The Outworlder Read Free

many things flashed through
her mind, things regretted and things hoped for, and all seemed
shadows.
    She turned her head to the left and squawked
in surprise. Planted not six inches from her face were heavy
leather boots, almost the color of the sand that swirled around
them. She pushed herself over onto her side and looked up.
    A man stood over her.
    She blinked slowly at him, capturing details.
A strangely mottled, sand-colored jacket and pants. A sword with an
ornate ivory hilt in a shoulder scabbard. Some kind of goggles
dangling from bronzed fingers. A silver cloth bound around his nose
and mouth to keep out the sand. Dark hair framing eyes of
shimmering silver.
    Sahara stared at those eyes, cold seeping
into the pit of her stomach. She knew those eyes.
    He pulled the cloth down so that he could
speak to her. His jaw was strong and covered with the dark stubble
of a beard.
    “What keeps you here, xenali ?” When
she made no answer, he gestured at the swirling sands around them.
“The harbingers warn you to seek shelter.”
    “And where do you suggest I go?” she barked
hoarsely. She tried to lick her cracked lips. “You got any
ideas?”
    He made no answer, but crouched next to her
and helped her to sit up. He pulled a small flask from his deep
thigh pocket and held it to her lips. A thin trickle of liquid ran
into her mouth. She took it eagerly enough, but discovered
immediately that it was not water but something that burned
horribly. It set her coughing violently, and she shoved his hand
away and grabbed at her throat. His mouth twisted into a smile and
he stood, pulling her to her feet with him.
    It was another minute before she could
finally straighten up and face him. In spite of the nastiness of
whatever he had given her, it had restored some of her strength and
refreshed her a little.
    As he saw that she had recovered, another
grin swept across his bronzed face. “I will bring you to shelter, xenali .” He hesitated for a moment, and then added, “They
said I would find you here.”
    With her returning strength came a sudden
irrational rush of fury. “ They ? Who’re they ? And why
should they care? Or you, for that matter? Why should you care what
happens to me?”
    Much to her irritation, the venom in her
voice did not seem to surprise him, and she couldn’t push away the
nagging sensation that she knew this man somehow. It enraged
her.
    The sand swirled more thickly around them,
and he handed her a silver cloth like his own, folded over into a
triangle.
    “Put this over your mouth and nose. And put
these on.”
    He handed her a pair of glasses. She put them
on and the bands automatically clasped her head snugly, making a
tight seal around her eyes. He nodded briefly, then gestured to her
feet.
    “I can’t do anything about that right now,
I’m afraid.”
    She looked down and saw how badly the sand
had blistered them. Even the sight of them made her want to wince,
and she didn’t dare touch them for fear that she would show
pain.
    “We have herbs that will soothe them in
Albadir. You’ll have to wait till we get there.” He glanced up at
the horizon and the dunes around them, then beckoned to her. “Come
on. The sand will be unforgiving soon. We’ve got to get to
shelter.”
    “Tell me your name first,” she demanded as
she tied the cloth over her face and breathed deeply.
    He replaced the cloth over his own mouth and
nose, and, just before he put on his own glasses, his eyes glinted
at her in a sudden, hidden smile.
    “My name is Jared. Jared Alareth.”

     
     

Chapter 2
     
    Jared trekked swiftly northeastward, holding
her firmly by the hand so that she wouldn’t lose him in the rising
sandstorm. His pace was so quick that she had no breath to ask him
where they were going and why they didn’t just lie down and let the
sand take them to whatever afterlife awaited them.
    Only once did he look back at her, when she
lost her footing in the shifting sand and nearly fell. He