Page 44 of Barbarian Daddies

Gurgling and choking on his own blood, Dahlen witnesses the last few seconds of his life, the thought process racing and slowing down at the same time. I push him off me, and he falls flat on his back. I cannot bear to look, so I get up and turn around and wait for it to be over, tears streaming down my cheeks as I listen to those final, wheezing breaths.

“I’m sorry you made me do this,” I whisper. “May I be forgiven for it, someday.”

Shaking like a leaf, I give myself a few minutes to just cry and let this pain out. The guilt is overwhelming, but I keep focusing on the motivation. I had no choice. Sapphire City will never see me as its prisoner ever again. It will welcome me with arms wide open and a desire for change. Taking deep breaths, I move away from the fire and pack as much as I can carry into Dahlen’s satchel.

22

Cynthia

I’m lost.

I don’t know how it happened or where I got turned around. This doesn’t make sense. Then again, I shouldn’t have traveled at night with no map or guide.

As the suns come up, their reddish light stretching across the realm, I find myself surrounded by an endless sea of red, shimmering sand. When in the world did I make the wrong turn to leave the purple plains behind and end up here? I’m so confused. I ran out of water hours ago. The plums are gone, too. My satchel weighs less, but my mouth feels dry, my throat burns, and my stomach is empty again.

“How long have I been out here?” I wonder aloud, licking my flaky lips.

Has it been one night? Or two? A day and a night? I’m missing time, or I’m just so dehydrated I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore. I was supposed to head east, but the moons hid behind thick clouds as soon as I left the orchard.

The suns are rising from behind me, though. Twin stars shining with so much hope.

For what?

I’m lost in a damn desert, pregnant and terrified. I miss my home. I miss my soulmates. I feel the tears pricking my eyes as the truth comes into focus.

My soulmates. Kai and Maur Hadana. Our spirits are bound for an eternity, even long after our bodies have perished. Our children will bear our stories forth. They’ll carry Sunna into a new and better age. But I need to survive this blasted nightmare.

I should turn around.

The temperature is rising, and while I’ve adapted to Sunna’s heat over the past three years, the desert is a whole other experience. It’s so hot I’ve heard stories of the sand instantly melting under the twin suns, forming glass puddles with sprawling tentacles that don’t cool down and harden until the evening falls. I’ve heard stories of Sunnaites unable to withstand these harsh conditions—let alone me, a human.

Seconds pass in sinister silence. I must come to terms with the possibility that I won’t make it out of here. Nobody will swoop in to save me at the last minute. Either I figure out a way to survive the swelling heat until I get out of the desert, or Kai and Maur will eventually find my bones here.

The ground shakes, making each grain of sand rattle subtly. It causes the light to refract, and the red desert shimmers even brighter around me as my knees sink into it.

“What the…” I manage.

A loud rumble makes me bolt backward as the ground opens before me.

I’m screaming from the bottom of my lungs, watching the gaping hole widen as the sand pours inside. Bright orange lights glow from below. Lava. The sand acts strangely, though. The heat burns my cheeks as I move farther away, but the sand that falls in melts and quickly hardens into uneven swirls that could easily be used as steps. A staircase to hell, maybe?

“Is this your answer, Sunna? Is this what I get for killing Dahlen? Hell?” I moan, trying not to cry again.

The earthquake has subsided, at least. The hole in front of me isn’t getting any bigger, either. The edges are reddish glass now, amplifying the glow coming from below.

My breathing is finally slowing down, and I’m able to inhale deeply without getting dizzy. By the time I’m back on my feet, I’m able to better understand what happened. Some kind of seismic event. Of course. Sunna is riddled with volcanoes, both above and under the ground. The Crimson Sea alone is home to hundreds of active, lava-spewing hellholes.

The Sun River Plateau gets the occasional earthquake, though nothing too spectacular. Sometimes, the sky turns black from an eruption happening hundreds of miles away, but that’s it.

This is the first time I’ve been so close to a volcanic episode, and I got lucky. It was small. Just an opening in the desert sand. Yet the heat radiating from this hole feels different. Not all-consuming, not scorching or destructive, but rather… inviting.

Curious, I inch closer to the edge and look down.

“Oh,” I hear myself gasp as I realize that’s not a lava stream flowing below. Its hot water loaded with sparkling orange particles. Some kind of mineral, perhaps. But what kind?

I’m compelled to explore this further. I’m thirsty, so I cautiously step onto the edge of the hole. My sandals feel warm, but they don’t burn. I climb down the glass tongues, slowly and carefully measuring every movement, listening to any sound that might be cause for alarm. The glass is thick, able to hold me, which gives me a lick of courage to keep going deeper underground until I reach the stream.

Down here, the stone is black and shimmering. It’s not obsidian. Its texture is too dense, its color practically swallowing any light hitting it. Yet the stream shines boldly orange, its steam tickling my face and adding condensation to my hair. I feel drops of it trickling down my back and bare arms.

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