“Oh, for fuck’s sake, is anybody going to try?” Nyx said.

Isabet ran up to them. She had what remained of her mangled arm tucked up against her body. She pulled the scarf from her neck with her good hand. With Ahmed’s help, she knotted it around Khatijah’s upper thigh, though Nyx knew it was far too late for that.

Nyx weighed her next words. Khatijah’s body was limp, but her blood had stopped pumping out. Nyx thought that was odd. Lot of blood, when you clipped that artery in the leg. Then she realized the bug in Khatijah’s head—the one that sustained every bel dame for a few hours after technical death—must have kicked in.

Eskander was sobbing so hard she was choking now. Nyx found it a little embarrassing.

Isabet told Ahmed something in Ras Tiegan.

Eshe yelled something at Isabet. She yelled back.

“What the fuck is going on?” Nyx said.

Ahmed said, “Isabet wants me to pass her blood into Khatijah.”

“We don’t have the bugs for that, do we?”

“No, but Khatijah has a bug in her head, like any bel dame. Her body just shut itself down. She’ll be in stasis for, what? A couple days?” Ahmed said.

“You ever brought a bel dame back before?” Nyx said. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to bring the bel dame back, even if he could.

Ahmed shook his head. “I’m a torturer, not a healer.”

Nyx appreciated the honesty. She watched Eskander holding the mangled body of her sister. It was like seeing something happen from a great height—something that happened to some alien thing outside herself. If she thought about it too hard, she would remember her own sister’s body, cold and lifeless in a tub full of blood.

“She can’t die!” Eskander said. “Please save my sister. She’s a bel dame. Bel dames don’t die. I know you can bring her back.”

“Then you fix her,” Nyx said.

“I told her,” Eskander wailed. “I told her to bring a real magician. I’m just a com tech. But she wanted to bring me. She said she needed someone she could trust. Now look where we are!”

Nyx holstered her scattergun. Yelled back at Kage, “You and Eshe do a perimeter sweep. Make sure there aren’t more of those fuckers out there.”

Kage nodded and darted off.

Eshe said something to Isabet. She ignored him.

“Can you do it or not?” Nyx asked. Eskander cradled her sister’s head. Nyx’s chest hurt. She fucking hated feeling things. What the fuck did she care for one more dead bel dame?

“The Ras Tiegan says she knows how to do it,” Ahmed said.

“She a magician?”

“No,” Eshe said, finally, in Nasheenian. “She says she worked for someone with a bug, once, like a bel dame. She says she brought her back.”

“That makes no sense,” Nyx said.