“This is where I leave you,” Olzii announced.

His voice startled Solongo back into awareness. The sun glowed in the sky like a dying ember. It wasn’t quite evening. Olzii was a faster rider than Solongo expected, or maybe he was just eager to be rid of her. Without meaning to, she had drifted off and woke with her face nestled against his back. She was relieved to see that she hadn’t drooled on his deel; that would have made things between them entirely too familiar. Still bleary from sleep, she disentangled herself from him and ventured a cautious glance at her surroundings. Village was a generous word for the place he had taken her. Watering hole was more accurate. A spattering of gers surrounded an old stone well where a middle aged woman was tending to her camels. Solongo saw more animals than she did people, goats and oxen, stout horses like the one she had ridden on. It wasn’t unusual, but it didn’t bode well for finding a quick way home. After all, she was well aware how long a journey could take when you had a herd of animals to tend to along the way.

“A waypoint,” Solongo said through a yawn. There were plenty of them in the desert. The only difficulty was finding them. Any nomad child could do so in her sleep, but Solongo had never done so herself. That Olzii had managed so easily—and so quickly—made her wonder what stock he had come from. Unfortunately there was no time to ask.

“Someone will probably be able to take you where you need to go. If not, you should try going to Teb-Tengri instead. He’s not far from here. If you explain your situation to him or one of his shamans, I’m sure that someone will help you. Only don’t tell them that I sent you.”

“They won’t hear it from me,” she assured him, hoping she sounded braver than she felt. She forced herself to climb down from the horse. Olzii gave her his hand for balance. He seemed hesitant to release it.

“You’re going to be all right on your own, aren’t you?”

“Desert people are nothing if not hospitable. You know it as well as me,” Solongo said with a wavering smile. “I’ll just knock on doors until someone answers and see how far they can take me.”

Olzii’s face quivered with indecision. He clenched and unclenched the reins in his hands.

“It would only be a couple more hours to Teb-Tengri…” he murmured to himself.

“Then I should have no trouble getting there if I need to,” Solongo told him. That he had taken her as far as he had was enough. She didn’t want him to get into trouble for helping her—or herself for asking him to. “You’ve done enough as it is; I would still be trudging through the desert if not for you.”

“Well…all right,” Olzii conceded. “I just can’t help feeling that I should see things through.” He swung himself down from his horse and lead it towards the well. Solongo walked beside him.

“Are you going to be all right getting back in the dark?” she asked him. The sun was overbright as it began to wane in the sky.

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” he said with a casual wave of his hand. “I know exactly where I’m going. There’s nothing better for clearing your head than a cool night ride. I even know a shortcut that will shave several hours off of the trip.”

Olzii patted his horse on the rump and it plodded forward to drink from the well. It was wide enough for the camel already standing there to continue undisturbed. Its mistress paid the pair of shamans little mind as she filled a heavy bucket. The two of them balanced on the rock ledge, their legs dangling over the water.

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“It’s not the sort of riding you can do when you’re sharing a saddle, but there’s a canyon trail you can take that cuts the distance considerably,” Olzii explained. “I’ll be back in my own ger before anyone knows I was gone.”

The woman standing beside them cleared her throat. Olzii fixed her with an owlish stare.

“I would be careful doing that if I were you,” she said.

“I’m familiar with the trail,” Olzii said a bit stiffly. Maybe he thought the woman had underestimated his age. If Solongo had to guess, she would venture to say that it happened to him a lot. She knew plenty of short men, but few who were quite so slight. Upon first glance it would be easy to mistake him for being little more than twelve. People would be in for a shock when they went to greet the new Teb-Tengri.

“My own children are familiar with the trail,” the woman said impatiently. “The only reason I say anything is that there have been slavers spotted out there. No one should go riding there by himself, much less at night. You and your friend should find some place to sleep and set out a different way in the morning.”

“You don’t think…” Solongo muttered, turning to Olzii. It seemed like too much of a coincidence for her to ignore the oily feeling in her belly.

“No.” The vehement way he said it made her think it was in response to an entirely different question.

“Someone steals me while I’m away from my body and leaves me stranded in the desert. You don’t think there could be any connection between that and a slaver’s camp less than a day’s ride from where I woke up?”

“I didn’t say that,” Olzii huffed, as if the suggestion alone as an affront to his intelligence. “The ‘no’ is for when you ask me to take you to see for yourself.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you,” Solongo said with a shrug of her hands.

“Good.” His relief was short lived. His probing eyes slid over onto her face. Her expression was far too bland to be convincing. “Have you ever fought someone with your magic before?”

“Not exactly, no,” she admitted. “It’s not as if I’m some village tough who goes picking fights in my spare time.”

“Exactly my point. You probably only use it for homey little things—not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Olzii added with a courteous nod. It was a hair too condescending for Solongo’s taste, but it was an improvement over his usual brusqueness.

“Mostly,” Solongo agreed. It was the truth after all. No one ever really needed great feats of magic where she came from. Just little things, like healing stubborn colds and blessing cart wheels so they wouldn’t break. Some shamans might be bored by such humble tasks, but Solongo was new enough to her trade to enjoy them.

Olzii patted her hand in a paternalistic sort of way, confident that she understood his point. It made her tempted to ask what sort of magic he had at his own disposal to be taking such a lofty tone. Then again, he was Teb-Tengri’s apprentice; his powers were probably pretty great to have been chosen by him. Olzii was no doubt tougher than he looked. There was no telling what sort of tricks he might have up his sleeves…

“What are you looking at me like that for?”

“Hm?” Solongo blinked, unaware that she had been staring.

“You’re looking at me like the last dumpling in the pot,” Olzii said, edging away from her.

“I was just thinking what a powerful shaman you must be.”

His brows knit together in a glower. Solongo smiled; she hoped it came across as guileless and charming.

“My first act as Teb-Tengri will be to put a black mark on your name—or better yet right in the middle of your forehead,” Olzii said with a longsuffering sigh. “At least that way people will have some warning of what they’re getting into when they meet you.”