The Ivory Road: A Walk in the Sand Read Free Page A

least.” The horse sounded amused as he carried her toward the top of a dune. “I think you just need to expand your perspective. ‘There is more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy,’ Iliana.”
    She snorted. “Did you just quote Shakespeare to me?”
    “The Bard is famous in all the worlds I know because he understood there are different universes and dimensions.” The horse grunted as the dune steepened. “This one is different enough to allow for talking horses, but similar enough to keep the same planet name.”
    “A different dimension.” Iliana rubbed her face again. “Come on, where are we, the Twilight Zone? This only happens in stories, but reality is quite different. First of all, how did I get here? And who is Kyra? Why does Crowe think I'm her?”
    “You must have been in the right place at the right time when the dimensions shifted.”
    “Shifted.”
    “Yes. When they shift, they rub against each other a little like sandpaper, and can wear a hole in each other. At least enough to let beings sift through.” The horse nodded his head as he climbed. “As for Kyra, do you recall the body we passed earlier?”
    “Yeah.” She swallowed against the cold feeling in her stomach. “Why?”
    “That was the person Crowe talked about.”
    “But the body looked male. It was a dead guy, right?”
    “Yes, his name was Kyram Tortenson.”
    “Then why did Crowe say he was looking for a woman if that was Kyra?”
    “Because Kyram never pronounced the “M” on the end of his name, never grew a beard, and had effeminate airs. He also never corrected Crowe.”
    “Did you talk to Kyram, too? I mean, I assume you were his horse.”
    “You know what’s said about assumptions.”
    Iliana resisted the urge to slam her heels into the horse’s side. “Did you talk to him or not?”
    “No.”
    “So why are you talking to me?”
    “You’re prettier?”
    She groaned and secured the veil across her mouth and nose when the wind came up. They crested the dune and paused, taking in the vista of unending sand. Damn. How the heck am I going to get home?
    “So the dead guy you didn’t talk to, how did he die?”
    “I suspect he bled out if the blood stain in the sand is any indication.” The horse flattened his ears for a moment.
    “Great, so he sprung a leak?”
    The horses snorted. “I assume you gave it to him.”
    She shivered. “What are you talking about? I’ve never killed anyone in my life and my sword is clean. I checked. Why would you think I killed him?”
    “You can't just show up in a new dimension without displacing someone else, and you can’t come to a new dimension unless the current version of you does not exist.” The horse turned its head to eye her again. “Hmm, if it wasn’t you, then the person who killed Kyram traded places with you. I believe he killed Kyram to keep Crowe from making it across the desert before the army could catch him. The person who traded places with you must have been a Knalish assassin.”
    Iliana's mind whirled with all the new information. Talking horses and new dimensions. This doesn’t make sense. What if this really was heat exhaustion? All of it would be bullshit and she actually lay out in the sands somewhere dying from exposure. That would explain the weird names and the talking horse. But she felt as solid as ever, and in her dreams, she always had an ethereal feeling.
    She tried to feel the truth in her gut as she stared across the dunes marching off into the pale horizon. Iliana's eyes caught sight of something off in the distance ahead of them. A huge dust cloud rose from the sands into the clear blue sky, larger than the one Crowe and his raiders had made.
    “Uh, horse, what is that?” she asked slowly.
    “I suspect it’s the approaching army.”
    Her gut sank again. “That's an army? Dear God, it must be huge.”
    “It’s rumored to be something around thirty thousand strong.”
    “Shit. Really?” She debated the