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He cast a wicked look at me. “How can one thief with such a beautiful woman distracting him?”
I snorted. “You mean the famed Dragon Thief can be distracted by a pair of batting eyes and some makeup.”
Ben set the reins in his lap and turned to me. He grasped my chin gently between his fingers and lifted my eyes so I stared into his smiling face. “Simple baubles and dried powder have no allure for me. Your lips, however-” He leaned forward and captured them in a gentle but firm kiss.
When he pulled away I was all red cheeks and fluster. My mouth flapped open to speak, but nothing came out until after I cleared the frog in my throat. “T-that’s a sneaky way to get a kiss.”
He grinned as he leaned back. “Do I not have the right as your fiancé?”
I snorted and gave him a slight push against his chest. “You better put up or shut up about that.”
His eyes widened a little. “Do you mean-”
It was at that moment the camel creature reared up.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
I yelpedand clutched onto Ben as our steed dashed forward. The reins that had lain in Ben’s lap dropped between the harnesses and the qasi was allowed to drag us down the road. The path wasn’t completely straight, nor was our terrified steed great at straight lines, so that the sled on my side of the wagon veered into the softer, deeper sands. The animal’s inconsistent direction meant the tip of the sled dipped into the soft earth and jerked the wagon off course for a moment before the animal ran back onto the road proper.
I glimpsed a group of tents about twenty yards ahead of us and some hundred feet off the road. They were situated near some dunes and some of the piles of sand had been carved into with shovels, leaving holes in the ground. A young man with a tanned face peeked out from one of the holes and for a split second our eyes might. A frightened expression passed over his face before he ducked down.
I couldn’t think much of them as we careened down the road. Ben proceeded to climb down the front of the box, but his feet couldn’t find footing except on the leather harnesses that strapped the qasi to the wagon. They wouldn’t support his weight and he nearly lost his balance trying to lean down far enough to catch the reins.
I caught him, instead, and pulled him against me. “It’s not worth it!”
He didn’t have time to reply as a group of some half dozen people rushed out of the hole where I’d seen the stranger. Among them was the man I had glimpsed, and he followed close behind a woman of forty with spectacles. Their group raced to the road and made a line in front of us. They waved their arms frantically above their heads and shouted. The qasi was forced to slow down and one in the company grabbed its bit, arresting its movement.
The woman hurried up to Ben’s side of the wagon. With the danger over, I was able to get a good look at her. She had brown hair pulled into a tight bun on the back of her head. The woman wore a pair of rough coveralls over a thick brown blouse and heavy brown pants. Boots covered her feet, and the rest of her was covered by a thin layer of white dirt.
“Are you alright?” she asked us.
Ben nodded. “Quite alright, thanks to you.”
“We couldn’t very well let you careen into the ruins,” the woman countered as the crowd backed up to let Ben down.
He hopped off and helped me onto the wonderfully hard and stationary ground. My shaking legs meant I had to lean heavily against him as one of the company brought us a couple of cups of water.
Ben handed me one and took another for himself. I happily sipped on the cool water as he turned his attention to our saviors. “We’re fortunate you happen to have been in this area. We’ve heard there are very few people now who would willingly be around the ruins of the old capital.”
The woman smiled. “We couldn’t miss out on an opportunity to study the ruins, even if a few of the locals have become spooked by our presence.”
Ben lifted an eyebrow. “Study?”
She held out her hand to him. “Allow me to introduce myself and my team. My name is Diana Cobb.”
Ben accepted her hand. “Not the famed magikologist.”
Diana laughed. “I see my name has finally proceeded me, but yes, I’m that same person. My group and I-” She gestured to the others around her, “-have been excavating parts of the old capital in order to understand the magic of the past.”
I leaned to one side and gazed at the hole out of which they had poured. “There’s magic down there?”
“You can find magic just about anywhere, but the most interesting spells are those long forgotten and hidden away in the ruins of ancient crypts and on palace walls,” she told me.
“Then you’re seeking the old palace,” Ben guessed.
“The palace was said to have had a plethora of old books and manuscripts on magic,” Diana explained as she folded her arms over her chest. “If any survived the storm and these long years, they would be invaluable to the world.”
“Should we return to work, Miss Cobb?” the young man I had first glimpsed asked her.
