AT THE HIGH salt sea, on the edge of the Hundred, a vast escarpment splits the land and the mountains plunge downward to a flat plain. If you stand on the sharp ridge that separates the waters from the cliff, you can gaze over the drylands, a desert that extends for an unknown distance, inimical to life.

But Kirit can smell the grass of home, even if maybe it is only memory.

She said, “Uncle, I killed the ones who hurt me.”

“I know,” he said sadly.

“I killed a lot of bad people. Their hearts were rotten.”

“Some hearts do rot. Although that does not give us leave to behave as they would.”

The day was very hot, and the air so dry her lips were already cracking. “I thought revenge would heal me. I found Shai. I looked into his heart, only his heart was veiled. But I do not need the third eye and second heart to know him, since I lived for two years in the same household. He was tempted, but he did not succumb. And if he could resist the worst in himself, then so must I. I won’t become a demon.”

The wind tore at their cloaks. Far away above the southern range, raptors circled so high that they were nothing more than specks in the fierce blaze of the heavens.

“What happened to her?” she asked. “Ashaya, who wore the cloak before me.”

He followed the distant eagles with his gaze, but finally looked at her. “When she walked out of the Hundred, she hoped the gods would abandon her, that she would be able to die and be free, without loosing the cloak into the hands of the others.”

“But I found the cloak.”

“Yes. You did. So maybe you freed her, or maybe she was already gone. It’s something to consider. What living person has ever attempted to uncloak a Guardian, eh? Who could manage it? I’ve been thinking about what happened to you, Kirit. It can’t have been the poison that killed you.”

“The poison that killed Girish?”

“Maybe the brew wasn’t strong enough to kill. Maybe he just choked to death on his vomit.”

She grinned. “As he deserved.”

“Eiya! There’s a conversation I’m not wise enough to assay. You told me the Qin captain forced you to walk into the sandstorm.”

“I wanted to rejoin my tribe. Their voices called to me from the storm.”

“Demons, most likely. Did he seek you out?”

“The captain? Neh. I went to find Mountain to tell him that the slave bearers needed water. A storm can last days. What use is shelter if you die of thirst beneath it?”

“A humble request, but a just one.”