Sun's Heart

Chapter 23 - The Canyon's Call

As they left through the opened gates, the air became thick and heavy, tension rising with the shouting voices of countless people talking over each other in increasing urgency.

Gale, bouncing around atop a camel, observed all from beneath heavy lids and a bleary mind. Her breath stuck inside her, thicker than jam. Sani's camel grunted complaints at her insistent clucks for it to go faster. She slogged through muddy depths within her head. They were going...somewhere. It was a familiar somewhere, but she couldn't recall why. And the city had been louder than usual. Chaotic. Too fast-paced for her to keep up with. Wil, Dain, Talaris, and Sani kept poking and prodding her, tugging on her when her lids fell.

"Gale, you have to resist."

"He's trying to hurt you."

"If you can hear us, say something."

"Speak your thoughts. They are slowed, but they mustn't be subdued."

All of it made sense, but she would stare for a long moment until they turned away again, discouraged. Then she would try to speak, her tongue thick and useless, and all that came out was what whispered in her ear: "You must come with me."

Come with me. The voice like warm honey slathered her mind in comfortable languor.

Unease bittered the honey, though she struggled to realize why.

They dismounted, and Gale followed suit. Her arms and legs moved without her, marching her forward with increasing dread until Sani grabbed her arms. "There," the woman said, quiet under the shiver of wind on sand. "The Rift is below."

At first, she saw dark lines and pale sands lit with the last light of a red sunset. Her stomach sank.

Contrast was all she saw. Then a thick swathe of shadow, running opposite the waves of sand, stood stark to her. She was staring at the top of the other side of a canyon, across a gash through the desert. She couldn't drag her eyes from the sheer wall of rippling rock. Stone waves, frozen and hardened. Smoothed by wind and carved by the water heard whispering in the depths of the shadowy canyon. The air's heaviness, all those thoughts within that couldn't find freedom, had not left her.

Dain walked to the split in the earth and knelt, seeming enraptured by whatever he saw. Sani grabbed him as well.

"Be careful," Sani warned. Her hand tightened around Gale's elbow. "Many have fallen into the Rift."

"Is the entire canyon the Rift?" Wil asked.

"No. The Rift is inside. It is a short walk, but a dangerous one. And..." Her hesitation made Talaris look at her. "It is strange, but many nusitti can't go nearer without being drawn to it."

Dain nodded, never taking his eyes from the deep darkness. "I can feel it," he breathed.

She inhaled, and then let it out. It didn't help the ache in her bones that begged her to leap toward the presence. The force which drew her attention, she knew it. A spell so large it was a wonder she could resist leaping into it, but twining beneath it—no, inside it, were several smaller presences.

People?

"Asura," Talaris said flatly. "You've brought me to him. Now what?"

Him. She touched her head. Bring him. A splitting headache erupted behind her eyes. Come with— I have to LEAVE. Sani looked at her in surprise as the others moved to the edge of the drop. The voice was gone. Clarity bloomed like sunbeams piercing the depths of a pond. Panic set in.