Tales From a Thousand Worlds

The distance to the spires from where they had espied it closed but slowly, even despite the hurried pace they made towards it, and likewise did the distance to their pursuers narrow. The race as to would reach their goal first was one too hard to judge, for it would be a close run thing, and so they laboured on as the heat and sand scourged them. Kharjii, once so resigned to his fate, now urged his men on to greater efforts, for fear now drove him on. Death in the deserts was not a prospect he relished, as thirst and heat wracked and devoured the body, yet it remained preferable to the horrors that Barazi would inflict upon them should they be taken alive.

Follow this link for Part Two of The City in Shadows