She’d considered going after him even then, but two things stopped her. First and most sensibly, she knew she’d never find him. The quintessential dark and stormy night was raging on just outside and even though the lightning was coming in sheets, so was the rain, which made visibility a big fat zero. And secondly, more personally, she was afraid that he’d come back and find her gone, then have to go out and get her, and yell at her some more when he found her. So she’d stayed in. She’d finished setting his tent up, even put his pack inside without first opening it and flinging crap around at random.

It wasn’t really her he was mad at and she knew it. He just didn’t want to be here. She didn’t doubt that he’d search the area thoroughly for bandits or animals or whatever he was looking for, but mostly she thought Meoraq just wanted to be alone.

It was time to come to terms with the fact that he was not going to stay much longer. He may believe that God had given him this babysitting job, but she also knew that if he started looking for divine signs to quit, they were one funny-shaped cloud away from losing him. And when that happened, they were dead.

Another clap of thunder banged down on the roof, the first to do more than grumble in quite a long time. Immediately afterward, the muted falling-nails sound of the rain picked up and up until it drowned out all the sleeping sounds that nearly fifty people could make in one big, empty room. Nicci shifted beside her, then rolled over, shrugging off Amber’s hand. Amber let her. Nicci was putting her leg to sleep anyway.

She decided to take a walk. Not outside, but just around the building. Meoraq wouldn’t like it, but Meoraq wasn’t here, so there. She’d stay away from the windows, but she needed to stretch her legs.

Nicci raised her head when Amber stood up, but she didn’t say anything and after a few bleary-eyed seconds, she just lay back down. It gave her a twinge—not the usual feeling of helpless guilt as she watched over her baby sister, but something low and ugly and resentful. She swallowed it quickly, told herself she’d never felt it at all, and bent down to touch Nicci’s shoulder so she’d know that Amber was there and loved her. Nicci did not respond, but that was okay. She was sleeping.

The hall outside was dark and quiet. Only half the lights came on when Amber went through the doors, and most of those were slow and sputtery. She wandered from shadow to shadow, listening to the thunder, stopping to inspect each picture on the wall, each empty pot that used to hold a plant, each award for excellence in whatever the hell field this used to be. She wasn’t going anywhere in particular, so of course, she ended up at the closet full of bones. She didn’t want to open it, but she did. She didn’t need to look at it, but she did that too.

She had no idea how long she stood there, just staring into the closet. It was not until lights that had been dying further back in the hall suddenly struggled back to life that she really woke out of whatever hypnotic hold the sight of the bones had on her.

“Hey,” said Crandall, walking up behind her.

“Hey.” She closed the closet door.

“Can’t sleep?” he guessed, sympathetic.

Thunder boomed. She heard the muffled clatter as bones tumbled out of place.

“You’ll get used to it,” said Crandall. “Tell you the truth, this shit makes me feel more homesick than anything else.”

She didn’t want to talk, not at all and not with Crandall in any case, but she supposed she’d ought to make an effort. He’d already called her a bitch once tonight.

“You must get a lot of this in, um…”

“Kansas. Yeah. Where are you from?”

“Earth.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but it came out flat and unfunny. Amber looked at the nearest framed piece of time-whitened nothing, wishing he’d go away.

“You worried about the lizard?”

“He can take care of himself.”

“You still pissed at him?”

“No. I don’t really want to talk about him right now, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Come on, I want to show you something.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing huge, just something cool.” He gave her his aw-shucks smile, the one she trusted least, and walked off.

Probably another dead bot, or maybe some other sample of ancient lizard technology like the spiders in back. Maybe even another closet full of bones. Amber couldn’t think of anything she might find in this place that she’d actually want to look at, but God knew she had nothing else to do.

She followed him.

He led her around a few corners, down a few halls, and opened one of the office doors. She stopped at once, but he went on in without her, so what was she going to do, stand out in the hall alone? She wasn’t really a bitch, despite what everyone thought. She went in after him, determined to see whatever stupid little man-toy he thought was so cool and get out again before Meoraq came home and found her disobeying his direct order not to wander in the halls.

The overhead lights in the office were dead, but she could still see Crandall over by the window and he could see her. He waved a little. “Come and see this.”

“I can see it from here,” Amber told him queasily, and she could. The sky was alive; lightning rolled through behind the clouds so often, it actually seemed to be breathing. Now and then, white lines popped in and out of sight, hot enough to leave colorful burns hanging in the sky wherever she looked, but the worst things, the horrible things, were the smudgy greenish blobs that hovered around the high towers of the city, sometimes arcing one to another, flaring bright or winking out and occasionally splitting the difference in an explosion of showy sparks.

Meoraq was out walking around in that.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah,” breathed Amber, but she barely heard herself. Meoraq was outside in that, and maybe it was because he really believed God was looking out for him or maybe it was just preferable to babysitting a bunch of humans one more night, but he was outside in that. And he had been gone a long time.

“Come here. You can see the bridges. It’s wild.”

Did she want to see the bridges? Did she want to see the bridges Scott was going to make them cross over all lit up with green fire and throbbing? No, she didn’t, but she moved to the window and looked out anyway.

A constant thread of lightning danced and spun at the highest arch of the nearest bridge, making it seem as though it alone were holding it up. More lightning spat and crawled along the sides, spilling down almost in slow motion to drip from the bottom into the water just like a fountain. It was wild, all right. She supposed it was even beautiful. Mostly, though, it was terrifying.

Just then, something huge hit the roof with a bang and bounced off, sending Amber leaping into Crandall’s side with a hoarse, unflattering caw of terror. He laughed and put his arm around her, saying, “Relax, Bierce,” in his aw-shucks way.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled, backing up. “Cool bridge, but I’m going back now. I’ve got to get some sleep.”

“What’s your hurry? Come on, Bierce, what do you want from me? Roses and violins? Why do you have to be such a bitch every time I try to get friendly?” he asked, still smiling, but sounding a little irritated with her, just as if he had every right to be. “I ain’t asking for your damn hand in marriage. Nothing else you’ve got going on has to change. I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Of course not,” said Amber, still trying to get out from under his persistent arm. “Then everyone would know you were a chubby-chaser.”

Crandall ran an appraising eye down her body. “No one can accuse me of that anymore. Naw, I’m just not a bragger, that’s all. I may not be a class act, but I’m not a total dick either. Come on.”

“And I’m not interested! How the hell more obvious do I have to be?”