“I assume we’re in a new dominion,” Yudai said to Jotin. Even his hawk was having trouble getting up above to the warm thermals and seemed content to spend most of his time on the leather strap curved across Jotin’s shoulder. “Shouldn’t we be meeting some of the walkers by now?”
“We should,” Jotin said. He put a hand in front of his face, but it did little to stop the barrage of sand. “Perhaps the winds have kept them in camp. That would be the smarter thing to do.”
No one seemed eager to ask why they didn’t follow suit if the idea had so much merit.
“They have likely set up their tents near the southern border, where the hills are,” Jotin continued. He appeared to know the correct direction to face, but to Tatsu, all the dunes looked exactly the same when painted by moonlight.
“And that’s where we’re headed, I imagine,” Alesh said. Then she turned to Ral beside her and asked, “What do you think?”
Ral just smiled, the skin around her mouth crinkling. “Go south.”
“Is that a suggestion or…?” Alesh trailed off.
“Go south,” Ral repeated, and when she met Tatsu’s gaze, her grin stretched further. “South to the stones.”
“Did she speak with Tiran about the mages’ temple before we left?” Jotin asked.
“No,” Alesh said. “I did, but Ral wasn’t really paying attention, and Tiran didn’t say anything about stones.”
Jotin continued to stare at Ral with furrowed brows, the shadow of a frown passing over his features.
“Is something wrong?” Tatsu asked.
“The temple was established within the Myvar Ruins,” Jotin said, “an old palace that was built on bedrock in the Dar-Itusk Basin. The temple is made almost entirely out of stones, including the large pillars that sit out in front of it and act as defensive watchtowers. How would she know that?”
“I’ve given up on understanding why Ral knows these things,” Yudai said.
“She’s not magic,” Alesh said, defensive and prickling, with a sidelong glance at Leil that wasn’t nearly as subtle as she likely wanted it to be. “She just knows things sometimes.”
Leil, for her part, just shrugged. “I already knew she wasn’t magical. I’m not going to steal her away to the palace, if that’s what you are afraid of.”
Alesh didn’t answer, but Tatsu knew very well that had been exactly her fear.
“That means we’re headed to the right place, at least,” Tatsu said. “Ral’s usually correct with guiding us to our next step.”
“Yeah, next steps that include me getting stabbed in the market,” Yudai pointed out. “And that fight with Zakio in the mountains. At this point, I’m not expecting any warm welcomes at this temple we’re headed to.”
“You probably shouldn’t expect a warm welcome anywhere,” Alesh said pointedly.
“Oh, certainly not with you,” Yudai shot back.
Alesh rolled her eyes. “There’s no need to be snippy. I wasn’t being cruel. But the person who was—and still is—behind the siphon, whether intentional or not, is likely going to be seen as a threat. We’re lucky that we were allowed to stay in Moswar for so long.”
Yudai stared at her for a long moment, and then his mouth puckered into something sour. He grumbled over his shoulder at Tatsu, “She isn’t wrong.”
“Well, that’s progress, at least,” Alesh said.
Jotin’s hawk startled them all with a loud crow, taking flight from his perch on Jotin’s shoulder despite the winds still working against its wings. As it took to the stars, obscured by clouds, Jotin adjusted his weight back into a crouching stance and pulled his sword free from its sheath.
“What is it?” Leil asked. “What’s happening?”
“Get ready,” Jotin said, his voice grim. “We are no longer alone.”
Four of them padded out from the cloud of dust that settled down around the dunes like fog. Tatsu’s breath caught in his lungs when he saw each of their four legs and pointed ears. In his thoughts, he was back in the Weeping Forest facing off against the drained wolf. There was a wall of sound against his ears as he tried to reorient himself, and the memories dissipated as the animal began stalking towards them.
“Scavengers,” Jotin said.
“We’re too far in the dunes for a pack to be here!” Yudai said, but he was edging backwards as the wild dogs closed in.
Yudai wasn’t wrong, but as the dogs’ pace quickened, Tatsu could see the matted fur of their sides sticking low to individual ribs. They were starving, perhaps after chasing game too far from their territory—he couldn’t think of any other reason that a small pack of dogs would consider a group of six adult humans easy prey.
Starving animals were desperate. Starving animals were dangerous.
He began to reach with his good hand for his bow, only to remember halfway there that using it one-handed was a waste of energy.
“Ral and Tatsu to the center,” Jotin ordered.
Tatsu bristled. “I’m not—”
“Stop arguing!” Yudai cut him off, and anything else that might have been said was drowned out in the shriek of Jotin’s hawk, streaking down from above them with outstretched talons aimed directly at the pack leader’s face.
As the hawk’s claws found their mark, the rest of the pack leapt forward. One of them aimed for Alesh and found her knife waiting. A second dove around the back of their cluster, and Leil lifted a wave of sand from the ground to throw at the creature’s snout. Tatsu pulled back to the middle, trying to keep his body around Ral as much as he could, though the feeling of uselessness stung.
The canine that had tried for Alesh went down hard and she whirled away from it to help Leil with the next. That left Jotin with the third, who was trying to keep the animal in front of him—and Yudai behind him—as much as possible. Sharp teeth and powerful jaws came down hard on the edge of Jotin’s topmost layer and ripped away tendrils of the linen, and as the two rotated around each other, they came far too close to the middle of the circle for Tatsu’s liking. He threw an arm in front of Ral and urged her backwards, doing his best to keep them both from tripping over the one matted body already on the ground.
“Leil!” Jotin yelled as he took another slash at the animal and missed by a wide margin. Leil spun and pushed both hands out in front of her chest, bringing with them a powerful burst of sand and dirt. The force of it hurled the creature backwards, and Jotin darted after it.
The pack leader recovered from the hawk’s attack, and even with specks of crimson across its face, it lunged forward with a snarl. Tatsu pushed Ral down with a shove and propelled himself in the opposite direction, but he went down hard on his bad shoulder. The resulting pang that reverberated through his upper body turned his vision red for a moment. He tried to find the breath stolen from his lungs as the sound around him faded into a low roar.
By the time his awareness cleared, the animal was stalking towards Ral’s kneeling figure.
“No!” Yudai cried and jumped in front of her with his hands held up in front of his face just as the canine howled a warning and leapt.
They met somewhere in the middle and thrashed upon landing, rolling across the sand. When the dust cleared, the animal was crouched over Yudai with flecks of foam spraying from its snout with each growl. Yudai’s hands were curled around the creature’s neck to hold it back, and it was just barely enough—droplets of the coyote’s saliva were catching on his cheeks as his arms shook. The animal growled in frustration, unable to reach him with each snap of its jaws.
There was a strangled, terrified cry that seemed to rip out of Yudai’s throat as he managed to push the creature away from his face. For a second, it seemed to be enough, until the coyote bucked up and back, breaking Yudai’s hold on its neck. It came down hard with both front paws. There was a crack that made Tatsu wince, and then Yudai’s exclamation mutated into one of pain. He rolled, likely out of instinct, but the move left his back completely open.
Tatsu yelled Yudai’s name
and wasn’t sure if Yudai could even hear him above the howl of the animal as it prepared to leap. It never got the chance; there was a surge of warm, crackling energy that flared up as Yudai’s magic surged into a protective cocoon. A second later, Alesh darted in, utilizing the blind spot and the canine’s preoccupation to slice in deep with her knife. As her arm arced towards the front, she twisted her wrist and the animal fell to one side with a splatter of red across the sand, and then everything was very, very still. The burst of magic quickly fizzled into nothing more than raised goosebumps along Tatsu’s arms.
Yudai heaved a sigh of relief, falling back against the ground, and the contact sounded a solid thud.
“That was close,” he said, sounding tired.
Tatsu pushed himself back up while trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his shoulder and held out a hand to Ral with his heart still hammering in his chest. The few seconds of pause weren’t nearly enough to rid his body of the spike in nervous energy, but he didn’t have time to try to help it. He watched Alesh, staring down at Yudai with an inscrutable expression on her face.
“You saved my sister,” she said.
Yudai opened one eye to look up at her. “Anyone would have done the same.”
He seemed unprepared when Alesh offered her hand down to him and pulled him up onto his feet with impressive force. Yudai stumbled a bit, and Alesh didn’t let go; instead, her hand slid up to grasp his forearm, a solid, meaningful grip as she tugged him towards her.
“You protected her with your life,” she said, and Yudai looked distinctly embarrassed. “You were willing to die for her.”
“I didn’t—”
“Whatever you need, it’s yours. I’ll be here for you.” Judging by the way Yudai’s mouth parted, Alesh must have tightened her fingers around his arm. “There’s a debt to repay here.”
It seemed that Yudai was going to argue, and then his teeth snapped shut. He regarded her for a long moment before nodding once, the action sharp and short.
“Very well,” he said. “I accept your pledge.”
Alesh let go of his arm and turned away to check on Ral. While Jotin wiped clean the smears of blood from his blade, Tatsu approached Yudai, who was still breathing hard, bent over like his chest was aching from the earlier impact.
“Are you all right?” Tatsu asked. When Yudai’s eyes closed, shoulders sagging, Tatsu reached forward without conscious thought to touch the side of Yudai’s face.
Yudai’s eyes opened, wide at first, and then they darkened as they narrowed in what read as distinctly content.
“Yes,” he murmured. His face tilted to settle further against Tatsu’s palm, and the contact caused Tatsu’s entire arm to tremble. He swallowed hard but wasn’t totally successful in dampening the bubble of warmth that bloomed through his chest.
Tatsu’s tongue darted out to wet his lips, and that was when he realized that he was standing in the middle of the others, surrounded by the Joesarian desert, cupping Yudai’s face in a manner too gentle to be misconstrued. He dropped his hand back down to his side, wiggling his digits, which tingled in response. His face felt hot despite the cool night air.
Yudai unflinchingly held his gaze until the discomfort forced Tatsu to tear his eyes away.
“Thank you,” Tatsu said. He wished he could slow his own breathing, but it seemed beyond his control. “For saving Ral, I mean—that was brave. And Alesh…”
“I misjudged her,” Yudai said. When Tatsu finally glanced back at his face, Yudai’s eyes were tracking Alesh’s movements over Tatsu’s shoulder. “I thought she was lacking in honor, and that was why she was willing to sell me out to the queen. But it was never a question of honor—it was about loyalty. And her loyalty wasn’t to me.”
Tatsu’s mumble in reply was as noncommittal as he could make it, but Yudai picked up on the undercurrents anyway.
“You’ve experienced being at the losing end of that loyalty before.”
“We had different priorities,” Tatsu said by way of explanation and looked out at the beige dunes stretching out beyond them. “We’ve always had different priorities.”
“She’s not a bad person to have as an ally.”
“No,” Tatsu agreed, and it was his turn to sigh, wishing that his rapid heartbeat would start to slow again, “she’s certainly not.”
Jotin cleaned his sword and resheathed the blade. “We should go. If the creatures have moved outside of their hunting territory, it means something has shifted their paths. We should be cautious as we continue south.”
“You mean we’ll encounter more of them?” Leil asked.
“I doubt they were redirected from anything native to the desert.”
“Ah,” Yudai said, and his features fell a bit. “The mercenaries.”
Alesh put one arm around Ral, who at least was unhurt from the commotion. “If we’re going to run into more of them, we should probably start taking watch during the day as we sleep.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Tatsu said. “We’ve been assuming all this time that any enemies would sleep at the same time.”
“Or that we’d wake up if anything approached,” Alesh added. “It’s not the safest plan.”
Jotin moved away from the bodies of the animals, which would likely begin to fester in the morning heat as the sun rose and draw in any other scavengers that were nearby.
“Later,” he said. “We need to put distance between us before the sun rises. We can discuss the arrangements for watch then.”
Tatsu gave one last look at the bloodied carcasses on the sand as they continued south.
Eleven
A day later, they encountered an Oasa-walker who agreed to escort them to the full campsite. It took three more days to reach the camp itself, situated at the bottom of a sand-covered hill that used the dune’s bulk to shield the tents from the worst of the winds. They arrived in the early part of the day, just as the heat was beginning to rise and just as the walkers within began to slow their routines.
The skins suspended between wooden poles were different than those the Cabaj-walkers had used—rubbed thinner and translucent in spotty patches. The leather of the tents matched the clothing of the walkers themselves, who wore cord-tied leather rather than layers of free-flowing light linens, a style which Tatsu recognized from several people he’d seen at the Raydrau.
The Oasa camp was spread out, leaving pockets of space between all of the structures that seemed to be used to encourage the windflow. The camp also boasted several thin horse-like creatures with coarse, closely-trimmed fur that Jotin called tith.
“They make better time across the sands,” Jotin said and left the group standing around one of the animals while he accompanied the Oasa-walker to their acting chief. Tatsu held out his hand to the tith, and the velvety feel of the creature’s nostrils against his skin felt just like a horse’s would. If he closed his eyes and blocked out the abnormally large floppy ears, he felt as if he were back outside of Dradela where the traders kept their mounts secured.
Ral’s fingers curled into the fur of the animal’s hide as she laughed.
“Dirty,” she said, and she wasn’t wrong. Tatsu’s hand came away covered with a layer of grime.
“What are we now, halfway?” Alesh asked.
“I don’t know,” Tatsu said and wiped his hand on his pants. “But at least we found the walkers. That’s got to be a good sign, right?”
“Tatsu ride?” Ral asked, with her head cocked towards the tith.
“I don’t think so, but maybe Jotin can get you some food for it later.”
The idea seemed to cheer her, and she continued to pat the creature’s flank as they waited. “Want one.”
“Have you ever met the Joesarian mages?” Alesh asked Leil, who was standing a few paces behind them with her arms crossed over her chest as if the animals were discomforting.
“Never,” was the answer. “They’ve never come to the court in Dradela.”
Tatsu was suddenly tran
sported back to the woods on the edge of Chayd’s borders, where they had sat around a fire at the beginning of their journey speaking of magic. “So you don’t know what the mages can do or how powerful they are?”
“No,” Leil said and met his gaze, unwavering.
“I don’t love the idea of showing up unannounced to a temple full of mages we have no information on,” Alesh said.
“It’s likely they’ll know we are coming before we get there,” Leil said. “Mages can feel others’ magic, especially so as we near the location. The closer the magic, the easier it is to accurately track.”
Something in the back of Tatsu’s mind stirred, a twinge of knowledge that he couldn’t quite understand, but within a moment, the feeling was gone, and he was left none the wiser.
“Feeling us coming and expecting us as allies are two different things,” Alesh said, and Leil spread her hands out to either side in response, shaking her head.
Tatsu gave the tith one final pat and turned to look for Yudai. Eventually, he spotted him past several tents with his back to the group and the animals, and Tatsu set out across the packed sand to join him.
“You don’t like the tith?” Tatsu asked when he reached Yudai’s side.
“I thought it was wiser if I wasn’t near anything else… living.” Yudai grimaced as the words came out.
“Leil said that the mages in the temple will know when we approach.”
Yudai shrugged. “It’s likely, at least if we are using any magic en route. They’ll sense it.”
“Can you?” Tatsu asked. “Sense other magic, I mean.”
There was a long pause as Yudai’s face fell before he replied, “No. I can’t feel anything being used around me anymore. Not since they—not since the siphon began.”
Tatsu wiped at his forehead with his good arm. It was almost unbearably hot already, and the feeling of the sweat beads trickling across his skin still sent shivers down his spine. Yudai’s gaze shifted to somewhere over Tatsu’s shoulder.
“Jotin’s returned,” he said and then fell quiet.
“The acting chief has agreed to lend us a walker to take us to the next dominion,” Jotin said, and for perhaps the first time, he also looked uncomfortable in the harsh sunlight. It had been a long while since they’d been moving around so late in the day, when the sun shortened the long shadows cast across the sand. “He has also agreed to let us remain here for the day to rest. We will depart as the sun sets this evening.”
The Mage Heir Page 13
