We huddled together beneath the wooden docks, our boots soaked in the filthy river water. Up above us, the guard did his round again, walking back down the pier where he’d turn around and come right back.

“Okay,” I whispered to Miranda. “It’s time to do your thing.”

She gave me a sharp nod before holding out her skull-topped scepter. The body of the rat we’d captured began to glow and wiggle on the ground. It hopped up and started scurrying about, guided by Miranda’s magic.

“Good job. Now try to become the rat.”

Miranda screwed up her face. Her magic flared and twisted then sputtered and died.

“I can’t do it,” she cried.

I hushed her and waited for the guard to repeat his loop before saying, “yes you can, try it again.”

“You don’t understand Joe, that’s just not how my magic works.”

“Please, just one more try? I know you can do this.”

She wiped at her face with the sleeve of the ugly brown dress she’d assumed before lifting her scepter once more and trying again. I watched, trying not to get too excited, as her magic changed. The rat began to glow brighter as a solid stream of pink fire banded the two together. The stream flared brighter than broke. Miranda toppled into the river.

I bit my tongue to keep from shouting as I quickly grabbed her and lifted her out of the water. Her eyes were shut and she was limp in my arms.

“Miranda, wake up.”

She didn’t move an inch. The small breaths puffing past her lips gave me hope though. She might be unconscious but at least she was alive.

A loud squeaking drew my eyes to the rat rushing back and forth on the shoreline. It wasn’t glowing pink anymore but it was more active than ever. It spun toward me, its nose snuffling the air. Its body might not be glowing, but its eyes sure as hell were.

I frowned. “Miranda?”

The rat squeaked louder and did a little spin before facing me again. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Told you you could do it.”

The rat started chittering away at me. I wanted to drag Miranda’s body to dry land but the last time we’d stood there the guard had started looking for us. This place in the shallows of the river was the only place the man seemed oblivious to. Instead, I leaned against one of the dock pylons and supported Miranda’s limp body against me.

“Hurry and find us a way in,” I said, already beginning to sweat. Miranda might be small but dead weight was hard to hold.

The rat rushed off. Stella barked and gave chase. I flinched and looked up at the guard still walking his set path. The breath I was holding rushed out as I realized the guard didn’t so much as look in Stella’s direction. Apparently, animals weren’t of much interest to the man. I think he’d feel differently if Stella decided to charge him.

It couldn’t have been more than half an hour before Miranda in her rat form returned to us but holy hell it felt like hours. The rat rushed up to the riverbank and the pink fire in the creature's eyes began to filter back into the unconscious girl I held. Within moments Miiranda’s eyes flew open and she held up her own weight. I sighed in relief as I dropped my aching arms.

“How’d it go,” I asked.

She made a sour face as she shook out her arms and legs, making me flinch at the loud splashes she was making. Up on the shore, the rat was nothing more than a corpse again, deprived of Miranda’s reanimating magic.

“There’s no way to just walk in there. The guards never leave the gate. They don’t like rats much either. The bastard tin can man tried to stomp me. I think I found us a way in though. You won’t like it.”

I sighed and rubbed my aching temples. “What is it?”

She pointed a the bobbing bilge of one of the three boats. “That boat is a merchant's vessel. Every few minutes a pair of burly men grab one of the barrels on deck and carry it through a doorway into a warehouse. There are no guards in there, we can walk right onto the street on the other side of the wall.”

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“You want to hide in barrels. Seriously?”

She huffed and planted her hands on her hips. “That’s the only way. Don’t tell me you dragged me all this way just to balk at the first annoyance.”

“You’re starting to sound like Nora,” I grumbled as I eyed the boat she’d indicated.

“Good. One of us has to be the voice of reason.”

“Fine. We’ll go to the boat. Hope you don’t mind swimming.”

Her cheeks turned rosy. “I don’t know how to swim.”

I groaned.

“Who’s there,” the guard up above bellowed as he started running frantically around the dock.

Miranda and I stood perfectly still, both of us holding our breath while we waited.

“Must have been rats,” the guard said finally, resuming his pacing.

“Come on,” I whispered. “I’ll tow you there.”

We made our way slowly to the boat. Stella followed beside us snapping at the water as she swam through it. I helped Miranda up the anchor rope then grabbed Stella and handed her up before clambering up myself. We slunk into the shadows as we navigated the deck toward the large stack of barrels and sacks near the gangplank.

It took a little maneuvering to get us all settled in a barrel but we eventually managed it. My barrel started to rock. I held my breath, bracing my cramped body against the coarse wood.

“Damn this thing is heavy,” a deep voice snapped. “What’s in this thing, bricks?”

“Stop bitching and get to work Carl, I don’t want to still be doing this crap come morning.”

My barrel rocked and wavered as the men carried me ashore and into the warehouse Miranda had mentioned. When I heard the door slam shut I pushed off the lid and gasped in a breath of fresh air. I fell out of the thing, only just righting myself and scooting back into the darkness before the door opened again and the men brought in Stella’s barrel. When they left I set her free and then waited to do the same for Miranda.

Together we all left the warehouse and rushed into the silent streets of the walled town.

“We have to be careful,” I said quietly. “They’ll notice we don’t belong here.”

“I know, you already said that,” Miranda snapped.

I sighed. My growing headache didn’t appreciate her attitude. Slowly, stopping at every corner, we made our way further into the town. Thankfully in a place like this countless hiding spots sparkled for me to see. I guided the three of us toward the castle as the birds began to sing their morning song and the eastern sky began to lighten.

It got harder and harder to navigate the cramped streets as more and more townsfolk emerged from their houses to repeat their programmed steps for the day. One by one we dodged between the hiding places as I pointed them out.

“Wait for it,” I whispered, holding Miranda back with an arm as I peeked around the next corner. “Okay, go.”

Miranda sprinted across the street and dove under a cart filled to bursting with cabbages. I waited for the man in the tartan robe and stained bunny slippers to cross the street again before I ran out and turned the corner.

I was so focused on the sparkles I didn’t see the woman huddled by the building. My foot caught her leg and I tumbled to the ground in front of her.

“Please sir,” the beggar woman asked. “Can you spare a coin?”

I stared at her, my mouth hanging open as I slowly lifted myself off the ground. I dug in my bum bag and pulled out a piece of gold, tossing it into her dented tin cup. I prayed she wouldn’t raise the alarm and out us to everyone. Without Nora, we couldn’t take on an army of knights.

The beggar woman frowned and lifted her head, turning her sharp brown eyes on me. Recognition flashed across her filthy face. I reached up, grabbing the hilt of one of my swords. I had to keep her quiet.

“You fool,” the beggar woman hissed her arms shooting out to grab me. She yanked me into a cramped shadowy place between two buildings. “You’ll be seen if you keep that shit up.”

I blinked. “What?”

The beggar woman sighed and yanked up her sleeve, holding her wrist into a beam of light that filtered into the enclosed space. Barely discernable on the soft skin there was a tattoo of a fox head wearing a padlock as a crown.

I gasped. “You’re a Shadow Walker?”

“Shh, do you want to get us killed?”

“Sorry.”

“Look, I’ve been scouting this place for a long time. There are some things you need to know.”

I nodded, digging in my bum bag for my notebook. The woman lifted a brow but didn’t question me as she started rattling off a bunch of useful information that would help us get to the castle. I wrote as quickly as I could but damn she talked fast.

There were four quadrants to the town; the pits, the religious sector, the mercantile district, and the upper heights. We were currently wandering around the pits, where the poorest NPCs lived.

She also told me that the town hadn’t always been this way. Things had changed when the Count had taken charge. At first, he welcomed our guild members as we helped him build his wealth and his power but then he got greedy. He didn’t want just a portion, he wanted it all.

“One more thing,” she said. “You can’t go about looking like that. You stick out in the regular world let alone this place. Dress like me, the townsfolk don’t look twice at a beggar even if we don’t follow their rules.”

I tried to respond but Stella’s outraged barking drew me away. Something was wrong. I grabbed the wall and peeked out, trying to see where she was. A crowd had formed around her, all of them poking and prodding at Stella like she was a marvel they’d never seen before. Stella was growling and barking as she turned in place, her paws beginning to glow golden as she summoned her powerful charge attack.

“No!”