The Obsidian Temple by Kelley Grant Read Free Book Online

bed. The well-­trained humpback turned its long nose to gaze at the great cat, then placidly turned forward and chewed its cud. Sulis could see Djinn’s claws digging in to the padding as they set out in the long procession and knew he wouldn’t ride up there for long.
    She guided her beast over to Ava, who still clutched the bar in front, as they set out, moving away from the buildings and into the Sands proper.
    â€œYou can relax your grip,” she told the girl. “These guys don’t buck like a mule might. The going will be steady but slow from here out.” She got her bread out and started to enjoy it.
    â€œThis is nothing like riding a mule,” Ava said as her beast lurched along, “unless the mule was sick or drunk or something. I don’t know how you can even eat. I feel seasick.”
    â€œYou find a rhythm to the gait after a while,” Sulis told her. “It’s never comfortable, but it becomes tolerable.”
    Sulis glanced around to see her grandmother and Master Anchee deep in conversation. Guards rode to the front and back behind the supply humpbacks, which were led by beast tenders on foot. Humpbacks walked at only about the pace of a fast human, but they didn’t need to stop and drink and rest like a human would. The tenders who accompanied them would trade off a space on one of the humpbacks during the day to rest.
    It was just before dark when the guard signaled at a flat scrubby area where they would stop for the night. Sulis’s beast knelt, and she slid off, wincing. It had been over a year since she’d ridden that long. Ava toppled off her mount when it knelt and just sat there, legs too tired to rise. Sulis unpacked some salve and brought it to her with another roll for her dinner.
    Grandmother wandered by, directing the camp setup. “Do the stretch poses I taught you, girls,” she ordered. “Then quiet your minds, meditate, and begin to overcome the pain and weakness.”
    Together, Sulis and Ava stretched their muscles, then did a sunset salutation and blessing before settling down to meditate in the darkness.
    â€œLook at the stars,” Ava breathed. Without the torches and oil lamps of civilization, each star was a shimmering, brilliant diamond in an ink-­black sky. The moon wasn’t up yet, so every constellation shone in stark relief.
    â€œMy da used to be able to steer his ship by the stars . . .” Ava said. “One day he was going to show my brothers, and they were going to form their own shipping business. I don’t know what they’ll do now that Da’s dead. And Ma, too. Maybe join the army.”
    â€œDesert folk will sometimes travel the hottest part of summer at night, guided by the stars,” Sulis shared. “But it is easy to lose your way and never see the waymarker of an oasis, so travel at night is done only in emergencies.”
    They didn’t bother with tents, just covering themselves with a dew-­proof canvas as the temperature dropped through the night.
    I N T H E M O R N I N G , they were awakened by shouts and a flurry of activity. Sulis sat up in her bedroll to find desert nomads surrounding the camp, holding their guards captive.
    Sulis’s grandmother greeted the leader in a different tongue, the language of the desert nomads, and he leapt down from his humpback and prostrated himself before her, forehead on the ground. She spoke again, and he rose. Master Anchee led a humpback forward, laden with packs, and the nomad bowed. He leapt up the impossible distance to his saddle, and Anchee handed him the pack humpback’s lead. The nomad put the back of his hand to his forehead and said a few words, and the group disappeared into the desert as quickly as they had come.
    The head guard apologized to Grandmother, shaking his head ruefully.
    She grinned and smacked him on the back. “You know they have sand magic,” she told him. “There is no