The sun beat down on Liyana’s back until she felt as if every drop of moisture had been pounded out of her. She unhooked her waterskin from the saddle and drank. As much as she loved the desert, she hated the salt flats. Fennik was right that they were a wasteland. Utterly colorless, they stretched in every direction. Even the stone mountains looked pale, like clouds low on the horizon. Cracks left behind by the worms laced the flats and slowed Liyana, Korbyn, and Fennik—they couldn’t risk a horse stumbling.

After a few hours, they rested the horses. Fennik slid off the back of his horse and poured water into a dish. The water sloshed over the rim and was instantly sucked into the hard ground.

Korbyn jumped off his horse and caught Fennik by the wrist before Fennik could fill the next dish. “The worms are drawn to moisture,” Korbyn said. “Do. Not. Spill.” He released Fennik’s wrist before the horse boy could wrest it away.

Carefully Fennik filled dishes halfway for the other horses. A few drops stained the salt as the horses nuzzled against the dishes, and Liyana held her breath as she watched for worms. As soon as the horses finished, they moved on quickly.

They rode for two days without seeing any salt worms. “I think I’ll kiss the sand,” Liyana said on the dawn of the third day, the day they were to leave the salt flats. “And forswear all salt in my food forevermore.”

“Imagine that it’s sugar,” Korbyn said. “You’re riding across candy.”

“Salt can never be sugar,” Fennik said.

“We should talk about the definition of the word ‘imagine.’ ”

Before Fennik could reply, one of the spare horses caught her hoof on a crack in the salt. Her tired leg kept moving even though her hoof had stopped, and she pitched forward. With a yell, Fennik launched himself off the back of his horse to catch the falling horse’s reins. Startled, his horse reared, which frightened the other horses. One of the other horses tried to bolt, crashed into a nearby horse, and fell onto her side. She scrambled upright.

Liyana struggled to cling to her reins as Misery sidestepped and snorted. She didn’t buck or try to run, thankfully. Soon Liyana was able to loosen her grip on the reins and look over at the others. Fennik was soothing the startled horse, murmuring to her and stroking her neck, while Korbyn rounded up the others.

Beneath the horse who had fallen, Liyana spotted a dark patch. Worse, the patch spread outward, and the darkness stained the salt.

The horse had held a water container, and it had cracked on impact. The precious liquid flowed freely down the horse’s flank. “Water!” Liyana cried. She slid off Misery and ran to the horse. The two boys were instantly beside her, pulling the container off and trying to plug the holes. Fissures zigzagged over it.

At their feet, the liquid was swallowed up by the salt flats.

“Leave it,” Korbyn commanded. He backed away from the container. “Lead the horses away.” He scooped up three sets of reins and began to pull the horses away from the water stain.

“My clan sacrificed to give us that water! Saving it is—” Fennik began to argue.

Beneath Liyana’s feet, she felt the earth tremble. She heard a rumble. She yanked on Misery’s reins. Eyes wide, the mare flexed her knees and refused to budge. Salt pellets rattled and then were tossed into the air as if bounced from below. Misery rolled her eyes and snorted. Her body shook but her knees stayed locked. Liyana stroked her neck and pleaded, “Come on. Just a step and then another. You can do it. Please!”

Beside her, Korbyn shouted at the other horses. Fennik slapped the flanks of another, and yanked on the reins of two more. Several bolted.

“She won’t move!” Liyana yelled. She braced herself and pulled the reins. Misery rolled her eyes back in her head again, exposing only the whites of her eyes.

As the shaking increased, Liyana fell to her knees. The reins slipped out of her fingers. Feet spread to keep his balance, Fennik unhooked one of his bows and arrows. He aimed it at the ground. All but three of the horses had fled.

The worms burst through the crust of the salt flat. Chunks of salt flew into the air and then rained down. Salty dust instantly blanketed them. At Liyana’s feet, finger-size worms crowded their writhing bodies over the damp earth. Dog-size worms followed them, squeezing their bodies through the cracks. Fennik fired arrows into their oozing flesh.

As the ground continued to quake, Liyana scrambled backward, and Misery reared, finally breaking her paralysis. A four-foot worm with a body as thick as a child’s burst out of the ground directly in front of them. Misery slammed her hooves down on the worm’s soft body. It squished under her hooves but continued to writhe. Its mouth opened and shut to show multiple rows of rock-hard teeth.

Another worm shot out of the ground beneath Misery and clamped its mouth onto one of the horse’s legs. “No!” Liyana shouted.

The mare whinnied and shuddered, and then fell to the ground as the worm sucked. Other worms converged on the horse, spreading over Misery’s torso. They latched on and sucked. Liyana yanked Jidali’s knife out of her sash and hacked at the worms that covered Misery. Gray pus poured out of the bulbous bodies, but still more worms surged out of the earth to replace the ones she had chopped away.

Liyana felt a sharp pain in her leg. She looked down to see that a worm the size of her arm had latched onto her calf. She sliced through its body, and the worm fell away.

One of the two remaining horses broke through the worms and ran. But the other horse fell and succumbed, collapsing beside Misery. Too many! Liyana thought as she tried to wade through the oozing bodies. “Korbyn, use magic!” she yelled. He couldn’t hear her over the screams of dying horses and the crunch of the salt earth as it was torn up by the worms. She waded through the worms toward him. She grabbed his arm.

Startled, he met her eyes.

“Use your magic,” she said. “I’ll guard you.”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then he lowered his knife. Closing his eyes, he steadied his breathing. She sliced at the worms that crawled toward them.

The ground shook harder than before, and Liyana was knocked backward. She landed hard on her tailbone, and the air whooshed out of her lungs. In front of her, in the midst of the writhing worms, the ground exploded, and a massive worm—larger than she’d ever imagined—burst out of the ground. Its mouth gaped wide. It looked as if it could swallow the sun.

“Fennik!” she yelled as she scrambled to her feet. Bracing herself, she held the sky serpent knife in front of her. The worm swung its head from side to side as if sniffing the air. Arrows hit its body, plunging deep into the mucus coat that covered the bulbous segments.

“Run!” Fennik yelled.

Liyana didn’t. She turned to Korbyn, who was deep in a trance, and sliced away a worm that had latched onto his back. He stood still as stone, his eyes closed, his breathing even. She stomped and stabbed at the smaller worms that ringed them as the giant worm towered over them.

“Coward!” Fennik shouted at Korbyn. “Fight them!”

“Help me guard him!” she yelled.

But Fennik continued to shoot the worms near the dead horses.

The giant worm flexed in the air, and then slowly, miraculously, it sank back into the ground. The smaller worms retreated as well. The ground shook again as the worms sped away, cracking the salt flat as they fled.

In seconds, all was quiet.

Korbyn collapsed.

Liyana lifted the supply packs off the two dead horses. She tried not to look at Misery. Tears openly poured down Fennik’s cheeks as he cut away the saddles and bridles. Wordlessly Liyana and Fennik carried their remaining supplies several hundred yards away from the torn salt earth. Liyana set up the tent, and they placed the unconscious god inside.