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"Look," I said. "Something nasty's obviously about to catch up to us, and you damn near ru
Naji blinked but didn't say nothing.
"We should rest," I said. "Rest up and face them head on. They probably won't even expect it, if you usually run from a fight like this."
"I prefer to stay on the offensive," Naji said.
"Yeah, and that's why you're an assassin, ain't it, a bloody murderer-for-hire. Cause ain't no one ever go
He flinched when I said coward. Not a whole lot. Just a little squint of the eye. But I still saw it.
Then he did something I didn't expect. He told the camel to stay put, and he reached into his cloak and pulled out his knife. The blade glinted in the sun, throwing off sparks of light.
"If I give this to you, will it make you feel better?"
"A little. I still want to rest, though."
He shook his head. "You can't fight them. Not without magic."
"You got plenty of that."
"No." He stood close, bending down so our eyes were nearly level. "Any magic I do, it comes from me, do you understand? It takes a little piece of me with it. I can't simply cast any spell I want, any time I want – I have to give my body time to recover."
I set my mouth into a hard little line so he couldn't see what I was thinking. I felt stupid for not realizing that sooner, what the magic did to him.
"I cast a block over us before we left, but it was weak after the work I did creating your protection charm. You are wearing it, right?"
I lifted the mask away from my neck, showing him. I was sure he knew I never took it off, but I wasn't go
"The black streaks are from the block. It's a warning, not an invitation to engage in battle. The canyon's close, we should be able to get there qui–"
The wind changed.
The whole time we'd stood there arguing the air had been hot and still and dry. Stifling. But then a breeze picked up and rustled the hem of my dress, and it was cold as ice. It sent a chill down my spine like a ghost had reached out and grabbed hold of me.
"Oh no," said Naji, like it was every curse in the whole world.
I was stuck in place, the breeze turning into a wind turning into a gale. All the sweat evaporated off my skin. My scarf unwrapped itself from my head and skittered across the sand, a thin twist of white disappearing into the encroaching darkness.
Naji started chanting in his language, his eyes glowing. I stumbled forward, my legs stinging like they'd been stuck with a million little pins. At least I could move again. Naji shoved his knife at me and then grabbed me by the arm as soon as I'd taken it. He pulled me up to him.
"Please don't fight unless you have to," he said, right close to my ear.
The camel made this horrible noise, a shriek-snort of fear, and galloped off, away from the darkness, all our food and water disappearing into the line of sunlight. I cried out for him to stay, but Naji put his hand on my arm.
"Let it," he said. "I might be able to call him after… after it's done."
"I thought you said it was impossible to win."
"It is," Naji said. "I didn't want to… to frighten you."
I was already frightened, but I wasn't going to tell him. Still, I pressed myself up against him as the darkness moved closer to us. Something was stirring up the sand. Figures appeared on the horizon. I kept imagining them all to look like Naji, a whole army of Najis, but they didn't.
They looked like ships crossed with enormous insects. And as they lurched across the sand, they let out this creaking noise, metallic and resounding. It made my ears ring. It shuddered deep down into my bones.
"What are they?" I shrieked, close to panic.
"I have no idea," Naji said.
"What!" I twisted myself to look up at him. His eyes were still glowing. "I thought you said–"
"A Jadorr'a is among them," he said. "But the Order does not deal in metallurgy."
Metallurgy. The word kind of lodged in my brain, like I should know what it meant but I couldn't quite grasp it.
The creatures shuddered to a stop. The sand settled. Thick black smoke belched out into the sky, mingling with the inky swirls of darkness from Naji's block. Their skins shone in the few beams of sunlight that made it through, like the side of a knife, like–
Like metal.
"They're machines," I said numbly.
Naji dug his fingers into my arm. "Killing a snake isn't going to save you this time."
Under any other circumstance that would've pissed me off, but I was so busy trying to overcome my panic that I didn't care.
The creatures stood there for a long time, creaking and heaving and letting off smoke. Naji murmured to himself, casting magic.
"Why aren't they doing nothing?" I whispered.
He chanted a little louder. The machines stared us down.
Then, like that, he stopped.
I didn't like not hearing his voice. As long as he was chanting, I felt like nothing could hurt us.
"Can you use a sword?" he said.
"Of course I can use a sword."
He slid his sword out of its scabbard and jabbed the hilt at me. His sword was even more mean-looking than his knife, thick-bladed and curving a little at the end.
"When they attack you, fight," he said.
"Pla
"Try, please, not to get yourself hurt. Don't do anything foolish." Then he took a deep, bracing breath and walked off.
Just like that. He left my side and walked straight into the smoke, disappearing into the haze. I tried to call out to him, to remind him that he didn't have his knife neither, but the smoke got in my lungs and made me cough.