A short girl with a dragging walk led the group. With her were a tall, thin woman, a young boy, and a square-jawed old woman. It was one of the most pathetic groups of people Zezili had ever seen. They wore patched, worn clothing. As they approached, Zezili caught a whiff of them on the wind and grimaced.

But the limping girl’s face did indeed bear a resemblance to Isoail’s drawing. The girl at the front stopped abruptly a few paces from them. She looked up at them with a neutral, unreadable expression. The scars were right, Zezili decided. It was the girl from the lake.

“So, today you decided you’re my mother,” the girl said to Isoail. “Do you even know my name?”

“We don’t have a lot of time to catch up,” Zezili said. “You know what you are?”

“I do,” the girl said. “Do you?”

“We’re going to open a gate,” Zezili said, “to another world. Your world. I need you to come with us.”

“Why?”

“Because this woman can’t,” Zezili said, gesturing to Isoail. “Your real mother is still alive on the other side. That’s why I can’t send this one here.”

“My mother is dead.”

“I wish that were so,” Zezili said. “It would have made this month a lot easier.”

The girl knit her brows. “This is some trick,” she said.

“Not a trick,” Isoail said. “There are people coming here. If you came through the lake, you know that. We’re asking for your help to stop them.”

“Quite a joke,” said the old woman. “Who are you to these people, Lilia?”

So, she had a name. Zezili began to doubt her whole plan. A month of sweating out each night, waiting for Monshara to find her out, and killing squealing dajians all day might have impaired her judgment. What, she was just going to ask this girl to destroy the mirror from her own world? What if she was an agent?

Zezili sighed. An agent looking for her mother, Zezili? she thought, and firmed her resolve.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Zezili said. “The people that want yours dead? They told me to murder this camp and all the other ones, from here to the Sagasarian Sea. And I can stop them. But for reasons that might get clearer later, you can help us delay them awhile. Your mother, your real one, built something in that other world that we need to destroy. Your fake mother here thinks you can dismantle it.”

Lilia’s eyes widened. It was an expression, at least. Better than the grim neutrality she’d been fronting. The girl licked her lips and glanced at the tall young woman beside her.

“How do we get there?” Lilia said.

Zezili let out her breath. She showed her teeth. “You can all come back here with me,” she said. “We need blood to power the gate.”