“Hey! Kit!” Anji shoved the woman’s shoulder to no avail, gathered the horse’s reins, and tugged it up the rise. As they crested, Anji’s ankle a dull, endless throb, Yem’s largest coastal city came into view.

Tideron sat like a god’s wagon wheel sawed in half and laid along the rocky coast. Its thick stone wall hemmed in clusters of white and gray buildings wedged between broad avenues that ran like spokes toward the hub of masts and sails standing at its eastern end. A solitary finger of black rock curled out from the city’s southern edge, its tip dominated by a white-brick lighthouse twice the size of the ruin they’d sheltered in the night before. Seabound ships in full sail crept over the waves, bound for Kardisa, for Blackwater Gulf, for Linura.

Anji turned to try to wake Kit again, but the Hawk was now blinking at her from her perch on the saddle.

“We’re here,” said Anji, tossing the reins toward Kit. She pointed down the slope. “Harbor’s right there. We don’t even have to go through the gates. There’s a separate entrance from the headland.”

Kit levered herself higher in the saddle, massaging her throat. She met Anji’s gaze. “What is it?”

“Your neck,” Anji said, pointing at the gray lines peeking above the leather. She didn’t know what else to say. Right, didn’t know if you noticed, Kit, but you’re slowly turning into that monster on every poster between Linura and Conifor.

Kit pulled her collar over the markings without acknowledgment and cleared her throat.

“We’re not going to the harbor. Not yet.”

Anji rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not stupid. You need to find a ship home just as much as I—”

“Enough!” said Kit, raising a hand. “Enough. I have to go in. I need…” She scratched at her thigh, twisting her neck until it popped.

“What?” said Anji. “What do you—oh.”

Kit slipped twitching fingers into her leathers for her last vial of Rail. She thumbed the cork off, turned the entire tube up and stuffed it into her nostril, leaning her head back. Sniffing hard, she tapped at the emerald-green glass, ensuring every morsel dropped out. With a final snort, Kit tossed the vial into the dirt, wiping at her watering eyes.