the cage with the rhino-croc kehok and guided him to the front of the racing transport. She hooked his chains to the shaft of the cart as if he were a horse hitched to a carriage. Climbing into the driver’s seat, she patted the bench beside her. Raia jumped up into the seat next to her.
“Where are the reins?” Raia asked. “Oh. Sorry. No questions. I forgot.”
Leaning back and putting her feet up, Tamra flashed her a grin. “No worries. But also—no reins.” She tapped her forehead. “Just this.”
“But how—”
“You might want to hold on,” Tamra advised. To the kehok, she commanded, “Go!”
The rhino-croc charged forward, and the cart lurched away from the stable. Jostled, Raia grabbed on to the bench. Tamra tilted her head back to feel the kiss of dawn, as she aimed the rhino-croc toward the open desert.
They thundered away from the training ground.
Raia clung to the bench as the cart sliced through the sand. She’d wrapped a scarf around her face, leaving a slit for her eyes, as protection against the sting of the sand particles kicked up by the kehok’s hooves. But she still felt sand on her face. It coated her tongue, filled her nose, and sneaked down her neck beneath her clothes. She felt as if the desert wanted to swallow her.
Aside from the times she’d watched the races, she’d never in her life been this far from the Aur River. Nearly everyone in Becar lived their lives within just a few miles of the river, only leaving the green swath of earth once a year to watch the Becaran Races out on the sands. So she’d only ever witnessed the desert as it looked when it was transformed by hundreds of people erecting viewing stands, pitching tents, and celebrating the turn of another season. In her imagination and memory, the desert was a crowded place.
Now, though, it was empty. Except for the sand. And the sky. Without all the trappings of the races, there was nothing to distract from the expanse of sky that stretched enormous above them. As the sun rose higher above the horizon, it bleached away the blueness, and the sand dunes around them changed from pink to a golden brown.
I never knew.
Legend said the desert was a gift from the sky to the earth. The constellations saw a lush, green world and wanted to shower it with their light, and so they sprinkled bits of stars. Those star bits became specks of sand, and where they fell, nothing grew. So much fell that the creatures feared it would extinguish all of existence. All the birds flapped their wings and all the animals blew to create wind to move the sand into one area. And then the warrior Aur cracked the world in the middle of the sand and created the mighty river. Or something like that.
Raia’s father liked to tell that story as a cautionary tale for how even the best intentions can do harm, so why bother trying to be different from who you are? But that was the antithesis of how the augurs taught that story, and Raia was more inclined to believe them.
Because there was definitely something about all the sand that made her feel as if she were looking at a sky full of stars. The desert shimmered so brightly that she squinted from the glare.
At last, Trainer Verlas called to the rhino-croc to halt. He shuddered to a stop, his sides heaving and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Trainer Verlas vaulted off the bench, unhooked the water barrel, and carried it to the kehok. She pried open the top so the kehok could drink the water inside. He began lapping it up as Trainer Verlas secured shackles around the rhino-croc’s legs so he wouldn’t be able to run.
Raia climbed down from the bench. She’d been so tense holding on that her muscles were stiff. She felt like a piece of bent metal that needed to be straightened.
“Ready?” Trainer Verlas asked her.
She didn’t know what the correct answer would be. Yes? No? For what? Should she ask more questions? She had plenty, starting with: Was it safe to be out here? Sandstorms popped up all the time in the desert. Plus wild kehoks roamed the sands. And desert wraiths lurked beyond the edges of every city.
But Trainer Verlas didn’t wait for her to speak. She strode around the back of the cart with a hint of a limp. Raia wondered if it