“Speak to me girl!” Niobe slapped Sanvi’s cheek, which by paled to the color of snow.
The dwarf carried her hammer and the kaleth through the desert. The wings added unforeseen bulk that made their progress slow. They needed to find water quick. Then she thought of the Osu fighter, where was he? Did he perish? She could not abandon her comrade in search of the other. Yet, she was not beholden to either of these strangers. What did it matter to her to keep them alive if the act of preservation served a detriment to her own survival? Her throat felt rocky. Her eyes blinked unsteady.
She found a shady spot in a canyon and set the kaleth against the wall. She made sure to spread the wings to keep the unconscious woman cool. The dwarf pulled out her bota bag and shook it. She determined there were a few drops left to sip. She scanned around for any other travelers that could help her. Nothing.
The dwarf let her head hang. She fell back against the canyon wall kicking up dust as she settled beside Sanvi. The dwarf tried to think. She looked at the girl and then stared out at the lonely land. She retrieved a piece of parchment from her pocket. It was the map that the muscum had given her. She looked at the inscriptions. They only marked out the major landmarks.
They were scattered to the winds. Then a pebble fell on her head, Niobe glanced at the canyon cliff. No one, it was probably just the wind.
Then she blinked and wanted to slap herself, she remembered there was a spring somewhere between Seirkent and Khi’ir.
“Are you awake?” she nudged the kaleth girl.
No response, but the girl still drew breath. She was a still alive at least. Niobe left her goatskin bag with the few remaining drops and left it the girl. She took Sanvi’s empty bag.
Then she took her hammer and proceeded to carve with the pole into the ground several runes. The enchantments would serve to shield the girl from bandits to hungry beasts. Niobe hoped she could be back by sundown along the main route.
-
A group of nomadic riders shrouded in long tan capes, faces covered by shemaghs, atop black and brown horses came across a body lying in the sand in the Syakh desert. One dismounted his horse.
He cocked his head briefly and looked at the dead man. He reached a pair of fingers to the man’s nose and could tell he was still breathing, just unconscious. He waved to his comrades, and they quickly stripped the man of his armor and hauled him onto one of the horses.
-
Huo awoke to an orange and purple sky beyond some canyon walls. He smelled the burnt savory odor of meat that made his stomach growl and leap. He heard the crackle of a fire pit and a few voices in hushed conversation. His hands seemed bound at the wrists. He yanked at the rope but his arms weighed him down. Whoever had captured him wanted him alive, that much he knew. He remembered the golem and Sanvi and Niobe and…
It took his eyes a few blinks to unblur the world around him, but he made out a face that came before him. The face belonged to a man he had not seen for a long time, and that face smiled at him, despite the scars and crooked teeth.
“Penth?” the fighter asked.
“How are ye’ ol’ boy?” the slaver asked Huo.