As the woman hurried off, Shyla wandered around. She wasn’t going to drink any of their limited water. Jayden and Mojag went to talk with who she presumed were friends or maybe family members. It occurred to her that, other than Mojag’s sister, Gurice, she didn’t know anything about Jayden or Mojag’s family. There just hadn’t been time to learn. Maybe if she understood Jayden’s life better, they wouldn’t argue so much. She added it to her list of tasks.

First on that long tally was getting clean water. She needed to understand how the black market for water worked. Then she had to secure a supply they could trust, which meant paying more coins per jug. And that led to earning coins. Shyla imagined setting up a market stall, hawking soul readings for two osmiums. Ah, no. What else could she do?

Shyla almost laughed out loud at her next thought. She could sell sweets to the treasure hunters. That had been how she survived when she’d first arrived in Zirdai, locating valuable artifacts for the hunters. However, she had switched to working with legitimate clients. And the thought of those treasures being sold to black-market dealers and collectors didn’t sit well with her.

She doubted the Water Prince’s new archeologist would hire her to find temples and castles that had been buried by the sand. Who else would? The history professors? Well…not the ones in Zirdai. Perhaps in another city but— The answer popped into her mind. Aphra! A treasure hunter who sold her sweets to professors in other cities. It was a compromise Shyla could live with. Her good mood lasted until Zhek arrived.

“Ten sun jumps,” Zhek said instead of a greeting.

“Excuse me?”

“You managed to stay healthy for ten whole sun jumps.” His grumpy tone implied it was unacceptable.

“I’ve missed you too, Zhek.”

His bushy white eyebrows shot up into his mess of white hair in surprise. “Well, er…” He cleared his throat. “Where are you injured?”

She turned and showed him the cut on her lower back. Zhek tsked, hustled her into an examination room, and instructed her to lie down on a table on her stomach. Once the numbing paste soothed the pain, she ceased listening to his admonishments as he stitched the skin closed.

Shyla fell asleep soon after Zhek finished, but she didn’t rest for long. Jayden woke her at angle three-fifty-five. Only five more angles before the sun started its jump.

“We need to go if we’re going to get out of the city without attracting attention.”

She suppressed a groan. He was right. Angle zero was the perfect time to slip out with all the others who went to the surface: the velbloud caretakers, the deacons who joined the Heliacal Priestess for her early angle worship service, archeologists with their diggers in tow, and various others.