"And how would you know?" His eyes gazed at me from the top of his mask. "Do you see a lot of sandstorms out on the ocean?"
"I ain't never seen a sandstorm, but you wouldn't be suiting up if it were."
His eyes dropped away from me.
"Give me your sword."
He slapped the camel's thigh to get it moving again.
"Absolutely not."
Naji walked beside the camel, and I followed behind Naji.
"Then give me that knife of yours. I want to be able to fight, it comes to that."
"You have a knife." He paused. "You stabbed me in the thigh with it, if I recall correctly."
"That knife ain't worth a damn. I want yours."
He sighed. "You realize things are easier for me if you don't fight. If you don't…" He tilted his head, like he was searching for the right words. "If you don't put yourself in danger. Besides, it might not be anything troublesome. A fellow Jadorr'a passing through."
"The hell is that?"
"An assassin, Ananna." The word kind of soured when he spoke it. "Someone from the Order. Someone like me."
"Oh yeah?" I shot back, though I did feel kind of bad about not knowing what a Jadorr'a was. "You usually leave a trail big enough to see from Qilar when you're passing through?"
He didn't say nothing. I patted the dress sash I had tied around my waist, where my knife was tucked away, to reassure myself.
Naji was walking quicker than he had earlier – not running exactly, but fast enough it was making me pant. The camel trotted alongside him. I kept glancing over my shoulder to look at the cloud, which was filling up the sky faster than I could track.
"We gotta stop," I said.
"Ananna–"
"What? We do."
He looked over at me, all eyes and mask. I hated that mask.
"Look," I said. "Something nasty's obviously about to catch up to us, and you damn near running like that's not gonna help. All it means is we'll be worn out when we've got to fight."
Naji blinked but didn't say nothing.
"We should rest," I said. "Rest up and face them head on. They probably won't even expect it, if you usually run from a fight like this."
"I prefer to stay on the offensive," Naji said.
"Yeah, and that's why you're an assassin, ain't it, a bloody murderer-for-hire. Cause ain't no one ever gonna expect you and so you can fight like a coward or not fight at all."
He flinched when I said coward. Not a whole lot. Just a little squint of the eye. But I still saw it.
Then he did something I didn't expect. He told the camel to stay put, and he reached into his cloak and pulled out his knife. The blade glinted in the sun, throwing off sparks of light.
"If I give this to you, will it make you feel better?"
"A little. I still want to rest, though."
He shook his head. "You can't fight them. Not without magic."
"You got plenty of that."
"No." He stood close, bending down so our eyes were nearly level. "Any magic I do, it comes from me, do you understand? It takes a little piece of me with it. I can't simply cast any spell I want, any time I want – I have to give my body time to recover."
I set my mouth into a hard little line so he couldn't see what I was thinking. I felt stupid for not realizing that sooner, what the magic did to him.
"I cast a block over us before we left, but it was weak after the work I did creating your protection charm. You are wearing it, right?"
I lifted the mask away from my neck, showing him. I was sure he knew I never took it off, but I wasn't gonna say it out loud.
"The black streaks are from the block. It's a warning, not an invitation to engage in battle. The canyon's close, we should be able to get there qui–"
The wind changed.
The whole time we'd stood there arguing the air had been hot and still and dry. Stifling. But then a breeze picked up and rustled the hem of my dress, and it was cold as ice. It sent a chill down my spine like a ghost had reached out and grabbed hold of me.
"Oh no," said Naji, like it was every curse in the whole world.
I was stuck in place, the breeze turning into a wind turning into a gale. All the sweat evaporated off my skin. My scarf unwrapped itself from my head and skittered across the sand, a thin twist of white disappearing into the encroaching darkness.
Naji started chanting in his language, his eyes glowing. I stumbled forward, my legs stinging like they'd been stuck with a million little pins. At least I could move again. Naji shoved his knife at me and then grabbed me by the arm as soon as I'd taken it. He pulled me up to him.
"Please don't fight unless you have to," he said, right close to my ear.
The camel made this horrible noise, a shriek-snort of fear, and galloped off, away from the darkness, all our food and water disappearing into the line of sunlight. I cried out for him to stay, but Naji put his hand on my arm.
"Let it," he said. "I might be able to call him after… after it's done."
"I thought you said it was impossible to win."
"It is," Naji said. "I didn't want to… to frighten you."
I was already frightened, but I wasn't going to tell him. Still, I pressed myself up against him as the darkness moved closer to us. Something was stirring up the sand. Figures appeared on the horizon. I kept imagining them all to look like Naji, a whole army of Najis, but they didn't.
They looked like ships crossed with enormous insects. And as they lurched across the sand, they let out this creaking noise, metallic and resounding. It made my ears ring. It shuddered deep down into my bones.
"What are they?" I shrieked, close to panic.
"I have no idea," Naji said.
"What!" I twisted myself to look up at him. His eyes were still glowing. "I thought you said–"