A Bridge of Stars 24 by Bella Forrest

Author:Bella Forrest
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781530000487
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2016-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

The three of us were still mulling over her words as a new instruction appeared on the faded parchment:

“Your second task awaits you in Dagger Mountain. Flutter there now, fairy.”

“I wish she would stop calling me that,” I muttered.

River snorted. “At least we’re officially on the ‘second task’ now,” she said.

“So.” I heaved a sigh. “Dagger Mountain. Where is that exactly?” I asked Aisha.

I felt worried when Aisha tensed. “Uh, yeah… that’s back in The Dunes.”

“What?” River and I exclaimed at once.

“But it’s well away from any jinn settlement,” Aisha added quickly. “I’m just trying to recall where exactly it is. Definitely far away from the Drizans’ palace. I’ve visited there perhaps twice in my entire life, but I should be able to remember how to get back… hopefully.”

“You’d better,” I said.

Aisha ended up getting us lost. We drifted aimlessly around the menacing land of The Dunes looking for the mountain. We found a mountain range—several actually—but none looked right to Aisha, and as night fell, we still hadn’t found it.

“Let’s… let’s wait till morning,” Aisha said, as we moved deeper into the night. She looked nervous while we gazed down upon the eerily quiet landscape.

“That’s like, hours wasted,” I seethed.

“Yes, but I-I don’t feel comfortable roaming around now,” Aisha said. “I mean it. There are… strange things that lurk in The Dunes after dark.”

“What strange things?” River whispered, her face paling.

What strange things? I almost laughed. How about giant jinni-scorpion mutants?

“Neither of you need to know,” Aisha snapped, quite flustered all of a sudden. What could be worse than what I’ve already seen? “Because we won’t meet any of them, if we do as I say and stop for the night.”

It so disturbed me to see Aisha nervous like this that I didn’t question her any more. “Okay,” I said. “Where should we rest?”

“We’ll find a cave, somewhere in these mountains,” she said.

“Uh, yeah. You’ll need to smoke out any scorpions before I take River into one of those.”

“Obviously,” Aisha breathed, still irritable.

We drifted around for the next half hour scouting for a suitable cave. Once Aisha had chosen one, she told us to wait outside while she drifted in. She literally did smoke the place out. Smoke billowed out from the entrance, bringing with it a toxic smell. Coughing, River and I moved farther back, waiting for Aisha to emerge.

“All right,” she said, dusting off her hands as she walked out. “There were definitely no giant scorpions in there and…” She pointed to a dozen rats, spiders and other creepy-crawlies scampering out of the cave and into cracks in the walls. “There shouldn’t be anything else left either.”

“That stuff smells strong enough to poison us, too,” River said, still coughing.

Aisha rolled her eyes as I landed with River on the ridge outside the cave. Then she sparked up a fire in the center.

“The Dunes’ nights are harsh,” she said, stoking the flames and raising them higher. “Almost as harsh as the days’ heat.”

I had to be sure to keep my distance from the bonfire.

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