Path to Destiny

Preface and Chapter 1

I urged my camel to go faster. Our guide was just ahead of us. And beyond the guide, I saw the outline of Barbos, a small town situated on the edge of the desert for travelers entering Balua. I glanced behind to see that the bandits were within several paces of us. I gritted my teeth. "They'll reach us before the city," I cried over the camel's racket. I could try to call on the Elemental inside of me, but that would bring too much attention to us. And besides, could I call on Eden after everything that happened in Eremith?

"I'll take care of them." I heard Titus behind me, and I looked to see his amber gaze on me. I nodded once.

He sped his camel to meet mine. "Hold my reins."

I grabbed the reins as he turned in his seat and faced the bandits. He made complex symbols in the air, weaving his hands back and forth in runic symbols of the sylph. His skin glowed with that strange otherworldly light again, and his eyes gleamed with excitement.

He completed the symbols, and the runic script blazed in the air, activating a fearsome windstorm that hurled toward the bandits. It swept them in a mess of sand. I stared for a long moment behind me at the destruction that Titus caused. Then I looked at Titus. He was grinning as he looked at me. "That didn't take much at all."

For a moment, I couldn't speak. He took the reins from me and hurried ahead. The bandits scrambled for a purchase in the sand that had drowned their ranks.

I was still looking at them when we reached Barbos.

***

The small town spread out before us. It was a small blink on the map, just on the eastern edge of the Baluan Desert. From here, we only needed to go southwest to reach Balua's capital, Kharieva.

The guide led Hadrian, Synnove, Titus, and me through Barbos. The houses were made of simple wood and stone, and many of them had miniature gardens hanging from their windows. Cacti and water-producing flowers with spiked thistles grew from these gardens. During the season of drought, there had to be some way to gather water.

It had been a week since we set off from Eremith. It took two days just to find a guide to lead us west across the desert to Barbos. Clarice, who vowed to "train" herself in Drush under some intelligent fighting master, was probably already in Drush now, living luxuriously on a bed of comfortable silk and cotton. And me? It had only been a week, and I was so exhausted I could collapse.

I followed behind the others, keeping my robe tight around my face to mask my features. The people of the town didn't seem surprised at our appearance, but I could sense an undertone of suspicion from their averted glances. Many foreigners came through here, but I wanted to keep my identity as a Harbinger a secret just in case.

Since we abolished slavery in Nor, slaveholders were moving west to Balua and south to Drush. Barbos was a slaveholding town, but it was near enough to Nor to have the influence of abolition. They didn't flaunt their slaves like Nor had. It was a barely visible wrong present in the hunched back of a small girl with pointed ears and dark skin, a man wearing too-large trousers to hide his deer legs and shackles as he slogged from stall to stall carrying an armload of precious items.

I passed a hooded creature that resembled a rocky golem. We made eye contact, but I immediately looked away.

I could not reveal my identity as a Harbinger here. It was far too dangerous.

The others hid their faces as well. Hadrian secured us a room with the local inn, and Titus paid the guide. A stable boy took our camels in the barn out back.

The inn was quaint and felt almost like home to me. Chairs and breakfast tables dotted the main lounge area, and a hall in the back led to all of the guest rooms. Back in Aria, my room had been a simple dwelling with plain accommodations. I was sick of the lavishness of magical cities and royal castles. This inn was marvelous.