mortals’ city,” Aron says, his tone implying that the answer is obvious. “The prosperous Aventine, devoted to the God of Storms.” The sarcasm is rich in his voice.
“I know that. It’s just…was there a fire recently?” I know the question’s as stupid as the last one. They called this the Dirtlands, didn’t they? Clearly this is dirt. A whole hell of a lot of it. “There’s nothing out here. How do they make a city out in the middle of nowhere? Shouldn’t there be farms or something? Pastures?”
Roads?
Freaking trees? Something? This empty wasteland is hard for me to fathom.
I’m used to cities and buildings crowding every bit of space they can. Cars and roads and sidewalks and landscaping. This place hasn’t felt truly alien to me until now. Maybe some part of my head thought I was just in a weird sort of amusement park and that at some point, someone would peel the curtains back and real life would be on the other side.
Looking at my surroundings, though, I realize that’s a dream. However I got here, I’ve been dropped into a world that’s very different from my own. For the first time, I lose hope that I’m going to get home.
I might be stuck here.
Forever.
I tighten my grip on the cloak around my shoulders. Fuck that. I refuse to let this place defeat me. It’s only been days but I’ve already survived slavery, an execution, and an assassination attempt. If I can survive all that this place throws at me, I will find my way home.
Aron grunts. “Aventine is on the edge of the ocean, so I imagine they do fishing and trading. Do you truly care or are you yapping just to yap?”
I clench my jaw and walk.
The dirtlands are eerie. The moon is high and bigger than the moon back home, dominating the night sky and so close that I can make out the pockmarks and craters on the surface without a telescope, which is a little eerie. I can’t help but feel like the moon’s going to crash into the world if it gets any closer. Then again, Aron doesn’t seem all that concerned so that must be normal.
Then again, Aron doesn’t know how to work a door.
I shiver as we move farther and farther away from the walls of Aventine. I know it’s wisest to get away—especially after Aron did his “killing six guards” thing, but I can’t help but be creeped out and worried about the direction we’re heading.
A city named Katharn is this way, I remind myself. The barmaid had no reason to lie to me. There’s a city in this direction. We just have to keep going through this awful nothingness—the Dirtlands—until we get there. “Hopefully this isn’t a long walk,” I say aloud, because it’s reassuring to hear my voice. “If this was like a desert, then I don’t think the city would get a lot of travelers, and they did. At least, I think that’s how it would work, though I’m not entirely sure that we shouldn’t turn around and get more food and water—”
“I know this place,” Aron says, his voice ringing out over the gently sloping hills of dirt.
“You what?” I turn and stop when I realize Aron has stopped, too. I glance uneasily at the walls of the city. We’ve been walking for what feels like a half hour, but we’re still far too close. Someone on horseback—or hippoback, or whatever those animals are—could easily catch up to us.
“I know this place,” he states again and lifts his hands. Faint sparks glimmer at his fingertips and the air feels charged with electricity. I can feel my hair standing on end as if I’m being shocked, and above us, the skies crackle with thunder.
I gasp at the sight. He’s lit up like a firecracker. “How did you do that?”
Aron ignores me. He lifts his hands toward his face, studying them with a frown furrowing his brow. As he does, I realize that the sparking light coming from his hands is being…sucked away. Like there’s a gigantic invisible vacuum and it’s pulling all of the energy out of him. He clenches his jaw as if concentrating, and the light coming from his hands grows stronger. It makes my head hurt to look at it, and I wince, squinting at the light.
The auras that surround his fingertips elongate and bleed away toward the distant horizon. He turns, his back to me, and I move to watch as he does