Born of Water Chapter 32

                                    

                                              
CHAPTER 32
                          
FOUND
                          
Ty swayed in his saddle. The heat washing over him was hotter than a forge and sent pinpricks across his skin in its wake. Heat rash, sunburn, both, Ty didn't really think there were names for the agonies the desert sun and sand brought. 

                          
Probably because no one survived, he thought miserably.
                          
It had been two days since the Temple of Dust. It should be called Temple Lake now, he thought. A new home for Water Elementals like Niri, who had left the Church behind. His thoughts spiraled on waves of heat.
                          
The ground shimmered and moved sickeningly. Ty barely righted himself before he fell from his camel. It took him two tries to speak.
                          
"Let's stop here."
                          
Blinking his eyes ground the sand in deeper. There were only more dunes to see anyway and the sun, which was almost overhead. It was late to stop. Ty felt sorry for that. He was asking a lot, pushing all of them. Stopping cost them time and slowed their pace. Only movement would get them through the desert.
                          
Ria and Lavinia dismounted as their camels sank onto the sand. Without a word, and with motions slower than the sun's incremental journey of a day, they pulled out a cloth to erect a sunshade. Feeling no better himself, Ty fell more than dismounted before walking to where Niri's camel was tied behind his.
                          
She was oblivious to the world. He actually envied Niri that. After what she had done in the Temple, to the Temple, she had barely roused enough to eat or drink. She was light as feathers shaped into a woman when he lifted her down. He knew it was delirium born of the heat, but he dreamed often that Niri would evaporate like water under the desert sun. She was light enough that he half believed it.
                          
The four of them sat in the meager shade as the brightest part of the day passed overhead. They baked like the strange twisted formations of glass that dotted the rolling dunes. The glass spirals had amazed him at first, until the day before. That was when he had seen the sun scorch the sand so intensely it had burst into flames. An inferno erupted yards from him, twirling and twisting skyward in a rising updraft. When it had burnt itself out, a tower of glass stood as a sentinel to the desert's heat. 
                          
No doubt it froze solid last night. 
                          
Ty sighed. He wasn't sure which was worse. The heat of the day that burned the skin and lungs or the cold of the night that threatened to freeze him to death before morning, so that he welcomed the sight of the sun as it rose. Until he felt its heat.
                          
Lavinia handed him the canteen. Under her gaze, he tipped it up and let a dribble wash over his parched tongue. He pretended to swallow several times. Satisfied, Lavinia looked away. Ty savored the moisture in his mouth and then swallowed for real. He stashed the canteen, satisfied with its weight. 
                          
He knew Lavinia suspected he wasn't drinking his share, but she hadn't said anything directly. She didn't understand. Ty had seen Niri at the oasis. He guessed that Niri's comatose state was from more than exhaustion. A naiad lost in the desert. It worried him. 
                          
Next to him, Niri stirred, but did not fully waken. He dropped a hand onto her shoulder where she lay in the sand. She sighed and fell back asleep.
                          
-
                          
They stopped again for a brief break as the sand released the day's heat, changing into the heavier clothing the approaching night required. Crossing the desert had become more important than sleep. They rarely stopped for long.
                          
"You can sleep. You don't need to get up."
                          
Lavinia was by Niri's side when Ty turned, startled as he realized who his sister was speaking to. Awake to the world once more, Niri struggled upright, her arms barely supporting her weight. She shook her head weakly.