“He will go home now,” Haruto said. “Just as you hoped. But it is me you killed. And it is I who will haunt you. I and those children you murdered.”

It cut at her every time they said it, even now, a year after the last body was burned.

“He will go home,” Haruto repeated softly. His eyes started to lose some light. “Go home, brother. I will haunt her. I will avenge…”

That’s when Kage felt the damp at her knee. She gazed down and saw a black pool of blood beneath Haruto’s body.

She wanted to wail.

Ahmed stood over her now. She hadn’t noticed him get up.

“So they won’t come for you again?” he said… in Drucian.

She started. By the gods, he’d understood every word. She shook her head. “The other will go home. But they will send more. More and more, until I am caught and caged again. It won’t ever end. All we can do is delay it a little while.”

“I know the feeling,” he said. “But don’t tell Nyx that.” He offered his hand. “We better move now.”

22.

The swill they served in the bars and taverns now smelled even worse than she remembered. There were many things about what the war had done to Nasheen that turned her piss to vinegar, but the acceptance of the sulfur-tasting beverages that passed for liquor was among the ones she most despised. She ordered tea at an old haunt near the Orrizo. She did not mind much if she was recognized here, though few of the Firsts even came down to nicer colonial neighborhoods like this one. She sat near a window so she could get a good view of the street. The call to evening prayer wailed over the city. She watched the hubbub on the street subside as women pulled out prayer rugs or made their way to mosques. In her day, every woman and man went to prayer. It was practically a prerequisite for citizenship. But since the end of the Caliphate, secular law had become more accepted in Nasheen. Only in the state schools was prayer still compulsory. It depressed her and excited her all at once. She enjoyed watching the changes wrought by time, even if she mourned some of the old ways. Faith was malleable, she knew. Each age had to interpret the words and tenets differently. If things remained unchanged from the time of the Caliphate, she would worry about the health of the world.

As she listened to the opening prayer, she heard someone come up behind her, and casually turned, brandishing her cup in one hand, prepared to break it on the counter and use it to slice open the sneaking cat.