The Song of Loss

Chapter Seven - Gods and Guides

Large draft horses, as it turned out, were not so scared of nouyips as everyone had assumed. When night fell, Katta would not be warded off from Kasi's side at the fire. The horses regarded her with their dull brown eyes and resumed eating from their feed bags. That was how Kasi came to be squished between Katta and Darcy as he shoveled food into his mouth by the handful.

Their host, a man named Pirios, was generous with his stored goods. Not one of them had been able to turn away the second and third plates he pushed their way. They all sat huddled around the campfire as the warmth of the desert behind them leached away into the night air. Travelers caught unaware at night could find themselves suffering from hypothermia just as badly as they burned during the day.

Most of Pirios's attention was eaten up by Cedric who had an unending list of questions for him. They ranged from the supposed danger ahead to the most mundane questions about the weather. The weather he recounted easily enough. A desert wasn't known for its sudden shifts in climate and mood. When questioned about the danger he would only ever answer that Zegazi had told him not to speak of it.

By the time the sun had set they'd all grown quiet aside from Reyner who was absently plucking at the strings of his harp. The notes fell into a rhythm with the pops and crackles from the fire. The others leaned towards him and slowly reached for their own instruments. They never spoke a word but somehow a song came into being between them. They worked like a team that had been together for eons.

Darcy shifted in her seat and Kasi's head fell from her shoulder onto her lap. He was in a deep sleep and didn't notice when she moved him around. "I think I should get him into bed," she whispered, reluctant to disrupt the music. None of them even looked at her as she stood with her arms under Kasi to drag him up, none aside from Percy.

"I've got him." He took the boy easily and hefted him into his arms despite Katta's warning growl. The three of them plus the nouyip walked towards the pile of supplies by the wagon. Percy paused and looked at Darcy expectantly. "Where's your tent?"

"What tent?" she asked, looking just as confused.

"You're tent, Darcy," he said more clearly.

It was the first time he'd used her name and not just bard or some other equally impersonal nickname. She wasn't sure if she enjoyed it more or less. The way he said it slowly as if she couldn't comprehend her made her more inclined to hate it.

"I don't have a tent. It was supposed to be just me and 'just me' doesn't need a tent. I'm just going to Mooncross and back," she explained.

Percy tucked Kasi onto the wagon and covered him with a spare cloak. The wagon was mostly empty at that point aside from their food stores which they'd shoved towards the front. It would have been a convenient bed if there had been just two of them. For Kasi alone it was practically palatial.

"But here we are on the edge of the dunes. Don't you think you need a tent for that?" Percy insisted.

Darcy scoffed and gestured at the rises and dips in the sand behind them. "For what? It's not like we're that far in at all," she said. Truthfully she hadn't given it a second thought.

Back home she'd spent plenty of nights out in the open sleeping under the trees. Crossing the Violet Fields was meant to be her only time fully in the open. Several of her people who had ventured out had actually warned her not to bring a tent in case something attacked. It was easier to grab her things and run if they were already contained.

"It could rain," Percy pointed out. "Desert storms can come out of nowhere and drop a week's worth of rain in minutes. Without a proper tent anchored down you could easily be swept away by a storm like that." He threw her hands up at her nonchalant shrug.