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Kesta looked toward Dreven.

He had watched the exchange without interfering. Kalla’s anger clearly did not frighten him, nor had he tried to silence her in front of strangers.

That told Kesta something about the kind of authority he carried here.

She was not yet sure what.

Sera finished securing Lina’s leg and covered her with a thermal cloth.

Kesta looked toward Mira’s litter.

“What happens to her?”

Sera’s expression softened. “The dead house is below the east vent.”

Kesta waited.

“No body is used, traded or altered without named permission here.”

Someone had told her what happened in the basin.

Kesta looked at Mira’s covered face. “I want to prepare her.”

Sera studied Kesta for a long moment. “You need sleep.”

“I need to prepare her.”

Behind them, Dreven shifted his weight.

Kesta turned her head.

“If you say anything about exhaustion, I will find out whether those horns are medically sensitive.”

Keth made a choking noise outside the doorway.

Dreven’s silver eyes widened.

Then something unexpectedly wicked entered them.

“They are.”

Kesta forgot whatever she had been about to say.

Dreven’s mouth curved.

Sera muttered something in Kharovian that Kesta’s translator rendered as, “Young people.”

“I am not—” Kesta began.

Sera waved one hand. “At first light. You may prepare Mira then.”

Kesta decided there were battles worth fighting and battles best postponed.

Only after Lina had fallen asleep did Dreven lead Kesta deeper into Ash Camp.

The market lane had been shuttered for the remaining hours of darkness, but Kesta could still see evidence of the settlement’s economy. Nothing here was truly discarded. Cloth had been patched until patches covered more surface than the original weave. Armor plates had been recut and riveted together from different alloys. Batteries carried handwritten markings showing how many times their cells had been rebuilt.

People had made a life from everything the empire considered disposable.