by Cheree Alsop
I turned back to Axon and tried to hide my amazement. “But why?”
Sadness crept into Axon’s eyes. “These men have been loyal to me since the day I was born heir to the Lumini throne. We’ve bled for each other, and I lost good friends on the trek to Lysus.” He glanced at me. “But you’re not one of us. You’re a Duskie, someone we’ve been raised to think of as inferior, yet you risked your life and bled for us. You would have died, too, if the Sathen had attacked any earlier.”
I knew he was right: a shudder ran through me when I remembered hoping that the Sathen would finish me quickly and not leave me to bleed to death while they ate me alive. I touched the bandages at my neck. I was surprised to find that the wounds weren’t as sore to the touch as they should be.
Axon must have seen my puzzlement. “Staden and Jatha healed you the best that they could. You’ll still have some healing to do on your own, but they were able to stop most of the bleeding and cure any infection before the fever set in.”
I had heard of the healing powers of the Luminos that they could call upon when channeling the sun. It took a lot out of them and was dangerous if they tried to use too much of their energy during the process. I had never seen an actual healing performed.
Curious, I unwound the bandages around my right hand where the Sathen had bitten it almost clean through. The cloth fell away to show jagged teeth marks through my palm and the back of my hand. But when I moved my fingers gingerly, they obeyed and wiggled, bones healed and tendons repaired. Only skin lacerations remained that would heal with time.
“You’ll still have the scars,” Axon said softly.
I met his gaze with lifted eyebrows. “And that would be anything new?”
He stared at me in surprise, then shook his head. “I don’t know how you can laugh about what others did to you.”
I looked back at my hand to avoid his gaze. “Better laugh than cry, don’t you think?”
“Especially when there’s nothing you can do to change it?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Exactly.” I took a bite of the prickly pear and waved it at him. “This is definitely my favorite food next to Marken's sand crab. Who knew food could taste so good?”
He laughed and rose to his feet. “I’m glad you enjoy it. I had more than my fill on our journey here.” He tossed his piece of fruit on my lap and went to check on his men.
I stared after him, puzzled and comforted at the same time. My wounds throbbed, but it was with a healing pain. I wrapped the bandages back around my hand and tucked the ends underneath so they wouldn’t snag, then fell on the cactus fruit with vigor.
Dyloth, the skinny Luminos with the ink stains on his fingers, pulled out a set of panpipes after dinner and started to play them. I didn’t know if it was to chase away fears of the coming night or to say goodbye to the setting sun, but the mournful notes filled me with a strange sort of peace.
Music had been scarce at the Caves. The upper chambers where things like frivolity, having enough to eat, and entertainment flourished, had been off-limits to the Duskies. The notes touched my soul and made my bones ache to drift off in the air after the deep, wooden tones. I sighed when Dyloth put his pipes away and opened my eyes to face to coming night.
“You don’t have to stay up, you know,” Dathien said next to me.
I glanced at him. “No one else can.” He already fought to keep his eyes open as the last of the sunstrength left him.
“But you wouldn’t be fit enough to defend us if Sathen attacked anyway,” he pointed out.
I shrugged at his concern. “If a fight comes, I’ll do my best to match it.” We both knew how little impact I would have against the creatures, but it was the truth. I would give everything I had again if it would save even one life, especially after the kindness they had shown me. I couldn’t explain it, let alone tell Dathien my reasons. I looked away from the compassion in his eyes.
He reached behind him and brought something out. “For you.”
I glanced over, then stared. Dathien held out a spear made from a staff and someone’s knife strapped securely to the top. I touched the steel and noted the freshly sharpened blade. “Thank you,” I whispered, not trusting my voice to remain steady.
“We noticed that that’s what Duskies fought with at the Caves. Thought it might bring you luck.” Dathien settled onto his back to sleep without waiting for a reply.
I looked across the enclosure and found Axon watching us. He met my eyes and gave a half smile with raised brows. I lifted the spear and he nodded. I mouthed ‘thank you’ and he just smiled again and laid back on the warm desert ground.
I studied the spear as much to avoid looking out from my perch on the sand to the desert beyond the tattered tent as to push down the emotions that rose in my chest at the gift. No one had ever given me anything. My lips curled slightly at the thought that the first gift I received was a weapon of death, but given last night, it was fitting.
Dathien had wrapped blue cloth around the handle of the shaft so I could grip it better. I smoothed the cloth with a finger, my chest tight and a burning feeling in my heart. I would protect them with everything I had, no matter what that would mean to my own well-being.
I shifted my cushion in an effort to find a less-painful way to sit, and leaned back against the extra cushion Jatha had brought me. In Firen Caves, I had sometimes imagined how it would feel to be pampered like the upper class; despite the pain in my back and side and the numerous wounds along my body, it felt pretty much how I thought it would. I gave a satisfied sigh and studied the lonely stars winking back from their midnight blanket. A tam awoke in the night and hissed at whatever had bothered it; a smile touched my lips at the comfort the sound could give because when the tams were out, the Sathen were far away.
Chapter 6
“Still awake?” a voice asked softly by my elbow. I turned wearily to find Axon looking bright and chipper after the night’s sleep.
I nodded and waved my makeshift spear weakly. “No Sathen dared attack us while I was on guard, Sir Prince.” Marken and Rasa chuckled from nearby as they pulled out rations for the morning.
“How do you feel?” Axon pressed.
I stretched carefully against the pull of the bandages along my back. “I’ve been better, but the cushions were nice.”
Axon laughed, a light, carefree sound. “I’m glad you like them. We should be in Lysus before nightfall if we push it today.”
The thought filled me with trepidation because I had no idea what to expect when we got there, but I nodded. “Good.”
He nodded, too, and a quick flicker of emotion I couldn’t read showed in his eyes. “Good,” he repeated. He then rose and walked away.
I stood up, then wobbled light-headedly. Staden was there before I could fall. “Careful, you don’t want to pull the stitches.” He offered me a water skin. “You’ll heal faster if you keep hydrated.”
I accepted the skin and took a long pull. I wiped the mouthpiece on my shirt before handing it back. “Thank you.” I hesitated, then said, “Axon told me how you healed me.”
Staden nodded, a touch of color to his gray cheeks. “We did what we could. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more.”
“You used your strength to heal a Duskie. Would you have done that before Firen Caves?” I asked, watching him closely.
Staden looked at me for a moment, then turned his eyes to a point on the desert he seemed to find interesting. I realized then that the doctor was a lot older than the rest of Axon's comrades. Age lines showed around his eyes and his gray skin was weathered by the ceaseless sun that gave him strength. His fair hair was touched with pure white at the temples, and the pain of losing comrades to the Sathen showed in the weary cast of his mouth. “No,” he replied honestly. “Not unless we were ordered to.”
I looked away, hurt though I couldn’t explain why. “Oh.”
Staden touched my arm and I looked back at him. “We weren’t ordered to heal you, Nexa. We wanted to. You
risked everything for us.” He smiled and grooves deepened around his mouth. “You’re one of us now, whether you want to be or not.”
I blinked rapidly at the sudden tears that came to my eyes and Staden mercifully turned away before I had to respond. I kicked a small rock, wondering why I felt so emotional when I was usually a rock myself, hard and impenetrable to everyone because I knew no one really cared. But for some reason, these Luminos cared in their own ways and I didn’t know how to handle that.
Dathien and Jatha brought over the stretcher made crudely from a strip of canvas from the shredded tent tied between two walking staffs they had carried me in the day before. “I can walk,” I argued.
Staden shook his head from where he packed up his travel possessions a few feet away. “No, you can’t,” he replied amiably. “We had to use a lot of your own energy in the healing, and while you’re stronger than we expected, any strength you exert now will slow the healing.”
Dathien gestured to the stretcher and smiled to show his jutting front teeth. “Think of it as a private carriage.”
I frowned. “What’s a carriage?”
He laughed deep in his throat, then picked me up like a rag doll and set me on the canvas. He was surprisingly gentle for someone so huge. “Just enjoy your nap,” he said with another chuckle.
Seeing that I had no choice and knowing with the exhaustion that ran through my limbs that I would have a hard time keeping up on my own, I set the spear next to me with the point toward my feet and settled on my side to keep the pressure off my back. Dathien and Jatha picked up the stretcher, which tipped up at the front due to Dathien’s tall stature. I quickly fell asleep to the steady cadence of their feet.
I awoke as the stretcher was set carefully on the ground. The sun beat down around us, bold and bright at its noonday peak. I shaded my eyes with my hands and saw the Luminos working quickly around me, pulling weapons from packs and stacking their possessions against a tall cactus next to me. “What’s wrong?” I asked no one in particular.
“Sathen. They’ve spotted us and are heading this way,” Axon said. He threw his pack onto the pile.
I picked up my spear and attempted to stand, but Axon gently held me down with his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. “No. This time, we defend you.” He smiled at the protest on my face. “Just sit back and watch the show; see what a little sun can do.”
About thirty Sathen crested the dune in front of us and began a quick descent. I gripped my spear tightly, alarmed that the number of Sathen were getting larger. Sharp cries and shrieks met our ears as they neared, running now at the promise of an easy feast. The scent of decay hit us just before they reached the Luminos.
Marken and Dyloth met the first wave with an axe and curved sword in each hand. Red scaled bodies, either decapitated or missing vital body parts, scattered to the ground around them as they easily took down the first six, then turned to meet the next wave. The Luminos barely seemed to break a sweat and fell back only when Jatha shouted that they were taking all the fun. The two Luminos let the next wave slip past them and took up the stragglers, effectively trapping the Sathen between two rows of lethal blades.
Sunlight flashed off metal weapons that silenced the Sathen in a way I had worked hard to match the night before. Axon and Dathien fought side by side; Dathien threw his prince a grin that said retaliating for the night before felt even better than he had hoped. Axon nodded and turned, slicing off the leg of a nearby Sathen and spinning to send the creature's head to join its leg.
Axon then thrust his sword deep into another Sathen's chest. A second Sathen ducked under his guard while he was occupied and I cried out when the creature latched onto his arm and bit down with rows of serrated teeth. My ankle throbbed in memory of similar teeth lacerating down to the bone, but Axon merely grabbed the Sathen’s head with his other hand and smashed it against his knee. The creature fell lifeless to the ground and I glimpsed the top of leather gauntlets that had been hidden under Axon’s desert robes. I leaned back against the packs in relief.
The fight was over only heartbeats after it had begun. No Sathen was left alive, and the stench of the scaled bodies in the sun rose to tangle the air with the putrid scent of death. The Luminos warriors clustered around the packs joking and jostling each other while they boasted about their own parts in the battle.
“My only complaint is that there weren’t more of them,” Dyloth said; he slid his sword back into the sheath on his pack, then glanced at me and grinned. “A bit easier when you don’t have to take them all on by yourself, right?”
I nodded and the others laughed.
“Well, hopefully there won’t be a next time,” Marken said. It was obvious by his tone he wouldn't mind another attack in sunlight, but he was saying it to comfort me.
I rose gingerly to walk, but Dathien stopped me. “Just where do you think you’re going?”
“You just fought for our lives,” I pointed out. “You shouldn’t have to carry me.”
Dathien chuckled. “There were barely enough Sathen to go around. You just take a seat, little minx, and enjoy your ride.” Jatha grinned at me and nodded, his enthusiasm contagious.
I stared at them both for a minute, and when I saw they weren’t going to give in, I let my breath out in a sigh and climbed back onto the stretcher. It was a long time before the gentle sway of their walking lulled me back to sleep.
Chapter 7
“Nexa.”
I awoke to find Axon walking beside me. He smiled, his ice-blue eyes tired but clear, and pointed to something beyond my shoulder. “Welcome to Lysus.”
I turned on the stretcher, wincing at the way the movement pulled at the healing wounds along my back, then stared at the sight before us.
From our vantage point at the top of a hill, a city of red rocks spread below us at the edge of the desert like a crouching, spiky beast. Spires and towers reminiscent of stalagmites stretched toward the darkening blue sky while more structures than I could count faded into the distance. A tall wall covered in hundreds of metal blades that winked in the setting sun surrounded the city to protect it from the Sathen. Luminos armed with bows and swords walked along the top of the wall with their eyes on the desert sands. More people than I ever imagined even existed walked through the streets and alleyways, finishing their business of the day. I couldn’t grasp how many more must already be safely housed from the coming night.
“There are so many Luminos,” I breathed quietly.
Axon nodded. “And at nightfall, the Nathos take their place. The markets never sleep, the walls are never left unguarded, and the streets aren’t empty even at dusk or dawn because that’s when the Duskies have their time.”
I turned to him. “Their time?”
He smiled as though knowing the answer would please me. “Duskies are not prisoners here. They have families, jobs, and lives separate from the Luminos and Nathos around them. They guard the walls during dusk and dawn, care for their animals, and watch over the city the way the other races do when they sleep.”
I tried to let that sink in, but it didn’t seem possible. “Care for their animals?” I asked, my mind reeling.
He nodded. “Luminos are gatherers, like they were at your caves. They farm at the back of the city where the river runs, and grow the crops that are then traded for meat that the Nathos, the hunters, catch at night on the desert. The Duskies tend to the animals that provide other forms of food and goods, chickens for their eggs, cows for milk, sheep for wool, and lamak for their horns. Duskies are also the barterers. They are in charge of the trade between all three races.”
I stared at him. “Duskies are considered their own race?”
His brows rose in surprise. “Of course. What else would they be?”
“Well, I. . .” But I didn’t have an answer. At Firen Caves, we were raised with the understanding that Duskies were the mutts of the races, the castoffs when Luminos and Nathos mated. We were disgusting half-breeds who watered down the ra
ces and were good for nothing but guarding between dusk and dawn and doing the other chores no one else at the Caves wanted.
Axon’s voice lowered and he met my eyes. “You have to stop thinking of yourself as inferior, Nexa. It isn’t true, and I hope you realize that here.” He waved at Rasa and Marken who waited at the front of the group. “Let’s go.”
I rolled off the stretcher before Dathien could stop me. “I’ll be fine,” I promised at his disapproving look. He glanced at Axon, then gathered up the staffs and put the canvas in his backpack.
The red rock wall loomed over us when we drew near. The metal spikes glittered in the last light of the sun, and the shrunken, sun-dried heads of several Sathen had been impaled on blades around the gates as a warning to others who would dare to attack. Though at the sight of the armed Luminos that walked the top of the wall, I marveled that any creature would think it could breach such a perimeter.
We passed under the massive gates and I could only stare. Huge cloven-hoofed animals with two sets of wide horns on either side of their heads pulled carts laden with plants from the day’s gathering. Luminos lined the streets bartering with Duskies. I couldn’t help gawking at the way the Duskies haggled instead of dropping their eyes and staring at the ground submissively like we were supposed to in the Caves, and for which I had been whipped on multiple occasions for not doing.
The Duskies looked like the ones I knew at the caves, their skin a swirled mix of the gray skin of the Luminos and the pale skin of the Nathos. Their hair was either pale white or dark black depending on which race ran dominant through their blood. Usually, a Duskie took on the characteristics most similar to their mother. If she was a Nathos, they had dark hair and eyes, and if she was Luminos, they had light hair and pale eyes, though all Duskies had the swirled skin that represented both races. The Duskies I saw held their own among the Luminos, comfortable in their position in the city. I felt a biting longing in my stomach to be a part of them.