The desert didn’t give way gradually.
It crashed into the walls of Emberfell like the tide upon the coast.
One moment, Kade was running through endless heat and unforgiving sand, his lungs burning and vision narrowing to what was in front of him. The next, stone walls rose from the horizon like a mirage materializing. Walls carved from a pale desert rock, towers catching the sun reflecting like a beacon, and banner snapping in the wind made for an unmistakable land mark.
“Emberfell,” Ash panted as he stumbled.
Relief spurred him on. It did not bring relaxing calm as it flooded through him. No, it only managed to dampen the screaming agony felt in every muscle of his body. The knowledge that he actually made it hit Kade like a blow to the chest. He’d actually made it, something that
