“I cannot be entirely sure but that does best describe what I’ve been told. A bigger question would be how someone like your uncle managed to call it to do its bidding. I never suspected he could have the will or means to conjure such an abomination.

  “We have to get rid of it.” The prince said, looking deep into the fire.

  “In due time.” Idris said. “For now, we must continue west and stay ahead of your uncle’s men.”

  “How did you stay ahead of them?” Robert asked. “The prince met with Hoxley east of Sweetwater and has continually headed west the whole time. How is that you’re ahead of them when they’ve been travelling on younger legs at the walking pace of a faun?”

  “I stole a horse from the royal stables.” He said “And I travelled south to where I thought the prince might be but found. Numerous guardsmen were gathered near a bridge and moving downstream. Not being able to follow I travelled a little north before continuing west. I rode, mostly at night, running it to exhaustion. When I saw more and more guardsmen on the road and knew I could no longer travel that way, I managed to trade the horse for an old sword, a canteen and several loaves of bread. I did my best to search for him but found nothing. I was just north of the cross roads when I was discovered by guardsmen. I wanted to fight but there were too many and they took me to the place where you and your friends found me. So tell me, how did you happen to fall into company with such a group?”

  The prince went on to explain everything that had happened, conveniently leaving out the part about tricking Hoxley and the fall off the bridge. After that he chronicled the visit to Elder Brookums home, meeting Morell, Spellvale, the witches, the cyclops, the lyythium weapons, the tunnels under the mountain and ultimately the crossroads.

  “Thank you.” Said Idris to everyone around the fire. “You’ve done a brave thing in helping the prince to stay out of his mad uncle’s reach. If it were my place, I would make you all members of the royal court for such deeds.” He said before making a downcast, saddened expression at the fire. “But to do that now would be disastrous now that Baltus and his twisted servant haunt the court.”

  “Then we’ll continue.” Said Hoxley, stamping the end of her spear on the sandy ground. “We’ll see that the prince gets an audience with King Sarthany in the west. Surely with our different accounts of the events he’ll see that it’s the truth and use his forces aid Prince Damron in reclaiming what is his. There, now that we’ve had a chance to warm ourselves, I suggest we keep moving across the desert while the sun is still down. It’ll be less taxing for us to travel at night.”

  Everyone gathered their things. To stay warm, each of the companions used their special blankets gifted by Bohga to wrap around themselves. Hoxley remembered that she had two blankets and offered one to Idris who was grateful for the warmth.

  “This place is so strange.” Said Morell. “I’ve never known a place that was still lit after the sun went down.”

  “There are no other places like it.” Said Siouxsie. That’s what makes it so special!”

  “Terfezia!” Morell exclaimed as he ran over to kneel at a place on the ground and quickly taking off his burdensome backpack.

  “What did he say?” Siouxsie asked Hoxley.

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  “I have no idea but he’s excited about something. Let’s see what it is.” The girls and the others stood behind Morell to find what he was so enthusiastic about, they found him pulling handfuls of tiny brown clusters of something from the ground and stuffing them into containers.

  “What are you doing?” asked Siouxsie. “What did you find?

  “Terfezia!” exclaimed the boy, grabbing up all the clusters within his reach. “Pezizaceae! Mattirolomyces and Stouffera!”

  “I’ve seen those before.” Said Idris. “I thought they were stones.”

  “They’re looks can be deceiving!” Morell said with a wide grin on his face as he stopped to dig his huge tome from his pack. Everyone watched as he thumbed through the pages and stopped at one specific page and handed the book out for them to see. Hoxley took the book and held it out for everyone to see as she read his writings.

  “Terfezia grow in desert or very dry places and are shaped like potatoes. White at first but dark at maturity they are called desert truffles and can be eaten. There’s even a picture here. Look. His drawing is accurate, it looks just like them.”

  “There’s lots of them in this cluster! Come and grab some!” Morell said. “They maybe a little dirty but I would rather eat a little dirt than not starve!”

  “The boy is right.” Agreed Idris. “If the desert has offered them up then we should take them.”

  Once everyone had taken a few handfuls of fungi and stowed them in their packs, they continued walking. They hadn’t been walking long when a faint whispering voice found all their ears at once.

  “I can hear you…but I cannot see you…” It spoke.

  “Who said that?” Asked the prince, his head whipping back and forth. “Who’s playing tricks?”

  “It’s no trick.” said Robert as he descended on his broom to hover the others. “That may very well be the shapeless phantom who calls to all those who pass through her domain.”

  “W-what does it want?” Morell asked, watching the clusters of huge gems as they gleamed bright enough to turn night into day.

  “Who knows?” Said Hoxley, her eyes scanning the horizon as she led the others. “Keep your eyes sharp and arms at the ready. We still have far to go.”

  Through the oddly bright desert the travelers continued on. The enormous crystals littering the landscape reflected the images around them like the surface of a tranquil pond. Each of the companions watched their own images as they appeared and vanished within the crystalline mirrors. The polished gems seemed to twinkle and tinkle faint noises of their own like snowflakes falling in a quiet field. It was halfway through the night when the prince’s curiosity became too much to keep to himself.

  “What are they made of?” Asked the prince, running his hand across the smooth surface of a gem.

  “It’s a natural form of alchemy.” Said Siouxsie. “The temperature and conditions are right that the sand forms itself in strange fashions to create them…as beautiful as they are fragile. See here.” The witch swatted the crystal closest to her with her broom. The glossy material instantly disintegrated, collapsing upon itself in a heap of sand barely a quarter of its size. “When the harmony of the crystal is disrupted, it can longer hold its shape and reverts to its components. But it’s not a total loss, the sand will blow and mix and reform into another one later on.”

  “So peculiar.” He said.

  “I can hear you…but I cannot see you…” The voice on the wind said.

  “There it is again!” piped Morell. “Tell me I’m not the only one who hears the voice.”

  “We all do.” Said Robert. “If it can hear us but not see us, then perhaps we should keep our mouths shut until we’ve safely passed through its domain.”

  Through the rest of the night and early morning they walked together, all of them haunted by the disembodied voice that whispered. The sun grew higher in the sky by midday and the temperature rose enough to hinder their progress. Siouxsie scouted the path ahead on her broom. She returned to report she’d discovered a sizeable rock with an overhang. When they arrived at the rock, they found the very welcome shade they desired. Here wasn’t a lot of shade, but what was there was enough for everyone if they clumped together in a tight pile. Morell, the prince and Idris reclined against the back of the overhang while Hoxley got down to her knees and take the space at the end.

  Siouxsie and Robert went to work unfastening and removing the belts and straps from their witchly garb to create a series of strands big enough for them to wrap around their two horizontally positioned brooms floating side by side. Everyone else watched curiously how the whole contraption would work. Once finished, the twins removed their pointy hats and climbed into the spider web of straps where they interlocked their limbs and rested their foreheads against one another like they were still in the womb. The contraption conformed to their bodies like a makeshift hammock that cradled them midair without the aid of trees to hold them up!

  “How does that even make sense?” Morell asked Hoxley with one squinted eye.

  “I have no idea.” Said Hoxley. “But it works. Get some rest. I’ll stand guard then we’ll start again when the sun gets low enough.” Everyone relaxed and settled in against one another. Soon, all save for Hoxley were sound asleep. With the wide flat panorama before her, she’d be able to spot anyone approaching from a very long distance. The temperature beneath the overhang was cooler than being exposed to the blazing sun overhead. A faint breeze kept the heat from stagnating. It was quiet, near dead silence except for the near inaudible twinkling of the crystals.