“Do mind your step, lady,” said Sarge gruffly. “Wouldn’t want to tell the new recruits the story of your amazing little pies, have it end with and then she was eaten by a guardian.”

Ainsel watched them walk away, then followed after. The old sun was huge as it rose above the horizon. The shattered moon was still on the western horizon, as unmoving as a corpse, but far more beautiful. Now that she knew there was more to find, she could see some of the small plants clinging to the base of some of the rust-colored rocks, and make out the blocky yellowish structures that had to be the blacksap plants. Small insects sprang away from her bare feet. The wasteland was no longer barren, but full of secret life. She wondered if it had always been such, and glanced up again at the shattered moon in the faded sky. Some instinct told her the world had once had a vibrancy that had been drained away and was only slowly replenishing herself.

Remy stayed by her side, and after a while, she asked in a little voice, “Remy, what is my kind?”

“Why don’t you remember?” he asked in response.

“I don’t know. Sometimes I feel so close to remembering myself. And then I lose it. Trying to remember hurts.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes and then Remy said, “I don’t think now is a good time to force you to face what you’re so afraid of. Not with that above. But ask me again later, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Gratitude welled up. She believed him. He would tell her. And then she’d know. When she was ready. Someday. When she wanted everything she knew about herself to be destroyed.

The terror and temptation of it would eat her alive.

Ainsel shook herself and glanced over at Remy instead. “You told the Admin you were a prince.”

He shrugged and his stride lengthened for a moment. But as he pulled ahead of her he slowed back to her pace and said, “Yes.”

Once she might have just accepted his obvious reluctance to talk about it. But silence meant thinking about her own life. “If it’s true, why were you exiled? Who could send you away?”

Remy flexed his hands. “My uncle is the King of my people; my brother is his heir. There’s not much lost by getting rid of me.”

Ainsel stopped walking. “That’s awful. They wanted to get rid of you so they sent you to where you’d lose your mind and turn into a monster? What kind of family is that?”

Remy pulled her into a walk again. “My uncle’s very fond of my brother. He thinks I’m a troublemaker. But I don’t think he intended the exile to be permanent. Danui brought me a way to go home again, if I did one little thing.” He gave Ainsel a sidelong glance. “Though now I wonder if that was Tyler all along. I never thought my uncle cared that much about restarting ancient wars.”

One little thing. She didn’t ask. It was all tied together with her past. She couldn’t seem to escape it. “Any sisters?” she asked brightly instead.

He shook his head, but a reminiscent smile curved his mouth. “A cousin. She’s still a child. Everybody spoils her. I wish I could see her again someday.”

Ainsel twisted her hands in the depths of the coat pockets. Galbaric strode ahead of them. The two soldiers trailed him, but Jim loped at his side, his voice drifting back. He peppered the Admin with endless questions about the technology that created the guardians and the history of Shell. Galbaric only occasionally answered, as if he couldn’t help himself. She wondered how Jim would be once he’d returned to his home again.

“What are we going to do about Tyler and his friends?” she asked Remy quietly.

Remy’s mouth twisted. “They’re not his friends. They’re Danui’s pack, and Danui is my friend.”

Ainsel regarded Remy worriedly. “Maybe they’re your friends but they were helping Tyler. You wanted me to come back with you so you could do something about him. But what?”

Remy rubbed his knuckle against his forehead. “A long time ago, my people were the slaves of another people. We called them Night Masters, and the stories said they controlled us completely. They made fathers kill their children because it amused them. They did worse than that. They were crazy power-hungry monsters and we served them as soldiers and hunters. Just like Danui and his pack are now working for Tyler.”

“How did you escape?” When he didn’t answer at first, Ainsel added, “You did escape, right?”

“There was a war,” Remy said slowly. “The Night Masters enslaved many kinds of people and eventually they rose up and overthrew them. My people served until the end. After, we tried to explain that we couldn’t help ourselves, couldn’t resist the Night Masters’ power. The…” he stole a glance at Ainsel that she didn’t miss. “The leaders of the revolution sent us away, to the world we live on now.”

The little story conjured vivid images for Ainsel, with details Remy hadn’t mentioned, and the memory once again of a gentle voice that made her want to cry. “They bound the Night Masters to sleep. You were exiled because they couldn’t trust you, you were sent from a green and gold land to a cold, grey one,” she said distantly, from the depths of sourceless memories. Then, as she resurfaced, she said, “That’s awful. You were victims and they punished you for it.”

Remy gave her another sidelong glance. “A lot of my people feel that way. We’ve come to think of that other people as our true enemies now. Or maybe we never stopped. But nobody ever talked about starting a war with them. It must be Tyler. He has to be one of the Night Masters, returned. Danui would never act like this otherwise.”

“I hope not,” said Ainsel, prodding a rock with her bare toes. “Because I think we’re in a lot of trouble if so.”