He tore his gaze from Menhit back to Horus, who carried a spear.

Horus cocked his head, birdlike, to stare harder at Jess.

Our eyes are on you.

He jumped when a hand fell on his shoulder and pulled him back a step.

“Cachu,” Glain breathed. “What is it about you they don’t like? Did you kill their pets? Come on!”

They walked fast, and Jess became horribly aware that all of the war-god statues they passed were turning their heads to stare. Behind them, Horus stepped down from his pedestal in the alcove on the wall and took a long stride down the hall. Then another. Behind him, Menhit descended, that hissing, sharp flail cutting the air before her.

It was all bluff. When Jess attained the end of the corridor, he looked back to see Horus stepping back up to his pedestal in an eerily smooth, flowing motion. Threats, he thought. Intimidation. The Artifex’s stock in trade—and the Archivist’s. Extremes of emotion colliding inside him made him feel sick.

The rest of the squad stood clumped at the end of the hall, looking one step from running as Glain and Jess caught up.

“Why did they do that?” Violet Bransom sounded utterly shaken. “Why would automata come for you?”

“They didn’t,” Glain said. She sounded brisk and matter-of-fact, and if he hadn’t known her well, he might have believed she hadn’t been frightened at all. “It was likely some malfunction. If they’d meant us harm, someone would be mopping our remains off the floor right about now.”

“Then why—”

“I don’t know,” Glain said, cutting Bransom off, with the definite subtext of and I don’t care. “You heard the High Commander. The squad passed. We’ll receive individual commissions by Codex. This may be my last opportunity to say it to all of you, but I’m proud of you. Very proud.” Her gaze touched each of them in turn, and last of all, Jess. He nodded.

“Thank you, sir,” Wu said, and Jess echoed it. “Oh hells, Bransom, stop cringing like a child. You’re a soldier now!”

“I wasn’t cringing!” she said, and glared at Jess, as if it were somehow his fault. “What about Helva?”

“Helva will be on Medica duty until she’s well enough, but I imagine she’ll pass, too. They say she’ll make a full recovery eventually.”

Jess drifted slowly away and let the group talk, as their good fortune slowly began to sink in. He continued to stare back down the hall, where the eight-foot goddess Menhit relentlessly swished her golden flail, her leonine jaws baring in a grin that showed sharp, cutting teeth.

Jess went back to his room and tried to go back to sleep, but his heart was pounding, his hands clammy, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the jaws of a trap were slowly, slowly closing around him. He couldn’t lie still. Finally, he rose, dressed in common clothes, and paced his room restlessly as he tried to still the anxiety inside. He didn’t want to wake up Glain, and Dario and Khalila didn’t deserve to be rattled awake at this terrible hour, either, but he felt more alone than he ever had.