“I don’t look any different than any of the other Desert Boys,” I said.

Something in the way Cion looked at me told me that wasn’t true.

I tried to ignore his gaze. No one had ever looked at me like that before. It wasn’t the greedy look Rodric always gave me. It wasn’t the weighing look my father always judged me with. He was simply looking at me. And yet, it felt like he was the first person to ever see me. Not the gladiator. Not the princess. Just me.

“Come on,” he said, pulling me to my feet. “I’ve got a surprise.”

I ignored the way his hand clasping mine sent a tingle up my arm. “A surprise?”

“You’ll like this one,” he assured me.

I rolled my eyes but followed.

It was late by the time we arrived back at the cave, which thankfully meant the soldiers had cleared out for now. I congratulated myself on being able to pick out the dune from several peaks away. I never would’ve found my way back on my own, but I was learning.

Cion led me through an entrance to the large cavern where the caravan had departed. Several mounds of supplies and goods still lay where they’d been unloaded.

Cion moved toward one of the piles and started looking through them. But he seemed to have trouble locating whatever he was looking for.

“What are you trying to find?” I moved toward the pile of bolts of fabric and pulled a silky bundle off the top. It was a rich red color, the same as many of the blankets the women in the marketplace sold.

“I saved you a woven dress so you could get out of your gladiator gear for a while,” Cion said from beneath the stack. “But it looks like one of the boys must’ve put it with the ones we were sending into town.” He dropped the bolts of fabric back down and straightened.

“What’s this?” I asked as I unrolled the fabric I held. A portion slipped to the ground. The part I still held turned out to be a pair of thin pants.

“That’s a sand dancer costume that got sent by mistake. We can’t sell those because no one can afford them, and if we gave it away, Rodric’s men would know where it came from and try to torture our location out of the recipient.”

He picked up the top I’d dropped and shook the sand away. “You don’t have to wear that. You can stay in your gladiator gear for the celebration tonight.”

“Celebration?” I wasn’t aware we had anything to celebrate. In fact, I was more worried than before after overhearing those soldiers and wondering how I’d find enough new moves to beat Rodric.

“Every time a caravan arrives, we celebrate. It’s tradition.”

“Is there anything you don’t celebrate?” I asked.

“When life is as hard as it is out here, you celebrate as often as you can.”