Born of Sand (Tales of a Dying Star Book 5) Read Free

know what you've done, what you intended."
    "Everything I've done, I've done for the safety of those I love."
    The man put a hand on his chest in mock surprise. "Why, that is curious. I have done exactly the same." He glanced at a device on his wrist and then gestured with the rifle. "Shit. Keep moving. We have a while to go, yet."
    Mira continued marching through the sand.
    The sun rolled across the yellow sky. The birds continued circling, until the man aimed and fired a beam, plucking one of them from the sky and scattering the others. He led them over to the beast, which had a stooped back and hunched shoulders, and a long neck that stretched away from its yellow-grey wings like a worm. The man tied a cord around its neck and slung it over his shoulder before they moved on.
    If she goaded him, would he kill her? A rifle blast would be a quick way to go. She turned to glance at him. If she lunged for the knife at his belt, would he defend himself by instinct? Or would he simply knock her away with an arm? Although not bulky, he appeared far stronger than she, with a lithe, concealed strength.
    "Stop it," he said, reading her mind. "I would encourage you to be as cooperative as possible. Shit'll go better for you."
    "I am going to be punished," she said. "It will not go well for me in any case."
    "Maybe," he admitted.
    Mira said, "I have no regrets. Everything I did, I did for them. They are safe, and that is all that matters."
    "I understand," he said.
    "What's your name?" Mira asked.
    "Farrow."
    "Do you have children, Farrow?"
    "No."
    "Then you do not understand at all."
    He snorted. "Shit on that. I understand love. I would do anything for the woman I love, especially in a moment of desperation."
    Mira shook her head. "That is not the same. Not the same at all. A person chooses a partner, decides they have attractive qualities. They spend time with them, learning about them, being with them. Knowing them. That love builds slowly, a mutual connection tended over time.
    "The love for one's children is different. It requires no fostering. From the moment Kaela and Ami were born into this world I loved them with every fibre of my being. It blossomed in my heart immediately, a fire that has never diminished. It needs no reciprocation. My daughters could hate me and curse me and it would change nothing for how I feel. Tell me, your partner. Can you envision a future without her? A world where you two are separated, by either death or choice? Where you continue on alone?"
    "I can," he said gruffly. "We've both accepted we may die at any time. A necessity, in our profession."
    Mira nodded. "For a mother, there is no future without them. They are all that exists, the sole motivation and reason for being. I would kill for them. I would steal for them." She gave an exasperated sigh. "I would have died for them, if you had let me."
    Farrow considered that. "I don't know whether or not that is true, but you make a compelling case. You should save it for the others."
    "Others?"
    Abruptly the ground trembled, shaking the sand all around them. "The coiled sand beasts," she blurted. "We're back in their territory. I passed it earlier."
    Farrow laughed. "Coiled sand beasts?"
    The vibration grew closer. " Yes ," she said. "Unless you don't believe in them."
    "Shit, I believe in them," he said, still not showing any alarm at all. "But we call them stingers, and they do not coil. Why are you so scared, if you want to die so badly?"
    "I wanted to die by my choice, not in the belly of some monster, and certainly not at the hands of some bounty hunter who carried me off to a peacekeeper prison cell."
    He pulled away the cloth covering his mouth and gave a rich laugh. Without the cloth his voice seemed more real. More human. "Peacekeeper? Shit, woman, you have no idea who I am and where we're going, do you?"
    Mira hesitated. "You said you were taking me back." She looked all around. The ground shook so roughly that she thought she might lose her