‘We haven’t missed it.’ Kataria looked pointedly at the ground. ‘Sebast might still show up.’

‘If he doesn’t arrive soon, I still have a plan,’ Lenk replied.

‘Does it include a way to leave the Owauku,’ Asper began sharply, ‘who, I feel the need to point out, saved our livesand who, I feel again the need to point out, we are about to abandon as they are caught in the cross between the netherlings and the demons?’

‘Yes,’ Lenk said. He coughed discreetly. ‘In a way.’

‘In whatway?’

‘If we tell them, they’re not going to help us escape, so I figured we’d … I don’t know, leave a note or something.’

‘Good,’ the priestess said, nodding. ‘Maybe they can use it to stanch the blood when their intestines get spilled out on the ground.’

‘They took our stuff,’ Lenk replied with a shrug. ‘Seems a fair trade.’

She blinked. ‘They made us slightly sunburnt and uncomfortable … so we’re being reasonable in condemning them to a slow, agonising death.’

‘Stop being dramatic,’ Denaos said. ‘You know as well as we do that the longfaces kill their prey quickly.’

‘Oh, so now you’re forthis?’ She whirled, snarling at the rogue. ‘What was that momentary conscience growing out of your mouth a moment ago?’

‘Indigestion, probably,’ he replied. ‘Upon further consideration-’

‘You mean three breaths long?’

‘ Furtherconsideration,’ he replied forcefully, ‘it’s rather clear we aren’t going to make any money or avoid an imminent disembowelment any longer by staying here. Prudence dictates we leave, maybe come back later when everyone’s dead and sift through the innards until we find something.’

Kataria glowered at the distant gohmn herd sipping from a pool. ‘If there’s anything left.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Well, it’s all moot, isn’t it?’ Dreadaeleon suddenly chimed in. ‘I mean, we can’t just leaveyet.’

‘At least someone has a sense of decency,’ Asper muttered.

‘Not a person in this circle is in a position to lecture anyone on decency, young lady,’ Denaos replied. ‘He probably just wants to stay as long as he can to catch a glimpse of all the flesh on display.’

‘Clearly,’ Dreadaeleon said, sneering. ‘But I was more referring to the fact that we’re, as yet, incomplete.’ His expression was half-beseeching and half-curious as he swept it about the circle. ‘I mean, what about Gariath? If the rest of us are alive, he probably is, too.’

‘He seemed fairly determined not to be when we last saw him,’ Asper said.

‘He’s alive,’ Kataria said softly.

‘How do you know?’

The shict felt a sudden unease as the human eyes turned toward her, scrutinising her slowly. She felt the urge to flee, to escape both their stares and the memory of her encounter with Gariath. She had done a good enough job over the past days, she thought, trying to trick herself into thinking that the dragonman was dead and her secret was safe.

In her heart, though, she knew he was alive. There was no way she could be so lucky for anything else to be true.

‘She knows because she’s not an idiot,’ Lenk replied before she could. ‘He’s stronger than all of us. He would survive. And I suppose we can delay our plans until we find him.’

‘A thought occurs,’ Denaos interjected. A thoughtful look crossed his face and he inhaled sharply, as though about to deliver a stirring conclusion. ‘Why?’

‘What do you mean, why? He’s part of our group, isn’t he?’

‘Well, we’re not really a “group”, are we? And he’s really more of a hanger-on that chose to insinuate himself into our loose coalition … a parasite, if you will.’

‘Parasites don’t so abruptly try to kill us,’ Kataria muttered.

‘Well, he’s been doing it for the past year,’ Dreadaeleon retorted. ‘I thought we were past holding that against him.’

‘Yes, but he came awfully close this time,’ Asper said. ‘It’s probably wiser to abandon him now after his … what, eighteenth try?’

Denaos chuckled. ‘Stick up for the lizardmen that you just met, but abandon the one you’ve known for ages? Is that sort of behaviour condoned in the Talanite faith?’

‘I sleep easy,’ she replied. ‘Do you?’

‘I’m sure there’s some lovely backstory that I don’t care about between you two,’ Lenk interjected, ‘but I’ll have to interrupt to put this to a vote.’ He swept a careful stare around the circle. ‘Acknowledging full well what it means to say so … how many of you want to leave Gariath behind?’

Denaos’ hand shot up with swiftness, Asper’s followed with only enough hesitation to display a minor internal struggle. Dreadaeleon glanced at them both with a frown that went slightly beyond disapproval. It wasn’t until Lenk looked to his side and saw the pale, slender arm in the air that he quirked a brow.

‘Really?’ he asked Kataria. ‘I would have thought you to be his only supporter.’

‘Wouldn’t be the first time you were wrong, would it?’ she growled at him.

He frowned. ‘I … guess not.’ With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes. ‘Well, that’s that, then, isn’t it? If he is alive and we go through with this, I suppose we’ve got one more thing that can and will kill us.’

‘All the more reason to leave,’ Kataria agreed.

‘Which you still haven’t explained how you intend to do,’ Denaos pointed out.

Whatever Lenk had to say in response was suddenly drowned out by the sound of a heavy breathing, heavy footsteps and a heavy stick being dragged through the sand. It was hard to ignore the sight of Bagagame approaching the group, and outright impossible to miss the sight of the screeching writhing roach he dragged by its antennae alongside his stick.

‘Okay, cousin,’ he gasped, pulling his twitching prize before Lenk. ‘Ol’ Bagagame got you covered. Took some whacking, but m’found you a nice slab to chew on.’ With a grunt, he hurled the insect forward. ‘Eat hearty.’

‘That’s … nice?’ Lenk said. ‘But there’s something else you can do for us.’

‘Ah, right. Rude.’ The Owauku’s tiny muscles strained as he hoisted his stick high above his head and brought it down in a shrieking splatter of foul-smelling ichor. His tongue flicked out from behind his grin to slurp up a glistening gob on his mouth. ‘Juicy enough for a king, eh?’

‘I was thinking the same thing,’ Lenk said as he turned his smile from the lizardman to his companions. ‘Bagagame, show us to Togu.’

He crept quietly through the city’s backstreets, hood drawn up, cloak held tightly about him. He navigated them quickly, quietly, the sins of his memories still embedded in the stones when he walked without webs on his feet, when he could bear the sensation of earth on his soles. He once had done so. He once had walked among them and they had called him neighbour.

And what do they call me now, I wonder, he thought. Monster? Heretic? Betrayer? Demon worshipper. He paused at the mouth of an alley, glancing about before sliding through the sunlight and back into shadow. And what slurs I could level at them. Sheep. Cattle. Blind, ignorant masses that feed themselves into the furnaces stoked by the lies of the Gods and their servants. If they want it so bad, they deserve to die. They deserve to-

No, no, he chastised himself. Remember what this is all for.

He glanced down at the vial in his palm, the thick, viscous liquid swirling with a nebulous life all its own. Mother’s Milk. The gift of Ulbecetonth. The agent of change.

Change, he reminded himself, was what it was all about. Change needed to lift the blinders from mortalkind, to show them that their gods were deaf and uncaring. It would be violent, he knew. People would die. More would live, guided by a matron that heard them and spoke to them in return. But they would never understand.