The ride across the river was surprisingly smooth. That didn’t calm Ripper down any, as she stayed as low to the raft as she could while still paddling, but I found it rather relaxing. When we got to the other side, Lionel hopped off, tied the raft to a tree, and helped me and Ripper off. Then, after handing us our belongings, he dismantled the raft and let the pieces of it flow down the river.

“Leave no trace,” he explained, before turning and walking off into the forest. Ripper and I glanced at each other, picked up our bags, and hurried after him.

“There’s a civil war in the Empire,” he said as we caught up. I nearly tripped over a tree branch.

“A what!?” I asked.

“A civil war,” he repeated. “Discontent against the Emperor finally boiled over into armed rebellion, led by a general alliance of groups calling themselves the Republicans. They’re calling it a revolution.”

“But…what do they want?” Ripper asked.

“A Republic,” Lionel said.

“What’s that?” Ripper asked.

“Respectfully,” I said, pushing Ripper aside, “what does that have to do with us?”

Lionel didn’t even glance at me as he replied, “Everything. Everyone knows goblins have a demographic crisis on their hands. Your mission is to fix it. To do that, you’ll need humans. A lot of humans. You tried to attract immigration the old-fashioned way, but it didn’t work.”

I sighed. He was right. I’d read all about it in the documents Grandma Carter had given me. A simple potion that the Elders could brew allowed humans to have children with many other humanoid races. When the child of this magically influenced union popped out, no matter if the human was the father or mother, the child would be the race of the non-human parent. Humans were…adaptable. Easier to mold, especially with magic. Unfortunately, the Empire had long banned miscegenation and heavily restricted emigration, particularly to the Goblin territories. So the point was mostly moot.

“It sounds like the Emperor isn’t in much of a place to offer us his help,” I said. “Being embroiled in a civil war and all.”

“No, not now,” Lionel said, “but once this civil war is over, he will be. And I have a plan to earn you his favor.

“Originally, the Emperor agreed to meet with you and was planning to ship off some religious minorities that have been causing problems for the Empire. But since the civil war broke out, he’s much less hesitant about sending off potential manpower that can be used for fighting or rebuilding.”

“So we should just head home, then?” Ripper asked.

“No,” Lionel said. “Like I said. I have a plan. And listen close to this, because I won’t repeat it and I expect you’ll never tell anyone this, lest we all get strung up.”

Ripper and I gulped simultaneously and nodded vigorously.

“Good,” he said, still not looking back at us. “The Emperor’s youngest daughter was attending the University of Corpus Immortus when the civil war broke out. She’s trapped there while the city is besieged by Republican troops. Hopefully, they don’t know she’s there. We’re going to go in and rescue her. Then, we’ll bring her to the Emperor, where I’ll entreat his favor to aid your people, thereby earning his favor, paying my debt, and solving your problem.”

Over a dozen issues with that plan instantly popped into my mind, but I ignored them for the most pressing one. “But how are we going to cross into Republican territory? I’d imagine they’re on the lookout for spies.”

“They are,” Lionel said. “Luckily, we’re already in Republican territory.”

“Oh,” I squeaked. I rubbed my neck, wondering how a noose would feel around my neck. I hazarded a guess that it wouldn’t feel too good. “And there’s no chance we could just…turn around?”

Lionel stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his heel to face me. He towered over me, his eyes glowing with anger.

“I made an oath, as did you,” he growled. “You are on your quest, I am on mine. My people do not so easily abandon the promises they make. Do yours?”

I gulped and shook my head.

“We’re with you all the way, Sir Lionel!” Ripper added.

Lionel turned back around and kept walking. “And don’t call me Sir,” he said, “if they find out I’m a knight, it’s all of our necks.”

I rubbed my throat again and frowned. I walked close to Ripper and whispered, “We can’t abandon our quest.”

“I know,” she said.

“I know you know,” I said, “I’m mainly trying to reassure myself. He’s scary.”

“I know.”

“We can’t abandon our quest,” I repeated. “A chance like this may not come for a very long time.”

“I know,” Ripper hissed.

“Okay,” I muttered. “Good, just making sure we’re all clear.” I kissed Ripper on the cheek and walked up to Lionel’s side.

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“Lionel?” I asked.

“Yes?”

“How will we get the Princess to go with us? I mean…we could easily just be some Republicans lying to her about being her allies.”

Lionel frowned and scratched his chin, before asking, “Are you a Republican?”

I shrugged. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“Good,” he said. “Then we’ll be fine.”

“That’s not a very convincing argument,” I said.

Lionel sighed. “I was one of her bodyguards when she was younger,” he explained. “She will recognize me. She will trust me. There will be no problems, understand?”

I nodded. It did make me feel a bit better that we were traveling with someone who had guarded the Princess. Sure, he looked scary, but having something like that on your resumé didn’t just make you look scary, it meant you could probably do some scary things.

“And you’re on our side, right?”

Lionel just glanced at me. He smiled, slightly and chuckled. It was a warm and inviting sound, if a bit of a scary thing coming from him.

“Of course I am.”

“But…why do you need us?” Ripper asked.

“I know you aren’t working for the Republicans,” Lionel replied. “You’re honor-bound to be loyal to me so long as I am staying on mission, which I will be.

Besides,” he added, glancing back at the two of us, “you make good cover. The Emperor isn’t known for his…progressive racial views. No one would suspect a man traveling with a goblin and a halfin’ to be the Emperor’s dog.”

“So that’s all we are?” Ripper asked. “Convenient excuses?”

Lionel stopped in his tracks and turned around to face Ripper. He marched over to her and stopped a foot short of her. He towered over her. He raised her chin up with one hand so she was looking into his eyes.

“Is that all you want to be?” he asked.

Ripper blushed and hit his hand away. Lionel chuckled and kept walking down the road.

I put a sympathetic hand on Ripper’s shoulder. “Humans,” I said quietly, “they’ll fuck anything that moves, or so I read.”

“Terrifying,” Ripper muttered.

—

As we set up camp, Lionel went out to hunt us a fresh dinner for the night. Ripper and I took the time to discuss our strange companion.

“He must be insane,” Ripper said. “He goes from seemingly angry to overly polite, to…to…”

“Yes, I know,” I said, cutting her off. “He seems to me to be a very disingenuous person. There’s a lot he isn’t telling us, I’m sure of it.”

“Well, then,” Ripper said as she built a small wooden pile to light a fire in. “Thankfully, we have secrets of our own.”

“Like?” I asked. I grabbed the flint and steel from my bag and began to try to light the fire. After a couple of tries, a small flame sparked to life. I gently fed it more kindling until it grew large enough to sustain itself, casting the campsite in a warm glow.

“I don’t know,” Ripper said defiantly, warming her hands by the fire, “but we have to have some. Everyone has secrets. And then once we know what secrets we have, we can keep them from him.”

I looked around our campsite. It was a small, respectable thing, with a tent for Ripper and I and a tent for Lionel around a small fire pit. It was much more in the open than I would have preferred, seeing as we weren’t out of the forest yet, but Lionel assured us it would be fine.

I walked over to our tent to set up our bedrolls while Ripper began speculating about secrets we could keep from Lionel.

“Maybe we could not let him know where Hauvsadt is? Like, keep it a real good secret?”

“Why and how would we do that? It’s on every map of the area,” I said. “Or did you forget Hauvsadt is one of the largest cities in the Upriver territories?”

“No, no, I didn’t,” Ripper grumbled. “Maybe instead of that, we make him look really silly…”

I tuned Ripper out and looked up at the treetops. They were still thick, but on this side of the river, you could at least see a few stars poking through.

“It’s the same sky you grew up watching, you know,” Lionel said. I yelped and jumped backward. Ripper dove for her spear.

Lionel chuckled and stepped out from under the shadow of the tree he’d been standing under. Ripper set her spear down and dusted herself off. I took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Sorry,” I said, “you surprised me. We weren’t expecting you back so soon.” I didn’t mention his tendency to appear from shadows.

“No?” Lionel asked, taking another step forward into the firelight.

“No,” I stammered, “you said you were going hunting. Did you manage to catch something?”

Lionel held up two dead rabbits by their feet. Blood dripped from crossbow bolt-sized holes in its head.

“I caught something.”

Lionel walked over to the fire and began to skin the rabbits. Ripper and I watched for a minute before carefully sitting by him at the fire.

“I have spent much time in your lands,” Lionel said, cutting through tissue and skin, the fire reflecting off of his eyes. We sat stiff, watching and listening to him. “Your people have been very kind to me.”

We were silent for a minute before I realized that he meant for me to say something.

“Yes, yes, they…uh…they are a very kind people. Big fan of them.”

I’m a big fan of goblins? Elders save me, I’m an idiot.

“I like goblins too,” Ripper added.

“Indeed,” Lionel said. Apparently displeased with our answers, he didn’t say another word as he skinned, cooked, and served the rabbits. We ate in silence and then went to bed. He said he’d take the first watch.

The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of Lionel packing up camp.

“Why didn’t you wake me up for my watch?” I asked him as I stepped out of my tent, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“I don’t sleep much and you seemed tired, I figured you could use the rest,” Lionel answered.

“Ah, well,” I said, “you need to sleep yourself, so next time, just wake me up. I don’t mind, I promise.”

Lionel paused for a second and I caught a glimpse of an expression I couldn’t identify on his face. Then, it was gone and he said, “Thank you.”