“I have no plans to go there.”

“Good,” he said, “because the only way to . . .” He cleared his throat like he thought he was scaring me. “We won’t be going anywhere near there. Besides, scorpions are easy to see against the sand. The real dangers you have to look out for are creatures like the yellow-spotted sand snakes, lizards with black markings, and double-taloned vultures, especially if you’ve fallen down a hill and appear to be dead.”

“Seriously?” I asked. I’d never seen a double-taloned vulture up close, but occasionally I’d seen their dark silhouettes floating across the sky far out over the desert. I’d always wondered what was out there for them to eat. Now the thought made my stomach crawl.

“I sprained an ankle in a yellow-spotted sand snake hole my second week out here,” Cion said. “I rolled down the hill and lay there trying to decide what to do. I was too ashamed to go back and tell the other boys what had happened. But after the vultures started circling, I figured I’d rather be embarrassed than be eaten by them, so I hobbled back to the hideout.”

I scoffed. “You mean the great Cion wasn’t born with perfect balance along with a sword in his hand?”

He shook his head. “I had to earn it. This desert tests everyone. Don’t think because you’ll only be here a short time that it won’t test you too.”

It was strange how quickly I’d forgotten I did have to go back.

I focused on my feet as we walked. “Is it truly so hard to survive out here?”

“We manage. We mainly subsist on the goods the caravans bring in. The men and women we’ve helped in the past send us supplies when we drop off more refugees. Otherwise, we eat the lizards with green spots and the insides of cacti. It’s not easy, but for most of us, it’s the only life we know.”

“You do what you must to survive,” I supplied. Even if it meant going to your enemy to team up against an even greater evil.

I felt his gaze on me. “Exactly.”

Unspoken words hung in the air between us. A moment ago we’d been having a normal conversation. I’d even call it pleasant. And I’d forgotten he was my enemy, part of the group that had killed my mother and brother.

But if I voiced the real issue between us, there was no going back. And I needed Cion. I needed his skills.

I cleared my throat and looked out toward the horizon. “Is that why you became a Desert Boy? To survive?”

“I was a Desert Boy long before I was ever labeled one. I stole buckets of water for my brother when he was sick. But I didn’t move out here”—he gestured to the sands around him—“until I was twelve. That’s when Dimic was born.”

“Dimic’s your brother?”

He nodded. “By the time he was born, our father was gone, and I could hear my mother weeping every night. She knew if there was a raid and Dimic was discovered, the guards would kill them for breaking the two-children law. I disappeared into the desert so Dimic had a chance at life.”