Morning saw the storm blown out, leaving sunlight and birdsong in its wake. Anji had said little and Kit even less as they packed their scant supplies and set off, waves crashing on the beach far below. The lighthouse was a distant shape at their backs when Anji finally relinquished the saddle and motioned for Kit to mount. Her ankle still smarted when she put too much weight on it, but she could take only so much pleasure watching her captor stumble in a sleepless haze as their sedge-lined path shifted to a broader road. She’d expected an argument, but Kit simply stood on twitching legs while Anji dismounted, then climbed on without a word before they moved on, plodding toward the columns of chimney smoke that marked the borderlands of Tideron.

The coast road ran empty but for a few carts drawn by haggard draft animals. Their riders tipped their hats as they creaked past, one dray weighed down by an entire family dressed in filthy rags. As Tideron’s outskirts began to materialize, Anji spotted a spindly wagon covered in a patched tarp angled into a ditch, its front wheel in a splintered heap among the dirt. A grubby woman and her brood loitered at the roadside in rough, greasy homespun, begging any passerby to help.

Kit flipped a Celdia toward them, but clicked her tongue at the horse. They pressed on.

“You’re quiet today,” said Kit, stuffing a piece of dried meat into her mouth.

Anji glanced back at the woman and her children, her mouth dry. She said nothing.

The Hawk spat into the grass.

They walked in silence, level with the coast for a quarter hour before coming to the base of a large hill. Anji untied the canteen from the saddle, frowning at the hollow splash slapping against the bottom. She took a drink and watched a scattered cloud formation collecting in the eastern sky, stirred by a robust strand of wind that fluttered her coat. A screech rent the air, followed by the stark black shapes of two large birds riding the buffeting currents. The birds circled and weaved, dancing together over the sprawling gray sea. Anji took a long, deep breath of salty air as the pair flew off, dark specks against the deep blue.

“Water’s nearly gone,” she said. She took another sip and corked the canteen. “Kit, did you—”

Kit was slumped over in the saddle, her shoulders caved over the swells, chest shuddering in and out. A small dribble of black saliva leaked from the corner of her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered closed. At the neckline where her leathers ended, Anji could see tendrils of gray running like filthy veins under her skin.

Anji’s stomach went cold.

You’ll see it in her neck soon.