Arms crossed, Anji watched Kit gulp down the last of their water. Contrary to Jared’s advice, the Hawk had been inhaling more and more of the Rail. What vile changes were happening under all that leather? How much longer before the signs of turning showed in her face? Would she fully transform into a mindless, sniveling Dredger while they were at sea? Surely any competent captain would toss her over the ship’s side if they found out what they’d brought aboard. The thought brought a faint glimmer of hope, but something nagged at Anji as Kit shuddered in the saddle and nudged the horse down the trail.

“Jared said you were supposed to start weaning off.”

Kit cast Anji a sidelong look as they walked, her eyes dull red. “Wouldn’t do much good now. Besides, a sea voyage, stuck with you and your mouth? I’ll not endure that without a fix.” She gestured at Tideron’s approaching wall with the empty canteen. “We’ll go in, get more Rail, then find a ship for Linura.”

“How do you know we’ll even find any Rail in there?” Anji asked, stumbling through the sand. Her ankle was beginning to throb again.

“There’s a building marked.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Anji said.

“You don’t know what to look for.”

Chapter 35

35

They gained flat ground once more and joined the milling trail of wagons and gruff townsfolk snaking toward Tideron’s main gate, an archway two stories tall, its bronze doors thrown open against the towering wall. The stone stood cracked and bleeding decades of lichen and moss. A wooden coat of arms topped the gate’s archway, depicting a black squid over checkered purple-and-white squares. Four constables in yellow tunics stood in the arch’s shadow. From this distance Anji could just make out the scruff of their beards and the practiced way they gripped the swords in their golden sheaths. The constables stopped each group as it reached the gate, barking commands and sifting through carts.

As they moved with the throng, Anji wondered if they’d be better off tying the horse up somewhere and continuing on without it. Few others in the crowd had proper horses, and theirs was bigger and better fed than most.

Ahead, a cart and driver trundled through the gate and one of the guards waved the next wagon forward. The crowd inched along. Anji felt a shiver as they walked into the shadow cast by the salt-stained walls.

Something gurgled from behind Kit’s mask and a trail of gray vomit dripped down into the saddle between her legs. Kit swayed and gripped at the swells. Anji reached instinctively for Kit’s leg, but stayed her hand and stepped aside as Kit shuddered and spat a glob of something yellow to the coarse sand underfoot.