I pulled my gaze back toward the hills and squared my shoulders. This was a test. He was seeing how much I could handle.

Up until Rodric had entered my life, I liked challenges—liked showing my father what I could do. But Rodric’s idea of a challenge was to see how long I could hold my breath in one of the fountains or to see how many times he could kick me while I fought to get sand out of my eyes.

I hadn’t decided if Cion was doing the same thing, but I sensed he hadn’t brought me out here for humiliation. No, Cion didn’t seem like the type to waste time or energy on something so frivolous. He genuinely wanted to know if I had the reflexes of a fighter. There was only so much you could teach someone. And my fight with Rodric was in one month. That wasn’t much time to train.

Cion held out his mask to me.

It smelled like sweat and leather. It squashed my nose flat, but the flap hanging down would hopefully keep out enough sand that I could breathe. I gripped my sword in my hand and stared out over the tossing hills for a moment.

“Wait until you see an opening,” Cion said.

I nodded. I licked my parched lips, but my tongue was too dry to do anything.

I plunged downward after a wall of sand had tossed its mane to the side. Tendrils of sand poured down on me, trying to drag me down into the swirling mass.

Puddles of sand swallowed my legs instantly. I fought to free them but only sank lower. A wave of sand cascaded over me. I tumbled with it, losing sight of the sky. Sand pushed upward and downward before pulling me to the side. A cactus brushed along my back. I couldn’t cry out because grains would have poured into my mouth and choked me as the mask flipped to the side.

The hills stabilized for a moment. I clawed in what I hoped was an upward direction. I broke through the sand and pulled myself out just as the ground shifted again. I tried moving with the tide, running in the direction it pulled. But everything tossed into the air, including me. I fought to keep my grip on my sword.

Dunes swirled around me so thickly they obscured the sunlight piercing the desert. I landed on a mass of sand and was immediately swallowed. A whirlwind sucked me downward, the weight of it crushing against my body. My heart pounded so loudly it seemed to echo through the sand, giving it life as it slowly drowned me.

I tumbled over and over again. I jerked right and then rolled left. I collided with something solid and glanced off. The waves continued to toss. Another burst coated me in intense heat. Sunlight disappeared.

My lungs tightened as more sand crashed on top of me. I was slowly being buried layer by layer until I’d eventually be pushed down to the center of the earth.