She watched the man on the floor. He still hadn’t moved. Her skin prickled, and she realized she had a way out. As soon as she could shift, she could copy this man’s blood code, free the others in the cells, and open the door on the other end of the hall.

But she had to wait. And this water had to last… for as long as it took. She peered back outside. The corridor running away from the regular cells kept going. She glanced back at the body again.

There was, of course, another option.

She pulled the tattered bits of what remained of her habit from her shoulders and wiped her face and arms with it. Then she began disrobing the corpse. Did they have female God’s Angels?

She was about to find out.

34.

“It’s just the wind and sand. No figures,” Kage said. The spitting sand severely limited their visibility. Nyx had hoped Kage would have better luck with her good eyes and a scope.

“We’ll camp here,” Nyx said. It was less than an hour until dark. Getting down the Wall had taken nearly as long as getting up. The footing was treacherous, and the wind got worse as they descended. In any other landscape, Nyx would have preferred to keep going through the darkness, but the way Safiyah talked, that was a bad idea.

Nyx glanced back at the magician. She had drawn her hijab across her face, and like Kage, wore goggles. Nyx wondered why she hadn’t thought to bring her own fucking goggles. The sand stung her eyes, and sand fleas bit her shins. At least, she hoped they were sand fleas, and not something toxic. What the fuck had she gotten herself into? When she found Raine, she was going to pummel him herself.

“If you’re camping, you’ll want to draw a circle!” Safiyah called over the howl of the wind.

“No circle will stay drawn in this weather!” Ahmed yelled back.

“I’d do it anyway,” Safiyah said.

Nyx pointed Kage to the nearest rock formation. It would offer some protection from the scathing sand. Nyx’s skin was raw with it.

“The nomads sometimes camp here,” Safiyah said. She pointed to carved rings in the rock face. “We can attach the tent there.”

“What tent?” Nyx asked.

Safiyah shrugged off her pack and unrolled a billowing canvas sheet. “You really should have come to this desert more prepared,” she said.

They made camp against the hard face of the formation. Ahmed and Khatijah roped the top of the canvas to the carved rings and staked out the other end in the sand.

“Does this ever let up?” Eshe yelled over the howling wind.

“Not this close to the Wall,” Safiyah said.

Behind the rudimentary tent, life was more bearable. Ahmed laid out their burnouses on the floor, and staked the open sides of the canvas down once everyone was inside.