One
Elaine
“Stay awake!”I commanded my brain.“Don’t fall asleep. Not now.”
Other than dozing off briefly when we’d stopped at the camp, I’d barely closed my eyes since they had snatched me from the hill with the portal almost four days ago. I needed to keep track of where and how far they were taking me, which wasn’t an easy task in the desert at night while traveling in a cage strapped to the side of a camel.
I made sure not to miss a single sunset or sunrise and tracked the directions the best I could. Judging by where the sun rose and sat, we’d been moving steadily east all the way from the temple. If I ever got out of this cage, I was pretty sure I could find my way back to the Temple of the First Priestess by going west.
From there, it’d be tricky, however. I believed Teneris was located roughly south-east from the temple, but I wasn’t sure how far south or how far east. I also had no way of knowing what awaited me in Teneris, even if I ever actually made my way there one day.
Were humans still welcome in Prince Rha’s city? Could I still count on the prince to treat me the way his Joy Vessels were treated before our escape?
The last thing I remembered before a joy trader snatched me was Dawn running to me while I was looking for my stupid glasses. In the end, I didn’t find the glasses, and I lost my freedom too. I feared I’d lost Dawn as well.
Erik, a human man from oursaraiand currently my fellow captive, said he saw Melanie falling through the portal. He didn’t see Dawn jumping through with her, but he said she might’ve gone through before Melanie, because she was no longer on the hill at that point. If so, then from the people I knew back home, only Ciana and I remained in the Alveari Kingdom now.
I’d been both excited and saddened to find Ciana in a cage with me back at the camp. It was an incredible relief to see her alive, but she’d been captured, just like me. And now that the traders had separated us, I’d lost her again. We might reunite when the traders bring her to the same place where they were taking Erik, me, and four other humans, to the place they called Ashgate. Only I feared that would not be a happy reunion because nothing I overheard about Ashgate was good.
My only hope was to run, and I waited for an opportunity to get out of this fucking cage.
“Do not fall asleep,”I repeated in my mind urgently.
It’d been hours since we’d left the camp and Ciana. We traveled the rest of the night, then through most of the day too—endless hours of heat and thirst, alleviated only by a few sips of stale, warm water that the traders would give us occasionally.
The monotonously steady pace of the camel rocked the cage like a cradle. My limbs felt heavy, and my mind was fuzzy from the overwhelming need to sleep. My head dropped and my brain blanked out for…how long?
I jerked awake.
“Do. Not. Fall. Asleep…”
I had to do something about it or risk losing my bearings in the desert. I tapped the shoulder of the man who was sharing the cage with me.
“Erik,” I said. “Can you keep an eye on where they’re taking us?”
He stared at me blankly. There was hardly any space for the two of us in the small, crammed cage. Erik’s bent legs had been pressed against mine for hours, but he looked at me like he’d just noticed I was in here with him.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded with the same vacant expression. Erik had slept a lot both at the camp and on the go and had to be well rested. Helooked a bit weird—oddly detached, or stunned, or maybe just thirsty—but nowhere nearly as sleepy as I felt.
“Listen,” I leaned over our knees to him, “see those three bright stars over there?”
The triad were the largest stars in the sky. I could see them even without my glasses. For me, they blurred into a fuzzy, triangular blob of pale light in the dark sky, but ifIcould see them,everyonecould.
Erik nodded.
“Can you watch them for me, please?” I asked.
“Watch?” Erik made a confused face, which was actually reassuring. The man still had some emotions left.
“Yes. Make sure they remain in the same position relevant to the caravan as we move. If we change direction, wake me up.”
“Why?”
“I’m trying to keep track of where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?” he asked mechanically.
