
t was a pity he couldn’t watch. The rats were incredibly good at playing the part of harmless and helpless regular rodents to lure in their prey, only to revert to their weapon-loving selves the moment their unsuspecting prey got within reach.
“How are you not cold?” Katie asked Avraniel. She rubbed the base of Spot’s skull, and the dragon gave a contented sigh and wagged his short, stumpy tail.
“I am just that awesome, twerp. It shows how much better fire magic is than shadow magic.” The elf wasn’t even wearing a cloak. Instead, she had draped her cloak of phoenix feathers over a nearby rock while she shook some of the sand out of her boots. The thin fabric of her tunic should have left her shivering, but she didn’t seem the least bit bothered.
Katie scowled, but she knew she wasn’t going to win this argument. Even with the campfire, her teeth would have been chattering if it hadn’t been for the dragon in her lap.
“Oh, for crying out loud. You’re next to the fire, you’ve got Spot in your lap, and you still look cold.” Avraniel grabbed her cloak and tossed it at Katie. “Here, put this on. I’m not going to be able to enjoy dinner if you keep looking so damn pathetic.”
“Hey! I don’t need – ” Katie gasped as the cloak settled over her shoulders. “This is really nice.” She reached up and adjusted the cloak, so she and Gerald could share it. “This is so warm.”
“It should be,” Avraniel replied. “It’s made out of phoenix feathers, so it can absorb heat and fire magic. I’ve had plenty of time to warm it up.” She reached over and poked Spot on the forehead as the dragon leaned over to nibble at the cloak. “No eating my cloak, Spot. If you’re hungry, then Gerald has some stuff stored away that you can eat. You can also ask the rats to find something. I’m sure they won’t have any trouble if they use themselves as bait.”
Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 17
