When she looked up, she found Jason looking just as green, hunched over with his hands on his knees, trying to take long steadying breaths.
“What do you think?” he gasped out.
“A hundred and twenty kilometers? Give or take.”
“Pessimist,” Jason retorted. “I think more like a hundred kilometers.”
“I’m a realist,” Allyra replied. “Either way, it’s going to take us at least three days to get back, if we’re lucky.”
“We’re going to need more water than what’s in that canteen.”
Allyra nodded.
“What’s your reach with your Gift?” Jason asked.
Allyra raised her eyebrows as she considered his question. “Right now? Not great, I’m struggling to concentrate. Maybe twenty kilometers with any kind of detail.”
“I think we should start heading in the direction of the Atmospheric College and stop every couple of hours to check for any of the landmarks on the map.”
She nodded, still breathing heavily. It was as good a suggestion as any.
* * *
After five hours, the sun had reached its apex, and with only one water canteen to share between them, both Jason and Allyra were dehydrated. That, combined with the thin air of the high-altitude Atacama Desert meant they were barely moving at all.
“Let’s take a break,” Jason panted out, and promptly collapsed to the ground.
Allyra followed his lead with a little more grace, sinking gratefully to the hot, shifting sand. She dug around in the backpack and handed him the water canteen. He took a measured sip from it before handing it back to her. The canteen was already uncomfortably light, and with no prospect of getting more water any time soon, Allyra replaced the cap and stowed the canteen back into the backpack without drinking from it.
Jason shot her a sidelong glance. “You should drink.”
“I’m all right,” she replied.
“You’ll only slow us down if you collapse from dehydration.”
“And we’re both going to die if we run out of water.”
“I have no issues with leaving you in this godforsaken desert if you collapse. I don’t care whether the rest of the Gifted shuns me or not.”
It was almost comforting to know that severe dehydration and heat had done nothing to blunt the edge of Jason’s narcissistic arrogance.
“Good to know,” Allyra retorted. “Now can you shut up while I try to find us some water?”
Jason made a display of zipping up his lips and throwing away the key, all with a maddening look on his face.
She ignored him and reached for her Gift. She pushed past the dizzying discomfort and pushed her Gift out in all directions. Her grasp over the threads was tenuous at best, but she pushed every ounce of energy she had into it. The desert seemed endless as she pushed into it, but suddenly it was there—a well, sunk deep into the sand, into a seam of water deep in the bedrock below.
Her arm shook as she lifted it and pointed.
“A well,” she gasped out. “About twenty-five kilometers northeast.”
Jason silently took the water canteen from the backpack and held it out to her.
“Drink,” he said shortly. “And I’m not asking.”
Allyra huffed out a weak laugh but took the canteen from him and took a long draw from it. The water was not just lukewarm now, it had passed well into the territory of hot, but it ran down her parched throat and momentarily cleared her marshmallow-like mind.
“Let’s go,” she said, getting to her feet, filled with a trickle of renewed energy.
* * *
It took them the rest of the afternoon to walk to the well, and when they finally reached it, they fell on the water with frenzied enthusiasm. It was only after they had both drank to the point of feeling slightly ill that they took stock of their situation.
The sun was fading below the horizon, and the temperature had suddenly taken a dramatic dive. Having spent most of the day roasting under the sun, Allyra now found herself feeling cold. She suppressed a quick shiver and rubbed away some goose bumps that had made an appearance on her arms.
As the rocks and sand began to cool, an earthy, coppery smell rose from the ground. The desert had never looked more beautiful as when the sun had set. It seemed to come alive under the pale starlight glittering like an infinite array of jewels hung in the sky. An impulsive, utterly ridiculous desire flooded her mind, and all she wanted to do was lie down in the sand and make sand angels while staring at the stars above.
Perhaps it was sunstroke.
“We should probably keep moving,” she said, trying to keep the reluctance from her voice. She was bone-achingly tired, but logic dictated that they should travel while it was cooler, allowing them to cover more ground.
Jason nodded. “Let’s have a look at the map.”
Allyra spread open the map, and they both dipped their heads down over it.
Jason pointed out the three pictures of wells on the map. “We’re at one of these.”
Allyra raised her eyebrows at him—Jason rarely said anything quite so obvious. He had his forehead creased and appeared deep in thought, and Allyra wondered if the sun and thin air had also taken its toll on his normally quick mind.
“We’re going to need food,” Jason continued slowly.
“And shade. If we travel during the night, we’ll need shade to rest in during the day.”
“The Atmospheric College is northwest of us. So, if we’re at this first well and we head northwest, we’ll get to that cluster of rocks that should give us enough shade to rest during the day.”
“Yeah, but if we’re at this second well, then we’re going to head into at least eighty kilometers of nothing.”
Jason threw up his arms in frustration. “What do you want me to say?” he snapped. “Fine! We’re lost.
