CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The sun at last decided that he had tormented Enfri long enough. The great villain peered at her maliciously as he slunk beneath the horizon. He knew what he had done to her.

Between the heat, the exhaustion, the solitude, and Enfri's reluctance to drink more than a small sip of water at a time, she was feeling like a walking corpse. Her skin was as parched and cracked as the ground she walked on, to say nothing of her throat. The one consolation Enfri had was that with their pale complexion, the assassins were probably frying like bacon out here.

The last sliver of sunlight dropped behind the dunes, and it brought an immediate change to the air. The landscape had an anticipation about it for the coming of the cold. Enfri imagined she could feel the heat radiating from the sand around her. Goose pimples formed on her arms before the temperature began to fall.

Enfri wondered how far she had come since leaving the shelter. It was doubtful that she had put much distance behind her. Her pace had been easy, altogether different from the wild flight the night before. The spire didn't look any closer than it had, so Enfri wagered she'd only gone five or six miles at most.

Deebee had advised her to avoid cresting the sand dunes. If the assassins were close, they may see her silhouette on the horizon. It was better to stay hidden in the shallow topography, checking her course against the distant spire.

With the light fading, Enfri doubted that she would even be able to see the spire for much longer. Fortunately, the north star Ruhali was coming out. So long as Enfri kept that a half-turn to her right, she should be going in the direction she wanted.

It was time for a short rest. Enfri unbuckled her brace, but left it on. She sat on the slope of a dune and lay back to catch her breath. Her legs felt like pudding, and taking the weight off of them brought a groan of relief out of her.

She was missing Deebee. About now, the tiny dragon would have been babbling about Espallan attire or the oddities of their culture. She'd take it upon herself to keep Enfri thinking about what lay on the road ahead, make her believe that there was a road ahead and that it wouldn't end prematurely. Deebee would be trying to give her hope.

Enfri would have agreed to another ten hours of the sun's cruelty if it meant Deebee could be here with her.

After several minutes of watching the stars come out and getting her second wind, Enfri became aware of a slight movement a little ways down the slope from her. Her heart skipped a beat as she lifted her head to get a look.

In a moment of panic, she thought it might have been Jin, but her fears were unfounded. A red sand spider scuttled beneath her on the slope, a paralyzed mouse dangling from its mandibles. The giant arachnid was big as a hound and covered with coarse, red fur that came closer to quills than hair.

Enfri was never fond of spiders. However, she found it interesting that her disgust lessened as the spider got bigger. These larger varieties even came close to cute, she believed.

The sand spider froze in its tracks when Enfri sat up. It slurped up its mousey dinner and stared at Enfri with its eight, bright orange eyes. A male. The females were bigger— much bigger— but neither gender was more dangerous than a cow. It backed away from her, then shot away fast enough that Enfri wondered if it might have an Althandi steam engine hidden in its abdomen.

Skittish creatures, easily startled by anything bigger than a rabbit. Enfri remembered how difficult it was to get one trapped long enough to milk it of its venom. Sand spiders were also quite delicious when boiled and served with butter.

Enfri lay back and groaned at the thought of food. Her last meal was more than a day ago, and she'd eaten nothing but a few handfuls of vex sprouts since.

Winds take the desert, she fumed.

When she started this escape, she had assumed that she'd have the chance to buy supplies in whatever village she passed through. At the very least, she could have used her knowledge as a sky woman to forage for something to eat.

Out in the desert, nothing grew other than scattered patches of tumbleweed and scalethorn. Even her supply of vex sprouts was depleted. If she didn't find something to eat before much longer, the sunwillow in her pocket would start to look appetizing.

Almost as appetizing as sand spider.

Enfri sat up, the rumbling in her stomach matching the beat of a war drum. The spider's tracks left a plain trail as they scurried over the next rise. The creature wouldn't have gotten far; they became lazy and lethargic as the temperature dropped. It probably ran straight for its den.

The mighty weren't the only ones who could hunt for their dinner.

Enfri licked her lips, got to her feet, and buckled her brace on tight. Of course, she had no means of cooking the spider if she caught it, but the legs could be eaten raw. Another problem lay in how exactly to kill the spider. She didn't have a sling or a spear. She'd have to jump on it and crush its shell. Messy, but effective. She was only after its succulent leg meat anyway.

The trail was easy to follow. The spider's haste caused it to leave long gouges in the sand. When Enfri crested the next dune, she could tell that the spider had slowed its pace after it realized nothing was chasing it. It continued on in a southerly direction, occasionally taking the time to dig through patches of loose sand for rodent burrows.

Two and a half dunes later, Enfri began to doubt she'd catch up to the spider before the next sunrise. Then, she heard a sudden, squealing commotion. Enfri got on her stomach and crawled to the top of the next dune, her ears turned towards what sounded like a pig being slaughtered.

Enfri peered over the edge of the dune. Sure enough, she found her quarry below in the valley between two dunes. The spider had a big, bristly, struggling rat in its jaws while a squad of rat pups were desperately gnawing on the spider's feet to free their mother.

The scene below pulled at Enfri's sympathy. She hated rats, but condemning a pack of wee pups to being orphans didn't sit well with her. Enfri prepared to leap down from the dune and stomp the spider flat. Even if the mama rat died, the little ones would still have a month's worth of spider to survive on after Enfri harvested a few legs.

She slowly began to rise to her feet. Her legs were like coiled springs and ready to launch her towards her prey.

Arching through the night sky, a long shaft plummeted from above and impaled the spider through the center of its body. The creature screeched, and its legs writhed as it tried to push itself off of the ground. The spear had it pinned in place.

The spider dropped the struggling mama rat. She was wobbly on her feet and soon collapsed as the spider's paralytic venom took effect. The pups surrounded their mother, squeaking plaintively.

Enfri had no room for thoughts of rats. She dropped back down to her stomach and peered over the top of the dune. Her eyes darted from one side of the valley to the other, searching for any sign of the one that had thrown the spear.

An Espallan? she hoped. They might have food or water. Winds, please, let them be an Espallan.

On the next dune ahead, a dim shadow of a figure slid down into the valley. The shadow stood tall and strode towards the impaled spider, its legs now curled in death.

Enfri's hopes were shattered. She clamped both hands over her mouth to stifle a fearful moan, and her eyes went wide with horror.

The spear belonged to Maya.

The assassin became bathed in a soft, white light. Her fingertip glowed like a firefly. When she lowered her finger, the light remained in place and hovered in the air. It gave Maya plenty of light to inspect her kill by.

Jin's older sister had changed only somewhat in the last four years. Her black hair was more impressive than before, tied back into a single, long ponytail that hung past her hips. There was more maturity in her features, not as soft as she had been. Enfri thought she looked even more cruel now.

Maya crouched next to the spider's carcass and prodded at it with a knife. It didn't so much as twitch. Her eyes went to the family of rats, the mother slowly regaining the ability to move again.

Enfri held her breath, worried that Maya would kill the helpless rodents just for the fun of it. Instead, she was surprised when Maya twisted the dead spider's head off and tossed it towards the rat family.

"For leading me here," Maya murmured.

She rose and took hold of the spear's haft. She pulled it, spider and all, from the ground and carried it on her shoulder. The spider's legs curled over the spearhead, and Maya returned the way she came. With grace and alacrity, she clambered up the side of the dune and was out of sight. The hovering firefly light she left in the valley winked out of existence and plunged the dunes into darkness.

Enfri released the breath she had been holding. Her heart was hammering so hard she felt like it was about to burst out of her chest. It was a wonder that Maya hadn't heard it.

She collapsed onto her face, relief making her go limp. If Maya had been even a moment later in throwing her spear, Enfri would have pounced from hiding and revealed herself. That spear would have then been hurled at a different target.

I'd be dead, Enfri concluded. No mistake. I wouldn't even have seen what killed me.

She felt vulnerable. How fragile was her life if it could be snuffed out as easily as that spider's?

Guilt began to overwhelm her. What of Deebee? The dragon once said that she had felt it when Father died. What would Deebee suffer through if she felt Enfri die in the same way?

She'd blame herself for leaving me when I'm the one that was chasing spiders like a blustering idiot. I need to get out of here.

The sound of human voices carried over the wind. It came from past the dune Maya disappeared over. There must have been other assassins close by, and they welcomed Maya back after a successful hunt.

So close. Even after running all of last night until she couldn't even stand, the assassins were no more than a stone's throw away. Enfri despaired of ever being free of them.

"I will never stop, Enfri."

Before she knew what she was doing, Enfri pulled herself over the crest of the dune and slid down into the valley. The mama rat and her children scurried away from the latest intruder in their territory.

Enfri ignored them. She crouched low as she made her way silently up the next dune, following Maya's footprints in the sand.

What am I doing? Enfri screamed to herself. I'm lucky she didn't see me the first time.

Jin had managed to thwart everything Enfri did to get away. Just once, Enfri wanted to have the advantage. If she could get the slightest clue into how Jin thought, she'd have a better chance at escape.

Deebee's going to kill me.

Enfri wasn't climbing with half of Maya's speed or skill, but she managed to make it to the top without making a ruckus. She inched along, one grain of sand at a time, as she approached the top. Careful not to shift too much of the sand, Enfri peered over the top.

The assassins had a campsite beneath her. They were gathered together no more than a dozen paces away. A large sheet of canvas was spread over the sand and was weighed down at the corners with saddles and packs. In the center of the canvas was an iron brazier that glowed with red hot coals.

Four assassins sat around the brazier. Gain was the first one Enfri recognized. He was sharpening a knife with a whetstone and leather strop.

Maya sat next to him. She was tearing the legs off of her spider and laying them in a pile. It seemed that Gain was prepping his knife for cutting through the creature's shell.

Tarlus sat on his heels, one eye closed and the other covered with a linen bandage tied around his head. Enfri recognized the bandage as part of the supplies she had given to Jin the previous evening.

At least they're going to good use, Enfri thought wryly.

The last was Jin herself. She lay on her back, her head resting in Tarlus' lap. It looked as if she was asleep, and Tarlus had his fingers brushing lightly upon her jaw and forehead.

Enfri blushed. She had thought they were cousins. Was this sort of thing acceptable among royal bloodlines?

Eight horses were tied to stakes driven into the ground. They stood encircled around a wooden cistern. The sound of the horses slurping up the water made Enfri's throat feel even more parched than before.

A shadow moved among the horses, one wearing a cowl made from a wolf's pelt. Dashar was brushing the animals down, and the sound of his tuneless humming carried to Enfri's ears.

Enfri suppressed a gasp. One of the horses was much larger than the others. A Gaulatian, but not just any Gaulatian. It was the horse she had taken from the Smiths' stable! Impossible. Dashar had used osteomancy to break the poor animal's leg. He should be crippled if not dead.

If their magic can break bones, can it mend them, too?

The most laconic of the assassins was giving the Gaulatian as much care as the others. Dashar seemed to be humming to soothe the horses more than anything else.

It bothered Enfri that the assassins had taken possession of the Gaulatian. It made her angry. That's my horse, she raged. Bought and paid for, you blustering thieves.

Enfri looked around their campsite. There wasn't any sign of Josy. Perhaps she'd been left behind after being dosed with enough sunwillow to make a full-grown bull think it could fly.

Gain looked up from his knife sharpening. "There she is," he said.

Enfri went white as a ghost.

Maya looked up from her task as well and laughed. "Well done, Cousin. All I could find was this bug."

Josy stepped into the glow of the brazier. She carried a scaled creature as big as an elk over her shoulder as if it weighed no more than a sack of flour. Josy dropped the beast onto the sand. It was a megathon, a creature that looked like the unfortunate mating of a lizard and a warthog.

"I'll admit I'm no scholar," Josy said, "but what's this thing eating out here to get this big?"

"Oases," Tarlus murmured from where he knelt with Jin's head in his lap. "The Espalla Dunes are pockmarked with wellsprings around which dense pockets of vegetation grow. Megathons migrate from one oasis to the next and eat their fill."

Josy put her hands on her hips. "You're seriously creepy when you do that, Brother."

Enfri agreed. No one should hold their cousin in their lap like that.

"You can learn much from listening to dreams," Tarlus retorted. "You should try it."

"No, thank you," Josy muttered as she sat next to Maya. She looked at the spider being torn apart with an uncertain expression. "You... want us to eat that?"

Maya ignored Josy's question. "Speaking of dreams," she said with a sneer, "has she found anything yet?"

"Ask her yourself," Tarlus said. He opened his good eye and shifted to the side.

Jin came awake and pushed herself into a sitting position. She nodded her thanks to Tarlus, then addressed the others. "We found no trace of her," she said. "I couldn't find the sky woman's dreams again. She must be awake."

"That dragon she's with is a wizard," Tarlus offered. "I saw it using somatics when it cast that earth spell at Maya and me. You suspected there was a memory ward on the Aleesh girl. The dragon could be warding her dreams against you."

Jin turned to face him. "Even warded, we could find her dreams. We just wouldn't be able to enter them. Isn't that right?"

Tarlus nodded. "Yes. I guess that settles it."

"Smart," Gain grunted. "It's certain, then. The sky woman is traveling by night."

"The Aleesh," Maya corrected.

Gain glanced at Maya. "The sky woman," he repeated. "Afford her the respect she's earned. Don't forget that the girl's savvy enough to keep herself one step ahead. I think we've all learned the hard way that she's not going to just stroll up to our camp."

Enfri wanted to throw up. Not only was Gain dead wrong about her, but Jin all but confirmed that it really had been her in Enfri's dream. Tarlus must have been the dreamer.

Her cheeks stopped burning. Tarlus being the oneiromancer could explain the compromising position he and Jin had been in a moment ago. Enfri's delicate sensibilities were safe.

"Of all of us," Gain continued, "Dashar might be the only one that wasn't wounded in some way. Josy?"

"It faded," Josy reported. She wore a scowl that bared her teeth. "Still have a headache, though. What did she dose me with?"

"Sunwillow, I expect," Gain said. "I saw she had some in her garden. What of you, Maya?"

"I'm perfectly fine," Maya growled.

Gain watched her for a moment longer before moving on. "Tarlus?"

"A goose, Uncle," he murmured in disbelief. "A blustering goose took my eye. I'll be a laughing stock back home."

Gain tried and failed to stop himself from chuckling. "Easy, boy. You came closer to slaying a dragon than anyone else has in two hundred years. The creature's magic caught you off-guard as it did all of us. There's no shame in that."

That seemed to ease Tarlus' mind somewhat. He touched at the bandage covering his injured eye socket. "You think the sky woman would take a look at this after we catch her?" he asked with a grin.

The other assassins laughed. It made Enfri's skin crawl.

"I expect she would," Jin said quietly. She hadn't joined in the laughter. "She's much like us in that regard."

"Meaning?" Maya asked.

Jin looked at each of the others in turn. "She has a calling, a duty as she sees it. Even as we slay her, she will remain a sky woman to the end."

Enfri frowned. Oh, you think so, eh? Fat chance, Snake Eyes. I'd let that fool's eye fester before I give him an inch of help.

Even as she thought it, she knew it was a lie. Grandmother's lessons were too ingrained in her to be abandoned out of spite. Enfri knew that if Tarlus asked, even if she was moments from being murdered, she would do what she could for him. It bothered her that Jin could read her so well.

"This is ridiculous," Maya said suddenly. She tossed the legless spider aside and got to her feet. Her finger was pointed accusingly at Jin. "We shouldn't be out here! If you would've only done what you had to, the peasant would be dead, and we'd be halfway home by now. We don't have the oren we need to waste our time like this."

Their camp went silent. There was an energy in the air, like the calm before a thunder storm.

What's oren? Enfri wondered. Maybe it was something to do with magic and arcanists. Deebee would know.

"You know my reasons," Jin answered. "I have no intention of debating them with you again."

"Debate?" Maya hissed. "How much oren do we have left? If we don't find that Aleesh soon, we won't survive to go home. Tarlus is a cyclops, and spirits know what happened to Josy. You've endangered all of us just so you can pretend to be honorable for some wretched, hunchbacked half-breed."

"Maya, that's enough," Gain warned.

"Why was the contract given to her?" Maya demanded of her uncle. "I'm the elder sister. I should be heir!"

Gain was on his feet in the span of a moment. "I said that's enough!" he barked. "Another word and it's treason."

Hands began reaching for the hilts of swords. Tarlus and Josy exchanged worried looks. Jin rose to meet her sister's threats. Gain and Maya looked halfway to trading blows.

"You want to use your astramancy on me, Maya?" Gain said in a dangerous tone. "Perhaps it's been too long since you visited the training yard. You've forgotten the gulf between your power and mine."

Maya was trembling with rage. "You underestimate me. You and Father both underestimate me, just because I wasn't born with a piece of meat between my legs."

"I see we're not talking of the contract anymore," Gain observed. "You think you're owed something, girl? Had I not stepped aside, it'd be your father here keeping you whelps in line. You wouldn't be the heir then, just as you aren't the heir now."

"Because I'm a woman?"

"Because you lack control!" Gain shouted.

Dashar appeared on the canvas. Enfri hadn't noticed him approach. Neither had the others judging by the startled looks they gave him. Only Jin and Gain were unaffected by his arrival.

He turned his head to look at Maya. The wolf cowl leered at her, and she took a step back. Her eyes were wide, and her trembling was no longer out of anger. Dashar looked at each of the others. Gain met his gaze. The others avoided it.

Enfri held her breath. She didn't have the slightest notion of what was going on, but she understood one thing without question now. Gain may have been the most experienced. Jin may have been in command of this contract on Enfri's life. But, Dashar...

Dashar was the one they feared.

What is he? Enfri wondered.

Dashar's attention went back to Maya. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. He leaned close to her ear, and he must have whispered something to her. Maya then threw her arms around Dashar and embraced him.

The tension over the campsite lifted. Tarlus let out an audible exhale, and Jin sat back down.

"Dashar," Jin said quietly, "we should prepare to strike camp."

Dashar pulled away from Maya. He gave Jin a deferential nod, then walked towards the megathon Josy had brought to camp. He drew out a broad-bladed knife and began the task of butchering the carcass. Gain sighed before joining his son.

Enfri chewed her lip. She didn't know what to make of what she overheard. This reckless attempt to learn something useful hadn't provided many answers but several new questions.

What in the world was an oren, and why was running out of it important? Why was Jin put in charge over the others? Why was Dashar so blustering odd, and what did he say to Maya to calm her down? As for that, what was Maya so upset about? It sounded like she wanted to be the one in charge of the king's assassins. All the assassins.

Enfri considered what she did learn. Tarlus was the oneiromancer and had helped Jin enter Enfri's dreams. The assassins knew she traveled at night. Maya's lightning magic was called astramancy. Dashar was scary, but he still let Jin boss him around. There was a slight possibility that royal assassins didn't see kissing-cousins as taboo. Also, the migratory habits of megathons, but Enfri doubted she'd find a use for that.

There was one other thing, and though she didn't have the slightest clue of what it was, she could guess at what it meant. This oren that Maya mentioned, they had a limited supply of it. Whatever it may have been, Maya seemed to believe that they couldn't survive if they ran out.

Enfri smiled as she retreated slowly down from her hiding spot. The assassins had a time limit. If she could outlast them, she would escape.