“You’re sure this is the right place?” I asked Abi.
“Doesn’t look like it.” Eric squinted against the glare of the sun off the sand. “There’s nothing out there.”
Abi blew out a frustrated sigh and turned in a slow circle. “I triple-checked them, my friends. This is where we were meant to be.”
“The key,” Clem said. “Four winds to find the path!”
“That has to be it,” I said, and lifted the key I’d reassembled from under my robes. I dangled it in the air from the end of its chain, and turned, hoping for a sign.
Nothing.
“Feed it some jinsei,” Clem offered.
I let a trickle of the sacred energy flow out of me and into the orichalcum key. The runes around its edges slowly came to life. Lines of silver light spread away from me and tangled in complex circles and spirals. Beams of sacred energy shot away from those curves to join others until the landscape was covered by complex geometric shapes.
“The Design,” I whispered.
Power throbbed from the pattern, and I had no doubt we were near its heart. The journey we’d begun months ago was nearing its end.
A whirlpool of sand formed ahead of me, a downward spiral that shook the ground with its throaty roar. My friends and I kept backing away from the edge as the gyre widened and sucked the sand down into the darkness.
But the receding sand revealed something else.
Buildings.
Domed structures, still half-buried in the dunes. Towers that jutted up from the still-churning whirlpool, their tops cracked, their doors ripped loose from their moorings. I watched, mesmerized, as the desert unveiled a treasure it had hidden from mortal eyes for millennia.
“There it is,” Clem said.
The pattern had drawn in on itself, the light streaming down the whirlpool’s sides like beads of mercury dumped down a playground slide. We watched the silver glow settle on the cracked doorway of a small building just above the level of the sand, and the vortex went still.
“This is it,” I said to my friends as I let the key drop back inside my robes. “I can’t thank all of you enough. None of this would’ve been possible without the three of you. When this is all over, I owe you more than I can ever repay. Anything I have, it’s yours.”
Eric and Abi nodded solemnly.
Clem punched me in the stomach.
“You don’t owe me anything,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “We’re doing this for the same reason you are. Because it’s right. Because we’re the only ones who can.”
There was a moment of silence, and the four of us came together in a fierce group hug. We clung to each other and enjoyed the comfort of being together. But we couldn’t stay on top of that dune. I gave my friends one last squeeze and nodded toward the shadowed entrance below us.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Give yourself some space. The footing won’t be stable here, and I don’t want to lose anyone in a sand slide.”
I was agile enough to stay ahead of the shifting sands and led the way. My footsteps scarcely marked the terrain even as I picked up the pace. Rivulets slithered past me, though, as the sand dislodged by my friends behind me raced me to the bowl’s bottom.
Five minutes after we’d arrived on the dune, I’d made it to the entrance the keys had shown me. I hopped into the shadowed archway and shielded my eyes from the wind. My friends weren’t far behind me, and while Clem and Abi struggled to stay ahead of the dune that collapsed behind them, Eric had stayed farther back to keep an eye on them. He was nimble enough to dance around the sliding sheets of frost-dotted sand the others unleashed with their heavier steps.
They’d nearly reached the entrance when disaster struck.
Clem’s foot suddenly broke through a frosted crust of sand. The ground broke away beneath her weight and unleashed an avalanche of tiny particles that gathered speed and knocked more and more of the dune loose. She lost her footing and slid down the hill, half buried in the coursing streams of sand.
Abi went down right behind her. He was heavier than she was and sank up to his neck as the torrent of sand threw the pair of them toward the bottom of the bowl. He shouted in alarm, then choked on a mouthful of cold earth.
Eric jumped past the duo and landed in front of Clem. He grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her out of the collapsing dune. He was quick enough to stay ahead of the next crashing wave of sand, but only barely. The ground became more uncertain with every step he took, and he was running out of stable terrain.
“Over here!” I shouted. My serpents burst from my aura and anchored themselves to the stone archway. I lunged up the hill and stretched my arms out as far as I could. My hands flailed in the sand, searching for Abi.
The dune had become a shifting sea. Currents of grit swirled around us, threatening to pull us all into their depths. Clouds of dust shot into the air, making my eyes useless. I closed them and reached out for Abi with other senses.
There, he was just ahead of me. I dove into the sand, hoping my serpents would maintain their grip. His robes slipped through my fingers, and then his hair brushed across my palm. I clenched my hand into his curly hair and willed my serpents to haul us both up to safety.
Chunks of stone chipped off beneath their sharpened tips, and they scrambled for purchase. More of the archway collapsed, and Abi dipped back beneath the sand. His hand scrabbled at my robes, and I clung to his hair for all I was worth.
It wasn’t enough. My serpents couldn’t support both our weight and all the sand that buried Abi. I was about to lose my grip on
