It's after his first visit to her husband that Chabi truly meets the new Latin boy, Marco Polo. Reeking of her husband, and his fear, and a simple corridor away from exposing those vulnerabilities to the rest of the Court. As unused to their ways as he is, she can't simply leave him to the mercies of the rest of the Court. Not until he knows how to defend himself.

Growing up, there was nothing more that Marco Polo wanted than for his father to return and whisk him away on a great adventure. Marco wanted to see the world by the side of the man his mother had told him so many stories about. But the world is not just beauty and wonders. Sometimes new things can be so terrible, we wish we could go back. Sometimes you can never go back.

A desert is not so different to an unrequited love.