Heritage of Power (The Complete Series by Lindsay Buroker

Author:Lindsay Buroker [Buroker, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lindsay Buroker

17

Rysha walked along the mountainside in the middle of their group, which was staggered and stretched out along the slope, searching for caves as the sun dipped toward the western horizon. She licked her chapped lips, wondering why even the copious amounts of water she’d drunk weren’t quenching her thirst. The mountain’s higher altitude had done little to alleviate the heat and had done nothing to make the air less dry. As with the desert below, there weren’t any trees, nothing more than the scrub brush that rose three or four feet high, so shade was scant. She found herself missing the rain and the mud of the capital. She even experienced a few fond thoughts of the obstacle course back at the fort. Nobody had ever died of heat stroke pulling themselves up that wall.

“No dragon caves up here,” came a distant call from Duck, the person highest up the slope.

“No caves here,” Leftie added, the next highest person. He had been limping all afternoon, but he hid it every time Rysha glanced in his direction.

She looked down to see if she needed to shout her status or if Trip, the next person after her, had heard.

“Nothing,” Trip called to Kaika, who said something similar to Blazer, the farthest person down the slope.

Even though they hadn’t yet come out of the circled area on the ancient map, Blazer had ordered the staggered formation and for everyone to keep their eyes open. Rysha supposed it was possible that a cave entrance might be within the magic dead zone with a passage leading underground and to an area unaffected by it, but she calculated that they had another three miles to walk before they needed to worry about serious searching. Besides, as soon as Trip had access to his power and he could communicate with the soulblades again, they would have greater resources than six sets of eyes to put into the search.

She was tempted to pick a route closer to Trip so she could ask whether any of his senses had returned. At the edges, the magic dead zone had seemed less extreme, at least according to Trip. It hadn’t been until they’d reached the quarry that he’d lost all of his power. She was also tempted to say something to squelch his sword reprogramming idea.

More than once, she’d caught him staring thoughtfully down the mountain at Blazer. More specifically, at the box Blazer carried. Did he think he might study that ingot and learn some secret that would help with Dorfindral?

Rugged terrain made Rysha veer downslope to get around it, and she took the opportunity to head toward him. Leftie and Duck disappeared from her sight briefly, but she trusted they wouldn’t for long. The terrain of the mountain was an obstacle at times, but there was little foliage to impede their sight.

“Trip?” Rysha jogged down to join him, her pack bouncing on her shoulders.

“Yes?” He waited for her, and then they resumed walking.

“I wanted to make sure—I mean, I want to make my feelings known to you.

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.