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.Then she bundled the robes in her arms and walked away.As the second sennight of their journey into the Barahileth began, Shaiara began quietly to despair.She would have cut her own throat with her father's peschak before she let any of her people suspect herthoughts, but she began to believe that they were meant to die here.She had stopped sending out heradvance scouts days ago.There was no longer any water to find, and none of her people had the energyleft for hunting.This morning, when they stopped, Shaiara would order two more of the shotorsslaughtered.Perhaps it would give them the strength to continue a while longer.The last of the water had been measured out by careful cupfuls this morning.Not enough to slakeanyone's thirst.They might survive another day, perhaps two, without water.Then they would die.The moon rose into the heavens, turning the desert to silver, and automatically Shaiara glancedheavenward.She knew that she was following the directions set out by the Song of Rausi precisely: hehad set his course by the stars, and so was she.She knew she was retracing his steps correctly.And ifyou do not reach Abi'Abadshar before the sun sets again, Shadow will not need to touch theNalzindar, for there will be no Nalzindar left between Sand and Star.But as the moon reached midheaven, the lead shotor raised its head, pulling its guide-rope from Shaiara'slax grasp.Its nostrils flared wide, and it began shuffling forward with renewed energy, the exhaustedplodding gait of the last several days exchanged for a sudden desire to arrive at its destination quickly.There was only one thing that could so galvanize a thirsty, exhausted, half-starved shotor.Water.Shaiara grabbed the guide-rope again and wrapped it firmly around her hand, hauling the shotor to astop and tapping the animal on the knee so that it would kneel to allow her to mount.The other animalssmelled the water too, now, jostling and fretting as the Nalzindar coaxed them to their knees.They'dbeen leading the beasts to spare their strength, using them to carry the hawks and the hounds and theyoungest children, but now there was no more need.Once mounted, the tribe rode in ghostly silence beneath the desert moon.Their few remainingpack-animals, more lightly-laden than those bearing riders, raced on ahead.There was no need to leadthem they would go nowhere other than to the nearest water.The moon had crossed very little more of the sky when Shaiara saw it.From a distance, the black shapeslooked like nothing more than wind-worn stone.But there was grass growing around the edges of thestone, and she could see the large pale shapes of Nalzindar shotors browsing upon it.They had reached Abi'Abadshar.The Nalzindar allowed the shotors to lead them to the water.The Iteru was the largest Shaiara had everseen, standing at the center of what was now an open courtyard, though surely it must once havebeen far beneath the ground, for it was reached by descending a long series of shallow terraces carvedout of the ground.The Iteru itself was a wonder, for here, in the depths of the Barahileth, it was open to the sky, allowingthe wind to steal its moisture as it pleased.Yet the water seemed inexhaustible.The thirsty shotors crowded forward, bleating and jostling in their attempts to get to the water, and the ikulas-hounds snarled and quarreled, pushing between them, their narrow bodies gaunt with privation.The Nalzindar shouldered through them, plunging waterskins and cups into the water to fill them, andpassing them among the people.All the tribe drank carefully after so many days of privation, but nomatter how much water they drew from the Iteru of Abi'Abadshar, its level did not drop.At last, the thirst of all was slaked, and every waterskin was refilled, and the shotors were unpacked andunsaddled, hobbled and set to graze.For the first time since she had led her people upon this exodus,Shaiara's spirits rose.Grass meant something to feed upon it, for the Isvai wasted nothing.And therewould be things to feed upon the feeders as well
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