Ziggy was bored.

I could tell by the look on Val’s face that he also hadn’t been behaving himself. One thing I’d learned by being around so many orphan kids when I was an apprentice was that kids could tell when someone wasn’t going to hurt them. They also loved to push the line of how much they could get away with. Sometimes they got carried away or misjudged, but it never failed that as soon as an adult that would let them run wild was put in charge, every kid would run loose.

As soon as we’d walked in the door, Ziggy had leapt into one of the chairs and pretended like he’d been sitting like that the whole time. I had a feeling that he knew Eveth would crack down on him and he didn’t want to get in trouble.

The irritated look on Val’s face got worse when she saw who I had with us.

“Where did you find her?” Val walked over to the table where her sword was laying and pulled it out.

“Picking a fight with the mayor's son and two bodyguards.” Eveth walked past me towards her cousin.

“Here’s the best part...” I looked at the three bowls of cold oatmeal on the table. One of them had a single bite taken out of it. There was a green and a red apple in the middle of the table along with two glasses of water. The mayor must have sent over the food, because all we had in our packs was dried fruit and a few dried carrots. I looked back at the older woman. “She told them that she was your apprentice.”

“You what?” Val touched the tip of her sword to the woman’s neck. “Why shouldn’t I cut you down right here?”

“I thought we worked together quite nicely in Gher.” Fyga touched the sword with her finger and tried to move it, but Val didn’t let it budge. “Oh, come on! I gave Byler a pair of my old goggles so he can see! I even helped you take down a few crooked Humans on my way out..” She glanced over at me, but made no move to pull her arm out of my grip. “Everybody won.”

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“A lot of innocent people died because of your Master.” Val sneered.

“Not my Master.” Fyga held up her free hand. “I’m just a hired knife. The old hag had a job that she wanted me to check out and that was it. I’m not one of those fanatics that kisses the ground she walks on or collects Zombies like they’re the latest doll.”

I had a rather unpleasant image of Touched kissing the ground while following The Master around.

“So what are you?” I moved over to the table and motioned at the food.

Val nodded, then looked back at the other woman. “Well?”

Fyga eyed the table as I sat down and began peeling the apples. “You could offer a guest some food.”

“Not a guest.” Val growled. “Maybe not even a prisoner.”

“Oh, stop with the tough act.” Fyga stepped to her side, with the tip of the sword following her. “You won’t kill me in front of the kid.”

Val scowled, but didn’t say anything as Fyga sat down at the table across from me and pulled the other bowl of oatmeal to her.

“That’s for Eve.” Val pushed the bowl towards the seat to my left.

“The little one doesn’t like oatmeal?” She looked over her shoulder at Ziggy. “You going to finish your breakfast?”

Ziggy shook his head with wide eyes.

“Better for me to eat it than for you to throw it out?” Fyga slowly reached for the bowl.

“Fine.” Val sighed and closed her eyes. I heard her teeth grinding.

“Ziggy, go back to your room.” Eveth tried to shepard her cousin towards the hall.

“But I wanna watch!” The seven-year-old resisted being pushed out of his wooden chair.

Eveth pinched his neck.

“Ow! I’m going! I’m going!” Ziggy jumped up and ran out of the open room into the hallway. The sound of the door slamming announced that he’d gone into one of the rooms.

“You know he’s going to try to sneak back out here.” Fyga smirked as Eveth walked over and sat down in between us.

Val opened her eyes and moved to where she could see down the hallway. “Give me a good reason why we shouldn’t put you down.”

Fyga scooped the last bite of oatmeal into her mouth as Eveth added cubed apple chunks into her untouched bowl. The black-haired woman adjusted her goggles, then looked over at Val.

“Because I know where the ships are.”