“Ramus,” she said, “we need to end this.”

“End?” he said, incredulous. “It's ended already! I'll be dead soon, and that's the only end you wanted, isn't it?”

“I never wanted that!”

“You gave me your disease!” he roared, and Noon grabbed his arms when he tried to stand. “How could you? You fucking sheebok bitch, how could you?”

Nomi started crying, but the tears only seemed to spur Ramus on even more. He shouted and raged, and Noon and Beko guided him away to the other side of the camp.

“I didn't mean it,” Nomi said, fighting back the tears. She thought of Timal and what could have been, and the voyage she had ruined for Ramus, and she had never been so confused. Her own intentions seemed to have altered with time, and as she considered them, they changed some more.

“Tell that to your dying friend,” Lulah said.

Nomi looked at Beko where he stood talking to Ramus in calm, even tones. Beneath his shirt the Serian bore scratches on his back from her nails, but that seemed like a dream now, something seen away by the changes and violence of the last few moments.

And what's going to happen now? she thought. The voyage was over. But it could never be over, not this journey, because it was still the voyage of a lifetime.

“We can make up,” she whispered.

“Can you cure him?” Lulah asked. Nomi had not meant for anyone to hear, but she looked up at the Serian and shook her head.

“No. But I can be sorry.”

“Only now?”

“I was sorry when it happened.”

Lulah laughed and shook her head. “The madman's right. You are a sheebok bitch. By every god that cares, I hope I never have a friend like you.”

You can't talk to me like that, Nomi thought, but she knew that Lulah could. Back in Long Marrakash, perhaps, there was a pretense at respect, but out here, on the borders of the wilds, they lived by baser rules.

Lulah walked across to calm the horses, with Noon and Rhiana, and Ramin knelt down beside Nomi.

“Don't worry about her,” he said. “She's always angry.”

“Don't give me sympathy,” Nomi said.

The big Serian held up his hands. “None from here.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. Her head ached, two of her knuckles were split from where she had punched Ramus in the mouth, and she thought back to that illness that should have killed her. She'd had nightmares she could not explain, and the shaman had told her they were the unknowable dreams of the thing that had passed the illness to her. And now Ramus is living my nightmares, she thought. He's under my skin, in my head. And what nightmares will this night bring?

When she opened her eyes, Ramus had already started taking down his tent.

“WHO WILL COME with me?” Ramus said. “I can't pay as well as Nomi Hyden, but I'll promise rewards at the end, when we're back in Long Marrakash.”