“I can show you the way,” Madame Nasirah broke in, making both of them jump. They had forgotten she was there. “It is the home of the Architect within this world, but now that he no longer shares it with his mother, the Lady Amari, it has been mostly abandoned. I would think that MasterMind finds it an eyesore, as the Architect refuses to let it be properly joined with the rest of her tricks and devices within this new Paheli.”

“What happened to Lady Amari?” Winnie asked.

Madame Nasirah lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug. “The last we saw of her, she was aboard her beloved sand train, attempting to escape the wreckage of the previous game with her son. But when he reappeared, he was alone. Maybe she abandoned him.”

“Harsh,” Winnie muttered. “Meanness seems to run in the family.”

Ahmad’s brow furrowed. That didn’t seem right. Could a mother really leave her son behind like that?

Winnie tugged at his arm. “Ahmad! We need to get going!”

“Right.” Ahmad squared his shoulders and faced Madame Nasirah. “Let’s go.”

They rushed through the silent city. The puzzle pieces weighed heavily in Ahmad’s satchel while the quiet of the city troubled his mind.

Apparently, the Architect couldn’t even be bothered to bring the souk back to life as they moved through it. Every stall was dark and still. Birdcages swung quiet and empty under white sheets.

Even if the people weren’t real, even if they were only non-playable characters that could be turned on and off at will, it made him feel guilty.

And worried.

Winnie seemed to share his apprehension. “He must be real mad now,” she muttered softly.

“Here we are,” Madame Nasirah said briskly, pointing upward. Ahmad and Winnie squinted at the sky. She had led them to the far end of Paheli, into a mostly deserted area between two abandoned buildings. What she gestured to was a rusted, flickering fire escape ladder.

Ahmad eyed it dubiously. “That . . . doesn’t look like it should be the entrance to some fancy palace.”

Madame Nasirah shook her head. “You should know by now to not take anything in this world for granted.”

Winnie gritted her teeth and grabbed the first rung. “Come on. Let’s win this thing and go home.”

Home.

Ahmad followed after her, wincing at every shake and shiver the ladder gave. Winnie vanished into the darkness above him. He looked back. Madame Nasirah gazed back up at him, as mysterious and hidden as she always was.

“Give my regards to the Architect,” she called up, and then Ahmad was surrounded by clouds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

AHMAD COULD FEEL THE cottony moisture closing about him while he flailed in confusion. How could there be clouds here?