It irritated me that I seemed to be the clumsiest of our party, for by the time the moon had set, both Analivia and Swallow had mastered walking on sand and Gavyn seemed from the first to have little difficulty. No doubt growing up in the Westland where there were patches of desert, he had learned to walk over shifting sands.

My only consolation, and it was a sour one, was that the Land horses and dogs liked toiling through the sand no better than I did, though even they seemed a good deal less awkward.

By the time we came together at dawn, as we had agreed to do, I was exhausted. None of us had seen or scented anything but sand and one another. We decided to rest for an hour and then continue until the hottest part of the day when we would take refuge and eat and sleep for several hours under blanket tents Ahmedri promised to help us erect, before going on into the night.

Once we had eaten and drunk a little, I stretched out on the soft sand, yearning more than anything for a breath of wind. Ahmedri had volunteered to sit watch, saying he was not in the least weary, and Dameon had said he would sit up with the tribesman. I was glad to lie down with a cloth over my face to shade it, for I was weary from the healing process and my unwieldiness in the sand. For a time I drowsed on the edge of sleep, listening to Dameon and the tribesman talking quietly of Sador and of Kasanda, then I drifted into a light and dreamless slumber. My last thought was a brief, fervent prayer that the wolves would find us ere the next night. Then Dameon was shaking me gently saying it was time to go on.

I felt thick headed and groggy as I pulled the cloth from my face. There was no sign of the wolves so we split again into our groups and continued east. I was pleased to find that I seemed to have got the knack of walking on sand, and when a slight breeze began to blow towards us, my spirits lifted.

We had been walking about an hour when I made my first check, farseeking to find out if Darga had scented anything ahead other than sand. My heart leapt when he responded at once by saying that he had scented wolf. Then Rasial beastspoke me from the south to say that she could smell wolf.

‘Wolf and blood,’ she added in her hard, strong mindvoice.

It was more than an hour later and verging on sunset when Ahmedri spotted several forms lying at the base of a dune, half buried in the sand. All were wolves and all were dead, save for the old she-wolf, Descantra, who was unconscious and badly injured. We had come together as soon as I had relayed the news to the others.