Role

Chapter 2

A feeling like fire fills my mind, burning away the fog. It flashes like
lightning, and my eyes open. Like the torrent of a river, it courses through
my body and demands my muscles find their vigor. I push my chest off the sand
and place my right foot in front of me. Heaving myself up, I stand for the
first time in more than a day.

My Rage for the Crows and this damnable desert propels me onward. As the day
breaks, everything seems like a bleached mirage. The sun is a malevolent fat
troll that squats over the desert, burning my naked skin and punishing me as
I dare to walk beneath it. But neither it nor the shifting sands can stop me
now. Step by determined step, I press forward until I stand before the gates
of Hamsah Mu'tazz.