Bride of Dust

Every twenty years the desert world of Anhar takes one bride from Earth. Amara Boateng volunteers because she is a hydrologist, and the river is the only thing anyone talks about. She expects a ceremony. She does not expect Khasir, an Anhari water-shaper who has spent three years dodging the tribute lottery, and whose bond ignites the moment she steps off the transport. He wants her to go home. He is too late. Under the temple, in tunnels no one shows brides, Amara finds the truth about the tribute, the river, and four hundred years of theft. She came to map an aquifer. She is leaving with a planet's confession and one very cold alien in tow.