She glanced back at the shut door, but it was clear to her now that they were on their own.
She offered her wrists to be re-shackled. Dravidian shook his head. “No, Shekalane. So long as we are lost, let us at least be free.”
She smiled wanly, then looked around again until her gaze fell upon the stacked rowhouses and terraced townhouses. “They’re not real—are they?”
He shook his head. “Not the upper floors. See how they grow smaller as they rise, to create the illusion of height. Mere facades, Shekalane. The same as so many in our Ursathrax. And look, see how the real ones are dark and abandoned. I’m afraid we’ll find no help there.”
She looked at him thoughtfully, moving aside a lock of her hair. “What will we do?”
Dravidian gazed off to where the world itself curved gradually out o
