“Besides,” she said. “It’s not as if we’re listening to them talk about us. In fact, they’re usually saying the most boring things. The important thing is that Cassian sounds perfectly sensible. Intelligent even.”
After a week of this, Tillie no longer laughed at Celine’s claims that Cassian was desperately in love with her and that this love was the cause of his apparent stupidity. And I noticed a strange expression in her eyes when she watched him. Still, I didn’t see how Cassian had any hope of winning her if he could not bring himself to woo her.
He could find no flowers to take her in the desert, and she had no need of expensive trinkets. As a caravan master’s daughter, she had always received such things and valued them little.
The southern coast grew ever closer, and we would turn off for Largo before we reached it. His time was running out. My mind was occupied with this thought when the caravan arrived at the last oasis before the turn off to Largo.
Shouts of horror and wails from the front of the caravan soon distracted me, and I clutched at Celine. What new danger was this? Should I act now to protect the princess in some way?
But when members of the caravan ran back past us, none seemed injured, despite the fear on their faces. “The oasis,” they shouted. “The oasis has been filled in.” None of them mentioned what this meant. They didn’t need to, not when we’d all spent so long traveling through the desolate sand dunes of the desert.
The reality of the situation sank in, and I began to tremble. Caravans always traveled deep in the desert to protect themselves from bandits. Only now we had no water. Time, it seemed, was running out for more than Cassian.
Chapter 22
In the confusion that followed, it took a couple of minutes to get our camel kneeling so that Celine and I could tumble off. The princes were already gone at that point, off to consult with the caravan master. Celine and I raced after them.
We found a huddle of the senior Tour and caravan members in the midst of the hubbub. As we approached, the caravan master was addressing the princes, his face ashen.
“You must take our fastest camels, what youngsters we still have with us, and all the remaining water supplies and make for the edge of the desert.”
“Absolutely not!” said Frederic.
“But, Your Highness, there is no hope for us all to make it. This route has already pushed us longer than ideal between oasis stops. The camels cannot go on forever, and we have only a small amount of drinking water left for the humans.”
“I will not leave more than half our number out here to die. If we leave you no water, you will have not the smallest chance of survival.”
“Is there no hope of digging down to the water?” asked Cassian. “Surely they cannot have completely blocked the source.” I noticed that his serious gaze didn’t stray to Tillie, although she stood near her father. Apparently a crisis was enough to break through his love haze.
Celine thrust herself into the midst of the group. “What has happened?” she asked breathlessly. “How could someone block an oasis?”
“We did not think such a thing possible,” said the caravan master. He had unwrapped his head covering and now mopped at his forehead. “There must be magic involved, it’s the only way.” He looked helplessly at the princes. “If our unknown adversary has twisted a godmother object to achieve this nefarious deed, I do not see what hope we have to undo it. Unless…”
“Unless?” Cassian looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“Unless one of you who are royal would care to call on your own godmother? Perhaps she would be willing to reverse what has been done here.”
“It doesn’t work quite like that,” said Celine, sounding frustrated. “They don’t necessarily come when we call. They have a reasoning behind their actions, I’m sure, but it’s not one that makes much sense to us.”
Frederic looked at her, and she spread her hands wide and shrugged. “I already tried to call her.”
“Which means they expect us to solve this one for ourselves.” Frederic’s expression grew thoughtful. “That means there must be a way. There must be a way to save everyone.”
I lingered on the edge of the group, unwilling to push through as Celine had done. But when no one spoke in response to Frederic, I could not stay silent.
“Surely we should not be standing here! We must move at once for the next oasis—as fast as we can go without taxing the animals to the point of death.”
Everyone turned to look at me, and I took a half step backward. “Should we not?”
The caravan master, who clearly didn’t recognize me and considered me one of the Tour members, shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid this is the last oasis before Largo. We could head back for the previous one, but it would be just as long a journey as pushing on for the city, and we would not make it. Our camels can go ten days between drinks, and some could perhaps be pushed further. But it has been so long since our last stop. We do not have enough days left to make it to another source of water.”
I frowned, looking around me as if I could pull map coordinates from the sky. Without even thinking I had fallen into old habits on this journey, tracking our passage against the map of the desert that I kept in my mind.
“But that’s not right. You’re forgetting we have a good chance of reaching the…” I trailed off as sudden realization exploded in my mind.
They did not know of the Osmira Oasis. No one left in the entire kingdom knew of it but me. I paled as I realized that if we were all to be spared destruction, I must lead us to safety. And if I got the way wrong, the consequences would be catastrophic.
If I said nothing, at least the royals and a small group with them could have some hope of getting out of the desert.
The caravan master had turned back to his people, dismissing me, but Frederic still watched me with creased brow. He believed in me. I went over the route in my head. Everyone in the caravan as soon as they were old enough to talk were drilled in the locations of all the oases, public and secret. I could do this. I had to do this.
I cleared my throat, but the caravan master didn’t look back in my direction. I raised my voice. “We still have some hope of reaching the Osmira Oasis. We have a good chance, in fact.”
Immediate silence fell. The caravan master whirled to face me, his eyes narrowed. “The location of that oasis has been lost. Everyone knows that. There are none now living with that information.”
“None but me,” I said, putting every bit of strength I could muster into my voice. “I am the sole survivor of Caravan Osmira.”
“It’s true, Father,” said Tillie beside him, her eyes wide. “Don’t you remember Evie? She was in the jungle when the attack happened and only found it two days later. Caravan Golura found her mourning in the wreckage.”
The man’s face slowly lost its accusing cast, as he examined me carefully. “You are her? You are the youngling who survived the massacre?”
I drew a deep breath. “It is true I was not there. I missed the massacre rather than survived it. But that’s not what is important. The important thing is that there is still time to save us all. The Osmira Oasis is near.” I knelt to draw a rough sketch in the sand beneath our feet. “It allowed our caravan to cut a shorter route to Largo.”
Several of the traders knelt beside me, examining the markings I had made. They pointed at several aspects, murmuring questions. At last they stood back to their feet, me with them.
“You are sure?” The caravan master pierced me with a stare. “You are sure you have the distances correct? You are sure you can find the way? All our lives would be depending on you.”
I nodded my head and felt Frederic step up to stand behind me.
“I trust Evie,” he said. “If she says she can do it, she can.”
Celine nodded her agreement.