“When did the cloak return to you?”

She lifted the fabric to the wind and watched the air flow silver within the night. “How do you know it is the same cloak?”

“I knew the Guardian who wore it before you. She walked out of the Hundred because she wanted to die in a place far away from our enemies where they would never find her. Or, if her cloak passed to another Guardian, then she hoped I would have a chance of reaching the newly awakened one first. To that end, she left three things with me. The first was the mirror.”

“What are the other two?”

“An offering bowl, the gift of Hasibal, the Formless One. Also I have for you the gift of Sapanasu, the Lantern. Look.” Beyond the fire’s light the darkness crowded them, creeping closer when the flames subsided and slinking back when he placed more sticks on the fire. He raised his right hand, clenched it, opened it. Light shone from his palm, illuminating the rocky curve of the overhang above and the dusty ground with its neat piles of gear below.

“Aui.” It stung. He closed his hand, and the darkness leaped back in.

“I like that! How can I do that?”

He caught a smile before it betrayed him. “I know a bit about these particular Qin. I heard the tale of how they saved Olossi.”

She opened and closed a hand, then looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Is the light demon’s sorcery?”

Rats were known as good merchants because they weren’t afraid to bargain. “How do the Qin enter your story?”

She remained silent for so long he thought she had decided not to answer. This late in the night, sliding toward dawn, the wind’s moan took on a eerier tone, or perhaps the angle of shifting winds just made it rub up against the slope of the rock differently.

“After Girish died, the women of the house took pity on me. The men did not.” Abruptly she was panting, as if running from a beast that meant to rip her apart, and she shut her eyes and fought down memories until she breathed normally. “The women took pity on me, anyway. They hated Girish because they had no power to stop him. It was their idea to send me away with Master Shai.”

He had questions, but he dared not interrupt.

“When the sandstorm came, the Qin captain saw his chance to be rid of me. He hated demons. He pulled the beads off my hair and threw them to the ground like they were poison. He told me he would not let me destroy his troop, because everyone knows demons bring ill luck. He made me walk naked into the storm.”

“Eiya!”

Her gaze was a thousand mey away. “I was happy to do it. I could hear their voices.”

“Whose voices?”

“My mother and my father and my older sister, my cousins, Uncle Olig and Feder the Cripple, all the dead ones from my tribe. They called me. They asked me to come home. So I was happy to go to them.”