“When you find him,” she pressed, “bring him directly to me. To me. And try to keep him calm.”

“It’ll be all right,” Adare said, pulling away gingerly, suddenly worried. “It will be all right.”

Adare waited until she was beyond the ambit of the fires, then pulled off her blindfold. It was a risk, probably a foolish one, but something in Nira’s tone, in the old woman’s trembling arm, made her want to hurry, and she couldn’t hurry with the muslin wrapped over her eyes. She kept the knot in the cloth, ready to pull it back on if someone approached. Then she started running.

It was hard to gauge distance in the darkness, but from the ache in her calves and the turning of the stars in the sky, Adare figured she must have backtracked on the road at least two miles, calling out Oshi’s name occasionally, alternately scanning the open ground sloping down to the canal and peering into the growing stalks to the east. Night and moonlight had leached away the green fecundity of the fields, leaving only gray stems and the shadows between them. If Oshi had wandered even a little way from the road, if he had fallen among the ripening crops, Adare might pass within a few paces without noticing him. She told herself, when she finally turned back, that the old man had gone a different direction, that Nira had already found him, but when she returned to the sprawling camp she found Nira standing by the side of the road, alone.

“Anything?” Adare asked, though the answer was clear enough.

Nira shook her head. Her jaw was tight, the skin stretched taut across her knuckles where she gripped her cane.

“We must find him.”

“It’ll be easier when the sun rises,” Adare pointed out.

“It will be too late when the sun rises,” Nira snapped.

“Too late for what?”

“To help him,” the woman replied quietly.

Adare looked over the camp. Searching for one man in the darkness was a fool’s errand, especially if he was too mad to hear his own name when they called it. Especially if he didn’t want to be found. It was clear, however, that Nira intended to keep looking until she collapsed from exhaustion, and in the world outside the walls of the Dawn Palace, she was the closest thing Adare had to an ally.

“We haven’t searched down by the canal,” Adare pointed out.

“I can see clear ta the water from here.”

“He could be just over the bank. Could have fallen in.”

Nira hesitated, then nodded. “You go north along the bank. I’ll go south.”