The desert was also glaringly bright and annoyingly windy, and the temperature had to be at least a million degrees—even in the small oasis they’d reached after several long minutes of hiking. The patch of green and blue had seemed so mysterious and inviting when Sophie had first spotted it among the endless sea of rippled dunes—the kind of place where she might find a magic carpet. Or a genie’s lamp.

But of course Bronte and Grady had led them past the cool, shimmering lagoon without even pausing to dip a toe in. They’d also ignored the much-needed shade formed by the clumps of lacy palm trees, instead heading straight for an icky brown quagmire on the far side of the oasis, bordered by scraggly grass.

The area kind of looked like something that’d be used as a camel potty spot—and it very well might be.

Sophie was trying really hard not to wonder about that as her next step sank her even deeper into the mud.

But she couldn’t help glancing longingly at Sandor, who’d managed to find a place that was both well shaded and a little breezy to stand as sentinel while they went on without him. Goblins weren’t allowed to enter the dwarven city, so Sandor was restricted to guarding Loamnore’s entrance—and Woltzer and Lovise had been forbidden from joining them at all.

Sandor had been complaining vigorously about the restrictions—right up until he saw the mire of steaming mud they all had to sink through.

Then he’d become much more cooperative.

“You’re sure this is the only way to get to Loamnore?” Stina asked, earning several heaving sighs from Grady and Bronte.

Oralie had decided to stay behind when they’d left Havenfield, and at first Sophie had found that to be a little strange. But now that she was experiencing the mud-drenched method of entry into the dwarven city, Sophie was pretty sure she understood why the pretty Councillor had decided to skip the visit to King Enki.

“For the fifth and final time, Miss Heks, yes—this is our path,” Bronte snapped as he strode into the muck in all of his jewel-encrusted finery. Within three steps, he’d sunk past his waist. “Do you honestly think I would use it if there were any alternative?”

“Well, there should be an alternative,” Stina muttered, stomping her boot to clean off as much of the gunk as she could.

Clearly she was in denial about the muddy fun she still had ahead of her.

“You’ll be fine,” Sophie promised. “Alden and I had to sink through quicksand at the Gateway to Exile, and it really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Though, she couldn’t help a tiny shudder as her mind flashed back to that scratchy, suffocating fall.

“The dwarves seem to like messy entrances,” Dex noted, moving to the lead of their muddy group. He was even grinning, like he was actually enjoying the journey through the sludge.

“It’s not about what we like,” Nubiti corrected as her furry face popped out of a nearby patch of sand, and Sophie was pretty sure her dwarven bodyguard was smirking at all of them for squealing like schoolchildren—but it was hard to tell with Nubiti’s squinted eyes. “It’s that your species is useless at tunneling, so we’ve had to get creative in order to give you access to our world.”

“Or you could just dig a tunnel,” Stina argued. “Carve in some of those things called ‘stairs’—maybe you’ve heard of them?”

“A tunnel like that would greatly compromise Loamnore’s security,” Nubiti countered.

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be gross!” Stina snapped back. “And wait a minute—Tam and Linh lived in a house in Loamnore for a while, didn’t they? So how did they get back from the Lost Cities after school and stuff? Don’t even try telling me they were diving into pools of sludgy mud all the time. No way that’s what happened.”

“That’s true,” Sophie realized, “Mr. Forkle gave them special magsidian pendants he’d gotten from King Enki.”

“Perfect—where do I get one of those?” Stina demanded.

“That’s not how it works,” Nubiti corrected. “Accessing a residence is different than accessing the city as a whole. Each residence has its own unique security—and some are far more flexible than others, like the place where your friends stayed. And before you ask, no, accessing a residence doesn’t mean you can then access the main city, just like visiting one of your estates does not then lead to any of your cities.”

“Right, but our houses are scattered all over the planet,” Stina reminded her, “and so are our cities, so that’s a whole different thing. I’ve seen maps of Loamnore—your residences are right here.”

“That does not mean there’s a way for an elf to pass from one to another,” Nubiti insisted.

Stina rolled her eyes. “Well, there should be. Seriously, this is the most ridiculous arrangement I’ve ever heard of!”

“Hey, we make everyone slide down a giant whirlpool to get to Atlantis,” Biana reminded her, sounding surprisingly chipper for a girl who usually obsessed about her hair and makeup and was currently thigh-deep in poop-colored muck. “Fitz still talks about how freaked out Sophie was the first time she had to try it. He said he was about three seconds away from having to push her over the edge because she was frozen in place.”

The sound of Fitz’s name made Sophie’s heart both fluttery and heavier—but she shoved all of those feelings aside.

She was not letting any boy worries distract her that day.

But she could tell Biana was watching her, waiting for some sort of reaction. So she announced to everyone, “I would’ve taken Fitz with me if he’d tried.”

The threat might’ve sounded more ominous if she hadn’t lost her balance on her next step—and she would’ve face-planted into the mud if Wylie hadn’t lunged to grab her shoulders. The poor guy ended up sunken all the way to his chest as a reward for his heroics.

“Thanks,” Sophie mumbled, not quite meeting Wylie’s eyes.

She hadn’t found the right moment to ask if he’d spoken to Maruca yet, but she had a feeling that if he had, he would’ve let her eat some stinky mud—and she probably would’ve deserved it.

But she’d worry about the Wylie and Maruca problem later. If her lecture from Bronte and Oralie had taught her anything that morning, it was that she had to keep her mind focused on the most pressing worry in each moment. And given that they were currently making a rather disgusting journey to have a meeting she definitely didn’t feel prepared for, she needed to concentrate on figuring out what she was going to say to King Enki.

“I gotta admit,” she said as the sludgy brown goop reached her chest, covering the silver moonlight clasp pinning her golden sunlight cape. “I don’t really get why you made us wear all of our fancy Regent accessories if you knew we’d be mud monsters by the time we got there.”

“The mud completes the ensemble,” Grady teased, winking at her from near the center of the swampy pool, where he stood shoulder-deep, waiting for everyone to catch up to him.

“Or maybe I’ll lose the stupid circlet when I get sucked under,” Sophie muttered under her breath.

That might make the slimy experience worth it.

She’d made her team wear the glowing starlight crowns again, since it seemed like the most fitting choice for a visit to an underground city. But she’d felt a whole lot more like a silly little girl playing dress-up once she’d slipped it on.