Chapter 18
Brocc woke up to an intense heat on his face. He opened his eyes, his vision blurry at first as he squinted through blue sky and thick clouds. An enormous sea of brown. As far as he could see.
His vision cleared. He was lying on top of a dune, and he was bleeding. The sand in his wounds made them sting, and the heat was cooking him. The heat—the sweltering heat enveloped him, and he was covered in sweat.
He got onto his knees, spit out a mouthful of sand, and coughed. Taking in a deep breath, he tried to focus, struggling to recall what had happened.
Then his mind cleared, and he remembered everything. Caulette, the revelation, the purple energy. He remembered dangling over the side of the blimp as it crashed …
The blimp.
He saw columns of smoke rising nearby and stumbled
