The gigantic monster climbed over the city wall. Xerxes groaned. “Not again.”

Further ahead, Dasi stood with Ningsummunu’s still form on her back. At the head of the line, Gandy also craned his neck to look up.

Around them all, Unsighted soldiers muttered curses and hefted their weapons.

As the Abhorrent lurched over the wall like a giant, four-legged spider, Gandash shouted over his shoulder, “We’ll use the same strategy as last time, except—”

The Abhorrent crawled along, crushing rooftops and shaking everything as it moved… toward the middle of the city.

“It’s going to the keep,” Katayoun said.

The creature made the ground tremble as it walked past Black Jackal Company on the north side.

Xerxes exhaled slowly. Except… then the thing stopped. It stood stock still, its closest hand planted a short city block away from them. From this distance, it was easy to make out the countless swaying hands that covered its disgusting surface.

“What’s it doing?” Xerxes muttered.

Stratos, who was only a few cubits away, growled, “And why don’t these fuckers have eyes?”

For a long moment, Black Jackal Company watched the monstrous creature. Then it moved. The ground trembled as it continued toward the inner parts of the city.

“It must have sensed us,” Katyoun said.

“They’re obviously focused on the keep,” Xerxes said. “Either there’s something there they want… or they think there is.”

She looked at him. “The Key?”

“Maybe. Simeon was a cultist, but he didn’t even know he had the Key under his nose the entire time.”

“Let’s go,” Gandash shouted.

The company started moving again. The crowds got heavier the closer they got to the gates. People fled the city. Meteors smashed buildings around them. Fires burned and smoke filled the streets.

At the gate, everything slowed to a crawl. Gandash sent soldiers from Unit One and Unit Two into the vanguard position to clear the way.

Ten minutes later, Black Jackal Company struggled through the gate and into the open like a butterfly escaping a cocoon. They were out of Puabi city.

Into more chaos.

Abhorrent were everywhere. Puabi soldiers fought them while citizens scrambled to flee the flaming city.

Black Jackal Company formed up and started moving. Nearby Abhorrent were attracted to the mages, but none were beyond the spawn level. Now that they were on open ground, they destroyed any Abhorrent that came their way and moved as quickly as possible away from the city. By the time they were a few hundred cubits away, they were past the point where the Abhorrent were a problem.

They started running as fast as they could while keeping the mages grouped together with the Unsighted. About a thousand cubits from the city, they jogged to the top of a hill, where they stopped briefly to catch their breath.

Looking back, Xerxes saw a city burning and crumbling. People streamed from the gates. Abhorrent swarmed.

Some of the fleeing citizens passed their position on the hill and fled further into the night. Others gathered nearby, obviously hoping to find protection with Black Jackal.

For a few minutes, Gandash just had everyone catch their breath.

Xerxes sat down on the hillside. Katayoun sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

They held hands. Then a scream ripped across the hillside.

Ningsummunu had regained consciousness.

“I need to go,” Katayoun said, pulling her hand out of his and rushing to Dasi and Ningsummunu.

Something caught Xerxes’ eye. Movement overhead. More falling stars. Many of them.

Xerxes wasn’t sure what Katayoun did, but Ningusmmunu stopped screaming. After that, Gandash let them have another five minutes of rest before calling for another march. They moved as fast as the Unsighted could manage.

At a certain point, they passed the general area where Kashtiliash and Xerxes had hidden their fancy sword sheaths. It only took a few minutes to dig them up.

Not all of the Unsighted were soldiers. Many were attendants of some sort. To Xerxes, progress seemed excruciatingly slow. He couldn’t help to think back to how he and the other High Seers had sped across lands like the wind.

Not here and now.

Meteors kept falling.

Occasionally, Abhorrent would attack from the darkness. They were all spawn, so for the most part, they were easy to deal with. Even still, three soldiers fell.

Hours later, they reached a hilltop that, while not exactly a plateau, was possible to defend. Gandash said they would rest at this spot.

They had no supplies to allow them to entrench, not that it mattered, considering how exhausted everyone was. What was more, they didn’t have any traveling supplies. Thankfully, Gandash had his holding bracelet.

There were no camping supplies therein, but there were enough food supplies that a simple fire would give them some hot sustenance.

As the Unsighted tended to that, Gandash called the mages together for a meeting.

“As all of you can tell, we’re in a very bad position,” Gandash said. “We have very few supplies, no horses or carts, and a huge distance between us and the Gateway. The closest city to the north, Eresh, is gone according to what the High Seers reported. There are other cities along the Brocade Road. Perhaps we could head toward one of them in the hopes of getting supplies.”

After a long moment passed, Ningsummunu said, “Gandy, I’ve been loyal to you this entire time. And I’ll stay that way. But… the Unsighted are the problem here. Without them, we could make much better time.”

Dasi shook her head. “It’s not that simple. Gandy, I hate to tell you, but the Abhorrent have been falling out of the skies for days. We never got to the Gateway. There are just too many of the fuckers. And most of them seemed to be falling to the north. I wouldn’t be surprised if none of the northern cities are around anymore.”

Gandash took her words stoically. “I see.”

Ningsummunu made an exasperated growl. “We can’t just walk like Unsighted all the way back home. We’ll get picked off one by one. Eaten.”

Xerxes chose not to point out that Ningsummunu only had one leg now. Following his logic, it would make sense to leave him behind with the Unsighted.

Gandash simply sat there thinking for a long time. Finally he said, “Military conventions be damned. I called for a vote before, and I’m going to do the same here. I’m personally obligated to keep the Unsighted safe. But I won’t force the rest of you. Ningsummunu is right in some ways. If we left them behind, we could travel much faster. I just can’t make myself abandon them. What do the rest of you think?”

Xerxes thought back to the vote in the cave, and how little good it had done him to side with Jad. That said, if the High Seers had gone with Gandash to Puabi, perhaps they would have fallen into the trap as well, and all of them would have been locked away. In fact, they would likely have been stuck in a prison cell when the Abhorrent struck.

But that was neither here nor there. His stance had resulted in the schism between him and Gandash. Maybe this was his chance to make things right. Besides, he liked Stratos and the other soldiers. He didn’t want to abandon them.

“I’m on your side, Gandy,” he said. “Maybe it will take longer, but we can’t abandon the Unsighted.”

The other mages took longer to weigh in.

Dasi raised her hand. “I’m in. What’s the point of being mages if we screw the Unsighted?”

Kashtiliash was next. “Practically speaking, I think we should leave them behind. Sorry. But it makes sense.”

Next in line was Kishar. Everyone looked at her. It took about a minute for her to compose her words. When she spoke, her voice was soft and apologetic. “I vote to leave. We can move faster without them. Besides, the Abhorrent want melam from us, not them. They’ll probably stand a better chance of surviving on their own.”

Xerxes didn’t fault Kishar for her line of reasoning. However, based on what he knew, though the trace amounts of melam in Unsighted humans wasn’t ideal for Abhorrent, it was still melam.

After Kishar was Kat.

“During this entire time, my Unit is the only group that’s still whole. Not a single casualty. I think I owe it to them to get them home. I vote to stick with the Unsighted.”

Ningsummunu grimaced. “I’d rather live as a scoundrel than die pointlessly with noble ideals. I say we leave them.”

Ningsummunu was staring at the ground, so he didn’t notice the expressions on the faces of the other mages. Kishar looked confused. Kashtiliash sneered, though only for a fraction of a second. Teucer looked incredulous.

Did Ningsummunu assume that one of the other mages would carry him? Xerxes opened his mouth to remind Ningsummunu that he had no leg. But then he closed his mouth. What was the point?

Teucer had the last vote. The current lineup was four to three, which meant that if he agreed with Gandash, the final tally would be five to three, and they would stay with the Unsighted. If he voted against Gandash, the vote would be split evenly, and would require a tiebreaker of some sort.

Teucer took even longer than Kishar. When he finally spoke, he said, “My parents back home on Harmu are Unsighted. Most of my friends too. They’re people, just like we are. We shouldn’t leave people behind. I vote with the captain.”

Neither Kashtiliash nor Kishar seemed upset about how the vote turned out. Ningsummunu, on the other hand, glowered at the dirt in front of him.

Gandash looked around at the group. “The vote’s been cast. We stick together. We’ll rest here until sunrise. Then we’ll continue west.”

Later, when Katayoun and Xerxes were alone in their tent, wrapped in each other’s arms, she said, “It took us a month to get here. How the hell are we going to make it back across all that land?”

He ran his hand down her cheek and toward her shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.”