Kandy ended up spending that entire night with Taraji on the rooftop, talking about everything and nothing.

  Apparently she’d never left town before, and neither had anyone else in her family—or the rest of the town, for that matter. They weren’t exactly the nomadic type, Kandy figured.

  After learning that, Kandy had begun telling her about his own life. He told her about being the son of a mountain bandit leader and the various towns and places and sights he’d seen while traveling with his father.

  When it came to describing Boomtown, he found that Taraji was looking at him with confused eyes instead of excited ones.

  “You said the town was protected by something? A… mana barrier? What’s that?” Taraji interjected.

  “Well, um. It was like a wall but also a sphere, I guess. Half a sphere?” Kandy started but found it difficult to describe just what he’d seen—a result of his bandit upbringing.

  “Um. Like a dome?”

  “Yeah, a dome! That’s the word!” Kandy nodded. “It was an invisible dome that covered the town and some of the space around it.”

  “Why was it protected so safely?” Taraji asked. “Was there something in it that was dangerous?”

  “No, not at all. Everyone in Boomtown that I’ve met has been great to me.”

  Then, a few dark figures came to Kandy’s mind. “Well… mostly. There was this tiny dog who…” Kandy shuddered and found that he couldn’t continue.

  Instead, he turned his mind towards the other residents of Boomtown, like Sweet, who…

  Hm. Actually, she really was quite dangerous. In fact, now that he thought about it, they were all dangerous. It’s not like they were bad people, but if it came to it…

  “Well they’re dangerous, I guess, but they’re not bad people.“ Kandy assured. “They’re not the type to abuse the power they have.”

  Taraji was silent for a few moments, then said, “I wish it was like that here too. I’ve heard stories of how incredible Emberos used to be.

  “It seems that most have forgotten, but long ago, Emberos was a vibrant, luscious planet. The Crow God was magnanimous with his children, his most devoted followers similarly kind-hearted. But then the Crow God changed, and he began to shape Emberos as he liked, destroying kingdoms and civilizations without any care for the destruction he wrought.

  “Only a small section of the planet has been spared, for his sons and daughters to enjoy themselves while the rest of us—”

  Taraji stopped speaking as the subtle sound of distant wings flapping could be heard, and her expression immediately turned to one of absolute panic and terror.

  “Quiet!” she intensely whispered, even going as far as to cover Kandy’s mouth with her hand.

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  The only sound, for a few moments, was their ragged breathing and hearts pounding against their rib cages—Taraji, because of what she’d just heard. Kandy, because, well… their positions were a bit intimate.

  After a few moments had passed and nothing had happened, Taraji clambered to her feet and motioned for Kandy to do so as well.

  “I would have liked to speak further, Kandy, as it’s been an enjoyable night, but unfortunately we must cut this short. It would do you well to get a head start on your journey before the sun comes up in a few hours.”

  “What happened?” Kandy asked. “I thought we were having a good time.”

  “We were, Kandy. But there are dangerous ears in the night.” Taraji lightly pushed against the small of Kandy’s back, forcing him down the stairs.

  “Quick, wrap yourself up. They do not have good eyesight in the night, and you were protected by the walls of our rooftop. You will have no such protections in the desert.”

  “Who doesn’t have good eyesight in the night?” Kandy wanted to ask, but Taraji did not respond.

  Instead, she remained silent, and the second Kandy was fully wrapped, Taraji pushed him toward and through the front door of her home.

  “Will you be safe?” Kandy asked. “You seem pretty worried.”

  “I will be safe.” Taraji dusted off Kandy’s shoulders and adjusted the bandages beneath his cloak. “It is you who I am worried about.”

  “Never forget, Kandy,” Taraji stared into his eyes with an intense gaze. “The desert is vast, and the night is dark and full of terrors.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Kandy grinned. When he turned to leave, her hand grasped his and pulled him back.

  He felt a moistness on his left cheek and instinctively raised a hand to touch it. Surprised, Kandy stared at Taraji, who smiled before shutting the door in his face.

  With a wide grin, Kandy looked up at the moon and sighed. “Karasu might have done some good after all.”

  ***

  “Someone’s definitely following me,” Kandy muttered to himself as he stabbed a sandworm, puncturing a gaping hole in its chest.

  “It’s strange, though. If they were enemies, they should have attacked me by now. We’re in the middle of nowhere, and I just dealt with…”

  He looked around at the dozens of sandworm corpses around him. “I guess a family of sandworms? An extended family? That would have been a good time for them to get close and strike.”

  “Are they here to make sure I’m doing my task?”

  Kandy looked up at the sky—it’d been a few days since he’d left Taraji’s town, and the night had only begun an hour or two earlier.

  If there was a time for him to try and put some distance between him and those keeping an eye on him, this was it.

  Still, he couldn’t turn tail immediately, as it was time to harvest his rewards for killing the sandworms. Terrifying and disgusting as they were, they were still conscious beings—their deaths shouldn’t go to waste.

  He spent another hour or so harvesting the fluids that poured out of the sandworms’ wounds. As soon as he finished, though, Kandy turned and immediately sprinted away with every ounce of strength he could muster. A few seconds later, he caught the sound of an angry caw somewhere behind him and grinned to himself.

  If it was who he thought it was, surely they’d find him again, as they knew where he was headed.

  But Kandy didn’t care. He just didn’t like the idea that someone was watching his every move. After all, couldn’t a man sleep and shit in peace?

  He couldn’t tell exactly how fast he was going, but it felt really fast. Far faster than when he’d raced Jabari what felt like lifetimes ago.

  It felt absolutely amazing, almost as if he were gliding through the air. It felt even better when Kandy realized after an hour or so that he wasn’t being attacked by sandworms anymore because he was covering so much distance with each step that they weren’t even aware of his presence.

  But that was only because they were beneath the surface.

  A cloud of sand dust trailed Kandy’s path, noticeable from miles away. A pair of human heads poked out just above the crest of a faraway dune.

  “He’s quite fast,” one spoke to the other.

  “Too fast. It won’t be possible to warn the city, even with smoke,” the other added. “But still, I guess we should do it so we don’t get yelled at.”

  “Or…” the other looked at him with a wide grin. “We could just drink some cactus juice and relax. Once he’s past us he’s not our problem, right?”

  “You drive a hard bargain, my man. Let’s cut up a cactus!”