When I try to draw the hands, I realize I’m much better at sketching animals than people. Rent’s the perfect subject, he doesn’t move in his sleep, except for the rise and fall of the blanket that covers his chest. His expression remains peaceful, no hard lines, and that makes it easy enough. But when I get to his hands, I spend more time there than on the rest of the picture altogether. Finally, I end up scribbling some cross-hatching marks to signify them and moving on.
I darken Rent’s hair with more lines, careful to leave the gray at his temples lighter.
I look up from my sketch, and Rent’s watching me.
I gasp and slam the journal closed.
“Aww, I didn’t get to see what you’re writing,” Rent says, his voice a hoarse whisper, but he’s smiling.
My face grows warm. “I was sketching, actually.” I set the journal down so I can pour him a cup of water from the pitcher beside the bed.
Rent takes it and sits up enough to drink. Then he repositions himself, propping up against the pillows. “Can I see?” He tentatively reaches for the journal, pausing his hand as he looks to me for an answer.
I shrug, my cheeks on fire. “Okay. They’re just sketches. They’re probably not very good.”
Rent opens the cover and slowly flips the pages. I didn’t realize I’d filled so many already. There’s the banji and Gnuf and one of Mieklo–though he’s facing away because I could only convince him to hold still for me if a scrap of parchment was involved.
“These are really good.”
I shrug again.
I sit back down. It’s just the two of us. The others are off doing who knows what. Getting supplies, I imagine. I try to figure out what to say as Rent continues to flip through the sketches. He comes to the last full page, the sketch of him sleeping.
“That’s me?”
I nod.
“It’s wonderful.” He touches the bit of gray at his temples.
“It’s a little more gray now.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not going to get any better. I’m surprised it’s not all gray chasing around Hax.” He chuckles, though he still sounds tired. He rests his head back on the pillow.
“Hax saved us from the rest of the zolbats. He blew them away with a spell, and Jilli was able to get you all the way to the temple.”
“Good thing we were nearly at the city gates.”
“I was expecting Hax to turn into a dragon again, when you got hurt,” I say.
“I doubt that would have deterred the zolbats,” Rent says. He catches my confused look. “Oh, he doesn’t really turn into a dragon. It was just an illusion. That’s air magic’s specialty.”
“The fire looked pretty real. The knuei…” I trail off.
“Yes, the fire was real. I cast that.”
My eyes widen. “I thought it looked like your fire. So Hax can turn into anything he wants?”
“He can look like anything he wants, but it’s all a trick of the eye. That knuei almost figured it out when its claw missed Hax. That’s why I cast the fire. To scare it off.”
Before I can ask anything else, the door to Rent’s small, quiet room flies open and bangs against the wall.
“Lo!” Jilli exclaims.
“I told you,” Blaize murmurs from beside her.
“What?” I ask.
“She thought someone broke into our room and stole you,” Blaize explains.
“Or she could have walked off with someone,” Jilli adds.
“Sure, she walked off with us,” Hax says as he pushes past the two women into the small room that’s suddenly smaller. “Brother, you look awful.”
“Thank you, it’s good to see you’re not worried for me.”
“Worried? Never. We’ve gotten through worse.”
“You have?” I ask, looking at Rent. His face is still marred by the black veins, like he was being cooked from the inside.
“Yeah, though, usually it’s Rent patching up the rest of us.” Hax laughs. He’s the only one.
“Well, old man, are you good to leave today?” Jilli asks.
He rests his head back, deep into the pillow. “I’m pretty tired from my near-death encounter. We could stay one more day. I could use the rest.”
Jilli frowns, her brows furrowing. “Yeah, I suppose we could stay the day. We can keep you company, right?” She looks at Blaize and Hax.
They both smile, but I can tell there’s mischief there.
“I was planning to sleep,” Rent says.
“We don’t want you to be alone,” Hax says.
Blaize pulls up a chair beside the bed and cleans under her nails with her dagger.
Rent conjures some ice, and shapes it into a lump on the table. “Hey, elf, can I borrow one of your knives?”
“No, why?”
“Because it’ll carve this faster than if I try to use my fingernails.”
“Absolutely not. I don’t trust you with my knives.” She clutches the blade to her chest and shakes her head.
Hax tilts his head to the left until it’s horizontal. “You know, if I look at you this way, you’re nodding yes.” He bares his teeth in a wide smile, still watching her, sideways.
Blaize makes an unflattering noise. “Fine, but you can’t have my favorite knife.” She retrieves the other one from her belt. She flips it around to present him the hilt. “Here, this one’s my least favorite.”
I think they both look the same.
As Hax moves to take it, Blaize pulls back. “Be careful with it.”
“I promise not to cut myself.”
“I mean, don’t damage it.”
Hax starts carving, humming as he works. I can’t tell what he’s making, but arms and legs seem to be forming from the melting lump. Occasionally, he taps it with a touch of magic to keep it solid. The dagger on the ice makes a persistent scratching noise.
Rent rolls away from them, facing me. He squeezes his eyes shut. Then he folds the pillow over his head to block out the sounds.
Jilli has been quiet so far, but now she starts to sing. The words are strange. They must be in her native language. Her voice is deep, and the words seem to vibrate in my chest.
The formerly quiet room has become full of noise. I can only watch.
“Fine, fine,” Rent says, tossing the pillow off the bed. “Maybe we should get back on the road.”
Jilli gives him a serious look as she stops singing. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to strain yourself.”
Rent is already throwing the blankets off his legs. He swings them over the side, collects himself for a moment, and stands. I stand too, just in case he’s still unsteady.
Whatever Hax is carving still doesn’t have a face. The blank expression is creepy. “One moment.” He picks at the face with the knife. When he pulls away, I can’t help but snort back a giggle. Its face is just two dots for eyes and a curved line for a smile. “There, now we can go.” As soon as he steps away, the sculpture begins to melt, face first, turning the exaggerated smile into a drippy frown.
When we get to Gnuf outside on the front stairs, a malodorous cloud hangs over the ummuth.
“What is that smell?” Blaize says, frowning and covering her nose.
“It’s not Gnuf, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jilli says. “He may have a musk, but he never stinks like that. What is that?” She looks around us.
“Oh no,” Hax says. He hurries to Gnuf’s side and starts looking through the packs. When he opens one in particular, the smell intensifies, and we all groan. “Oh no. My marracht meat!”
“Gods, it’s rancid,” Blaize says.
“Alas, marracht meat doesn’t stay fresh long. That’s another reason it’s such a delicacy. I thought for sure I’d have another day or two.” He sighs dramatically.
“Well, go throw it out,” Jilli says. “Before it starts to make Gnuf stink.”
He removes both packs and gets rid of them, bag and all.
The road out of Masebe takes us north and into the desert. It looks like the city but blasted down to dust. Yellow sand swirls into rolling dunes as far as the eye can see. The heat bakes off the sand, and I can see it rise in hazy waves.
Rent is shuffling and breathing heavy. “I’m okay,” he says every time someone asks.
“We should have gotten him a horse,” Hax hisses to Jilli up ahead of us.
“Horses are bad luck,” Jilli answers, her voice low.
I’m close enough that I brave asking a question. “Wouldn’t travel be a lot quicker with horses?”
“Quicker, yes, but horses are a lot of work and expensive. I mean, it’s not that we’re cheap or we don’t have the money. It’s just, horses eat a lot, and then they tend to get eaten.” She sighs.
“Yes, we’ve had poor luck with horses,” Hax says. “Or perhaps they’ve had poor luck with us.”
“Gnuf here, he may seem like a scared baby, but he can defend himself from most of the monsters we encounter. More than a horse, certainly.” Gnuf brays at his name, and Jilli scratches behind his ears.
Rent stumbles, and Hax goes to his side, propping him up, keeping him moving.
“Hold up. Let’s rest here. Rent, take a seat and catch your breath.” She points to a sandy rock outcropping as she brings Gnuf around. He snorts and blows a spray of sand. He finds no grass to munch on, and he’s none too pleased about it.
Rent starts to argue, but Hax shushes him and gets him seated. I stand over near him, frowning, as he hunches over his knees and draws deep, ragged breaths. He’s waved everyone else away, so I keep my thoughts to myself. It’s awkward to see him so vulnerable, so I study the rock outcropping where he’s sitting.
There’s something odd about it. It looks like part of a statue rather than random rocks. I remember one of the old woman’s stories from the night before. She told me about how the sands used to hold a great city, but it was swallowed by the dust. She had also mentioned the city was gilded in gold.
As I study it, the rocks get sucked under the sand. Rent jumps up, and I pull him away from the vortex of yellow dust as the spot where he had been sitting disappears. The sands settle as if nothing had ever been there.
While I’m trying to figure out what just occurred, Blaize appears. “Our path ahead is clear. Nothing but sand and sand and sand,” she grumbles. “It’s in my boots and every crevice.” She’s standing near to where the strange rocks just disappeared.
“Blaize,” Jilli begins, speaking slow and quiet, “Come over this way.” She reaches for her.
Before Blaize can acknowledge Jilli, the sand explodes under her feet. Blaize and a spray of yellow dust fly into the air. A huge set of jaws, big enough to devour Gnuf, rises and opens wide for the elf as she comes back down. She stays light on her feet, running straight up the monster’s tongue and teeth, but she’s still in its mouth.
The enormous jaws snap shut.
Dust settles.
The monster’s scaly head slams down, rumbling the ground beneath my feet. It makes a gurgly growl and pulls itself from the sand with two enormous scaly flippers. It looks similar to a crocodile, dusty yellow like the desert.
Blaize hits the ground in a crouch, knives in hand. Her pant leg is torn, and her leg is bleeding beneath. So only a narrow escape.
“Just once, can we not find the biggest monster within twenty miles?” Hax grumbles. He cracks his knuckles and starts a spell, creating a cloud of frost as he summons two large icicles. “Bigger monster, bigger daggers.” Even while still in his hands, the ice starts to melt in the heat.
He flicks them at the giant crocodile. They shatter to no effect. “Next time, can we please randomly run into a monster vulnerable to ice?”
Jilli has her giant sword drawn, but it looks small compared to the massive monster. The barbarian woman is only about as tall as its head. She side steps, keeping it in front of her. “Blaize, get away from that thing.”
“That’s the idea.” Blaize moves the opposite direction and disappears.
But the monster has her scent. It lunges and snaps its jaws.
I hear Blaize hit the ground, grunting, though I can’t see her.
“Blaize!” Jilli runs at the beast’s head, sword high. She strikes with all her strength, but the blade bounces off its nose.
The monster hisses, but it bides its time. One giant eye watchs us, particularly intent on Jilli’s sword.
“Hatori have armor too strong for your sword, or your ice daggers,” Rent says, leaning on me. “It’s only vulnerable underneath, on its underbelly.”
“Great,” Jilli says with a frustrated snarl.
“Maybe it wants a belly rub,” Hax says. “Blaize, you go ask.”
The elf appears beside him. She’s more rumpled than I’ve ever seen her, her face smudged, her hair a messy halo around her head, her clothes torn. She spits, and it's pinkish. “You go ask,” she snaps.
“Now, now, elf. It’s important to keep your sense of humor, even when staring down death. Nay, especially when staring down death.”
I don’t contradict him, at least not outloud.
Jilli approaches the hatori with her sword raised.
It gurgles a threat but remains patient. Its maw cracks open as she gets closer, creating a cavern of jagged teeth.
Jilli looks like she’ll walk right in, but then she lunges and stabs the hatori in the nostril. It rears up with a watery roar, nearly taking her with it, but her sword slides free. She’s covered with a spray of blood. It gets in her eyes as she lands, and she fights to wipe her eyes clean, stumbling back.
Hax is ready with more ice daggers, and he aims along the hatori’s neck. One dagger sinks into the wrinkly skin there.
The monster’s head slams down. It aimed for Hax, but he’s actually twenty feet farther back than I thought. An illusion! It hisses in frustration.
Jilli’s arms look like they’re caught underneath the hatori, but I realize it’s her sword that’s caught. She yanks upward, and the blade slices through the hatori’s neck like parchment. Blood sprays, catching Jilli for the second time. She spits it out as she repositions her sword to attack again.
It’s not necessary. The giant crocodile gurgles a growl, and its head comes to a rest. Its eyes glaze over.
I realize I’m shielding Rent with my body, and I allow my guard to drop, my shoulders to relax.
Then the hatori jerks. Its front flippers flap and slam against the sand.
Rent pulls me down and away. We both end up with a mouthful of sand.
It stills again.
“Beware those death throes,” Blaize muses.
Jilli is covered in blood, from her hair to her boots. She has already smeared her face, which makes it look even more grisly. She stomps over to Blaize, her sword still in hand. “What were you thinking?”
The elf blinks. “Pardon?”
“You put yourself in front of that hatori. You endangered yourself, and you endangered the rest of us.” Jilli towers over Blaize, using all of her height to face the elf down.
“Excuse me,” Blaize begins. “I was scouting, which always has unknown dangers. Are you mad because you’re covered in lizard blood?”
“I’m mad because you almost got yourself killed. You were in its mouth!”
“Oh, I remember. I won’t soon forget that tap dance.” Blaize raises herself as tall as she can go, which is still below Jilli’s chest, but she meets the barbarian woman’s eyes.
The two face off for a moment, and an uncomfortable silence falls.
“This is all adorable foreplay, but we should really get moving,” Hax says, bringing Gnuf by the reins to Jilli’s side. She hardly notices him. “I recall some large carrion-eating creatures calling this desert their home.” He scans the sky.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Hax,” Jilli growls.
“Well, I don’t want any part of it either. Not until you cool off.” Blaize disappears right out from under Jilli’s nose.
“We’re in the desert. So I doubt that will happen any time soon,” Hax says. He plucks at his robe and fans himself to emphasize his point.
~ * ~
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