SULIS GRINNED, WATCHING Ava stare wide-eyed at the beast in front of her. Ava’s golden hair was wrapped in a long, pale scarf, similar to the one Sulis wore. The scarf could be pulled over the mouth and nose when winds whipped the sands around.
“Watch out, they spit,” she advised, and Ava quickly stepped to one side.
Sulis patted the long, dusty nose of the humpback in front of her. It had soft lips and a leathery tongue that could latch onto desert thornplants and chew the moisture out of them. It also had long ears, long legs, and a long neck. A bony back with a tall hump completed the dun animal’s strange physique.
“The hump is all fat,” Sulis told Ava. “It helps the animal survive for days without food and water.”
“But how do you even get on it?” she asked helplessly. “There aren’t any stirrups on the saddled ones I’ve seen, and it’s so tall! Can’t I ride another mule?”
Sulis shook her head and turned away from the corral they were standing beside. Only golden sand met her eyes, as far as she could see.
“We’ve reached the Sands,” Sulis said. She gestured toward the dunes. “What you see is all that is out there. It can be two to three days between watering holes. A mule would be dead the first day. These creatures are the ‘ships of the desert,’ and are about the only pack animals that can travel across these dunes. It’s a lot like riding a mule—don’t worry.”
“Why do they have pegs in their nose for the reins instead of a bit? How do you even control it without a bit?” Ava asked.
“Humpbacks chew their cud, like cows, so they can’t have bits in their mouths. The reins are there to guide, but they’re mostly command driven. You don’t want to put too much pressure, or the pegs will tear up their nostrils.” Sulis grinned. “If it gets out of control, hang on to the saddle. It’s a long way down.”
Ava gave her an exasperated look, then gazed thoughtfully over the sunlit dunes. “Is there any life out there at all? What will we eat and drink?”
“Yes, there’s life. Life at every watering hole, and at springs too small for us to even mark on our maps. Wild feli, rodents, certain types of antelope, and spiny plants only the antelope and humpbacks can eat.” Sulis stared over the dunes a moment, enthralled by the beauty of the shifting sands. Then she shook herself back to the present and reassured Ava. “As for us surviving out there, for every humpback carrying a human, there is one carrying supplies to get us through, and there are extra beasts to replace fallen humpbacks if needed, as well as humpbacks carrying bribes for the Bedu nomads, to let us pass through their territories. Our procession just quadrupled.”
Sulis looked around at the bustling outpost, so familiar from her apprentice days. “When we bring spices and merchandise from Frubia, our caravan has about five hundred loaded beasts as well as humpbacks for us and the guards. This enclosure contains only about a quarter of what the family owns. The rest are kept in a private corral, east of this outpost, and Uncle Aaron will take them back across to Frubia when he returns from Illian.”
Ava turned to stare at the animals again, a determined set to her chin. “Wait until Farrah and the kids hear about this,” she said. “No one I know has seen a humpback, let alone ridden one.”
Sulis glanced toward the center of the outpost. Grandmother walked out of the main trading jetal and strode down the path toward them, clan members touching the backs of their hands to their forehead in respect as she passed. Grandmother nodded in return. Sulis realized she’d never traveled with her grandmother before. No one in her village saluted as Grandmother walked by. It gave her a strange feeling, like her familiar and beloved grandmother was somehow a stranger, and imposing.
“Come, girls,” Grandmother ordered. “We will sleep in the family guesthouse tonight. I sent word ahead of us for this outpost to prepare the men and supplies for the trip south, and we will be able to leave before dawn tomorrow. You will want to retire early.”
They were rousted before sunrise the next morning, Sulis yawning and rubbing her eyes as a cook handed them breakfast on the way out the door. Sulis sniffed at hers: journeybread, with spices and meat baked into the center. She tucked it into the sling pouch hanging across her robes, not yet hungry enough to eat.
When Sulis got to the stables, the path lit by torches, Master Anchee was giving Ava instructions on the words to command and control her humpback. The humpback ignored Ava’s soft command to kneel, and spat at her.
“Louder,” Master Anchee commanded. “More forceful.”
Ava put determination into her command, and the beast folded first its front legs, then its back legs, to kneel. Anchee helped Ava scramble on the saddle behind the hump. A humpback tender fastened a large pack in front of the saddle and a canister of water on her pommel.
“Hold on tightly to the bar in front,” he told Ava. “The reins are just there to gently direct the beast along with your commands.”
With that he slapped the humpback’s rear and ordered it to rise. Ava clung to the bar as it threw her forward, unfolding its hind legs, then she settled back as the front end lifted. The tender stayed beside her, where he would walk for the trip.
Sulis located her own humpback and ordered it to kneel. Its saddle was different than Ava’s. This one had a platform with soft padding in front of the hump, and the saddle behind. Her father had developed this saddle for her mother so she and her lazy feli could ride together. The leather had been oiled, and it looked new again. Sulis felt a pang as she thought about the day her father gave her mother that gift. She remembered the smile that spread over her father’s normally taciturn face at her mother’s delight with the unusual tack.
Sulis pushed the memory away, with the pain that always followed thoughts of her father. Not knowing what happened to him tore her heart open. She’d mourned her mother, but a part of her still expected Gadiel to come home, even all these years later.
Sulis firmly signaled the humpback to rise, then closed her eyes and willed Djinn to leap onto the platform as a tender held the halter. Djinn yowled once in protest, then gathered his weight onto his hindquarters and leapt up in front of her. She patted his back as he settled unhappily onto the makeshift bed. The well-trained humpback turned its long nose to gaze at the great cat, then placidly turned forward and chewed its cud. Sulis could see Djinn’s claws digging in to the padding as they set out in the long procession and knew he wouldn’t ride up there for long.
She guided her beast over to Ava, who still clutched the bar in front, as they set out, moving away from the buildings and into the Sands proper.
“You can relax your grip,” she told the girl. “These guys don’t buck like a mule might. The going will be steady but slow from here out.” She got her bread out and started to enjoy it.
“This is nothing like riding a mule,” Ava said as her beast lurched along, “unless the mule was sick or drunk or something. I don’t know how you can even eat. I feel seasick.”
“You find a rhythm to the gait after a while,” Sulis told her. “It’s never comfortable, but it becomes tolerable.”
Sulis glanced around to see her grandmother and Master Anchee deep in conversation. Guards rode to the front and back behind the supply humpbacks, which were led by beast tenders on foot. Humpbacks walked at only about the pace of a fast human, but they didn’t need to stop and drink and rest like a human would. The tenders who accompanied them would trade off a space on one of the humpbacks during the day to rest.
It was just before dark when the guard signaled at a flat scrubby area where they would stop for the night. Sulis’s beast knelt, and she slid off, wincing. It had been over a year since she’d ridden that long. Ava toppled off her mount when it knelt and just sat there, legs too tired to rise. Sulis unpacked some salve and brought it to her with another roll for her dinner.
Grandmother wandered by, directing the camp setup. “Do the stretch poses I taught you, girls,” she ordered. “Then quiet your minds, meditate, and begin to overcome the pain and weakness.”
Together, Sulis and Ava stretched their muscles, then did a sunset salutation and blessing before settling down to meditate in the darkness.
“Look at the stars,” Ava breathed. Without the torches and oil lamps of civilization, each star was a shimmering, brilliant diamond in an ink-black sky. The moon wasn’t up yet, so every constellation shone in stark relief.
“My da used to be able to steer his ship by the stars . . .” Ava said. “One day he was going to show my brothers, and they were going to form their own shipping business. I don’t know what they’ll do now that Da’s dead. And Ma, too. Maybe join the army.”
“Desert folk will sometimes travel the hottest part of summer at night, guided by the stars,” Sulis shared. “But it is easy to lose your way and never see the waymarker of an oasis, so travel at night is done only in emergencies.”
They didn’t bother with tents, just covering themselves with a dew-proof canvas as the temperature dropped through the night.
IN THE MORNING, they were awakened by shouts and a flurry of activity. Sulis sat up in her bedroll to find desert nomads surrounding the camp, holding their guards captive.
Sulis’s grandmother greeted the leader in a different tongue, the language of the desert nomads, and he leapt down from his humpback and prostrated himself before her, forehead on the ground. She spoke again, and he rose. Master Anchee led a humpback forward, laden with packs, and the nomad bowed. He leapt up the impossible distance to his saddle, and Anchee handed him the pack humpback’s lead. The nomad put the back of his hand to his forehead and said a few words, and the group disappeared into the desert as quickly as they had come.
The head guard apologized to Grandmother, shaking his head ruefully.
She grinned and smacked him on the back. “You know they have sand magic,” she told him. “There is no detecting them if they do not wish it.”
Ava nudged her mount next to Sulis after they broke camp and began the journey again.
“Who were they?” Ava asked curiously.
“The Bedu nomads. Fierce warrior tribes that claim territories in the Sands. They’re almost as good a defense against desert intruders as the lack of water is.”
The days were searingly hot, with endless stretches of sand in front of them. Grandmother Hasifel and Master Anchee began to ride beside Ava and Sulis, giving them lessons.
“You asked me the other day, Sulis, what language it is that Anchee and I spoke,” Grandmother said, waking Sulis from her reverie. “It is an ancient language, called Kalanda, which is rarely spoken in this era. It is the language of those who study and dedicate themselves to the powers of the One. These long rides are a perfect time to begin studying Kalanda.”
“Can’t you just stick it in my head, like you put Sanisk into Ava’s?” Sulis asked.
Grandmother frowned. “Feeling lazy, are we?” she asked. “Ava’s mind was not strong when she came here, making it accessible to my intrusion. Perhaps when you were recovering from your injuries, I might have been able to do the same to you. But you had not made your choice to stay in the desert, and I had no idea if you would attempt to return to Illian as your mother did.” She smiled. “I am pleased to say that both you and Ava are now too strong to be influenced. So hard work it is. Master Anchee will help drill it into your heads. Now, let’s start with the word for meditation . . .”
Close to sundown, they came upon a waystone in the sand. Beyond it was a seemingly endless series of dunes, waving into the distance.
Grandmother ordered her humpback to kneel and gracefully dismounted. She waved for Sulis to do the same.
“Since you are no longer promised to the Northern Temple, I will teach you the commands to release the protections and dispel the illusion over the oasis,” she told Sulis. “They will seem familiar, as you have been studying the language all day today. Now calm your mind and focus on what is absent.”
Sulis obediently closed her eyes and quieted her breath, seeking outward with her mind. There was something hidden and waiting to be revealed, as she had felt on all her trips through the desert. Uncle Aaron had made her and Kadar stay back so they couldn’t hear him speak or see his gestures. When she caught a hint of the something, she opened her eyes.
Grandmother nodded in approval. “Each oasis has a different gesture and command. Place your hands as so,” she said keeping her voice low. She crossed her arms over her heart and put the backs of her hands together. “Pinch the forefingers. The command is ‘Kali assadamana. Harkane dessat!’ said with all your will focused on revealing the unseen.”
Sulis took a breath and closed her eyes, gathering her will. “Kali assadamana! Harkane dessat!” she commanded.
A gasp from Ava made her open her eyes. A path now led to the right of the waystone, to a lush circle of green foliage and blue water.
“No reason to tell the entire desert,” her grandmother scolded, but her eyes crinkled around the edges in approval. “Soon you will be able to give the command in a whisper or even silently.”
Grandmother waved the rest of the group forward. “Unload the humpbacks and lead them to water,” she commanded. “There is forage for them off to the right of the water. We will make camp here tonight.”
THEY TRAVELED ANOTHER week, deep into the heart of the desert. The small size of their party, combined with the low weight the humpbacks were carrying, allowed them to go at a faster pace than the caravans Sulis was used to traveling in. They did not stop at many of the oases. Ava learned the sacred language fast, which made Sulis suspicious that her grandmother was intervening because Sulis herself struggled to remember the most common words. When Grandmother would have Sulis recite the desert sutras and histories, Master Anchee would draw side to side with Ava and engage her in lively discussions.
Sulis managed to get close enough to overhear Master Anchee tell Grandmother, “You are right. She is the one. I thought it would be one of our people, but there is no doubt it is her. Both are involved somehow, I feel it. Do we have time for this detour?”
“What could be more important than this?” her grandmother answered quietly. “What have we been waiting for our entire lives, and most likely our lives before, but this?”
“Yes,” Anchee breathed. “It is terrifying, yet a blessing, to know this is the time.”
Grandmother looked over and met Sulis’s eyes, then looked back out over the desert dunes.
Sulis held her tongue on all the questions she had. She knew that her grandmother would answer them only in her time.
When they were a half day’s ride from the next oasis, Anchee stopped the caravan near a rocky outcropping. Sulis could see the ridges of the rocky black mountains, which made up the interior of the desert to the west. The trade route veered east from here, around the foothills of the mountains, which were filled with boulder fields and difficult for the long-legged humpbacks to traverse. The only people who traveled to the mountains were sand sifters, looking for gold in the dried streambeds at the base of the desolate black rocks and hoping their luck held out long enough for them to find a water source before they emptied their canteens.
Sulis and Ava waited on their mounts as Anchee and Grandmother spoke with the guards and beast tenders. Sulis watched with apprehension as the bulk of their group, with supply beasts, broke off and headed east, toward the next oasis. Only two guards and a beast tender remained with their group.
“There’s nothing this way,” she breathlessly told her grandmother and Anchee as they headed west. “No water hole big enough for a party even this size. We should at least go to the oasis and refill before exploring out here.”
“Hush,” her grandmother ordered. “Do not disrupt the master’s focus. Have faith, Sulis.”
They moved slowly through the afternoon. Master Anchee led, mostly steering his mount with his eyes closed. Sulis called Djinn over and willed him to mount in front of her, uncertain about how far they were going and reluctant to tax his recovering strength. Her humpback was so used to the great cat’s coming and going that it didn’t even flinch as Djinn settled in front of her. Djinn’s hackles stuck up in a ridge, showing that he was sensing Sulis’s unease. Sulis closed her own eyes and attempted to sense what Anchee was guiding by. She felt nothing.
“Do you feel it?” Ava whispered, and Sulis shook her head.
“It’s big,” Ava whispered back. “It’s really old.”
Big and old. That didn’t give Sulis much to go by. Her caravan-leader instincts were screaming for her to go back, get on the correct path leading to water or be lost forever. By the looks of the guards and beast tender, she wasn’t the only one frightened by this side trip.
Her fear spiked suddenly as they came to the first of the obsidian monoliths that marked the black foothills. The guards began to turn back, and Sulis recognized the unnatural surge of fear as a strong protection, designed to keep intruders away. Djinn growled steadily, his voice rising and falling, making her mount and everyone around her even more nervous. The beast tender came and held on to the halter of her humpback.
“Stay!” Anchee ordered hoarsely, and his humpback knelt. Anchee slid off and stood with his hands on the tall black polished stone. A steady murmur came from his lips, too low for Sulis to understand the words. The fear began to abate, and Djinn stopped growling.
Anchee raised his hands from the rock and made several gestures. The air in front of Sulis wavered, as though she was seeing the scene through a wave of heat. Then it solidified into the edge of a gorge, with a trail to one side leading down into it. Any unwary traveler who continued after feeling the wave of fear, without removing the illusion as Anchee just had, would step over the cliff and fall to his death.
“The trail down is steep, but there is a plateau to make camp out of sight a little deeper in,” Grandmother ordered the party. “Master Anchee will be too exhausted to move far.”
Indeed, Master Anchee was barely able to hold on to the saddle as his humpback lurched to its feet. His dark skin had a grayish tinge of exhaustion.
The trail plateaued into a campsite just under the rim of the gorge. There was dried humpback dung already there for a fire, and a tiny spring bubbled into a smooth, hollowed stone, making it easy to refill their canteens and fill buckets for the humpbacks.
Ava ran over to help Master Anchee off his humpback, and Sulis smiled as she unpacked a bedroll, marveling at how quickly Ava’s young legs had adjusted to the riding and constant travel. A guard peered uneasily over the side of the plateau, and Sulis joined him. Even in the deepening dusk, she could tell it was still quite a ways down. The bottom was hidden in shadow.
“Come rest,” Grandmother ordered. “Your questions will be answered tomorrow.”
The lines around Master Anchee’s eyes were still deep when they arose at dawn. The sun did not reach them on the path as they spiraled down the cliffside. The path zigzagged back and forth endlessly as their humpbacks stumbled over rocks, which echoed as they were kicked over the side. They did not stop for midmeal, eating on the humpbacks during the slow decent. The rocks turned to a different substance deeper in the gorge, becoming shinier, black, as though they had been melted and burned by a great fire and gradually chipped away with time. The top of a large building came into view as they snaked down the winding gorge.
Finally, about the time Sulis’s stomach was starting to growl for its final meal, they came to flat ground. The path ended at the bottom of the great circular gorge. The floor of the gorge was a pitted, black slag of solidified molten rock. In the center of the gorge was a large temple hewn out of the same black rock that surrounded them.
“What is this place?” Ava asked, her voice awed.
“This must be where the deities took human form,” Sulis said. “This gorge and the desert surrounding it were created in the battle between them and the One. I’ve heard stories, but I did not know this temple was real.”
People in long white cloaks like Master Anchee’s stood in a semicircle to greet them, with torches lighting the strange courtyard. Sulis felt sorry for her humpback, having to kneel on the hard rock.
Master Anchee embraced one of the members of the greeting party, talking and gesturing toward their group. There was much bowing when Grandmother was introduced. Guards and beast tenders were ushered to one side, leading their tired beasts out of sight behind the temple, where Sulis could see low, ordinary-looking stone buildings. As Sulis and Ava came upon the group, a white-robed woman intercepted them.
“Initiates this way,” she ordered, putting a hand on Ava’s shoulder to guide them.
“Initiates?” Sulis said incredulously, “Wait, I’m not . . .”
“Go, Sulis,” Grandmother interrupted. “You two are what we made this side trip for.”
Sulis threw her grandmother a glare, feeling ready to explode. She glanced at Ava’s and realized the girl was terrified, caught in a situation that she didn’t understand and couldn’t control. Sulis took a deep breath and released it slowly, calming herself.
“Let’s see if they have a kitchen somewhere around here,” she said in a jovial voice, putting an arm around Ava. “I’m hungry—aren’t you, Ava? Lead on,” she told the robed woman.
Rather than looking scandalized at her irreverence, as the Temple Mother in Illian would have, the woman nodded approvingly and gave Sulis a wink.
“I think we can manage something for hungry travelers,” she said kindly.
They followed the woman to a side entrance of the temple building, but not before Sulis shot one final glare at her grandmother. The old woman’s face was solemn as she looked after the girls, and she lifted the back of her hand to her forehead to send Sulis on her way.