As Cixi finally turned her attention away from Cassian and focused outside the window, she sat up straight with her heart racing.
Sand!
Everywhere she looked, only sand, rolling out gold and endless on every side.
'Where are we...?'
This wasn't familiar to her at all. Demond City was flat and hard, and there was no such place in it with any hint of sand anywhere in sight.
She twisted around to look behind them. The building they had left stood huge and low against the horizon, spread wide across the emptiness. And the thing they rode in was no ordinary car. It was designed specifically to traverse the shifting sands.
'Was I drugged? Is that why it took me so long to notice?' Cixi asked her silently.
Or perhaps it was one of his spells. That would explain why she sat here so calmly, after all she had seen in that place. The chained people. The rows of barred doors.
'He truly is the Devil. He built himself a hell, and he keeps people inside it.'
She turned her face to him.
