Page 8 of The King of Koraha
“Not enough,” Uma shot back. “They managed to hide underneath it.”
“A clever trick,” Yegor said in admiration. “We’d no idea they were there.”
Neither had she, and that worried her. The mercs didn’t wield magic while they fought, so what had stopped her from sensing them? Shyla glanced at Rendor. Maybe he’d spotted something. He mouthedlater.
It had taken her two sun jumps to recover and resume her normal duties in the caravan. When Rendor arrived to relieve her from guard duty that darkness, they finally had a moment alone.
After their kiss, she leaned against him, drinking in his warmth. Even though she hadn’t practiced with the sand during her shift, the twenty-plus angles on patrol had drained her.
“It’s too soon,” Rendor said. “Camlo could have covered your shift again.”
“He’s trying to steal my job,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “I can’t show any weakness.”
“Then you shouldn’t have fainted in front of everyone.” Rendor’s sour tone meant he wasn’t in the mood for jokes. When she glanced up at him, he cupped her cheek and his hard gaze softened. “You’re not invincible. You have to learn how to pace yourself.”
“You’re right,” she admitted.
Rendor had the good sense not to gloat.
“And I obviously have limits. I couldn’t feel the mercs hiding in the sand.” She stepped back. He was on duty after all and the mercs could be tracking them.
“The mercs were about one meter deep,” he said. “Can The Eyes see through all that sand?”
She’d sensed people through sandstone and granite walls. But they had been closer to her. “How did the mercs breathe?”
“There was this long thin tube.” Rendor spread his hands to demonstrate the size. “I think they used it to breathe through.”
“What was the tube made of?” she asked.
“I didn’t get a chance to examine it. If I had to guess, I’d say it was glass.”
An effective trick. She’d never thought to search a meterunderneaththe sand. Was that even possible? Lota had shovels. She looked at Rendor, sizing him up. They’d have to dig a big hole.
He was instantly wary. “What are you thinking?”
“I want to test a theory. How are you with small enclosed spaces?”
“I don’t do small.” His pained expression made her laugh.
Guess she’d have to recruit someone else, but she couldn’t resist teasing him. “You were small at one point in your life.” She mimed rocking a baby.
“Nope. My mother said I was the biggest baby the physician had ever delivered.”
Ouch. She wondered if birthing big babies ran in his family. But she didn’t even know if Rendor wanted children. Or if he’d want them with her. And why had her thoughts turned in this direction? Perhaps due to all the time they’d been spending with Anwar and Faizah. While most of the caravanners were initially intimidated by Rendor, the children accepted him without question. He frequently had one of them riding on his shoulders.
“Shyla?” Rendor waved a hand in front of her face. “What are you scheming about now?”
She blushed. “Just thinking about you being a big baby and too scared to help me with my experiment,” she teased.
He growled and stalked toward her. She retreated until her back hit one of the wagons. Rendor trapped her between his arms before he leaned in close to her ear and said in a husky whisper, “I seem to recall you enjoying the fact that I’m big.” Then he nipped her neck.
A spike of desire shot right through her. “Soyoukeep claiming. I’ve nothing to compare it to.” She goaded him because she wanted him to bite her again.
“Then you’ll just have to trust me, sunbeam. There’s nobody in Koraha bigger than me.” And then he not only bit her again but kissed her until she was breathless.
When the caravan was eleven sun jumps away from Qulsary, Shyla spotted a line of strange dunes in the distance. They were huge, with tops shaped like jagged pieces of broken glass. Odd. As they neared, they grew larger until they loomed high above the landscape, blocking the sun. The bright orb disappeared behind these dunes earlier and earlier every sun jump.
Lota laughed when Shyla asked about the alarming feature. “It’s a mountain range. Haven’t you heard about them?”
