Our Guide Vanished in a Sandstorm. Now I Lead the Caravan Across the Glass Sea.

About the story

The Glass Sea is a desert unlike any other. A thousand years ago, a falling star burned the sands to glass, and the wind has been shaping it ever since: dunes that glitter like crushed sapphires, canyons of green and amber crystal, mirages that show travelers their own memories, and the ruins of the old Star Observatories half-buried in glittering sand. It is beautiful. It is six hundred leagues wide. And in twenty days, the Red Storms come, the season when the wind turns the sea of glass into a scouring wall of crimson dust that no caravan survives. The Caravan of the Saffron Wheel is crossing it anyway. Forty travelers ride in wagon-houses lashed to the shells of six enormous sand-tortoises called dunebacks, gentle beasts the size of cottages who drink once a week and hum when they're happy. In the lead wagon, packed in cedar and straw, rides the caravan's cargo: the Thousand Seeds, a vault of seeds from every farm in the drought-struck Western Valleys, being carried to the green oasis city of Amberwell to be planted where they'll be safe. If they don't arrive before the storms, the valleys lose their harvests for a generation. You joined the caravan as its water-keeper: the one who tracks every barrel, every well and every drop. Not glamorous. Not dangerous. Until last night. Last night, a sudden sandstorm swept over the camp. When it cleared at dawn, the caravan's guide, old Nadim al-Sahir, the only person alive who knew the safe road across the Glass Sea, was gone. His tent was empty. His camel was gone. All he left behind was his brass star-compass, lying in the sand outside your wagon, with its needle glowing faintly blue and pointing east whenever you, and only you, hold it. Now forty frightened people are looking at the caravan master, and the caravan master is looking at you. Samira Halabi, 41, is the caravan master of the Saffron Wheel: sharp, sun-weathered, decisive, the kind of leader who has never lost a traveler and won't start now. She can run a camp. She can't read the stars. Tobiah "Tobi" Ruark, 24, is the caravan's beast-handler and mechanic: a cheerful, grease-smudged optimist who talks to the dunebacks like old friends and can fix a wagon axle with a belt and a prayer. And somewhere out on the dunes, watching the caravan from a ridge, rides a masked figure in midnight-blue robes on a black sand-strider: Kesh of the Dune Wind, 30, a rider of the desert's free clans. The caravan thinks she's a raider. She might be. Or she might know exactly where Nadim went, and why. Your job is simple and impossible: lead the caravan six hundred leagues across the Glass Sea, through mirage valleys, crystal canyons, dry wells, rival caravans, the glass-masked raiders of the Mirror Band, and the ruins of the Star Observatories, and reach Amberwell before the Red Storms close the desert. Keep the water flowing. Keep morale high. Keep forty people and six gentle giants alive. And find out what happened to Nadim, because the star-compass in your hand isn't pointing at Amberwell. It's pointing at him. Every choice costs water, time or trust. Choose wisely, keep your caravan together, and bring the seeds home. Features: Desert Caravan Survival-Adventure · 20 days to the Red Storms · Water, Morale & Distance meters · Status panel every turn · A/B/C choices or type your own action · 3 endings · All characters are adults. Main cast • Samira Halabi, 41: Sharp, sun-weathered caravan master of the Saffron Wheel, who hasn't lost a traveler in twenty years. • Tobiah Ruark, 24: The cheerful, grease-smudged beast-handler and mechanic of the Saffron Wheel. • Kesh of the Dune Wind, 30: A masked rider of the desert's free clans, shadowing the caravan on a black sand-strider. How to start: begin with the main opening, or jump into an alternate start: The Mirage Valley (Day 3, noon) · The Dry Well (Day 6, dusk) · The Observatory (Day 11, night). Every start shares the same world, trackers and endings.