At dawn, Nyx had them bed down in the long curve of a small crater. Eshe had seen a few others a long way back, much bigger than this one, and suggested that they stay in one, but it was always at the wrong time. Nyx wanted to get just a little bit further before they stopped.

The blue dawn had already warmed the sky, and the orange demon was blazing a new morning across the desert.

Eshe helped Isabet into the crater, then straightened and stared at the sunrise. For one awesome moment, he let himself just see that sunrise, really see it—a fiery crimson-gold hemorrhage across a deep purple sky, like a bloody wound at the center of a massive bruise. The flat of the desert was different now—ahead of them lay rolling amber dunes, or maybe foothills, and something else. Chalky white protrusions, like massive rock chimneys, grew from the distant desert, prickling across the dunes like the spines of a fish.

He decided to muse on what that meant for the next leg of the trip later, and slid into the crater with the others. The cold desert was beginning to warm. When he settled down in the crater, Isabet crawled next to him like a child and gripped him close with her remaining hand.

His whole body tensed. She murmured something he could not make out. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with his own hands. This close, even after long, filthy days in the desert, the scent of her beneath the cloying stink of sweat was strangely alluring. It was her hair, he decided, that smelled so good. Even here.

He closed his eyes, and tried to relax.

“I’m sorry I came,” she said, in Ras Tiegan. For her, he knew, it was like their own private language. But Ahmed spoke it, and the way Kage sometimes watched them, he thought she might understand some of it, too. So he was careful about what he said.

“I still think Inaya was mad to send you.”

“She worried about you.”

“She worries about a lot of people. That doesn’t mean she sends other people after them, especially not daughters to saints.”

“I’m… sorry. She’s in charge.”

He watched Nyx get up on the edge of the crater to take first watch. She dug into a small packet of dried meal worms. “I know what that can be like,” he said.

Isabet’s shoulders shook. After a time, he realized she was crying, only without any tears. She was too thirsty to cry properly. He gazed up at the bright lavender sky. He needed to sleep.

Isabet shuddered against him, squeezing him so hard it hurt. He wasn’t sure what to do. Should he tell her it would be all right? He couldn’t guarantee that.

“Here, drink,” he said, and passed her the last half of his water bulb.