They Ran Me Dry in the Desert, So We Came Back for the Whole Rim novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Spoken
I held him up by the coat while the rain came down on both of us.
His whole weight was against my shoulder, and his breath came in short ragged pulls.
"Ximena," he said into my hair.
"I'm here," I said.
"The horn is done."
"I did not flinch."
"I watched you not flinch," I said, and I laughed, and it came out wet.
Behind us, a hundred people were looking at the sky and not at the two of us.
My father put his own hat on the lectern so that it covered the Count book from the rain.
The oldest elder lifted her cane.
"The Count stands open," she said.
"We finish it tonight, with the names of the desert, and no one will lift a hand from this water while I breathe."
That night the storm went east and left the Upper Spring washed and cold, and the packs came back to it at dusk.
Torches burned along the rim.
Ramiro stood on the reading stone with the book, and Tammy stood at his elbow, and her voice carried clear to the far ridge.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of They Ran Me Dry in the Desert, So We Came Back for the Whole Rim are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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