Time Heals by Dina James

Author:Dina James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dina James
Published: 2022-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chaper Thirteen

IT WAS NEARING MIDDAY WHEN T’mei finally halted on a gravel-strewn shore of a sulfurous, steam-laden lake. Rebecca slid off his back and pulled her hoodie over her head. She wiped the sweat from her face and brow before she tied it around her waist. She took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose.

“Well, it’s certainly warm enough here.”

“Damp as well. Sutanaj absorb their moisture through their skin, unlike my people.” He reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a kind of cylindrical flask. He removed its white wispy cap and offered it to her. “Here. Drink. It will not harm you.”

She hesitated a moment, but reached for the flask. She brought it to her lips and took a small sip. The liquid was so light and airy she was reminded of cotton candy, though it wasn’t as sickly sweet. There was a definite sweetness to it, but a richness as well. She took another, larger sip and handed the flask back to him.

“Thank you. I haven’t tasted anything like that before. It’s wonderful!”

“Nectar,” he said before taking a sip of his own. “It is most refreshing for both body and spirit. I thought you could use a little refreshing.”

“You thought right.” She pulled her t-shirt away from her skin and fanned it at her throat as she looked around. “I can see why you wouldn’t think to look here. It doesn’t look like much could survive. What is it the Sutanaj eat that’s supposedly abundant? I don’t see anything.”

“That lake is full of their sustenance. Other creatures also come to feed here, which they also eat. It is a perfect environment for their kind. However, unusual. From what I understand, this is not a preferred Realm of their people.” He took another sip of the nectar and put the cap back on before tucking it away in the pouch.

“Why not?”

He pointed to the sky. Through the haze of the steaming lake, she could see the outline of two bright circles.

“Twin suns,” he said. “While enough to provide warmth and light, darkness comes but once a lunar cycle and stays for the whole of a phase change. Not the ideal circumstance for their people. Temperatures during the darkness fall and remain low for the entire duration. In winter it is twice as cold. Survival here would be dangerous for them.”

“Maybe they’re just passing through. You know...like a vacation or a summer home.”

“Perhaps. I am not an Elder, so I would not have heard any scout reports. However, talk does occur, and I have heard nothing of any Sutanaj encampment in our Realm.”

“Well, they’re not exactly known for announcing themselves, are they? I mean, don’t they make it a point not to be seen? So it’s not likely any scouts would have seen them, right?”

“Likely not.”

“So where in this Death Valley Lake do you think they might be?”

“There.” He pointed to a depression in a jagged cliff. “The spiderlings sometimes defy their minders when they are reaching maturation and goad one another into bringing back a fai-crystal from that cave.

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