Temon and Rejah returned to the cavern where he had killed the tribesman.

  “This way,” Rejah said. She pointed to a narrow fissure in the cavern wall. It was a tight squeeze, barely wide enough for a man’s shoulders. Temon shoved his torch through first, then wriggled into the crack. The rough rock scraped against his back and chest. He pushed forward and emerged on the other side into a smaller space. Rejah slipped through behind him.

  The sounds of their pursuers passed by and faded away.

  “We've given them the slip. Let’s go back to the way we came and follow the chalk marks out," he whispered. He moved back towards the larger passage they had come from and peered around the corner of the fissure. The cavern was empty.

  They retraced their steps with his chalk marks as their guide. They continued on until he saw natural light ahead, the pale grey of pre-dawn. The passage opened onto the rocky slope at the base of the tower. The air outside was cold and smelled of sweet desert flowers.

  They made their way back to camp, where Alina and Urdo were waiting for them.

  "Where have you been?" asked Urdo. "You were gone a long time."

  "Did you deal with Eyeman?" asked Alina.

  "No! Eyeman is not a simple fugitive anymore. He has followers. A force." He looked at Rejah and let her continue.

  She took a breath, the exhaustion plain on her face. "He has protections we cannot break. There was a barrier in the caves, a flash of blue light that threw us back. We couldn't get near him."

  "A force?" asked the cleric. "You mean more than a handful of warriors?"

  "Yes. More than that," Temon confirmed, the memory of the clanking armor still fresh in his mind. "Enough to send a patrol after us. He's using the caves beneath the Sacred Rock tower."

  "So our bounty is lost," Rejah added.

  "It's worse than that," Temon said bitterly andooked at the ground. "I killed a tribesman in there. He surprised me. It was... instinct."

  Alina let out a soft gasp, her hand going to her mouth. "In the sacred place? Oh, Temon."

  "It was him or me." He did not feel the need to defend himself further.

  "We crossed into Ashok lands to bring a fugitive to justice," Rejah said. "Now we find he has built a band of followers here. Our chance is gone."

  "So what do we do now?"

  "We must warn the colonists," Temon answered. "We ride to Copani. The outpost has an overseer. They can get a message to the governor at Yavan."

  "Was there a vault?" Alina's was thinking about the map she had made from the wall of gold. "Did you see it?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "No," Rejah answered. "We were chased out before we could look."

  "That's a shame."

  "Unfortunate, I agree, yes." Temon thought of the homunculus, its chalk-white skin and strange, high-pitched voice. "And there's something else. Something new. Eyeman has a creature with him. A homunculus. Small, white, like it was an ancient person. They are working together."

  "A what? A homunculus?" Alina's eyes lit up with curiosity.

  "It could be as old as the metal golem we fought in the ruins. This whole valley, the tunnels under this rock tower, it's all connected." He looked at Alina, at the piece of parchment in her pack where she had copied the map on the golden wall. "Your map. It'll be proof of what we say. The authorities need to see this."

  Alina nodded.

  "We must go now. Before Eyeman sends out a hunting party."

  He swung up into the saddle and Rejah did likewise. Urdo and then Alina mounted the horse that they shared. They rode away from the Sacred Rock Tower and headed back out of the valley.

  Once they were out of the Valley they rode west.

  Temon kept his horse’s pace steady, conserving the animal’s strength. The land was a flat expanse of cracked earth and scrub, the horizon a heat-warped line between the blue sky and the ochre ground. He felt the horse’s muscles bunch and release beneath him, a steady rhythm against the unchanging terrain. Rejah rode a dozen paces to his left, her posture straight in the saddle, her gaze studying the horizon. Behind them, Urdo sat behind Alina on their horse, his arms loosely around her waist. The colonist’s head lolled occasionally, as if he were tired.

  A flicker of movement in the far distance caught his eye. A lone rider on a dark horse, a speck of life against the vast emptiness. He squinted. The animal moved with a swift, bounding gait that was not quite a horse.

  Rejah saw it too. She refined in and held up a hand to shield her eyes against the sun. The others reined in their horses beside hers.

  Her eyes were narrowed, her head tilted. "It's a Zahoon,” she said.

  The landscape returned to its empty state. They rode on.

  As dusk began to spread purple and orange tones across the sky, Temon found a shallow depression in the earth, sheltered by a cluster of boulders. “We camp here,” he said. “No fire.”

  They dismounted. Alina helped Urdo to the ground. The colonist stumbled, catching himself on a rock. He looked pale, his eyes shadowed.

  Temon led the horses into a narrow crevice between two boulders. They would be hidden from anyone passing by. He gave them water from a skin and a portion of grain.

  They ate a cold meal of dried meat in the growing dark. The silence was heavy, broken only by the crunch of their chewing and the soft neighing of the horses.

  “We will take watches,” Temon said. “Rejah, you take the first. Alina, the second. I'll take the last.”

  Alina nodded and Rejah gave a short, sharp nod of her own. They wrapped themselves in their blankets. Urdo lay on his back, his arm thrown over his eyes.

  Temon lay down, the hard ground pressing against his back. He listened to Rejah move to the edge of their small camp, a silent silhouette against the deepening night. He closed his eyes.

  He woke to Alina's gentle shake. “Your turn on watch.”

  The air was cold. The sky was a black vault pricked with the hard, distant light of stars. He moved to the top of the depression and sat with his sword across his lap. The wind was a dry whisper, stirring the dust at his feet.

  He watched the horizon - but nothing moved. He listened to the world, the breathing of his companions, the occasional stamp of a hoof. He yawned. The fatigue was a heavy cloak. He shifted position, his knuckles digging into the dirt to keep himself upright. His three companions were asleep and snoring. Alina was sleeping not far from Urdo, and Urdo's breathing was shallow and irregular. The stars blurred into pale streaks.

  His head dipped.

  He opened his eyes with a jolt and the back of his neck was stiff. The sky was no longer black, but a deep purple. Dawn was coming. He had fallen asleep!

  Pushing himself up from the ground, his heart a frantic drum against his ribs, he looked at the place where Alina was asleep and Urdo had been sleeping. Alina was gently snoring but the other blanket was empty and heaped on the ground.

  Urdo was gone.

  Again.