Hakiim nodded and wheezed, 'I hope they chew their teeth to nubs.'
They didn't lay there long, though, for once their breathing steadied, thirst wracked them. They were parched enough to drink a lake dry and sucked their water bottles dangerously low, licking their sandy lips again and again.
'Hoy!' Reiver called from afar. 'I found another hole… a square one.'
'Square?'
Amber and Hakiim glanced at one another. Tired but intrigued, the two trudged after the distant scarecrow figure that was the skinny thief, taking care to tread only on rooted stone, like children playing a game of Dare Base. This was a serious game, though, for furrows showed close at hand where thunderherders circled like sharks.
Reaching Reiver, the friends looked where he pointed. A hundred feet distant lay another shelf of bedrock. Notched into its lip was indeed a square hole. Judging from twin furrows passing by, the thunderherders' burrowing had collapsed the sand covering it.
'Looks like a cellar hole,' said Hakiim.
'A house? Out here?'
Slowly, Amber turned a circle then grunted in surprise. That last downward slope actually curved around three-quarters of the horizon, dipping at the south.
'This is a valley,' she said, 'miles across.'
'There's nothing but sand and stone,' objected Hakiim.
'Nothing that shows,' countered Reiver.
Unbidden, all three looked at the square-cut hole. It had obviously been hand-cut, sometime in the past.
'Are the borers gone?' whispered Amber, then suddenly shrieked, 'Reiver!'
Impetuous as ever, the young thief dashed across a hundred feet of sand for the next rock. His bare feet flew over sand crisscrossed with creases, but nothing nipped at his heels. On rock again, near the hole, Reiver spread his arms and crowed in triumph.
'He'll get us killed,' Hakiim said.
'Now that he's alerted the herders, yes,' Amber agreed, 'but we need to get over there too.'
Gritting her teeth, clutching her capture staff with white knuckles, Amber scampered over the sand with Hakiim bumbling behind. Panting and raspy, but giddy to have survived, the three friends crept toward the square hole notched into the rock shelf. From above, they saw a rectangular ditch in the sand pointed to the notch, which slowly descended into the shelf under their feet. The gap was nine feet wide.
'A tunnel?' asked Reiver.
'Leading where?' rasped Hakiim.
The thief spit sand off his lips, then grinned and said, 'Let's find out.'
4
The 383rd Anniversary of the Great Arrival
'Ho, Tafir, shoo-oh, too late!'
'I bagged one,' Gheqet called as his brown mare pushed through shoulder high grass, the yellow-green stalks hissing along its flanks. 'Now if I can just find it…'
Amenstar still held a long bird arrow nocked to a riding bow. She'd been too slow to loose when the covey of grouse flushed and beat the air in all directions. She yawned, for they'd ridden much of the cool night and the sun now climbed toward its zenith. Tucking bow and arrow into the case behind the saddle, Star grabbed a bota and took a long drink, but her stomach rumbled and she frowned. 'Stupid of the stable hands to give us only water,' she complained.
'What would you expect?' Tafir said, circling, searching for a spent arrow amidst the tall grass. His black gelding danced and fidgeted, so he tugged the reins close. 'They don't keep rations in a stable. You should have raided the kitchen.'
'I've never been to the kitchens in my life,' she confessed. Star shook back her cornrows and brushed her dusky cheeks. The sun grew warm, and chaff stuck to her skin. 'The stable master should have fetched a picnic basket.'
Tafir peered at his friend and asked, 'Did you tell anyone you'd be gone past midday?'
Star rolled her eyes. 'Servants are supposed to anticipate our royal needs,' she said, 'else why should we allow them to work in the royal compound?'
Tafir squinted one eye, weighing what to say, if anything. Though he'd known Gheqet his whole life, having grown up as neighbors, Star was a new acquaintance and prone to sudden quirks. They'd known her only since the Harvest Festival. She'd been excluded from palace festivities and banished to Cursrah's famous library to study. The daring princess had slipped away and met two commoners who didn't realize the young woman who called herself 'Star' was actually Samira Amenstar. In the months since, meeting first in secret then publicly, they'd become friends. While it was exciting to consort with royalty and genie-kin, Tafir and Gheqet sometimes wondered if her friendship was worth the danger it often brought them.
Plying diplomacy, Tafir offered, 'They tell us in the army that commoners are like dogs, smart enough to work but lazy-'
A thundering roar shook the sky. A whinny pealed, and their horses squealed in response, then tried to bolt. Star's white mare laid back its ears, eyes round and white-rimmed, and reared for a running start. The samira yelped and snatched for the pommel but felt her feet swing free of the leather loop stirrups. Trained to horses, Tafir leaned, grabbed her reins, and yanked down hard. Caught by the head, kicking dirt and grass, the terrified animal corkscrewed and stumbled. Jostled, Star pitched on her rump into the grass, but Tafir's firm grip saved her from being trampled. As it was, she crabbed backward to avoid plunging hooves.
'Mount up,' Tafir shouted as he struggled to hold both animals. 'They're after Gheq's horse! We must stay mounted.'
'What's after Gheq's horse?' Star asked. She scrambled up, unconsciously brushed her riding clothes, then grabbed for the pommel and swung into the saddle. 'That roar! Was it-'
'Hold tight or she'll bolt,' Tafir interrupted. 'Let's go!'
From saddle height, the two riders could see trouble. Across the heads of shimmering yellow-green lay a cavity where something thrashed in the grass. Gheqet and his mount had disappeared in that direction. Roars, snarls, another horse's scream, and a rending, tearing shriek resounded. The horses were too terrified to approach, so their riders wrestled the reins, kicked and squeezed their knees, and finally slapped the broad rumps hard.
Cursing, Tafir shouted, 'Go left… I'll go right. Gheq's got to be-whoal'
Afoot, Gheqet lurched out of the concealing grass. His white work clothes were disheveled and grass- stippled. Blood ran down his neck.
'Oh, thank Khises,' he gasped. 'I got thrown and… there must be rocks…'
He felt his head and was shocked by the blood.
'It's just a scalp wound,' Tafir said. He didn't want his friend to faint and have to be carried. 'Climb up behind Star, and hurry. We'll-'
'The grass,' Amenstar warned, 'it's stopped moving!'
Amenstar spotted converging trails sizzling toward them like curved flights of arrows. Tafir shouted to Gheqet, but the dazed apprentice didn't move, only turned to see where Star was pointing. Tawny gold flashed like lightning from the yellow-green grass as the lion pride struck.
Gheqet clutched his head and dropped to his knees as a scarred old lioness with one ear slammed down her great paws, scrunched her hindquarters, and vaulted higher than the grass tops. Eight wicked claws slashed at Star's mount, hoping to rip out the mare's eyes and blind her. Star jerked the horse's head aside, but one paw snagged the mare's jaw and raked it clear down the breast. Blood sprayed across Gheqet and the grass. The big cat rolled under the horse's belly and uncoiled on the far side. Star's panicked horse stumbled, then reared and bolted- straight into the next lioness.
This hunter, young and spry, leaped high above the oncoming hooves. Snarling, dagger teeth gaping, the
