“Which way’s the main gate?” I called desperately to an old woman sweeping sand from in front of her shop.

She looked me up and down before gazing at Cion.

“Two streets down,” she said quietly. “Take a left.”

I nodded and repositioned Cion’s arm over my shoulder.

After following her directions, the broken gate leading out into the desert loomed ahead.

I leaned Cion against the wall as we passed.

His eyes wouldn’t focus on my face.

I grabbed both his cheeks in my hands, trying to force him to look at me. “Cion, which way is the hideout?” I scanned his face for some recognition.

Sweat dotted his brow. He mumbled something I couldn’t make out. His head rolled forward. I fought to keep him upright.

I switched my gaze to the sea of hills. I couldn’t risk wandering around in the desert while the sun continued to rise. Already, I couldn’t tell if I was still wet from the well or if the sun had dried me and I was dripping sweat.

“Come on, Cion,” I pleaded.

Every moment I hesitated, the sun rose higher, and he lost more blood.

His eyes closed, and he sagged against me.

A blood beetle burrowed out of the sand and scuttled toward Cion. I kicked it away. But if we didn’t move quickly, more would come.

I pounded my fist into the crumbling wall. The desert wasn’t taking someone from me. Not this time.

I looped his arm back over my shoulder and shuffled forward. I prayed that if the desert really did respect its masters, it would show me the way.

I didn’t even have energy to be proud I’d successfully spotted a sand snake hole and navigated around it, because if I’d thought Cion had been heavy before, it was worse pulling him up sand dunes. Once we made it to the top of one, we half stumbled, half fell back down. Then I’d start the trudge upward once more.

On one such dune, I was about to lean forward and tumble down into the next valley when something made me look back.

A dripping wet Rodric stood at the gate with a pack of soldiers. He pointed right toward us. And then they were racing across the sand.

I forced my legs to move faster. Cion took about one step for every four of mine until eventually his feet simply dragged behind me.

My shoulders groaned. My arms ached. My heart thudded so loudly in my ears that I couldn’t hear the sand. I couldn’t hear how close they were getting.

My lungs burned so badly it felt like I was underwater again.

I kept my focus on getting up each sand dune as it appeared before me. But every time we crested one, the figures grew closer. Rodric drew closer.

Hot sand scorched my calves and shins as I dug my legs into the dunes to get enough leverage to pull Cion up.

We reached the top of a dune just as Rodric and his men crested the one behind us.