We’d decided that it was the safest place to set up a makeshift camp from which we could come and go, and Dagan’s ummum had plenty of tonics I could use to mix a poison strong enough to fulfill our plan. Plus, it was far enough away from the city center that we would be unnoticed.

“Kammani, here.” Nanaea handed me a dark shawl and studied me as I pulled it over my head.

“Can you see who I am?”

“No. I can tell you’re a woman and that’s it. It should be perfect. And if they ask you to take it off, the paint I put on you should disguise you well enough. I flattened your nose and made your cheeks more angular than they are. You don’t look like yourself.”

“Brilliant.” Iltani knotted a last scarf rakishly over one eye and draped mismatched and poorly strung beads around her neck. Even I was almost convinced she was someone who could commune with the gods. “Let’s get to it. I’m starving, and Dagan’s ummum is a spectacular cook.”

Dagan and Nanaea climbed into the back, and I planted one soft kiss on his lips before Iltani and I laid the stinking gazelle carcass across his body and tied him up in the sack.

“Oh gods, it smells so bad.” His muffled voice warbled from inside.

“Breathe shallowly,” I whispered. “And probably through your mouth. I’d rub some mint under your nose, but we’re out.” We wedged Nanaea tightly against the seat, stacking blankets on top and trunks in front of her, and she virtually disappeared.

My brain was a frenzy of nerves as we emerged from the trees, creaking and rocking on the cart. After a few minutes of our traveling down the path, the guards on top of the wall nocked arrows to their bows and focused them on us.

“They see us,” I hissed.

“I knowww,” Iltani sang softly under her breath. “Now shut up, and let me do the talking.”

“Stop where you are,” one of the guardsmen at the gate gruffly commanded when we were fifty or so handsbreadths away. He and the other men standing nearby also nocked arrows in their bows, and pointed them at our chests.

“Helloooooo, gentlemen,” Iltani called, pitching her voice deep and crackly, adding a round Manzazu accent that was thoroughly believable. My nerves jangled, a sharp contrast to her bravado.

“What business do you have here so late at night?” The guardsman leveled his arrow at us. “Come closer.”

Iltani cracked the reins on the donkey’s back, and with a snort, it ambled slightly faster until we were close enough to see the men’s faces. The one talking had gray in his beard, but the other three were younger.

“I’m here to tell the fortunes of Alu’s citizens.” She added a leer that could have curled a man’s toes. “Do you want to hear yours?”

“Go back home.” The older guardsman jerked his bow toward the road behind us. “We don’t want your kind in the city.”