Litany of Knowledge (Len's Song, 2022 edition, Snippet 6)

A story fragment from the Dustsong Cycle

(Read Len’s Song, 2022 edition, Snippet 5.)

Many months thereafter—

From the back of the stone-beast, where he loomed almost thrice his height over the sand-smothered earth, Len looked out over the endless sprawl of dunes and took stock of things he knew.

He knew his throat was parched, while his stomach ached with near-empty.

And though he sat upon his goat-hair cloak, which was too warm to wear under the desert sun, he knew the incessant jostle of the hulking beast on the move had rubbed his thighs and rear to raw.

He knew the only hurts that sufficed to distract him from the soreness in his legs and hindparts were his dust-chapped cheeks, irritated eyes, and bone-dry lips.

He knew there was sandy grime in every nook and crevice of his body, from the nails on his toes to his ever-lengthening beard to his hair and scalp under the palm-frond hat he’d woven.

And he knew he hated Egwae, his warden from the sky-realm, as much as she despised him. Her unrelenting presence served to remind him night and day of all the things he most wanted to forget.