I felt, rather than saw, the way Tamir stiffened. He let out a noise, which was half growl and half laugh, and slipped into his tent. “Shayat,” I said quietly. “Can I ask you something?”

“It better be about the trip, Ariah.”

“It is, I think. Or might have been once.” She gave me an exasperated, irritated look. I stood up and walked to the ledge, far away from Tamir’s tent. I waved at her until she came over, and Sorcha followed quickly on her heels. I stood staring out at the empty badlands while they walked over. It was strange to me that a place so empty, so open, could hold a thousand dangers. I felt with the openness of the land I should be able to see them coming. I am a man prone to such false senses of security. Sorcha appeared on one side of me, and Shayat on the other. I looked over my shoulder at the mouth of Tamir’s tent. The tent swayed slightly with his movements within. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Shayat, you know I have the gift.”

“Yes, I do.” She cast a wary look at Sorcha.

“For fuck’s sake, I know he’s a shaper. I live with him. He reads me all the damn time.”

“Shayat, Tamir…he seems to have…”

She frowned at me. “You read my cartographer.”

“…some, uh, well…Tamir has an apprehensiveness about the journey, I think. And I was wondering what is out there that is bringing that on?”

She was cold and haughty. She gave me the look a Semadran gives a shaper who has stepped out of bounds: a look of disgust, of impatience, of carefully tended walls. “If it was any business of yours, professor, you wouldn’t have had to eavesdrop for it,” she said.

She turned and started back towards camp, but I caught her by the elbow. Her face swung towards mine, surprised. There was a heavy pause, one where I tried to decide whether to let her go and she tried to decide whether to stay. “Shayat, I only ask so I don’t stumble into something awful.”

She chewed her lip. She cast a quick look at Sorcha. I shoved him back towards the camp. He grumbled but left us there alone. She watched him walk back to the fire. “Did you know all crews that go through the badlands have a shaper? There’s a reason for it. Ariah, can you count?”

“Peripheral counting?”

She nodded.

“I…I don’t know. I haven’t trained for it. Bandits?”

“And rahksa. Tamir lost an eye to rahksa. He was training with a cartographer whose crew lost their shaper at the border and pressed on anyway. Half the crew died, and he was left half-blind. He refused to come with me until I told him you were a shaper. He won’t cross the badlands without one.”

“You…Shayat, you didn’t.”