The storm did not subside until early morning, at which point they packed their supplies and left to search for the missing thief. Loulie assumed Aisha had found refuge in some other place, but she saw nothing nearby that would pass for shelter. There was also no sign of her horse. Loulie thought about using the compass to track her but ultimately decided against it; she did not want to reveal its magic to the prince. He was a thief, after all, and she did not think it beneath him to steal it.
Retracing their steps from the previous day was impossible—the storm had covered their tracks completely. It was impossible to tell where they had lost Aisha; except for the occasional cactus or shrub, the desert was just a landscape of rolling dunes, steep valleys, and squat cliffs. The only nearby civilization was Dhyme, which seemed farther than it had yesterday. It was nothing but a speck on the horizon, visible only when they gained elevation.
Loulie groaned as they passed a scraggly yellow shrub they had most certainly walked past earlier. Perhaps she should use the compass…
“I think I see another cave in the distance,” Qadir said. He pointed, and though Loulie saw nothing but smudges, the smudges were gray in color, and that was promising in a landscape of golds and reds. “I’ll ride out and check.” He looked at her and raised a brow. Wait for me, the look said.
Loulie hesitated. She and Prince Omar, alone? The thought made her nervous. Not because she was scared of him, no, but because she abhorred the idea of having to exist in the same space as him without Qadir. But…
She cast a surreptitious look at the prince. He was sullen, lips pressed together in a grimace that was more anxious than angry.
He is tolerable like this, she thought, and nodded at Qadir to say so.
The minute Qadir took off, the prince slid from his saddle and began climbing the nearest hill of sand. Loulie frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to get to a vantage point.” He hesitated as the sand shifted beneath his feet, then turned to look at her expectantly. Loulie bristled. She refused to be looked down on—figuratively or literally.
Her legs were sore by the time they reached the top, but she was reinvigorated by the view. To the east: the shadow that was the city of Dhyme. And to the west, she saw a speck that was Qadir. He was heading for the gray smudge, which from here she could see was indeed a cave. In the distance she saw a line of shadows that might have been a caravan, but they were too far out for Aisha to have reached in a single night.
Loulie glanced down. The hill they were on dropped into a small, steep valley on this side, one surrounded by slopes of sand. It was a spectacular if eerie sight.
“I see something,” the prince mumbled. He pointed, and Loulie followed his gaze to a sliver of color below. From this distance, it looked like a crumpled shadow without an owner.
Loulie slid down into the valley ahead of him to investigate.
She dug through the sand to unearth the shard of color. Her heart dropped as she held it up.
It was a velvet scarf.
Omar snatched the lightweight cloth from her hands. “This looks like one of Aisha’s.”
Loulie stood and glanced around them. If this scarf was one of the thief’s, and it was here between the dunes, did that mean she had stumbled into this valley? Or had the wind simply carried it here?
Beside her, Omar inhaled sharply. He whirled in place, eyes narrowed. “What is that…” His gaze seemed oddly unfocused. “Infernal sound?” Loulie strained her ears, but all she could hear was the distant cry of a hawk.
“There’s a voice.” Omar stepped toward the dune. He paused, tilted his head. “A woman’s voice?” He pressed his palm to the gigantic hill of sand. For a few moments he just stood there, squinting. Then he began to claw at the dirt.
Loulie stepped back, away from the falling dust. “Ah, what a great idea, High Prince. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of Aisha burying herself in sand!”
The prince just kept digging like a man possessed, sending more dust at her face. She gasped—a terrible idea. She inhaled a fistful of sand and choked on her own breath. By the time the air cleared, her throat was on fire.
She spun on the high prince, a curse on her lips, but it died in the same breath. Despite all of the falling sand, the dune looked exactly as it had moments ago.
And Omar was gone.
She half expected him to jump out at her. But no such thing happened, and the prince did not respond when she called his name.
Magic?
There was only one way to find out. She reached into her robe and pulled out the compass. She knew even before looking at the arrow what it would show her. The instrument was humming the way it did every time an undiscovered relic was close.