***
As Friya approached the oasis, she used Life Vision multiple tis, but she failed to spot any sign of the light-distorting array that hid the village.
'Lith was right.' She thought. 'The cloaking field shrouds the other magical formations, fooling Life Vision, while the holograms ss with my regular sight. Now that the outlaws have stopped moving, the haze that betrayed their presence is completely gone.
'The only way a Phoenix patrolling the Desert at high speed has to find the Yellow Wind tribe is to crash land right on their heads.'
'Be ready for anything.' Nalrond said via a mind link that ran below the sand. 'No matter if they attack us the mont we set foot in their village or if they play nice, play dumb until we get them to lower their guard and focus on us.
'If we spook them, they'll use the prisoners as at shields and things will get much more complicated.'
'Right back at you, pretty boy.' Friya replied. 'I'm my mother's daughter, while your poker face needs wo-'
She inwardly thanked Jirni for her lessons and Lith for all the secrets that over the years he had asked Friya to keep. Without them, her jaw would have hit the ground and started digging.
Every scenario Friya and Nalrond had prepared for paled in comparison with reality.
They had expected the veil of the light-distorting array to fall abruptly and be t by swords, smiles, or blazing spells. They had to beg for rcy, talk, or dodge in a lucky save in reply, and only a split second to react and make it look believable So, when Friya and Nalrond entered the village and nothing happened, they had a hard ti keeping a neutral expression
The magical formations opened in front of them, forming a corridor that allowed the lost travelers entry while also keeping them out of the arrays and preserving the illusion of the empty oasis.
Nalrond's eyes furrowed in surprise, but no one noticed thanks to the headgear that covered most of his face.
'What's going on? Where is everyone? Did they escape?' He asked, huffing and puffing as he trudged forward.
***
The people of the Yellow Wind tribe were just as flabbergasted as the lost travelers and made no effort to hide their disbelief. The outlaws had followed Friya's and Nalrond's slow advance with drumming hearts and cold sweat running down their spines.
They expected a large caravan to follow the two strangers, afraid that Salaark had changed the oasis rotation schedule and that a tribe guided by a powerful Feather would seize the Yellow Wind's oasis, leaving them stranded for days if not weeks.
Sure, they could fight, but they couldn't win.
The mont Salaark lost contact with one of her Feathers, her wrath would fly to their last known position on fiery wings and turn everything to ashes, no matter if the Feather was dead or just trapped inside a dinsional sealing array.
The fear turned into relief when no more strangers appeared on the horizon, yet their appearance raised many questions. No one would be foolish enough to take a stroll in the Blood Desert, and according to the scout, there was sothing wrong with them.
Hassar gestured for clarification, but the scout's reply made no sense.
'Loot. Big loot. Big, big loot. Has Lomhar lost his mind, or is he suffering from heatstroke at the worst ti possible?' The three leaders thought in unison while staring at the scout flapping his arms like a hysterical bird.
The chieftain then gestured for threat level assessnt, and Lomhar joined his thumb and middle finger.
'Zero?' Hassar scoffed. 'This is the Blood Desert. Even the smallest insect is venomous!'
He ignored the scout and altered the shape of the magical formations to clear the path of the strangers towards the water spring. It was only when Friya and Nalrond stepped inside the village that the three leaders understood the aning of Lomhar's signals.
The woman had the rosy skin of a foreigner reddened by the harsh kiss of the sun, wheat-blonde hair, and sky-blue eyes. That and the supple movents of her bountiful curves with every step she took drew everyone's attention to the wrong places.
The n couldn't stop staring at the foreign woman as if she were an apparition from a bard's tale, and the won couldn't stop staring at their n as if they were about to beco dinner.
'Suckers.' Friya thought, glad to have altered her hair and eye color according to the Blood Desert's most exotic beauty standard.
She kept her eyes on the spring, but those of nadion counted the enemies, assessed their threat level, and identified the restrictions used to bind the prisoners and ensure their compliance.
No one noticed the flicker of Friya's expression or the tension in Nalrond's steps. The mbers of the Yellow Wind tribe regained their cool long after the intruders, allowing Friya and Nalrond to maintain their cover.
"It seems that the gods have decided to make up for your blunder by delivering us a hefty bounty, Sehir." Hassar said, his words sealed within the arrays.
"Or maybe the fishn sent soone after us, and this is a trap." Sehir replied. "The timing of their arrival is suspicious. Also, when was the last ti you saw two people traveling the Desert alone? Where is their caravan?"
"The captain has a point, chief. About the caravan, I an." Tarek said, appreciating Nalrond's broad shoulders and muscular body almost as much as the n of the tribe did with Friya's hourglass figure.
"There is no way the Usurper sent two of her Feathers to rescue our fellow outlaws of the Black Stork. We've done this dozens of tis and gotten even closer to her oases, yet we suffered no retaliation.
"I don't think these two are after us, but we can't underestimate them. To get here without a caravan or at least a horse, they must be capable of using a flight spell."
'Even if he's not a mage, he's too big and strong to bring him to my bedchambers.' She inwardly sighed. 'From up close, he can kill with one hand before I have the ti to cast a single spell. I can only use him for hard labor.'
"I know that, Tarek. I'm not an idiot. Look at their weapons." Hassar pointed at Dreadnought, which hung at Friya's hip, and at one of Lith's prototypes at Nalrond's. "Those are fine artifacts that only soone rich, powerful, or both can possess. We-"
The intruders fell to the ground with a plop after reaching the lakeshore, quickly dropping their heads in the water with a soft splash. They gulped eagerly until they ran out of breath, their thirst as desperate as it was genuine.
The dehydration caused by the chore magic was severe enough to make Friya's and Nalrond's performance believable.
"What point is there in hiring a native guide just to get stranded from our caravan and almost die of thirst?" She half panted and half licked the water running on her lips. "You were supposed to be one of the best!"
"I am one of the best guides of the Blood Desert, you spoiled brat." Nalrond replied in anger. "It's not my fault if you idiots didn't listen when I warned you about that gods-damn sandstorm!"
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