Hanun shepherds us down the back alleys.
He knows every part of the district like it were the back of his hand. I cast a glance back over my shoulder. Menir's struggling to keep up. Ramir's following us, and his robes stick out like a sore thumb. He's lost the bag of grain he had been carrying. Maybe he left it in the shrine.
"Slow down a little, or we'll lose Menir."
Hanun relents. Menir's gasping as he catches up. "Stop by my house. I've got a spear."
I can tell Hanun wants to ask, but it's not the right time. "Where is it?"
Now Menir takes the lead. Even though the run hasn't been as hard on me, I feel better. We're off the main thoroughfares, anyway, away from the crush of fleeing crowds.
"What were those things?"
"Don't know. All I know is that they're sick."
"Sick?"
"Yeah. If you get bitten–"
Hanun doesn't finish his sentence. I take his hand. "You'll be okay."
He shakes his head. "No, I won't. But we can get you out of here."
It's my turn to cry. I feel the warmth cutting my eyes like knives, making the world a blur.
He leads me along. I don't even know where we are until we stop.
When Menir comes back out, spear in hand, he doesn't say anything. He just takes my other hand.
Hanun releases me and kneels, looking me in the face. I choke back a sob, and he raises his good hand to brush back my hair. "I'll get you through the gates, then I have to go back, anyway. I'm still the king's man. I'll do as much as I can until the time comes."
"I don't want you to–" To go? To die?
"I know. But it's too late. There's no way around this, Zefra."
The screams come closer. Menir pulls me forward. "It'll be alright. Trust the gods. We have to go now."
Trust the gods. What gods? The ones with broken altars? They didn't help Hanun. My head spins. I can't see a thing, just vague colored shapes. The hot knives run down my face.
Hanun may as well be dead already. I blink until the vision returns to my eyes. Hanun is taking point, Menir's spear in his hands. Something barrels at him. He catches it midair with the point of the spear.
It's graceful. Hanun steps aside, letting the husk's motion carry it forward. It falls in an arc, collapsing in a heap against a mud-brick structure. I don't look at it, because I know it's got a man's face.
Hanun's injured arm falls back to his side, but he pulls the spear free with his other hand. "If they're here already, we need to go faster! Zefra, are you ready?"
I run. Menir keeps up. We desert folk know how to find a second wind wherever it catches us.
Then something hits me from behind. A man runs past.
The wind leaves my lungs, and I gasp for air. The others don't see me. Even Menir's going faster, pushed along by the tide.
I flail as someone's foot comes down on my leg. The motion sends her tumbling into the dirt.
"Zefra!"
Hanun grabs me with both hands and pulls me to my feet.
"We're almost to the gate now, just a little closer. Hold on."
My leg hurts, but it's not broken. I stumble along, staying right on Hanun's heels. Menir's got the spear. He's left his sack of grain behind.
We reach the end of the alley and glimpse the main road through Ehram. It's packed with people pushing past each other shoulder to-shoulder. There must be thousands of them with the same idea we have. Beyond them, I can see the gate. It's closed.
"Not this way," Hanun says. We turn back.
I don't see Ramir anywhere. I think of saying something.
But we have to save ourselves. There's no time to go back.
"Where are we going?"
"I know a way out. Here."
He pushes a ladder against a building. We climb to the roof, striding across it. To my right I see people. They're not fleeing, not moving with the same urgency that the crowd has.
They're shambling.
Husks. That's the word that fits them. There's nothing left in them.
Only animal hunger. That's what Akkun was trying to tell me in the dream.
Hanun leads us down through the building. I don't think he's ever been here before, but he moves with purpose.
He knows he doesn't have much time. We don't have much time.
After he glances out into the street, he waves us forward, and we cross the street to a warehouse that backs up against the wall of the city. "This is where they store the supplies for a siege."
It's full of barrels, each of which bears a wax seal. The torches aren't lit, and there are no windows, so we have to creep along in the light from gaps around the door. "Are we hiding here?"
"No. The dead would outnumber us. There's a way into the wall from here."
It takes him several minutes to find the door he's looking for.
A key from his belt opens the lock, and we head into the earthwork.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
