Sweat dripped off me as I stumbled over clumps of grass beside the brook. Brielle steadied my arm. The hunter was breathing hard, but in far better shape than me. I peeked over my shoulder but didn't see any movement. The sightings had become much rarer, although the Saursune was definitely still around.

My heart lifted when I spotted the branches Brielle had dragged across the trail. The crystal was just ahead! The relief I felt gave me a bit more strength, and I sped up as best I was able. My legs shook from the pace I had set—the sedentary life of porters who remained close to the crystals was not conducive to a long-distance race.

I pushed my way through the shrubs and caught sight of the crystal. We made it! I staggered to the crystal, dropping to my knees as my exhaustion caught up with me, and placed my hand on the slender spires. Brielle's hand rested on my shoulder.

"Sunrise Village," I gasped, out of breath, while envisioning the abandoned desert ruins.

Even as the haze started to appear, the cranberry bushes shifted as the Saursune emerged, barely five paces in front of us. Its sharp gaze disappeared into the haze as the world around me turned from green to brown.

The endless blue sky above was matched by the rolling sand dunes to my left. I flopped back onto the sand, panting. Brielle sat beside me with a weary sigh.

We made it. I wasn't sure how, but we had.

The return trip had only taken half the time, but every second had been rife with suspense as we waited for the Saursune to attack from behind or leap out of a shrub. I shivered as I remembered how it had appeared at the last second.

Our village might have a new crystal now, but I doubted anyone wanted to go there when a Saursune was in the vicinity. There was a lot of untouched foraging there though, so one of the more daring groups might try in a day or so. They wouldn't have to go far to fill their baskets with greens.

It took forever for me to catch my breath, and even then, it was only my unrelenting thirst that drove me to my feet. I stumbled over to the well and showed Brielle where I'd hidden an old sinew rope and tiny leather bucket. She pulled up water and filled our waterskins.

Water trickled down my chin and dripped onto the sand as I drank the cool water. I sat on a nearby rock in the shade, staring blankly across the abandoned village. The charcoal murals on the cliff walls were stark reminders of the danger the Saursunes posed. Yet, this one had just trailed us the entire way back. And I had no idea why.

I slowly sipped the water as I rested, but things were no clearer by the time my waterskin was empty. The dry wind caressed my face and shifted my hair, reminding me that I should check on the groups I had left.

Rising on sore legs, I put the leather bucket back in its hiding place. I peeked down the stone-lined shaft, but like every other village out there, this was a slow seep well.

The raised rock sides had kept out most of the wind-driven sand, but it had filled in a lot over the decades. It didn't hold enough water to fill the water cart, even if people were willing to haul small buckets up on a rope. The idea of porting a water cart between three or four abandoned villages made me shudder.

I ported us to Willow Plains to check on the first group. Anna waved from where she was gathering handfuls of random grasses, remaining close to the crystal while she guarded several rabbit carcasses and five carry nets of greens that the others had left.

"How has it been?" I asked as I wandered over.

"Quiet," she replied. "The others have gone farther out since the areas around the crystal are very overharvested. At least nine groups have tried coming here, so it's a good thing I remained close by."

Brielle grabbed a half-filled carry net and began checking the area as I visited with Anna.

"I better go check on the other group," I said. "I'll come back in an hour."

Leaving Brielle here, I rested my hand on the crystal, feeling light dance along my veins as I murmured, "Maple Forest."

Even as the haze was clearing, a hand grabbed onto my shoulder. I jumped at the unexpected contact and discovered the group was clustered around the crystal. They quickly grabbed onto each other while several Saursunes circled around the clearing.

Most were on their hind legs and held a weapon in their hands. The lizards' heads rose higher at my sudden arrival, focusing on me. My grip on the spire tightened, frantically glancing at my companions to see if they were all connected.

The second their hands stopped moving, I whispered, "Guard Station, Guard Stat—"

As our sight faded out, two of the Saursunes pointed weapons in our direction. My heart thundered in my chest. Most of the weapons looked more like the guards' scanners, but looks could be deceiving, and even a deathfire weapon could be held in one hand. One held a weapon with three prongs on the tip, a characteristic of a smaller zapper, although it wasn't pointed at us.

My skin felt hypersensitive as the haze completely obscured my sight and turned desert brown. As soon as I could see, I did a head count. Eight. I'd gotten everyone out.

I exhaled in relief and pressed a hand against my chest to try and convince my heart to slow down. "Is everyone okay? What happened?"

A couple of them glanced at the guards—the one with the scanner was already jogging over—while the others looked surprised at the size of the group that had just arrived.

One said, "Some Saursunes came sniffing around. Edwin and Josephine were pinned before they got to the crystal. We picked the tracker off Josephine but couldn't find one on Edwin."

The unspoken words were clear: we'll tell you more at home. No one wanted to admit they'd gone out without a porter, not in front of strangers. It might also give the other villages ideas, and we already had enough competition.

The guard was already circling around us as he quickly followed the red dot.

"Where is it?" I asked urgently. I had to get that tracker out of here now, before the Saursunes figured out where we were.

The scanner pointed to Edwin's waistband.

"It's between the layers of leather," the guard said, examining the scraps of rabbit hide crudely sewn together. The gaps between each stitch were wide enough for a tracker bead to have been slid inside.

"What are you waiting for?" Edwin demanded, his hands shaking. "Cut it out!"

A hunter pushed past the guard and used a tiny flint blade to slice through the strands of sinew securing the seam. As he pulled the edges apart, a bead dropped to the sand.

I darted in and grabbed it. "Be right back!" I twisted around to touch the crystal. "Apple Orchard!"

Time seemed to drag, both in my panic to relocate the bead before the Saursunes detected its signal and because the crystal I was going to was so small. The forest appeared around me; the apple trees were visible, even if the town in the valley ahead was not.

I straightened out of my odd contortion and threw the tracker in the direction opposite of the town. I dropped to my heels to reach the small spires and immediately ported away from the abandoned crystal.

As I appeared in the desert once again, the earliest hints of porting strain formed a discomfort in my chest from so many back-to-back ports. As I stood up, I staggered a few steps, more from being off balance than from porting aftereffects. My companions might be on their first volunteer trip, but they were familiar enough with porters to usher me to a nearby hide in case I was on the verge of fainting.

My eyes uneasily scanned the horizon as I sat down. "Any sign of trouble?"

"Nothing yet," one of the guards replied, also watching for any sign of airships. "But we've peeled more than a few trackers off people today, so they either know we're here or they will before long."

My eyes ceaselessly scanned the sky as the guard with the scanner circled our group once more, but the light remained reassuringly green. Was our close call a sign that we might not be so lucky next time?

"An apple orchard?" another guard asked, glancing at me.

I blinked, finally looking away from the sky. It took me a second to realize he was referring to the location phrase I'd used. "The Saursunes built a town near one of our new crystals. If anyone wants to try reaching the apple orchard, they're braver than we are."

Even the guard from Hinton Village winced. Until recently, fields were rarely patrolled, and farms only had one or two occupants who frequently wandered away. But towns? There were hundreds of the deadly aliens there. Not even the bravest raiders would contemplate harvesting near a town.

"Have a lot of people had trackers today?" one of the women asked quietly.

With a frown, the guard with the scanner said, "If we count your two, that makes ten so far, and the day ain't done."

We stared at him. Ten? That number boggled the mind—and that was just from the five villages who used this place! The Saursunes were definitely trying to track us down. No wonder the guard said it was only a matter of time until they figured out where this place was.

The next time I ported here, would I appear in the middle of a group of Saursune fighters? The possibility would send me into a panic if I dwelled on it too long. I forced myself to think of what we'd just been told instead of speculating about the future.

"Are they okay?" I asked, wondering who had been caught. If they used this scanning station, I likely knew them.

"More shaken than anything. Two porters from your village were pinned. I don't think they had bruises since they were smart enough to play dead. A hunter in training from Keywa got a few scratches while trying to escape."

The guard gave my companions a long look. I ruefully realized that he would have been just as familiar with the "regulars" as I was, if not more so. Apparently, we weren't the only group sending out more people while trying to gather the dwindling resources.

A few eyebrows would be raised when I brought the second group here to be checked. It couldn't be helped though; we needed more people searching for food, and we didn't dare skip the scanning station just because we didn't want people to know I could port two groups. I'd have to talk to Grant about it later.

I gazed at the heat shimmers above the sand as I wondered if the porters who were pinned were just as tired as— The thought halted mid-sentence. I had just done six ports pretty much back-to-back, one of which with eight people. Yet, the hint of porting strain I'd felt on my last bounce had already faded. There should have been something, even just a lingering warning ache.

My lips pursed as I recalled how I had transported two groups of eight this morning and hadn't waited more than a minute after the second trip before leaving. It should have taken ten or fifteen minutes for the porting strain to subside. The further proof of my strengthening abilities left me feeling unsettled.