Now that they were out on the open road, and could make camp anywhere they wished, Captain Ishki set a much faster pace. Everyone was happy to comply with her orders. The thought that they were carrying a load of illegal machinery weighed heavy on the minds of all, though the soldiers did a passable job of pretending to forget about it.

What if the Nergal shows up and punishes us for just looking at it? Xerxes thought on more than one occasion. Others in the convoy were clearly thinking the same thing. The Nergal was, on the one hand, a bogeyman adults used to frighten children. On the other hand, he was very, very real. He was a punisher sent by the Pontifarch to deal with rebels, blasphemers, and heretics, and he supposedly inflicted pain and death on the subjects of his wrath. Granted, neither Xerxes nor anyone else on Mannemid had ever seen him. But everyone knew he existed, and they knew what happened if he arrived in a starisle. People died. In fact, there were stories of him destroying entire starisles.

Every member of the convoy was happy to run a bit farther and harder than usual. As a result, they passed by the spots along the road that were generally used for camping. Given the peace in recent years on Mannemid, and the relative law and order in Isin, there was no reason to fortify their position or hide their camp from passersby.

The first night out from Kisiga, they camped on a hill overlooking the road.

The second night, they chose a spot off the road and near a small forest that Private Apuulluunideeszu told them about, as he had traveled through these parts before he became a soldier. On the third day of travel, the clouds returned, slowly filling the sky until it was dark and leaden.

“Rain’s coming, I bet,” said Goran.

However, rain never came. As the days of travel passed, they slept in a random valley, on another hill, near a farmhouse, and then, by chance, at a campsite. As they neared more civilized parts of the kingdom, they saw more towns and villages, but skirted them whenever possible. In some cases, the road ran right through such places, but they never stopped. Captain Ishki didn’t want to risk word spreading among the populace about what the convoy was carrying.

For Xerxes, the journey from the capital to Kisiga had been one of excitement and anticipation. This trip back was nothing of the sort.

Although Gandash and Bel didn’t exclude or avoid him, they obviously wanted privacy, and he accommodated them. Which meant that he ended up stewing in his thoughts more frequently than before. He kept remembering how it felt to have his arm broken. He thought about Gem dying in front of him, and killing the woodsman Biru. He tried not to think about the Nergal.

He spent time talking with the soldiers, but it was different than before. Early on, he’d been trying hard to impress them and fit in with them. Now, they seemed to accept him readily, and somehow… that left him feeling empty.

Meditating to gather melam from the surroundings was an easy way to not worry about his thoughts, so he did that as often as possible. But it was difficult to meditate on horseback unless you were virtually born into the saddle. It required one to sit absolutely still, and Xerxes just couldn’t do that while swaying on the back of a huge animal.

The following day, they began making their way through hilly terrain that served as a line of demarcation between what Isinians considered the outskirts of the kingdom, and the interior. Captain Ishki set a slightly more relaxed pace of travel given the terrain.

“You alright?” Gandash asked sometime after lunch.

“Huh?” Xerxes said.

“You’ve been looking a bit more… I don’t know, thoughtful than usual. The past few days.”

“Oh.” Xerxes shrugged. “Maybe because it’s the longest I’ve been away from home? I don’t know. I’m fine. Just been thinking about a lot of things.”

“Alright. Well, guess what? Bel has a bottle of wine she’s been hiding this whole time. Want to share it with us at dinner?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Captain Ishki called an early stop when they found a hilltop campsite not too far from the road. After tending to the horses and other camp-related duties, Xerxes ate with Gandash and Bel for the first time since they started on the return trip. In the back of his mind, he almost regretted pushing the two of them to become a couple. Almost. It was nice to eat and drink with friends.

As they were cleaning up from the meal, Xerxes heard something of a stir from one of the nearby campfires.

Looking over, he saw the soldiers rising to their feet and pointing into the sky. He looked up.

There was a bright light in the dark clouds overhead, traveling at a rapid speed. A moment later, an enormous ball of fire dropped down. At first, Xerxes thought it was flying toward their camp, which caused his heart to leap into his throat. However, a moment later, he realized it wasn’t flying directly toward them.

It was a meteor, of course.

Obviously, it was much larger than any of the ones they’d seen on the trip so far. It was so close that Xerxes could clearly see the flames and smoke, and he almost felt like he could reach up and touch it.

A loud hissing sound filled the air, reminding him of the sound of an arrow just shot from a bow.

As the burning object flew overhead, most everyone in the camp ducked reflexively, simultaneously turning to watch the thing falling toward a nearby forested area.

It descended, disappearing into the darkness of the trees. A moment later, they heard a muffled boom, and Xerxes was certain he felt a tremor in the ground beneath his feet.