The man towered over me, two swordsmen by his side. I knew he suspected me of being with the brigands who had just attacked, and would slit my throat without the slightest hesitation if he thought his suspicions confirmed.

I turned to Aloree. "Get my bag. I would've been wearing it on my belt."

She dashed off to the wagon--one less complication if this came down to a fight, not that I had much chance of winning either way. "I am Vel, a travelling merchant from the kingdom of Tarmel. I came upon you while walking to the next town, and saw you needed help--saw the brigands dragging away Aloree. So I rendered aid."

I could see the skeptical look on his face. Wandering merchant, with a magical sword, charging into battle alone? Perhaps it helped that I looked like a naive teenager easily swayed by a pretty face--which, I suppose, I was.

The man just looked at me, silent and skeptical, perhaps trying to unnerve me into spilling the beans, whatever he imagined they were. Fortunately Aloree came back with my bag and opened it before us, revealing a number of sealed letters. "May I?" I asked, then slowly removed one of the letters, surreptitiously touching the seal with my thumb to enable it being opened without the magic self-immolating it, and handed it to the man. "These are my credentials."

The envelope was one of many different sets of credentials, all set to burn if they were opened without my touch. This particular one contained a quite genuine endorsement from one of my kingdom's top trading companies, describing me and assigning me as their agent for all sorts of dealmaking and hiring, with all the proper signatures and stamps. Other envelopes were a bit more on the nose, containing my lineage and title, and I knew it wasn't time to use one of them and blow my cover.

The man handed the envelope to Aloree. "Identify the seal," he said.

She wasn't exaggerating, I thought. She really is the local expert in diplomacy.

Aloree looked at it. "It's the royal seal of the kingdom of Tarmel. It appears genuine."

The man looked back and forth between her and I, suspicious. "Remember, I will be getting a second opinion," he said, and stared at her. She stared back. "Open the letter and read it to me."

She read it verbatim, flowery language endorsing me and all. She added, "The company in question has an outpost in our kingdom, and is legitimate. I most likely do not have a copy of the company signatures to confirm them, but should be able to find a sample of the royal seal."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hand me it back and go look for the sample."

She placed the letter back into the envelope, handed it over, and dashed off to her wagon again. I was impressed by the wagon master's level of distrust--had he thought she was sweet enough on me to lie to save me, or was he always this cautious?

The wagon leader watched her for a moment, then looked back at me. "If you're a travelling merchant, where are your goods? One can hardly sell letters of introduction."

"I hid them by the roadside before I snuck up on the brigands. One can hardly sneak with a noisy crate full of goods clanking around. I'll retrieve them in the morning."

I saw the man come to a decision. "About that... if you wish, you may leave us at dawn and continue on your way. But I'm down a wagon train guard. If you'd like to accompany us, guard training begins shortly after dawn. You should have enough time to get your goods and return if you wake promptly."

Aloree came back, royal envelope from Tarmel in hand. She handed it over, and the man carefully compared the seal and envelope with my own, running his finger slowly over each one.

Finally, he nodded, then extended his hand to me. "I'm Lordan, wagon master of this wagon train. What do you say--planning to join us?"

I looked at Aloree. She smiled at me hopefully. Well, I could probably get more information travelling with them, and, after all, I was a sucker for a beautiful smile. I took Lordan's hand and gave it my best handshake. "Glad to be aboard," I replied. Aloree beamed with pleasure.

"Excellent," replied Lordan, "You'll be training and working rearguard with these two." He nodded to the swordsmen on either side of him. "Get to know each other a bit--I need to check something."

He took the two envelopes and walked off to the other side of the wagon train. Ah, yes, that second opinion. The man's cautious diligence was impressive, and he'd surreptitiously left me two guards in case I was bluffing him. I looked at the two swordsmen now flanking my bed.

One of them broke the ice. "Thanks for the save, Vel. I think I would've quit if he'd asked me to off you--we wouldn't have survived without ya! My name's Pol, and he's Jom."

His companion gave a snort. "He had a nice swing with that sword for sure, but can you imagine if we get attacked tomorrow? Him lying in his bed in the wagon, still short of blood, trying to swing a sword over the wagon rim?" He exaggeratedly rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Aloree's the greatest healer alive," Pol said, then gave Aloree a sly look moving his eyebrows up and down. "And she seems to have taken a fancy to this one!" Aloree blushed at this.

They continued to give us--and each other--a friendly ribbing, until the wagon master returned, mollified. He stuffed my letter of introduction back into my bag, and I made a mental note to burn it when no one was looking. No sense in having credentials with the seal broken, limiting my options for cover story if anyone searched my bag. "All right guys, time to get some rest," he said. "You'll need to be up at dawn tomorrow." The two swordsmen groaned exaggeratedly, and walked off to the other side of the circle with Lordan.

Aloree give me another drink of water from her skin. "Rest now, and recover from your blood loss. We'll talk more tomorrow evening."

I closed my eyes. Like a doused candle, I was out.