The desert raged like a sea in storm. Ibrahm the sorcerer, cunning eyes darting this way and that above his face wrap, kept his senses open as he tried to guide the twisting wind and flying sand summoned by his dark power. It was useless. Visibility was almost nothing. Just…

Duali, the city men called the Bronze Petal of the Desert, woke with the song of Sullam’s call to prayer at dawn. Eight days journey to the west, deep in the desert, an unnatural sandstorm howled like the death scream of a greater demon. In the heart of the storm…

The exiled prince wandered far after he was betrayed. He came to the edge of a wide desert. The traders said that it was too wide to cross. If someone tried to cross, he would certainly die. …

“There’s always another trap.” Shari’s words whispered in the thief’s mind, and he hesitated before he slunk across the last few feet of rooftop and through the open window. It would be appropriate, he thought, for him to remember his teacher’s first tenet on his last job. Fitting. Because he…

The prince, the priestess, the alchemist and the alchemist’s apprentice left Duali by the western gate. It was early morning. The sun started to rise over the shardlands in the east. They put their backs to it and traveled west, across the sands.​ For six days, Sullam’s blessing was with…

“Alms?” The beggar held out a tin cup and cocked his head, listening. Blind, the thief thought. “Young man,” the beggar wheezed. “Alms for the poor?” The thief hesitated. On instinct, he peeked inside the cup and counted. There were a few coins at the bottom, but the thief knew…

Shari, street hawk to the dust lord Bandar el-Zaki, watched the young thief weave through the crowd. Anakar’s sun-baked streets were thronging with people, here to celebrate the new year and the changing of the seasons at the ancient festival of Ramsalla. She saw the moment the young man chose…

The lamps of Duali had already been lighted when Sulleiman, priest of Sullam, heard a knock at the side door. He stretched and rose from where he knelt in front of the altar. He went bare-chested to the door and opened it. There were two men standing outside on the…

It was morning. The young man could hear the crier in the highest minaret of the temple of Sullam, singing across to the crier in the highest minaret of the temple of Sallib. He sang of windstorms and sandstorms and the love of the desert. …