“To go after Billos with me,” Johnis said.

“We’re not going after Billos! We’re headed to the end of the world. No one’s ever crossed this desert and returned alive.”

“Michal was quite clear,” Johnis insisted. “He said directly west, so we go directly west.”

She pulled her horse up next to his. “Then look directly west. What do you see?”

He scanned the black horizon. In all honesty, he hardly felt more confident than she did. It was so dark he couldn’t tell where the sand stopped and the sky began.

“If it’s any comfort, I’m not enjoying this either,” he said quietly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking that maybe now was a good time to tell them the rest of what the Roush had said.

But Darsal spoke first. “I don’t care whether or not you’re enjoying this. The question is whether or not you’ve lost the few peanuts contained in that container above your shoulders. I think we should turn back and report Billos’s fate now before it’s too late.”

Johnis clenched his jaw and headed down the dune. “And abandon Billos?”

She muttered a curse and plunged down after him.

He had to stop this bickering of hers. The path they were on was frightening enough without her throwing doubt at them at every step. The image that had crashed through him when he touched the book filled his mind. Maybe he should cut Darsal’s finger and force her to touch the book and then see what he had seen. Silvie too. They would surely agree then.

But the Roush had said it was dangerous to touch blood to the books. Had warned him not to, which just as surely meant not to make it common knowledge. That’s why he’d decided not to share this experience.

But he had to try something to get Darsal off his back. If not for the fact that Michal had insisted he would need all of them, he would send her away rather than try to convince her to stay with him.

Reason was the only way. Reason with heart. Perhaps he could force her to think with her heart if he matched her insistence with his own. He should be stronger, not more understanding. In honesty, he was already being nearly as strong as he dared, but it clearly wasn’t enough.

“You will follow me, Darsal,” Johnis said as she pulled up. Then he said something that sounded offensive even to him—he had to; he saw no other choice. “You will follow me to hell itself if that’s where I lead you.”

Even Silvie seemed taken aback by his boldness. “She may have a point, Johnis. You know we could still cut back and make it to the forests in the darkness.”