He didn’t have either the sandals or the knowledge. What he had was a spear, a knapsack, and his robe.

  Hmm. His robe was already ripped to shreds; he’d hardly miss another chunk off the bottom of it. If he tied that to the spear…

  “What are you doing?” Kayan asked when he ripped off a foot-wide, two-foot-long strip of his robe.

  “Watch,” he told her. He tugged it through the holes at the butt end of the spear, leaving two loose ends that flopped down on either side, then he tied two of the corners together so the bottom hem ran in a continuous line from side to side. Standing up, he put the spear over his shoulder so the heavy stone point would counterbalance the rest of it, and he took a couple of steps with the rag just scraping the ground in front of him. “There,” he said. “A crude but functional sand cactus detector.” “Wow,” Kayan said. “That just might work.” “Of course it’ll work,” Jedra said, his pride wounded by the thought that she might not think so. He jounced the pole on his shoulder a time or two and said, “Are you rested enough? I want to try it.”

  Grinning at his boyish enthusiasm, she stood up and put on her pack again. “All right. Lead on.”

  It took him a few minutes to get the hang of it. At first the end of the spear would dip down and dig into the ground every few steps, or it would lift up too high and the cloth wouldn’t drag the surface, but he soon settled into a smoother stride that kept the spear butt aimed down at the right angle. He couldn’t take his eyes off the ground for long, though, so Kayan had to navigate from behind, calling out, “A little to the right,” or “Watch out for that rock.”

  Eagerness to test his new invention kept him going for another mile or so, but then fatigue began to set in again and he wondered if he were being silly. Maybe these sand cacti were exceptionally rare, and he was doing the equivalent of keeping a constant watch out for dragons.

  Then the cloth snagged on something, and the spear haft jerked backward in his hand. Jedra stopped with his foot still upraised, his pulse suddenly pounding. He slowly backed up a pace.

  “Find one?” Kayan asked.

  “I think so.” Jedra tugged the cloth free and waved the end of the spear around in a circle, and sure enough, it snagged again a foot or so away. Very carefully, he worked his way around in a half circle, sweeping out a clear path around the perimeter of the needle patch. This one was about eight or ten feet across, and once again there was nothing to indicate it was there except for the needles.

  “Good work,” Kayan said.

  “Thanks,” he said, pleased with himself.

  “We are making progress of a sort,” said Kayan. “Now if we can just find that oasis the chief told us about, we might actually survive this little outing.”

  *****

  They stopped for the night another mile or so farther west. It was getting truly cold now, and they were both so tired they could barely walk. The elves had not given them sleeping mats, so they simply picked a patch of sand that didn’t have anything growing on it-that was getting easier and easier the farther west they went-and settled down under the bright moon and stars to sleep.

  Their knapsacks made lumpy pillows, and their robes were pitifully inadequate as blankets. Now that Jedra and Kayan weren’t exerting themselves, they began shivering almost immediately. Jedra inched closer to Kayan, but he was careful not to touch her, remembering her comment the first night they had slept side by side in the community tent.

  After fifteen minutes or so, however, Kayan mindsent, This is ridiculous. Are we ever going to act like bondmates, or are we going to spend the whole night shivering a foot away from each other?

  Jedra gulped, suddenly warm again. I-I didn’t want to-I mean, I do want to, but I was afraid you might-Afraid I might what, bite? Jedra, I’m cold. You’re cold. Snuggle up behind me and put your arm around me.

  He moved closer to her, but then couldn’t decide where to put his hands. Even wrapped in her robe, she was warm and soft everywhere he touched her. He finally settled for letting her use his left arm for a pillow and holding his right hand against her stomach. She laughed gently and said. There, that’s not so bad, is it?

  That’s-that’s wonderful, he said. Warmer, too. He tried to slow his breathing again and fall asleep, but he was too conscious of Kayan in his arms.

  After a couple more minutes, Kayan said, You’re tight as a bowstring. Relax.

  I’d like to, he said, but I’ve never done this before.

  Just what is it you think we’re doing?

  Sleeping, Jedra said quickly. I’ve never slept with a woman in my arms before.

  She turned her head back so she could look at him out of her right eye. You’re kidding. Never?

  Embarrassed, and a little put out at her incredulous tone, Jedra said, I remember sharing a cot with my mother when I was very young, but she died when I was six.

  Oh, said Kayan. She looked away again. A moment later she said, Then I guess it goes without saying that you ‘ve never…

  No.

  Oh, she said again. Well, it’s a little cold for that tonight, and it’s already been a busy day. Much as I’d like to show you what you’ve been missing, I think we’d be better off getting our sleep tonight.

  That’s what I thought we were trying to do, Jedra said.

  Kayan giggled softly. So we were. She turned her head back toward him again, farther than the first time, and before Jedra quite realized what was happening she had kissed him.

  Her lips were soft and warm against his, warmer even than her skin beneath his hands. The kiss was over almost before he could respond, but the memory of it lingered even after she turned back around and settled her head down on his arm again.

  Good night, she sent.

  Yes, it is, he replied automatically.

  *****

  The moon was halfway across the sky when Jedra woke. He belatedly realized that one of them should have stayed up to keep watch, but with that thought came the equally strong realization that neither of them could have managed it if they’d wanted to. He had fallen asleep with Kayan in his arms; if he could do that, then nothing could have kept him awake.

  He supposed he should at least scout around now. If he was careful, he wouldn’t even have to disturb Kayan to do it. He focused his awareness inward, reaching for the center of his psionic power, the one that allowed him to tell if someone was watching him. When he suddenly felt a heightened sense of awareness, a tingling at the back of his neck, he knew he had it, so he imagined himself rising upward, looking down upon himself and Kayan. They were swirls of light against the starlit sand, softly glowing like the green luminescence of the nocturnal moths that sometimes flitted about the eaves of buildings in the city at night. Jedra rose up until he could see a couple of miles in every direction, but no other lights broke the darkness. If anything was out there, it wasn’t interested in them.

  But as long as he was looking…

  Careful to remember the way back this time, he moved farther west, searching for the oasis. There would almost certainly be something alive there, something he could sense, and that way he could learn how much farther they had to walk.

  It should have worked. Jedra went for miles, until his power began to stretch thin and the psionic vision grew dim, but he found no oasis, nor even the long, rocky ridge that the elf chief had said it was near. Only more desert. He searched north and south a few miles in either direction, but still encountered nothing.

  Maybe he was doing it wrong. He hadn’t found Sahalik by searching psionically, either. Jedra brought his point of view back to the two swirls of light on the sand and let it sink back into his body. When he opened his eyes he saw the stars overhead, their constellations advanced well into morning, and when he shifted his arms he felt Kayan stir slightly within his embrace. He hated to wake her, but they should get up and walk again before it got too hot. The trouble was, where should they go?

  *****

  Kayan couldn’t find the oasis either, but that wasn’t so surprising, since sensing things at a distance wasn’t one of her strong points.

  “I think we should link up again and try it together,” Jedra said after she had tried it on her own. They were sitting on the sand with their knapsacks open before them, sharing another honeycake for breakfast. “We need to know where we’re headed, or we’ll get lost out here.”

  “If we can’t find the oasis, we’re already lost,” Kayan pointed out. “But you’re right. It just seems like every time we rest up, the first thing we do is tire ourselves out again.”

  “We can make it fast,” Jedra said. “Together, we should be able to find it in no time.”

  “We hope.” Kayan shrugged, then held out her hand. “All right, let’s try it.”

  They had not needed to touch in order to join their minds before, but Jedra took her hand in his anyway. “Ready?” he asked.

  “Let’s do it.”

  They merged. Once again all their worldly cares dropped away in the birth of a single being. Their simple kiss a few hours ago seemed insignificant compared to the communion they now shared. All the same, now that they were one, each realized what that kiss had meant to the other at the time, and that realization-plus the physical contact they made now-enhanced their bond well beyond their previous experience. Where before they had vibrated with power, now they sang.

  To the oasis! they cried, arrowing westward in the form of a huge roc, an eaglelike bird of prey with a wingspan of nearly a hundred feet. This was the most detailed and realistic of their psionic visions yet; the desert below them undulated with regular waves of dunes, like ripples in a water cask, and the stars overhead were crisp points of light. The few animals inhabiting the sandy wastes glowed softly with auras of green or blue light, but their shapes were readily discernible even from Jedra and Kayan’s great height. There were a few wild kanks, possibly escapees from elf tribes, an insect colony of some sort in a cluster of five-foot domes, and a few other animals that they didn’t recognize. They remembered the locations of every creature they saw so they could steer clear of them just in case they proved hostile.

  The oasis, however, wasn’t obvious. After a few minutes of flying-many miles under the roc’s immense wings-they realized it simply wasn’t there.

  They hadn’t drifted that far off course during their hikes the previous day. There could be only one explanation, and they voiced it instantly: The elf chief lied. He had waited until Galar was out of earshot to give them directions to the oasis, and then he had sent them off to their deaths.

  The roc screeched in anger. We should go back and teach him a lesson, they decided, and the great bird whirled around to fly east, but they immediately thought, No, we can’t waste our strength on simple revenge. We need to find a safe haven, and soon.

  They swept over the desert in great circles, searching for an oasis, an outpost, a caravan-any sign of water or intelligent life that might be carrying water-but the elf chief had sent them directly into the most barren wastes in the region. They knew what lay to the east; they had just walked it, but the terrain to the north and south looked just the same. Only to the west did it change, but that change was hardly for the better. There they found only stony barrens and rocky badlands.

  Beyond that, however…

  The city of Tyr rested in a circular basin at the base of the Ringing Mountains. As dangerous as it was there, with King Kalak enslaving everyone who even looked at him wrong and forcing them to build an enormous pyramid in the center of the city, it was still better than dying in the desert. Trouble was, traveling on foot it was over a week’s walk away. They could never reach it on the provisions they carried with them.

  Jedra and Kayan circled the enormous walled city, crying out in frustration with their psionic roc’s powerful call. They could be there now if they knew how to transport their bodies along with their minds. But they didn’t know. They hardly knew what they were doing as it was.

  For the want of a mentor, we shall perish within sight of salvation, they thought.

  The city glowed with the light of thousands of minds at work, one of which could undoubtedly teach them what they needed to know. But how could they find that one mind among so many? Some were brighter than others, but Jedra had learned the hard way that the signature of a powerful mind didn’t necessarily mean a friendly psionicist waited behind it. In Tyr, with its immense slave pens and massive military buildup to keep the peace, most of the psionicists would be slavemasters or warriors.

  Arrgh! they cried in frustration. So close! All we need is a little help.

  Their agitation weakened the contact. The roc began to diminish, and though their controlling minds remained linked, they separated into two distinct points of view.

  The Kayan part of their mind said, It’s not going to happen. We ‘re wasting our strength; we’ve been linked too bug as it is. At this rate we’ll exhaust ourselves before we can even take our first steps toward anywhere.

  What difference mill that make if we have nowhere to go? Jedra asked.

  We can’t give up. Kayan said. We still have a day’s supplies. Two if we’re careful. Tyr is the closest sign of life; we’ll head there and hope to find some form of help along the way. There isn’t any-

  Save it. Before Jedra could protest further, Kayan broke the link.

  If coming down from their convergence was hard before, being dropped out of it unexpectedly was like feeling his own death. Jedra lurched drunkenly and had to put out his arms to keep from falling over.

  “Yuh…” he tried to speak, but words wouldn’t form. You might have warned me! he mindsent instead.

  It was the wrong thing to say, and saying it mentally was the wrong medium. They were both suffering from the post-link depression, and filtered through his frustration and hers, his mental words carried far more freight than spoken words ever could.

  If you weren’t so indecisive, I wouldn’t have had to break away so abruptly, she snapped back at him.

  Her meaning came across instantly, along with her contempt. He looked up to see her glaring at him. Indecisive? he sent back. I don’t call walking seven days to Tyr on two days’ rations a decision. I call that stupidity.

  Oh, so what would you rather do? Wait here? Go back to the elves and say we’re sorry, will they take us back in?

  That’s a better idea than just walking on into the desert. If you hadn’t got us in trouble there in the first place, we-

  Me? You’re the one who got us in trouble. You and your stupid cloud ray.

  Jedra climbed shakily to his feet. I was looking for Sahalik, which I would never have had to do if you hadn’t chased him out of camp.

  Kayan stood up, too, and though she only came up to the middle of his chest, she looked ready to take him on with bare hands at any moment. Oh, yeah? And what was I supposed to do, let him have his filthy way with me just so we could stay with your precious elves? Was I supposed to buy their hospitality with my body?

  Jedra clenched and unclenched his fists. You could have let him down easy, he said. You didn’t have to humiliate him in front of the whole tribe.

  I did, too. Kayan turned away and picked up her pack. Of course if you had been more decisive when he first showed up, maybe I wouldn’t have, but when he realized you were a pushover, he-

  Oh, so that’s my fault now, too! Jedra grabbed his own pack off the sand and tied it closed, then swung it onto his back. He picked up the spear with its rag tied to the end and slung that over his shoulder, wincing at the sore spot where it had rested during the last march. Well let me tell you something, miss high-and-mighty ex-templar, I didn’t get us into this mess. You did. You and your-

  Cloud ray, she said. Cloud ray, cloud ray, cloud ray. That’s why we got kicked out of the tribe. I had us living in the chief’s tent until you pulled that stunt.

  Arrgghh! Jedra growled, an inarticulate bellow of rage. She’d twisted things around in a circle again. He stomped off with the rag end of the spear bent low in front of him, sweeping for sand cactus.

  Where are you going? Kayan demanded.

  Jedra stopped. He’d struck out to the north, he realized. Toward Urik, the only place he’d ever called home. But Urik was nearly twice as far away as anyplace else they could go, the entire distance through open desert. He looked toward the east, where the sky was just beginning to show the first glow of approaching dawn. Only hostile elves and the tablelands lay in that direction. The south was no better. Reluctantly, he turned westward and began walking. I guess I’m going to Tyr, he said.

  *****

  One good thing about anger, Jedra thought an hour or so later-it completely overrode the exhaustion he’d expected to feel after their convergence. He and Kayan had already walked farther this morning than they’d gone in either of their previous marches, and the sun hadn’t even cleared the horizon yet. The last stars were fading before them, though, and it wouldn’t be long before the temperature began to rise.

  Who would have thought there could be so much change in so barren a landscape? Hot enough to cook meat on a rock during the day, and cold enough to freeze it at night; full of vegetation and lizards and other small animals just a day to the east, but practically empty here. A person couldn’t count on anything in the desert.

  Not even his companion. Jedra couldn’t believe how Kayan had turned on him. She’d kissed him less than half a day ago! She’d been all warmth and friendliness, and then she’d turned right around and accused him of causing all their troubles. What kind of a bondmate was that? Well, once they made it out of the desert, that was the last he would see of her. He didn’t care about their psionic powers, or about finding a master to teach them more. He didn’t want to share anything more with her anyway, not if she felt that way about him. Indecisive! Pushover! Hah. He’d fought an elf warrior for her, and killed a b’rohg. And even now, who was leading the way, braving the dangers of sand cactus and who-knew-what-else while she plodded along behind, safe from harm?