They were sore, and so they moved tentatively. They sipped from the water-skin and morosely saw how empty it was becoming. They returned to the wreckage and the awful smell of bloated carcasses. The sabertooths stood and roared once again. Tarag’s pets prowled where they had before, about five hundred yards away. Golden grains waved in the wind before them, but it was no rampart, no fortification. Only the curse kept the great cats at bay.
“Before the day is out, we’ll take our last drink,” Gens said.
Joash kept wondering if he should have taken Mimir up on the offer of body servant. He wouldn’t have to be contemplating his death this way. His choices were stark: death under a burning sun, or death under ravenous claws.
Herrek studied him.
“Do we fight?” Joash didn’t want to die, but he didn’t know what to do. After so much, it seemed unfair they perish now.
Herrek smiled tiredly. “We’ll die if we battle the sabertooths.”
“And we’ll die if we don’t find water.”
“Yes.”
“Do not the warrior codes of Elon say it is better to die facing the enemy?” Joash asked.
Herrek swung his makeshift mace.
“You’ve said before that your scars are on your front, not on your back,” Joash said. “Shall we not then face these final enemies?”
“Wait.” Adah said. “There is a better way.”
“Your poisoned arrows are gone,” Herrek said.
“Is it not better to tell of what we’ve seen than to let the secrets die?” she asked.
Herrek admitted it was so.
“Then any tool should be used, yes?” she asked.
Herrek pondered that.
“The giant and First Born are evil,” Adah said, “and what they plan is evil.”
“What is your strategy?” Herrek asked.
She smiled at Joash and told Herrek, “Fire.”
Herrek scowled.
“Notice the wind,” she said. “It blows toward the sabertooths. Look at the yellow grasses, they will burn if fired.”
Herrek studied the terrain. “Your idea has merit.”
“If we’re lucky,” she said, “we can follow behind the prairie fire all the way to the lake.”
“We don’t have enough water,” Gens told her.
“Should we lie down and die then?” she asked.
“No,” Joash said. “We have too much to live for.”
Adah smiled. It made Joash realize the truth of his words, and it thrilled him to be smiled at like that.
Joash used his kit, which he’d cached with the water-skin. Soon his torch burned, as well as chariot splinters. They each carried two torches and spread out, until forty feet separated them one from the other. Carefully, they approached the snarling beasts.
“Do not approach them too closely,” Adah warned Joash.
Herrek dashed toward the sabertooths and hurled a torch at one. The second torch he hurled to his left. The others followed his example, throwing torches in a pre-determined line. The dry grasses immediately caught fire. The wind blew the fire into a crackling blaze and the sabertooths snarled with a note of fear.
The four humans backed away from the blaze. The heat was too much. A shift in the wind forced them to race back to the rocks. Shortly however the wind shifted to its regular pattern, and now the fire was about a hundred feet in length. With a strong gust of wind, it leapt toward the beasts. They snarled and retreated.
Herrek ran back to the water-skin and slung it over his shoulder. They waited. The fire grew. In time, it roared and began to advance faster than a man could run. They watched it chase the sabertooths. As the fire advanced it also grew longer. In the hope that they could walk on hotter ground, each of them tied slabs of wood to their sandals.
“That was a good idea,” Joash told Adah.
“Thank you.”
“Do you think we’ll make it?”
“I hope so.”
Joash glanced at Herrek. The warrior judged the fire and the distance the sabertooths had run away. With his heart thumping, Joash took Adah’s hand and squeezed it. “I think we’ll make it.”
She squeezed back, and in that moment, she almost seemed as young as he did. A tired smile curved her lips, and she pecked him on the mouth.
Emboldened, he kissed her back.
“Joash,” she chided, “not in front of the others.”
He grinned and squeezed her hand once more, then let go.
“Now!” Herrek shouted.
They advanced into the sooty area. Heat radiated from the blackened earth, drenching them with sweat.
“We must ration the water carefully,” Herrek said, his voice ringing with hope. “Thus, unless you are staggering and seeing visions, I will not allow you to drink.”
For the first half-hour they endured the heat and the fast pace. After an hour of walking, they constantly asked the Champion for a drink. He never complied. By the second hour, with the entire horizon ablaze and with the heat a staggering burden, they looked on Herrek as an enemy.
“Water,” Gens whispered, pawing at Herrek.
Herrek, with his hardened face never looking back, trudged one foot ahead of the other.
Adah moaned softly. She limped, falling behind. Joash had checked her feet at the last stop. The right one had badly blistered.
“Lean on me,” he whispered.
“No,” she croaked. “I won’t burden you. Someone must take our message.” Her limp increased. She fell farther behind.
“Slow down,” Joash told Herrek.
The Champion seemed to be made of granite. He didn’t appear to have heard.
Joash’s mouth was dry; his skin was hot and clogged with black ashes. The very earth robbed him of precious strength. He could hardly think.
“Water,” Gens moaned, pawing at Herrek.
“March,” Herrek whispered, his lips cracked.
Joash turned. Adah had fallen even farther behind. He waited until she limped even with him. Without a word, he took one of her arms and put it over his shoulder. She was so light, so small. After a hundred yards, however, the extra weight had caused more sweat to leap onto his skin.
“Let me march by myself,” she whispered.
Joash couldn’t force his lips to move or his tongue to form words. Both were too dry. When she tried to move away he held her wrist and refused to let go. At last she relented, and they continued to trudge together. Soon, in a delirium, Joash considered using his knife to try to slay the carrier of the precious water. At last, at the third hour, Herrek let them sip. The trickle of liquid never tasted so good. Joash wanted to smile at Adah, but his cracked lips would bleed if he tried.
“More,” Adah whispered.
Herrek let them sip a little more and then capped the water-skin and arose. “We must keep marching. Once we run out of water, the race is over.”
“I can’t go on,” Gens said in a pitiful voice.
“My feet hurt,” Adah said.
Joash had looked at them an hour ago. He didn’t understand how she could walk.
“If you want another drink of water,” Herrek whispered, “you’ll have to march after me.” He turned toward the distant lake and began moving.
Gens made a ghastly sound of despair, but arose and followed. Joash and Adah did likewise.
In such a manner the day dragged on. Ashes rested in their mouths. Their faces were black, and their clothes sooty. By nightfall, they’d consumed all the water. Still, somehow, they staggered. Herrek would not let them halt. Gens at last succumbed and fell onto his face. He raved about his slain stallions. Herrek and Joash helped him up. Adah walked like an automaton, now using the sides of her feet. The journey was bitter agony, and they feared least the sabertooths return.
“Run!” Herrek whispered.
What he saw, the others didn’t see, but by the light of the moon, they staggered faster. At last, they sprawled onto the heated ground and heaved air. Every muscle hurt. Somehow, Herrek made them stand again and stagger for the lake.