The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel

Author:Joni Sensel
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Published: 2009-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

STONE-SINGER

CHAPTER

23

Zeke lay on a boulder, his cheek against the sun-heated rock. Ariel and Scarl rested in the shade at its base, licking ground-melon juice from their fingertips. The tart liquid would have pricked tears from Ariel’s eyes, but her body didn’t have the moisture to spare. Over the past several days they had traipsed out of the mountains and into an arid waste of blowing sand and stone outcrops that Scarl called the Drymere. The wild melons helped relieve not only their hunger but the dogged thirst they could not escape.

“Want the last melon, Zeke?” Ariel called from where she sat cross-legged in the sand.

Zeke pushed himself from the stone and slid down to the ground. Ariel rose to brush rock grit from his cheek and hand him the palm-size orange fruit.

He took it automatically. “Men are coming this way,” he told Scarl. “More than one.”

The Finder, who had dropped to his haunches to eat, shot to his feet. He squinted to scan the horizon.

“Where did you see them?” he asked.

Zeke studied the groundmelon. “I didn’t,” he mumbled. “The stone told me.”

“Don’t sound so embarrassed,” Scarl replied. “Did it say where?”

Zeke raised his splinted forearm to point north. Ariel saw nothing in the distance but puddles of heat. As best she could guess, the direction he indicated was almost opposite Canberra Docks, many miles and mountains away. The approaching men weren’t chasing behind them, but might cross their path as Scarl led her and Zeke toward Hartwater.

“How far away?” Scarl asked.

Zeke wrinkled his face. “Distance is hard. Stones don’t think about motion like we do. Half a day? Maybe less.”

Scarl’s gaze fell on Ariel, his eyes betraying his concern that the men were coming for her. “Best move on,” he said. He gestured toward a rock ridgeline that had teased them for hours, seeming to retreat as they made their way toward it. “We need to reach the water hole before they do. Just in case.” He crouched and motioned to Ariel.

She scowled. Scarl had taken to carrying her on his shoulders not long after they’d entered the Drymere. He’d crossed it before, he knew where water could be found, and the crossing would save them valuable time they might need to answer the telling dart’s summons, if they could figure it out. He’d neglected to account, however, for traveling companions whose legs were not as long nor as hardened as his. They trudged without complaining, but together the three of them couldn’t move quickly enough between water holes to prevent the spring sun from dangerously parching their bodies. It annoyed Ariel, though, that Scarl bore her, but never Zeke, when he wanted to move fast.

“I can walk quicker now that I’ve rested,” she said. When he started to argue, she added, “And if I’m on your shoulders, and they’re closer than Zeke thinks, they’ll be able to see us from farther away.”

“Good point. At least let me take your pack, then, stubborn.” He stuffed her meager bag into his own, and they set off.

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