As they walked, Eshe saw a mass of light and movement all along the Wall ahead of them. He saw the people climbing up and down it. There were residences up there, and intricately carved balconies. The Wall itself was made of red stone, he thought, but when they finally got close enough to touch it, he found that it more closely resembled bug secretions. When he stood at the base and stared up, he could see dozens of people milling about along carved outdoor walkways, leaning over balconies. One man, nearly the same color as the Wall, wrung out some garment, and a rain of green beetles cascaded over the side. Eshe shook out his hair and stepped away from the edge of the Wall.

“Food, a place to sleep,” Nyx said. “Let’s see if they’ll take Nasheenian currency.”

“They’ll take bugs,” Ahmed said. He, too, was looking up at the people milling within the Wall.

“Find out what goes for a good price, and see what you can wrangle up.”

“There are tents ahead,” Khatijah said. “I think we should stick to what we know. The Wall… not sure we’re permitted there.”

“I’ll look too,” Nyx said. “We need to find something better for carrying the water we’ll need on the other side of it. We need another guide, too. Let’s avoid doing what we just did again.”

“Can we find something for Isabet?” Eshe asked. He didn’t mention his own busted nose. If he was unremarkable before, a bent nose wasn’t going to do him any favors. Nyx owed him.

“We’ll get there,” Nyx said.

“When?” Eshe said.

Nyx stopped. Turned. Her expression was hard. “I didn’t ask her to come after us, Eshe. That was her choice. We get to her when we get to her.”

“Nyx—”

“That’s all,” she said.

Morning was painful, but at least it wasn’t on the sand. Ahmed woke in a cool room plastered in red sand. Kage sat in the round doorway, gazing at the teeming street below. The windows were set with the glassy, semi-transparent wings of some giant dragonfly. Eshe and Isabet were still asleep, their bodies almost touching. Isabet’s blistered skin was slathered in a sticky unguent that had soothed her enough to keep her quiet for the night—for the first time since they stumbled away from the strange settlement on the edge of the desert. Nyx was gone, presumably already off to start haggling. The woman who rented them the room had taken Nasheenian currency, but far too much of it for Ahmed’s taste. He wasn’t sure how much Nyx had left, but at the prices being charged out here, it wouldn’t last long. He needed to call up some bugs to trade.