Seregil forced himself to eat because he had to, but the thought of Alec possibly starving as he waited turned the bread to ashes in his mouth.

Somehow the night passed and Alec was glad for once to see the grey sky as what passed for dawn brought back the light. When he sat up to check the landscape, however, a wave of dizziness swept over him, stirring nausea in his empty stomach. Digging into his pack, he found half a turnip from the night before and ate it in thick slices. There was a little jerky left, as well, and he ate a strip, washing it down with a sparing swig from his waterskin. Even after that, he was still hungry, but he didn’t dare eat any more, not knowing when Klia could entice the dyrmagnos here. He thought he’d packed enough for at least two days, but he’d eaten more in the night than he’d intended. This was the longest he’d been in this plane, and it was sapping his strength faster than he’d anticipated. He ate another strip of jerky, the last one. That left him with a turnip and a little water left in the waterskin. Between that and lack of sleep, if things didn’t come to a head soon he would be too weak to pull the bow.

He lay down to conserve his strength. The day grew brighter, if you could call it that, and at last he heard the sound of horses from the road below. Flattening himself in the hollow, he kept his head down and listened as two riders came up the path.

“Come along, my dear, don’t hold back now,” said a woman.

“What difference does it make?” Klia replied, her voice bleak and dispirited in a way Alec had never imagined her capable of.

He heard them walking toward the tunnel and chanced a quick peek over the lip of the hollow. The beautiful woman in red had her hand under Klia’s arm, as if supporting her. Klia nodded and walked slowly through the gaping mouth of the tunnel.

It was a long and weary walk to Zikara. Mika had never come to it from this direction. The night passed and the grey sky began to lighten as he and his friend reached the city gate. Mika was footsore, hungry, and frightened. He should have listened to his master, not the ghost.

There were lots of ghost people around today, going in through the open gate with wagons and carts.