Before I can figure out how to put this admittedly bugshit plan into action, the tent flap is swept aside and I'm abruptly grappled from behind by an unknown assailant. I'm about a second from panicked flailing when Theo shouts directly into my ear.

  "You did it, you mad bastard!"

  She's pressed against my back with her arms around me, but I guess this is more of a hug situation than an assassination attempt. My ribs creak as she squeezes one more time.

  "I was sure you were all going to get yourselves killed, but you fucking did it. Slaughterborne's , do you have any idea --"

  She stops, letting go of me, and I gaps for air. When I turn around, she's looking down at Mercy.

  "Oh, no. Fuck, Kal, I'm so sorry. I know she was your … um, something important."

  "She's not …" I trail off, not sure how to explain where my head is at right now. Theo interprets this as being overcome by grief and clucks sympathetically.

  "I'll get Bellenax to come and take care of her," she says. "We'll honor her memory, I promise. Was she pledged to a god?"

  "She's not ," I manage.

  There's a pause.

  "Kal," Theo says in a careful voice. "Are you all right?"

  "I know what it looks like."

  "It like she got stabbed through the fucking heart," Theo says. "That's not something you walk off."

  "I know."

  "And she's not moving. Or blinking. Or breathing."

  "I ."

  Theo's getting annoyed. "She's fucking dead, Kal. I'm sorry, it's shit, but there it is."

  "Just , all right?" I grab her wrist and pull her down to kneel on the bedroll beside me. I suddenly feel a deep need to have someone on my side, if only to reassure me that I'm not completely mad. "Mercy's not … not ." I almost said not , but that would raise more questions I can't answer.

  "I know she was fleshsculpted," Theo says, now in full soothing-the-crazy-person mode. "But even so --"

  "Just , all right?"

  I grab Mercy's ruined dress and tear it open to expose her torso. Theo startles, and in retrospect I realize this is kind of a weird thing to do. Apart from her breasts -- or, rather, the weird nipple-less bulges that stand in for breasts -- this reveals the wound in full, a jagged vertical tear through her sternum like a lipless mouth.

  Theo's brow creases. "There's no blood. I thought you'd cleaned her up already, but there's just … What the fuck?"

  "Look." I steel myself, and with thumb and forefinger I push the wound open. Theo winces, but obediently peers closer. Below her skin, Mercy's flesh is gray, undifferentiated matter, slightly spongy and pliant to the touch. There's no sign of muscle, bone or organs, no heart torn in two. Theo recoils, rocking back on her haunches.

  "Whaaaat the ? What she?"

  "I'm not going to pretend I understand completely," I say. "But trust me when I say that she's . Not yet. She's in a sort of coma, I guess you'd say."

  "But … I mean …" Theo shakes her head weakly. "That's good, right? Is she going to get better?"

  "Not without help. I can save her, but I need" -- I lower my voice, as though speaking the thought too loud would invite divine wrath at my hubris -- "water-of-life."

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  Theo barks a startled laugh. "You want a piece of the fucking nightsun as well?"

  "I know where we can get some." Probably the place we can get some west of the Divide, except maybe the fortress at Carnisa Pass. "And I have a plan." of a plan, something basically plan-shaped, the vaguest outline. "But I need help."

  "My help?" Theo says.

  "Among others."

  She ponders, but only for a moment. "Shit, you saved my brother's life and possibly the whole clan today. And Mercy saved all of us on the cutter. Least I can do is return the fucking favor."

  "Thank you." I feel the knot of tension in my chest ease, just a little. I may be crazy, but at least I'm not alone.

  "So where do we start?"

  There's one piece that's absolutely critical. If she doesn't agree… "I need to talk to Agni."

  ***

  We cross the camp. Word has spread quickly about our exploits this morning, and the people we see stare at me with a mix of awe and pity. My demeanor thankfully prevents anyone from attempting conversation, though. Theo leads me, not to the medical tent, but to a more ordinary dwelling. She raps on a pole to request entry.

  "Come in," Agni says. I barely recognize her voice without the strain of near-fatal injury in it.

  We slip inside. Agni is sitting in front of a low table, picking at the remains of lunch. To my surprise, Quarter and Raz are there as well, the former assisting with polishing off the food and the latter huddled in a corner in his usual brooding silence.

  "Kal!" Quarter says. "Are ye all right?"

  I realize, somewhat belatedly, that I'm still badly scuffed and a little bit bloodstained. I wave the question away and sit by the table, Theo settling down beside me.

  "We heard what happened," Agni says. "What you did sounds incredible, but I'm sorry about Mercy."

  "Zhe waz a cheerful zoul," Raz buzzes.

  "She's not dead," I tell them. "Just badly hurt."

  "Though a reasonable person might be forgiven for jumping to fucking conclusions," Theo mutters.

  "I have a plan to save her, but I need your help." I take a need breath and look at Agni. "Yours, especially."

  She raises an eyebrow. The rockwater and rest have done wonders, banishing the deathly pallor from her complexion and the pained grimace from her face. There's still a bandage wrapped around her midriff, but its clean and unstained, and she moves easily.

  "It's good to see you looking so, um, alive, by the way," I tell her.

  "Thanks," she says dryly. "I'm rather enjoying it. So what exactly are you trying to talk me into?"

  "Mercy needs water-of-life." I hold up a hand to forestall the immediate objections. "The only place to get it is the Edge Mine. The commandant is bound to be from one of the court families, he'll have a stock for sure."

  "He's a Silokete, last I heard," Agni says.

  "Perfect." The Siloketes are highly placed in the Outer Court, with cousins in posts all through the military and the inspectorate; that's why I used the name for my persona. Their patron is Exemplar Hadrianus the Blue, so they're sure to be provided with a generous allocation of water-of-life. "So we just have to get in there and help ourselves to some of his stash."

  "Oh, is all?" Agni shakes her head. "Kal --"

  "Yer talkin' bugshit," Quarter says. "The lot o' us only barely escaped bein' thrown in th' mines. Now ye want to get inside?"

  "None of our people go near the mine," Theo says. "There are guns on the walls, and those fuckers are trigger-happy."

  " was supposed to arrive by now, so they'll know something's wrong," I say. "We'll turn up at the gates, tell them the ship was destroyed by raiders, and claim to be survivors. Which is true, right?"

  "And then they'll send ye down to the tunnels for the rest o' yer days!" Quarter says. "Ye won't be savin' nobody down there."

  " arrive as a prisoner," I say. "But a special prisoner, to be kept in solitary confinement. And there'll be a guard from the ship looking after me."

  Everyone looks at Agni, but it takes her a second.

  "I was a fucking prisoner too," she mutters, looking down.

  "But you a guard, right? You know the procedures, the language. We can find you a uniform -- I saw some on the cutter."

  She's still shaking her head. "They might find out I was, ah --"

  "Court-martialed?" Quarter supplies.

  "Give a fake name," I say. "Tell them you were transferring in. All the records were aboard , how would they know any better?"

  "They'll have a transect," Agni says.

  That gives me pause. Nobody outside court service knows much about the mysterious transects and how they work, but they're able to carry messages across vast distances instantly. The City uses them to keep tabs on far-flung ships and outposts.

  "Those are expensive to use, I hear," I say. "I doubt they're going to send personnel files over it."

  "Maybe." She chews her lip. "Even if we get in the door, then what?"

  "You find a way to get me out of wherever they put me. I steal the water-of-life. We get out and Theo's people pick us up." There's about a million holes there, but we can figure it out as we go along. "I'm a thief, as it happens. That's why I was in that hold in the first place." Admittedly, I'm not a 'climb walls and pick locks' sort of thief, but …

  "Still seems bugshit," Quarter says. "Something'll go wrong."

  "Something always does," I say. "That's when we improvise."

  "I don't …" Agni rubs her palms into her eyes. "."

  "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think we could do it," I say quietly. "Mercy has saved my life ten times over. Now she needs me. I'm not going to let her die if there's anything I can do to help her."

  "Yeah," Agni says, letting out a breath. "I know."