The Blue Desert

Chapter Nine

By evening, Anan was thoroughly exhausted. She had never realized how difficult it was to ride a horse. She was only all the more glad that she had never wanted to do it. The only problem was that Kevresh insisted she had to ride the whole way to Tria. Anan could never imagine riding so many days in a row.

They stopped at a small pond. The water was clear blue with bushes growing around it, little berries growing on them. Anan could even see the tents of a herder's family in the distance. Kevresh told her that wherever water was in the desert, there were bound to be people nearby.

They ate the cold chicken and filled their flasks with water. Kevresh took off the horses' saddles and bridles and let them graze on the grass growing around the pool. "They won't stray off," he assured Anan, though she wondered if it wouldn't be better if they did.

After they finished their meal and washed the dust off of their faces and arms, Kevresh pulled the map out of his bag and spread it on top of the cooling sand. Anan dropped down beside him, crossing her legs and leaning over the parchment. She had seen maps of the world and Vasda before, but now it interested her.

"We are just about here," her brother told her, pointing his finger.

Anan scrunched her face at it. "But that's practically right in Jrell."

Kevresh rolled his eyes at her. "Obviously the map cannot be as big as the world is. We are farther than a day's ride from the city. Tomorrow we must move quicker; I wish to be at least two days' ride from the city. Hopefully then we will be safer."

Anan frowned. "Do you really think the king will send someone after us?"

Kevresh leaned back on his haunches and looked over at his younger sister, judging by her face how much he should tell her. But then he realized that they were both in the same situation, and she deserved to know just as much as he knew. "Yes. He never wanted us to leave the palace, let alone the country. He will send soldiers after us until they catch us or we reach Tria. Once we have reached our uncle, we will be safe. No Vasdan soldiers would be allowed into Tara."

Anan nodded slowly, staring at the map. "So we will go this way?" she asked, trailing her finger from where they were up past Vasda's border into an area labeled "desert," a direct line toward Tria.

Now Kevresh frowned. "Not exactly." He looked at Anan again, realizing how much their mother had not told her. But then she had not told him, either.

"Why not? Which way will we go?"

Kevresh laid his own finger against the map, moving it from where they were up and around the desert area on the northern border of Vasda.

"But why? Would it not be faster to go straight through the desert? It will not be any different than this desert, will it? I heard there was a swamp on the other side, but that cannot be so difficult to traverse that we would avoid it, would it?"

Kevresh tilted his head, debating once again, but he knew he had to tell her. She would be furious that she had not known sooner, so it would be best to get it over with. "Because," he said, "this is a lake." He pointed to the desert-labeled area.

Anan stared at him for a moment and then laughed. "A lake? There are only two lakes in all of Vasda. If it was a lake, the king would have claimed it for the country."

Her brother was unperturbed. "It is a lake," he insisted.

"Where did you learn of it?"

Kevresh rolled the map up again. "Let me tell you a story," he said, pushing the parchment to the side and leaning back on his elbows.