With that sobering thought, I told Kiki to find the campsite. She felt glad, though, when we reached Topaz. He grazed with the other horses near the camp.
I removed Kiki’s tack, rubbed her down and made sure she had enough food and water. Reluctance and sore muscles made my movements slow.
When I finally joined Irys in the small clearing where they had stopped for the night, she only asked me if I needed dinner. I glanced at the others. Leif stirred a pot of soup cooking over the flames. He wore a neutral expression. Cahil’s hand now hovered near his sword handle; he seemed more relaxed about the night sky. He grinned when he met my gaze. He was either glad about my arrival, or was anticipating the entertainment from the reprimand I was certain to receive from Irys.
Instead, Irys lectured Cahil and me on the proper way to interact with the Sandseed Clan members.
“Respect of the elders is a must,” she said. “All requests are to be made to the elders, but only after they invite us to speak. They don’t trust outsiders and will watch for any sign of disregard or any indication that you are spying on them. So don’t ask questions unless given permission and don’t stare.”
“Why would we stare?” I asked.
“They don’t like to wear clothes. Some members will dress when outsiders are visiting, but others won’t.” Irys smiled ruefully. “Also they have a few powerful magicians. They aren’t Keep trained, they teach their own. Although a few of their younger magicians have come to the Keep, seeking to enhance their knowledge. Kangom was one of these, but he didn’t stay at the Keep for long.” Irys frowned.
Unfortunately, I knew where he had gone from there. He changed his name to Mogkan and started kidnapping children, smuggling them into Ixia.
Before Cahil could voice his questions about Mogkan, I asked Irys, “What about the Sandseed magicians that stay with the clan?”
“They call them Story Weavers,” Irys explained. “They hold the clan’s history. The Sandseeds believe their history is a living entity, like an invisible presence that surrounds them. Since the clan’s story is always evolving, the Story Weavers guide the clan.”
“How do they guide them?” Cahil asked with concern.
“They mediate disputes, help in decision making, they show the clan members their past and aid them in avoiding the same mistakes. Very similar to what the Master Magicians do for the people of Sitia.”
“They soothe a troubled heart,” Leif said, staring into the flames. “Or so they claim.” Then he stood abruptly. “The soup’s done. Who’s hungry?”
We ate in silence. After we arranged sleeping areas for the evening, Irys informed us that we would be on the road for one more night before we reached the clan’s dwellings.
Cahil wanted to make a night watch schedule. “I’ll take the first shift,” he offered.
Irys just looked at him.
“It makes sense,” he said in his defense.
“Cahil, there is nothing to fear. And if trouble heads in our direction, I will wake you long before it arrives,” Irys said.
I hid my smile as I watched Cahil pout. I wrapped my cloak around me against the cold night air and lay on the soft sandy ground of the clearing. I checked with Kiki.
I remembered now that Kiki had been bred by the Sandseeds.
I gazed up at the night sky, watching the stars dance while waiting for sleep. Kiki’s view of life sounded right. Good food, fresh water, an occasional sweet and someone to care for. That’s what everyone should have. A simplistic and unrealistic view I knew, but it soothed me.
My thoughts, though, drifted into strange dreams. I ran through the plains, searching for Kiki. The knee-high grass grew until it reached above my head and impeded my forward motion. I pushed through the sharp blades, trying and failing to find a way out. My foot snagged on something and I fell. When I rolled over, the grass transformed into a field of snakes and they began to wrap around my body. I struggled until they immobilized me.
“You belong with us,” a snake hissed in my ear.
I jerked awake in the weak light of dawn. My ear tingled from the dream snake, and I shivered in the cold morning air, trying to shake off the horror of my nightmare.
Irys and the others milled around the small fire. We ate a breakfast of bread and cheese and saddled our horses. My muscles had stiffened during the night, and they protested each movement. By midmorning, the sun warmed the land and I shed my cloak, stuffing it into my backpack.
As we traveled, the soft ground turned into hard stone and the grasses thinned. Small sandstone outcroppings sprinkled the area. By lunch the outcroppings rose higher than our heads, and I felt as if we rode inside a canyon.
During a brief stop, I noticed streaks of red on a pair of sandstone pillars some distance away. “Tula’s attacker had something red under his fingernails,” I told the others. “Could it be from here?”
“It’s possible,” Irys agreed.
“We should get a sample,” Leif said. He rummaged in his pack until he found a short glass vial.
“We need to keep going.” Irys squinted at the sun. “I want to find a campsite before dark.”
“Go. I’ll catch up,” Leif said.
“Yelena, help him, make sure it’s the color you remember,” Irys ordered, then turned to Cahil before he could voice the objections behind his frown. “Cahil, you stay with me. If Yelena can find us hours after we left the Citadel, she’ll have no problem catching up today.”
Irys and a still scowling Cahil mounted their horses and headed toward the sun, while Leif and I found a path to the pillars. They were farther away than I had thought. Then, it took us longer than we had anticipated to collect a sample. The streaks turned out to be a layer of red clay. The exposed clay had hardened, and we chipped through it to reach the softer material underneath. We placed both the hard chips and soft clay into the vial.
By the time we returned to our starting point, the sun hovered halfway to the horizon. Kiki found Topaz’s trail, and we nudged the horses into a run.
I felt unconcerned when the sky began to darken. Topaz’s pungent scent filled Kiki’s sensitive nose, which meant we were getting close. But when full dark descended and I could not see a fire, I began to worry. When the moon rose, I halted Kiki.
“Are we lost?” Leif asked. He had been following me without comment since we had discovered the trail. I could just make out his annoyed frown in the faint moonlight.
“No. Kiki says Topaz’s scent is strong. Perhaps they decided to travel longer?”
“Can you reach Irys?” Leif asked.
“Oh, snake spit! I forgot!” I took a deep breath and gathered a string of power, chastising myself for failing to remember my magic again. I wondered when using magic would become instinctive.
I felt a surprising rush of power. The source seemed concentrated in this area. Projecting my awareness, I searched the surrounding land. Nothing.
Alarmed, I extended my reach, seeking further. Then I realized that my mind hadn’t even touched field mice or any other creatures. I stopped in frustration. If I could connect to Valek in the Snake Forest, I should be able to find Irys; after all, her horse had just passed this way.
