“Thatis recklessly optimistic.”
“Don’tuse them big words on me.”
“You don’tunderstand,” he said.“It’s more than the desert.I don’t know how to live.Icouldn’t sell these gems if my life depended on it.I’ve never been to a city,never lived off the land.I’m as helpless as a child.”He looked at the brownspots running along her arm.“I still feel like a child.”
“You’llfigure it out, Isaac.Everyone has to.”
He didnot answer.
“Goodthing you got me, then,” Zaria added, raising his head with a flex of herbicep.“I’ll keep your head out your arse.Honestly, you’ll like being anoutlaw.You’ll get so much adventure you’ll be pickin’ it out your teeth.”
“Ican’t do it.I’m sorry, but I can’t.I’m....”He rubbed his cheek againsther fur.“I’m scared.”
Hersnout shifted through his hair.
“I’mscared.I’ve never known anything but this.It’s all I’ve done.All I was meantfor.I—”
“Isaac.”
“I’mreally scared.”
“No, Iknow that, love, but—”
“Ican’t,” he said, feeling the blunted pain inside himself suddenly turn to aspike.“I’m stunted.I’m defective.I’m just a burden.I’vealwaysbeena burden.I’ve been trying to be brave this entire journey, because I had to,and there was a purpose, and now I’m ...just tired of being brave, tired ofbringing cost and ruin to others, of pretending my entire life has not beenuseless.”His voice nearly cracked.“It’d be better if I was dead.”
Therewas a silence, broken only by a dry breeze of sand.
“Wouldn’tbe better for me,” Zaria said, softly.
Helooked away.
“Youdon’t mean that, love.That’s your uncle’s talk, not yours.”
He didnot answer.
Slowly,she shifted against the roll, lifted her other arm from behind his back,wrapped it around his side, and tucked him against her chest.
“I wasscared, too,” she said.“I was dashing off toward a tomb that I’d always beentold was full of blackness and evil, and there were bone monsters, my old crew,an army of magic, a fucking titan rising out the ground, and you know whatelse?Whole time, the only thing I had by my side was this young stuffy noble,who had all the means and motive to want me dead.”
Shetrailed a finger down his chest.
“Andyou had every chance in the world to leave me behind or kill me off or just do anythin’ sensible about the matter, but you never did.”Shepoked him with a claw.“Except for that one time, but we won’t mention that.”
Hestared at the wall of her tent, watching the fabric breathe with the wind.
“Pointbeing,” Zaria said, “I was feeling lost in a place I could never hope tounderstand, and the only reason I still got my breath about me is ‘cause youdecided to help.And don’t you think I’ll forget that.”
Outside,the air had rapidly cooled.The three moons were gone, and the night was dark.
“That favor’ll be returned.One debt to another.And if one goodthing’s gonna happen out of all this mess, it’s that you are gonna live a longlife, far away from this place.”
Hersnout pressed against his ear.
“I’mnot letting this tomb be the end of you.Count on that.”
Heblinked through the tears.Slowly, taking care not to rip any wounds, hegrabbed the hand she had pressed to his chest, giving a firm squeeze.Shesqueezed back.
“Soyou’re comin’, then?You’ll head out the pit?”
