Page 29 of City of Snakes
“This trail is hard to navigate at night. Do you want a hand?” he asked. I found it oddly comforting that he’d asked instead of assuming.
I grasped his offered fingers, and he led us down into a dry wash. His hand was rough in mine with calluses from where one might hold a sword.
I joked, “Here lies Sybilla Wymark: She took the hand of her enemy.”
“I am not your enemy,” he ground out as we veered left around some low branches. Thorny trees grew denser in the riverbed, the water allowing life to thrive here even in the middle of the desert.
The rocky bank was steep, slick and smoothed, and his grip tightened. My ankles felt stiff and unreliable, and I was glad for the darkness that veiled my grimacing.
“Fuck!” My foot slipped on a smooth rock.
I squeaked as Krait pulled me upright and steadied me.
“You use such charming language.”
“Oh, please,” I huffed. I could hear a trickle of water now.
He let out a “hmph” in response.
If I squinted through the darkness, I could make out the glimmer of the riverbed below. “What do you need to show me in this death trap?”
He brought me closer to the wall of the canyon, and then guided my hand to press my fingers against the rock face. We were so deep in the wash that the walls surrounding the riverbed formed a cliff above us, blocking out the city lights above. I felt a rough line where the smoothness of the rock ended. “This is one of the reasons you’re here.”
“I’m here...to fondle some rocks in the dark with you?”
He let out a ragged laugh. “No...This is where the waterline used to be just a few years ago. This is my realm’s only water source, and it runs off the Hussa Mountains. We divert it to the canals.”
The warmth of his hand left mine, but I continued to feel the rough edge. My throat grew tight as I tried to determine how far we were from the trickling water below. Too far.
“You’re running out of resources.”
“Water is a pretty damn important one. Without it, immortals can sustain themselves longer than mortals, but not forever. Our population has thrived, but as our droughts grow longer with each passing year, that river runs lower. Soon the canals will be impacted. It will grow harder and harder to live here.”
He stood facing me, watching me. I could only see the outline of his features in the darkness. Standing here in a wash, shadows of sad bare trees above us, and nothing between us but our own breath and the trickling sound of a too-low river below, I began to understand the King of the Sahlms.
“How long do you have?” I asked.
“A few years, give or take. Then many will need to leave.”
I blew out a breath.
Darvanda shifted to lean against the canyon wall on one forearm.
“And where do I play a part in that?”
He wasn’t only aligning himself with me because of some silly power move. His people neededwater.
A basic necessity. A right of all in Henosis.
He took a deep breath between his teeth as if it pained him. “You have connections in the North. Mattock senior long ago stopped corresponding with me, but his son, the boy you’ve been wrapped up with, might be willing to break down some of the dams. They prevent the full flow of water into our realm.”
I scoffed. “I can try. But that relationship is still...strained.”
“Then unstrain it. I thought you’d prove more useful.” His breath rustled the hair at my temple as he loomed over me, and his tone baited me.
I stood up a bit taller, not wanting to admit my alliances were weakened beyond repair. “Nothing I can’t fix.”
If this was what he’d brought me here for, it was best he didn’t think I was incapable of helping him.
