Page 21 of The Blighted Sky
“Huh?” Florian blurted, confused, and Koji laughed.
“It’s so dusty,” he said, gesturing to the loose cotton shirt he was wearing, which was indeed much grimier now than it had been when they set out. “But it’s just going to get dirty again tomorrow. So no point, right?”
Florian only stared at him a moment longer, then chuckled self-consciously. Jerahhadtold him there were no hangups about sexuality in the Veil—why had he expected Koji to be any different?
“It’ll just get dirty again tomorrow, yeah,” he said. “But I can get all the dust off pretty quickly. Look.”
He touched his own shirt. “Clean,” he muttered, and a puff of dust burst off of him in all directions. Koji laughed, and Kade huffed, waving his hands to blow the dust away.
“You’ll get it on the sleeping bags,” Kade protested, but despite his tone, his eyes sparkled with amusement. Florian reached over to grab Kade’s sleeve and did the same thing, a dust cloud bursting off his torso. “Florian!”
He grinned wickedly, leaping away from the dust cloud he’d created as Koji laughed. “Sorry! Sorry!”
He ended up magicking his, Kade’s, and Koji’s clothes clean, along with their sleeping bags—they were quickly covered in dust, exactly as Kade predicted. But it was amusing to see the others laugh, in a way that he hadn’t experienced in the Blight before. Being with Kade made the wasteland bearable, but adding another person was novel—fun, even, at least when they were in their shelter and out of the worst of the danger. Koji was cheerful and smiled easily, a welcome contrast to Kade’s stoicism and Florian’s anxiety.
He was glad Koji had agreed to come with them, Florian thought, as he curled up next to Kade and intertwined their fingers—as much contact as was comfortable in the unrelenting heat of the surrounding Blight. If they were lucky, this next Arrow would be easy, and Koji would be willing to help them with more.
They woke early—or at least, it felt early, but there was no telling for sure with the unending light—and set out again without much fanfare. Tired as he was, Florian never slept well in the Blight. He packed his things in grumpy silence before finally setting the shroud back over the three of them with a sigh.
“Alright,” he said, rubbing his eyes once it was in place. “Ready.”
They took down the shelter, which always went faster than setting it up, then set back out in the direction Koji pointed, falling into the same formation as yesterday: Kade at the point, Florian in the middle, and Koji bringing up the rear.
Koji was not nearly as chatty, but still seemed cheerful despite the heat and dust. Kade was silent and alert as always, while Florian trudged along between them. He had not set the quickening spell, knowing the place where they would ascend up into the floating island was within a day’s travel even at a normal pace, and wanting to conserve his magic as much as possible.
Florian’s thoughts remained on the strange floating islands, and what they might find when they got there. Would there be Blight monsters, or more of the unsettling Blighted shifters there, defending what had once been their homes? Koji had said that some sort of bird shifter clan had once lived there, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. His stomach turned at the idea, though, so he tried not to think of what they might do if that was indeed the case.
There had been no illustrations of what the floating islands looked like, just a simple map Koji had found, so Florian wondered how different it would be from what they had seen in the dragon kingdom. How much of the architecture still stood in the Blight? Would it be laid out like the long, narrow streets within the walls of the dragon kingdom, or were the islands far enough away that they would have their own distinct look?
And where would the Arrow be amongst all of that? If there were Blighted shifters there, the Arrow might be in an obvious place—the way it had been with the last one. But without knowing the landscape of the islands, it would be hard to say for sure. He’d have to rely on sensing the powerful magic.
They had been walking for several hours when Koji finally said, “We should be in about the right place now.”
Florian frowned, looking up into the sky. The Blight limited their visibility, of course, but he’d expected to be able to see the islands floating in the sky above them. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure,” Koji said, gesturing at the map. “The islands must be higher than I thought. I’d hoped we’d be able to see them from here, but... I don’t think it will be possible, with the light coming from, well, everywhere.”
Florian grimaced as he looked between Kade and Koji, who were both looking at him expectantly. “If you’re sure, Koji, I trust you. We’ll start heading up.”
He paused, suddenly realizing how difficult it was going to be just to get up there. He and Koji could shift, but someone would have to carry Kade; and he would have to maintain his hold on the shroud—doable, but harder when he was shifted.
Kade seemed to have thought the same and was now looking dubiously between Florian and Koji.
“How are we going to do this?” he asked. Florian sighed, nervously scrubbing a hand through his hair.
“Koji and I will fly,” he said slowly. “I think... Koji should probably carry you up so I can focus on the shroud. As long as we stay close together, I think it should be fine.”
Kade grimaced. “We didn’t think this part through. Maybe I should stay behind.”
“What? No way,” Florian protested in confusion, shaking his head quickly. “Splitting up is a terrible idea. We need to stick together.”
“I don’t want to weigh anyone down,” Kade replied.
“You won’t,” Koji interrupted. “I can carry you. It’s not a problem.”
For a moment, Kade looked like he might still argue. But when he looked at Florian, his eyes softened. He sighed with a defeated shrug.
“Okay,” he relented. “If you don’t think it will be an issue. All right, then.”
