Chapter Five: The Lady and the Camel

After collapsing atop the dune, time became a myth for Kya. She drifted in and out of consciousness, with each time that she woke posing a new challenge. She had to fight to make sense of her condition and it seemed all but impossible for her to form a complete thought. All that she knew for certain was that she was slowly dying, baking in the desert sun while her body refused to listen to her commands.

Eventually she was able to make sense of her surroundings, though there was little worth noticing. Save for the pale orange flower that stood near her head, the desert was as desolate as she would have expected.

Where’s Farris, she wondered, the question alone taking hours to form. He said that’d find me… Where is he…?

The day turned to night and still Kya laid motionless in the sand. She wondered how it was possible, surely she hadn’t exhausted herself so thoroughly that she had paralysed herself in the process.

Venom! She realised as the new day dawned. The oil on the dagger was venom, it had to have been! Though I’ve never heard of a venom that lasts this long…

How much longer…? She wondered. There was no doubt in her mind that at least several days had already passed since she’d first collapsed, though she had no way of knowing with certainty just how much time had actually gone by. It was long enough, at the very least, for her to regain some control of her body, though by now it seemed a pointless victory. The sun had been too much, it had bored into her back for days on end, sapping her of her energy and robbing her of her strength. It had left her a husk, clinging to life even as the desert sands swept across her body and threatened to consume her whole.

“I just want this to be over,” she muttered. Her voice was so broken that it sounded foreign even to her, like that of a stranger. “Why…? Why can’t I just die? Why am I still trying to live? This isn’t life… This is ****, ceaseless ****…”

A harsh wind blew over the dune, shifting the sands so that they could creep further up her legs and arms. “Soon,” she told herself, “soon it will be over…”

“Such is the nature of this land,” said a woman’s voice from above, as if in agreement. For a moment Kya believed the voice to be nothing more than a hallucination, a conjuration of her fried mind, but as the stranger spoke on it became clear that was not the case. “That which can survive such cruel conditions is destined to become stronger and greater than any would think possible, and more cherished than any treasure. Afterall, in the desert, beauty is not simply a matter of appearance, it is determined by your spirit.”

Kya could hear the speaker shift in place, their voice sounded somehow even closer, as if hovering only an inch from her near-lifeless form. “Such a beauty is not mine to pluck,” they said.

“Then just leave me,” Kya replied, though her words went ignored by the stranger. Mere moments later she felt strong hands grasping her by the shoulders in order to heave her onto her back. Kya groaned as she rolled, the motion causing her stiff joints to flex for the first time in what felt like weeks.

The stranger gasped and released her, leaving her to face skywards, towards the sun that blazed on the opposite side of her sealed eyelids, ready to rob her of her vision the moment that the opportunity presented itself. “I said to leave me,” she muttered, summoning what remained of her strength in order to crack open her eyes.

She had only enough energy to keep them open for a moment but that was long enough to get a look at the stranger.

“You’re alive… How are you alive?” Asked the bronze-skinned woman, looking akin to a fish with her wide eyes and gaping mouth.

Your guess is as good as mine, Kya thought, her voice too weak to waste on such stupid questions. She listened as the stranger fumbled over themselves, hopeful that they were at last fulfilling her wish and taking their leave. Alas, that wasn’t the case. Kya felt herself being dragged once more, this time into the stranger’s lap where her head came to rest upon soft thighs. “You need this more than I,” the stranger muttered before gripping Kya’s head and tilting it back.

Had she the strength, Kya would have struggled, but instead she was faced with no options but to gulp down whatever liquid was being poured down her throat by the stranger.

It took too long for Kya to recognise the taste of water. It tasted so much sweeter than she remembered, almost like honey-wine. The single gulp that Kya had been granting, however, was only enough to leave her aching for more.

“That wasn’t enough, I need more. Surely you can spare just one sip,” Kya muttered, though the stranger seemed preoccupied by mutterings of their own.

“I don’t see any branding,” she heard them say before feeling their hands begin to tug at her clothing. Before Kya was able to ask their intentions, she felt the stranger pull the purse from her neck. “You’re definitely not a ****,” the stranger mused, much to Kya’s concern, though it was what she heard next that truly sent her mind into a panic: “I could always lie, say that you’re new on the market and have yet to be branded.”

No! Kya cried within her mind. Leave me, please! I’d rather die than be a ****!

“If I leave you here, **** is guaranteed. You’ve clung to life for so long, I don’t want it to be for nothing.” As if convinced, the stranger rose to their feet and began to lift Kya to the best of their abilities. They remained blissfully unaware of the Kya’s terrified state, speaking casually to their camel as they tied her down into the saddle.

She felt as if her heart was about to burst. It hammered so hard that Kya could feel her entire body trembling. “Please spare me!” She heard herself cry, a final, **** plea for mercy that rattled her to her core. She felt her heart skip a beat in the moments that followed, the world plunging back into darkness before she was able to comprehend the stranger’s response.

“Please,” Kya echoed before succumbing to the darkness yet again.