Mirage by Jenn Reese

Author:Jenn Reese [Reese, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6364-3
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2013-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

THE SUN REACHED the middle of the sky before Aluna remembered to rip another notch in her sash. Six days. Six days of stumbling across the burning sand and scrub in the impossible heat.

Her throat ached for water, but they had only a liter left and it had to last the rest of the day. At night, Dash worked his desert magic and found them more. He dug holes, siphoned moisture from plants, and somehow extracted it from the small animals they killed. If he hadn’t been with them, they would have died days ago.

That Tayan still staggered beside them was a miracle. Of course, the wound had been near her Human heart, not her massive horse heart, which did most of the work. There were times when she seemed to fall into unconsciousness, yet still her horse legs continued to walk. Even so, they didn’t have long. Her fever had come and gone but now blazed hotter than ever before. Dash cleaned the wound each night — using whatever was left of their water — but it hadn’t started to heal. Too much walking, too much stress. If they didn’t find a settlement soon, she’d die.

Aluna tried not to talk, but there were days when she needed to. It was easy to get lost in her head out here, traveling for hours in miserable discomfort with nothing to think about except past decisions. Mistakes. Plans for the future that she’d never get a chance to realize.

Today she needed words. A connection. To think about something other than the sharks circling in her mind.

“So,” she rasped to Dash, “why does Weaver Sokhor want you dead?”

Despite days of marching, Dash seemed only slightly weary. Maybe he preferred marching to being locked up in a tent waiting for a death sentence.

He gave her a wry smile. “Weaver Sokhor did not appreciate his eldest daughter showing interest in an aldagha.”

“Interest?”

“He caught us kissing,” Dash said.

Aluna chuckled, her voice cracking.

“We had been lucky for weeks, but then one day it was all over.” Dash shrugged. “He could not punish me then, as there is no law against what we did. But he sent his daughter to foster with another herd, and I have not seen her since.”

“For kissing? That’s terrible!” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m sure the kissing wasn’t terrible, though.” For the first time since she’d met him, his sandy skin grew darker on his cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Weaver Sokhor had no right.”

“The thing is, I did not blame him,” Dash said. “What Equian would want his daughter involved with me? Our relationship was doomed before it began. I just wish we had not lost our friendship as well. We had always been close.”

“Friendship is everything,” Aluna said gravely. That’s why she was out here in the first place.

“I agree,” Dash said. “It is . . . difficult to know what will harm a friendship. I have learned to walk carefully.”

Suddenly she wondered if they were still talking about the Equian girl.

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