After two days of dust and one day of blood, when Bors had to save them both from a pair of raiders, the two companions arrived in the city of Renkashka. Arriving was a small blessing to Tosh, since he felt as though his feet were falling off. He went straight towards the nearest cobbler for a sturdy pair of boots. He bartered for them with a small toy he had on his person from his small cache of personal effects that The Grifter had been kind enough to return as well. The cobbler’s daughter loved the way the little automaton capered about and laughed at the jokes the little robot spouted off. The cobbler needed half a day to make Tosh’s footwear. Tosh looked to Bors as if he wanted boots, yet the barbarian shook his head.

“My feet are tougher than yours, Little Bird. I will manage.” The Martian barbarian grinned and waited outside while the cobbler finished up.

The coins from the raiders also helped buy a small meal for the pair and medical treatment for the broken blisters on Tosh’s feet. It made Bors laugh.

“Why are you laughing at my pain?” Tosh asked, glaring at Bors.

“You would do better to walk on them, Little Bird. Toughen your—”

“I’ll take the boots and the pain meds, thank you,” Tosh said with a scowl.

The stink of the spaceport of Renkashka was wretched. Tosh had hated it when he had first arrived in his exile. Five years since, and the stench only grew worse. He missed the clean halls and city of Urst and Feld, the major ports that serviced House du’Vaul on Centauri Prime. But you aren’t there, are you? “Do you have any idea where we have to go?” Tosh asked Bors, who shrugged.

“What do we do?”

“We need to get to Halden’s Purchase, according to the map,” Tosh said, indicating the small cube. “Once there, the map reveals the next clue. That means a fast rocket. Or it means attempting to travel through a Gate.” Tosh was about to continue, realizing he asked the wrong person and had to explain when Bors spoke up.

“A Gate would be faster,” Bors said, then yawned and itched under his armpit.

Tosh stared at Bors for a long moment. “How do you—”

“I am a barbarian from the Northern Plains of Mars. I am not a dullard or stupid. I know of the Gates.”

Tosh felt shunned. “But, how—”

Bors rolled his eyes and shook off the question before Tosh could ask it. “Do you have the money or the ability to travel a Gate without a guide?” Bors asked.

“What do you mean?” Tosh asked, realizing he had been distracted. Better to ask him later about that. “And how does a barbarian know—”

“Gates have been around for a long time, Little Bird,” Bors said. “And neither you nor I can travel one without a Guild Member and live to come out the other side… if we get that far.”

Tosh chaffed at the nickname. “We have some coin from the bandits and the grotesque Drumgag. We could hire a guide to—”

“Where do you need to go, chaps?” A voice piped up from behind the two.

Tosh spun to see a youthful girl, dressed in a bizarre mix of leathers and eye-wrenching colorful silks. A strange serpent hissed from somewhere before Tosh saw a slender form slithering on her shoulder, raising its head to get a better look at Tosh and Bors. It spread a strange blue frill on either side of its emerald-green, scaly head, flicked out a crimson tongue, tasted the air, then ducked back into hiding in the young woman’s clothing.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Somewhere pretty far from this dung pile,” Bors said, his hand sweeping over the large spires and low-flying flitters and skimmers.

“That can be almost anywhere,” the girl said with a smirk. She reached up to pet the snake in an absent-minded way. The head reappeared, pressing its head into her hand. There was an odd cooing noise that came from the serpent. It was unnerving to Tosh.

“We don’t have—”

“I can help take you anywhere in the Known Worlds,” the girl said, puffing her chest up. “I am a Guildie who can really get around. And I have a special going on as well.”

“To Crimson Planet,” Bors said.

The sudden jerking of the girl’s head made Tosh shake his head, knowing she would balk. “I think you scared her,” he said with a sigh. “We should—”

“Not at all, chaps,” the girl said, though her voice faltered at first. The creature clinging to her shoulder hissed, and its serpentine head slid behind her red hair. She reached up to her shoulder to pet it, then the snake-like creature rubbed its head against her slender fingers again. “Caught me off guard for a moment, is all. I can take you there, though it will be a rough one. You sure you’re up for it?” She reached up to pet the sides of the creature and rubbed at the underside of the creature’s chin as its head poked out the other side of her head, hissing more intently while looking at Tosh and Bors. “Quiet Nix. They are friendly… sorta.”

“Is your pet upset?” Tosh asked, looking a little amused at the strange creature and already pondering how much he could get for the singular creature.

“Nix is my partner, not my pet,” the girl said with a curled lip-sneer, eyes narrowing towards Tosh. “Be cautious how you speak of him.” She narrowed her eyes a little more at Tosh, “Or what you think of him.” There was a hint of a smile in her voice that surprised Tosh.

Oh, that’s not good. Tosh nodded, a bit unnerved the girl looked at him that way. “Well, we still need a guide to… that place. How much will—”

“Two thousand,” she said, setting her fists on her hips. “Not a gold piece less.”

“No,” Bors said. “We will find someone else.” He turned away from her.

“No one will take you anywhere close to that planet for less than five. I’m giving you a discount,” the girl said. “Besides, you won’t get much help from the Guild. They hate the place.”

“Why?” Bors asked, stopping and looking at her with a sidelong glance.

“Why what?” the girl asked, giving a smile and trying to look innocent.

“The discount and why the Guild won’t help?” Tosh asked.

“It will be fun to walk that Gate path, in answer to your first. And as to the second, it’s an old, old Guildie law to not go anywhere within light-years of that destination.”

Tosh only knew a very little about the paths. There was a memory that the Gate paths could go anywhere, if you had a guide. Yet, the Gate Guild were men and women with strange and eldritch ways. She had something of that about her, some strange sense that Tosh couldn’t place a finger on. There wasn’t a smell or sight or a taste. It was something all-encompassing about the Gate Guide. Something that shook him to his core. Something slightly off about her.

“Are you ready?” She asked.

“Yes,” they both said, nodding in unison.

“My fee?”

“That will be—”

“We can pay you,” Bors said. “One moment.”

Bors looked at Tosh and nodded towards the cube. “There is no way,” he said in a harsh whisper.

“Why do we need it? We have a guide who can take us right there.”

“Ah, no. No, I can’t,” Tessa said. “However, I can use that better than you can, and it could be—”

Tosh pulled the cube close to his chest. He regretted it since there was still an odor that clung to it that sent his mind spinning back to The Drumgag’s lair. The flash of the woman’s eyes in Tosh’s mind flittered by, and he realized that he would have to. “Fine,” he said. “However, I wish to keep it in our—”

Bors plucked it from Tosh, who tried to grab it. Then, Tosh thumped at him as he crossed towards Tessa.

Tessa let out a small sigh. “Bors. Please, keep it for now. I will collect it at the end of the journey. Fair?”

Tosh glared at Tessa. There was something that he still didn’t trust about her. “Very well. When we return here, you will have it.”

“Little Bird, that—”

“Its fine,” Tessa said. “I accept the conditions and the payment. We should be away before they see us.”

Tosh’s eye went up hearing Tessa’s strange use of language. He opened his mouth to ask when Bors slapped him on the back and said, “Let’s go.”