Soul Bound

Chapter 20

It took two days to fly to the Desert Lands, no pit stops. Arkon assured me he could make it with ease, so we flew, never looking back. I was confident enough in my skills to walk along his spine to stretch or grab food from the satchel in the saddle, and Arkon caught fish as we flew over the Aborian sea.

The flight also gave me time to think about how I'd left things. Arkon also chimed in that I was being reckless, which made me heavily reconsider everything. Despite having the people closest to me lie about my crush's identity, I was still the storm dragon rider, wanted by the Fortys clan, and very much unequipped to deal with an ambush should someone find out who I was in the Desert Lands. Perhaps I had been a little hasty to run away.

But they had betrayed my trust. For what? To protect him? What did he ever do to gain their trust? How could my brother be so accepting of him? Sure, his family hadn't murdered mine until after they became partners, but now? What was his excuse? Why did Jacob not avenge our family? Of course, it couldn't all stop with Grayson--Deximus--they all had to die, the entire Fortys clan. Deximus was the start.

"Eva?" Arkon called, pulling me away from my thoughts. "I see land. What exactly are we looking for?"

I pulled the paper Commandar Hargin had given me with the information we needed to find my teacher. "Mount Kilmor. Apparently that was Sasha Remoar's last known location."

"I can tell you for a fact she is not there anymore. I can sense her dragon, he's southeast, not North where Mount Kilmor is."

"How do you know he's not just flying around?"

"If he's experienced similar encounters with humans as I have, he'll be close to his rider, to protect her, especially here."

I couldn't argue with that. "Lead the way."

°•° °•°

As we headed further inland, I had to shed more and more layers until I wasn't willing to take any more off. The sun was blinding in the near-white sky, heat radiating from its merciless beams of light. Even the wind, an element I would normally take refuge in, was brutal, so hot it was hard to breathe in. I hadn't spent half a day above the barren land and my skin had begun to blister, my lips cracking from the dry air.

True to its name, the land was desert. Endless sand dunes rolled over the terrain as soon as we hit the shores, leaving nothing in its wake. Further north-east, a rocky valley stood tall, and if I focused enough magic into my eyes, I saw tufts of green within the mountains--a hopeful sign of shade and water.

However, we weren't going east anymore. Arkon made a sharp turn for some sand- covered hills with spiky rocks jutting out. As we neared, there were clear signs of habitation: fabric was lain over the edge of the rocks on the slopes, propped up by sticks. It only got bigger as we got closer, and I soon realised it was a small colony hiding beneath the cloth. People hurried out from the shade to see what was casting the large shadows over their tents.

Arkon didn't appear to care that they knew we were here. It wasn't until we landed when I saw why: there weren't too many of them and they hardly had any weapons to fight with--a piece of cake for a dragon if things got heated.

I slid off his back, doing my best not to touch his scales; he was hot to the touch after being in the sun all day. I only hoped he didn't feel as hot as his scales.

I pocketed my dagger and warily approached the tents, eyeing anyone that came into view. A lot of them were men over their thirties, skin darkened from the hours of exposure to the sun; what skin wasn't covered by their clothes was blistered. I was starting to feel the effects of the sun myself, which I hadn't realised until I was in the shade. It was still hot underneath the canopy, but, man, it felt so much better than being in direct sunlight.