My mind drifted as the discomfort became so deep it was almost painful. My energy was practically roiling, a sensation I'd never felt before. Sleep continued to evade me, and by the time Tib and Brielle started stirring, I felt rather unwell.

The internal pressure and restlessness were almost intolerable, yet the only option was to reach the other crystal—which wouldn't happen until tomorrow night. Now that I knew too much energy didn't just result in sleeplessness, I wasn't entirely sure I'd make it. The only thing in my favor right now was that the restlessness might force my feet to keep moving.

I tried yet again to push some of the energy past my palms, but it just stopped. There was nothing to absorb it, and it seemed to refuse to drift through air or sand.

With a yawn, Brielle murmured, "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell," I croaked, my throat feeling far too dry.

The raspiness of my voice had Brielle pushing a water skin against my arm. Tib rolled a smaller stone away from the entrance, letting light and hot air flood in. I took a drink and made a face at the heavy, musty tasting water. Still, it helped my throat, even if it didn't ease the energy pain.

"Are you going to be able to walk?" Tib quietly asked.

"I should be able to, although I might not be going as fast."

"Your two feet will probably manage a faster pace than I would if I were carrying you the entire night."

"How soon can we leave?" I asked. Moving would at least provide some form of distraction. Each step would also take me closer to the crystal.

He poked his head out the opening to check, then shifted back inside. "At least two more hours. It'll be hot, but it'll cool down before we run the risk of heat stroke."

I closed my eyes with a faint groan. I should have known better than to go on this trip, or at least tried going two days without porting as a test.

Time passed with agonizing slowness, and my roiling energy didn't subside even the slightest. How much was pent up to make it swirl on its own accord instead of lying dormant? I could probably manage some pretty impressive ports if I could get my hands on a crystal.

Finally Tib pushed the rocks away and crawled out. The restlessness demanded I move, although I felt lousy enough that I just wanted to curl into a ball. Once Brielle left, I crawled to the entrance and emerged outside.

It was definitely hotter than yesterday. Survivable if one was just sitting in the shade, but deadly once we went into the sun's unrelenting rays. Tib and Brielle both took a long look at me, although their silence said more than words would have.

"It'll be hot, but we can go," Tib said, glancing at me to make sure I wanted to do this.

I had no desire to go marching across the desert, but staying here was even less appealing, so I nodded. As we left the shadows, the sun hit us with an almost palpable force. We had to take the fur hides out of my backpack and drape them over our heads and shoulders to keep the sun off.

My plodding pace was hampered by the soft sand, and it wasn't long before I began to regret leaving our shady hidey hole. It was hot. The sun and wind were a terrible combination. I thought I was fairly adapted to the desert, but living in a shaded village ravine was vastly different from walking under the full sun.

The yellow ball of fire in the sky slowly drifted toward the horizon. It would set in a few hours and bring some relief, at least from the scorching beams. If only I could find some sort of relief for the pressurized energy inside of me as it continued roiling in an almost painful fashion.

Tib paused, suddenly tense. He skipped back and grabbed my arm. "Airship, and it's got at least two big blaster cannons. Let's hide by those boulders."

I staggered for a moment before my feet finally moved properly. We crouched behind some cattle-sized rocks and peered over them. The large airship soared through the sky in the distance. This was the type that showed up during a village attack, and for it to be all the way out here... It didn't bode well for any hidden villages that might be in the area.

The pain made it tempting to try and flag it down so they would siphon off some of my energy, but none of the recent stories of villages being overrun had included them draining porter energy—just them killing any villagers in the area and letting the porters run off. It wasn't worth the risk to my companions, especially when the lack of an escape route undermined any courage I might have otherwise had.

"At least it isn't going near our village," Brielle murmured.

Even as I nodded, the airship slowed and turned as it came this way. My heart began hammering as the distance between us shrank. Then it stopped.

"I think we've been spotted," Tib whispered, his eyes leaving the airship just long enough to glance at the far-too-visible tracks behind us.

"If they can sense growing crystals, I bet they can sense whatever my energy is doing. They didn't seem to notice it right away though." My mind raced. As a porter, I was probably safe—although even that was dubious with this sort of airship without a nearby crystal for me to flee to—but Tib and Brielle were in serious danger.

I tried to still my swirling energy without success. Any attempts to make it do anything just resulted in more pain, like pressing on a blister. The airship just...hovered there.

We waited where we were, hoping it would leave. Time passed with painful slowness. Every minute I was stuck here was one more minute it would take us to reach the crystal.

Almost half an hour later, as the sun dipped lower to the horizon, the airship finally turned and continued heading in its original direction. I sighed in relief but was left with more than a few questions.

Brielle stood up as it disappeared into the distance. "That was rather strange."

"I agree," Tib said, turning as he scanned the sky.

We continued walking, Tib in the lead while Brielle walked beside me. We swerved slightly to remain close to large boulders in case the airship returned.

Mere minutes later, Tib glanced over his shoulder at us and paused. "I was wondering about that."

"Huh?" I asked, my mind not working well. Then I noticed he was looking at something behind us, and I turned around.

The small brown airship stood out remarkably well against the blue sky, especially since it was flying sideways. I'd never thought the sight of an airship would have filled me with so much relief. Even if I just shared energy with the ship crystal, I'd be able to manage the rest of the walk, although I suspected the Saursunes weren't about to leave so easily.

I pulled the thin fur off my head and neck as I watched their rapid approach. The painful turbulence and pressure in my energy seemed to ease now that the end was in sight.

"Did they fly over the village?" Brielle asked, also pulling the sun-protecting fur off.

Tib examined the horizon for a few moments. "Not quite, but definitely close enough for a good look into the ravine. The sentries would have blown an alert, possibly even an evac alarm."

She glanced at him. "Checking to see if the village was flooded or something?"

"Possibly. Why else would we be wandering around in the desert, unless Natalie couldn't reach a crystal, and we had to leave on short notice?"

"They're flying rather fast," Brielle commented. "If it hadn't been Jasper and Citrine's airship, and if it hadn't been flying sideways, I'd be getting rather nervous."

I nodded absently, too excited about their unexpected arrival to pay much attention to their unusual speed. The airship slowed as it got closer and started descending, and the door on the side opened as Citrine's head stuck out.

We waited as they landed only fifty paces away. Tib and Brielle were surprisingly calm, and there was a faint look of relief on their expressions. The airship had barely touched down before Citrine jumped out and trotted over. She snuffled at my hair, lightly nudging her nose against me with a faint whine as if concerned.

"Hello," I said as my hand reached eagerly for her neck.

Even before my fingers touched her scales, self-restraint kicked in. My regular energy sharings could make light ripple across a Saursune's hide as if it was more than what they could easily absorb. The amount I had now could hurt her, and I didn't want that.

I stroked her neck like I usually did but didn't share my energy. If Citrine decided to siphon some off, great. But I knew from past events that when my reserves were overly full, any connection tended to make it all overflow in an unstoppable wave. I'd managed this long, and it shouldn't be too hard to convince them to let me share energy with the ship crystal.

Citrine looked at our surroundings in an overly obvious fashion, as if asking what in the desert blazes we were doing all the way out here.

I glanced at the hunters. "Who's feeling adventurous? Will you trust me?"

When they nodded, I looked directly at Citrine, pointed to the airship, and then in the direction we had been walking. She gave a quick nod and darted back to the airship.

"My wife is going to kill me," Tib murmured as we walked behind her.

Citrine reappeared in the doorway with a paper map. She held it out and looked between me and it, tapping a brown section which likely marked our current location.

"Look at this," I murmured as I leaned over to examine it.

The map showed half a dozen crystals scattered across the desert sand, including the Vermilion Village crystals, Sentry Point crystal, our other backup crystals—including another shard too small to port to—and the one we were heading toward.

Proof that the Saursunes knew where our village was.

"They don't have the Eastern Star crystal," Tib commented, seeming fascinated by the map.

"And it's fully grown, so it wouldn't give off whatever energy signals the airships seem to be able to detect," I said in agreement. "Feel like seeing if they'll trade an energy share for a lift? I'm not sure they'll leave us if we try to keep walking."

Tib replied, "Liam managed it without them protesting, and I've had enough of this trip."

We glanced at Brielle, who nodded. Leaning through the doorway, I pointed to the back wall where the ship crystal was hidden, then tapped the new crystal we had been walking to. Citrine gave a nod and went to the back to open the panel to expose the crystal.

Relief from the energy buildup was the only thing I could think of as I stepped inside and followed her. The hunters paused outside the door and looked inside uneasily despite their earlier calm courage.

Citrine stood beside me as I rested my hands on the ship crystal. As soon as the first bit of energy touched my palms, it cascaded out like a burst water skin. The crystal—the entire spire—glowed and actually warmed under my hands.

The over-pressurized feeling dissipated, leaving sweet, sweet relief in its wake. The glow in the crystal subsided, although the base was much brighter than before. Since I suspected my reserves were still full, I pushed more energy out of my hands.

My legs were already tired from the desert hike and lack of sleep, so it was hard to judge when they were more tired. Erring on the side of caution, I pulled back sooner than I wanted. I had shed enough energy to give me at least half a day without problems.

I leaned on Citrine as the disorientation swirled in, worse than usual, although I wasn't sure if it was because of how much energy I'd just lost or partially due to the lack of sleep and physical exhaustion. Relief flooded through me. The pressure was gone.

"Are you okay?" Brielle murmured, steadying my other elbow. At some point, the two hunters had come inside without me noticing. Tib stood a few paces back, his attention split between me and inspecting the airship.

"It's like doing a bunch of back-to-back ports," I mumbled. "It takes a bit for the aftereffects to wear off."

She glanced at Citrine, then lifted my arm and wrapped it around her neck as her other arm supported my waist. "Where do you usually sit?"

Letting her support my weight, I jerked my chin. "The big brown cushion."

Even as we took the first step, Citrine went ahead and lay down in a half-curled position, tapping the opening. Brielle took it in stride, taking care to not step on the Saursune's feet or tail as she helped me closer.

I sat down with a sigh. Between the major energy drain and the lack of pressure driving me crazy, the strain of the last two nights was making itself known. I felt like I could sleep for a week.

"Here, pass me your backpack," Brielle quietly said, holding out her hand.

I shrugged out of it and passed it to her. She set it and hers on a nearby fur before warily sitting. Tib set his backpack on another fur but remained standing as he looked out a window. Right as I was about to tell him they probably wanted him to sit, the door slid closed.

I blinked. "I wasn't aware it could close without someone nearby. They've always touched the wall beside it to open or close it."

Tib peered out the window in sudden interest. Citrine nuzzled my leg and curled closer, more focused on me than on the standing hunter. I leaned against my makeshift Saursune backrest, knowing it would be a short flight.

I halfway wondered if there was a way to get them to help us plant shards in remote places where they didn't mind us building villages. The airships could cover more ground in mere minutes than we could in days.

The communication gap was the biggest issue, and the second problem was that most villagers would refuse to move to a place the Saursunes knew about. They'd remember the old days, where an airship meant death unless there were enough porters and time to pull off an evac. It was, understandably, one of their biggest fears.

That led my wandering mind to wonder if the village had evacuated or was just on high alert. I guess we'd find out soon enough.