It was still dark when they moved out, she and Hessa, on Shadow’s back. Two weeks into the journey, it was a different inn, less prosperous and not as comfortable, and a different world altogether. Gone were the lush fields, date palms, and olive orchards. Far from the irrigated areas, the landscape gradually gave way to a rocky desert, with odd shrubs and occasional succulents thriving on the arid earth. There was a sort of red dust that carried with the air and permeated every crevice it could find, which encouraged Nua to wrap the shawl around her mouth. Anki told her it was the soil, torn by the wind from the earth it was meant to cover. He was still morose, dwelling on the disaster that had taken place in the area hundreds of years before.

The terrain ahead was not flat, but rough and hilly. You could not gleam too much from looking at the horizon, which was why Hessa scouted every day, returning to the camp when the Great Sun was high up and travel became too strenuous. Nua was told that the road was still safe, and occasionally patrolled by the Overlord’s legionnaires, but Ashraqat did not want any surprises.

Nua was sitting behind Hessa, holding onto the large saddle. For a time, she was glancing back to watch the caravan disappearing in the distance, but the carts quickly became obscured by the lay of the land. She was prepared for anything. She had brought her knife and the baton, too. It was not a real weapon, not by the standards of mercenaries. But there were many uses, she thought, for a solid piece of wooden stick.

After a half of an hourglass, the Great Sun came out. In the desert, the dawn was abrupt as if someone lighted a lamp of gigantic proportions. Nua pulled her shawl on and looked ahead. Far from there, above the hills, she could see an odd, tall conical shape, too symmetrical to be natural.

“Is that thing ancient?”, she asked.

“Sure is”, Hessa answered, “And we’re not going to see it up close. It’s in the middle of a remnant of a city near Azure Falls.”

“So are we scouting for bandits, or monsters?”

“None, I hope,” the huntress said. “Or at least that would be the usual business here. Things have been getting worse, though.”

“Explorers. You’ve told me before.”

“Sometimes. Sandstorms, mostly. Flash floods in the wet season that change the area, ruin the passages previously thought safe. Mirages, sometimes. Caused by etheric fumes coming out of the rifts. Monster nests. At least this side is still within the Overlord’s Mercy territory, and the road is maintained, but when we leave Azure Falls, it will be wilderness already.” Hessa spat at the wind. “There used to be two caravanserais on the eastern side. There’s only one nowadays, the other one ruined and empty. Something happened there about two decades ago, when the last earthquake hit. We avoid that route.”

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Nua shielded her eyes with her hand and looked ahead once again. “I didn’t realize we’re that close to Azure Falls.”

Hessa chuckled.

“The caravan is going to take three days to get there. It’s less than a day for us.”

“Ask her about the ancient city”, Anki nudged her all of a sudden. “We need to go in there.”

“I can’t see how”, she answered under her breath. “Kidnap Shadow and run?”

“You don’t realize how important that is. Just think of something.”

Nua straightened up a little in her seat. “How close is the ancient city to Azure Falls? Is it like our scrapyard?”

Hessa nodded.

“Only without all the scrap. It’s half-buried by the sand and earth, though. Sometimes the ground shakes, and things once lost get uncovered. That’s why all the explorers come.” She paused. “Don’t even think of going in there, Nua. It’s dangerously stupid. It’s explorer level stupid. It’s begging to get killed by a beast made of metal, or liquid ether, never mind the desert ghouls. And if you do find something, you won’t get rich. You’ll just earn ire of the Guild. It’s forbidden to trade ancient artifacts without their permission.”

“I don’t understand.”, Nua frowned. Something about the Guild business rang a bell. The killer who pursued her, wasn’t he with them? “The Alchemists’ Guild?”

“Sometimes I forget how much you don’t know. The Guild of Antiquaries. They’re a law unto themselves, and they’re not to be taken lightly. Even the Overlords think twice about crossing them, when it comes to the Forsaken junk. People have died over it.”

“You’ve heard it, Anki - it’s not going to be easy”, she threw him a quick thought, and heard him grumble. Then, she spoke aloud. “Why do you call them Forsaken? They were our kings. There’s two of us here. No one to tattle.”

Hessa pulled the reins and Shadow slowed to a trot. For a while, the huntress was not answering.

“I didn't use to call them that.”

“What happened?”

“Politics.”

After that answer, the conversation died. Hessa picked it up after a while and started narrating her tracking. At regular intervals, she would halt her mount, make Nua dismount and point out details that she would never have figured out otherwise.

“This is wide blade grass. It means there’s water nearby.”, she said when all Nua could discern was red, baked earth all around. “And look here – gerbil droppings.”

“See that track, a snake was warming up in the sun and scuttled when it heard us. Well, it didn’t, really – snakes are half-deaf – but it felt the vibrations.”

“Scorpion shells”, Nua started the other time. She was familiar with the sight at the junkyard. Hessa nodded with approval, then added, “This wide, flat stone is a perfect hideout for them. They’re probably sleeping underneath right now.”

The girl frowned.

“Could they burrow in this hard clay?”

“No. Look closely – there’s a crevice. They can fit right in.”

And so on. The desert was slowly revealing itself to Nua and it turned out to be not deserted at all, on the contrary – it was brimming with life. Any chance of morning dew, any scrap of shadow, and local plants or animals would find a way to thrive. Although the girl was not used to thinking in metaphors, at some point she started to feel a certain sort of kinship to those hardy creatures.

“See, Anki – I’m like them. I can survive anything.”

“That is an astute observation, and I dearly hope it’s true”, the king said in a distracted voice. “Because I have a bad feeling about this place.”

“The desert?”

“No, the…”

“Nua, watch carefully.” Hessa stopped Shadow in her track. “See that wide trace in the dirt, as if someone shuffled all the way. It’s not an animal. We have a ghoul sighting.”