Sadie

My head bounced off Navin’s shoulder, rousing me from my deep sleep. The sight before us made me suck in a breath, my hands shooting out. His arm hugged me tighter to his side. All around me was sky, only the rickety wooden bridge in front of us leading up into the clouds proving that we weren’t flying . . . or falling.

“It’s all right,”

he said. “You’re safe.”

Thick braided rope was woven on either side of the bridge, making a spiderwebby barrier. But if one of Galen den’ Mora’s wheels—which were inches from the edge—tipped over one side, I doubted those ropes would do anything to save us.

As the sleep ebbed from my eyes, I leaned over the bench seat, looking straight down to the sand below . . . which I realized was only a couple feet below us still. I swallowed, suddenly feeling foolish for my panic when I could still practically step onto solid ground.

I shuffled away from Navin’s tight grip. “Where’s Maez?”

I asked, noting the empty seat beside Navin as I stretched my stiff neck from side to side.

“Tea?”

Maez asked; two hands offering out cups appeared through the curtain.

I looked down to the cup. It looked and smelled hair-raisingly strong. How could Maez even mess up a cup of tea?

Still, I took my mug with a muttered “Thanks,”

and Navin did the same.

He grimaced as he sipped from the mug, and I let out a chuckle. He leaned his shoulder into me as if I was giving away a secret.

“I guess that crushtem—”

“Crishenem,”

Navin corrected.

“Whatever. That scorpion creature disappeared in the night,”

Maez said, pulling the curtain across to sit in the window bench. She took a sip of her tea and tried to subtly spit it back into her mug, but Navin and I both noticed, which made trying not to laugh even harder.

“They’re nocturnal creatures,”

Navin said. “Most of the creatures in Lower Valta are. The sun is too strong to wake and hunt during the day.”

That was for damn sure. The sun had only just peeked above the horizon and already sweat was beginning to bead on my skin. I unclasped my cloak that Navin had wrapped around me the night before, and the memory of that kiss flooded back through me again. Curse the Moon, it was so much better than the first chaste kiss we’d shared so long ago. This one had felt so much more real and raw. Navin seemed more confident, powerful even, not the boyish musician but something else entirely. What more layers were secretly hiding there in those depths?

That thought once again brought me up short, because there were secrets in there, ones he swore he could never tell me.

It was frustrating how that closed part of him hurt me.

Maez craned her neck up to the sky. “How long until we reach Sankai-ed?”

I was thankful for the reminder of our destination as something to focus on. The first of the floating mountains sat low to the land and was the only mountain that wasn’t covered in lush green, probably because it still got too much arid heat from the desert below. It floated so close to the land that I wondered if the castle of Damrienn would’ve fit underneath. I imagined the tops of its needle-like spires scratching the sandstone belly of the midnight rocks beneath the islands.

“An hour, I’d say,”

Navin said. “The bridges between the mountains are slow going to keep them flat enough for wagons to pass.”

“But we just descended that harebrained road from Taigos?”

Maez grumped.

“Not all wagons are built like Galen den’ Mora,”

Navin countered.

“How long until we get to Rikesh?”

“If we were going to Rikesh,”

he said pointedly, clearly not forgetting our argument from the night before, “it would be another day, at least.”

“Great,”

I said. Plenty more time to get sun sickness.

“I’ve been thinking,”

Maez hedged, sliding a look to me. “If I was going to carry on to Rikesh, I think that maybe you should stay back in one of the lower mountains with Navin.”

I whirled at her, surprised that she’d even considered continuing on to Rikesh but grateful nevertheless. I knew Maez was torn between her loyalty to me and her court. She and I had been best friends our entire lives, had been raised since pups together, went through military training together. But we both knew the right decision for Olmdere was that Maez do whatever she could to get Luo on our side.

Still, I wouldn’t leave her to travel through Upper Valta alone. What if she was attacked? What if relations with the Onyx Wolves soured? What if she needed our help? “I promise I’ll stay in the wagon in Rikesh, but I’m not staying behind.”

“This wagon isn’t the disguise it once was,”

Maez pushed again. “Your father knows you’re riding with Galen den’ Mora.”

“The wagon is protected from any invasions,”

Navin said.

“Even if they can’t attack the wagon,”

Maez countered, “how long until they starve us out of it if they know we’re inside?” Navin’s frown deepened. “Exactly. Going straight to Rikesh would be like delivering directly into the hands of her would-be betrothed.”

“Only if I get caught,”

I gritted out. “Which I won’t.”

“If stubbornness were a goddess, ,”

Maez snorted, “I would worship you. But you know as well as I, you can never have complete control over your fate. And it doesn’t help that there’s an apparent bounty on your head. If anyone around here knew who you are, they’d be jumping all over each other to drag you to their prince.”

“Which is why leaving me behind is a stupid idea,”

I countered. “At least together, I have you, a strong, capable warrior, to defend me.”

“Your flattery is noted.”

She rolled her eyes. “As if you’re not also a strong, capable warrior.”

“So we’re agreed then,”

I said with a smug smile. “We’re all going to Rikesh.”

“What do you think, Nav?”

Maez asked, leaning her elbow out the window. “Should we make lie low in the wagon when we roll into Rikesh? Or leave her behind?”

“I think neither of us could stop her from doing what she wants,”

he said, and the compliment made me sit a little straighter. “And despite many people wishing to cash in on her bounty, Rikeshi people are not known to leave their mountain, which means none of them will know what they’re looking for. Even if rumors that is here circulate, they’re as likely to grab you, Maez, as they are to grab her. And I doubt ’s family would share that she’s traveling with Galen den’ Mora anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because not only does it sully their name for her to be riding with humans”—I let out a little snarl at that—“but they will want to get hold of her first and not let that bounty slip out of their hands.”

I grinned mischievously back at Maez, loving how she scowled at Navin’s point. “See?”

I chided. “As long as we act human enough, we will be fine.”

“Speaking of,”

Navin said. “I recommend you wear Mina and Malou’s clothes for the rest of the journey, too, Maez.” He kept speaking, but I noticed the way his words hitched at the mention of Malou. Her death was still so recent, and I knew he still ached with her loss. I couldn’t imagine losing someone that close to me, the closest kind of family like Maez or Hector. The thought alone made me inch closer to Navin. “While the lighter clothes you brought are suitable, they don’t look Rikeshi. We’re going to want to blend in if we have any hopes of maintaining anonymity.”

“Those clothes barely fit me,”

Maez growled. “The trousers hit me mid-shin.”

“Roll them so they sit above the knee,”

Navin said. “That is also a common style.”

I could feel Maez’s countenance darkening from behind me that she was being forced to wear the more sparkly, feminine clothing, and I chuckled. I couldn’t wait to tell Briar.

“Esh,”

Navin muttered, and I lifted my head to see what he was staring at on the horizon . . . but I saw nothing.

“What is it?”

I tried and failed to see anything of import.

“A sandstorm is coming,” he said.

I squinted into the distance, seeing what looked like just a whirl of sand in the air. It looked harmless and far away. “Won’t we be in Sankai-ed by then?”

“No. Shit.”

He shook the reins, spurring the oxen on, but they moved at an only slightly faster pace than before. “It’s going to hit us head-on.”

The dot on the horizon grew, morphing before my eyes into a giant wall that was rushing toward us. The sky darkened and the winds picked up.

“Get inside the wagon!”

Navin shouted above the now-roaring wind. “Now!”

The weather shifted so suddenly, the calm sunny day changing into a full-on storm in a matter of seconds. Gritty sand whipped through the air, burning my skin, and I knew it would be nothing compared to the dark cloud rushing toward us. My two long braids flailed wildly behind me, my tunic flying up to my neck, filling like a sail. Navin practically shoved me through the window, Maez dragging me inside by my arms.

“Fucking Moon,”

she shouted to be heard above the roar of wind and scratch of sand against the wagon. Still, somehow the oxen kept moving, kept walking their steady, unbothered pace, somehow protected as we all scrambled for our lives.

“Esh,”

Navin barked again as he gripped the window ledge, unable to pull himself through with the force of the storm.

He hooked one elbow over the groaning wood, and I grabbed his other wrist. Propping my feet on either side of the wall, I leaned back with all my force, trying to hoist him through the window. I screamed as his legs flew out from behind him.

“Hang on!”

I shouted as Maez grabbed his other arm, trying to anchor him.

The winds wailed and whipped, the force of their power not coming in a steady stream but violent stops and starts. One second I thought I’d lose my grip on Navin, the other second another elbow was hooked on the window. A sudden gale blasted into us again, sand pelting directly into my eyes. Maez and I screamed in unison, and I knew she’d been hit by it, too. Tears streamed down my face, my eyes clenched and burning.

“Hang on!”

I shouted again, unseeing as the winds picked up even more speed, rocking the wagon onto two wheels.

The force suddenly shifted again, and with a mighty crack, the windowsill splintered and I was yanked out by the force of its power. Still clutching Navin’s arm blindly, I screamed, my mouth instantly filling with sand. My stomach lurched as I was vaulted upward, and then I plummeted, my heart jumping into my throat as I kept falling and falling and falling . . .