Taita accepted the bowl of sherbet a slave offered, and they talked for a while of seemingly trivial matters, but swiftly they established Taita's credentials and common acquaintances within the brotherhood. Focused!

'Hilto!' Nefer yelled, still at a distance, and without any sign of laboured breathing! Something else scrambled across the dirt about twenty feet in front of her, and she realized she’d never make the camp alive.