The Prophet fled across the desert, and we followed.

  Not that we necessarily knew that Yusef was fleeing us; for all we knew, he might have thought us no threat at all, not even worth dealing with. Maybe it was like the situation with the Councilman flipped on its head, us now at the pitiable end of it rather than the enemy. Maybe he didn’t think about us at all.

  The camp outside the city was all but gone. Only a handful of tents remained, few and far between, supporting those followers who remained in Coldharbour. That was still hundreds of cultists, but in the grand scheme of things, that was nothing at all. In place of the tents, I could see long lines in the sand, indents of the wheels of heavily laden carriages. We had no such means of transport, so I could only hope that the sheer number in Yusef’s party of travellers would slow them down. Otherwise, we would just have to wait until they reached their destination. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to face the Player down in an arena of his choosing.

  The sun beat heavily on our heads as we followed the merchants road west. We’d thought to bring ample supplies with us—my Portal World was full of water flask and food enough for the seven of us—but still the heat could the end of us.

  ‘Any idea where he’s heading?’ I called out to the disparate, quiet crowd.

  ‘If he’s continuing to tour the cities, Zelas might be his next destination,’ Lambkin said. ‘There is quite the population there; many to recruit.’

  ‘And if he’s not recruiting?’ I asked.

  ‘Elassos,’ Tokas said. ‘An old tiefling fortification, up in the mountains.’

  ‘Sounds like the perfect place to—’

  ‘Spring a trap,’ the tiefling finished. Good. We were on the same page.

  I glanced over at the rest of our party to check that they’d heard. Arzak and Val, at the rear of the group and furthest away, wore glum expressions. They’d heard too, then. ‘There’s nine of us, and only one of him,’ I reminded them. ‘We’ve got this. Even if he does have the gift of foresight.’

  ‘No,’ Val said. ‘Not one of him.’ She gestured to the hundreds of wheel marks on the road. ‘Hundreds of them.’

  * * *

  On the evening of the first day, we stopped to camp outside a small hamlet—one small enough not to have somewhere for travellers to stay. The air had grown cool in the hours after the sun had passed below the horizon, though the sand still seemed to hold some warmth.

  As always, I volunteered for the first watch. I acted as though this was some selfless gesture—the others could rest—but really I mostly wanted an uninterrupted night of sleep.

  While the others slept, I kept my eyes not just on the horizon, but on those in the nearby hamlet. Curious locals stared at us from by the village well. At least, I hoped it was only curiosity. Could they have been spies for the enemy? We knew that those in the Council had access to ample funds with which to bribe and buy loyalties, but Yusef had a power beyond even that—he could win peoples’ hearts, not just their coin purses.

  As I watched, the locals finally retired to their homes, their interest having waned. I returned to watching the horizon, and the dark blue sky faded to blackest black.

  * * *

  Val woke me by shaking my shoulder. It was aggressive enough that I thought something was wrong, and I whipped my hand to my blade, but it was just that she didn’t care about being gentle. It was progress, at least; Val was communicating with me more. I just didn’t know that I wanted her to, after she abandoned me.

  Raelas sat, propped up against a nearby rock, eating cold beans. She glared up at Val, who acted like she didn’t notice.

  ‘We found this in night,’ Arzak said, throwing a pale orange robe to the ground in the centre of the camp.

  ‘Where?’ Lambkin asked.

  ‘I scouted the village,’ Corminar said.

  ‘You went spying, you mean,’ I clarified, but moved the conversation on. ‘So Yusef has spies even here. I thought he might. But they didn’t attack us.’

  ‘Mm,’ Arzak grunted. ‘Not yet.’

  We departed before the day broke, before the northern deserts lost their chill. Without the heat, we moved faster, and I could only assume we were catching up on our prey, though of course I had no evidence.

  Days passed like this.

  As we travelled, we stumbled across more greenery—first the odd plant, here and there, but before long oases became more commonplace. Arzak—and Val, perhaps out of solidarity—kept well away from Tokas and Lambkin. Raelas barely spoke a word. Lore’s absence was a presence greater than even his usual, broad self. Only Corminar seemed to have kept any semblance of normality, though of course his benchmark of “normal” had changed since he’d watched his homeland fall.

  We reached the first town of meaningful size a few days later, and all seven of us were nervous about approaching. We knew that Yusef had left spies behind, but for what purpose? He knew that we would follow him—or if not him, then Lore—but what would he do about it? Did he just want to monitor us, or was it more than that? Was he planning a trap?

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  ‘There’s something wrong here,’ Tokas said, staring on at the town. She’d only been saying what we were all thinking, but the disdain on Arzak’s face was palpable. I think I’d probably dislike someone who had been prophesied to kill me, too, though. So that was fair enough; they could stay away from each other so long as we got Lore back. That was all that mattered at this stage.

  ‘Yes,’ Val said flatly, fury communicated on behalf of Arzak. ‘Spies. We got it.’

  Tokas glanced down at the floor. Even I—not someone typically good with analysing emotion—could sense the turmoil going on within her. For all her crimes, both past and future, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her.

  At least she had Lambkin to speak on her behalf. ‘What is it, Tokas?’ he asked, voice gentle. ‘What do you see?’ I noticed him put a comforting arm on her shoulder; maybe he’d got a tad too close to the woman he was supposed to have been monitoring.

  ‘It doesn’t… feel right,’ the tiefling answered.

  This was hardly the meaningful answer any of us were after.

  ‘What doesn’t?’ Lambkin prodded.

  ‘There are magicks at play here, but I…’ Tokas gestured to the sight before us. There stood small stone buildings, coloured the same as the sands around us. Those inhabitants of the town looked just like all those we’d seen before; they went about their business with nothing to hint at aggressive intentions. Children played in the streets, tapping a small wooden hoop towards one of two goals. It was mundane—and that, I think, was what Tokas was trying to get at.

  I opened myself to the idea of magicks before us, closing my eyes and breathing in the air, as though trying to taste mana on the wind. But I tasted, saw, and felt nothing. ‘Val? Raelas?’ I asked the other magick-users among us.

  The latter shook her head. The former said nothing.

  ‘Just you, Tokas,’ I told her.

  ‘I’m not lying,’ she said, as though anticipating doubts from some of us. I didn’t doubt her, but judging by scowling expressions, others did. ‘Do we have a map?’

  ‘A map?’

  ‘Yeah, I—’ Tokas froze mid-sentence, drawing in a sharp breath.

  ‘What is it?’ Lambkin asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

  The tiefling paled. ‘Trap.’

  At that moment, a flash of orange appeared above me. I snapped my head up to it just in time to see a man appear as if from nothing. His pale orange robe billowed behind him as he fell two feet to the crest of the sand dune, and he brought his quarterstaff down towards me. As I drew my blade, the weapon knocked against the top of my head, causing me to stagger backwards and fall down the side of the dune.

  Around me, I glimpsed more ambushers appearing from nothing, launching straight into an attack on our whole party. By my initial cursory glance, they numbered not too many more than us; Yusef hadn’t accounted for Val, Arzak, Lambkin and Tokas joining our party. His spies on the road hadn’t reported our number, or at least word of our number hadn’t reached him before he set this trap.

  The nearest assailant brought his quarterstaff down on me once more, and I responded by opening a portal beneath me and tumbling through it. I closed it just in time to see the closing portal slice through the end of the man’s quarterstaff, diminishing his ability to attack but also telling me that the weapon wasn’t enchanted.

  As the end of the staff fell to the sand at my feet, I raised my blade and looked to the woman who was standing at my side. Not Raelas, not Val, but Tokas.

  ‘Told you something was wrong,’ she said.