As Neis again instructed her driver how to harness horses (and wondered how she'd been tricked into picking this particular fellow), Anki and Tarkasan swiftly approached the long column of ragged figures shuffling toward the small town of Saqqara. There were more than hundreds of marchers in the column, which moved with a creaking sussurus of fabric and dust. They seemed oblivious to the chariots.

Now it was time to do whatever they planned with the ropes.