Vessel

his balance, Fennik unhooked one of his bows and arrows. He aimed it at the ground. All but three of the horses had fled.

The worms burst through the crust of the salt flat. Chunks of salt flew into the air and then rained down. Salty dust instantly blanketed them. At Liyana’s feet, finger-size worms crowded their writhing bodies over the damp earth. Dog-size worms followed them, squeezing their bodies through the cracks. Fennik fired arrows into their oozing flesh.

As the ground continued to quake, Liyana scrambled backward, and Misery reared, finally breaking her paralysis. A four-foot worm with a body as thick as a child’s burst out of the ground directly in front of them. Misery slammed her hooves down on the worm’s soft body. It squished under her hooves but continued to writhe. Its mouth opened and shut to show multiple rows of rock-hard teeth.

Another worm shot out of the ground beneath Misery and clamped its mouth onto one of the horse’s legs. “No!” Liyana shouted.

The mare whinnied and shuddered, and then fell to the ground as the worm sucked. Other worms converged on the horse, spreading over Misery’s torso. They latched on and sucked. Liyana yanked Jidali’s knife out of her sash and hacked at the worms that covered Misery. Gray pus poured out of the bulbous bodies, but still more worms surged out of the earth to replace the ones she had chopped away.

Liyana felt a sharp pain in her leg. She looked down to see that a worm the size of her arm had latched onto her calf. She sliced through its body, and the worm fell away.

One of the two remaining horses broke through the worms and ran. But the other horse fell and succumbed, collapsing beside Misery. Too many! Liyana thought as she tried to wade through the oozing bodies. “Korbyn, use magic!” she yelled. He couldn’t hear her over the screams of dying horses and the crunch of the salt earth as it was torn up by the worms. She waded through the worms toward him. She grabbed his arm.

Startled, he met her eyes.

“Use your magic,” she said. “I’ll guard you.”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then he lowered his knife. Closing his eyes, he steadied his breathing. She sliced at the worms that crawled toward them.

The ground shook harder than before, and Liyana was knocked backward. She landed hard on her tailbone, and the air whooshed out of her lungs. In front of her, in the midst of the writhing worms, the ground exploded, and a massive worm—larger than she’d ever imagined—burst out of the ground. Its mouth gaped wide. It looked as if it could swallow the sun.

“Fennik!” she yelled as she scrambled to her feet. Bracing herself, she held the sky serpent knife in front of her. The worm swung its head from side to side as if sniffing the air. Arrows hit its body, plunging deep into the mucus coat that covered the bulbous segments.

“Run!” Fennik yelled.

Liyana didn’t. She turned to Korbyn, who was deep in a trance, and sliced away a worm that had latched onto his back. He stood still as stone, his eyes closed, his breathing even. She stomped and stabbed at the smaller worms that ringed them as the giant worm towered over them.

“Coward!” Fennik shouted at Korbyn. “Fight them!”

“Help me guard him!” she yelled.

But Fennik continued to shoot the worms near the dead horses.

The giant worm flexed in the air, and then slowly, miraculously, it sank back into the ground. The smaller worms retreated as well. The ground shook again as the worms sped away, cracking the salt flat as they fled.

In seconds, all was quiet.

Korbyn collapsed.

* * *

Liyana lifted the supply packs off the two dead horses. She tried not to look at Misery. Tears openly poured down Fennik’s cheeks as he cut away the saddles and bridles. Wordlessly Liyana and Fennik carried their remaining supplies several hundred yards away from the torn salt earth. Liyana set up the tent, and they placed the unconscious god inside.

While Fennik went to search for surviving horses, Liyana examined the bite marks that covered Korbyn’s body. He’d been torn all over, despite her best efforts.

Trying to be gentle, she pulled the fabric of his clothes away from the wounds. Some of them oozed blood. Some were coated in mucus and pus from the worms that she’d sliced away. She wondered if she dare use water to wash them out. She wondered if she dare not use water to wash them out.

Fennik crawled into the tent. “How is he?”

“Bad,” Liyana said. She didn’t look at Fennik. “He can’t heal himself if he’s not conscious.” She dug the healing herbs out of her pack.

“He drove the worms away, didn’t he?”

That was so obvious she didn’t bother to reply. She located cloths and bandages, and she pressed a clean cloth to a wound on his calf to slow the bleeding.

Fennik tucked a wadded robe underneath Korbyn’s leg. “We need to keep the blood from seeping into the ground. It’s moisture too.”

She’d rather keep the blood inside Korbyn’s body entirely, never mind where it went afterward. She felt as if her heart was beating uncomfortably hard inside her rib cage. Liyana tied a bandage around his arm. Her hands shook.

“How can I help?” Fennik asked.

Liyana bit her lip. If he’d helped when she’d asked before . . . She refused to meet his eyes. If she did, she thought she might lose her self-control, and that wouldn’t help Korbyn. “More bandages,” she said.

He fetched more.

She wrapped his wounds as best she could, using damp cloths to clean the worst bites, and then smothering the dampness in dry cloths. Fennik took extra wads of cloths outside to care for the horses. He returned after a while.

“How many horses did you find?” she asked. She still couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

“Two,” Fennik said. “One is unridable. The other has only superficial wounds and will live, with care. But there’s no sign of the four that ran across the flats.”

She nodded. He didn’t have to say that that was bad. Wounded and without water, those horses wouldn’t last long. “What about our water supplies?”

He hesitated. “A day’s worth left, if we ration.”

Korbyn had slept for three days with the Horse Clan. She didn’t know how long he’d be out after this level of magic. He’d once said summoning water where none existed was immensely difficult. “We could strap him to the good horse and walk to the Silk Clan.”

“In the sun and walking . . . the water wouldn’t last a day.” Fennik slumped down beside her. “I said we shouldn’t cross the salt flats. He thinks he’s invincible.”

“Does it feel good to be proven right?” Liyana blinked back the tears that sprang into her eyes. She couldn’t afford to lose the moisture. “Korbyn had said three days to cross the flats. So we have to be close to the Silk Clan. Take the last horse and whatever water you need and find help.”

“You cannot ask me to leave you alone—”

“I won’t be alone,” Liyana said. “He’ll wake. And I’m not asking.”

“Come with me,” Fennik said. “If we leave all the supplies except for the water, the horse can carry us both. We can make it to the Silk Clan and send help back for Korbyn.”

She shook her head. The idea of leaving him felt as repugnant as the flesh of the salt worms. She’d failed to protect him against the worms; she didn’t intend to fail him again.

“He’ll be all right,” Fennik said. “As soon as he wakes, he’ll heal himself.”

She focused on Korbyn’s face. It was twisted in pain. Every second Fennik wasted arguing was a second longer until they had help. Without thinking, she wrapped her hand around Korbyn’s hand. “You’ll be faster if you ride alone,” she told Fennik.

“But you—”

“Stop!” For the first time since the worms, Liyana looked him directly in the eyes. “Stop arguing. Stop needing