'Whatever you want to do, do it quick!' Hakiim called.
Halting behind, Hakiim held the gruesome spear like a club, ready to clobber more herders if needed. At the pit's far side, Reiver suddenly appeared from the shifting curtain of sand, hopped onto the strangled ogre, and with clever fingers untied from his back their satchels and weapons.
'Give me Hak's scimitar!' Amber said.
Slipping steadily downward, the young woman braced her feet against the dead giant's head. The roaring of the ogre mage was ferocious as he battled two thunder-herders.
'Don't bother,' Reiver said as he slung their packs up to Hakiim. 'We must-'
Snatching Hakiim's blade, Amber chopped awkwardly, once, twice, thrice at the dead giant's elbow. The sound was sickening, far worse than beheading a chicken or gutting a pig, and only because Amber's stomach was empty did she not heave. She slashed doggedly until the corded, hairy forearm fell free. Grabbing the grisly object by its cold, thick fingers, she scrambled from the pit. Left behind was the cruel ogre mage in a losing battle with flesh-hungry thunderherders.
Crawling, too weak to run, Amber dropped her gory trophy long enough to sling on her pack with the capture noose lashed behind it. Hakiim shouldered his pack while Reiver carried the long spear.
The dark man hollered, 'Which way now?'
'Down!' yelled Reiver.
Sand whipped them from all directions.
'No!' Hakiim shook his sand-crusted headscarf and said, 'I saw the sister fall in a pit, but it'll be back.'
'It's the only way,' insisted Amber. 'Otherwise the White Flamell find us when the storm dies. I'll lead.'
Reluctantly, the men fell in behind, Amber clutching a giant's bloody, sandy arm, Hakiim clutching Amber's ruined tunic, and Reiver hanging onto Hakiim. Feeling the crust before every step, Amber duckwalked down-slope, then scooted and froze.
Through a haze below they saw a huge murky shape track back and forth, searching-the ogre sister. They were trapped on this slope with enemies above and below.
Amber turned to warn her friends, and her foot broke the surface. The hole widened into a dark gap into which sand trickled. Amber decided quickly, and clutching the giant's bloody arm under hers, she jumped high and plunged through the desert floor.
The daughter of pirates crashed into a tunnel four feet across. Sand rained onto her head, but for the first time in seeming hours, it didn't blow in her face. The tunnel walls ran lumpy and uneven, and undulated up and down, but seemed firm enough, if pitch dark.
'Amber! What-ulpl' Hakiim had tried to lean into the hole, but the sand collapsed and he tumbled in headfirst. Untangling, he groped and found Amber crouched ahead in darkness. Reiver dropped behind, light as a leaf.
'We can't crawl down a tunnel,' Hakiim protested. 'What if we meet a thunderherder?'
'Better than an avenging ogre… come on!' Amber scuttled along the tunnel with her grisly catch and added, 'Bring that big spear, Reive, we'll need it…'
Total blackness. Dark as being buried alive, which they were, Amber shuddered to think. The three adventurers crawled downslope for scores of feet, or hundreds of feet. Their shoulders rubbed raw on sand, their backs ached, their hands and knees grew sore, and all the while they grappled with pure terror. Any moment the tunnel might collapse, drop like a mine shaft, or Amber might bump into clashing, ravenous jaws. The tunnel sloped gently, ever onward, and Amber guessed herders didn't burrow too deep but hovered close to the surface to detect moving food. At least, she prayed so.
The tunnel bottomed out, and Amber's blind hand found that it sloped up. Hakiim plowed into her rump.
'Pass me the spear,' she said.
Tilting to one side, Amber dug upward with the point. Cascading sand filled the tunnel.
'Well suffocate,' Hakiim wailed.
Amber fought her own panic. She shoved straight up, probing with the spear. Sand smothered her. The spear nibbled sand then-nothing. Amber jiggled the spear and glimpsed light. Hollering thanks to Calim, she widened the hole as more sand poured in her face. The three friends clambered up a short well into sunlight.
The sky was clear, the breeze only a tickle. Dunes surrounded them, with barren ledges to one side and jumbled rocks at the other. No enemies were in sight. Wiping their faces clear, the three companions staggered into the shelter of tall rocks.
'Thank you, Great Calim! Bless you, praise you, love you!' huffed Amber with her last breath.
Finally safe, she collapsed.
'What do you mean, go back?' demanded Hakiim.
'Go back to Cursrah,' Amber whispered, in case enemies skulked nearby.
'That thing will kill us,' rasped Hakiim.
Amber shook her head so waves of dark hair whisked about her face and said, 'It could have killed us easily the first time.'
'We ran-'
'It let us go! That mummy makes magic. It pinned us in those painted statues and cursed you with fear. It could have killed us a dozen times, but all it did was… was to plead for something!'
'What?'
'I don't know.' Amber bit her lip and whispered, 'Something.'
Hakiim rolled his dark eyes. Reiver hoisted a goatskin water bag and drank deeply. The thief had not only retrieved their rucksacks and his crude bundle and weapons, but he had stolen the huge ogre's water and rations besides. Thirsting, the trio drank gallons of water. They sniffed carefully at the smoked meat, decided it was goat and not cannibals' fare, and ate ravenously. They found an oilskin of mutton fat, and Amber dressed the sandy scabs on her face. Clamping down on her stomach, she worked the tiara from the giant's hairy arm with a knife. Reiver took the severed limb away to bury it. Scrubbing the headband with sand, Amber looked at the east where the moon rose.
'Will you put that thing on again?' asked Hakiim.
'Of course.' Amber settled the tiara on her head, wincing as cold metal touched her forehead burns, and said, 'It's the only way to learn-'
'It's trouble,' grumbled Hakiim.
Amber tsked. 'Rest, Hak,' she said. 'Catch some sleep.'
Needing no prompting, Hakiim sprawled on his back. Reiver returned, curled up like a cat, and dropped off.
To quiet snores, alone in the bright desert night like an owl, Amber opened her mind to the tiara's story. Unlike earlier, in Cursrah's ruins, she found these mental images fuzzy and wobbly, skittering around her brain, making her dizzy. Like a bonfire seen from a distance, looking tiny as a candle flame, Amber wondered if the tiara were too far from the city, the source of the ancient scenes. Lying with her back against a rock in the chill desert night, Amber concentrated. Gradually, pictures formed.
In her mind's eye, Amber relived Amenstar's ancient adventure. She saw the capricious princess captured by cavalry, heard the lecture on 'politics,' dozed through three boring days of captivity, watched as the River Agis was diverted by magic.
With a shock, Amber realized that the earthquake had formed the Broken Hills, which they'd passed in venturing here. When the diverted Agis bent north and then west, it carved a new watercourse and eventually a new seaport-Memnon, their home town. Like Amenstar, Amber wept for Cursrah, doomed to die of thirst.
Alone, she whispered, 'The samira finally realized her beloved city was truly endangered, but her tears came too late, like those shed at a funeral.'
Thinking, half dreaming, Amber drifted off…
… and jerked awake in darkness.
Amber listened, ears ringing, but she heard nothing. Creeping, she peeped past staggered rocks. For once, Calim's Breath was still. Desert dunes were painted silver and jet, and a million million stars twinkled bright as diamond dust in the velvet sky. Yawning, Amber pried open her eyes, then nudged her companions.
'Come,' she said. 'It's time to get on.'
