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“You got this from the Still Mist Tribe,” a goblin called out. “They gave it to you?”

“We returned their people to them,” I said. “As we are happy to return you to yours.”

“I have no people to return to,” the goblin said. “They are long dead, their bones and flesh retaken by the desert. The emperor spoke true when he said he means to fight Bemishu? You do not mean to beat Bemishu to his treasure and use it to conquer us?”

“We want to stop General Bemishu and undo the harm he inflicted on your people,” I said, touching the back of the salamander. “Bemishu has risen up against Emperor Tallu, and the emperor will happily reward anyone who helps him retake his throne.”

“Then I will help,” the goblin said.

More goblins chimed in, and soon nearly everyone traveling with us agreed. I offered over the salamander, but the goblin waved it off. He looked at General Saxu, eyes serious.

“If you seek to travel to the hidden waters, there are things you must know.”

Which was how we learned that the goblins traveling with us had been doing so mostly for the opportunity to see imperials die in front of their eyes, wasting away from thirst and hunger as they lost themselves in the desert sands.

With the goblins’ help, we learned how to make better use of the elephants, how to use their mass and the platforms on their backs to protect us from the sun. The goblins showed us how their magic could make a building rise up from the sands, keeping us cool during the summer days. Without a lining of elephant skin, the buildings seemed to leak sand down on top of us, but it was still the only way to survive the hottest parts of the day. In the afternoon, when the sun began to set behind the horizon, Naî and I would take to the skies, finding watering holes and rocks we could use the next day for protection.

The desert was unforgiving. Wind would whip the sand into motion, making it hard to see and breathe. It sliced any exposed skin raw. We quickly learned to cover ourselves in layers of fabric.

Even Tallu’s servants, who had somehow managed to maintain his appearance in the swamp of Tavornai, were forced to slice up his clothing to better wrap around his face. If an imperial stood out in the direct sun, their natural shine would burn to matte color before the skin itself would turn red and blister.

Iradîo and I fared even worse. Our pale skin was not built for the desert. If we were not in the shade, our skin was already turning a hot, unhealthy pink. Even through the layers of fabric we wrapped around ourselves, the sun somehow still found us.

As if the land trying to kill us was not enough, we learned during our first week that everything living in the desert wanted us dead. Insects with six legs, two claws, and a curving tail would crawl into our bedding. The goblins told us they were called scorpions and they would get bigger the further into the desert we traveled.

Saxu’s men killed the first scorpions themselves with their boots, laughing about how timid people from the desert were. But then one man who used to serve Kacha was too careless, picking up the scorpion and holding it close to one of the goblins. The creature’s tail snapped forward, puncturing his hand.

He screamed, falling to his knees. The goblin crushed the creature with his foot, shaking his head at the imperial at his feet. The rest of the men were up, shouting, asking what to do.

“Put him out of his misery,” the goblin said. “There is nothing else that can be done.”

The foolish soldier screamed for hours as his arm blackened, his skin melting off. His eyes went wild, and he finally picked up his own sword, shoving it into his throat. Some others took him to the top of a sand dune, leaving him for the storms. I checked on his body the next morning and saw that it had turned entirely black, even without a beating heart to push the poison through his veins.

And the scorpions only got larger, until they were twice the size, and then five times, nearly the size of a salmon. It took two men to kill them, and even then their blades often slid off the creatures’ thick carapaces.

There were not only scorpions in the desert; we faced snakes as thick as my leg and poisonous lizards whose bite killed over days.

The second man died after only a week. It was not the deadly creatures, the lack of supplies, the limited water ration he got once a day, or the food we had found in Lord Pehine’s stores—hard, dried meats that you needed to suck on before they softened enough to eat.

Instead, it was something about the vast expanse of nothing. The sands themselves. His commander said he would speak to himself, muttering something about what was out there. Then, one day, he walked out of camp and didn’t return. By the time his commander sent men to look for him, he was gone.

There was nothing that could be done.

It was a grueling trek and I knew that without the goblins’ help, many of our number would have died. I felt grateful and horrified at the same time. Every year, General Bemishu had thrown more men into the situation, as though he could overwhelm the harsh truths of desert life with the sheer number of soldiers.

Still, we had lost three men and half our weight in water by the time we reached the hidden oasis. Naî and I first caught sight of it in the distance: a green so bright and vibrant it looked as though it couldn’t be real.

I recognized it from the vision I had shared with the matriarch. I wanted to urge Naî forward, to see what my vision had failed to show me. What was there? Simply an oasis, or more than that?

But even as I pushed, I couldn’t make myself go any further. So Naî and I turned back to give the caravan new direction. The salamander I carried began making noise, a squeaking desperate sound as it tried to move in the direction of the hidden waters. It was only me holding the creature with both hands that kept it from leaping off Naî’s back.

“Tomorrow,” I reassured the salamander. “You will be back with your kind tomorrow.”

Twenty-Five

The only thing General Saxu and Sagam agreed on was that Tallu needed to stay far enough away from the hidden waters that any goblin attack would be seen long before it reached him.

They disagreed on everything else. Sagam wanted Tallu hidden at the rock formation we had rested at the day before with a few trusted guards while the rest of the camp stayed out in the open as bait. He wanted to go with Asahi into the hidden waters at night, spying and discovering what was there before allowing anyone to make contact.