The Archon (The Oracle Sequence) by Fisher Catherine

Author:Fisher, Catherine [Fisher, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Children's Books
Published: 2010-10-07T05:00:00+00:00

By noon they were all worn out. The sun had crawled overhead, a molten inferno. Its glare was a weight, they bowed under it. But there was no shelter, though the Fox scouted a little way ahead, his keen eye the only visible feature of his wrapped face. They had entered a dry valley of slithering stones, as if a watercourse might once have run there, centuries ago. But now nothing grew in the merciless heat, and the whole landscape shimmered and blurred without even a breeze to relieve the scorching furnace.

Seth drank a few mouthfuls of warm water and crouched. ‘We’ve got to stop.’

‘Not here,’ the Jackal’s lips were crusted with sand. ‘No shade.’

‘Then we’ll have to do without. Alexos is worn out.’

The tomb-thief looked at the boy, already asleep. ‘Cover him or he’ll burn.’

Oblek took a cloak from his pack and spread it over Alexos, then pulled out the flask and drank thirstily. Water dripped down his chin, his great throat working.

‘Take it easy,’ Seth whispered.

Oblek’s small eyes were lit with smothered fury. His face was scabbed, and the scarf he wore round his head made him seem like an outcast, a leper. ‘Leave it to me,’ he growled. ‘We’ll have water enough, the Archon and me. Soon.’

Finally, they had to sleep in the burning sun. Curled under his spread cloak, Seth sweated. Tiny sand flies hopped on his nose and cheek, on his tightly closed eyelids. He was stifling in an oven, but he slept, too weary to care.

A murmur woke him.

A stifled gasp, almost of fear.

He opened his eyes, lifted the edge of the cloak and peered out. Light dazzled him, the sand surface red hot as his fingers sank in it.

He saw the Jackal, sleeping a little way off. The man was well wrapped, and lay on his side, but wasn’t still. His body twitched, as if he was crawled over by ants, and as Seth stared the thief gave a low sharp cry of pain, his eyes opened, and he sat up with a convulsive gasp, glancing round.

For a second he looked haggard and lost, totally unlike himself. Then he rubbed his face and drew up his long knees and sat, breathing hard, recovering. The Fox came and crouched, and gave him the waterflask. They talked, so quietly Seth couldn’t catch any of it. The Jackal drank, and then laughed, a shaky, mocking sound. He stood up, brushing sand off, and the Fox lay down in his place.

Seth lowered the edge of his cloak and lay in the dark, thoughtful. A nightmare. Not the sort of thing he would have expected the Jackal to suffer from. For a moment there, a brief second, the tomb-thief had been afraid.

Seth turned over. Drowsily he thought of Pa and Telia. Had the message got to Mirany? Could she do anything? As he drifted back into sleep, the desert stirred under him. He realized with strange clarity that he was lying curled against its great warm flank, that its body itched with lice, its hills and valleys were muscles and bone under a fur of shifting sand.

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