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Chapter Fifty-Six: Benguzi
Ilyria and Astrapi rose higher and higher as the ground beneath them churned. The garden was gone, the changing city made of sand was gone. Even the sandstorm that had swirled around the city building and rebuilding the spires and domes and craters, had dwindled. Where once there had been buildings there were now only waves blowing across the desert sands.
With Astrapi’s hands around her waist, and her feet tucked around his, she pushed up her sleeve. The skin there was smooth and pale and absolutely blank.
She turned her head in a panic.
“Astrapi,” she said, “Look!”
But Astrapi was struggling to hold both her and the harness. The bag holding the seedling swayed wildly and Ilyria was afraid it would fall. If it fell to the earth below, it would be lost. Astrapi nodded. He had seen it too. They had to find somewhere safe and soon.
Either of them would be able to conjure a path back to the aerie. But then they would lose time travelling to the n
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