The feasting lasted late into the day. I kept being offered different foods, being introduced to different Khusuru elders, and being thanked for lifting a curse I didn't know I'd be able to do anything about.
When we were finally allowed to drag our tired bodies to a tent to sleep, we were offered a strange suspended mat for each of us to sleep on. It was a soft fabric woven into a large rectangle, but each corner was lifted off the ground by a wooden post. After I figured out how to climb on it, it was surprisingly comfortable. It was easy to close my eyes and pretty quickly be asleep.
I had a dream that night of Bryn. I couldn't remember much of it, but I woke up with dampness around my eyes. I yawned and looked over to where Nassir and Schula were sleeping on their own suspended mats. I was the first one up for once.
I swung my feet off the mat and onto the sand, stretching and enjoying the coolness under my toes. A rare treat here in the desert, but the tent that kept the sun off the sands kept the heat from reaching it for the most part too.
I crept outside while the others slept, the sun still setting. How I woke up with such little sleep I didn't know, but I was glad for a breath of air without the whole village hovering over me.
A line of clothing was hanging out between two other tents and I walked up to have a look. The fabrics were so light and colorful, nothing like the thick and practical things I usually wore. It reminded me a bit of the clothing in Dwellonmar, but of a more human style.
"Aoyi'ka like scarf?"
I turned to see an old Khusuru man with an armful of more clothing to hang.
"Yes," I turned back to look at the colorful fabrics again. "They are lovely."
"Aoyi'ka take," the old man said. He pulled a light orange scarf from his arms and put down the rest. He put the scarf over my head and tied it under my braid at the base of my neck. "Aoyi'ka take. Gada make."
He pointed to himself, then the scarf, then me.
"You made this?" I lifted the end of the scarf to inspect it closer. Tiny white flowers were embroidered on the edge. "It's beautiful. Thank you."
"Keep head from ouch." The old man pointed to the top of his scalp, then up at the sky. "Sun, ouch."
"Yes, I understand." A sunburn.
"Good." He nodded curtly and picked his stack of clothing back up. "Aoyi'ka take. Good."
He walked away to another clothing line and began hanging his stack of cloth. I raised a hand to the scarf on my head and smiled. The Khusuru were pretty unafraid of me, even with my ears and lithe features. I knew I didn't look entirely human anymore, and these people didn't care at all. I could get used to that.
"Hello there, aoyi'ka."
I looked up to see Kai with a content Puko on his shoulder as he ate half a lizard. I grimaced at the lizard but smiled at Kai.
"Hello there. I didn't get to see you at all yesterday. How were you treated? Alright?" I asked.
Kai shrugged. "Better than I expected I suppose. Well today is the day. Are you ready to go to the Stone of Souls?"
"I think so," I said. "But what exactly is the stone of souls? I've heard it's name but I don't know what it is."
"Ah, they wouldn't really explain it to an outsider, would they?" Kai looked around and motioned for me to follow him to a shady patch of sand near the horse tent. It smelled, but we were alone.
"I don't know how they will feel about me telling you, but you should at least have an idea of what you're getting into. The Stone of Souls is a huge rock face that sticks up from the sand. When a person of the sands dies, they are mourned for three days. Their stories are told and their favorite food is eaten. And then, their name is carved into the Stone of Souls. Supposedly that will allow the soul to pass to the earth, mingling with the rest of the sand people for eternity."
"No wonder it's a sacred place," I said. "But there is a curse on it?"
Kai shrugged. "That part I don't know about. I just know what the stone is from my mother. Her name will be up there too, but with a strike through it to show her dishonor."
Kai's face darkened. "I don't care if they want to treat me like a jadaama, but my mother loved her people. She was outcast for loving my father. She deserves her name on the Stone of Souls."
"That's awful, I'm sorry, Kai." I placed a hand on his shoulder and Puko pecked it. "Ouch! You little imp."
I scowled at the raven and Kai laughed, reaching up to stroke his feathers. "What's done is done. I think we should go break our fast. I'm sure they will want to ride out soon."
"Sure," I said. "Um, where should we go?"
I looked over to the Headman's tent but there was no bustle of activity around it like there was last night. In fact, I could still see a couple of men passed out on the ground.
"The regular meal tent will suffice this morning. They even let me eat in it last night, so I'm hoping I can get something if I stroll in with the great aoyi'ka."
He winked and I sighed.
"Glad to be of assistance I suppose."
Kai laughed and took us to a tent with a little more head room. A lazy drift of smoke from the back told me they were cooking right behind it.
Few people were in the tent when we entered. Some glanced up to see me and a few heads bobbed a greeting, but for the most part I was left in peace to get my food.
Kai showed me to a flap at the back where we were passed a large, flat piece of bread from the cook and a bowl of thick brown paste.
"What is this?" I asked as Kai sat us down at an empty space of mats.
"Flat bread and hummus. Here, dip it in like this." Kai tore a piece of his own bread and scooped up some of the paste with it. He then put the large bite in his mouth.
I mimicked his actions as best as I could, but took a much smaller bite. "It's good."
"I'll see if they will give me some for the rest of the aoyi'ka's party and maybe we can bring Schula and Nassir breakfast in their tent."
"They'd like that," I smiled. "Although, I'm not sure Nassir would want to miss his chance to ask the cooks questions about the origins of their food or something."
"Well for the cook's sake I'll try extra hard to get them breakfast." Kai winked and went off to ask for more, taking another large slice of bread and hummus with him as he went. I gathered up what I could and by the time Kai came back with more food, we were ready to go to the tent.
It wasn't a far walk, and I ducked into our sleeping tent to see Nassir and Schula yawning.
"Mmm, Wren. Is that breakfast?" Schula asked.
"It is." I giggled. "Here. And here, Nassir. Let me help you with that."
We sat and had a pleasant breakfast before making sure our bags were packed and secured. When Tali poked her head into our tent, I knew our time at the Khusuru village was over.
"Come, aoyi'ka. It is time." Tali delivered her brief message and pulled her head back out of our tent without waiting on an answer. I looked to the others and Schula sighed.
"Well, let's go break a curse," she said as she stretched her arms over her head.
"If we even can," I said cautiously.
"I don't know what may have changed in the last few centuries," Nassir added. "But most curses upon the humans are simply mischievous unseelie creatures."
"If that's the case, we should be fine," I said. "I just hope it's something simple that we can help with."
"Well, there is only one way to find out then." Nassir stood, took his pack, and left the tent. The rest of us followed into the evening light.
"Aoyi'ka," Tali addressed me. "Headman wants us to take you to the Stone of Souls. We will bring some hunters too. Let's go."
We didn't have much option but to follow Tali as she stalked through the camp and to a group of Khusuru outside the line of tents. All had horses, as well as extra horses for Kai and Schula. Nassir and I would still have riders to help us, apparently.
"Aoyi'ka, this is lead hunter, Meon." Tali pointed to a lean man, carrying one of those short spears and curved wood sets that I kept seeing.
"Meon might find things to bring back, or might need help fight." Tali shrugged. "Either way, he comes."
I nodded. "Nice to meet you, Meon."
"He don't speak jadaama. Let's go." The ever efficient Tali whistled and rounded up her riders. Meon waved his hunters to their own formation, and the rest of us were shoved on horses. I had a new rider this time, one a little softer around the edges and who could speak better in the common tongue. Her light green clothes billowed around her as she moved with grace. If I didn't know better, I would have thought she was part elf too, but she smelled completely human and had no trace of the Wyldes in her. She was simply elegant.
We took off and went mostly south. The ride was hard again, and silent. The winds were a little high tonight, and I instantly knew why Tali and her riders covered their faces. With the speed of horseback and the winds brushing by us, bits of sand could take us by surprise and hit me in the face. After a while of working up the courage to remove my hands from my rider's waist, I balanced on the horse and tried to refashion my new head scarf like the Khusuru riders did, wrapping most of my face save for my eyes. I'm sure it didn't look as neat as Tali's, but it did the job.
We stopped for a break to eat and relieve ourselves and our horses. Then we rode again. Puko stayed mostly on Schula or Kai, or took to the skies. The Khusuru were uneasy about him at first, but soon he was playing games with them like racing the horses or weaving between the riders.
The evening pushed on, and the sun began to rise. When we stopped to set up a sleeping shade, I knew we weren't reaching the stone tonight.
I was helped off the horse by my rider, and Schula was already there to subtly lend me some of her cooling relief with a mischievous grin.
"It gets easier with time you know. Riding the horses," Schula said.
"I should have asked for a pair of those padded pants," I grumbled.
"Let's get your mat down and see how you feel," Schula said and took my pack from me.
The shades were set, our mats were laid out, the horses were gathered and some hard tack was passed around as dinner. It wasn't particularly appetizing, but we all ate it anyway. Puko refused though, and flew off to find his own dinner.
I found out from Tali that we had two more days to go before we were at the Stone of Souls. At least we were still getting closer to the southern border of the desert, according to Kai.
One things is for sure though, once this was finally over, I was done with horses for good.