Dreams of Dust: Will of the Wayfinder Book One by Lily Anne Crow

Author:Lily Anne Crow [Crow, Lily Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Raven & Rum Press
Published: 2022-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

17

In the morning, Zairin couldn’t be roused. He was still alive, Emris assured them, as he was breathing and his heart still beat. But he was in a perpetual state of slumber.

“What now?” Lua asked, looking down at the minstrel.

They were all gathered around, having already packed up and eaten a quick, cold breakfast.

Akatul blew out a long breath. “I will carry him.”

Fenn laid a hand on the Hernaran’s arm. “Thanks, big guy.”

Using Brum’s old lead line and another rope, the group bound Zairin’s limp form to Akatul’s back like an oversized infant, arms over the Hernaran’s shoulders and legs to either side of his hips. With the loss of the pikalla, and the extra load Akatul now carried, the others had to divide up the rest and reevaluate what to carry.

“We’ll leave the tents and some of the cooking gear,” Fenn said. “Lua, choose one good pot to take. And take Zairin’s stick if you can manage it. We’ll just have to make do without the rest. There is only so much that Emris’s magic can lighten … and we need his skills for more pressing things.”

“No tents?” Thaniel asked, forlorn. Sleeping under the stars wasn’t the worst thing in the world, of course, and it was better than leaving the rations behind and starving, but still … what if it rained?

“We’ll do our best to find some shelter when we make camp,” Fenn assured the lad.

When they finally started off, heading east toward the far wall of the canyon, Thaniel looked back with despair at his tent, a brown roll of oilcloth tied with twine, lying abandoned.

His father had spent good money on it, and the lad suspected he would get an earful from the man about having to leave it behind—if he ever made it back to Athindaira, that was.

If the trip down the western switchback trail had been slow, the trip up the eastern one was excruciating. Akatul walked very slowly, not only because of the extra weight he carried but because he had to be careful not to scrape Zairin’s legs on the rock wall. They took breaks seemingly every ten minutes so Akatul could sit, the minstrel still strapped to his back, and have water. The air warmed considerably, and all of them removed their cloaks as the sun broke into the canyon, lighting the western wall by slow degrees as it rose.

They were on their twentieth break, Thaniel guessed, and nearly to the top of the wall when Fenn broke the bad news.

“We’re almost out of water,” she told them, handing over a full skin to Akatul. “We’re down to one skin each.”

The Hernaran snorted and passed it back unopened. “I will manage without it for now.”

“You’re sweating buckets,” she pointed out.

It was true. Akatul had a great lather of white foam on his furry chest, and the grayish- brown pelt of his face was dark with damp. He was also panting like a warhound on a blistering summer’s day.

“I will be fine,” he countered, aiming his big dark eyes at her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.