Page 27 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

Could we make it to the wagon before the Wolves followed?

I slid down the rope, grimacing as my palms burned against the scratchy rope. I watched as Navin and then Maez hit the sand. Maez immediately pulled out her sword and shouted, “Let go, Sadie!” I hesitated for a split second, and she barked, “Jump, damn it!”

I let go, free-falling as she sliced the counterweight rope where it was tied down. As I fell, the rope that had once been in my hands slipped free, shooting upward. I collapsed onto the sand in a heap and quickly rolled back up to stare at the cavern from where we emerged.

We’d descended even farther than I had imagined, the adrenaline making the drop quick. I stared up at my father’s human face as he scowled at the loose rope. There’d be no following us down this way. But they could double back and still get us.

“Go!” I shouted, dusting myself off as I stood and started running toward the crevice in the rock.

“Sadie!” my father bellowed, making my muscles tense with traitorous fear. “I will find you! Youwillredeem us!”

We reached the fissure in the rock and raced out into the beating sunshine. I fled, running for my freedom as the scorching sun zapped my energy. My father’s and uncles’ shouts chased after me every burning step, long after I could actually hear them. The stretch of sand was farther from the wagon here, and my stomach soured as my running quickly turned to fast walking. I thought I might collapse if I didn’t get cool. How quickly the sun exhausted us here.

Bile rose up my throat and I vomited nothing but stomach acid onto the sand. I was vaguely aware of hands urging me forward as my leathers cooked me.

When I hit the shade of the back steps, I nearly collapsed onto them.

“Breathe. Breathe,” Navin said through his own panting breaths.

“We have to go! Now!” I shouted, trying to frantically stand and my legs giving out from under me. A strange panic gripped me. I felt hot and cold all at once, my vision spotting with black.

Navin caught me easily and lowered me back to the steps. “You need to get inside,” he said. “Take these bloody leathers off and cool down before you make yourself sick.”

“My father—”

“Your father will be trapped in those tunnels for a very long time,” Navin assured me. “The barman will see to it they don’t follow us. Sadie?”

I felt a tap at my cheek. I blinked with unseeing eyes, barely able to hear over the ringing in my ears. Is this what heat sickness felt like? Could it come on so quick? Or was this purely from panic?

Navin ordered something to Maez that I couldn’t quite comprehend. “On it,” she said, darting to the front of the wagon.

“Sadie, take a deep breath for me.”

“I...” My torso swayed and my head lolled back.

Navin let out a growl that sounded impressively lupine as he caught me, hoisting me up with his long, lithe arms. He carried me into the belly of Galen den’ Mora and dropped me onto the couch. His hands swiftly worked over me, first yanking off my boots and chucking them toward the door.

“Esh! Wool socks?” he asked incredulously as he peeled them off my feet and tossed them aside. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

The cool air swirled around my feet. I placed a hand to my clammy forehead and realized my whole body was shaking, my heart still pounding like I was running full tilt. Navin’s hands lifted to my trousers and unbuckled my belt.

“Wh—” I tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness and nauseacame over me. I was able to snatch a clay vase from the shelf just before my empty stomach rebelled again and I began hurling into the pot.

I barely noticed as Navin yanked my linen trousers off and discarded them. “Seriously?” he snapped, and I was certain he was staring at my skintight fighting leathers underneath and belts of weapons banded around my thighs.

The wagon rocked and swayed, the wheels turning and rattling over the sand dunes. We were moving again? Everything felt distant, like a strange dream. Was Maez driving the oxen?

Navin unlaced my shirt, revealing the leather vest underneath, and he groaned his frustration again. His hands hovered above my chest, about to unbuckle the vest and lay me bare to him when Maez stumbled back through the kitchen. “I’ve got it from here,” she said, climbing down the steps and shoving Navin out of the way. A wet washcloth landed on my forehead. “You go make those oxen move faster.”

Navin lingered over me for a second. He was blurry and out of focus, but I could see the concern and hesitation in his eyes.

“Go, Navin,” Maez snapped, pointing at the curtain. “She needs to shift. So if you don’t want to geteaten, go sit out front with the oxen.”

“Shift.” He echoed the word as if he’d forgotten what I was. Maybe he wanted me to be human so badly that he’d forced my Wolf nature from his mind.

In truth, in my panic, I’d forgotten the power of shifting, too. Navin gave me one last quick glance and hustled back toward the front of the wagon, yanking the velvet curtain closed behind him as he went.

Maez snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Okay, Sads, let’s go. Wolf time.”

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