Page 107 of The King of Koraha
After Mojag and the monk loaded the chest into the wagon, he headed toward her.
“That’s all the taxes,” Mojag said. “Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” he asked for the benefit of any nearby spies.
“Yes, I’m sure. You need to stay here and help the Water Prince. You know what to do. Right?”
“Yeah. Glorified babysitting,” he muttered.
“Mojag,” she scolded. “It’s important.”
“Yeah, yeah. We know what to do. Come on, Gurice. The prince is waiting.”
“Stay safe,” Gurice said, giving her a small wave goodbye.
“You, too.” Shyla hoped no one would pay attention to the siblings as they loaded up their wagons in two sun jumps and headed to Qulsary.
When the tax wagons set off, Omar led the small caravan that was surrounded by fourteen monks and seven Invisible Swords. Overkill for sure. By this point, Xerxes’ spies were either laughing about how obvious the decoy caravan was or convinced that the coins traveled with them due to all the security. And there was always the possibility that Xerxes had no intention of intercepting the coins. After all, if he planned to be King, then he would receive them as was his due. Shyla and her friends would have wasted all this effort keeping them safe for him.
They encountered no trouble the first two sun jumps. During the darkness before the third sun jump, Shyla sat down with Omar to determine their route. The wagons would continue on the main travel roads that skirted Nintri, which was another potential ambush site.
“There are faster paths to Qulsary, but they are also more dangerous,” Omar said. He was being honest.
Having learned her lesson with Tahir, Shyla used The Eyes to keep a light touch on his emotions. “What’s the time difference between the safe and unsafe paths?”
“Twenty-five sun jumps versus twenty.”
Was five sun jumps worth the risk? Xerxes now had a four sun jump head start. And she needed time to research how to counter the sunfire pendant and to plan for Xerxes’ arrival.
“We can take care of the unfriendlies,” she said.
“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and agree that you can. But how much energy are you going to have? Running in sand is exhausting. Running in the heat is exhausting. If we get to a travel shelter full of unfriendlies are you going to have the energy to do anything? You can’t count on me. I’m just a guide.”
It was a valid question. She hated to agree, but there was no sense arriving at Qulsary half dead and unable to do anything. “All right, we’ll take the safer route.”
After the caravan left, Omar gathered the Invisible Swords around him. “Since it’s already angle ten, we won’t push for that second shelter before apex. Instead, we’ll stop at the first and push until darkness. That way if we don’t make it, we don’t die. It just makes it harder to find the shelter without the sun.” He eyed them all intently.
Shyla didn’t need to read his soul to know what he thought. Jaft still favored his uninjured leg and Rae would need two strides for every one of Omar’s. Shyla’s bandaged arm, Vashi’s cuts, and Lamar’s bruised face didn’t instill much confidence either. The two big men—Nard and Balin—appeared solid and healthy. However, they would expend more energy moving their extra bulk.
Omar didn’t bother to hide his sigh. “Okay, this is how it works. Try to stay together, but if we’re pushing to get to shelter before apex, I’m not waiting for you. Understand?”
“That you’ll leave us to cook in the sun?” Jaft asked sourly. “Perfectly.”
“You hired me to guide you, not die for you,” Omar shot back. “And I decide the pace. Not Shyla. If you are lagging, then we revert to wagon speed. I know you’re in a hurry to reach Qulsary, but if you’re unable to keep the pace, there’s no sense killing yourselves.”
She couldn’t argue with his logic.
Omar set off at an easy lope. It wasn’t flat-out running, but it was quicker than a jog. His stride was graceful and appeared effortless.
Soon the reddish-orange sand and pink sky blurred together in a giant bubble of color around her. While she wielded her magic, searching for ambushes, the rest of Shyla’s focus narrowed to Jaft’s white sun cloak. It bobbed up and down as he ran in front of her, and she noted the hitch in his step every few strides. Was he in pain?
She shouldn’t have thought of pain. Her left arm throbbed its discomfort in sync with her heartbeat. And she learned that a crossbody pack not only unbalanced her but banged against her hip while the strap dug deep into her shoulder. She refused to think about her boots and how each grain of sand dug into her feet like tiny daggers of fire and rubbed the skin off her heels. No sense dwelling on anything below her knees.
And just when she thought she’d reached pain saturation, the heat began to thicken and press and burn. Hot air seared the inside of her nostrils and rasped in her throat, scorching her lungs. If she could actually get a deep enough breath, could she fill her lungs with the hot air and rise off the sands like a velbloud? Probably not, since she weighed fifty-seven kilograms at least and was getting heavier with every single step. Soon she’d be as heavy as a dune and there’d be nothing else for her to do but lie there and be one.
Then a miracle occurred. Omar slowed his pace. Shyla ceased her envious contemplation of the dunes as the fact that they neared their destination gave her a boost of energy. Except when Omar finally stopped, it was for a water break.
“Can’t run in the hot sun for fifty angles without drinking,” he said without gasping for breath. Without even a wheeze or a pant.
No one else had the breath to speak. Well…Vashi, Lamar, and Rae appeared only slightly winded. And while Balin and Nard were soaked with sweat, they too breathed easier than both her and Jaft.
