Nyx knelt next to Ahmed, digging Kage’s bullet out of his arm. At least Kage had used deadtech bullets. Nyx regarded the pile of water bulbs, blood streaming over her fingers.

“Depends,” she said. She glanced back at the hemorrhaging wound. “How many days to the next settlement, Eskander?”

“A few days, a few days,” Eskander said. But she wasn’t looking at any of them. Her tattered burnous was filthy, and she stank, like she had been messing herself in her clothes for days.

Khatijah stood next to Eskander, out of breath. The bel dame hadn’t taken the running and shooting well. He knew they had to keep at least one of them alive until the next settlement. They knew more about what waited up there than anyone else. After they met their contact there, though… well, he figured Nyx was already cooking up new and interesting ways that she could lose them after that.

Isabet sat on the other side of the banked fire, hugging her knees to her chest with her good arm. She stared at the pile of water like a starving dog presented with a corpse. It was time to call this bluff. He had seen Nyx do a lot of stupid things that ended up well, but more often than not, it meant a whole lot of people died to get to the end.

“I think there’s another question maybe we should ask,” Eshe said.

“There!” Nyx said. She popped out the bloody deadtech bullet from Ahmed’s arm. It was a black mass. Ahmed cursed at her.

“Nyx,” Eshe said, but the closer he got to saying it, the more nervous he got. “Nyx, what if… If we turned around now, would we have enough to get back?”

All heads turned. Even Eskander. Khatijah even laughed.

Nyx knotted a loop of gauze around Ahmed’s arm, using one hand to hold the bandage flush and tying it taut with the other end in her teeth. When she was done, she spit out the bandage and said, “How long it take us to get this far, Eshe?”

“I don’t know. Four, five weeks.”

“How much water is there, Eshe?”

“I don’t know.”

“There are seven of us,” Nyx said. “On a regular day, we’d all drink about four times what we’ve got. I can stretch it two days, maybe three, because of Kage. So with this? Five bandoliers, eight on each. Maybe another five, six days, at best.”

“No going back, then?” Eshe said.

“No going back,” Nyx said. She stood, smearing Ahmed’s blood on her trousers. Ahmed retched.

“Our best bet is heading north and hoping we run into some nomads or this mythical settlement. There are people who live out here. We just need to hang on long enough to find them.”

“Then what?” Ahmed said. He covered over the vomit with sand, using his good arm.