The expenses didn’t stop with the tariff, and Fintan worried he hadn’t manifested sufficient gilders for entry into Yuxia. It was too late to pay more. The city was bone dry. He had to gather spit in his mouth to talk.

  They waited in a long line to identify themselves to the government, another expense, before they were each handed eimai cards etched on a thin metal plate with a number, their names, occupation, and adherence.

  Cherry told them adherence was the theology they followed. It was impolite to say the name of the god. The gods responded to a unique phrase. The citizens of Bannerburg followed ‘The Monster Without.’

  Yuaxian’s adhered to The Builder. When RuTing received her card, the attendant stared at her and shook his head.

  “It’s not illegal,” he said, “So I will allow it. Don’t expect special privileges because you’ve taken a name from Yu.”

  Fintan and Cherry didn’t have difficulty, but Paris went rogue.

  “I would like to take the name WuXin,” Paris said. “Zeus troubles me, and The Builder welcomed me.”

  The attendant didn’t appear at all surprised, but Fintan’s jaw dropped. This was not what they had discussed. He knew Paris was a technomancer, but he agreed to stay with them until he found a place in Yuxia or left.

  “You are welcome in the school of Ru, but the reawakened pay the same burden in death as in life. For nine years, Yuxia will pay for education. The cost of higher learning is the responsibility of the incarnate.”

  WuXin’s eimai didn’t look like theirs. His card gold plated card cost a whole gilder. By the time they finished customs, they had two gilders to split between them. They had a cart full of gold and silver thread but nowhere to sell it, and the daylight was waning.

  “We have to find a place to sleep,” Cherry said. “We don’t want to be taken in by the guards.”

  A young woman passed out from dehydration while standing in line. The guards took her away. Everyone whispered she was destined for the river or a brothel, but Fintan hadn’t heard concrete facts about where she went.

  Yuxia was a clean city. Even cleaner than in Bannerburg, but not painted to hide the dissolution. No one loitered. All around the city massive pipes turned corners and shot up walls. The pipes were bolted into the sides of buildings with thick brackets. White corrosion occluded the surface of the stainless, but the pipes were so thick they resisted the worst of it even as they vibrated from pumps, adding pressure to the plumbing.

  The gate was near the main street, and they tried the first hotel they saw. Fintan went ahead to scout the way. Cherry knew a lot about the city but didn’t know a list of inns, the cost, or how to navigate. The doctors gathered information from travelers and compiled it into scrolls. He needed to bridge the macroscopic knowledge with real life.

  The fastidious innkeeper was dressed in a white shirt, black vest, dark slacks. One look at Fintan and his expression became even more severe. It was a fair assessment. Cherry had outfitted him as some type of wandering vagrant.

  “A gilder for a night,” the innkeeper said. “You can’t keep trade merchandise in your room. We aren’t zoned for commercial transactions.”

  “Can we rent a storage unit for our cart?” Fintan asked.

  “Absolutely. An additional gilder for storage in our vault. We have room for the cart in the back.”

  The innkeeper's crisp words dismissed Fintan, and he moved on to the next tenant before Fintan could ask another question. They would have to commit all their gilders to stay for the night.

  Fintan left the inn so he could converse with the others. The day was noticeably dimmer. The few people who occupied the streets stopped at small fountains. When they put in their card, the machine punched a hole through the metal with a grunt, and a hose boiled with mist. His tongue was so dry he could barely speak, but he didn’t want to test his eimai on a drinking fountain unless he had to.

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  “We can stay here for the night and figure out how to make more money tomorrow,” he said.

  “There are cheaper rooms at the edges of the city,” Cherry said. “It’s more dangerous, but we only have two gilders.”

  “I don’t think it's wise for us to be out at night,” WuXin said. He wore his Zeusopolan outfit and carried a wood spear plated with copper. With a little effort in a private place, Fintan could dissolve that spear into mist that would more than make up the effort.

  With reluctance, they agreed to stay. Fintan returned to the inn with RuTing while Cherry and WuXin watched the cart. The situation was not as grim as it could be. Fintan knew they closed the gates to the city at dusk, but on the morrow, they could leave if they found no buyers. With a few days of travel, they would reach the end of the drought. He could create more gilders, and they could try again.

  The hotel was luxurious, and the innkeeper was busy with other guests so Fintan had a chance to examine the surroundings. Unlike the tarnish outside the marble walls, the delicate woodwork showed no signs of dissolution. The Union didn’t have many pictures and very little competition. The paintings that decorated the walls had riders on horses.

  Their manes were caught in a breeze of the artist's imagination while they struggled for a place with the finish line inches away.

  “There’s nothing like this in the Union,” Fintan said.

  “Only in the ancient records,” RuTing responded. “The Union doesn’t have aggressive competition. Art is supposed to inspire, and inspiration can lead to subversion. The Union doesn’t have art like this.”

  The Union did have fountains, and Fintan quickly realized he felt better inside the hotel because a large fountain with golden fish hydrated the air. It must have been river water.

  The innkeeper found them staring into the fountain. Fintan offered the four eimai. He’d watched the other patrons check in to the hotel. They returned to the counter, where the innkeeper brought out his foil. He did a quick scan, before stacking the metal eimai cards.

  Fintan placed their last two gilders on the counter. Like most of the hotel it was polished marble, cool to the touch. The air outside was dry and hot. Since leaving Bannerburg, the temperature had risen at least five degrees, and even the cold touch of the marble felt welcome on Fintan’s skin. He wasn’t sure what his gilder was paying for, maybe they had a bathing chamber.

  “Three gilders,” the innkeeper said. “One for the cart and two for two rooms.”

  The innkeeper took out his etching pen and scratched WuXin’s name into the foil.

  “We’d prefer to share a room,” RuTing said.

  “RuTing can’t stay in the same room,” the Inn Keeper said, scandalized.

  “I am RuTing.”

  The innkeeper's eyes widened, and he looked her up and down twice before shuffling their eimia.

  “The Warrior Goddess?” he asked incredulously, shaking his head. “I’m sorry we can’t help you. ” The Innkeeper put his finger on one of Fintan’s gilders. He slid it into his hand. Fintan picked up the other gilder and pocketed it before the innkeeper could take them both. “I’ve already put a name on the foil. The room is rented, but a woman of Yu cannot share a bed with a foreigner. I'll call the guards if you don’t rent another room for her.”

  “Of course, she will have her own room,” Fintan said. “We have more gilders.” He turned to RuTing. “You will have to explain to Mistress Cherry.”

  It wasn’t much of a ruse, but the Innkeeper kept their eimai stacked in front of him.

  With long strides, Fintan left. The large wooden door hadn’t even shut behind RuTing when he broke into a run and grabbed the handle on the cart. Cherry looked at him in askance, but he took off. He pretended weakness, but the streets were empty, and dusk was setting in. Now was not the time. His feet bit into the rutted stones, and Cherry flipped over her makeshift seat. Her sari bunched at her waist, and her feet kicked in the air, but Fintan wasn’t going to wait for her to find her place.

  Cherry’s parasol went flying, and RuTing caught it from the air with a flying leap before she put her back into pushing the wagon. With both of their efforts, the cart launched faster than a hypertube, and WuXin ran behind.

  Fintan knew very well the gates were closed, he ran for a few miles turning corners randomly and working his way to the outside of the city. His energy flagged faster than he expected. After thirty minutes, they were all heaving in the dry air. RuTing had jumped in the back of the cart. He stopped at an otherwise deserted corner.

  Whenever he saw someone coming, he turned the other way, expecting the city patrols.

  “You have our eimai?” he asked RuTing. Her eyes were closed, and she lay on the back of the cart. He could tell she wasn’t asleep. She was straining, wrung out from the dry air.

  She put their eimai in his hand. When the Innkeeper said nothing, Fintan knew she was using an illusion. From behind the cart, she could manifest coverage for them, but in the dry air, she’d depleted her energy.

  “He etched WuXin’s name,” she said.

  “I took care of that,” Fintan replied. He could manifest and dissolve metal. The foils were manufactured and difficult to dissolve, but obfuscating an etching on the surface wasn’t difficult. “He might remember our names, but he will have to write them again.”

  “We only have one gilder left.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to get a bath.”