Chapter Twenty-Four
Once they’d risen above the surging storm, they’d been pulled by the winds. Disoriented, freezing, nothing but sheer will keeping them locked together, they’d drifted an untold distance.
Ki had lost all track of time. Her mind had all but shut down. If it hadn’t been for Jackson’s stiff fingers sealed over her own, she wouldn’t have had the heat to keep the levitation dust working.
With the both of them practically unconscious, she forced the levitation effect to reverse through nothing more sophisticated than a desperate, hopeless plea.
It worked.
They began to drop.
Plunging back through the clouds, she began to black out. She could hardly keep hold of the dust, let alone Jackson.
Clouds brushed against her as they picked up speed, fleeting past in her ever-narrowing vision.
She held on long enough to witness as they burst through the bottom of the cloudbank.
Yellow.
Below her she saw a flash of yellow, dim under a waking dawn, but there nonetheless.
Land.
It was all she needed.
She commanded them to slow. Used her last cogent thought to beg the dust to kindle back to life.
It did. With a gentle touch, it shepherded them down to the surface far below.
They were both unconscious long before their bodies landed with soft thuds against the golden sand. There they remained, Ki lying face-down on Jackson’s chest, until she woke hours later.
Pushing up, she stared at the desert, pinning her dry hair behind her ear as a light breeze blew sand over her legs and feet.
She couldn’t believe it.
They’d landed safely.
Shaking, she looked down at Jackson. He was prone, his head flopped to the side, his eyes closed.
She commanded her hand to settle as she checked his pulse. She choked through a gasp as she realized he was alive.
“Thank you,” she patted his chest as she shook back and forth, “thank you.”
“For what?” he croaked.
She shifted back, startled.
He pushed up, groaning heavily, wincing as he wheezed and coughed. “I feel like I’ve fallen through hell,” he crumpled forward.
“You fell through the sky, does that count?” she croaked.
He laughed, though it cost him another coughing fit. “Where are we?”
She pushed back from him.
Slowly he stared around them. “... The desert.”
She nodded mutely.
“But at least we’re alive,” he shifted up, but his arm crunched underneath him and he fell back down.
“Are you alright?”
“Nope. You?”
She shrugged easily.
“That good, ha? Well damn, aren’t we a pretty pair,” he chuckled again.
Feeling warm, she shifted back again, trying to stand. “What do we do now?”
“Get through the desert. Kind of like a mineshaft, but hotter and drier.” Jackson got to his feet, his knees crunching audibly as he latched a hand on his legs for support.
Together they stood and walked up the sand dune. When they reached the top, Ki closed her eyes.
Sand stretched as far as the eye could see. There was nothing but windswept dunes. No water, no buildings, nothing but that golden glow.
“Right...” Jackson gulped.
“... There’s no way we can make it through this desert. We don’t even know what direction to go in.”
“We’ll travel at night. Try to navigate by the stars. If I’m right, we’ve landed in the Farsight Desert. There’s a colony at the northern edge, on the coast. The ancient town of Gora. Some of the buildings are over a thousand years old. It’s a great place to start our journey.”
“What do you mean?” she turned to him.
“We need to find out everything we can about the Zeneethians. There are scrolls, libraries in Gora, it’s a start.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So we’re going to do this together?”
He looked surprised. “I betrayed my people—” he began.
“I’m not questioning you, Jackson. I trust you now. But do you really want to do this? We could walk away....”
“We wouldn’t get far. I know there’s little chance of us succeeding, but we have to try. I don’t know who the Zeneethians are or what they want with you, but I won’t rest until I find out. They float above our homes with the power to destroy us all. They’re more of a threat than we are to each other. The Ashkans and Tarkans could be wiped out in an instant. We have to find out what’s going on.”
He was right.
Taking the initiative, she took the first step and headed down the dune.
He chuckled from behind her. “Keen? We’ve got a long trek ahead of us. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re still wearing a hospital gown, and there’s a mighty big gap in the back.”
She gasped with indignation, cheeks flushing in a snap.
Jackson headed past her, boots sinking into the sand with ease. He laughed.
“How dare you,” she began, “I’ll have you know it is not permitted to look at a priestess when she is... improperly attired. If you had any dignity you would look away.”
“Improperly attired? You’re dressed in nothing but a sheet and you’ve gone and lost your shoes again. This is going to be a long trip.” He stopped below her, a full smile pushing at his cheeks.
They had already come a long, long way.
A month ago they’d been enemies, now their once-tentative trust had been solidified. Time would tell if it would be enough.
As the sun beat down from above, Jackson pulled his boots off and gave them to her. Then they made their way forward, bickering as they went.
Book Two is currently available.
The End of Book One
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Ki Book One Page 24