Nearby, the first crew cleared sand. Rendor was among them. She wondered if he’d gotten any sleep. As if feeling her gaze on him, he glanced up and smiled at her. She returned it. What a sap.

Jayden was helping to smooth out the piles of sand that had been brought up from the temple. He used his magic to move the grains, making it appear to be undisturbed—a small dune in a series of equally unimposing dunes.

She joined him. “Is that the same as erasing tracks?”

“Yes, except you have to control more of the sand so it takes more concentration. And you need to envision the end result.” He swept a hand out to the miniature dunes. “As we clear the sand from the temple, I’m building these just like if they were etched by the wind. Slowly, gradually, angled perpendicular to the dominant wind direction. So if anyone noticed this patch of the desert over time, the dunes would not appear suddenly from one sun jump to the next.”

Gurice trudged over with another bucket and dumped it onto a new pile. “Must be nice to stand around doing nothing, enjoying the view,” she snarked.

“Yes. It’s lovely.” Jayden didn’t rise to the bait.

“You know I can make dunes while you schlep heavy buckets,” Gurice said.

“I know.” He turned to Shyla. “Gurice can make dunes as well, but, while I created four small dunes in a few angles without much effort, it would take her longer and sap all her strength.”

“Yeah, well, moving sand grains isn’t my forte,” she grumped.

“Can you erase your tracks?” Shyla asked.

“Yeah, but it’s harder than making a person see what I want them to see.” Her green eyes glowed with mischief. “That’s my specialty.”

“But, again, she can only do a few people at a time, while I can influence a dozen.”

“Rub it in.” Gurice strode away, muttering.

“She’s a little sensitive,” Jayden said.

“Does everyone have a specialty like Gurice?” Shyla asked.

“Yes. Everyone can do one thing better than the other skills. A few can only do one or two things. The weaker the magic, the more limited the person.”

“What’s your specialty?”

“I’m rare in that I can do all things equally well.”

“How rare?”

“Before the ambush, there were four of us. After…” He stared into the distance. “It’s just me and Ximen now.” Grief thickened his words and dragged them through the air.

“How many people could wield magic before?”

“Twenty total.”

She stared at him in shock. “That’s it? I thought the Invisible Sword had—”

“We don’t. While there were dozens of people in the different levels of our organization, we didn’t have many that could wield magic.”