A Sour Song
More hours passed with only the pounding of sand and the mumblings of Aurora to keep Devrim company.
Thanks to Sav's herbs, the fever had gone down for a time, but it was slowly creeping up to an uncomfortable level. He could feel the heat radiating through her clothes and into his tunic.
'She is going to cook from the inside out,' Devrim worried. Her shivering had picked up in intensity but had not turned into true shaking like when she first collapsed. Despite the warmth he was feeling, the Emperor pulled his wife close to ward off her chill.
The tightening of his muscles nearly made him drop Aurora. They had been tense for so long. Making them contract was more than he should have asked of his exhausted limbs.
But he couldn't let go.
'Just two more hours. We will be there in no time," he told himself. Really, he had no idea if this was true. The passage of time at night was marked by the moving of the stars, but Devrim had not been studying the sky enough to gauge any difference.
All he knew was that the moon had set a while before, leaving them to travel following Exlan's single torch. The light was nearly blinding in the darkness, but it was better than getting lost. Devrim wished he could ask the man how much farther they had to go, but the scout was too far ahead of him.
In fact, the Emperor couldn't ask anyone anything. The group was moving too quickly for conversation to be feasible. But no one complained. The Empress's life hung in the balance.
'Just two more hours,' Devrim repeated to himself. He could feel not only the fatigue of his body but of his mind as well.
The torch in front of him was going in and out of focus, growing dimmer and brighter based on how low his eyelids slid.
While there were men who could doze lightly in the saddle, he was not one of them. And the Emperor doubted anyone who had any wits would risk falling asleep at this pace. The resulting fall and trampling from those behind would surely spell the foolish man's doom.
Clearing his throat, Devrim began to hum softly. A jaunty tune would keep him awake. What would Junayd sing at a time like this?
"I know a lovely woman," he sang softly to himself. Aurora seemed to settle at the sound of his voice, so he eagerly continued. "Her cheeks are nice and rosy. I cannot help but stare at them. They look just like a posey."
Devrim winced. The rhyme was labored and awkward, but it was the man's own fault for ending a line with such a difficult word. Perhaps Junayd had more talent than the Emperor had given him credit for.
"Her teeth, they looked like pearls
Her eyes were just like diamonds
Her hair was like the sunset sky--"
The Emperor paused. What in the world would go with diamonds? 'Idiot, you should have made pearls go second. At least that rhymes with girls or earls...'
"Her voice, it sounded sublime and..."
The Emperor stopped. Not only was he just singing about Aurora's features, he was doing it very poorly. Beyond that, he felt more sleepy than ever. 'That was more like a lullaby than a jig.'
It was true. Even now the torch in front of him was fading as his eyelids slid shut. He forced them open but to no avail. They closed entirely.
'No!' Devrim shook his head and blinked, but the torch was nowhere to be found. Had he actually fallen asleep? How much time had passed?
Aurora was still in his arms, and there were thundering horses all around him, so he at least hadn't lost the group.
"Can you see the torch?" someone called forward.
"No. General, Can you see it?" Another voice broke the silence.
Devrim turned to the horse beside him. Although he could not clearly see the man's face, Nulan's outline showed him leaning over the neck of his steed and surveying the horizon.
If everyone was suddenly concerned, then they had just barely lost sight of the torch a moment before.
'I didn't fall asleep after all. That's good.' Devrim sighed in relief. Then he tensed. "But if the torched just disappeared, that could mean..."
The outline of the nearest dune suddenly shifted. The Emperor was barely able to avoid the sandwolf as it lunged from the ground.
"We are under attack!" Nurlan began to yell out orders to the soldiers.
Chaos reigned as the pale, hairless creatures emerged to swallow the entire contingency of soldiers.
The wolves had been undetectable in their ambush. Either they had been extra careful in laying the trap, or the humans had been unlucky. As Devrim had been expecting them to come up until recently, he knew it was the former.
Without the sun to ravage their skin, the wolves were fearless in their attacks. They quickly took two of the horses into the sand. One of the riders was unable to escape the same fate.
The Emperor wanted to pull his sword, but the woman in his arms kept him from being able to join the fight. The thing they all needed to do was get out of there. And fast.
Brinn was with him in a moment. "Run, Lover Boy!"
Devrim was already scanning the ground for the best possible exit. Even though many ferocious beasts were attacking from all sides, more could be lying in wait if they moved forward. He searched for the flattest area and caught a glimpse of light burning on the ground.
"The torch!" he called to Brinn.
The she-elf raced toward the light. Next to it, a shadow was fighting off something much bigger than itself. Exlan had tried to warn the others, but he had immediately been pulled under the sand. All he could do was release his torch and hope the others saw the warning.
Somehow he had clawed his way out of the beast's lair while it feasted on his horse, and now he was fighting off a smaller wolf with a sword. Though saying the creature was smaller was a bit misleading. It was still far bigger than the man by at least triple.
Brinn leaped off of her horse and picked up the torch. In her hand, she held a second piece of timber with an oil-soaked cloth on one end. She lit it and now had two blazing weapons in her hand.
"Exlan!" she tossed one to the man, and he immediately stabbed it into the beast's face when it launched to take a bite out of his skull. What little hair the creature had caught fire as the wooden brand plunged deep into the wolf's eye socket.
The runt retreated.
"We need more torches!" Exlan looked around for anything that could be set on fire. With his horse gone, he had none of the back-ups which were stored in his pack.
Brinn nodded. She whistled and Alvar appeared on his horse. No words passed between them as the he-elf drew out his torch and spare. Immediately three flames were blazing. One of them was passed to Exlar.
Brinn pointed at her husband. "They don't like the fire. Arm the others!"
Alvar rushed away as quickly as he came, leaving a trail of fiery dots with each person he passed.
"We have to make a path for His Majesty!" Brinn glanced back. Her natural vision was more keen than humans even without magic, and she could see the bulk of the soldiers had rallied around Devrim to protect him and the Empress.
But all that was doing was attracting the wolves to one place.
One of the wolves had just broken through the line and was tearing apart anything in its path.
"Hold this." From her back, Brinn unslung her bow. With a single deft motion, she drew an arrow and lit the liquid-coated tip. "Reyan!" she called, hoping the old fairy had not lost his uncanny hearing.
Reyan, who was flying over the madness, looked her way.
"On my mark, get His Majesty to flee toward me!" Brinn aimed her arrow at the wild wolf about to reach the Empress. "Now!"
At that moment, the fiery arrow flew at the crazed wolf, lodging deep in the soft flesh between the creature's neck and collar bone. It stopped moving suddenly and wobbled from side to side. Then it began to fall.
But the opening created by the rampaging monster was enough space for Devrim to ride full-tilt. He cleared the area as a wave of sand followed him from the crash caused by the wolf's demise.
"Go, don't stop!" Brinn screamed as Devrim rode between her and Exlan.
But the call was no use. For at that very moment, the large wolf who had led the ambush had finished his meal with Exlan's horse.
He was back for more.