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soon as day breaks on the road to Rehajid, the Invincibles will trample you into bloody dust!"
    "Who are these Invincibles?" asked Marix.
    "The sultan's own," Jadira said bitterly. "The same murderous devils who attacked my people and killed my family."
    "So we won't follow the road," said Uramettu.
    "Is there another way?" queried Tamakh.
    Jadira entwined her battered fingers and considered. There was another way, a way hardly less deadly than the royal road.
    "We can cross the Red Sands," she said.
    "The desert?" exclaimed the astonished thief.
    "Yes, through the desert to the Shammat Mountains, then over the plains of Kaipur to the sea and Tantuffa."
    "It is certain death!" declared the thief. "Let me go. I want no part of this madness!"
    Uramettu stood, and the thief sighed with relief. "Is that the only word you know?" she said scornfully.
    "Have you a better scheme?"
    "The city is large," the thief said. "I can hide from the sultan's men. They will—-"
    "—offer gold to every citizen of Omerabad," finished Jadira. "You would be betrayed in the first hour."
    "I could throw myself on the mercy of the grand vizier."
    "The same Lord Azrel who crops the ears of gossips and beheads short-changers in the market?" asked lamakh. The thief covered his face with his hands.
    "I won't deceive you," said Jadira. "The desert will be a hard trial; burning hot by day and cold as death by night. But it can be crossed, for I know it as Marix knows i he forests of Dosen or Tamakh knows the precincts of his temple."
    "And the Faziri will think thrice about pursuing us into the Red Sands," added Tamakh.
    "But even if I survive, what will I do? Where will I go?" moaned the thief. "This is my home."
    '"Vbu will be alive," said Uramettu. "With life, there is always hope." The thief continued to mutter about the dire fate that awaited them.
    "Will you help us?" Jadira asked him. "Will you guide us out of the city?"
    The cutpurse sat up, rubbing the small of his back. "If I must, I must." He hopped to his feet. "But I curse the ill-fated hour that brought us together."
    Marix began a retort, but Tamakh's hand on his arm
    stayed his tongue. "He is the only one who can lead us out of the city," Tamakh reminded him. "The hour that brought us together was not as ill-fated as he might think."
    The Royal Road
    Jadira awoke with a start.
    She didn't remember falling asleep, or even lying down. The last thing she did recall was the thief Nabul agreeing to help them. There were alarums in the street below: the tramping of soldiers' feet, horses, shouts. After that, she knew nothing.
    Jadira turned her head and discovered the comfortable pillow under her head was Marix's arm. The young man pushed pale hair back from his eyes and asked, "Are you well, lady?"
    "What—what happened?"
    "You swooned. Too much tumult and too little food have wrung you out."
    She sat up abruptly. "How long have I been asleep?"
    "Not long—perhaps one notch of the candle."
    "Tamakh? Where's Tamakh?"
    The priest set a hand on her shoulder from behind. Jadira flinched. Tamakh said, "Fire Star is setting. Dawn will break when it touches the horizon. Nabul will be back before then, and we must go."
    "You mean you let that sniveling thief go?" asked Jadira.
    "I was against it," claimed Marix.
    "He convinced me of the truth of what he said," Tamakh said. "We could not hope to cross the Red Sands with only the clothes on our backs and no food or water." His round face relaxed, and he smiled. "Besides, Uramettu went with him."
    "So they're off finding provisions?" asked Jadira. When the priest nodded, she groaned. "We'll never see them again, or if we do, it will be because he betrays us to the sultan's men."
    "You must have faith," said Tamakh gently. "Our fate is bound with Nabul's by the god's annealing fire. He will return. What else can he do? The soldiers would likely slay him on sight."
    The black dome of heaven warmed slowly to deep purple as the Fire Star declined to its rest.