Chapter 80

Camilla’s POV

For several seconds, it was entirely dark. I felt absent. Bodiless. Adrift.

Then with a sickening lurch I hit the blistering sand. The grit scalded my bare skin and I squealed in pain. I tried to climb to my feet, but was so winded that I just lay panting on the burning ground. The very air was hot to breathe. Coughing, I propped myself up on my hands and knees, pushed my hair from my face and looked out into the vista.

It was a hellscape.

An endless panorama of blue sand - so blue that it was difficult to discern from the sky. The swollen sun was white like molten glass. Small cerulean fires shuddered across the sand dunes, arching then receding in waves. I couldn't understand what their fuel was. The only landmarks were jagged rocks that jutted in painful intervals from the acrid land. There were no trees or plants of any kind. But for the quaver of the wind: it was forebodingly quiet.

I spat