“I’ve known a lot of black market slave dealers,” Nyx said. “They search for weakness. When they find it, they take advantage. I expect these won’t be much different. So we need to have straight spines. That includes you, magician.”

“Of course, of course. Straight as an arrow.”

“When did you last see an arrow?” Ahmed asked.

“We trained with them.” Eskander made a pointing motion with her right hand. “It taught us proper trajectory. Helps with the bug stuff. But surely you went through that training?”

Ahmed shook his head. “I wasn’t that sort of magician.”

“I would not have expected that. Surely you—”

“I’m talked out,” Ahmed said, and started walking.

Kage followed after him. She wasn’t particularly fond of nattering magicians either.

The sun was too high and hot for traveling, but Nyx had them walk in it anyway. Kage kept her hood up and nursed at her water. The Nasheenians hardly drank anything at all, and that worried her. Was she going to be a liability out here, soaking up too much water? She put her water bulb away and resolved not to drink again until they camped.

She put one foot in front of the other, plodding across the sand for hours. Head down. She listened to the others as they chattered for the first few kilometers. The stupid Ras Tiegan girl finally shut up an hour into the walk, out of breath. But Eskander kept talking, always boasting about nothing. To Kage, it was all dull air, but Eshe seemed to be listening to every word both women spit out, even if nobody else had much to say. Khatijah took up the rear of their party, lingering behind often to ensure they weren’t followed.

Ahmed, at least, was steady and quiet, so Kage began to keep pace with him, though he was much taller, with a longer stride.

When Nyx said, “Hold up there. Kage, Ahmed, hold up!” she didn’t know how long they’d been walking. But as she raised her head, she saw that the suns were low in the sky, and a brilliant sunset was melting across the fathomless horizon.

For some reason, though, her feet kept moving, as if of their own volition. It took a great deal of effort to slow, then stop. The world wavered.

“Kage, sight that out for me,” Nyx said. She was pointing off to the left of the sunset.

Kage tried to bring her gun out of its holster. It should have been a simple move. Just untie and pull. But her arms felt strange. Like some kind of jelly. Now that she was standing still, she noticed a buzzing in her head, like a low cicada’s whine. She managed to close her fingers around the stock of her gun, and worked it out.