She paused to wipe the sweat from her brow. The sun was a few angles above the horizon. Its jump had just started, casting long shadows across the desert. The light breeze cooled her body. This was her favorite time of a sun jump.

Taking in the scenery, Shyla noted the distant clumps of vegetation, the rolling red dunes, the pink sky, and Rendor’s muscular arms flexing as he worked. Streaks of sweat ran down the sides of his dark face and stained his sleeveless tunic. He’d taken off his sun cloak, its protective fibers not needed at this time. During the early angles, the sun warmed the land, but as it continued its jump over the sky, the heat would increase until anyone trapped on the surface would be cooked alive.

Rendor caught her looking at him. He smiled. A strange flutter brushed her heart. She ducked her head before she could grin back at him like some lovestruck ninny. After all, she was the leader of the Invisible Sword, a magical organization determined to save Zirdai from the corrupt and power-hungry Water Prince and Heliacal Priestess. Both of whom had no qualms torturing and killing innocent people.

“That sand’s not going to move itself, Your Highness,” Gurice called. She paused with a full bucket of it in her hands. Her job was to spread out the sand that arrived via a pulley from the deeper levels.

“It will once you teach me how,” Shyla countered, ignoring the good-natured jab. She’d been called worse. With her blond hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, she was sun-kissed and therefore an oddity among the people of Koraha.

“That would be a waste of your energy.”

And exhausting herself each sun jump clearing sand was not a waste? Shyla swallowed that comment. Everyone had been working hard to make the Temple of Arinna—their new headquarters—livable. Like all the ancient surface buildings on Koraha, the sand had eventually buried it.

And while they were happy for it to remain underground—the location was a secret after all—they still needed an entrance, escape tunnels in case of a cave-in, and vents for air shafts. Plus many of the twelve levels were filled with sand, which needed to be dug out and evenly distributed on the surface. The good news had been the inner core of the temple remained sand-free and they were able to occupy it and stay safe during the killing heat and freezing darkness.

Shyla still couldn’t help being frustrated. She had so much to learn about magic, The Eyes, and the Invisible Sword. But their survival came first. They had to leave the monastery before the prince and priestess forced the monks to hand over the surviving Invisible Swords.