The howling wind swallowed Valens's words and carried them away into the black night beyond the skyhaven.

"What?" Domi shouted to be heard above the flying snow flurries. The grains of ice grated like sand, and Domi's nose ran in protest against the bitter cold. The rest of him, however, had been stuffed inside so many layers of clothing he didn't fear getting cold no matter how low temperatures dropped here on the night-side.

As soon as they'd arrived at the skyhaven, Aix and Valens had secured heavy-duty Pyrrhaei Germinating clothes for everyone in the skyhaven market and pawned most of the fine items they'd brought with them from the palace. Domi insisted Aix give the leftover coin to a very confused old Pullati woman begging just outside the skyhaven market; he knew the money would find its way back to the local gang for distribution. His new secretary would probably have serious questions about his financial transactions, but if the man had a problem with it, he could go hug a clivia.

Now, in night-dweller cold-weather gear, Domi felt like a puffy mushroom. Four layers insulated his feet and two surrounded his legs--four if he counted the woolen legwarmers he wore atop his double set of long sealskin undershorts and the furred straps he'd wound about his legs to hold the warmers in place. A calf-length thin clivia silk inner tunica, thick woolen outer tunica, and heavy reindeer paenula--dyed dusky-blue, with a brighter blue fur trim around its hood--protected the rest of him.

And now Valens wanted him to wear mittens, too. Domi already found it hard enough to lift the bowl of breakfast gruel his aedificans had bought in the skyhaven market to drink the thin but hot and sweet oats. His arms felt like sausages.

"What?" he asked again as his aedificans said something else that the wind carried away.

The older worldholder's eyes narrowed and he sat down on the bench beside Domi, sandwiching both twins between himself and Aix as they ate their meals. He dropped the mitts and scarfs he'd acquired into the boys' laps. "I said I can't believe you lived like this, Alumna," he shouted over the gale. The man glared at the flying snow as though he expected it to stop misbehaving. "It's freakishly cold."

"It's not so bad." Domi had faced frigid Germinatings before with far less clothing than this to protect him. He was fairly comfortable, though the temperature here in the heart of the night-side plunged way lower than back home, he was sure.

"It's awful. I don't know how people survive this without prometus."

Domi bit his lip and looked away, watching Daedalus put on his mittens. People didn't survive, sometimes. Pullati froze to death every Germinating. But at least people here in the deep Blightlands knew how to live without the Trellis. If only they could teach the rest of the world. Fast.

"We will have to be very careful," Aix said on Daedalus's opposite side. "Without prometus, we're more vulnerable than Pyrrhaei."

"I can barely walk like this."

Aix smiled as Domi's lip twitched at Valens's whining complaints. "You'll adjust in the next few hours," the lifeholder said. "But yes, our balance and reflexes will be off compared to what we are used to, young people. We won't be as strong either, so be cautious about what you try to lift."

"And don't get cut," Domi said. "You won't stop bleeding and the wound will foul like that." He snapped his fingers and grimaced as memories of cauterized wounds and fever shakes welled. "Trust me."

Aix nodded. "If you are injured in any way or start to feel ill, I need to know right away." He glanced from one Lightholder to the next, pausing on Valens with an arched brow until the younger man snorted and ducked his head to eat his gruel. "We should also each spend a few hours a day unsuppressed between doses to let our bodies recover. But be vigilant."

Daedalus drained his mug and set it aside next to him with a clatter, his thick mittens making him clumsy. "I noticed something else we must be cautious about." He held one hand away from his body and then drew it closer.

Domi blinked as the bright blue mitten turned solid gray when Daedalus pressed it to his illusory chest. "What the heck?" The color change was not an optical illusion from the oil lamps glowing golden on the skyhaven wall.

"Fascinating." Aix's face lit up in delight, and Domi was reminded achingly of the lessons in the greenhouse garden whenever an alumna offered a noteworthy tidbit from their reading. "I wonder if the illusion changes our perception of whatever enters Dae's personal space to make it appear feminine to us. Or perhaps it instead alters the color atop the fabric itself."

"That's kind of neat," Domi said dryly, "but..."

"It might alert people to the presence of an illusion, yes," Daedalus said with a troubled frown. "If fabric and other items change color like this as they approach me and people notice, they will wonder why."

"What colors do night-dwellers see?" Domi asked, nibbling his lip and then stopping. It was too cold to do that unless he wanted his lips to chap. He lifted his mug and drained the last of the sweet gruel. It reminded him of cookies, but Aix said it was rich in nutrients. The lifeholder had bought a giant bin of the powdered blend. "All genders wear all colors here, so how do they know someone is a boy or girl? Or nonbinary?"

"Hair length," Valens said, sipping his thin gruel and then taking a long drink. He wiped his mouth. "Women wear theirs to at least their shoulders, men between the shoulders and chin, and nonbinary people above the chin."

"They might think you are nonbinary, Aix," Daedalus pointed out.

The silver-haired man shrugged with a chuckle, running his fingers through his short locks. "That's fine with me." He winked at Domi. "It will be a new experience."

"That's one thing to call it," Daedalus said under his breath, smoothing his feminine brown heavy tunica.

Aix smiled and set aside his empty breakfast mug. "Now that we've eaten, we should practice our identities." He nodded at Domi. "You first, young Erus."

"I'm Domi Lodicis, an apprentice skychariot attendant." He would give anything for the words to be true. "Valens is my older half-brother and Dae--Dala is my older sister."

Aix turned to Valens. "And you, young Aedilis?"

"I'm a skychariot attendant, and my sister, brother, and I were just laid off because travelers are dwindling and the skychariot needed to cut back on workers." He glanced at Daedalus. "And you, Dala?"

"The very same," he said. "Also, our mother and father are divorced. Father died in Trellis Descent." He paled, peering at his hands, and Domi bit his lip. His twin's foster parents had died with so many others. "And Valens's mother lives here in the night-side," Daedalus continued softly. "Because we are unemployed, we have decided to find Valens's mother and ask her to take us in."

"Good, young Erus," Aix said, rubbing Dae's shoulder soothingly. "And I am your wilderness guide, who you hired to assist you through the night-side wilds to your dear mother's remote village."

"I cannot believe we are doing this," Daedalus murmured. "Who will believe we are Pyrrhaei?"

"Believe it, and others will believe it too," Valens said firmly. "Now, hood up, Dala. Keep your crystal covered; it's a bit of a pricey item for an apprentice skychariot attendant to afford."

"And someone might snatch it if they see it," Domi added. "I would." With lifeholders unable to heal anyone, an artifact like that would fetch a pretty price on the black market.

Aix rose. "You three wait here. I'll wash our mugs and go fetch our sleds."

Domi glanced at Daedalus, who shrugged, then frowned at Aix. "Sleds?"

<>

Domi had always wanted a dog. Now, it seemed, he had twenty.

"Eyes devour," he said, darting up from Valens's side as Aix returned a half-hour later with two teams of harnessed sled dogs, weaving far clear of the heaped glowing blue debris strewn about the market from Trellis Descent. "Are you serious?"

Valens rose from the skyhaven bench and stretched. "Would you rather fly?"

"I would," Daedalus said. He eyed the huskies uneasily from the bench. "They look vicious."

"They'll attack anyone or anything that attacks us," Valens said as Aix, clicking at the dogs, slid to a stop and jumped off the sled. The second team of animals trotted up beside the old man. "But they won't hurt us. I've traveled this way many times when my work takes me to the night-side."

"Do they have names?" Domi asked. He hoped not. He wanted to decide what to call each one.

"Of course, young Erus," Aix said, taking off a mitten to pull a sheet of parchment from his paenula pocket. He handed it to the boy. "The seller listed them here. Left to right, front to back." He pointed at the first name and then the first dog.

Domi sighed. He didn't want a reading lesson right now but forced himself to sound out the word. "Anas." He frowned. Why would someone name a dog "Duck"?

"May I see?" Daedalus asked. Domi handed him the list and the older twin scanned the parchment, blinking in surprise and then smiling. "Anas? Lardum? Salmo? I think they are named after their favorite foods."

"The sled sellers tend to reward the beasts well upon their return," Valens said. He hesitated and then glanced away, scratching one of the huskies behind its pointed ears.

"But there may not be as much food to reward them with, soon," Domi said quietly as he realized what troubled his aedificans. He petted the thick scruff of one of the panting dogs, heart aching. The sellers probably had plenty of food for the dogs for now, but how long would that last?

"These animals are skilled hunters, young Erus," Aix said, his voice gentle. "They're trained to find their supper and return to camp at night, and may even bring game for us as well. They will be alright as long as game remains."

"Game will be available for a time," Daedalus murmured. "The Famine Laws have likely already been enacted and will take some of the pressure off of wild game populations. The lifeholders..." He swallowed. "Well, Princeps O-Oliva, sh-she..." He broke off, trembling.

Domi left the huskies and returned to his twin, rubbing the illusory girl's shoulder. "What will the lifeholders do?" he asked quietly. "You don't have to talk about Oliva."

"The Famine Laws direct lifeholders to raise large cats, bears, wolves, and other carnivorous predators in captivity in times of famine," Aix said as Daedalus just shook his head wordlessly. "Beasts that can sustain themselves on the meat of other beasts. That way, as crops fail and the game animals that need crops for food die, we will still have access to some meat."

"Cat meat?" Domi asked, frowning. He'd had rats before, and worse, but he liked cats almost as much as dogs. It would be sad to kill them for food, but people needed to eat. Bears and wolves didn't sound so bad, though. If they wanted to eat people then fair was fair.

Daedalus inclined his head. "Probably the cat breeds that fare well in cold environments. I'm not sure what kinds."

"Snow leopards and ice tigers, mostly," Aix said. "Plus tundra wolves, polar bears, and the like. Polar bears are especially valuable if lifeholders can manage to capture some as breeding stock."

"You haven't lived until you've tasted polar bear steak cooked over a campfire," Valens said, then arched a brow as the twins stared at him. "What? Did you think I ate dulciola and strawberry tarts while out on assignments in the Blightlands?" he sneered.

Aix smiled. "It has been years since I roughed it on wilderness assignments, but I well recall those campfire suppers of my days out in the field." He swept a hand toward the sleds. "Speaking of which, we should get moving if we want to reach our destination early enough to enjoy supper by First Glare."

Valens nodded. "Domi, you'll ride with me, and Dala, you're with Aix. Let's go."