It would keep well enough in its dry, dark hiding place until she could return for it. She walked on with her head down, careful of her own footing, avoiding the prickles and shifting sand.
In a few more miles, Cheyne smelled salt in the air and looked up to see a gull circling overhead. "Looks like we're not far from the South Sea."
Claria shook her head. 1 don't think so. Yob is taking us steadily west. A long, long time ago, this whole area was underwater. When the land emerged again, the flood left a small inland ocean at the edge of Wyrvil territory. It's called the Silver Sea."
"I remember passing over it once. There was a long bridge."
"You have been on this path before?" said Claria, startled.
"Not precisely, and it was long ago. Coming the other way. We were in a hurry, and it's been a long time, so most of it doesn't look at all familiar." He paused, thinking. "I was with the lost caravan."
"You? I thought no one had survived that attack. The Fascini proclaimed the route closed and told everyone the travelers had all been killed. Lots of strange rumors about that in Sumifa right after the Great Purge."
"The Great Purge?"
"Happened when the last Fascini king thought the juma were getting too powerful. The old king was Maceo's father. He's dead now, but when he thought the juma were about to seize the city, he had them all murdered. Imagine, that old man afraid of a bunch of women living above the oasis in those caves."
"I thought the juma were a fighting order. Maybe he had some reason to fear them," said Cheyne, recalling some of Claria's moves in the altercation in the alley.
"They were-a thousand years ago. And they still could have been; their mastery and knowledge of martial arts have never been equaled. But there were never enough of them to revolt outright-they believed their