Nomi felt the tall Serian looking down at her as she spoke, but she did not return her stare. More than I know, Nomi thought. There's so much more than I know. I didn't believe in them, but they don't need my belief to exist. Some of what Ramus had said to her came back with a sting. Perhaps she had restricted herself by only choosing Ventgoria for her voyages. “I am a searcher of new things,” she said quietly, and Beko slipped his hands out from beneath hers.

“We should get away,” he said. “No telling when it'll come back.”

“What did you see when it was over me?” Nomi asked.

“It was like you had a bit of night around you,” Noon said. “What about you?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I saw nothing.”

“SO, DO YOU want to hear about my eye?” Lulah asked.

They had stopped for a brief rest just after midday, and since then they had ridden hard. Lulah had gathered some bread mushrooms, moist and wholesome, and they had been eating as they rode. Ramus chewed thoughtfully, dwelling on what had happened and what may come.

He fumbled his last mushroom and watched it disappear in the grass.

“You're sure?” It was a foolish response, but Lulah had truly surprised him. Strong and silent at first, it seemed that being away from the crowd had allowed her to lower some of her defenses.

She turned in her saddle and smiled. “I don't offer something like that unless I'm sure.” She untied Ramus's reins from the back of her saddle and he kneed his horse, riding alongside her so that he could hear better.

“It's relevant, isn't it?” he asked. “How you lost your eye.”

“Made me the way I am, and that's why I came with you.”

“You said you'd tell me when I finally translate these pages.”

Lulah's expression grew dark and Ramus, looking at her from the side, found it strange being unable to see her good eye. It made her inhuman. “I think you're close already.”

“There may be a Sleeping God on top of the Great Divide,” he said. Rather than feeling annoyed at blurting out the secret, sharing it suddenly seemed to lift the weight from his mind and ease the pain behind his eyes.

“You didn't have to tell me that,” Lulah said.

“You're going to tell me about your eye. Just sharing trust. We've got a long way to go together.”

“A Sleeping God . . .” she said, trailing off and looking away from him, across the Steppes. She was quiet for a while, and Ramus tried to imagine the thoughts turning over in her mind. Superstitions, fears, doubtless a hundred questions. “I knew that already.”

“You knew?”

“I'm no fool,” she said. “I saw its image on that parchment. There are people in a village in Cantrassa who worship such an image.”

“They worship a Fallen God?”

“Fallen?” Lulah said, frowning.