Diavla wandered through the map room while Tom was gone. When she looked for help, she found the tallest human she had yet seen. He had a thin face and a long nose, and squinted at faraway sights. She summoned her memories of all the places she had heard Tom mention.

“Please, sir, I have very small Western. I ask map Rivermarch, Oak Mill, Middleton, Lasha River?”

The man nodded as if he had expected the question. “(Something) maps of Baria are thirty silver.” He led her over to a sort of dresser full of large flat drawers. Pulling out the second one from the top, he opened the big square lid, to reveal a small stack of maps. Carefully, Diavla pulled out the top one, and saw that the next looked nearly identical.

She took a moment to admire the artwork. Humans are sometimes crude in places, but their crafters have skill. She looked the map over, noting features of terrain, and small drawings of towns labeled with Western runes. Tracing a large river, she found a large city and pointed at it. “Rivermarch?”

The man shook his head, and pointed at another city further to the right on the river. “Rivermarch.” Then he said something else, pointing at the first city. Diavla missed most of it but gathered that the name of the larger city was probably Capital.

She set the map down carefully on a table, and Varga started looking it over. Diavla went back to the man, looking for more things to buy.

More gesturing ended up with her being led over to a shelf holding leather pouches that were long and slender—map cases. They were fifteen silver, so Diavla got one of those as well, to add to her shopping pile. She sat down with Varga at the table, set the map case down, and puzzled over the map for a while, arguing about details and making guesses.

“You know, Tom's not going to be able to read this at all,” Varga pointed out.

“I know. We'll have to do it.”

“You can't read Western, though, can you?”

“Only numbers. But we have Eubexa, and she does read Western.”

“She'll probably be really happy to be useful,” Varga commented.

“We're going to need more maps for our journey, and this seems to be the best place to get them. Only, I don't know our path, so I don't know which maps to get.”

“Well, we know where we want to end up, right?”

Diavla blinked. No matter what path we take, we have to end up somewhere on the coast, and of the three, the southern coast of Durathin is the only logical choice. The west gets us farther from home and the east is the Empire. She smiled at her friend. “Remind me to kiss you for that, later.”

Varga beamed, then leaned closer. “Why n—?”

Diavla cut her suggestion off before she could finish voicing it. “Tom's not here to protect us if humans object, Varga.” The redhead rolled her eyes but nodded. “Keep an eye on these, please?”

“All right,” Varga agreed with exaggerated patience.

Diavla returned to the tall human, thinking about how to ask her next question. He squinted down at her. “Yes?”

“Come, please.” Diavla led him over to the mural. “Very beautiful, sir. My Master very like.”

“Yes, we are very (something something). What did you need?”

With her very limited Western, Diavla hardly had any of the words she would have wanted, but she made do. She swept her hand across the middle third of the southern coast of Durathin. “How much is this all? I see maps?”

“I'll show you what we have.”

First, they returned to the dresser and pulled out the third drawer. Within was a pile of maps that closely resembled the mural. They depicted the entire continent and were very well done. “Fifty silver.”

Diavla smiled and carefully pulled out the top one out of perhaps a dozen copies. “Very yes. Wait, please?” Diavla hurried over to Varga and set the second map down on the table over the first, then easily dodged a couple of humans wandering past, stepping lightly across the room to land neatly before the map keeper again. “And more, please?”

Off they went, to a different dresser full of map drawers. These maps were far more disappointing. There were only two or three copies of each, and they held fewer details, as well as having inferior artwork. Diavla doubted that their accuracy was much to brag about, either. There were six maps that seemed most relevant, and they were fifteen or twenty silver each. Much of that was probably the cost of the materials.

Finally, she asked him for a map of the country directly south of Baria. Apparently, the land was called Redhill. This new drawer yielded high-quality maps with a lot of small towns and waterways marked. She pulled one out. Surprisingly, it had more detail than the map of Baria did. It looked fairly dense, but readable. Still, Diavla found herself almost wishing for an expander. The thought brought her soul up short.

Her mouth fell open. An expander. That would be perfect.

Eagerly she smiled up at the map keeper, who was already pleased at her interest in buying so much. “Please, sir, you have…I do not know the word. I buy.” She gestured while trying to piece together words well enough. “Rock. Help you see.”

“Rock lights are…” Diavla didn't catch the rest of the sentence. She shook her head.

“I am sorry, no. I say wrong. Small. Bad see. Rock. Big. Good see. Rock, water same? What is word in Western, please?”

“I don't understand.”

A few more tries convinced Diavla that the map keeper had never heard of an expander, which was surprising. I'll have to ask Eubexa what the word is later, and where to buy one. She apologized, bowed, and retreated with the map of Redhill.

Together she and Varga pored over the items she wanted to buy. It seemed that there would still be a sizable gap between Redhill and the coastal maps. So, probably at least one more country we would have to pass through, but there are two or more strong possibilities and we probably can't afford to buy every map I would want.

She was well aware that they barely had enough gold to cover the fare home—not even that, if they brought Eubexa. They had a lot of expenses, too. We'll need to earn more money along the way. It's going to be an interesting journey.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Finally, Tom returned. Varga jumped up and ran over to him at once, so Diavla stayed with the maps and waved. Tom walked over, and there was something different about his stride. She couldn't put her finger on what, though.

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Tom stayed a few paces back from the table so he could see. Diavla explained what she wanted to buy and the cost, then Tom offered his opinion. He was happy with the maps of Baria and Redhill, less so with the map of the whole continent. “Beautiful, but we no need. This but more small, more small silver,” he said in Elvish, pointing at it.

Diavla looked at the map, considered, and shook her head. “I buy, Tom. I like, I want. I think this map will help.” Tom looked at her, then shrugged.

“It is you coin.” Tom added something else in Western, then looked around before coming closer and crouching next to where Diavla was sitting. She liked his closeness, the way their faces were at the same height, for once. It would be so easy to kiss him like this…

Tom fumbled with a pouch, and the mystery of his odd gait was solved as he pulled out three gold coins and passed them to her under the table. “You coin, yes?” Diavla accepted the coins and put them in her own pouch. He's carrying a significant amount of gold, and he's both coping with the weight and being more protective of his coin pouch against pickpockets.

“You choose maps, Diavla. You see maps. I no see maps. I trust you.” Diavla felt warm and her cheeks started to ache a bit.

They spent a few more minutes looking over maps. Tom asked, and found one specific to the Great Oak Forest. I should have thought of that, Diavla scolded herself. Varga spotted something interesting as well, and called Diavla over. “Hey, Dee, this seems like it would be handy.”

It was a book—but instead of writing, the book was full of maps. Simple, cruder versions of all the maps Diavla wanted and more. She compared carefully, and the maps of the southern coast were nearly as good in the book as in the larger separate maps.

In the end, Diavla bought the map case, a book bag, the atlas, and the larger maps of Great Oak Forest, Baria, Redhill, and the continent. She handed over all three of the gold coins Tom had just given her, and received three large silvers in change. It is very easy to spend money quickly, but we pretty much have to have these if we are going to cross the continent. It was still a lot of coin, but Diavla decided it was definitely worth it.

Before they left, Diavla asked, “Tom, we will buy collar?”

Tom gave a grimace. “I think… no.”

Diavla felt a wave of disappointment come over her. “Why no?”

“I think Eubexa no like.”

“Eubexa?”

“Collar give no pain, but collar is scary. I will ask Eubexa. If she want, I buy.”

Diavla shook her head. “Eubexa no like to give coin. Eubexa no want give coin to heal her foot. She say no. If we have collar, maybe Eubexa say no, maybe Eubexa say yes.”

Tom frowned again. “Is very big coin.”

Diavla frowned, thinking. “If we no buy, maybe bad person buy.”

Tom said something she couldn't follow, and seeing her expression, he tried again. “Probably no. Years, bad person no buy.”

Diavla sighed. She really wanted them to get that collar, but it would take all the coin Tom and Diavla had left from their shares. She pulled out her last argument. “Tom, maybe…we see demon, we give demon collar.”

Tom didn't look surprised. “I think, too. Maybe big help. Probably no.”

“ Probably no is more good no.” Then she realized that she knew the word in Western, having learned it from Joan. “Tom, ‘probably no’ is better than ‘no’.”

Tom mused aloud in Western for a moment, but it sounded as if he were considering the idea more favorably. She waited, and he put it into Elvish as best he could. “Maybe we break, get silver…metal better than gold, and…” Tom curled his fingers to indicate something small and round.

Seeing that Tom was still uncertain, Diavla turned to Varga. “This is a lot to ask, but…can you help pay for it?”

Varga frowned at her. “Are you sure you want it this badly?”

“Yes.”

“Is that a good thing?”

Diavla blinked. She's worried about me. She turned that thought over in her soul a moment. It is a very dangerous magical work. In the wrong hands, it is almost as bad as a demon. And maybe she's worried about what will happen to me, how I might change—how Tom might change me—if I ever work up the nerve to wear the thing. Do I really want to do this?

If I don't get this now, I will very likely never see another one for the rest of my life.

Now, Diavla was sure of her answer. “Yes.”

Varga stared at her for several long moments. “I hope this isn't a terrible mistake.” She fidgeted for a few more heartbeats. “All right. For you, Diavla. Is ten of my gold enough?”

Diavla nodded. “Thank you, kanashim,” she murmured. She turned to Tom. “Varga give ten gold, I give ten gold, you give five gold, Tom?”

Tom blinked, looked at them both, opened his mouth as if to object, then closed it again. Finally, he sighed. “Yes.”

It turned out that Tom had taken enough gold out of the human bank to pay for the collar, even though he had been against it. He respects our decisions. He is a good leader, and chooses not to be Master to everyone.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

They returned to the shady cul-de-sac where the shop with the collar lay. This time, they stayed with Tom while he had another argument with the shop owner. Diavla wasn't sure exactly what they were arguing about, because it didn't sound like haggling. But in the end, Tom handed over twenty-five gold coins, counting them out carefully, and received a white wooden box in exchange. He opened it and examined the contents closely, and Diavla got her first look at the magic item.

It was elaborate, finely worked, and beautiful. It doesn't even look like a slave collar. When she realized that it was partly made of mithril, Diavla blinked in surprise. It made sense, since it was a powerful item, but it hadn't occurred to her that the materials alone would be so valuable.

She held her breath as the deal was concluded. Tom closed up the case, carefully placed it in his pack, and tied the bag shut. He was obviously on edge, alert as they left the cul-de-sac, and didn't stop watching everyone and everything closely until they got near the Keep. Tom left them at Sally's Sweets again while he went to stash the collar in his box in the human bank.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Diavla found the desserts just as delicious as before, but this time her stomach finally started protesting. “Ugh, no more cheesecake for me,” she declared sadly.

“I was wondering when that was finally going to happen. I don't know how you lasted this long,” Varga commented. “You're lucky that it all went straight to your chest. Even back in Kilder Vald, you weren't as busty as you are now. I'm envious.”

Diavla glanced down. I do look pretty good in this dress, she admitted to herself. She's right. Fancy eating apparently agrees with me. “Maybe you should eat more cheesecake.”

“Cheesecake is good, but I like the lighter stuff, too. This cake is so fluffy.” Varga took another bite of white cake. “Honestly, what I really want is to gorge myself on meat and get a serious workout. In the other order, though.”

Diavla nibbled on a beet cookie and watched the street for Tom.

Varga followed her gaze, then mused, “I wonder why Tom put the collar in the bank?”

Diavla frowned in thought. “Possibly, because it's illegal, and unless they have a reason to suspect it's there, the bank box is the best hiding place.”

“I thought he was going to offer it to Eubexa, though.”

“He probably plans to talk with her about it first.” Diavla tapped her chin. “Also, the dealer Tom got it from is plenty shady. Tom might be worried about foul play if he walks around town with it. Even melted down it's probably worth ten or fifteen gold.”

They ate in silence for a few more minutes. Diavla nibbled at another cookie, and Varga ate a few tiny treats after finishing off her white cake. Diavla made sure to buy apple tarts for Eubexa again.

“So,” Varga began, “do you think everyone is going to come along when we leave town?”

Diavla smiled. “I guess I know where you stand.”

“Next to you, Dee. Always.” Varga smiled. “I know Tom's going, and I know you're going with Tom, so that means the three of us are going. Not sure about the guys.”

Diavla nodded. “They could take jobs as a courtesan and a chef, or they might want to help rescue the others. Eubexa's a mystery. I wouldn't be surprised if she wants a good woman to buy her so she can stay in the city. The wilderness is rough on the sick.”

“Did Tom tell her about the demons?”

“I'm not sure. He probably will.”

“Did he tell her about Sheema and the others?”

“I don't know. He might not. I'll check what Eubexa knows when she wakes up again. Speaking of which, we should head back soon. If she's awake and in pain, she will probably need some of the medicine I've got in my pack.”

Varga was quiet for a minute, then asked, “Dee…did you ever know anyone who fought demons?”

Diavla thought back. “A couple of people. I never asked them for their stories, though. It seemed private.”

Varga sighed. “I'm kind of scared. I want to rescue Sheema and the others, but after that, I want to get out of this kingdom as fast as we can. I don't want to stick around for a demon fight.”

“Me, either. Tom is going to be torn, I think. He's the sort to want to join the fight, especially given how it started, but he also takes our safety seriously. He's not deciding just for himself, so if we tell him we want to run, I think he will.”

“Yeah… I guess that goes both ways, doesn't it? He's not going to want to leave you.”

Diavla's heart lifted a bit to hear that, and then more when she spotted Tom crossing the road on his way over. “Here he comes now.” She thought about what they were going to do next.

Interesting conversations ahead.