Page 38

As soon as the anchor is set, Kirney, Feet, and Andor climb inside the boat while Toombs and Tromson lower it down to the sea.

We’re about a hundred feet from the coast, the water startlingly clear and the lightest of aqua blues as it gets closer to the shore.

I peer over the side and see the shadow of the boat on the bottom, and a few fish darting about.

But despite the coolness of the water, the air is desert dry and the temperature is climbing with each second.

I’m wearing a long gauzy skirt that I know the seamstress created to be an undergarment for me, but it’s not see-through and anything else would be too hot.

On top I just have my support garment and one of Andor’s white shirts that I knotted at the waist. All the men are dressed in white or tan tunics and loose pants, a few with linen scarves around their necks, ready to be wrapped around their heads.

“Do you have any salve?” I ask Andor as Feet starts to row us to shore and we wave our goodbyes to Toombs on the ship. “The sun is only going to get brighter from here on in.”

He nods and takes it out of his pack, wiping the black substance around his eyes before passing it to me.

I do the same and then give it to Kirney and Feet.

They hesitate at first but I let them know that it not only protects against the volcanic air found in the Midlands but also cuts the glare from the sun in the Banished Land.

We have to cross an expansive desert called the Burning Sands once we leave the coast, with near-white sand dunes that will blind us otherwise.

By the time we reach the shore it’s like we’ve passed through a wall of shimmering heat, and Feet is sweating from the exertion, though it doesn’t take long to evaporate from his skin.

I’m used to it to some degree, but it’s cooler where I grew up in Lerick and there’s a reason why the Freelanders moved into the Dark City.

We get out onto the sand, hauling the boat up onto the shore, and Lemi immediately starts shifting from spot to spot, disappearing and reappearing just a foot or two farther away.

“What’s he doing?” Andor asks, his gaze bouncing along with Lemi’s movements.

“It’s hot on his paws,” I tell him. “He shifts continuously so that they don’t have time to burn. Even with his thick skin he won’t be able to stand for more than thirty seconds before the sand does damage. We wouldn’t last five. Hopefully the bottoms of your boots won’t melt off.”

The men exchange a worried look.

“Best to copy Lemi and just keep moving,” I tell them, leading the way through the sand.

I glance over my shoulder at the ship, anchored in the glistening harbor, then survey the land around us.

The borderland canyons are far off to the north, camouflaged by the shimmering heat, and to the south of us there’s nothing but the coast and sloping sands.

In front of us the dunes rise, and I know from experience they will seem endless until we finally see the volcano that presides over the underground city.

“So far so good,” I say, looking back at Andor. “I’m sure Lemi will be the first to let us know if there are any hostiles.”

“So who usually are the hostiles in these parts? Did you deal with them when you had to take your boat to the Midlands?”

I shake my head. “Not really. There’s a small harbor of sorts to the north of here that the Freelanders use to go fishing.

We bypassed it for a good reason—any outsider ship will most likely be attacked and raided.

That’s where I usually hire a boat to the Midlands, but the Black Guard rarely patrols the area and I doubt they’d be this far south in the middle of the Burning Sands. I doubt we’ll come across anyone.”

I look over my shoulder at Kirney and Feet. “Sorry, you might be making this horrible journey for nothing.”

“Eh, it’s good to get off the ship,” Feet says, trying to sound nonchalant even though he’s red-faced and panting already.

Kirney seems to be handling the heat better, and of course Andor is barely breaking a sweat.

I know that all the crew have taken suen at some point, but I’m pretty sure Feet’s powers aren’t helping him at the moment.

“How long is the walk to the city?” Andor asks.

“The dunes will take us a few hours,” I tell him. “Perhaps on the way out of the city we can borrow some free-roaming camels to make the trek back easier.”

He looks intrigued. “I’ve never ridden a camel before,” he says.

“Don’t get too excited,” I warn him. “They either move too slow or too fast. Oh, and they spit.”

“Nothing venomous, I hope,” Kirney says.

“No, but it’s gross,” I say, making face. “Though not as gross as the slug webs.”

Andor’s eyes widen. “The what?”

I just smile. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

No point in letting them know before we get to the city itself. They’ll have enough to worry about on the journey there.

Still, the walk across the Burning Sands is uneventful, if not exhausting.

Our water doesn’t last long, the heat is relentless, and even a grain of sand blown upon our skin is hot enough to burn.

I end up having to tuck my skirt into the tops of my boots so that my thighs stop getting burned.

Everyone has their scarves wrapped around their heads, and even Lemi looks taxed from having to shift so often.

The dunes in this area are even taller than I thought, making the trip longer than I had estimated.

Finally, as we crest the last dune, we stop and find ourselves looking down over the entrance to the Dark City.

“There she is,” I say, gasping for breath. At least Andor looks equally tired as I do. Everyone’s salve has melted away from their eyes, gathering in their scarves in messy black pools.

“Not as I pictured it,” Andor admits. “But it’s nice to see these bloody dunes come to an end.”

He’s right in that it doesn’t look like much.

Below us the dunes peter out into steppes of dirt and low shrubs with severe swatches of cooled black lava cutting through every now and then like a river delta, all of them running from the slopes of the volcano in the distance.

Halfway between us is a series of black caves that are barely visible between the shrubs.

If you didn’t know what to look for, you wouldn’t be able to see it.

“Where is it?” Feet says, leaning over with his hand on his knees, slipping slightly in the sand.

“See those camels?” I point to a small herd of them grazing among the spiny bushes. “The entrance is the cave just beyond them. People feed the camels and provide water occasionally to keep them around so that they’re easier to catch when we want to go somewhere.”

“Thank the goddesses,” Feet says. “There is no blazing way I am walking that distance back again.”

“Well, that’s where you’ll be waiting too,” Andor points out. “Hopefully you’ll have enough time to become best friends with them.”

We run down the slope, careful not to trip on our loose clothes, sand flying everywhere, until we reach the bottom.

Then it’s a short distance to the camels and the entrance to the city.

Lemi stops shifting and pants the whole way back, the ground no longer painful to walk on, and I wish I had some extra water to give him.

But he knows what to do. When we’re close enough to the entrance, he shifts and I have no doubt he’s appearing by the water trough, hopefully finding it full and probably fighting some ornery camels for it.

We hurry the rest of the way, and when we finally arrive we see Lemi lying down in the shade of the trough, some water still left. The camels are a few yards away, half-hidden by the shrubs and eyeing us suspiciously.

“Normally I wouldn’t suggest you have the water here, but if you can get past the fact that it’s full of dog and camel slobber, it’s all yours,” I say to Feet and Kirney. “It’s otherwise safe.”

“Are you boys going to be all right?” Andor asks, adjusting the pack on his back.

Kirney takes out both his knives from his boots, twirls them, and slides them back in. They look to be made from the same water crystals as Andor’s dagger. “We’ll be fine,” he says. “Just come back quick.” He seems to give Andor a look that says for him to come back in general.

“Will do,” he says with a grave nod.

We part ways, Feet and Kirney watching us go like they might come running after us at the last minute.

“You sure you don’t want to stay with them?” I ask Andor as we march toward the cave, Lemi lagging behind lazily. “They won’t have to worry so much.”

“Not a chance,” he says, flashing me a smile.

“I’d rather them worry about me than me worry about you.

” We stop before the cave entrance. “Now is there anything I should know when we are in there? You say you can’t see as well in the dark; do we need to light a torch?

Do we not talk? Stay close?” His eyes sparkle at that last bit.

“There is light in the city’s passageways,” I tell him, realizing that he really doesn’t know what to expect. “Just stay by my side, stay quiet, and let me do all of the talking.” He opens his mouth to say something, but I press my fingers into his chest. “I mean it. All of the talking.”

He presses his lips together firmly and nods, enough gravity coming over his expression that I think he knows to take this seriously.

But that’s the thing about Andor—he’ll let you believe that nothing really matters when it turns out that so much does.

It’s what makes him so disarming—and dangerous.

I glance behind me at Lemi. “If at any point you want to shift home to see Auntie Ellestra and let her know I’m coming, that would be fine with me.”

But Lemi only wags his tail. Perhaps he’ll disappear when we get closer, but I don’t expect him to leave my side until we’re safe.

I just hope I can expect the same from Andor.

I take in a deep breath. “Let’s go.”