The Goblin Warrior (Beneath Sands Book 2) by Emma Hamm (100 books to read txt) 📕

The woman they knew was gone. Before them was a creature of sand and dust. A woman made of sunlight and wind.

Ruric knelt to one knee and picked up a handful of sand. It slid through his fingers in a waterfall of silent movement. He could not help but feel as though the same was happening with Jane.

5

The City seemed to gleam at night. There were sparkles from every window for what seemed like miles around her. Each one was a gemstone, a bright light in the darkness.

Once Willow wouldn’t have known what a gemstone had even looked like. Now she had seen dozens.

The time she and her brother had spent here, though brief, had left a lasting impression on the youngest Penderghast sibling. She was at an impressionable age. That was what her new teachers had insisted time and time again. Her brain was a sponge that was just waiting to soak up the correct information.

Correct information.

She was certain all they wanted her to soak up with their information.

Since they were so insistent upon reworking her brain, Willow responded with more rebellion. She didn’t want to change and didn’t think that she should forget her life away from here. The lessons she learned on the sands were just as important as the menial things they wanted to teach her.

Willow had always been the one to rebel. She preferred to be the wild child. The sand dunes had been her haven and the place where her imagination had bloomed. She was a sand raider, a warrior, the woman people feared when they fell asleep.

And sometimes she was the benevolent ruler who allowed them to live. But only because she said so.

There was no playtime here. There were only teachers that rolled their eyes at her antics and would punish her for not following the rules. And there were so many rules.

She couldn’t understand why there were rules for clothes. For eating. For talking. There were even rules for walking! The people here didn’t know how to simply live and enjoy living.

Even at nine years old she understood that.

They kept forcing their thoughts into her head. They pushed and shoved information and words until she felt as though she was going to break. When she didn’t listen, they smacked her hands with rulers or twisted her ears.

Instead of bending to their will, she had withdrawn. She knew when she had been bested. After all, she was only nine.

Willow found herself slipping away from others so that she could have a few moments to herself. Only alone could she allow the few moments of pretend that took her out of this world and into one of her own making. That was where she was happiest. She could breathe in those worlds.

Frequently, she found her sister in those imaginary places. Jane would walk out of the dunes with her arms opened wide. Her death had hit Willow the hardest. Luther had been devastated of course. Jane had been his sister too. But he had used those emotions as an excuse to work harder than ever before.

Willow rarely saw him now. He was either in school or at work trying to prove to the world he deserved to be here. He barely slept as far as she could tell, but at least his coworkers made sure he ate. He was set on being the best sands person they had brought here.

She had no doubt he would be. Of course Luther would be the best. But that didn’t mean that Willow was going to allow them to change her into a different being.

She had expected the City to gleam in the sun and give them all the things that they would ever want. That was what everyone said of this place. Everyone had shouted how lucky they were to be leaving when they had finally left the mining town.

They weren’t lucky. How could they be lucky when her made up world was so much better than this place?

Willow didn’t like to be selfish. She supposed, in a way, they were lucky. They had a beautiful home with food and water. They were getting an education. There was a roof over their head.

But there was something so wrong about the way they were forced to become different people. Even she was feeling the fire that burned within her chest starting to dampen. Willow had put her foot down many times, but there was only so much she could do in the face of men and women.

Children had no place here.

Her head dropped onto her knees as she stared up at the sky. There weren’t any stars here. The people at school said it was only because the light made it so they couldn’t see the stars anymore. But Willow had a feeling that they were simply gone now.

Her shoulders lifted with a sigh, but she remained on her perch. She had been told many times that she wasn’t allowed to be on the roof. Ladies didn’t climb up onto metal grates and put themselves in such danger. If she was being a good girl, then she would remain inside.

Willow wasn’t a good girl. She had tried to explain that to them so many times. She didn’t want to be a good girl. She wanted to be a warrior.

They didn’t care.

Up here she could almost see the desert. The wall was lit up so brightly that she couldn’t see past it, but she knew that bright line meant the sands were just beyond her reach. That was where her home was. That was where she belonged.

Her eyes would watch that line for the entire night if she was allowed. It was where her family was. Where Jane was.

Willow still hadn’t given up on the chance that her sister might still be alive.

“Willow?”

Her brother’s voice was the last thing she wanted to hear. She rubbed at her eyes and ignored him.

“Willow.” A movement