It wasn’t hard to lift a cloak from one of the houses near the dead-end street. It was dark, quiet, and Hank had taken five minutes tops between the time he drifted into the shadows until he returned with something to cover Bryn. Once that was done, we started toward the mouth of Telmath’s cavern.
The smoky, shadowed streets of the city reminded me of the congested atmosphere on Solomon Street back home in Atlanta, only on a grander, darker, otherworldly scale that stretched for miles.
I could easily imagine that I was walking through the crowded streets of some ancient civilization—the sunlight replaced with the dim violet glow of typanum running through the “sky,” the sunbaked houses replaced with gray stone and timbers, and the humans replaced with hulking jinn warriors strutting around, cloaked ghouls peering beneath their hoods, darkling fae weaving effortlessly through the narrow streets …
As we moved through narrow alleys and busy marketplaces, over bridges that spanned rivers and gaping black chasms in the ground, our passage was either ignored or met with curious frowns that passed over us quickly and then were forgotten. I saw humans—more than I’d expected to see—shopping, touring, engaged in dark pursuits. Black crafting was allowed here. So were gambling and prostitution …
In one of the busiest corners we passed, Rex ducked into a storefront that sold what looked to be antiques and artifacts and came back out with a nod. “The temple is still there. In ruins. But there.”
I had no idea what was happening far up on the plateau or if guards had begun searching. But if they were, they were slowed by the vastness of the city, the crowds, and the darkness. Still, I turned and glanced up even though the plateau was too high to see anything.
“Charlie,” Hank said, making me jump.
He stepped aside. I gripped Bryn’s arm tighter and nudged her forward, following Rex and Brim through the dense streets of Telmath as Hank fell in behind us. All the sights, sounds, and scents filled in around us, but we moved as though we were in a bubble of silence. Isolated.
The closer we came to the gaping twenty-story-high mouth of the cavern, the scents slowly changed from tar and earth to dry wood and sand. The humidity disappeared, the air turning arid and hot. Several lonely-looking paths, carrying one or two dusty travelers, led into and out of the city.
All the action was behind us, and in front of us, framed by the massive cavern mouth, was wide-open Charbydon sky. Inky blue and lit with stars. As beautiful as it was, a shiver crept down my spine. Despite the danger back in Telmath, the cavern had provided a sense of insulation and protection. Out here, in the wild … God only knew what awaited us.
As we passed into open air, our strides lengthened and our pace increased, all of us wanting to get as far away from Telmath as possible. Several minutes passed before my fears of getting caught finallyased and I was able to really notice the environment.
A dim, moonlight-like glow bathed the landscape. Everyone called the giant orb hanging in the sky a moon, but it was really a white dwarf star, one that was slowly dying out. Once this “moon” set below the horizon it was blacker than black, and when it rose again it was dim and not nearly—so I’d heard—as bright as in older days. Ahead of us stretched a barren land of shrubs, rocky outcroppings, clumps of stubborn trees, and patches of small flowers in blues and whites.
The road was so soft that fine grains puffed up like smoke as we walked, and the edges were littered with petrified woods and loose rocks.
“We might be able to make it most of the way before the moon sets,” Rex said. “Once it does, this place turns pitch-black, and we’re screwed. And don’t use those lights on your belts. The light draws the predators.”
Great.
The only one who seemed happy to be out here in the wild was Brim. He trotted around us in large serpentine patterns, his nose trailing the ground, investigating, processing the scents, and then coming back in toward us to cross over to the other side. He never disappeared from view.
My feet burned inside of my socks and shoes, and my face felt sticky and grimy. We hiked at a fast clip for at least three miles before I slowed, turning around to check our progress. The mountain that rose up behind us was a jagged behemoth. My jaw dropped. It made the opening of the cavern look like the mouth of a sea bass. Behind the dark, jagged shape were more mountains, an entire range that shot up into the inky sky.
I turned back around and continued on, amazed at what I was seeing—at what I’d seen so far. Bryn muttered something through the gag and jerked her arm. I stopped her and removed the hood and then set to work untying the gag. We were far enough away that her screams wouldn’t be heard. But I shoved the gag into my pocket in case the need arose. She bent over and spit. “God, it’s hot,” she gasped.
“Make any trouble,” I said, “and it’ll be back on.” She didn’t respond. I couldn’t help but wonder if Solomon was still pulling the strings, but right then I didn’t want confirmation. I was tired, too tired to deal with the emotional onslaught that would come if my sister “appeared.”
The image of my baby sister straddling the Abaddon Father, blood sprayed over her front, and that dagger making its way toward her belly, was enough to make me sob. But, right then, all that mattered was making it across the flats, through the portal, and back home.
Hank trailed behind us, the cloak off and thrown over his shoulder. “I don’t suspect the nobles would think we’d be desperate enough to cross the sand flats.” He glanced over his shoulder to the mountain range. His profile was grim and since we were out of the city he let down
I frowned at that revelation.
“Well,” I said, “hopefully they think we’re off chasing after Solomon like Carreg told them.” I wanted to say more, but then thought better of it. Asking him now about the sirens in the terminal probably wasn’t the time or the place. But I hadn’t forgotten. It was pretty clear they recognized Hank, and just as clear that he wanted nothing to do with them. I bit the inside of my cheek to temper my curiosity and took Bryn’s arm. “Let’s keep moving.”
A strange rattlesnake sound echoed around us. The hairs on the back of my neck lifted and made me shudder. I glanced around at the unfamiliar landscape, my other hand going back to rest on the hilt of my Nitrogun. But Rex, I noticed, kept walking and Brim didn’t seem alarmed. My anxiety remained, however, the place too foreign and strange for me to relax.
Eventually the rocky ground, trees, and bushes disappeared, giving way to a vast sea of the finest gray sand, which slowly made its way into my clothes and stuck to my exposed skin. In random patches, large outcroppings of rocks and jagged monoliths jutted up from the sand.
Despite the “moonlight,” there were huge black shadows made by the dunes. Every time we crossed through one, the idea of stepping on something or being ambushed heightened my uneasiness.
After what felt like hours, Rex suddenly stopped. He went very still, face turning from side to side, staring out into the shadowy distance. Even though he was in the body of a human, one very familiar to me, Rex seemed more jinn than ever. The way he carried himself, the confidence, the sense of self … It was all very … strange.
“They’re already following us,” he said, and started walking again.
“Who’s following us?” I struggled through the sand as I tried to catch up. The faster I stepped, the deeper my boots sank.
“We’re being tracked by a pack of nithyn. And probably one or two sand lizards.”
Was it too much to hope that a sand lizard was tiny and harmless? As it was, I was already aware that nithyn were dragon-like creatures that grew to the size of large goats. Moon snakes ate their eggs, but once grown, the nithyn turned the tables and ate snakes, lizards, and—if they were hungry enough—off-worlders too weak to defend themselves … or humans stupid enough to trek through the sand flats at night.
“What the hell is a sand lizard?” Bryn asked in a scratchy voice.
“A chameleon,” said Rex. “Blends into the dunes and rocks to catch its prey. Travels beneath the sand. Its scales are like armor, impervious to nitro, bullets … You have to get in close to kill them, find their soft spots.”
A far-off screech echoed through the air. “Was that a nithyn?” I asked as Rex slid his axe off his back.
“Probably ringing the dinner bell.”
“Brilliant,” Hank muttered.
“See those boulders?” Rex pointed with his weapon to a large outcropping of rocks along the ridge of the sand dunes. “We’ll head for the rocks. Don’t run, though.”
“What about the sand lizards?” Bryn said.
