Princess Azura Stellaryn's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The gray world grew large in the viewport of Sambad Archer's ship. Azura had traveled three days with the scarred warrior who knew the way to the Wellspring. He said little. He steered his sleek ship through dead cloud, its blue lights tracing the hull. Below them the dead world turned. No green, no water, only ash and rock. Azura pressed her hand to the cold glass. The place that held her people's power was a grave. "We land soon," Sambad said. He did not look at her. "You can't walk out there. No air. No heat. The cold will kill you fast." Azura had not thought past the door of the ship. She had chased the twin rivers for years. Now she saw she had chased them like a dream, not a place a body must survive. "Then how do I reach the temple?" Sambad rose and crossed to a wall panel. He pulled it open. Inside hung a white suit, sleek, with a rounded helmet and an oxygen tank on the back. Green lines ran down its arms and legs. "This. One suit. It's yours." She stared at it. "And you?" "I've crossed that ground before." He touched the scar on his cheek. "My blood remembers the cold. I don't need it." He lifted the suit down and held it out. "Put it on. Or stay on the ship and learn nothing." Azura took it. The suit was heavier than she expected. She had ruled a hall in a shimmering gown. Now she pulled stiff white fabric over her arms and sealed the seams with clumsy fingers. Sambad watched without helping. When she reached for the helmet, he finally moved. "Wrong way." He turned the helmet in her hands and locked it to the collar. Air hissed. The green lights woke. Cold gave way to a faint warmth against her skin. "Tank gives you four hours. Watch the gauge. When it drops, you come back. No matter what you've found." "Four hours," she repeated. Her voice sounded small inside the glass. The ship touched down. Dust rose and settled. Sambad opened the outer door. Wind screamed against the hull, then died as the ramp met the ground. Beyond it lay the gray plain, and far off, two long dry channels crossing near a broken temple. The twin rivers. Real. Named in her memory, forgotten by the land. Azura stepped onto the surface. Her boots crunched the ash. She breathed, and the breath came clean. The dead world could not touch her now. She turned back once. Sambad stood in the doorway, armed, watching the horizon, not her. "The god knows we're here," he said. "He always does. Walk fast." Azura faced the dry riverbeds and began to walk. The suit kept her alive. But four hours was all she had, and a god waited between her and the Wellspring.