The Desert Spear

hand. It is not your fault I struck the ground. I hold your oath fulfilled.”
    Jardir’s eyes filled with tears. “I will not fail you again,” he promised.
    Just then a
dama’ting
entered their partition, floating in silently from deeper within the pavilion. She looked their way, and she met Jardir’s eyes. His heart thudded to a stop in his chest, and his face went cold. It seemed they stared at each other forever. The
dama’ting
‘s expression was unreadable beneath her opaque white veils.
    At last, she tilted her head toward the exit flap. Jardir nodded, hardly believing his luck. He squeezed Abban’s hand one last time and darted out of the tent.

    “You will encounter wind demons upon the walls, but you are not to engage,” Qeran said, pacing before the
nie’Sharum.
“That duty will be for the
dal’Sharum
you serve. Still, it is important you understand your foes.”
    Jardir listened closely, sitting in his usual spot at the front of the group, but he was keenly aware of Abban’s absence at his side. Jardir had grown up with three younger sisters, and then found Abban the day he came to the Kaji’sharaj. Loneliness was a strange feeling.
    “The
dama
tell us the wind demon resides on the fourth layer of Nie’s abyss,” Qeran told the boys, gesturing with his spear at a winged image chalked on the sandstone wall.
    “Some, like the fools of the Majah tribe, underestimate the wind demon because it lacks the heavy armor of the sand demon,” he said, “but do not be fooled. The wind demon is farther from Everam’s sight, and a fouler creature by far. Its hide will still turn the point of a man’s spear, and the speed of its flight makes it difficult to hit. Its long talons,” he outlined the wicked weapons with the point of his spear, “can take a man’s head off before he realizes it’s there, and its beaklike jaws can tear off a man’s face in a single bite.”
    He turned to the boys. “So. What are its weaknesses?”
    Jardir’s hand immediately shot up. The drillmaster nodded at him.
    “The wings,” Jardir said.
    “Correct,” Qeran said. “Though made of the same tough membrane as its skin, the wings of a wind demon are stretched thin across cartilage and bone. A strong man can puncture them with his spear, or saw them off if his blade is sharp and the creature is prone. What else?”
    Again, Jardir’s hand was the first to rise. The drillmaster’s eyes flicked to the other boys, but none of them raised their hands. Jardir was the youngest of the group by more than two years, but the other boys deferred to him here as they did in the gruel line.
    “They are clumsy and slow on the ground,” Jardir said when Qeran nodded to him.
    “Correct,” Qeran said. “If forced to land, wind demons need a running start or something to climb and leap from to take to the air again. The close quarters of the Maze are designed to deny them this. The
dal’Sharum
atop the walls will seek to net them or tangle them with weighted bolas. It will be your duty to report their location to the warriors on the ground.”
    He eyed the children. “Who can tell me the signal for ‘wind demon down’?”
    Jardir’s hand shot up.

    It was three months before Abban and Jurim rejoined the
nie’Sharum.
Abban walked back to the training grounds with a pronounced limp, and Jardir frowned to see it.
    “Do your legs still pain you?” he asked.
    Abban nodded. “My bones may have healed stronger,” he said, “but not straighter.”
    “It’s early yet,” Jardir said. “They will heal in time.”
    “Inevera,”
Abban said. “Who can say what Everam wills?”
    “Are you ready to fight in the gruel line?” Jardir asked, nodding to the drillmaster coming out with the pot.
    Abban paled. “Not yet, I beg,” he said. “If my legs give way, I will be marked forever.”
    Jardir frowned, but he nodded. “Just don’t take too long,” he said, “lest your inaction mark you as plainly.” As he spoke, they walked to the front of the line, and the other boys gave way to Jardir like mice before a cat, allowing them to have the first bowls. A few glared at Abban resentfully, but none dared give challenge.
    Jurim had no such luxury, and Jardir watched him coldly, still remembering the older boy’s honking laugh as Abban fell. Jurim walked a bit stiffly, but there was nothing of the limp that marred Abban’s once straight stride. The boys in the gruel line glared at him, but Jurim strode right up to his