“You’re in Alt Coulumb,” she said. “In Blacksuit care.” She rested one hand on the rail at the foot of the bed. “We recovered you from an exploitative indenture two nights ago. I’m Officer Elle. This is Officer Zhang. You can call me Cat, if you like. What’s your name?”

The h in “Ko’hasim” had a rough edge Cat didn’t look forward to failing to imitate. “Call me Hasim.”

The name structure at least she could place. “Talbeg?”

“I am a Doctor of Divinity from Agdel Lex.” He finished the water. Lee poured him more. “Alt Coulumb. Are the others here?”

“A few went to intensive care. Most are unconscious. The girl, Ala”—she pointed to where the child lay asleep—“told us we should talk to you, or to the woman with the braids, who’s passed out. She’s fine,” she said when he opened his mouth, “just sleeping. You all had a long night.”

“What happened?”

“We hoped you could tell us,” Lee said.

“We found you in the hold of a smuggler ship called Demon’s Dream, captained by Maura Varg. That sound familiar?”

“I do not know either name.” Hasim seized the rails at the side of his bed. Muscle in his thin arms corded as he pulled himself upright. “If this is Alt Coulumb, we seek asylum.”

“We’ll get there,” she said. “But we need to know more about you. How you got into that hold, for example. You’re responsible for some confusion.”

“Last night,” Lee said, “when Officer Elle tried to wake you up, demons crawled out from inside you. Caused a lot of trouble before we stopped them.”

Hasim’s fingers trembled as they traced the scabs around his mouth. “What my partner’s trying to say”—Cat frowned at Lee, who crossed his massive arms, unconcerned—“is that we’re wondering how you got in that ship. I know this is hard, but if you think back—”

“There is war in the Gleb.”

“I heard.” She wished she’d heard more, or paid attention when she had. Even Criers mangled the names. “Didn’t realize it had reached Agdel Lex.”

“Refugees have,” he said. “I run a clinic for small gods. In the backcountry, desert spirits devour the bodies of gods fallen in the Wars. They claim one town at a time. They come to the villages to eat their gods, or bind them to service. Some survive. Some run, and many to our city. I take them in, if I find them.”

“When did you start using dreamdust?”

Cat made a mental note to talk with Lee about interviewing witnesses. Lee spent most of his shifts Suited.

“I have never taken dreamdust,” Hasim said. “It is a distraction.”

“How did a smuggler end up with your indenture, then?”