"Does your enchantress's dress protect you from the heat?"

"Certainly does. I'll warrant you're feeling better."

Shani looked happier than Ella had seen her in weeks. "Compared to baking under the sun, it's like being inside a shadow. Anything that can protect me from a fireball can certainly deal with this."

Ella looked at Jehral, who led the way, riding slightly ahead of them, the near-black coat of his horse shining with sweat. Unlike his two companions, Jehral had no magical protection from the intense heat, yet he seemed completely at ease in his desert garb.

Ella was pleased to see she still remembered how to ride, swiftly forming a rapport with her horse, a bay gelding named Afiri. Shani had taken to riding with surprising ease. If anything Shani saw her ability to subdue her own horse as a challenge. There was little the athletic Petryan didn't seem capable of.

Looking around her, Ella wondered how Jehral was managing to navigate across the unbroken expanse of the desert. Here in the deep south the formations of rock were a rare occurrence, and one dune appeared the same as the next.

Shani must have been thinking the same thing. "Take care, man of the desert. If anything happens to you out here, we're dead."

Once the decision had been made, their departure from Agira Lahsa had been swift. Ella saw the city only once, on their way through, but what she'd seen had amazed her. When the work of rebuilding was done, the hidden city would rival any of the other houses' capitals, with a population to match. Ella was thankful the Hazarans were on her people's side.

They'd now been travelling for weeks, mostly by night, but also riding by day to make up time. Shani constantly urged them forward, fearful for her people and desperate to be at Torlac for the confrontation to come, while Jehral longed to be once again fighting by his prince's side. Ella had decided she could do more in Petrya than she could back in Sarostar. She'd heard Miro speak on strategy enough to know that if Altura's southern border was secured from Petrya, the allies could start to consider a re-conquest of Halaran in the east.

If Halaran were freed, maybe they could find Amber.

"We're running low on water, desert man," Shani said.

"To be expected," Jehral said. "We can only carry so much, and we're now nearing the half-way mark. Soon, the Oasis of Lyra will be in sight."

"So what's the plan?" Shani asked. "Get in, grab water, and get out?"

Jehral didn't smile at her levity. "Something like that."

"Can you tell us what it looks like?" Ella asked. "This Devil of Lyra?"

Jehral shrugged, his attention on the horizon. "I have never seen it. The creature stays clear of large groups of men. I have never gone to the oasis with fewer than ten score."

"You must have heard rumours," Shani said.