Page 101

She gave him a look. “Do not make this unpleasant.”

“I said nothing.”

“Your face did.”

The faint smile that followed made the memory of yesterday’s kiss arrive with inconvenient clarity. Kesta looked away first.

Tavi handed the locator monitor to Keth and the damaged human receiver to Kesta. “Try not to die. I have spent considerable time repairing that.”

“The receiver?”

“Yes.”

Kesta stared at him. Tavi grinned. Dreven made a low sound that might have been laughter before stepping through the gate. The road outside Ash Camp descended between walls of red-black stone. At first the settlement remained visible behind them, its gate rising above the slope, but distance behaved strangely in the dry air. Objects seemed close until Kesta had walked toward them long enough to realize how badly her eyes had misjudged the scale. Dreven kept an easy pace beside her rather than ahead.

He had not brought a full patrol. Keth remained at the gate with the locator monitor so they could determine how far the signal reached, while two scouts watched from the wall. The arrangement had been Dreven’s compromise between escorting her with enough soldiers to invade Red Basin and allowing her to walk into the desert alone. Kesta considered it surprisingly reasonable. The damaged receiver vibrated beneath her fingers.

“Stronger.”

Dreven glanced down. “Direction?”

She turned slowly until the pulse intensified.

“East. Slightly north.”

“That is beyond the marker.”

“I know.”

His tail moved once.

Kesta looked at him. “You're already objecting.”

“I am already thinking.”

“Those are not always distinguishable.”

“They are to me.”

She smiled despite herself. The outer marker eventually appeared where the road divided around a tall pole made from fused metal and pale bone. Strips of weathered cloth snapped weakly against it although Kesta still felt almost no wind at ground level. Dreven stopped. The receiver pulsed again. Stronger. Kesta turned toward the northern branch of the road.

“There.”

Dreven looked toward the sky before following the direction of her hand.

“The signal is beyond our agreed distance.”

“Yes.”

He remained silent. Kesta waited instead of immediately arguing. The distinction felt important. Dreven finally crouched and rubbed two clawed fingers across the road. When he lifted them, fine red grains clung to the black scales.

“Ten minutes.”

Kesta blinked. “What?”

“We follow the signal for ten minutes. If the wind changes, we turn sooner.”

“You’re agreeing?”