Nona knew immediately, and was miserable. “You’ve talked to Hot Sauce.”

“No, she didn’t say a word. We only found out after lunch and I stayed because Camilla didn’t come to pick me up. Crown didn’t say anything”—

Nona cried for a little while. The tears oozed out of her eyes and landed in her lap. Her face felt hot, and the back of her neck was sore and itchy. After a while the tears subsided, and Pyrrha said— “Better?”

Nona knew early that other people thought she was pretty too.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Can I stay here until Cam comes?”

Nona’s head swam again briefly, but she nodded. She set off down the corridor.

Nona had dithered and thought she ought to tell the nice lady teacher about it, but Honesty said if she did she would get scragged.

Nona struggled forward to catch her—them—the new person; but then Camilla straightened and blinked furiously, and it was Camilla.

She had made it to the end of the pier and Camilla was clear in her view, and a big shock went right down her spine when she saw her: not because it was Camilla, but because she was not alone.

DAY ONE REGARDING NONA—HOT SAUCE IS WATCHFUL—THE CITY HAS A BAD DAY—NONA GETS A BEDTIME STORY—FIVE DAYS UNTIL THE TOMB OPENS.

Nona explained all this to Camilla and to Pyrrha and sometimes to Palamedes over dinners, usually in the hope that she could talk so much nobody would notice she wasn’t using her mouth to eat.

This hurt her feelings. “No wonder Hot Sauce kicked me out of the gang,” she said, and her eyes numbed with tears again.

She looked at Hot Sauce and nervously joggled her elbow. Hot Sauce didn’t seem inclined to move. She whispered, “What now?”

Nona said, “Who are they?”

She so rarely got to look at it from here. It hung on the morning horizon, and as she watched the sphere made a low, voiceless moan—a wanting sound—but quiet, on the edge of hearing. A whispered vocalisation and nothing more.

Nona buried her face in Cam’s chest. She listened to Cam’s heart thudding in her ribcage, the big soft da-DUMP ... da-DUMP, and she was amazed at how fragile and silly a heart was, how poorly protected.

“We all know about them, or at least my gang does. At school. Honesty went down there to make money by stealing air- conditioning systems, but it ended badly and he says he’ll stick to drugs.”

“None of us have snot,” said Nona, deeply offended. Then she thought about it and said more truthfully, “Anyway, it’s not Kevin’s fault.”

“I already promised it to Ruby,” said Nona, whose portion was always promised before class started, sometimes days in advance.

“You’ve been talking about the Convoy,” Nona said eagerly, pleased to have any sign of encouragement.