Eventually, she got sick of staring at the darkness and got up. She dressed in her plain apprentice uniform—which was much too hot for this climate—and packed up her bags by the light of the small light pearl. Everyone else in the room was still asleep, so she sneaked out as quietly as she could. Then she dropped her bags at the door, sneaked back and placed the cute pearl and its stand next to Jocassa’s bed.
She would be back, and she would do the right thing by these men.
When Mikandra walked down the end of Market Street and crossed the square to the airport gate, the bluish glow of coming daylight gathered over the edge of the escarpment. The marshlands ahead were shrouded in filaments of low-hanging mist. The air was so still that not a leaf moved on the trees.
A handful of bleary-
