Even Cheeyt didn’t argue when Nuliyaa decided to pay for one of the larger rooms. The inn didn’t own a cart-house or quarters for hooved peoples, but there was one available a few buildings down the street, so as soon as they had pulled out what they needed for the night and Tseetsaa had carefully laid out the anti-theft ward as Sinchach had shown her, Kachaark took the wagon down to settle down for some rest. Cheeyt went with him to make sure they knew where they were staying.

Unlike so many of the inns they had stayed in or passed since leaving Wumaltsmaas, this one wasn’t crowded and worn. Instead, the common room they entered was best described as bustling. It wasn’t quite late enough in the day for most travelers to be settling down for the evening, but the few inside gave welcoming nods when Nuliyaa met their eyes. The innkeeper behind the bar appeared neat and didn’t seem to be trying to gouge as much coin out of them as others had. She gave an efficient rundown of her costs and once she and Nuliyaa had come to an agreement, she pulled a tile with a sigil drawn on it out of her pocket and passed over along with directions of where to find their room.

“We’ll wait for Cheeyt,” Nuttulch and Saknuu said when Nuliyaa turned away from the bar.

“Good.” Nuliyaa indicated the stairs and her sister and mother followed her up to the second floor and down the hall to the room number that matched the tile.

“We should have inquired into a bath house,” Tseetsaa said with a happy little sigh as she, Nuliyaa, and Miyt took in the room.

It was tucked under the eaves, so not as large a room as it would have been without the sloping ceiling, but there were two beds and a warming sigil inscribed in the floorboards. Everything seemed clean and smelled much fresher than they did.

That made Nuliyaa wince. What had the Malks, with their keener noses, had thought of their state? Oh, well. The job was done and they had been paid.

“I will go down and ask about the bath house,” Nuliyaa said. “I think I’ve heard of natural springs with hot water in Nengmek. Wouldn’t one of those be nice?”

She returned downstairs and as she stepped onto the floor, the door swung open. Over the departing man’s shoulder, she caught sight of Cheeyt standing with her arms crossed. What had set her sister off now? She turned toward the door instead of the bar.

“You told Nuliyaa you were done,” Cheeyt was saying as Nuliyaa pushed the door back open.

“Aw, Cheeyt,” Nuttulch replied. “It’ll just be a little bit.”

Cheeyt’s fingers were digging into her arms. “It’s always just a little bit,” she said.

“Job’s done, isn’t it?” He almost snapped the words. “Won’t be a problem to go have a little fun now.”

“Saknuu?” Cheeyt turned to the other man, something close to pleading in her tone.

He didn’t meet her eyes. “Someone needs to keep an eye on him,” he mumbled.

Nuliyaa stepped up next to her sister and slid her arm around Cheeyt’s waist. “Then I suppose you’ll be finding your own way back to Wumaltsmaas,” she said, pulling as much chill into her words as she could create around the sadness that swamped her heart. She’d hoped—she’d really hoped.

“Suppose we will,” Nuttulch said, nearly snarling. He turned on his heel and stalked down the street, Saknuu trailing behind, throwing looks over his shoulder.

“We’re going to find a bath house,” Nuliyaa said. “Is there one of those hot springs in the city?”

Just as she had hoped, the question made Cheeyt’s eyes jerk down to hers. “Why would you think there are hot springs in the city?”

“They have them in Nengmek, don’t they?”

“Closer to the mountains.” Cheeyt threw her arm out to gesture at the dark smudges on the horizon. Well, what could be seen of it beyond the buildings.

“That’s disappointing. Then, bath house?”

For a moment, it looked like Cheeyt’s disappointment was going to come back. A shadow passed over her face, but then she shook her head and said, “Right. I think I know of a decent one. We should ask the innkeeper to be sure.”

Shortly after, the four woman were trooping out of the inn to find the bath house. “This way,” Cheeyt said, turning in the opposite direction from the cart-house where Kachaark was staying. “It should be four streets over.”

The area around the Malks’ meeting-house and the inn seemed to be more buildings of the same purpose. Nuliyaa had seen two more that looked like inns between the meeting-house and the inn they’d been sent to. Another seemed to be a guild house of some sort, though she couldn’t be sure without reading Nengmekian.

“What is that?” Tseetsaa asked, pointing at one of the buildings Nuliyaa had been puzzling over. Every time the door opened, she could smell food cooking.

“Eatery,” Cheeyt answered.

“The food stalls are inside?” Everyone except Cheeyt turned to stare at the eatery.

“Would you want to eat outside when it’s cold?”

“How do they keep it from burning down?” Nuliyaa eyed the walls the eatery shared with the businesses next to it.

“Magic and luck, I think,” Cheeyt answered, her voice turning absent and sad again.

So her family pulled her out of it with questions, growing sillier and sillier until Cheeyt was glaring at them with her usual judgment.

“No, there isn’t a whole other city underground.” Cheeyt stared at Tseetsaa as though she was questioning her sister’s intelligence. “Where did you get that from?”

Tseetsaa shrugged. “There was this book at the lending library and you said that door went under the building. What else should I think?”

“It’s a cellar,” Cheeyt said. “The door goes to a cellar. It’s for storage.”

Then she stopped, her head swinging around as something caught her attention.

But it was too late. They were surrounded.

Cheeyt’s hands went toward weapons she wasn’t carrying. Tseetsaa yanked a handful of sigils out of her pocket, but the person behind her caught Tseetsaa with one hand and yanked the sigils from her grasp with the other.

“Take a nap,” came a voice from behind Nuliyaa as something was pressed against the back of her head before everything went dark.

***

Her head was pounding.

Nuliyaa opened her eyes, blinked, then tried to figure out where they were. She had woken up to so many roofs over the past months. Though this one looked worse than any they’d stayed under before. There were so many drafts—

No. They were done. This wasn’t their inn.

She rolled to her side and hit the wall that was Cheeyt’s back. “Unh,” was her sister’s response.

“Where are we?” Nuliyaa whispered. “Is this Sinchach’s family again?”

Cheeyt rolled over, struggling a bit with her hands tied together. “No,” she said, talking just as quietly. “I don’t think so. Seems like a common storehouse on the canal.”

“We should go to a nice desert next,” Nuliyaa said. “I think we need to avoid places with waterways in the future.”

Cheeyt snorted. “So everywhere?”

Then Cheeyt sat up. She froze before whispering, “Singmij.”

“Hello,” the other woman said, her voice rasping.

Nuliyaa shot to a sitting position, then regretted it as her head swam. But the dizziness was nothing compared to the roiling she’d felt on the river, so she squinted her eyes to focus on the other woman.

She saw Tseetsaa and Miyt, who were both blinking up at the ceiling, then beyond them Singmij slumped against the wall.

“What happened to you?” Nuliyaa asked.

“The same as happened to you, I imagine.” She turned to press her cheek against the wall.That was when Nuliyaa realized that whole side of her face was bruised. “I believe we have found the Nengmekian base for the poachers.”

Cheeyt straightened, then winced, though that didn’t stop her from saying, “They’re bold enough to operate in the capital?”

“So it seems.” She nodded at a nearby wagon. “Does that look Keeylish to you?”

All four turned to look at the symbol emblazoned on the side of the wagon. Nuliyaa sucked in a startled breath. “Yengkima.”

“The business owner?” Cheeyt frowned at her.

Singmmij sighed. “That makes sense. He can hide his illegal activities under his legitimate ones.” She then nodded toward crates in a corner. “I saw them haul Kachaark in. He’s in one of those.”

“No,” Tseetsaa whispered.

“Will someone hear us if we call for help?” Miyt asked. “There doesn’t appear to be anyone here.”

“Silencing wards,” Singmij said, bumping her shoulder against the wall. She winced. It seemed her face wasn’t the only place she was bruised.

“I don’t suppose you have any sigils for getting out of this,” Cheeyt said to Tseetsaa, sounding defeated. Tseetsaa shook her head, though she didn’t match Cheeyt’s expression. Nuliyaa narrowed her eyes at her younger sister. What was Tseetsaa thinking of?

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There had to be a way out of this. Certainly Yengkima wouldn’t stoop to murder for his business—

She shook that thought out of her head. Of course he would. By the nature of poaching, he was already showing he was willing to murder for his business.

He’d had other species working in his house. How could he employ the same peoples he slaughtered?

Maybe it wasn’t Yengkima running the poachers. Maybe it was someone else in his business who was using his facilities to run their operation.

A door opened on the other side of the building and they heard a group of people walk in. The newcomers turned toward where they were sitting.

And when they came into view, it was obvious Yengkima was operating the poaching.

“Oh, you’re awake.” He sounded brisk, as though they were an item on his tasks for the day. Not even a particularly important one.

He walked toward them, pulling on gloves. His appearance didn’t match the condition of the storehouse. He looked expensive and shiny in his cream-colored tunic with its intricately-embroidered trim. The only thing marring him was the dirt getting kicked up on his soft leather shoes.

He focused on Nuliyaa. “A pity you chose to involve yourself in this,” he said. “The level of service you provided at the jeweler’s had me considering offering your company jobs. There are times hiring a smaller outfit would benefit me.. I was unpleasantly surprised when my people alerted me that your company was the one preventing the retrieval of my goods.”

“A Malk is not your ‘goods,’” Nuliyaa snapped before she considered the wisdom of speaking.

But he didn’t respond. Instead, he merely lifted his brows and turned toward the woman next to him. “Silence them and load them in with the next shipment. Dispose of them when you believe it best.”

“You can’t—” Nuliyaa started, but he merely turned and started back across the storehouse.

“Be ready to run out the hole,” Tseetsaa whispered.

“What?” They all turned to look at her.

“Ready? Three, two, now!”

And then the wall blew out.

Singmij must have been following Tseetsaa’s intentions better than her family before she was on her feet as soon as the boom sounded, dragging Miyt along with her. Cheeyt took a second longer, then Nuliyaa scrambled out last, almost flopping on her face as she tried to stand without the use of her hands.

Outside the store house was normal dock activities. The hole Tseetsaa had created opened up onto an alley. A quick glance down either end showed people moving goods. The workers were staring at the wall they’d just come from and when people started calling out from inside the store house, several took steps toward the running women.

“This way,” Singmij said, turning to the left.

“They thieves?” Nuliyaa heard one ask.

“Yes!” Yengkima snapped. “Thieves!”

“What about Kachaark?” Nuliyaa panted out as they ran, dodging the workers. Poor Miyt was practically being dragged by the much-faster Singmij.

“Wait!” Tseetsaa spun. “Get my hands!”

Two of the dock workers were almost on them, but they hesitated when they saw the bonds on Tseetsaa’s wrists. Cheeyt spun, fingers grasping for Tseetsaa’s hands.

“You sure they thieves?” one asked. “Look like they was already tied up.”

“No!” Nuliyaa said. “They were going to kill us!”

The dock workers exchanged glances and the one who hadn’t been talking threw her hands up. “I’m not getting in the middle of whatever this is,” she said and walked away. The other followed her.

“Faster, Cheeyt,” Singmij said, watching Yengkima’s people sprinting down the alley.

“You try untying knots by feel alone,” Cheeyt growled back. “Got it!”

Tseetsaa immediately grabbed into her pocket, pulling out a handful of sigils. She threw one down the alley, practically screamed the spell, and then wind sent Yengkima’s crew tumbling back.

“We have to get Kachaark,” Nuliyaa said. “Did you see exactly where he is?”

“He was close to us, I think,” Saknuu said, starting to turn back.

“We have to keep moving,” Singmij said, turning and doing just that, still helping Miyt move.

“No! We have to get Kachaark!” Nuliyaa couldn’t bear to leave him. He was in this only because he was working for them.

“We will,” Singmij reassured Nuliyaa. “But we can’t stay in one place while we plan. They’ll get us.” She eyed Tseetsaa. “Even with our ever-prepared mage’s assistant with us. I’m shocked they didn’t destroy those.”

“I don’t have many left.” Tseetsaa winced. “I dropped most of them when they caught us. But I don’t think they looked through our pockets.”

“Is that how you exploded the wall?”

“No. I drew the sigils in the dirt.”

Singmij tossed her a startled look, then barked out a laugh. “Did you know that would work?”

“No.”

“I have a plan,” Cheeyt said.

***

After spending a few minutes looping through the streets and alleyways of the riverside to lose Yengkima’s workers, and almost getting lost themselves, Nuliyaa and Cheeyt turned into the alley on the opposite side of the store house. Nuliyaa’s heart pounded as she jogged along beside Cheeyt’s much longer steps. Cheeyt acted as though she did this every day. Her training couldn’t have possibly prepared her for something like this.

“Do you remember the spells?” Cheeyt demanded.

“Yes. There are only two.”

“It won’t work if you mix them up.”

Nuliyaa gritted her teeth before she answered, “I’m aware.”

Cheeyt suddenly stopped. “Here.” She pointed at the section of wall beside them before turning to eye one end of the alley, then the other.

Nuliyaa pulled out one of the two sigils Tseetsaa had passed to her. Cheeyt stood at her back, so close Nuliyaa almost gave into the urge to jab her sister’s side with her elbow. Two people turned into the alley and shouted when they saw the sisters, breaking into a run in their direction.

As Nuliyaa slapped her own sigil against the wall of the store house, Cheeyt threw hers toward the approaching people, both whispering the spells Tseetsaa had taught them. The two spells activated almost at the same time, Cheeyt’s wind sigil throwing the people back down the alley while Nuliyaa’s blew another hole in the wall.

Sounds poured out of the new hole as the sisters darted to their next spot. There were shouts, including Yengkima’s voice, but there was also the cries of the others trapped in the crates: Malk yowls, cries from Pucas in human form, and one bull’s lowing that had to be Kachaark. She hoped it was Kachaark.

“Here!” Cheeyt said and Nuliyaa spun to slap the next sigil against the wall.

While she and Cheeyt were providing the distraction, Tseetsaa, Miyt, and Singmij were supposed to be sneaking in to break Kachaark and the other prisoners out while Yengkima’s people were focused on the other side of the store house.

Cheeyt threw her sigil. Nuliyaa started chanting the explosion spell.

And before Cheeyt could activate her sigil, a crossbow bolt shredded it.

“Stop!” Cheeyt shouted, spinning back toward Nuliyaa.

But she’d already said the last word of the spell. The wall blew. And it revealed the people in Yengkima’s uniform who were waiting behind the protection of a shield.

“Run,” Cheeyt said calmly, turning so she could watch both the group inside the store house and those coming down the alley. “Run, Nuliyaa!”

“No!” Nuliyaa grabbed a broken board. It was too heavy for her to hold long. A splinter stabbed her hand. But she wasn’t going to leave her sister to defend herself alone.

“Stop where you are!” a new voice shouted. Two people, a human and a Puca in horse form, came down the alley from the opposite direction. They wore the uniforms of the Nengmekian civil guards and looked bewildered by what was going on. Probably patrollers who just happened across them.

“Get rid of the guards as well,” Yengkima said, voice annoyed but calm. Nuliyaa couldn’t see him in the clouds of dust and smoke.

“Oh, delightful.”

At the familiar voice, Cheeyt and Nuliyaa blinked at each other, then looked up. Malks and Pucas in cat form ringed the roof lines of Yengkima’s store house and its neighbor. Chesfi’s silver fur gleamed in the late afternoon light.

“We already had so much to arrest you over,” the Malk continued, “but then you go and threaten the lives of civil guards in front of so many witnesses. Now things will be so much simpler.”

“I agree,” another human in the civil guard uniform said as he appeared at the end of the alley. “Lock down this building.”

Nuliyaa dropped the board as numbness swept over her.