Sky Woman: Book One of The Empress Saga

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The sun at last decided that he had tormented Enfri long enough. The great villain peered at her maliciously as he slunk beneath the horizon. He knew what he had done to her.

    Between the heat, the exhaustion, the solitude, and Enfri's reluctance to drink more than a small sip of water at a time, she was feeling like a walking corpse. Her skin was as parched and cracked as the ground she walked on, to say nothing of her throat. The one consolation Enfri had was that with their pale complexion, the assassins were probably frying like bacon out here.

    The last sliver of sunlight dropped behind the dunes, and it brought an immediate change to the air. The landscape had an anticipation about it for the coming of the cold. Enfri imagined she could feel the heat radiating from the sand around her. Goose pimples formed on her arms before the temperature began to fall.

    Enfri wondered how far she had come since leaving the shelter. It was doubtful that she had put much distance behind her. Her pace had been easy, altogether different from the wild flight the night before. The spire didn't look any closer than it had, so Enfri wagered she'd only gone five or six miles at most.

    Deebee had advised her to avoid cresting the sand dunes. If the assassins were close, they may see her silhouette on the horizon. It was better to stay hidden in the shallow topography, checking her course against the distant spire.

    With the light fading, Enfri doubted that she would even be able to see the spire for much longer. Fortunately, the north star Ruhali was coming out. So long as Enfri kept that a half-turn to her right, she should be going in the direction she wanted.

    It was time for a short rest. Enfri unbuckled her brace, but left it on. She sat on the slope of a dune and lay back to catch her breath. Her legs felt like pudding, and taking the weight off of them brought a groan of relief out of her.

    She was missing Deebee. About now, the tiny dragon would have been babbling about Espallan attire or the oddities of their culture. She'd take it upon herself to keep Enfri thinking about what lay on the road ahead, make her believe that there was a road ahead and that it wouldn't end prematurely. Deebee would be trying to give her hope.

    Enfri would have agreed to another ten hours of the sun's cruelty if it meant Deebee could be here with her.

    After several minutes of watching the stars come out and getting her second wind, Enfri became aware of a slight movement a little ways down the slope from her. Her heart skipped a beat as she lifted her head to get a look.

    In a moment of panic, she thought it might have been Jin, but her fears were unfounded. A red sand spider scuttled beneath her on the slope, a paralyzed mouse dangling from its mandibles. The giant arachnid was big as a hound and covered with coarse, red fur that came closer to quills than hair.

    Enfri was never fond of spiders. However, she found it interesting that her disgust lessened as the spider got bigger. These larger varieties even came close to cute, she believed.

    The sand spider froze in its tracks when Enfri sat up. It slurped up its mousey dinner and stared at Enfri with its eight, bright orange eyes. A male. The females were bigger— much bigger— but neither gender was more dangerous than a cow. It backed away from her, then shot away fast enough that Enfri wondered if it might have an Althandi steam engine hidden in its abdomen.

    Skittish creatures, easily startled by anything bigger than a rabbit. Enfri remembered how difficult it was to get one trapped long enough to milk it of its venom. Sand spiders were also quite delicious when boiled and served with butter.