Page 37 of Rok’s Captive (Barbarians of the Dust #1)

OKAY, DESERT. TRUCE?

JUSTINE

T he stone formations grow larger as we approach, their jagged silhouettes stark against the darkening sky. We’ve been walking for hours, following the path Jacqui supposedly took, and my body aches with each step. I remember when I first took this journey. How I had to stop so many times. Now all I need is a swig from the waterskin and I keep going on. The heat is trying and the emergency blanket Alex gave me hardly feels like it’s helping, but I can’t stop. Won’t stop. Not when my sister is out there somewhere.

By the time we reach the stone formation, I’m drained, but hopeful.

“Jaqs?” I call out. Only, there’s no sign of Jacqui.

All that’s left, all that’s still there, is my message I left in the dust. The stones, now almost covered with sand, pointing toward the other stone formation in the distance.

Tharn releases a low rumble in his chest.

“In that direction lies our rivals. Territory we cannot cross.”

I gulp hard. I’ve seen their rivals. I understand why they’d want to stay away. But it’s my sister we’re talking about here.

“We have to go. At least to the point where Rok caught up with me.”

Tharn’s gaze shifts to Rok. I can tell they’re having an argument that Rok shields me from. Finally, Tharn’s shoulders sag.

“We move with caution.”

I swallow hard, nodding.

Tharn leads our small group, his powerful frame moving with surprising grace across the shifting sands. Every few minutes, he drops to a crouch, examining the ground with an intensity that gives me hope. Sometimes he lingers longer, head tilted as if listening to something I can’t hear, before rising and adjusting our course slightly.

“Does he know where he’s going?” I project to Rok, who walks beside me, his stride shortened to match mine.

“Tharn reads the dust like few others can,” Rok replies, his mental voice confident. “Even traces that would be invisible to most leave marks he can follow.”

I watch as Tharn pauses again, his clawed hand hovering just above the sand’s surface. “What’s he looking for, exactly?”

“Disturbances. Changes in how the sand settles. The dust remembers those who cross it, at least for a time.”

The dust remembers. He’s talking about tracking. It’s such a poetic way to describe it and as I watch Tharn, there’s something almost spiritual in how he approaches the task, as if communing with the desert itself.

“Your sister-female moved with purpose,” Tharn projects suddenly, his thoughts directed at both of us. “Her path does not wander. She knew where she was going.”

That sounds like Jacqui. Even lost in an alien desert, she would approach the task with her head on her shoulders. No panicked running in circles for my sister.

“Is that good?” I ask, hope fluttering in my chest.

“It means she conserved energy,” Rok explains. “Used her water wisely. That improves her chances.”

Her chances. The phrase sends a chill through me despite the lingering heat of the day. We’re talking about her survival in terms of probability, and I hate it. I hate that we have to think this way.

As the sun, Ain, begins her descent toward the horizon, the stone formations that were my second destination loom before us. There’s a small boulder that Tharn heads toward, gaze shifting from side to side now that we can see the stone formation that marks the rival clan’s territory clearly.

“Justine.” Rok’s voice in my mind pulls me from my thoughts. “Come.”

I turn to find him and Tharn standing a few yards from the boulder, both looking at something on the ground. My heart leaps into my throat as I hurry to join them. “Did you find something?”

Tharn gestures to the sand at our feet. At first, I see nothing unusual—just the endless grains that cover everything on this planet. But then, as I look more carefully, I notice a slight depression, a different texture to the surface.

“Someone rested here,” Tharn projects. “Recently. Within the last two sols.”

“Jacqui?” I can barely breathe around the hope swelling in my chest.

Tharn kneels, his long fingers hovering just above the impression. “The size matches what a being your size might leave.”

I drop to my knees beside him, scanning the area desperately for any other sign. “But where did she go?” I lift my head, looking at the stone formations in the distance. If she went over there…

“There is…something else.”

Tharn moves a few feet away, where the sand seems smoother, more deliberately arranged. Rok follows, crouching beside him, his head tilted in that curious way that reminds me he’s not human, despite how comfortable I’ve become with him.

“What is it?” I ask out loud, joining them.

Rok looks up at me, his golden eyes reflecting the last of the sun’s light. “Markings. In the dust.”

I look down and my breath stops in my throat. There, etched into the surface, are lines and curves that I recognise immediately. Letters. English letters.

“J + J,” I read aloud, my voice cracking. “4 EVER.”

It’s our childhood code, the one we used to carve into trees at summer camp, into the wooden bench at the park, even into the corner of my bedroom windowsill when I was twelve and Jacqui was eleven.

Tears spring to my eyes as I trace the letters with my fingertip. “It’s from Jacqui,” I whisper, then remember I need to use my thoughts. “She was here. She left this for me to find.”

“What does it mean?” Rok asks, studying the markings.

I swallow hard against the lump in my throat. “It’s her way of telling me she was here…and that she’s okay.”

“There is more,” Tharn projects, moving a few feet to the right.

I follow him and find another set of markings, these bigger:

“— H20”

“Water,” I translate. “She found water…” I look over the message, but the arrow has been erased by sand, leaving just part of a long line visible. I turn to the left and right, trying to spot where she might have gone.

Rok follows my gaze. “There are only two caves near here where water collects,” he projects. “We sheltered near one when?—”

“When you saved me from the shadow creatures,” I finish, the memory rushing back. That terrifying night when the predators had nearly caught me, when Rok had carried me up the steep side of a cliff to safety. “Could she have found the same place?”

Rok tilts his head. “Possible.”

Hope surges through me, so strong it’s almost painful. “How long could these markings last before the wind covers them?”

Tharn and Rok exchange a glance. “A sol,” Tharn projects. “Two at most, if the wind is gentle.”

“Then she was here yesterday, maybe the day before.” I stand up, staring at the rock formations with renewed determination. “We need to go to the cave. Now.”

Rok glances at Tharn.

“We must separate,” Tharn unexpectedly suggests. “I will go to the farthest cave. You and Rok to the other closer one.”

Rok considers this, then inclines his head in approval. “A wise plan.”

I look between them, torn between gratitude for Tharn’s offer and reluctance to split up. As the light dies, I know time is of the essence.

“Okay,” I say out loud. With a deep breath, I reach up to my ear and take off my single remaining earring. I hand it to Tharn, taking his massive hand in mine as I press the little piece of jewelry into the center of his palm. He doesn’t move, just stares at me and it.

“What is this?” He projects.

My fingers pause where I hold it there. The last thing I have from my mother. “It’s something for Jacqui,” I push my thoughts toward him. “So she will know I am safe. So she will know she can trust you.”

Tharn gazes down at the earring as I finally take my hand away from it. I can tell by the way he closes his palm and holds it carefully that he senses the gravity of this little object. “I will make sure your sister-female sees it,” he projects.

Before I can rethink it, I wrap my arms around Tharn in a hug.

He jerks, then goes impossibly still.

“What is the female doing, Rok?”

I chuckle, forcing a deep breath through my lungs. “It’s called a hug.” As I release him, he stands awkwardly, watching as I return to Rok’s side. “Thank you, Tharn.”

For a moment, he just blinks at me before inclining his head. Without another word, he turns and moves away from us, his form quickly blending with the gathering darkness.

“Come, my light,” Rok projects. “We will reach the nearer cave before the dark.” Lifting me into his arms, he takes off at a run, heading away from Tharn, the rival clan territory, and from the message Jacqui left.

I can only hope we’re not too late.