Risk

Chapter XXIV

   They traveled the whole day like that, with Jasta in the front and Rowan behind. They stopped for the night, which seemed to fly by before she could even get any rest, and then they were off again the next day.

   They hardly talked, because at night they were too tired, and then in the morning, they were both anxious to be off again. The weather only seemed to get hotter, and the terrain remained the same—overgrown and very lush, with huge trees and winding dirt paths. She was lost and confused by the route they were taking, but Rowan instructed her on which way to turn the horse, and she trusted that he knew what he was doing.

   Four days passed before there was any change except for the slight increase of heat each day, and each day she was glad ten times over that she had made the decision to cut her hair. It rained once, but only for a short while, and the rain was warm and light, with the sun peeking through the clouds the entire time.

   Just like Kanara predicted, it only got hotter the further on their way they went.

   When something finally did change, it was barely a change at all. The thick forest began to thin out a bit, until it was roomy, vine-tangled trees, hanging thickly with sweet-smelling fruit. Once again, there were many houses along either side of the road, which were made of a white stone that Jasta had never seen before.

   For another two days of traveling, it remained like that, and then the trees started to thin out even more. The lush growth gave way to mostly bare ground, with tall, almost-leafless trees that had brown, husky fruits growing in the shade of their wide, frond-like leaves.

   The ground became sandy, and in the distance, waves of heat were visible, rising off the ground as the sun beat down. The road widened out until the two lines of trees on either side were at least fifty feet apart, and still, the heat got worse. They had to travel party under the trees for the entire time the sun was in the sky, and even when the stars were starting to appear, the air was still stifling.

   "We'll have to start traveling at night," Rowan informed her before she fell asleep. They had stopped setting up the tent because it was no longer really necessary. "I'll wake you up after we sleep for a while, so we can start tonight, okay?"

   She nodded, already starting to drift off. The painful burn from the sun throbbed on her face and neck, and her limbs were nearly stiff with soreness, but she was too tired to really care. She was sleeping within minutes.

   It seemed like mere minutes before Rowan shook her awake. She yawned and shook her head, trying to wake herself up. Rowan showed her a tiny little spring of water, and they filled all the water skins they had before they drank some themselves. They let Star drink too, and then they were on their way.

   She didn't envy Star. The poor mare had to walk on the scalding sand, which had barely cooled down, even after hours of the sun being out of the sky. She wondered how large the desert was. She didn't want to suffer through days and days—or nights and nights, as the case was—of blistering heat. She wasn't used to it, and although Rowan seemed unbothered, she could tell that he would rather not travel in such conditions either.

   After what seemed like only minutes, they left the last of the sparse trees behind. The stars seemed especially close, and with nothing around them but sand and a few scrubby, dead bushes, she could see everything for miles. It was the most stars she'd ever seen at one time, and they stretched both ways forever, forming a bowl of glittering darkness over the whole world.

   Traveling by night was actually okay, but she was still tired from getting just a couple hours of sleep, and there was no road to mark the way, so after about an hour of having to ask directions every ten minutes, they mutually decided that it would be best for Rowan to move back into the front of the saddle, even if it wasn't good for his wounds. They had calmed down from their angry grey infection and were definitely on the mend, but even so, she felt like she should have been able to help more.

   She found herself drifting off every once in a while, and she shifted her position to a less comfortable one. If she drifted off completely, she might fall off, and that would put a halt to their progress, if only for a short while. Her jaw was soon sore from yawning.

   The moon inched slowly across the sky. The movement was almost imperceptible, but then she would look up, and the moon would be further to one side that it had been, so she knew that it really was moving. It seemed to follow them across the dunes of sand, gliding effortlessly alongside them.

   If only they could travel as smoothly and quickly as the moon. They would be home before she knew it.

   She was about to drift off again, but Rowan's voice made her wake again.

   "What was that?" she blinked open her eyes, sitting up a bit straighter.

   "I have to ask you something." She didn't know if he had repeated exactly what he'd said, but oh well. It was her own fault for drifting off.

   "Okay, fire away." She stifled a huge yawn that threatened to engulf the last word.

   "In a couple day's travel, we're going to come to a fork in the road, and I was wondering which way you'd like to go." He sighed. "One way will take longer, but it's safer. The other way with cut almost three days off of the travel time, but it's dangerous."

   "Well, I would like to get home sooner, but if it really is that dangerous, then we can go the other way." She furrowed her brow, trying to think deeper about it. Was she willing to endanger herself, in order to see her family again sooner? Yes, she was, but she didn't know if she wanted to Risk Rowan's life after everything he'd done for her.

   "Okay, you can think about it more. I'll ask you again when we get there." He didn't sound like he was expecting a reply, and Jasta was glad that he didn't, because she was already drifting off again.

   She drifted in and out of wakefulness as the night dragged on, only waking up fully to take a quick drink out of one of the water skins, and then they stopped near an outcrop of huge, sand-colored boulders that broke the unending expanse of sand. There was a small pool of tepid greenish water at the base of the biggest boulder that reflected a grimy version of the night sky. Two flat slabs of rock were standing upright and leaning against each other, forming a small cave at the base, which Rowan pointing out as the place they would sleep.

   They ate quickly, and just as the sky was turning pale with dawn, they both squeezed into the cave.

   Jasta was glad to see that it opened out as it went back, and there was more than enough room for them to fit, and they were even able to get Star through the opening. They all settled down to sleep the heat of the day away.

   Having dozed off almost the whole night, she wasn't able to sleep right away, but she eventually drifted off, and she was met with a dreamless, exhausted sleep, which was interrupted an unknown amount of time later when a hand prodded her twice in the shoulder, and they started the whole thing over again.

   They traveled for the whole night, hardly talking at all. The sand was still hot from the day when they first set out, but after a while, the heat stopped drifting up so fiercely, and traveling was more comfortable. She couldn't help but feel glad every time she thought of her short hair, and grateful to Kanara for suggesting she cut it off. She was sure it would have been much worse had she still had such a thick blanket of hair covering her upper half at all times.

   Just like the night previous, they found a place that would provide shade, which again happened to be a crop of boulders, though these weren't nearly as large, and there was no little pool. The cave in this one was hardly more than a shallow scoop in the ground.

   She actually felt rested when Rowan woke her up after the heat of the day had passed, and that night they ran out of water except for one solitary skin filled halfway, but Rowan assured her that they would soon reach water and that there was nothing to worry about. They traveled for a while longer that night, until the sun was fully clear of the distant horizon, and the day started to heat up.

   The only suitable shelter was a thick clump of scrub, which thankfully kept off the worst of the heat as they settled down and drank the last of the water, splitting it equally between the three of them. Jasta, Rowan, and Star.

   Feeling thirsty still, and caked with dust and sand, Jasta sank into a heat-troubled doze, her sleep frequently getting interrupted by a slanting beam of bright sunlight that found its way through the thorny branches above her head.