Gold to Dust

Chapter Seven

Seven

The sky burned a dark red as the sun set low below the mountainous rocks. A soft breeze brushed against Ellegra's skin. Although there was a slight chill to the air that constantly pulled and tugged at her clothes, Ellegra felt as if she were both drowning in her sweat and shivering to death. Faine had demanded they keep walking, insisted they keep moving. It wouldn't do either of them any good if they were seen out in the open. She wouldn't say it, but Ellegra visualized Reza's crumpled form just a few miles back, slumped and still breathing. If he saw them, there would be no saving Tamshie if she couldn't save herself.

   In search of sustenance, her dry tongue pushed through her desert lips, slithering along them to find some kind of heaven. Nothing. Even the trip she'd made a week before to cross through the Tsumerian Desert hadn't left her this exhausted, this hateful of the elements.

   Damned curse, she growled to herself. Had she been able to control the deflections, she wouldn't feel like this. She wouldn't be staggering with every step and struggling for every breath. Her knees would not be threatening to buckle under her, and her chest wouldn't feel as if a rock wall was being pushed onto it. Each blast was energy lost that she wouldn't be able to recover. Not with a lack of food and water.

   Ellegra hadn't realized she'd stopped marching until her knees hit the sand hard enough to make her head ache. Sweat dripped from her brow down the sides of her face, more pouring over her back. The wind did nothing but make the rush of anger swell inside of her. "Here," Faine said, suddenly next to her when he'd been so far ahead. He knelt down to reach for her, help her to her feet. She shoved his hands away.

   "No," she said adamantly. "I'm fine."

   His brows stitched together to look at her disbelievingly. "You've been stumbling the entire way. You're not fine." He reached for her again.

   "I said no!" Half of her feared that her curse would come alive again, repel the Khalysrian away from her. The other, much more exhausted side of her threw down its resolve, hoping it would keep him at a safe enough distance, no matter how much energy she lost because of it. It'd been two days since she'd hired him to help her find Tamshie, and in those hours and minutes he had barely spoken more than a sentence to her, let alone cared about her well being. "I said I'm fine. I don't need your help."

   Scoffing, Faine crossed his arms over his broad chest, glaring down at her. "Oh, really? Then why am I here right now? Oh, yes— to help you find your friend. So if I'm to do that, I need you to be on your feet and walking, not slowing us down."

   "You say that like you actually care." Something your kind isn't capable of, she added bitterly.

   Faine's eyes stilled for a moment on her face. She could she the wheels turning in his head, or at least imagined she could. But when he spoke, it was as if he hadn't had to think about his answer at all. He stepped closer, towering and leaning over her. "A person has to be alive to give out money. The dead don't make such lucrative transactions."

   Lucrative, her mind echoed. That was why he was still here: for the money she offered him if he helped her get her friend back. He didn't care about her health unless it threatened his chance of avenging the pot he'd lost— the one she'd cost him in the first place.

    "Get up," he ordered briskly. "We need to keep moving." He didn't wait for a retort. He turned away from her and left her to teeter on her own. Huffing and blowing dark strands of hair from her face, she triumphantly surged to her feet, careful not to upset the tedious balance of which she moved with. Faine was gone and out of view, but she followed his sandy footprints, her head bowed to watch the directions he'd traveled. By the time they finally came to a halt, she was no longer in the valley between the great canyons, but now standing on one, overlooking the tops of the other peaks and further meanders and bends below. Faine stood at the edge of one, his head slightly bowed to stare into the valley. Ellegra was far more intrigued with what lay above them. A canopy of glowing stars blanketed the purple-blue sky, some attracting more of her attention because of how bright they burned. She racked her memory for something to compare it to, but not even the books of her library had been able to illustrate the beauty of the stars with such delicate detail. As she stared at them, her mouth slightly hanging open to breathe in its glory, she realized that no one ever would be able to.