Page 59 of Crown of the Dunes (The Ballan Desert #2)

Finally, Dhara and I dismounted, and I patted Alza on the nose and told her to stay.

Then, we set out after Keera in the direction the smoke came from.

The sand squeaked underfoot as we crested the top of one dune, to find the sprawling encampment covering the flat expanse at its base.

Thankfully, the sun had dipped below the horizon, leaving our silhouettes shadowed as we descended quietly, trying to make as little sand fall as possible as we hurried toward the camp.

Keera was nowhere in sight, likely already sneaking between the tents as she searched for the means to whatever disturbance we had planned.

It wasn’t difficult to dart between the shadows of the outermost tents, likely supply tents or the dwellings of single riders who would currently be milling around the fires near the center of the encampment.

Even so, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as we pressed ourselves against one canvas wall, checking around the corner to make sure we were alone before darting to the next one.

The air was heavier in this second encampment than it had been in the first. It was the palpable feeling of anticipation and dread in equal measure—the feeling of a night before a battle where one knew blood would be spilled, and you could only hope it would be your opponent’s and not your own.

This feeling of simmering violence had been ever present in Clan Katal under Lord Alasdar’s rule, but now the air was thick with it, instead of hanging around the edges of my consciousness.

I led Dhara further into the camp, toward where bonfires flickered. Voices drifted on the air and dogs barked, but the sounds were subdued. No children played, and there was a hard edge to the inaudible conversations.

I held up my hand, motioning for Dhara to stop as we crouched in a shadow, peeking around a canvas wall. From here, it would be impossible to navigate the camp without stepping into open spaces or patches of light.

As I chanced another glance out of our cover, searching for the best route forward, my eyes caught on the center of the cleared area. In the center was a stake, driven into the ground and pointing up at the sky like an accusing finger.

One like it had stood in the center of Clan Katal’s encampment.

My eyes drifted up to the sky, finding it moonless and dark.

Tonight was the night of a sacrifice. It was a new moon, and tonight somebody would be hauled out and tied to the stake—as Keera had been—to have their blood fed to the desert.

Lord Nathaira had fought tooth and nail for the sacrifices to be continued after Lord Alasdar’s death, but I would not hear of it. Now, she had been allowed to continue.

I flexed my hands, making my leather gloves creak.

We needed Keera’s distraction.

I laid one hand on my dirk, willing myself to be patient, even though I could nearly taste the bloodlust of these clans thick on the air.

It was seductive in its simplicity after weeks of politics.

Just as it had been simple under Lord Alasdar, when he claimed to have all the answers to the troubles of the Ballan Desert and had tied them to a common enemy in Kelvadan.

War had been a simple answer that it was all too easy to convince the clans to believe. Persuading them otherwise would be much more challenging.

A rumbling like thunder interrupted my thoughts as we stayed hidden, and I raised my face to the sky. Keera had called down a storm before, but I didn’t feel the tell-tale tug of wildness at the tether in my mind telling me she had done it again.

The thunder grew louder and closer until I could detect hoofbeats in its overwhelming rumble. Before I could realize what Keera had done, a herd of horses stampeded past our hiding spot. Shouting and bellowing followed as everybody hurried to get out of the way or chase down their mounts.

The cacophony was so loud that I guessed Keera must have freed and spurred every horse in the encampment, likely hundreds, into a frenzy.

And I could not argue with its effectiveness.

As the last of the horses passed us, Dhara and I started running through the camp.

With all the clansman darting this way and that, nobody paid us any mind.

We were just another in the panicked crowd trying to figure out what had spooked the horses .

It wasn’t hard to pull the thinnest veneer of slippery magic over us as we wove toward the black and white banner of Clan Katal, so any who did lay eyes on us found us unremarkable and instantly moved on to more interesting thoughts.

We skidded to a halt in front of the largest tent in the camp, the flag of a snake fluttering above its peaked roof.

Dread dripped down my spine to pool in the hollow of my belly, as it had so many times standing outside this tent.

Even as I leaned forward to set my ear against the tent flap to see if I could hear anybody inside, I had to remind myself that I would not find Lord Alasdar within.

Still, the skin on my back itched as if I would find him sitting at the fire with a red-hot iron rod, ready to make me ask him for another cruel lesson. Hearing nothing, I ripped the tent flap open with too much force, as if to prove to myself that I would find nothing but empty darkness beyond.

The large circular space was empty, as expected. Dhara and I ducked inside, letting the flap close behind us, plunging us into darkness.

“Find a large wooden chest decorated with brass fittings,” I whispered, and we set off, feeling our way around the tent. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the shine of a metal whorl in one corner drew my attention.

I hurried over to the chest, falling to my knees in front of it.

I flipped the latch and opened it as quickly as I could without making a sound.

Inside, lay a mess of strange objects: vials of viscous liquids and gems of all colors and sizes.

I pushed them aside, wincing as they clattered and clanked.

At the bottom of the chest lay my prize: yellowed and cracked paper marked by harsh, angular handwriting.

Izumi likely didn’t even realize the treasure she had, leaving it so loosely guarded.

I plunged my hand into the chest, only for a sharp intake of breath and a thud behind me to make me freeze. I spun in my crouch to find a familiar woman standing in the entrance to the tent, sword half drawn.

“Lord Dhara,” breathed Badha.

I drew in a sharp intake of breath. She had belonged to Clan Otush, under Dhara’s command, before she had protected me from Lord Cahir’s warlord. Izumi had named her her warlord though, and Badha’s loyalties would have been torn in two with the clans divide.

The noise drew Badha’s attention, and her gaze flicked to me for a second before her eyes widened. She opened her mouth as if to call out, but Lord Dhara took a step forward, reaching out her open palms.

“Wait.”

Badha did, still as if she were holding her breath, teetering on the edge of indecision.

“You were a loyal rider for many years,” Dhara whispered. “We are not here to do harm, but we need to find something to heal the desert. Our clans may have disagreed on method, but your lord would agree that is a mission of utmost importance.”

Slowly, Badha’s grip on her sword slackened, and relief loosened the knot in my chest. Then, a voice shouted from outside the tent, making it snap taut again.

“Badha, are you all right, my sandstorm?”

We had one moment of warning before Izumi stepped into the space behind Badha, a lantern held in her hand throwing the situation into harsh relief. A flash of steel and her sword was drawn, Dhara and I just a beat behind.

Badha’s gaze flicked back and forth rapidly between her former master and current lord—and potentially something more if the way Izumi protectively angled herself in front of Badha was any indication.

Izumi’s lip pulled back in a snarl, the freckles on her nose scrunching as her face contorted in a mask of fury. “You leave us all to die, betray Lord Alasdar’s cause, and now come to rob us in the night?”

Her gaze flicked to the chest behind me.

“If you’ve come to steal Lord Alasdar’s wisdom in the hope that you can save your precious Kelvadan.

We will see it fall. I thought the power you wield made you stronger than me—made you the one who would lead the desert back to the old ways and save anyone else from having their heart torn in two like mine was when my twin was swallowed by the desert.

But now that I know who you are, I see the truth of your weakness—the true failure of your bloodline.

You doomed us all for that exile w hore. ”

My blade whistled through the air as I lunged across the tent.

The voices in my head screamed for blood so loudly that couldn’t even comprehend what had happened.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek until blood flooded my mouth, the metallic taste and the sting of pain bringing me back into my body enough to register that Izumi now lay crumpled on the ground.

Badha stood behind her, holding her sword up and frozen in a look of pain, like she couldn’t believe she just knocked Izumi unconscious with a well-placed blow to the temple.

My grip on my saber tightened, and for a fleeting moment the bloodlust swirling with the madness in my head told me to slash down at Izumi where she lay for what she had called Keera.

Before I could even dismiss that thought as one belonging to the monster Lord Alasdar had shaped me into, Badha stepped between me and the crumpled form on the floor.

“Grab what you need and get out before anybody sees you.” Her voice was clipped. She had grown into a warlord accustomed to being obeyed in the short time we had been apart.

Her decisive tone snapped me from my rage enough to remember why I was here. I spun on my heel and marched back to the chest, pulling out the papers and sliding them beneath my tabards for safe keeping.

“Come with us,” Dhara said behind me. “Clan Otush would welcome you back, and you could leave all this madness behind.”

I stood and turned back to them in time to see Badha shake her head sadly. “I… I can’t.”

“Izumi will brand you a traitor for this,” I said.

“I know.” The edge of a tremor laced her voice, but she stood firm, raising her chin. “But I couldn’t let her stop you from doing what needs to be done. She can’t see it now, but she would never forgive herself if she got in the way of the desert being healed.”

I stepped toward them, glancing down at Izumi’s crumpled form, her mouth slack and her brown curls scattered around her haphazardly.

She had been both my fiercest competitor and my only true ally for many years, but somehow I hadn’t fully comprehended how young she was until I saw her like this.

She must have been just a girl when her twin was swallowed by quicksand, driving her to betray her clan for Lord Alasdar.

“She’s one of the most passionate people I’ve met, and that fervor has the tendency to lead her astray.” Badha’s words were soft, and pained in a way that made my heart twist.

“The desert appreciates passion,” I observed, thinking of Keera and the way I had chosen to stay by her side, even when I was likely to be her prisoner. “She’ll need someone like you to help lead her back to the right path.”

“I know that too.” Badha smiled sadly. “Now go, before anybody else comes.”

I did as she asked, but Lord Dhara hesitated, giving her one last long look. Then Badha rapped knuckles to her temple in a sign of respect, and the moment was broken. Dhara followed me out into the chaos of the camp.

We moved as swiftly as the wind using the cover of darkness, many of the camps bonfires having been extinguished in the earlier stampede.

Chaos still reigned as clansmen tried to lead high strung horses back to their enclosures, and we were able to slip out into the night without receiving a second glance.

By the time we crested the dune where we had left the horses, Keera already waited for us.

She stood before Daiti, stroking his mane and cooing like he was a small cat, and not a warhorse likely to trample anybody who looked at him wrong to death.

The way his eyes rolled told me he enjoyed it, despite his prickly exterior.

My boots squeaked in the powdery sand, and Keera turned toward us. “Did it work? Were you able to get what we needed?”

I patted my chest where the missing pages were safely hidden from the elements. “Your distraction was thorough, although we did cross paths with Izumi.”

Keera’s brows shot up. “What happened?”

I shook my head wearily, knowing I would tell her the whole tale at some point, but too anxious to put distance between us and Lord Alasdar’s memory to relay everything now. “I just hope I don’t regret not killing her when I had the chance. ”

Keera considered me. “It will be easier to kill an enemy later than to bring an ally back to life.”

Lord Dhara snorted beside me. “The trick is figuring out which is the enemy and which is the ally.”

Her words echoed in my head as we set off into the gathering darkness.