Slowly, Firebird brought the sled up to the edge of the group of buildings. The floor of the town, which had been laid over the sands to prevent the buildings from being buried or undermined by the winds was itself covered now with shifting sands and the walls of some of the structures leaned drunkenly under the heavy burden piled against them.
Instead of driving into the town, Firebird turned her lights onto the sand directly in front of the sled and began circling the ruin.
"Where are you going?" Nathan asked.
"I want to see if there are sled tracks leading into the ruins. Unless they've been waiting for a couple of days we should be able to forestall any ambush here."
They peered ahead as the spot of light moved slowly over the sand. But nowhere did they see the twin ruts marking the path of a sand sled.
Suddenly Firebird stopped. "No one would bring a sled up into the town if they wanted to ambush us. They'd know we would look for tracks. They would leave the sled at a distance and come in on sand shoes."
"And it's almost impossible to track those."
"It can be done," Firebird said slowly. "But I don't think we'll have to do it."
"Why not?"
She placed his hand against the Jewel pouch. It was warm with warning heat.