Kage trotted across the rocky terrain, gun and water bulbs strapped to her back. She was used to traveling alone, and though the desert was large and intimidating, there was some comfort in setting her own pace again.

The rise came slowly into view as the moons rose, blood-red, over the desert. She crouched a little lower, already far closer to the ground than any Nasheenian could get. She once heard a Nasheenian call her people spiders, because of the way they moved across the ground, crouched low, arms splayed, as if fearful they would fall off the flat plain of the world.

It was not a sand dune or a rock, but some bit of wreckage. An abandoned vehicle of some sort? It was covered in several feet of sand at the base, but the top was just a little dusty. She climbed atop it and dug in on the roof of the contraption. She lay on her belly and set up her gun’s simple bipod. Affixed the scope. She peered through the scope and made a long pan of the desert to the north. Experience told her that Nasheenians did not see well in the dark, but for her, the world on the other side of the scope was as bright as a blue dawn. But it was going to be just as easy for the fukushu-sha to see Nyx and her crew as it was for Kage.

She sighted what appeared to be Eshe from her vantage. He had gone down on his belly in the sand, his body obscured by his burnous, which trailed around him, dusted in sand and bits of desert scrub. He held the specs to his eyes, but Kage did not put much faith in them. She expected to wait here until morning. No fukushu-sha slept exposed.

Kage pulled the bug from her pocket and set it next to her. “I need a position,” she said softly. Her voice triggered something in the bug. It spasmed. The filament surrounding it gave off a soft blue light. She quickly shoved her hand over it to cover the light. Hoped she had been quick enough.

When the light faded, she removed her hand. A tinny voice said, “Eshe is still scouting. We’ve got nothing. No holes, no caverns. Nothing like that. Got any other ideas?”

“If they have no physical shelter, they will sleep under the sand.”

Kage would have. The only reason she cocooned herself in a sleeping roll instead of beneath a comforting layer of sand was because she feared that Eskander’s ridicule would become so enraging that she would do something regrettable.

The line was silent for a time.

Then, Nyx said, “Eshe. Hold up on your position. I know how we do this. Remember how I taught you to flush a field for mines?”