No one else wanted to go into the shelter, so Omuti dismantled and moved the bodies into a grave the others had dug. The gruesome fate of those individuals didn't seem to bother her much, or maybe she was too drunk to care.

"Do we throw the conflictor in?" Dev asked.

"It may have been human once, but not anymore," Nom said.

"It died long ago," said Omega, "like these others."

Omuti dragged the twisted corpse into the large ditch. Ahden helped her complete the task, and they all piled sand on the remains.

"What about her, old man?" Omega said, jerking her head to the ever-present little girl. "Was she human once?"

Nom could tell Omega was irked at his evasions, but he did so again anyway. "Shall we see what's on the other side of this junkyard," he stated more than asked, and started forward along the narrow path which continued west beyond the clearing. All but the girl quietly followed. He poked along with his spear shaft, plinking and clunking debris, occasionally pushing aside larger pieces to make way for the cart. Ahden had insisted on pulling it, probably felt obliged to Omuti, though the woman was in better shape at the moment than Ahden, despite her continued sips at the bottle. Did that jug ever run out of booze?

A wind picked up as they neared the western side, where the junkyard dunes opened up to the desert. Nom turned and held up a hand to block the sand from his face. "Now what?" he shouted back to the others. "Ready for a two week trek to the sun, as per Solus' rhyme?"

"I have a better idea," Dev said. "Look there." He pointed ahead and to the left. Embedded in the dunes were several small windships, with hulls and masts mostly intact. "Think we can get one of those land skiffs running?"

"I wasn't a windreaper. Most of what I know about sailing is from Qayid's Pod," Nom said.

"But you know Rabidian technology, and everyone in Whithom knows how to work a daysailer like that on the sea. It could easily cut a week off the journey, and a whole lot of walking."

"They're small," Nom pointed out. "Will we all fit?"

"If we can rig two, then Ahden and I can each sail one, splitting the rest of you and the provisions."

"It's worth a try," Ahden said. "Do it."

They spent the rest of the day salvaging the boats and scavenging parts from around the junkyard. Dev patched together the hulls and boat mechanisms, and quickly picked up on the additional machinery with Nom's insight. The biggest hurdle was finding sail that wasn't degraded and shredded, but with everyone looking, they soon found enough to sew together. Nom also insisted on finding jars of grease for the machinery, which proved a challenge until Omega found a single barrel half full of the stuff. The whole process moved quickly, especially since the boats were in decent shape to begin with, but that also bothered Nom. They looked newer than the fall of Rabidi. And considering their short range, Nom wondered whether Zulm was sailing the steppes.

Dev and Omuti worked on the sail by firelight. Ahden had already fallen asleep, so Omega and Nom sat together on a dune to gaze at the night. The moon barely shone a silver sliver, letting the stars shine through. Tonight they were the stars Nom remembered, but that brought no comfort, considering all the horrors they dimly illuminated.

Nom drew squiggles in the sand with a stick of wood. Omega tossed small widgets and gears into the darkness. Some landed with a thud, others with a plink. "In Elocant," she started, "you originally said you'd been to Rabidi. But that's not quite the truth, is it." she said.

Nom hadn't remembered being that cagey, but it sounded right for the circumstances. "No. I lived there," he admitted.

"Why hide that? You're supposed to be a guide. Why hide what you know about the darkseer? Why not tell us about the girl?"

Nom looked up sharply, glanced around, then sighed. He pointed with his stick. He made a tick with his tongue and Omega followed his gesture. The little girl stood a short distance from their dune, still facing away silently, but far from where they had left her in the junkyard. Omega gasped and scrambled her feet to rise, but Nom squeezed her arm and pulled her down.

"There are horrors here, left over from Rabidi, that are desperate to be remembered and spoken of. Words have consequences," Nom said, then let go of her. She sat rigidly, staring at the girl. "Think about the conflictor, how it quoted you. Is that something you said inside the Hollow, or outside?"

"Here, but long ago," Omega said. She crossed her arms and squeezed herself small. "That was disturbing."

"Aye. Words can be weapons. Speak carefully, lest they incite pain. Sometimes the best words are silent."

"But sometimes silence is—I don't know; I can't speak pearls of wisdom like you do, Nōm, but talking about difficult things can help us gain mastery over our own thoughts."

Nom nodded his head in approval. "That was a decent turn of phrase. Someday people will be turning to you for wisdom—Oa the Sage." He bumped her arm with his elbow.

She uncurled a bit, half smiled and said, "You don't have to tell us everything. Some words are yours to keep. But I want you to know you're important to us beyond the knowledge you share. You're a good person." She reached over and squeezed his arm, then left to go sleep. It was just as well; he couldn't carry on the conversation any longer without choking up. Omega's kindness soothed him as he ignored the little child nearby in darkness, but another thing best forgotten, and so recently spoken of by Solus, kept clawing its way into his thoughts: Omnos.

---

"Omnos this, Omnos that. It's all anyone talks about." Nom nervously scratched more patterns in the dirt. He himself was only talking to talk. "It's not like anyone is better off for it."

Shanayn listened dutifully. "Yeah, but he's not important right now," his friend said.

"I know, never really is," Nom replied. He was glad Shanayn could come. He needed a break from the labor. Certainly not as much as Saqu would like one, but it had been hours and she was actually sleeping now. He shucked his stick down the street and tapped his fingers nervously. It was the middle of the night, and he'd drank a lot of coffee.

"You seen Halqu?" Nom asked. "I thought he would come, maybe earlier."

"About that," Shanayn said dubiously, "you and I haven't been as interesting lately, in his mind."

Nom sighed. "You're right. For him it's Omnos this, that, and the other. I just can't fathom it."

"Like I said: there are more important things right now." Shanayn said more brightly, "Flying at all these days? Bet you got the kid's whole kite career lined up."

"Nah, too busy to fly, but I've been folding some new patterns."

The two men passed more idle time until Saqummatu woke up, and Nom went back in to stay by her side to the end. Out on the street, Shanayn heard plenty of screaming. He was still there hours later at sunrise, when Saqu's pain changed and she started wailing.

---

The mountains cast a hard shadow at sunrise, pointing west across the flat, dry steppes of the desert sea. Two small specs raced along that line between dark and light. Omega had named the boats after birds, in the fashion of Qayid's Pod, but in her parents' native tongue. Dev, Omega, and Omuti raced ahead in the Tattirgak, followed by Ahden and Nom in the Mitik, which Omega, with a snigger, assured them was a much taller bird. Ahden and Dev began the morning laughing and hollering at one another as they beat their way upwind in friendly competition. Then the wind shifted, propelling the boats forward at high speed. Rather than cooling them off, the increased air on their faces felt like a blast from a hot oven. In that moment, Nom envied Omega's goggles, but luckily he remained tucked below deck, required to regularly open hatches and apply grease to the heavily whirring machinery of the axles and wheels.

He was nostalgically happy to be on the move in the desert. The air and smells, the ticking sound of sand grains in the wind, reminded him of happy times in his past, and the boats almost moved fast enough for his mind to escape the bad times, and fast enough to leave the girl in the black and white dress behind. She had remained motionless behind their departure, not a ripple waving in her dress, or a hair on her head blowing out of place as the heavy winds propelled the group away, and she receded into the distance.

The wind shifted again, reverting to its usual westerly flow. They tacked to compensate, and chased the sun until they moored the boats together in the evening. Only the mountains behind them, barely visible, marred the straight line of the horizon, foretelling their plunge into featureless desert. The following day was dominated by bright sun, endless sandy soil, the sound of the wind, shifting sails, whirring mechanics, and wheels grinding and throwing up grains of the earth.

Lulled by the monotony, it took everyone a while to register the dark line on the horizon. A change in sound brought them to realize the terrain was different. The wheels began to crackle on the ground as the soil grains grew larger. Nom wrapped extra cloth around his ears as the ride became rough and the volume grew.

They suddenly sailed past a person sitting motionless in the desert, and then another. Ahden signalled a stop, and they ground to a halt.

"They're dead," Nom said, then shouted it at the other boat.

Ahden looked back a moment to confirm, then took another to rest and hydrate. The skin around his eyes was burned by the sun and wind. Nom took a drink, and registered that his own hands and forearms were blackened and shiny from grease and grime. He set aside a compulsion to rinse and wash, and leapt over the gunwale. The air coming off the rocky soil should have been distorted by the heat, but it wasn't. He had landed in extreme cold, chilly as the deepest desert night, but only from the waist down. With his head still steaming in the sun, he yelled a curse and punched the hull of the boat, then squatted down to avoid confusing his body any further, as well as to cradle his now aching knuckles.

"Figured you would have learned by now not to punch walls," jibed Ahden as he climbed down. The youth grimaced and clenched his own hands as he hit the ground, but otherwise managed to control his reaction. Not so for those from the Tattirgak. Omega yelped, and Dev loudly uttered something bordering on a hiss. They were all northerners, accustomed to such cold, but not currently dressed for it. Omuti watched them and grunted, remaining on the boat. Those on the ground shook out their cramped muscles, comically macabre as they shuffled back to the nearest corpse.

It sat upright, but definitely dead. Its clothing had decayed to ragged strips, and its skin had dried out, constricting around its skeleton. Its remaining hair and teeth gave the dead man an aspect of grim sorrow as it gazed with dessicated eyes into the distance. The other body, a few dozen feet away, was obviously the same.

"What happened to them?" Omega said.

"Naturally mummified by the desert," Nom said. "Not unheard of, out in the open like this, but a pair?"

Omuti gave a shrill whistle, and pointed ahead. It took a moment to distinguish in the bright sun, but Nom saw another body, laying down where Omuti pointetd, and they went over to investigate.

"This one's even more well preserved," Dev said, leaning over. The body's chest suddenly expanded. Dev yelped and they all jumped back. An emaciated face turned toward them and opened its dry eyes. It stared silently at them, unseeing, then turned back to face the sun again, its eyes still open.

"He's blind," Ahden said, squatting down to put a hand on the man's shoulder. He took out his canteen and poured a few drops of water on the man's mouth. "You're going to be ok." The man didn't react.

"No, he's not," Nom said. "He's already dead, dessicated, in mind and soon in body, like them." He pointed to the other bodies.

"But why here, three of them?" Omega wondered. "It's the middle of nowhere."

"Not exactly," said Nom. He pointed to the dark line on the horizon. "Look ahead, and see how the ground here is turning to rock, and then likely shale? I think I know where we're headed."

"Zulm?" Dev ventured with a grin.

"Perhaps in modern times," Nom replied, hugging himself to stay warm. His teeth started to chatter, so he started back to the boats. "There's an area of badlands in Mamidi Daruni where most of the iron came from to produce Rabidi's steel. It had settlements for the mine workers, but they relied heavily on shipments for food and supplies. A city could never survive there, but it's my best guess of where those poor fellows came from." He climbed up the stern of the Mitik, and laid back on the deck, basking in the heat. He blinked at the sun.

Ahden followed, and unfurled the sail. He asked "So how do you think we proceed, sail these boats straight into the mines of Zulm?" He turned the sail to catch the wind, and then again, but the Mitik didn't move. Tattirgak fared no better. Ahden waved and pointed at Omega, then to the sail, to ask if she could help. She instead pointed ahead to the west. Ahden, Nom, and Dev turned to look. At first Nom thought she had indicated Omuti, who sat cross-legged on the bow with her eyes closed, but she repeated her gesture more emphatically, and in the distance he spotted a rising column of dust. The column swirled diffusely at the top, but came down to a hard point, where Nom made out a triangular white sail. That windship was much larger than their boats, and approaching rapidly. But maybe they could still outrun it.

Ahden commanded Nom to take the sail, then jumped overboard. He ran to the back, started pushing, and bellowed for Tattirgak to do the same. Omega scrambled over the stern, and Omuti fell off the bow, landing on her feet. They got the big wheels turning, and the Tattirgak caught the wind. Omega jumped on the hull, and Omuti ran over to help Ahden. The Mitik finally picked up speed, and Omuti had to climb aboard with Ahden. They veered their boats south to build more distance, and began passing more bodies. Some were obviously dead, some more questionably so, but either way, the boats had to dodge them with increasing frequency.

The huge wheels on the distant ship rolled over the rough terrain easily, gliding the vessel swiftly downwind. It closed in fast, and Nom feared Ahden had made a tactical error by fleeing in the boats, essentially sending up dust clouds to signal their location. Soon the ship was within visual range, but it seemed to be going about its own grisly business. Its crew loaded bodies on planks and tilted them overboard. Some hit the ground and stayed in one piece, others not so intact. Nom only hoped all of them were already dead, but doubted that was the case. As the deathship neared, its crew waved to the small boats. Nom hesitantly waved back as they passed, and wrinkled his nose. Even Omuti had a disgusted look on her face. This close, they saw fire pits on the deck, and men used branding irons to mark the bodies before dumping them. The smell of burning flesh and the sound of friendly greetings passed quickly as the ship receded downwind. Nom scanned the new corpses streaming past. He hadn't noticed it on the ones they first saw, but some of these bodies were branded with the Mage's glyphs.

Dev slowed down to come within earshot. "They assume we're from Zulm," Nom shouted, "since no one else uses windships." Ahden nodded, and made a chopping motion with his hand toward the sun, indicating to resume their course.

Moments later a series of horn blasts came from astern. The deathship started turning about, trying to head in their direction, and its crew waved swords instead of greetings, now chanting, "Omnos! Omnos!"

"Go go go!" shouted Ahden, and made use of all the wind he could capture in the time it took for the larger craft to turn. "Hopefully they'll get stuck in irons!"

Nom didn't know what Ahden meant by irons, but go sounded like a good idea. A loud snap sounded from behind, then a whoosh, and a cloud of wind and dust blasted them from the stern. It dissipated just as fast, but the large ship now pursued them at speed. Realising that darklight had filled those sails, Omega took control of the air, like she had done for Shearwater on the Loralia Sea, but expanded it between the sails of the Tattirgak and the pursuer. Tattirgak surged forward, and the larger boat faltered. But before that ship lost momentum, the seer onboard retaliated and refilled the sails, maintaining its distance to the Mitik.

"Grab a shield Nōm, cover me," shouted Ahden.

Nom also grabbed his spear, and positioned himself between Ahden and the windship. "Why? What are you going to do?"

"Why? Arrows! I want to be alive while I steer the boat!" Ahden yelled back. Nom knew this area was devoid of wood for bows and arrows, but recalled the repeating crossbows of Zulm's slavers, so held his position. A wildly thrown metal harpoon flew over their boat, erasing any further dismissal of missiles from Nom's head. More errant harpoons came at them as the ship and boats bounced and swerved on increasingly rough shale.

He glanced ahead at the Tattirgak, and Omega looked back, unsure what to do. Omuti must have been below deck, and Dev sailed just as furiously as Ahden. Something thunked on Nom's shield, and he refocused on the enemy ship. He smelled burning wood, and realized it was a branding iron, now charring the deck. He snatched it up and aimed it to throw back. On deck the deathship, two men maneuvered some sort of ballista to the bow rail, and Nom threw at it. The jolting movements of the boat spoiled his aim, but he ended up hitting one of the crew. Another quickly took her place, and they drew the large crossbow. A massive harpoon launched from the ballista, trailed by a thick rope. It embedded into the hull of Mitik, and immediately began slowing them down. Ahden was losing control as the boat was pulled back toward the ship. Nom tried to slice the rope with his spear, but was not going to have enough time or cover.

"Get ready to be boarded, Ahden!" Nom shouted. Ahden tied off the sail, and grabbed his sword. The ship closed, and its crew taunted and menaced them with swords and harpoons. Ahden flashed Nom a quick look and grin, and they both thrust their weapons. Nom's spear easily bridged the gap between the vessels, as did Ahden's greatsword, surprising the crew along the rail. They beat back several attackers before the bow of the ship hit and its crew could strike with their swords. The impact tilted the Mitik and threw everyone off balance. Several of the crew leaped over the rail to board the boat, but stopped as though slamming against a wall.

Tattirgak barreled in from the side, Omega on the bow, directing darklight at the large ship. Nom cheered as it turned to parallel their course. His levity quickly drained as the Mitik tilted and turned further; Tattirgak wasn't going to reach them in time. Ahden was already fighting for a gap on the deathship's rail. Nom pulled the Mule from his pack and stuck it in his belt, then followed Ahden to climb onto the ship. He warded off sword attacks as Mitik finally tipped over and careened to the side of the ship. It barrelled over several unfortunate of the dessicated as it careened toward the helpless Tattirgak. He saw Omega's look of fear flash into resolve, and she slammed two fists toward the earth. The broken shale around the ships became immediately intact, encasing the huge wheels of all the vessels. The hulls tried to continue forward, wrenching all the axles with a horrible noise. A sliding mass of the ship's crew crushed Nom against the bow rail, and a number of men sailed overboard, though Ahden managed to keep his position on deck.

Nom and the crew around him forgot to fight as they all struggled to regain their feet and inventory their injuries. He finally spotted the seers on the deathship, one bloody but moving, the other possibly dead, as well as a man marked like the seers, though his tattoos and brands covered him from head to toe. The tattooed man sat oddly observing the chaos dispassionately. He didn't have goggles, so Nom was curious, but not alarmed. He had more immediate concerns as the crew around him picked up their weapons. Ahden pummeled aside the nearest men and women, giving Nom time to recover. He frowned at his spear; the shaft looked cracked by the sudden stop.

"Retreat," Ahden said. There weren't many crew left on their feet, but enough to overwhelm them. Nom wasted no time and tossed his spear off the stalled ship, then crawled over the rail after it. Ahden cleared a wide space with his sword and followed. They ran around the side of the ship, toward the Tattirgak, which they found almost as wrecked as the Mitik. Dev had his shield, and helped Omuti out of the boat's hold. She seemed to have a broken arm, but was alert and moving fast. Omega wasn't in sight, possibly thrown off the boat.

A man jumped off the deathship, screaming as he swung his sword. Nom stepped back and the man landed off-balance on one of the desiccated, twisting his leg with a crack. He wouldn't be standing again anytime soon. But to Nom's surprise, the dessicated next to the fallen swordsman pushed itself up to standing, then lunged at Nom, swinging a fist. It impaled itself on his spear, and went limp. Nom pulled out his spear, but the body planted a leg forward, and didn't fall. Everyone on the ground noticed this and paused, except for the man with the broken leg who moaned in pain. The teetering corpse swung its arm again at Nom, who cried out in fear, not understanding what was happening. Ahden swung his greatsword at the arm and shattered through it and the thing's torso. Two more nearby corpses stood up, and Nom had no more time for fear.

More crew from the ship had climbed down to the ground. Dev joined Ahden and Nom to occupy the crew, allowing Omuti a chance to find Omega, who they desperately needed. They kept the crewmembers at bay, but the corpses and dessicated advanced through lethal strokes, another rising from the plain everytime one fell.

Omega emerged from under the sail of the Mitik, screaming with primal urgency, "Kill him! Kill him!" She pointed at the tattooed man, who stood impassively looking down at them from the deathship's gunwale. He climbed over the side, shimmered as he fell, then landed on the solid rock like a heavy boulder, with an incredibly loud bang, and chips flew off the rock. He stood there, immobile, while the human crew slowly backed away from him. Then half of them ran to climb back on the ship, while others ran toward Omega and Omuti. A few just ran away. The man ignored them all, and swiveled his head to look at Omega.

Ahden's sword strike was too fast to see. Nom heard a ching as it bounced off the man's forearm. Where it hit, Nom saw a line of stone, and a terrible dread filled him. This man was like the corrupt, but still obviously human and in control. Ahden's mouth tightened into a thin line, and he absently cut down a corpse that swung at him like a ragdoll. The corrupt man looked toward Omega again, and took a step toward her. Ahden was on him like a tornado. Nom thrust his spear, but the man dodged while parrying Ahden, grabbed the spear shaft in the middle, twisted, and broke it into two pieces. Nom had just enough time to pull out the Mule before more animated corpses and dessicated were on him. Dev and Nom covered Ahden while he continued his flurry of attacks. Finally Ahden varied his attack, got in close, and slammed his elbow into the man's head, knocking it to the side.

"That's right," taunted Ahden, "you're not going anywhere." The man took notice of Ahden for the first time, and began throwing incredibly fast punches at him. Ahden was able to block more than half, but the ones that hit barreled into him with the force of stone, knocking him around like the corpses that staggered and fell under Nom and Ahden's attacks.

Omega screamed Ahden's name, and something—Nom's didn't know what—something flew from her hands and expanded into a big sheet, then exploded brightly in the space between them all. The seer on the ship had stopped whatever she had started. The other crew from the ship were upon her by then, and Omuti held them off with one arm, clutching the other to her chest. Nom hadn't known she knew how to wield a sword, but she used her enemies' discarded weapons, then threw surprise punches, kicks, and grabbed new fallen weapons as she fended off multiple attackers. He had no time to help as more corpses threw themselves upon him. Dev joined Ahden, and they began to land more attacks, but for every hit, the corrupt man's flesh turned to living stone, and he struck four more on Ahden and Dev. Soon, Dev was concussed, slowing down until he could only defend, and then fell back. Nom propped him up and defended them both from the relentless attacks of the undead.

Omega mostly defended with her knife. Both seers on the ship were now conscious, and thwarted her use of darklight. Omuti still fought, but obviously suffered from her wounds. Even so, she kept most attackers away from Omega.

Ahden, obviously tiring, began swinging wild. His huge blows beat back the corrupt man, until the man caught the greatsword in both hands, cracking two fingers in the process, and finally showed some emotion, annoyance. The two large men began a tug-o-war over the greatsword. Nom took the opportunity to strike him with the Mule, but the man jumped over the swing and latched his legs around the sword. He pulled Ahden down and twisted him around with his weight, simultaneously wresting the Mule from Nom's hands, then flung Ahden into Nom and Dev. The tattooed man rolled to his feet and ran at Omega with inhuman speed. Omega saw this, closed her eyes, and curled up into a ball. All the heat left the air, and ice crystals began to form from everyone's breath. She stood up, spread eagled, and a blinding light flashed around the corrupt man, followed by a blast of heat.

Nom felt sunburned. Corpses near the blast smouldered, and closer in, the rock was molten, steaming and red. The corrupt man stood still in the middle, his whole body glowing like lava, then rapidly cooled to clear glass. Nom started to breathe a sigh of relief, until the glass man shimmered, and turned back into flesh. He shook his head, and started toward Omega again, albeit at the pace of a mortal man. Nom crawled his way over Dev, Ahden, and several corpses, then started running, but he was too late to do any good. The tattooed man easily smacked aside an exhausted Omuti, then clamped his hand around Omega's neck. Within seconds, she fell unconscious and collapsed. He stood over her while the few remaining crewmen tied up the two women.

Nom staggered to a halt. The tattooed man and a throng of corpses stood between Nom and the women. One of the deathship's seers climbed to the ground hurried toward Nom.

"I don't know what you did, guy, but you made a big mistake," the seer called out as he walked. He lowered his voice as he came close. "You pissed them both off. Omnos was enraged at—" the man looked for words, and waved at the scene around them, "—this defiance. He wants you to know 'Omnos' captured you." The seer leaned in close. Nom was tempted to seriously main him with his bare hands, but flicked his eyes over at the tattooed man, and refrained. The seer continued with a near whisper, "I can see you're unusual, but what did you do to make—Him—want you? He hasn't activated one of the Chosen," he nodded at the tattooed man, "in—ever, that I know of."

Nom was exhausted, in pain. "I hope you mean the Mage, because Omnos is a joke," he said. "Always has been. Dead, or we'd be better off if he were, now that he is. Isn't he dead?" He was feeling overwhelmed, confused.

Ahden was back on his feet. Everyone watched as he stumbled unsteadily toward Nom. The seer gestured at him, almost with pity, and aside from the glassy portion of the terrain that had melted, the ground under Ahden's feet and under the windships, turned back to shale. Ahden slipped on the loose rock, fell face-first to the ground and lay still.

Nom tried to grab the seer's shoulder to steady himself, but the man stepped back. He leaned over to grab his own knees instead. "Omnos," Nom said with conspiratorial disgust. "You know. Everyone knows. Just look at what he's made you do." Nom gestured at the corpses littering the ground. "What you've made me do. But you sycophants don't care. I try to understand you, but it's sickening." He spat on the ground in disgust.

"Whoa guy, save that energy for the mines," said the seer. He looked at Nom doubtfully then added, "If you make it that far."