If pretending to be a Desert Boy was what it took to beat Rodric, then fine. I could play along. I kept telling myself it would be worth it as I cried out with as much humility as I could muster, “Wait.”

I stepped into the hallway. Small torches cast flickering pools of light across the sandy corridor. Cion turned, his face caught in shadows.

“I . . . I want to be a Desert Boy,” I said. The words tasted foul in my mouth.

“Changed your mind so quickly?” Cion sauntered back toward me. The shadows of the tunnel made it impossible to read his face.

“I’m here to learn,” I said.

“Then learn this.” He flicked hair out of his face so he could look me in the eyes. “When one of us suffers, we all suffer. When one of us drinks too much water, the rest of us ache. When one of us gets hurt in a fight, we have one less person to watch our back. I put you through initiation because I need you to know that you will suffer right along with us and to remind you that it’s you who needs us. If you lose, we’ll survive and keep fighting as we always have. Never forget that.”

He waited to make sure his words had sunk in before continuing down the corridor. It surprised me how easily he’d turned his back to me. I didn’t know if that meant he actually trusted me or if he just thought he was quick enough to hear an attack coming. I didn’t want to find out, so I silently followed after him.

He led me to a small offshoot off the main tunnel where a blanket lay folded in the corner with a layer of sand atop it. “Get some rest,” he said. “Compared to my training, training with Rodric will seem like lounging around one of those fountains you keep at the palace.” He moved to leave but turned back. “Know that if you betray us, you’re going to wish you were fighting Rodric and not me.”

With those words, he left me in the dark.

I thought he’d set up guards outside the alcove, but no one approached. He probably figured I’d never be able to find my way in the unlit tunnels, and he was right. I’d always thought I had a good sense of direction, but when your only landscape is the palace and city, there wasn’t much to navigate. Not to mention you had the sun as your constant companion by whose path you could trace your own.

I was too tired to explore or fight or run off or do any number of other things Cion probably suspected I might try. I was even too tired to care if Cion murdered me in my sleep.

Although, as I laid down for the night, I slid my sword out of its scabbard and kept it in my hand just in case.