Rhys released her hand, and went forward, into the tunnel entrance. The glamour shielding the entrance gave easily as he entered. It had been a long time since he traveled in the magicians’ tunnels.

“Safiyah?” he said.

No answer.

It was bitterly black inside.

He pressed his hands forward, and found the familiar silky walls of the tunnels. He started walking, keeping his right hand pressed to the wall as a guide. The tunnels were known to bend and twist at strange times, sometimes even after passing a seemingly featureless wall. Rhys didn’t know how they worked, and even the magicians he spoke to in Nasheen had only empty explanations. They were something created at the beginning of the world; a safe space for traveling across Nasheen when the air above still wasn’t breathable.

“Rhys?” Nyx’s voice.

“I’m trying to find Safiyah,” he said. “It’s still dark up here.”

“Where the fuck is the Drucian when you need her?” Nyx muttered.

He heard more voices—Ahmed and Isabet—behind her.

“Let me get ahead, Rhys,” Nyx said.

Rhys moved aside and let her pass. He knew how much it would annoy her not to lead. He used to think it was her arrogance that did it. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Maybe she always had to lead because if there were bad things happening ahead, she wanted it to happen to her first.

“Safiyah?”

Finally, a response came from far ahead. “You’re terribly slow. Hurry. I’m losing them.”

Rhys heard Nyx’s footsteps quicken. The wall next to Rhys twisted, opened, and he pulled his arm away, fearing it would get caught if the way closed again.

“Slow down, Nyx,” Rhys said. “We’re going to lose the others.”

Ahead, he saw a pale amber light, just visible beyond Nyx’s body.

“There are lights ahead,” he called back at Ahmed and Isabet.

When he caught up to Nyx, she was standing in an oily, shimmering cavern illuminated by a long line of pulsing glow worms that edged the floor. The lighting cast their faces in garish shadows.

“I can track them by the pheromones they leave behind. They’re playing with the chemicals as they go,” Safiyah said, “Opening and closing spaces behind them. I can’t tell you where they’re going until we get there.”

“So it could be anywhere in the world?” Nyx said.

“Yes. It could be Yazdan, for all we know.”

“Why would they move him now?” Ahmed said. “The Chenjan said they’d left him alone for weeks. They weren’t even in Bomani when we made the raid. Now suddenly they’re back and carting him off across the continent?”

“They were always close by,” Safiyah said. “There are entrances to the tunnels all over the red desert.”

“Wait a minute,” Nyx said. “If you knew about these tunnels, what the fuck did you need us to get you over the Wall for?”