Cion didn’t answer, and I didn’t have to look back to know he was shaking his head.

I couldn’t bear to look at Hardesh any longer. I ground my toes into the sand.

“How can you claim you’re going to help the people when you do this?” He waved his hand in Hardesh’s direction.

I stared down. “I did what I had to, to prove the desert knew I was its next leader.”

“You did what your father and Rodric would do.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Didn’t you?”

Something in Cion’s tone forced me to look at him.

“Couldn’t you have refused to fight? Couldn’t you have stopped Rodric from killing and torturing nearly every Desert Boy he could find?”

I swallowed down the words asking why the Desert Boys had killed my mother and brother—because I was doing this for her, and arguing about the past would get us nowhere. “If you want Rodric dead, I’m your best chance. I’m here offering you a deal, a way to change things. I doubt Rodric will ever make you such an offer.”

“There is a reason wise men say you should stay in the same desert your whole life. Because you know its dangers. You know what to expect. I don’t know what to expect from you. How do I know I’m not placing someone worse than Rodric on the throne?”

I took a deep breath. I needed to give him something more—something real—if I ever wanted him to believe what I said. I told him the only thing I could. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I made a promise to my mother before she died that I’d protect her people. It’s why I came here to look for a way to fight a man I know I can’t beat.”

We stood face to face, only a foot apart. As we studied each other, I wanted him to look into my eyes and see the sincerity there.

He looked at me for a few more moments. Then he reached down and scooped up a handful of sand. He weighed it in his palm. “Have you heard of a desert’s promise?”

I shook my head.

He held my gaze. “It’s said if anyone breaks a desert’s promise, the desert will know, and it will suffocate the life out of them any way it can.”

I watched the steady trail of sand escaping back toward the ground.

I bent over and picked up my own fistful.

“I’ll train you to beat Rodric in exchange for you never restricting the wells’ water levels again,” he said. “But you first have to pass the Desert Boys’ initiation test to prove you’re capable of becoming one of us, of thinking and acting as we would.”

He held out his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

I didn’t like the sound of this initiation test, but I didn’t feel I had much of a choice. Besides, if all the other boys had passed, there was no reason I couldn’t.