It helped that I had faced my past with my new friends beside me. Everything was easier when you weren’t alone.
We rode upward, the ground becoming increasingly barren as the moisture leached from the air. We didn’t feel high until we stopped ascending and gazed down the steep drop to the dry desert below us. The sand stretched out before us in waves and dunes, some of it blowing on the wind. My skin itched as a dry, hot gust blew up to meet us. I shivered, although not from the cold. Not all of my nightmares had disappeared.
A small group of people already toiled up the slope toward us, their forms entirely swathed in the voluminous robes favored by the desert traders. The coverings left only their eyes exposed, and they were still too far away for me to make any of those out. I wondered uneasily if I would know any of them.
Further in the distance we could see the camel caravan that waited for us. The familiar shapes against the yellow sand made me shudder again. But a moment later I picked out other, incongruous elements. The tents were too few, the human silhouettes vastly outnumbered by the animals. I had been expecting it, but still it stood out, an error in an otherwise standard scene.
Cassian had explained the crown’s arrangements with this caravan to Celine and me. We were to travel with them south, and then west again to Largo. To make room for us, they had already left their young, their elderly, and those who cared for them in an accommodating village not far from the southern city.
Naturally they had been compensated for all of this. They were traders and did nothing for free.
Several of the older nobles reluctantly began to emerge from their carriages. The remaining nobles, all of the grooms and drivers, and a number of the servants were to take the carriages, wagons, and horses back through the jungle. When they hit the intersection with the north-south jungle road, they would head north back to Lanare. The rest of the Tour would travel by foot and camel south and then west again. In Largo, the royal yacht would be waiting to take us back to the harbor at Lanare.
The arrangement had been made long ago, and I understood that to have broken it now would have sent a clear message that the crown did not wish to send. But still, I wished we could all turn back—surprise the rebels by veering off course. It was too easy to lay ambushes on a path so well mapped.
As we waited for the approaching party to arrive, the Tour sorted its copious baggage, unloading what would be taken on by camel. We would all need to assist in carrying these supplies down to the caravan.
At last those who were to turn back had themselves in order, and Frederic wished them an official farewell. A moment later the desert traders reached us.
One of them unwrapped his head covering, revealing his face, and threw his arms wide. “Welcome friends, to the Sea of Sand.”
Chapter 19
The contingent of desert traders had brought large pieces of sturdy canvas with them which they set up as sleds to drag our supplies down to the rest of the caravan. They made short work of the task, and we had all soon entered the desert proper. The royals hadn’t seemed sure when I had suggested making them full wraps like the traders wore, but I noticed each of them wincing at the bite of the sun against their exposed skin. I suspected I would soon receive three orders for wraps.
I had spent my spare moments over the last few days making myself one from the lightest silk Josinna had been able to sell me. The length of material had seemed so cheap bought directly from the source without the cut usually taken by the traders for hauling it across the kingdom. I had bought several bolts in different colors under the assumption that the royals would want wraps of their own soon enough.
As the packs were redistributed from the sleds to the camels, I found my own garment and twisted it around myself. I had yet to wind it around my head when a boisterous voice yelled out, “Evie!”
I turned in time to leap into the arms held out for me, only to be spun around and around in circles.
“Evie! You’re here! And look how grown up you are! And so elegant.” The laughing young man winked at me.
I laughed straight back. “Ofie! I didn’t know we were to travel with your caravan.”
“But of course.” He assumed an offended expression. “As if I would allow anyone else to transport my beautiful Evie.”
I shoved him. “Don’t try to fool me with your glib tongue. The arrangements for this trip were made long before I joined the Tour.”
“I have a sense for such things,” he said, his grave expression breaking down as he spun me around again. “You must come and see my camels.”
He placed my feet back on the ground, but his arms were still around me, when I noticed Celine watching on in astonishment. Frederic, a step behind her, had a strange, almost dangerous expression on his face, his eyes glittering. I fought down a flush. There was no reason I couldn’t greet an old friend in any way I chose.
Offar, or Ofie, as we had always called him as children, led me through the noisy, smelly mass of camels, talking the whole way. The other children in my own caravan might not have allowed the foolish city girl to join their games, but on the occasions when our caravans had crossed paths, Ofie had always cheerfully included me in whatever mischief he currently had planned. I had worshiped him as a result, despite his infuriating tendency to get us both into trouble. And I had spent many hours regretting that desert caravans seldom found themselves in the same place and rarely stayed long when they did. If my time as a trader had been spent in Ofie’s caravan, it would have been different indeed.
“Two whole strings,” he said when we arrived at a place near the back of the caravan, gesturing proudly. A young boy looked up from his place on the sand and waved at us cheerfully.
“That’s my young cousin,” said Ofie. “He leads my second string. An ungrateful scamp if ever I saw one.”
“Reminds me of someone else I once knew,” I said.
The young camel-puller chortled loudly. When his amusement died down he looked me up and down unashamedly. “So you’re Evie. I imagined you taller.”
I raised both eyebrows, turning to Ofie. “What terrible tales have you been telling about me?”
“None, I assure you,” he protested, turning suddenly serious. “I only expanded to the second string this last year, and it’s all thanks to you. You’ve kept me busy carting material between Josinna and the capital.”
I smiled, glad to think my success had also brought success to my old friends. I just wished he had been able to bring his wares directly to the capital himself instead of offloading them not far from the desert to a regular traveling merchant caravan with wagons and horses. It would have been nice to see a familiar face in Lanare.
I shook my head as I surveyed his animals. When he was getting into mischief as a child, I would never have predicted he would be successful enough to own two whole strings of camels within Caravan Adira. He must have worked hard in the years between my leaving the desert and contacting him about transporting my material.
“Evie.” Frederic sounded stiff and disapproving. Had he followed us through the caravan? “You’re needed.”
I shrugged apologetically at Ofie.
“Don’t worry.” He grinned at me. “I can see you’re far too important now for the likes of me.”
I rolled my eyes in response to his wink and followed the silent Frederic back toward the Tour.
When we had passed out of hearing range of the other two, he spoke. “Who was that?”
“An old friend.” I shrugged. “Not everyone in the entire kingdom hates me,” I added tartly, out of sorts at his judgment.
He glanced at me sideways. “I didn’t mean…”
I shrugged again.
He cleared his throat and made another attempt. “So, you’ve lived among the traders as well, I take it?”