Zariaremained at the edge of the cavern, watching her words echo down through itslength.After a moment, she turned back, wiping sand from her leather plackart.“Sorry.Seemed a decent time.”
“There’sno need to desecrate a grave with your singing.”
Shetrudged passed him, cupping her eye against the glare of the sun.“So, seems tome there’s no skimmers holdin’ ballast ‘round these parts.”
Isaacremembered the fleet he had glimpsed when the cavern was first exposed.“Iwould think they’d all fled.”
“Asthey should.”
“Iexpect they’ll tell tales of a giant rising from the sand.”
Zariasnickered, grinning at the empty sand.“Oh, all a Crookspur will be shiverin’ on their moors, I tell ya that.They’ll thinktwice about headin’ here again.”
“Thatdoesn’t mean they aren’t around, or that they won’t look for you again.”
“No,but they ain’t here, and that’s enough for now.”
Henodded.“It is a victory.”
Theyspent a moment gazing over the sand.There was not a single landmark to focusthe eye.If the sun was not still rising in the east,Isaac would have no idea which direction they should turn.
Hestill did not, really.
“So,” Zariasaid, “here’s my thinkin’.We gotta head out through them dunes, right away.Liable to burn ourselves blind in this heat, but there’s nothing for it.Weneed the distance.We’ll keep some shade in a dune wall when the sun’s at itsworst, and we’ll start traveling by night.Should be doable, if we’re smartwith the water.”
Isaaclooked out over the canyon behind them.Not too long ago, this area had beennothing but a colossal skull sticking from the sand, the bone so suffused withnecromancy it had sucked away the wind.Now, it was a great wound in the earth,something that would soon begin to fester with Diet expeditions.Isaac knew,better than most, how the ruins would swarm with archaeologists, historians,and the soldiers of lords.He could only imagine the arbitrations necessary todivide the treasure beneath the sorceress’s abode.
“Let mesee your map,” Zaria said.
Shetook it from his pack without waiting for a response.Isaac continued to watchthe empty hole that was now the necromancer tomb.
“Look,”Zaria said, shoving the map into his gaze.“See this here?”She traced a blackclaw north.“That’s our route, for the time bein’.I know some old contacts upthat way.Some of them I didn’t leave on the best of terms, but I got mynatural charm, and a fountain of gems besides, so we’ll manage.”
Isaacscratched his unshaven beard, digging out the dirt and sand.
“Comeon, then,” the hyena said, rolling up the parchment.“I ain’t takin’ a secondlook at this place, and you shouldn’t neither.”
“Z,”Isaac said.“What do you think our odds are?”
“Ofwhat?Not dyin’ of thirst?”
Heshook his head.“Once we leave the Charnel, once we’re free of the Nine, or,gods forbid, once we leave the continent entirely—what will be our plan?”
“Oh,attached to the hip, are we?Sounds like you’re askin’ marriage again.”
He gaveher a serious look.
“Fuckif I know,” she replied.“We’ll get it figured once the time comes.Best westay focused on getting there at all.”
Isaacnodded, gazing out over the tomb.After a moment, he turned to face her.“I’mserious.What do you think our odds are?”
“Do youwant reassurance or honesty?”
He keptwatching her.
“Speakingplain,” Zaria said, “the odds are shite.We got pirates and wizards chasin’ us,we’re short on food, we’re real dry on water, we got a long distance to stumblebefore I’d even think of feeling safe, and it’s all gonna be unfamiliarterritory once we’re clear.If I was betting on it, it’d be an easy choice,which way to toss the coin.”She shrugged.“Then again, I’d have said the sameabout our odds against everything down in that tomb there.And we made it out,didn’t we?”
“Seemsthat way.”
