Across from me, Aaru and Safa sat close together, tapping back and forth about everything that had happened since they separated. He was smiling, his whole manner soft as he gazed down at her and the quiet code she beat against her knee.

::Even before you were arrested, I was coming and going from Grace Community.:: Safa grinned up at him, her gaze flicking to his hands every so often—checking to see if he was going to say anything. ::I found other girls with the Voice of Idris, and during my visits, we taught one another how to use it—how to control it. I made sure to warn them to keep it a secret.::

A mixture of annoyance and appreciation spread across Aaru’s face. ::I hope you were careful when you practiced. That was dangerous.::

::More careful than you. You got arrested.:: She smirked, but the expression didn’t last. ::But yes. We were careful. And after you were arrested, I understood how dangerous it was to be a girl with the Voice of Idris. If they arrested you, a boy, for speaking in the square, what would they do to us?::

The wagon bumped over another rut, and the sandstone buildings grew farther apart as we moved out of the city. Ahead, a long road bent around plateaus and crags, with brittle scrub the only plant life I could see. The city had grown up all the way out to the edge of the desert, and then stopped.

Above, the sky was huge and black, strung with starlight and clouds of pink and blue darkdust. Even without the moons, the heavens were bright enough to cast shadows across the ground.

Aaru’s attention stayed on Safa. ::What then?::

She heaved a sigh. ::I told everyone to find boats and stock them with food and water, like you did with mine. We were scared, but we didn’t have a choice anymore, so we agreed to meet on the river and sail to the ocean. It wasn’t easy, but we were just in time. The earthquake began as we were escaping the island.::

“How—” Ilina started over in quiet code when Aaru directed Safa to look. ::How did you avoid getting caught in the undertow?::

Safa’s eyebrows went up, as though she hadn’t expected someone else to know the quiet code, but she went along with it. ::We used the Voice of Idris to still the water around us. We sat in our boats and waited, and when it was over, we decided to sail to Khulan. That was where we’d planned to go from the start.::

How incredible they’d managed to escape just in time. And fourteen of them, all isolated until now, with no experience with anyone who wasn’t also Idrisi. That took immeasurable courage.

Safa continued. ::We were just in sight of Khulan by the time Altan found us. He said he would take us to you::—she looked at Aaru—::but first, he needed to find some people in Lorn-tah.::

Altan hadn’t moved from his place at the front of the wagon, but now his head was leaned back far enough that he could stare at the sky. If he noticed anyone talking about him, or looking at him, he didn’t show it.