Because Cheeyt had wanted to make it through Riverport quickly, of course it didn’t happen that way.

Three hours after they had unloaded everything from the barge, the port-holder of Riverport finally let Cheeyt and Nuliyaa leave her office.

“Did you sleep with her, too?” Nuliyaa asked as they walked across the waterfront toward their people, the setting sun striping the world with orange and shadows.

Cheeyt’s head whipped toward Nuliyaa so hard, she stumbled. “Do you think I’ve slept with every woman we meet?”

“No. Only the ones who are angry with you.”

“I have never met her before. This is just what it’s like to go through Riverport.”

“Then why did you assume we’d be through here quickly?”

She jerked her shoulders in an angry shrug. “The port-holders like to pick random parties for their ‘audits.’”

“I see.” It still would have been nice to know that yesterday when they had been making their plans. At least she had gone in with Cheeyt. Otherwise it would probably would have been in the middle of the night before they were released. “What is a good inn?”

“There’s a Guild-approved inn four streets over.” Cheeyt stretched out her stride to get slightly ahead. Apparently she didn’t want to talk anymore.

“We’re going to Duck’s,” Cheeyt said to Kachaark when they got close enough for the minotaur to hear without shouting.

“Who is Duck?” Miyt asked.

“No one. It’s just the name of the inn.” Cheeyt turned to Sinchach, who was still leaning against the wagon reading. He probably wasn’t aware they’d returned. “Are we interrupting study time?”

He looked up at her, blinking. Tajak didn’t quite hide his sigh.

“The wagon, mage.”

He turned to look over his shoulder at the vehicle. “Is there something wrong with the wagon?”

“It’s not moving. You’re supposed to be moving it.”

“Oh. Yes.” He gave a put-upon sigh and tucked his book in his pocket before moving to the back of the wagon.

Nuliyaa heard Tajak mutter, “You need to pay more attention. You are an employee, remember?”

“I am also here because they could not hire a different mage.” Sinchach pulled a bit of charcoal out of his pocket and drew a sigil onto the wagon. “Ready,” he announced when finished and pushed against the back. The wagon rolled forward, all of the falling alongside.

Nuliyaa had been expecting Duck’s to be more like the Pigeon’s Perch in Aapa Mapri: a respectable-looking building in a middling area of the city.

That was not what she saw.

The Duck stood barely three stories tall—the third story looked a bit short compared to the bottom two. The roof was patched, and not well. The door hung crooked in the frame, letting patches of light stream out. The light had a purplish tint that meant there were more mage-lamps with the cheap fuel than lanterns. The wooden walls were covered in mildew.

“You said this place was Guild-approved?” Nuliyaa asked.

“They have had a rough time of it this past year, it seems,” Kachaark said. Though she noticed his hands reached for the wagon shafts, like he wanted to be sure no one ran off with it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“It’s just one night,” Cheeyt muttered.

Nuliyaa didn’t want to argue. Cheeyt sounded like she was at the end of her patience. It was only one night. But there were inns back in Wumaltsmaas that she knew were the bad part of the city that felt safer than this place did.

She wasn’t sure if the interior looked much better than the exterior. It was too dark and smoky. She was right about the mage-lamps, and there were fewer of them than there should have been. Beneath the smoke, the place smelled musty. Chesfi was not going to be happy with this choice. And if this was what the inside looked like, how bad were the rooms in the stables?

“Two rooms upstairs and one in the stable for a minotaur,” Cheeyt said to the innkeeper. She scowled at him. “Where’s Duck?”

So Duck was a person after all?

“Sold and went back home.” The innkeeper barely looked up. “No rooms upstairs.”

Nuliyaa had been scanning the room as Cheeyt and the innkeeper talked. She leaned closer to her sister. “I think we should all stay together.” She didn’t like how they were being eyed.

Cheeyt started to say something, but she must have changed her mind because she paused before saying, “One room in the stable, then.”

She and the innkeeper exchanged coins before she turned back to Nuliyaa, mouth opening. But instead of speaking, her eyes caught on something over Nuliyaa’s shoulder. Nuliyaa turned and felt a smile bloom across her face. “Nuttulch! Saknuu!”

***

Cheeyt wished her sister had kept her mouth shut.

Cheeyt’s friends were at a table with three others from Supyuunch’s company, which meant the whole company was here. At Nuliyaa’s call, their eyes swung up from their drinks. “Look who it is!” Nuttulch pushed back his chair, nearly upending the table and making all of the drinks slop over the edges of the cups.

“Watch it!” one of the others snarled, but Nuttulch just tossed a coin her way as he came over with Saknuu right behind.

They were already drunk and it would just get worse as the night wore on. Were Cheeyt still with the company, she’d be out in the stable with whatever they were transporting so she wouldn’t get dragged into whatever bad decisions Nuttulch and Saknuu were going to make. It was the reason why she and Kachaark had become friends over the handful of jobs he’d worked with the company.

“They finally let you out of Wumaltsmaas, yeah?” Nuttulch gave them a wide, bleary grin.

“Yes.” Cheeyt just needed to keep the conversation short and hope someone distracted them. A card game, food, something.

Nuliyaa frowned at her and she discreetly tugged on her elbow. They needed to get out of here before the fighting started. Or she saw Supyuunch.

The outside door opened. There went that hope.

Supyuunch swaggered in, two more members of the company behind him. His eyes landed on Nuttulch’s towering form and tracked over to her. “Etskauu!” he said, his voice full of faked joviality. “Is that your cute little wagon out front?”

“Yes,” she gritted out.

“Nice to see you finally got some real work.” When Nuttulch had said it, it had been ribbing between friends. When Supyuunch said it, it was an insult.

She stuck with the safe, “Yes.”

Then Nuliyaa was sliding in front of her, a friendly smile on her face. It wasn’t her real smile—it was the smile Cheeyt had seen directed at Wiispuu and people like him dozens of times. “We’re glad to see you’re well, too, Charchee Supyuunch,” she said. “I was a little concerned about businesses like yours.”

Supyuunch leaned back. Why was he rattled by Nuliyaa’s nerves? “Why would you be concerned about me?”

“Oh, well, the company Yallee started? That Layk works for now?”

Supyuunch scowled. When Layk left the company, she’d dragged a bit of his business with her. Now Cheeyt knew how she’d been able to do that.

“Yes.” Nuliyaa’s expression was full of so much sympathy, even Cheeyt would have believed she and Supyuunch were friendly. “Well, they’re really too big to bother competing with small companies like us.” No, they didn’t bother competing—they’d just tried to stifle them with that outsourcing shit. “But you take on such similar jobs. They have to have been difficult for you. We hoped they weren’t taking too many of your customers.”

Supyuunch crossed his arms. “They haven’t been too much of a problem.” He didn’t sound sure, though.

“Oh, good.” Nuliyaa batted her eyes at him. Cheeyt had never realized that was something people could actually do before that moment. “We have to get back to our client. Enjoy your evening. Nuttulch, Saknuu, make sure you come to the stable later to say hello to Miyt.”

Great. She’d invited the trouble out with them. Just when Cheeyt had been thinking they might escape this unscathed.

They were halfway to the door before she heard Supyuunch’s muttered farewell.

“Were you just going to keep saying ‘yes’ all evening?” Nuliyaa asked when the door shut behind them.

“Let’s just get everyone into the room and find food,” Cheeyt muttered.

“Oh, good. I’m glad you see reason well enough to know we were not eating anything that came out of that establishment. Miyt would have never been willing to call you daughter again.”