< previous page page_32 next page >

Page 32
Loosening her bonnet ribbons, she closed her eyes, hoping to feel the magic that Hunwet had described.
"Please," she whispered aloud. "I have to find water. So many are suffering. . . . " Now, of all times, she wished she had the ability to conjure up a vision on demand. But all she saw behind her closed eyelids was the glare from the desert sun.
Were they to die there? What of her sense of shared destiny with Arlenhad it only meant they would cross the wash together with Hunwet and find nothing on the other side?
She thought of her ill father. She pictured lovely, petite Lucy, looking up with adoration at Arlen's face to the same expression mirrored on his. Abby had to save them.
"Please," she said again. "Spare the others. I would do anything, give anythingeven my lifeif only they could find water."
Her mind reached out for the magicand all at once she felt it, so strongly that it made her skin tingle. She let herself be swept into it, laughing aloud. The fossil-laden rock that she touched seemed to shift without her moving it, burning her fingers, freezing themshe was not sure which, but she held on.
The gully in which she sat shifted. With no warning, she became dizzy. The world spun about her in a crazy whirl, and fear shot through her. This was not the light-headedness that presaged one of her visions. The magic here was potent and irresistible, and she was suddenly

 
< previous page page_32 next page >