“Of all the bad luck,” a blood-spattered and generally disheveled man said in a low voice to his companion. He hunched behind some trash cans in a back alley in one of the less reputable parts of the city. He peered toward the end of the tunnel, but only cross traffic could be seen.

His companion, a lithe woman in burnt brown leather armor, remained silent for a long moment. Her brown ponytail puffed at the collar, where it was tucked into the vestment. Her eyes roved restlessly over the area, landing ultimately on the wall of the building blocking their way. “Lord Dista, I should be able to throw you up there,” she said, indicating the top of the building.

“No,” Dista said without any hesitation at all. “I will not leave you behind.” Then in a clear attempt to convince the woman, he added, “Besides, I would not survive ninety seconds without you. You know the caliber of these assassins.”

The woman frowned, but also did not answer back. Her eyes kept roving, clearly uneasy. “They are not all that, but they do have number. Someone’s watching us.” She added the last in a very soft voice.

Sammy stared down at the two people below her, her stapha sharpened hearing picking up their words with ease. She had wanted to consider the strange box out here under the sun before breaking its seal. She of course fully intended to map the glyphs she could sense, but even with a full nights rest, she felt some trepidation.

Ultimately though, witnessing these two near get killed right out in the open had distracted her. They moved with deadly grace, both being of a higher caliber than even the Myst, though the woman was quite superior to the man. They were certainly way above the goons pursuing them, but exhaustion, numbers and strategy would win this particular street drama. Sammy could see both groups, in fact. The predators had stopped but a moment ago after a flash of magic. They then turned around and were currently headed back towards their prey.

Interesting, the street urchin thought, a grin spreading across her face. Dropping from the roof to a fire escape, she scrambled down to the lowest tier and then dropped down to the alley. She deliberately dropped so the two would still be hidden.

Standing straight, she looked down the alley toward where the predators would be coming. “You won’t escape. They’re going to find you, ya know. Really, no doubt about it.” She waited for a moment and then added, “Not without help anyway. It happens, I’m available for hire, but those pred’s are coming. I’m not involved ‘less you’re paying.”

Dista exchanged a glance with his guardian. She clearly did not like this offer at all. “Do we have a choice?” he challenged and the raised his voice, “What is your price?”

Sammy grinned. “We can discuss that later. I saw those preds turn around and head this way just a minute ago.” She ran around the trash cans. “Move,” she said, pushing Dista out of the way. Moving one of the cans, she revealed a sewer drain. “It drops about fifteen feet. Best squirm through feet first and hang before dropping. Hurry, hurry,” she said, grabbing Dista by the arm and pull- pushed him at the drain.

Surprised, Dista found himself halfway through the narrow entrance before it registered. “I can’t . . .”

“Shut up. Do you want them to get you?” Sammy said, glaring at him. She pushed him the rest of the way through. “You next,” she said to Jenna. “Hurry.”

Jenna did not hesitate. She did not particularly want to go into the sewers, certainly did not trust this ever so convenient helping hand, but now that Dista was down there, she truly did not have a choice.

Sammy adjusted the can to cover the drain again and then slipped past it with accustomed ease. Landing soft as a cat, she pulled out a couple of flashlights, handing one to the woman. She did not feel confident entrusting it to the man.

“Walk quiet and follow close. No talking.” She did not wait for them to reply, moving down the tunnel.

“Wait, Dista twisted his ankle,” Jenna hissed.

Sammy stopped on a dime and closed the distance to the woman in a moment. “Quiet. Don’t whisper in here. They’ll hear you for sure, idiot.” She flashed her light over the man. “No blood. Good. Hop on one foot if you have to. If you can’t do even that much on your own, I can’t help you after all.”

“I’ll do my best,” Dista ground out, struggling to standing up.

Sammy nodded. She flashed her light in his face for a moment, but then turned to head opposite her original course.

“I thought we were heading that way,” Dista said, surprised and even more suspicious now.

“Change of plans. We’re going to have to use a different hiding place. No more talking.” She hurried down the tunnel.

Jenna moved to help her charge. With him leaning on her, they did their best to follow the fast-moving girl.

When her charges dropped too far behind, Sammy stopped and waited impatiently. If they didn’t hurry, they wouldn’t make it. The sewers would give them some protection from any tracking magic, but Sammy knew without doubt her newest income source had been tagged. She did not know at what quality, so could not be sure the sewers’ glyphs would obscure it well enough.

An hour later, Sammy signaled a stop. She turned to face her two charges. “There’s a secret place I can take you. Can you keep secrets?”

“Do we have a choice?” Dista said, pain making his voice ragged.

“You always have a choice. If you cannot keep my secret, I will just take you somewhere else. This place is on the way to that one, but obviously is much closer. I assure you, I would not even be offering this normally, even if you were the Baron or someone like Prince Ra’asta Ista.” She glared at them and then added, “Especially so.”

Dista began to ask, “Then why,” but grunted as Jenna elbowed him in the side. He glanced at her, about to reprimand, when he caught her expression. He clamped his mouth shut.

Sammy waited, finally prompting for an answer. “We can keep secrets,” Dista assured her.

“But will you? Just ‘cause you can does not mean you will.” Sammy crossed her arms. “And I mean secret from everyone. Don’t even discuss it between each other, because people can overhear even the quietest conversations if they’re trying hard enough.”

“My, you are the paranoid one,” Dista said, a quirk of a smile on his lips.

Sammy shrugged, relaxing. “If everyone really is out to get me, I’m not paranoid for recognizing it. Will you keep my secret place secret?”

“You have my word that neither I nor Jenna here will reveal to anyone your secret place. Is that sufficient?”

Sammy swallowed. She did not like this at all, but she had accepted the job, had even made the offer in the first place. No matter how hard she thought, she could not think of another way to get them to safety. She really did not think they would make it to one of the shielded passages she had found over the years. She internally sighed, sure her dad would insist on her keeping her contracted word, even if it was dangerous and scary.

She growled, “Fine. Just don’t break your word.” She gave one more distrusting glare. “Wait there for a moment while I open the doorway. Turn off your light,” she added, turning off her own. The sewer plunged into darkness.

Sammy plastered herself against the wall and inched her way until she felt the itch of glyph magic. As always, she fought the urge to continue moving. A moment later, the wall pulled away like smoke to reveal the entrance tunnel beyond.

“Can you see the entrance,” Sammy asked.

The two stood looking around. Sammy tried calling out again, but they did not seem to hear her. She turned on her light and shown it at them, but they did not seem affected by it, though she could see them quite clearly. She grinned to herself. So the glyph magic hid light and sound as well as making it hard to get close to the entrance.

Edging back along the wall, she waited for them to react to her light.

Dista gasped. “You just appeared from nowhere.”

Sammy shown her light up her face and grinned at him. “Press yourself against the wall like I’m doing and follow me.” She did not wait, inching her way back to the entrance. When Dista would have passed by the entrance as if he were still pressed to the wall, Sammy grabbed him and pulled him through. She had to do the same for the woman.

Once they were inside the entrance tunnel, Sammy closed the door and then led her two guests through the junction circle into the hall leading to the main room. Stopping at the door to the bathroom, she pointed it out.

These were her first visitors ever, so she said with a bit of prideful boasting in her voice, “The bath is really wonderful. It’s a good place to look at that hurt foot of yours.” Sammy paused, eying her two clients. “Who are you guys anyway?”

The woman wanted to remain stern, so fought hard to keep her face neutral. But the girl was just too inconsistent and it was funny to her. “Jenna,” she said, jabbing her thumb between her breasts. “Dista,” she jabbed at her companion.

“Sammy,” Sammy said. She led the way into the bathroom and indicated a curved seat stool. “Sit there, lord Dista.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Dista glanced sharp at Sammy and Jenna placed a hand on her gun. “I’m no lord,” Dista said.

“Don’t lie to me, buster,” Sammy said lifting a fist at him. “Jenna over there called you lord Dista back in the alley. What, you think I don’t listen? You really must be a noble of some kind. Stupid. Now sit down so’s we can look at your owie.”

“The alley?” Jenna said, still tensed for betrayal.

“Of course. I was listening to you to jabber about bad luck and throwing the lordling up to the roof.”

Both Dista and Jenna exchanged glances and then relaxed. Dista limped to the indicated seat. Sammy watched as Jenna undid his shoelaces. Dista grunted and clenched his teeth, his eyes squeezed shut and beads of sweat glistening on his forehead. Jenna glanced at him and then pulled out a knife.

Sammy gaped at the knife. “Whoa, that’s pretty. Can I have it?”

Jenna gave her a narrow look. “No.” She then turned back to her patient, “Lord Dista,”

“Ya did it again,” Sammy muttered.

Jenna sighed and then continued. “Lord Dista, I am going to cut the shoe off.” He nodded but kept his eyes shut. Jenna murmured over the knife and it began to glow. Running the tip down the shoe, the expensive leather split. She made a few more cuts and the shoe fell away in pieces. A moment later, pieces of sock joined it on the floor.

Sammy gave a low whistle and looked at Dista with respect. “You really did mess that up bad. That’s broke for sure.” She considered and then shrugged. In a softer, almost kind voice she said, “Look, those guys topside are tracking you somehow. I saw it. That means your tagged. You both need to get rid of everything you have. I’ve got a box you can put your stuff in, and some quimma foil to block the signal, but you must ditch everything. Now, my dear Jenna, come with me and select some clothes for you guys. You wait in here, Dista dude.” She strode out of the bathroom.

Jenna hesitated, but her lord made shooing motions. “Best get this over with. I think she’s legit. Perhaps even the counterbalance to all our bad luck up to this point.”

Jenna nodded. If the girl really was a plant by their enemies, she was far above the norm. Jenna could not detect even the slightest bit of malice or wrongness in her actions. “Yes sir.”

Sammy stood at an armoire, the doors thrown open wide. She waved Jenna over and indicated the garments hanging there, pants and other things folded in drawers, dresses and blouses hanging on a cross bar. “I keep good clothing when I can get my hands on them, since I should be able to wear them some day.” She turned to face Jenna. “I’m serious about getting rid of everything. If I were tagging you, I would tag the things you would be least likely to throw away, like that knife of yours.”

Jenna just nodded and began inspecting the selection. “You seem to have some experience in tagging. Do you tag people often?”

Sammy had moved to a chest where she pulled out a set of clothes. “Nope, but lots of people keep trying to tag me. It’s really irritating. I’ve had to ditch some really cool stuff cause of those stupid jerks.”

Jenna shot a quick look at the child but then resumed her task. “Indeed. So, who are these people trying to tag you?”

“Oh, the usual.” Sammy held up a dark brown shirt and eyed it. “This might fit him.” She set the shirt aside and began digging in the chest again. “Mostly the Camp goons, city watch, the constables, the Myst, some of the merchants, a few odd jerks. I really don’t pay much attention to the specific people unless they get persistent, because it’s pretty much everyone.” She held up a pair of worn blue jeans, “Do you think lord Dista would wear this?”

Jenna turned to look. “He will wear what he must.”

“Good. That will make getting you guys to wherever safely much easier,” Sammy said, moving to another trunk where she began pulling out shoes. “So, that Dista dude is a noble or something, right?”

Jenna considered the young girl. Just how much could she be trusted, really? “What would you do if he was?”

Sammy grinned big. “Up the price for saving him, of course. If he’s a noble or something similar, he should have lots of cash.” She pursed her lips together as if perplexed. “But he hasn’t done anything overtly stupid, so I’m having trouble seeing him as one, despite you calling him lord this and that.”

Jenna blinked. “Stupid?”

“Yeah. Nobles have some kind of strange disease that makes them all stupid, or I guess not stupid stupid, but excessively prone to doing stupid things.”

Jenna did not know quite what to say. The child appeared to be completely serious. “Um, what makes you say that?”

Sammy shrugged. “It’s what I’ve observed, is all. They are constantly doing stupid without effort, purpose or logic. Always trying to do things the hard way. Making everyone else miserable because of their greed. Fighting each other for the stupidest reasons and killing off the very people they’re supposed to be leading, or whatever it is they claim to be doing for us. So, what do you think about this outfit?” She held out a pair of jeans, the brown shirt, and a pair of slippers for Jenna’s inspection.

“He’ll wear it,” Jenna said.

“Right.” Sammy set the items on a clean desk, grabbed an empty box sitting next to the desk and came over to Jenna. “You should change now, while Mr. Lord Dude is in the bathroom. Put everything into the box. Jewelry, weapons, clothes, your teeth if they’re those fake kind.”

Sammy moved past Jenna and selected a robe from the closet. “We’ll probably have to cut his pants off, so keep your knife for the moment. Well, off I go. I’ll wait for you in the bathroom.” She stopped at the hallway and looked over her shoulder. “Don’t touch anything.”

Jenna stared at the empty space where Sammy had been and then changed quickly. She followed Sammy’s instructions to the tee, as she too felt certain someone had put a tracking item on them somewhere. In fact, she was mentally kicking herself for not having thought of such an obvious thing in the first place.

Sammy sat on the sink counter, her feet swinging back and forth as she stared at Dista. Said object of scrutiny returned it in kind with a rather bemused expression. He estimated her to be eleven or twelve, maybe an immature thirteen since she still had the flat chest of pre-adolescence. She moved with the grace of a cat, in many ways reminding him of how Jenna moved at her most dangerous. Her black hair hung a bit past her shoulders and had a steel-blue tint to it that made it look less black than one might expect initially. Her eyes had that same steel-blue and they flashed every once in a while with silver fire.

“So, now seems a good time to talk price,” Sammy said, interrupting the mutual inspection.

Jenna entered the bathroom at that moment, catching her lord’s bemused expression as it changed to inscrutable. She stood in the doorway with knife in hand and ready to cut off her lord’s pants, but paused. “Shouldn’t we take care of other business first? I would feel better knowing that someone won’t suddenly appear.”

Sammy looked surprised but then grinned. “Go ahead then. I can wait.”

Dista glanced at the knife, deeply suspicious. “Why do you need that now?”

“She’s gonna cut off your pants,” Sammy said, grinning. Her eyes widened and she added, “Unless you want to pull them off over that broken ankle of yours? Men can be stupidly macho about the craziest things.”

“Sammy is correct about a possible tracking device,” Jenna said. “If we assume such a device on one of us.”

“Or both, multiple times,” Sammy inserted.

Jenna nodded and continued, “If we assume that, a great deal of our ‘bad luck’ on this trip makes perfect sense.”

Sammy threw the robe sitting next to her on the counter at Jenna, who caught in her free hand. “I’ve got quimma foil to block the signals. We can just mail the stuff to wherever you want it to go, as long as you’re paying for it. Otherwise I can deliver it to you later.”

“You don’t need to watch,” Dista said, pointing at Sammy as his guardian knelt beside him with her knife ready.

Sammy grinned but then grew serious. “Yes, I do. You’re a noble lord or something. That means you’re stupid for sure. Which means you’ll try to keep something that you consider special and that you ‘cannot be parted from.’ The very thing some intelligent person or a traitor would tag. I’m going to make sure you don’t keep that ‘something special’ thing that’s gonna cost me my payment.” She glared at the two of them.

Jenna quirked an eye. “You mean we might run into trouble?”

“Probably get killed, which means I won’t get paid. Most bothersome.” Sammy crossed her arms and leaned back against the sink’s mirror.

“So it’s all about your payment?” Jenna said, a feeling of irritation pushing at her sternum.

“I thought I made that clear at the beginning,” Sammy said, somewhat surprised. “I would help you for a price. You agreed to pay whatever I ask for.”

“We so did not say that,” Jenna said, snipping her words.

Sammy frowned.

“We did agree to pay you,” Dista said, trying to head off the argument. “I will pay anything within reason.”

Sammy scrunched her shoulders, her arms still crossed. In a grumpy voice, “So, if I asked for a lot of money, but within your ability to pay, that would be fine?”

“I would not give you all of my money.”

“Don’t want all of it,” Sammy said, her head tilted down and peering through her bangs. “I want a house and enough money to take care of it and me for a long, long time. I want to not have to scrounge through the trash to find things to sell to make enough to live on. And I want it to be someplace away from this city. Too many people not letting me live without having to look over my shoulder all the time.” She scrunched into a little tighter ball. “Is that a reasonable price?”

Dista smiled gently at her, his face becoming very attractive. “Yes, I think that is reasonable.”

Sammy blinked and raised her head. She ran a hand through her hair and said, “Really?” Clear surprise colored her voice.

“Yes. If you can get me to Baron Motra’s castle alive and mostly hale.”

Sammy’s own face blossomed into a huge grin. “That’s no problem then. I can get you anywhere in this city.” She paused, a hesitant look crossing her eyes. “How much time I got? It would be best to lay low for a few days and all.”

“I am expected day after tomorrow, but I have to be there for the beginning of the solstice festival.”

Sammy nodded, her whole body relaxing. She flopped back against the mirror again. “Then no problem at all. I’ll mail your stuff today and it should get there tomorrow at latest. You should write a letter explaining that you won’t be showing up until two days before the festival. But,” and Sammy held up a finger, “tell whoever gets it to not let anyone know. Utmost secrecy is in order.”

Jenna sighed and proceeded to cut Dista’s pants off.

Sometime later, Sammy stood with the box of belongings and enough money to cover mailing charges. Her stash of quimma foil was wrapped around the content now and she felt a bit more secure with its protection added to the sewer’s. She smirked a bit to herself because the useful quimma foil had been super hard to come by, thus she naturally planned to add its cost plus restock charges to her fee.

She frowned at her two charges and said, “I’ll be a few hours. I have some investigating and scouting to do. You guys can take a bath and make yourselves at home, but don’t mess with the bookcases. You might get hurt.” She ignored the curious look Dista gave her. “Just don’t touch them, stupid noble dude.” She gave one last, distrusting look and then left through one of the tunnels leading from the circle junction.

Alone, Jenna looked over at her lord. “Is this really a good idea, my lord?”

Dista still stood leaning against a wall, having wanted to see the girl off. He smiled a warm smile at his guardian. “She is more trustworthy than she herself is likely to admit. She won’t betray us.”

“You are not always the best of judges,” Jenna said, moving to help him back to the bathroom.

“True,” Dista agreed with a twisted smile. “I still have not determined who is out to assassinate me, other than it is someone either in the high council or connected with it. It is frustrating knowing that someone I trust is betraying me like this.”

“You should have been more cautious,” Jenna began, but Dista cut her off.

“I will not allow this,” he paused and then grinned, “idiot noble, whoever it is, to make me into a distrusting idiot noble. And I will point out that I chose you, so my accomplishment score is quite to the positive side.”

“You’re confused, my dear Dista,” Jenna said, punching him lightly in the stomach as she helped him to sit. She then moved over the bath and started it filling. “You are not an idiot noble.”

Dista snorted and then laughed. “True, true. “ He eyed the bath as it filled. “So, hmm. I really don’t think I’m going to be able to get into that without help. It looks slippery.”

Jenna snorted. “Well, it’s going to cost you.” The woman tilted her head as a slow grin spread. “You have to wash my back.”

The not-a-noble quirked an eyebrow and became dead serious. “My dear Jenna, I will wash whatever you want me to wash.”