CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT—A VIZIER IN A TIME OF NEED
Sitting in the small clearing within the trees, Ali glanced up into the sky for what seemed to be the hundredth time.
At one point he had blinked and realized time had passed.
“Ali,” Yaser whispered. “Ali.”
He sighed. “What is it?”
His whole body was itching from the incessant bugs and his clothes were soaked with sweat. But they couldn’t leave, not now. They risked being caught.
In the distance a creature cried, its call low and travelling. Perhaps a kind of bird? There were ten thousand different animals calling throughout the night and he recognized not a one—and even more bugs besides.
Gods, I hate this place.
“The dawn,” Yaser said and pointed at the sky. “It is coming.”
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“What?!” Ali hissed, something inside him causing a fright. Had that much time really passed?
Shiro, you fool. Where are you?
He got up and stalked out of the tiny clearing where he had the men had waited all night.
“Ali? Ali, where are you going?”
Ignoring the healer, he pushed his way through the trees until he could see the Eiphr and the bridge beyond. He glanced toward the rising sun.
No sun.
But there was a lightening of the horizon. “This is not good,” he muttered to himself as he tapped his blade hanging against his thigh with his knuckles. “No, this is not good at all.”
“What is it?” Yaser asked.
“The ships,” Ali breathed. “They will be here soon.”
“And then what?”
Ali was not certain. Shiro and the others had left to find their lost men, but still they had not come back. Gritting his teeth, he felt like smacking somebody.
But this was to be expected, was it not?
We are adventurers, he told himself. It doesn’t matter if this is war. Nothing is different. I should not act any different.
“Ali?” Yaser asked. “What are we going to do?”
Breathing in deeply, he made a decision. In light of Shiro’s absence, and in light of the absence of Debaku and that oaf of a brother of his, Ali knew it was the best course of action.
“Come,” he told Yaser. “Let us go back to the men, yes? Then I will tell you what is going to happen.”
Watching Ali turn his back and recede into the forest from whence they had come, Yaser felt somewhat reassured.
He knows what he is doing.