Every time a sail appeared, Nuliyaa felt herself holding her breath until it was gone. No matter what flag they flew—Keeylish, Nengmekian, Bakfathi, city-states—her mind just knew every passing boat was a pirate coming to kill them all.

After the pirates, Chesfi refused to stay in the wagon. She insisted none of the barge’s crew would see her and that obviously someone needed to watch for threats since none of them had done a good job with it. So she spent her days at the top of one of the stacks of crates and sacks, which made Singmij grumpy.

Cheeyt, Kachaark, and Singmij took turns watching the horizon, too. Though Kachaark always stepped out of view when they saw a Bakfathi flag.

And after all that rowing, Nuliyaa’s entire body ached.

She sat under the awning again, watching Miyt stitch as Sinchach slept. There wasn’t much else to do as the barge crept down the river. They were still a day away from Riverport and saying Bakath’s border was all swamp hadn’t been an exaggeration. She could stare at the trees on one side or trees in water on the other. Occasionally, there was a marshland.

Sinchach hadn’t moved much in the last two days. It had taken hours for the redness to leech out of his face and neck, even after Tajak covered him in a piece of cloth he called a cooling blanket. Miyt had looked at Sinchach the day before and said, “It is good for him to sleep. He won’t hurt.” Tajak had gone even more quiet after that, not that the young man spoke much before.

On the other side, Tseetsaa stared off over the water, one hand on her pocket. She had tucked the papers Sinchach had given her into that pocket and hadn’t stopped touching it since.

Cheeyt ducked under the awning and sat down next to Tajak. She looked over Sinchach for a moment—what was she looking for?—and then said, her voice gentle, “It’s not your fault.”

Tajak’s voice was dull. “My charge was hurt on my watch. How is it not my responsibility?”

“What could you have done differently?”

“I should have been faster—.”

“To do what? Can you hold that shield? Do you know that kind of magic?”

His eyes closed and he swallowed. “I shouldn’t have encouraged him to take the job.”

“Does he or does he not have the skills and training for this job?”

“Yes, but he’s an academic. He’s only here so we can go home!”

“Did you force him to sign the contract?”

“No, but he wouldn’t even have thought of this if not for me! I wanted to finish the job so much—.” Tajak swallowed.

“I’ve never been a personal bodyguard,” Cheeyt said, “but I’ve been guarding for over fifteen years. You can give a client a point-by-point explanation of everything that can go wrong in every possible situation. You can spend hours telling them every experience you’ve had that proves why you’re concerned. In the end, it is their choice what they do.” At that, she shot a hard look at each member of her family. “Their choice is not your responsibility. Doing what you can to help them survive their choice is your responsibility. Even then, you can’t prepare for everything that can happen. What we can do is have a meeting when Sinchach wakes up to discuss what happened and how we can improve our response in the future.”

Tajak only pressed his lips together. After a moment, Cheeyt patted his shoulder, stood up, and walked away.

Tseetsaa spun around. “How much magic can you do?” she asked Tajak.

He blinked over at her, not seeming to comprehend her question at first. Then he blinked again and said, “Only what Sinchach has shown me.”

“I didn’t know people who weren’t mages could do magic at all.”

Nuliyaa squinted at her. “You used the warming stone for cooking every day back at home.”

“Yes, but that’s made for non-mages to use! But we can do anything?”

“If you know how.” At Sinchach’s voice, everyone jumped. The mage pushed the cooling blanket off and sat up. He put a hand up to his head. “Why does my head hurt?”

Miyt passed him a water flask. “You were overheated after the pirate attack. Drink slowly.”

Sinchach took a few sips of water, then dragged the cooling blanket over his head like a hood. “Anyone can learn to do magic,” he said. “You just can’t sell your services or any products you create unless you attend one of the mage academies.”

“Oh.” Tseetsaa’s shoulders collapsed a little. Why was she asking about magic? Was she interested in learning?

It would be just like Tseetsaa to develop an interest in the career with the most expensive training in all of Keeyl.

“Do you need anything?” Tajak asked.

The poor man really was feeling guilty about the pirates.

“Where’s my bag?” Sinchach looked around, his expression suddenly so distracted Nuliyaa wasn’t entirely sure he was responding to Tajak.

The guard went to stand up, then looked back at Sinchach like he was afraid to turn his back for even the amount of time it would take to walk to the wagon and back. Tseetsaa popped up, grabbed the bag, and passed it over when she returned.

Sinchach dug out his coat and reached into the pocket, his arm going far deeper than it should based on the stitching lines. He pulled out a book and flipped through it.

“What are you doing?” Tseetsaa asked, turning her head as though she was trying to read the cover.

“If heat came through, I must have used the wrong shield,” he muttered, stopping on one page to read.

They watched him turn a couple of pages before Nuliyaa asked, “Have you found the one you should have used?”

“What?” He looked up, confusion knitting his brow together.

“The shield. Did you find the one that doesn’t let heat through?”

“Oh.” He stared at the page. “Oh, that’s what I was looking for? I just found a fascinating potion for making a watertight coating for fabric.” He looked up at the canvas above them. “Do you think the barger would be interested in having his tarps done?”

Tajak pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Cheeyt had appeared again. “We need to make plans for what to do on the road from Riverport to Spires. I’ll be right back.” She was talking to Sinchach, but Nuliyaa was certain he wasn’t even aware she was around.

Singmij ducked under the canvas shortly after. “I have been informing we are meeting.” She seemed amused.

“Has Cheeyt forgotten you don’t work for us?” Nuliyaa asked.

“So it seems. She has a valid concern, so I’ll allow it.”

Kachaark walked up, every step reverberating through the deck. Cheeyt followed him, a roll of undyed cloth in her hands. Nuliyaa couldn’t remember ever seeing it before. It seemed too coarse and stiff for clothing.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Cheeyt knelt in the middle of the ragged circle they had made, next to Sinchach. The mage was still absorbed in his book. She unrolled the cloth, revealing a map. Nuliyaa cocked her head to see it better. Oh! Was that the river? And there was Nengmek. This must have been the route Cheeyt had planned before they knew they couldn’t go to Tewmisyu.

“Can you make maps?” she asked Sinchach.

“Hm?” He didn’t look up.

Cheeyt seemed to be considering ripping the book out of his hands. “Maps,” she repeated, shoving the edge of the cloth more in his direction.

“What about maps?” He flipped a page.

Before Cheeyt could rip the book out of his hands and toss it off the barge, Tajak reached over and took it. “I’ll take care of this while you confer with your employer,” he said, straight-faced.

“Oh. Thank you?” He frowned at Tajak in confusion, then noticed the map. “You have a mage-map!” Tseetsaa and, surprisingly, Singmij hid smiles.

“Yes,” Cheeyt pushed out through gritted teeth. “I do. Can you update it?”

“Of course.” Insult flashed across his face as he reached for the map. It must have been considered a basic skill in the mage community. “What should I replicate?”

“The river to Riverport, the road to Spires, and Spires to the bridge.”

“Very well.” He touched the map. Ink crawled across the fabric, suddenly looking faded. He winced and reached into his pocket to withdraw a bottle of ink. Made from a thick tinted glass and holding a pigment darker than anything Nuliyaa had ever seen on her father’s workspace, it was obviously expensive. And he tipped an amount larger than a coin on his palm and tossed it at the map.

Instead of staining, though, the ink spread over the cloth and sank into the threads. Lines radiated out until the map was obvious again. When Sinchach pulled his hand back, even his palm was unmarked by the ink. How many surfaces in their apartment had been stained over the years by ink from Laa’s work?

They all leaned closer to examine the map. The details were, well, detailed. Riverport and Spires were both a mass of smaller lines that must be streets, with major buildings depicted in between.

“How do you know what the map should look like?” Tseetsaa asked.

“We have to memorize maps,” he answered.

Nuliyaa could tell from Tseetsaa’s expression that she had hoped for something more mystical than that.

“We may encounter problems in Riverport,” Cheeyt started, touching the city-state. “Nothing that will be much of an issue after they see that we have weapons and magic.”

“Do we need to check in with the Guarding Guild there?” Nuliyaa asked. She knew it was considered polite in the Jewelers’ Guild even when outside of one’s own nation.

“It’s out of the way,” Cheeyt said, staring at the map. She touched a spot in Riverport. “The Guild Hall is around here and—” She moved her hand to a line moving away from the city that was almost directly across from the spot. “—This is the road we need. The badge we’ll pick up from the port-holder will tell the locals that we’re passing through.”

She followed the road with her finger. “Right outside of Riverport will be quiet. They have a civil guard that rides the roads, otherwise their farmers wouldn’t get food into the city.” Her finger tapped the start of a treeline. “This is where the trouble starts. Riverport doesn’t consider anything in the forest to be their problem, and Spires’s patrols don’t usually go past here.” She tapped a town carved out of the forest that was marked Grove. “The road is active with people traveling between Spires and Riverport, especially this time of year, so there may or may not be bandits.”

“Not well organized,” Kachaark interjected. “Easy to scare off.”

“In Riverport, we don’t want to draw attention,” Cheeyt said. “The residents there tend to band together against outsiders, even when the outsiders are the ones in the right.” She looked at Sinchach. “I want everyone to have protection charms. Our client will need to stay in the wagon.”

“They will not see me,” Chesfi said from above them. They all looked up at the canvas.

“How are you up there?” Nuliyaa asked. There wasn’t a bulge or any other indication that she was sitting on the fabric.

She sounded like she was smirking when she repeated, “No one will see me.”

“I understand, but we need to stay together. I would prefer we leave Riverport and camp on the road instead of getting an inn in the city.” Miyt and Tseetsaa made mournful faces at that. Nuliyaa was sure she had done the same. She turned her attention back to Sinchach. “So, protection charms.”

“Very well. I would like for your sister to help.”

Cheeyt and Tseetsaa gave him identical started looks. “I’m happy to help,” Tseetsaa said slowly.

“Excellent.”

For a moment, Cheeyt looked like she wanted to object just to object, but then she turned her attention back to the map. Then she glanced up at the canvas. She was planning something.

“After we leave Riverport, I could use your assistance, Chesfi.”

A soft sound alerted them to the malk’s entry. She climbed down from the nearby stacks of crates. She hadn’t been on the canvas at all.

After Chesfi had padded into the middle, settling her hindquarters on a corner and just barely touching the edge of a road, she asked, “What would you like for me to do?”

“Listen,” Cheeyt said. “Kachaark’s ears are good, but since he’ll be at the front of the wagon, I would like to have someone at the back.”

Chesfi stared at her as though she wasn’t sure Cheeyt was being serious in her request. “Are you trying to force me to stay with the wagon?”

“Since you are riding on the wagon anyway, it seems efficient to assign you a task.”

Singmij hid a smile again. The sikoesnu had far more personality away from her duties.

Chesfi’s ears flicked back and forth for a moment before she dipped her head regally. “It is the mark of a great leader to use resources wisely. I will do as you ask.”

That didn’t seem likely to last for long.

Cheeyt looked at Singmij. “Crossbows on the road?”

“Yes.”

Cheeyt turned her attention back to Sinchach. “I don’t know what you can do.”

“You have worked with mages before.”

“Yes, but most of them were experienced working with guarding companies. I don’t know what you can do.”

Now Sinchach looked insulted. “Everything they can do. I did graduate from the premier mage academy in the River Basin.”

Cheeyt was so easy to read. Nuliyaa knew she was thinking how graduating from a mage academy was not the same as performing the job. Though Sinchach had jumped in when they needed him with the pirates. He’d even let himself be injured to protect them.

“I worked with a mage who could make something that could be a lookout from above,” Kachaark said. “That was useful.”

“A construct?” Sinchach looked intrigued. “That would be fascinating to put together. I could…” His eyes focused on the book Tajak held.

“Constructs take time to put together, from what I saw at the academy,” Tajak said. “How do the bandits attack? Knowing might help Sinchach plan his defenses better.”

“They like to swarm,” Kachaark said. “One or two in the trees shooting arrows. The rest try to rush from one spot.”

“Their tactic is to overwhelm the defenses on one side,” Singmij said.

Sinchach looked at Tseetsaa. “We will need a lot of protection charms.” He looked back at Cheeyt. “Why do you even bother hiring a mage? Just buy protection charms.”

“Protection charms get expensive,” she answered dryly. “And we like to hire mages for when the bandits are more professional about their crimes.”

Tajak looked more interested. “How do the more professional bandits attack?”

“They usually have more people, first off,” Kachaark answered.

“They’ll distribute their people better,” Cheeyt said. “And they like to send in people to take the wagon when all of the defenses are engaged. So, we’re in the wagon. Kachaark is at the front—”

“Why is he at the front if he isn’t hauling the wagon?” Sinchach demanded.

Cheeyt stared at him with what Nuliyaa would have called her older-sister-glare, but she supposed it might be her I’m-in-charge-glare, too. Sinchach looked away first. “Kachaark likes to be the vanguard,” she said. “He’s big. He makes a good one. If I can continue?”

“Of course.” He lifted a hand in a go-on gesture.

“Singmij and I are on the sides. You’ll need to be at the back so you can keep the wagon moving and protect the rear. Miyt, Tseetsaa, Nuliyaa, if we are attacked, you need to get out of the way. Under the wagon is safest.”

“You don’t want us to help in any way?” Nuliyaa stared at her sister. “You’re just going to stuff us under the wagon like children?”

“Yes. Because you don’t have any training.”

“Have you ever considered giving us some training so that we can do something?”

Cheeyt’s face made an expression that said she didn’t consider it worth her time. Singmij’s eyebrows winged up, then she turned to Nuliyaa. “If you would like to learn some basic self-defense, I see no harm. It probably won’t do much good on this journey, but if you keep practicing, you can at least save yourself if needed.” She nodded at Tseetsaa and Miyt. “Any of you are welcome. There won’t be much else to do at night on the road. We should have been doing this from the start.”

Sinchach had been digging in his pockets again. “I’ll show you how to draw this one, too,” he said to Tseetsaa when he pulled out the paper he had apparently been searching for. Then he frowned. “Hm, I’ll need a bath to treat the paper.” His eyes moved to the wagon. “That might not be smooth enough for the tub.” He twisted toward Chesfi. “Do you feel many bumps riding in the wagon?” The malk just stared at him.

“What does that one do?” Cheeyt asked.

“A sedative,” Sinchach answered.

She jerked away. “What keeps that from taking us out while we’re fighting the person it was intended for?”

“Oh.” He looked at the sigil. “We should probably use this one, then.” He put the one paper back in his pocket and withdrew another. “This one adheres to the intended so it only works on them. But I need the bath or this is only a piece of paper that sticks to people.”

“We have a day until we reach Riverport. Make as much as you can now and then you won’t have to worry about the wagon being bumpy.”

“Oh. Good point.”

Cheeyt rolled up her map, pushed to her feet, and walked away from the tarp. Sinchach stared after her. “Are we done?”

Singmij reached forward and patted his shoulder. “Yes, we are.”