After about an hour, the track appeared to end abruptly, simply dropping off into space between two tall stones, beyond which was a steep, boulder-littered slope that seemed to glitter strangely in the light of the rising moon. Below, the desert spread out. Aurian, riding at the head of the column with Harihn, Yazour, and Anvar, caught her breath in sheer disbelief. “Great Chathak!” she exclaimed in a strangled voice. “Is— is that what I think it is?”
In the waxing moonlight, the desert glowed. The wind drifted skeins of glittering sand in luminous streams of mixed and muted color: red, blue, white, and green. The dune ridges caught the light and sparkled piercingly like frost on a winter’s dawn. Even now, with the moon just rising, the Mage was forced to shade her eyes with her hand.
“Indeed it is,” Yazour replied to the question she had already forgotten. “The entire desert is composed of gems and gem dust. See how bright it is? That is why we must travel by night. In sunlight, the glare would burn out your eyes. We must camp well before daylight, for once the sun rises, everyone must be safely under cover.”
He showed Aurian and Anvar how to veil their eyes with the long trailing ends of the desert headdresses they all wore, pulling the gauzy veils across their faces and attaching them to the headband at the other side, Aurian found that she could see quite clearly through the thin stuff, but it cut out the already increasing glare. The eyes of the horses and mules were bound with scarves of the same material, but Shia refused to have anything to do with such nonsense. She was still sulking at having had to bring up the rear during the cliff ascent, lest she frighten the horses. “I don’t need that man-stuff,” she told Aurian disdainfully. “I’m a cat. My eyes adjust!”
They rode out into the glimmering sea of gems, looking like wandering ghosts in their pale, veiled headdresses and flowing desert robes. The horses’ feet flicked up clouds of fine gem dust, leaving behind them a trail that glittered like cold fire, and covering themselves and their riders with a cloak of scintillating light. What gems were these, that could hold such dazzling luminosity? Aurian felt a lump in her throat. Like the joyous beauty of the leaping whales, the eerie beauty of this place was almost heartbreaking in its intensity. But it was deadly as well as beautiful, she learned from Yazour. In the proper season, great sandstorms could blow up in minutes, and the sharp edges of the windblown gems would strip a man’s flesh from his bones just as quickly. Furthermore, the sea of jewels was said to attract dragons.
“Dragons!” Aurian gasped. “There are dragons here?”
“Only in legend,” Yazour replied. “They were reputed to dwell in the desert where they could easily sustain themselves. You know that they fed on sunlight?”
“What a tale!” Anvar scoffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it, Yazour.”
“Pray that you never get the chance,” the young man told him seriously. “Dragons aTfc said to be unsociable and chancy creatures, easily angered, and best left alone.”
They rode on through the night, too tired now to talk. Aurian was relieved when at last Yazour, casting an eye over the seemingly changeless horizon, advised that they should stop and camp. She was weary beyond belief. Was it only yesterday morning that she had found Anvar and brought him back from the clutches of death? So much had happened since then, and seemingly without a moment’s respite. When she dismounted from her horse, she felt her knees buckle beneath her, but thankfully there was nothing for her to do. Bohan was instantly at her side to relieve her of her mount, and Harihn’s soldiers pitched the light, silken tents with great speed and efficiency. Even the horses and mules were picketed in shelters of their own, for no living creature could stay outside during the hours of daylight.
In the bustle of setting up camp, Aurian lost track of her friends, except for Shia, who stuck to her like a shadow. Collecting their slender ration of food and water, she went in search of Anvar. She found him sitting alone in the doorway of a small tent, a waterskin by his side, his food lying untouched as he stared blindly out at the torchlit camp. His mouth was turned down at the corners, his brooding face lined with sorrow. Aurian was about to creep away, unsure about intruding, but he turned toward her, seeming once again to sense her presence. “You know,” he said, without looking at her, “you’ve never once said ’I told you so.’ ”
“I’d sooner cut my tongue out!” Aurian protested. “Why should I want to add to your pain?”
Anvar sighed. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re too bloody fair! You warned me about Sara, but instead of listening to you, I drove you away. And look what happened!”
“Anvar, I should never have left you. Me and my stupid temper! I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Then that makes two of us,” Anvar said grimly. “Why did I not see which of you could be trusted? I’ve done a lot of thinking, coming across the desert. Of how you defied Miathan for me at the Academy, and how kind you were when I was your servant. How you went out in the snow on Solstice morn to get me a guitar. And what did I do?” His voice rose in self-derision. “I said hurtful things to you-T-drove you away—because I was defending Sara. And what did you do then? You saved me from death in the slave camp. You claimed me as your husband, while she only wanted me dead so that she could be a queen! Gods, I’m such a fool, Aurian. A blind, wretched fool!” He was shaking with anguish.
Aurian put an arm around him, comforting him as he had comforted her on the clifftop. He leaned against her shoulder as she stroked his fine, tawny-blond hair. “You know what I would do if we were back in Nexis?” she said softly. “I’d take you round every tavern in the city and get you more drunk than you’ve ever been in your life. Forral always said that that’s the only medicine for a broken heart.”
The eastern horizon was beginning to lighten, and already the rising glare was enough to force them back into the tent. Aurian dropped the flap behind them, shutting out the dazzling light. Anvar grinned at her sheepishly. “When next we reach a city, I’ll take up your offer with pleasure—but I must confess that I’m not so much heartbroken as disappointed, humiliated, and plain bloody furious with myself for being so gullible!” His mouth twisted oddly. “I blame myself for letting you down . . .”
Aurian squeezed his hand. “Don’t punish yourself for that, Anvar—it’s all over now! Sara was your childhood sweetheart— you loved her! You didn’t know how much she had changed! Why don’t you get some sleep now? Maybe things won’t seem so bad once you’ve rested.”
He smiled ruefully. “Looking after me again, huh? I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”
“Don’t worry, you do your share. Now go to sleep—or else!”
“Or else you’ll set that monster on me?” Anvar eyed Shia warily. She looked awfully big in the cramped confines of the tent.
“Don’t worry about Shia. She’s a good friend. She’ll look after us both.” Aurian stretched out a hand to stroke Shia’s sleek head, and was rewarded by drowsy purring. “I like him,” the cat said.
“Do you?” Aurian was surprised. Shia had never volunteered such information about anyone else, not even Bohan. “I like him, too,” the Magrxonfided.
She turned back to Anvar, who was curled on the cushions, asleep already. Through the glittering dust that coated his face, he looked drawn and vulnerable, weighed down with sorrow. On impulse, Aurian put out her hand and gently touched his sleeping face. And then, as it had done in the slave compound, her heart seemed to turn over within her—a pattern shifted and clicked suddenly into place. Aurian snatched her hand back as though she had been burned, aware, in that instant, that the surge—whatever it had been—was the same force that had unlocked the power of the bracelets. She sat very still for a moment, cradling her hand and waiting for her breathing to steady and her heart to stop trying to fight its way out of her breast. “Did you feel that?” she asked Shia experimentally.