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

Jane doubted that a map would do them any good. They had to travel towards the moons. She was hoping that they had arrived outside in the early stages of night, otherwise they were going in the wrong direction.

No matter what, she was simply happy to be here. A few hours of walking in the wrong direction wouldn’t hurt any of them.

She might be losing sight of the reason why they were here, but it was easy to do in her euphoria.

Home. She was home. Jane had told herself so many times that she didn’t miss this place but she had. She had removed her shoes the instant they had hit the sands. Now the warm sands slid between her toes with every step. She had then removed her cloak even though the winds could turn biting at any moment. She wanted to feel it against her face.

Already her cheeks had turned red. Ruric watched the change almost immediately. Out here she was paler than Below. Her skin had turned waxy and there were deep blue hollows underneath her eyes. But somehow being here had given her life he had yet to see.

In comparison, the goblins were not as green as she had thought. Their skin had instead taken on a sickly yellow hue now that white light was shining upon them. The blue lights had mixed with their skin tone to turn them green. With a different color light shining on them, she realized how very wrong her perception had been.

“The map was given to us for a reason.” Ruric appeared frustrated. “We cannot afford to lose time.”

Finally she whirled around, stopping the train of goblins that followed her like lost ducklings. “Ruric! I am not wandering in circles nor am I leading you elsewhere. I promised you to stop Simon and I intend to do it!”

Her voice held less power here than in the caves. There were no echoes to amplify her shouts. Yet somehow the dampened words seemed all the more important to him.

“We need to go the quickest way.”

“We need to stay alive.” She responded firmly. “Yes, it is going to take us a long time to get to the City. But I can get us back to the camp where I lived. That’s a start. We can get clothing for all of us, perhaps even rations for the journey. If we’re lucky we can tag along on a caravan that is going to the City already. It will save us more time than going directly to the City.”

She needed them to trust her. Jane had been traversing these sands her entire life and she had never felt more confident in her abilities. Her confidence was perhaps making her foolhardy. Yet her entire body felt as though it was singing to be outside once more.

“You cannot be out in the sun. We have to find a place that is safe to stay once the sun is up. Only then can we plan what to do for tomorrow.” She wished they could find some kind of vehicle. They were hard to come by and even harder to keep fueled. But certainly there was some kind of deal that could be struck.

These sands were host to all manner of people. Some lost souls wandered out to die in them, others lived here entirely by raiding mining camps. Raiders sometimes ventured to the City if they were brave enough. The plan was to avoid these men and women as much as possible.

She could see that the goblins didn’t trust her. They had their own plans and they wanted to stick to them. Shusar was already pulling the map out of Ruric’s pack.

They gathered in a circle around each other, chattering in the goblin language that they knew she could not understand.

Normally Jane would be insulted. She was the one that was supposed to be guiding them. She was the one that knew these lands. There was a childish part of her that wanted to prove that to them.

Instead, she allowed the goblins a moment to themselves and tilted her head back to gaze up at the stars.

The twinkling lights were in the same place she had last left them. She knew each constellation that gazed down upon her. They were her guides, her markers, and she had not realized how much she had missed them.

“Hello old friends.” She whispered. They gazed down at her with the same bright light as they had months ago. Somehow it felt as though it had been longer.

This was how she remembered her home. The blowing sands, the bright white glow from the twin moons above her. The warmth between her toes from a ground that never truly cooled.

She knew the sun would burn and blister her skin tomorrow. There was no doubt about that. Too much time had passed for her to be able to withstand the rays as long as she had before.

This place was familiar to her and yet now foreign. She had been raised amid golden colors and dangers ignored. Yet the entire time she had been here, Jane had wished it away. She had dreamed of the City and stone floors. Why had she never appreciated the life she had been given?

Her toes wiggled in the sand and she took in a deep breath of sand filled air. The bite from the swirling sands was a welcome one. She was immediately reminded of so many memories. Of dust storms, of laughter in tents, of people with shadows in their eyes.

The thought was sobering. Of course she missed her life here. But she could not forget the bad as well. There were too many facts that could taint the memories of the good. There was a reason why she had so few memories of people who still drew breath.

“Jane.”

Her head snapped towards the words. Ruric and the others were slowly folding the map and staring at her.

Of course they would stare. They