Journey of Fire and Night by DK Holmberg

Author:DK Holmberg [Holmberg, DK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Google: FdqCDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B01G9SUOOI
Goodreads: 30648089
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2016-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

16

Ciara

The draasin are not native to either Rens or Ter. For years, they were reclusive, rarely seen. The start of the war changed much, not the least the frequency of draasin sightings in both lands.

—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

* * *

Heat shimmered from the expanse of the waste, rising up like some massive cloud, leaving a haze that was more than simply dust hanging in the hot, stagnant wind. Ciara glanced over at Fas, checking to determine how he handled the crossing, but saw nothing on his face that gave her worry. Only his fluttering pulse told her that he wasn’t as well as he claimed.

She shifted her shaisa veil, making sure to create a tighter seal over her mouth. Already, she struggled to keep the dust from filling the veil and the sand from creeping down through her elouf, no matter how tightly she might cinch it closed.

Fas took another quick swig from his waterskin. Ciara noted how little water remained in the skin and knew that she’d need to conserve her water in case he needed it. She felt the steady increase in her pulse and the dry flush that worked up her neck. If she started sweating, they would need to turn back. Continuing forward when she already showed signs of the heat would only put them at risk.

“I still don’t sense it,” Fas said. In spite of all the water he’d drunk, his voice was hoarse, and he coughed to clear it. He might claim that he felt better, but Ciara knew how hard he struggled.

“We can return to the others,” she suggested.

“Not without making certain that we’re leading the people in the right direction.”

They had been sent to scout ahead. Ciara had volunteered, thinking to protect Fas from this, but he had stubbornly made it clear that he would go with her. As nya’shin, he had the right to demand to go with her; only, he wasn’t well enough yet. Still, Ciara had been thankful for his presence as they made their way across the shifting dunes. The sand made it difficult to gauge direction, and Fas seemed to have a compass burned into his mind, always guiding them.

The sense of water remained. Ciara didn’t feel it growing stronger, but the source was out there. It gave her hope that what they did find would be enough. She prayed to the Stormbringer that hope wasn’t misplaced.

With her untipped spear, she pointed toward the water calling to her, a steady beacon in her mind. How could Fas not sense it too?

“It’s still there,” Ciara said, not wanting to sound too confident or risk insulting Fas by the fact that she sensed water and he did not.

Fas nodded. “Good. Then we keep going.”

She licked dry lips and touched the leather of her waterskin, longing to take a drink, but the quickening of Fas’s pulse told her that she should not.

They continued in silence. The sun baked the hard-packed sand around them as it rose steadily in the sky.

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