"Have you read this?" Kairen asked incredulously, glancing at his friend. When Roan shook his head, he tossed him the journal. It took only a minute for Roan to get through the tale, his own shock evident when he finished.
"Have you ever heard anything of the Demon Princes once being Gods themselves?" I questioned.
"Never," Kairen murmured back. “They teach that the Goddesses came after the Great Weeping of the Skies, but it's never once been mentioned that the skies weptforfallen Gods. Only that it was a natural disaster that flooded the land and the Goddesses were born to restore and save humanity. That people from all over were called by some magical instinct to settle upon the land and help repopulate, to serve Soli and Lua. In return they were blessed with the gift of magic.”
Bran rubbed a hand across the stubble that grew on his chin, his warm eyes intense with hesitance. “It could just be a story, meant to intrigue or scare tavern patrons. Told to fill the coin bags of those who tell the tale."
I shook my head, "I don't think so," a frown tugging at my lips. "I'm not sure how to explain, but it doesn't just feel like a story."
"Perhaps at least part of it could be true?" Rena thoughtfully suggested, taking the journal from Roan as she began to flip through it herself.
"I hate to break up whatever," Gianni gestured between us all, "this Demon Prince talk is, but we need to get saddled up and head out. I want to get as far as we can before the heat amps up."
He turned back, hesitating, before he said, “My people have been stewards of this land long before Lua or Soli ruled from high above. Long before settlers came and we began to share the deserts and the northern forests. While weareSolerian, our ancestral stories have passed down generation by generation. The Old Gods are no longer remembered by most, but their tales are still sung late in the night. I do not know if they are the Demon Princes, but they did exist. Once.”
Silence reigned and he continued, “I do not know where they went or what became of them. If they truly fell in the Great Weeping or if they simply stopped existing when the prayers became few and far between, I suppose it depends on whether you believe any God can trulyjust vanish? I do hope that book of fables helps with whatever you’re searching for.”
The pace was once again brutal as Gianni guided us over sandy dune after sandy dune. How the man could possibly have a bearing on where we were or what direction we traveled was beyond my comprehension. I simply wished we could arrive at Amareshi as soon as humanly possible.
Sweat was ever present, even when I thought my body would have no water left to give. My thighs began to ache within a few hours of resuming the journey and my throat grew dry and scratchy once more. Any semblance of comfortability I had found in Beshmel was burned away under the scorching desert sun.
"Doing okay?" Roan asked from where he rode beside me as we crested the top of a dune, his own voice hoarse and ragged.
I nodded, pulling the fabric lower over my eyes to shield from the glare of the sun as I glanced at him. “Just ready for this leg of the trip to be over and to head north."
He murmured his agreement at the same time Aziza's head snapped to the left, her tongue flicking out as if sensing something within the air. I frowned as the Tolokok’s body grew hesitant, falling further behind the others as her large head swung from side to side.
Running a soothing hand over her scaled neck, I leaned forward slightly at her distress. I searched the rolling dunes, the blinding sky above, but I found nothing amiss.
Aziza began to move faster, Roan’s own Tolokok keeping pace, trying to rejoin the pack that was now a good distance ahead.
"What's happening?" His voice was low, his body tense with worry. I shook my head, eyes still searching the desert before I saw it from the corner of my eye. An unnatural rippling of the sand to the left, as though something movedbeneathit.
“Gianni—”
Time seemed to still for only a breath, only a moment, before the sand exploded.
A scream wrenched from my throat as I flew from Aziza, eyes slamming shut against the harsh grains that tore into my mouth, eyes, even my ears. I was choking on it as I hit the hot ground, body rolling. My fingers dug, nails ripping as I tried to find purchase, my skin rubbed raw by the hot and unforgiving granulates.
My body slid to a stop near the base of the dune, every inch of me aching, ears ringing as I tried to make sense of what happened. My breath caught as a screech rent the air, my head pounding against the shrill sound. Rolling, I groaned as I stood and began my ascent back up the daunting dune before me. Cursing, I slipped and stumbled every few steps I took. Every inch, every breath a fight until I made it to the top.
Pulling my daggers free, my eyes swept the desert for what had attacked.
Heart in my throat I watched as a creature slithered across the sand towards my Tolokok. A great beast, every inch a snake, yet at least twenty feet long and thick as ten logs laid together.
"Syra!" I turned to where the group was racing back towards me, still in shock as my eyes trailed over them. Only one seemed to be missing.
I whipped my attention back, frantically searching for—
There.
A flash of white in thesand.
Panic clawed its talons through my gut as I stumbled down the side of the dune. My boots struggled to find purchase as I cursed and pushed away the pain that flared across my ravaged skin, locking it away in the back of my mind.Later.I could feel it later.
His body laid still and prone upon the sand, his Tolokok beside him. Aziza stood before them, her eyes tracking every movement of the predator that slithered their way.
"Roan!" I was moving faster now, keeping my eyes fixed on the creature. A scream wracked through me as I was suddenly lifted in the air, but it was merely Gianni, his gaze fixated on the man I was racing towards. His Tolokok moved swiftly, giving the desert monster a wide berth. As we reached the three, I slid from the saddle, dropping to my knees as I assessed Roan's wounds.
