I waded out of the river, one slow and unthreatening step at a time. My scowl remained fixed on… Limn. That was Hot-ember-blood’s name. Lots of angry people shouting at each other was good for learning names. Especially if those people kept you standing in the water for close to ten minutes.

Limn had been one of the main reasons they’d left me in the water for so long. To think that I’d thought highly of him earlier this evening. That tall, long-haired snake would be an even greater danger to me than Onar. At least with Onar I had Shae as leverage.

Limn was one of the four people left on the riverbank, supposedly for protection. The other three were Gery, a petite thing that embodied the delicate caress of lemongrass and cotton, and an obviously annoyed blonde-haired assault of zesty pepper. If it weren’t for the efforts of a handful of people, including the Lemongrass-and-cotton woman, I doubt the whole thing would have de-escalated as nicely as it did.

Their diffusion tactics had mostly involved guilt-tripping everyone about risking Uncle Tare’s life, and leaving a harmless little kid standing in the river. I was not a kid, but I let it slide just this once. If being perceived as cute and cuddly got me out of the water then I’d be cute and cuddly till the sun came up.

Once out of the water I pointedly ignored Limn and graced the three people that were sympathetic to me with a quick thank you. An awkward moment went by where no one appeared to know what to do with the potentially dangerous predator in their midst. Then Gery motioned everyone forward and proceeded to introductions.

“Vale, um… my wife, Meg,” the carpenter gestured towards the diminutive, lemongrass freckled redhead he’d wrapped his arm around. Then he turned towards the blonde Pepper-blood. “And this is—”

“Sarding hell Gery, she’s injured!” The Pepper-blood woman shoved Gery aside and rushed towards me. “You could have at least told me!”

Right, my clothes still weren’t entirely free of ahuizotl blood. I shrugged to indicate I wasn’t overly bothered by it. The gore would either wash out, or it would stain. Either way, there’d be fresh stains and tears soon enough. That’s just what happened when you faced off against vicious beasts on a near-weekly basis.

I also considered it somewhat late for them to only notice these things now. Then again, I had been standing in the middle of the river, while they stood near the torches. That close to a light source their awareness of what was in the dark was probably as bad as my eyesight was in the sun. Yet another reason why this had been a pathetic attempt at an ambush. People should really learn to leave the monster hunting to the professionals.

“By the… they tore a whole chunk out of her shoulder!” My shrug had made the Pepper-blood notice the giant, gaping hole in my gambeson. She jumped me in a panic and started digging her fingers into the hole in search of the wound. Meanwhile, she launched into a tirade directed at who knows who. “And you left her in the water! She could have—”

Abruptly her rant broke off. Fingers still on my fully healed, pristine shoulder she looked me up and down, a nervous frown settling on her eyebrows. The tiniest hint of panic crept into her scent as her eyes widened and her heart rate accelerated.

Stolen novel; please report.

Ah. Noticed I’m uninjured…

Don’t think she’s going to buy just any excuse. Far too clever for that, this one.

“She’s fine, Reya. They only took a chunk out of her clothes.” Gery attempted to save the woman’s sanity. “It’s all their blood.”

Wait?

He’s lying for me?

Gery’s words were an obvious lie. There was no way something ripping that large of a hole in a gambeson wouldn’t lead to grievous injury. “Yep, totally fine,” I jumped in to support him anyway, smiling at the startled Pepper-blood.

The woman’s hands snapped away from my shoulders and she darted back. I looked past her, up at Gery in confusion.

He actually lied for me?

“Right um… Reya here is our overly-outspoken worrywart,” Gery saved me from awkwardness once more. “She’s been taking care of Uncle Tare.” He gave the worried woman a pat on the back, then handed me a towel.

Overly outspoken. I could believe that. The Reya woman had only stepped in right in the middle of all the commotion. She’d promptly snapped at a bunch of people, and had gotten told off by an older, Chicken-broth flavored woman. She had thrown her hands in the air, stormed off in anger, and retreated to the same building she had come out of.

“Right. Uncle Tare.” I accepted the towel, and while attempting to get myself dry I shot a glance at the still lingering Limn. “Could we get on with that? This guy’s giving me the creeps.”

I needed a convenient distraction from the shoulder-wound problem, and this distrustful fool would serve just fine. With that simple offhand comment, I tried to paint him as a bigger creep than me. I even wedged in a subtle reminder that none of us wanted to be up this late at night, in the hope that it would get things moving a bit faster. I intended to be gone again, long before dawn came.

The outcome far exceeded my expectations. Limn scowled at me, reached for his bow, and in doing so missed Meg flying at him. She batted the weapon out of his hands, then continued to harry him all the way back to what I assumed was some kind of inn. He protested, loudly, but was no match for the chubby, red-haired fury two heads shorter than him.

Yeh, no regrets about saving her from hypothermia last winter.

The distraction with Limn granted me the opportunity to sneak a good look at this Reya woman, handily masked by me wringing out my clothes. Even with Limn being chased off, her eyes kept darting between Gery and me. And every time she glanced my way she flexed her fingers and her scent gained a dark, sour, almost predatory aftertaste.

So didn’t fool her with that distraction.

Really shouldn’t have lied to her.

I thought I recognized her though. Her zesty scent, the rough tone of her voice, the brash mannerism, all of it reminded me of that night six months ago. She’d been part of the rescue party back then, along with the Chicken-broth woman and some other people. In fact, a significant number of the other people helping out that night had been on my side just now. If only I remembered a little more of that night than half-drowned, mud-caked faces.

When Meg returned I shook the last bits of water out of my boots and stepped out of the puddle that had formed beneath my feet. I wasn’t anywhere near dry, but at least I wouldn’t be leaking all over the ground anymore. Handing the towel back to Gery I tried to lighten the mood. ”Right. Uncle Tare then? Or do you all want to wait the week or so it will take me to get completely dry?”

Just put me in a field and I’ll be enough to water the crops for the rest of the season.

Frowning at my misplaced joke, Reya led us towards a small dwelling adjacent to an equally small smithy. It was the same building she’d come out of earlier. Her hurried pace told me she wanted to get this over with as much as I did.

Before we entered, the overpowering reek of rotting, infected flesh and onions that streamed out from the building made me take another look at Meg, Gery, and Reya.

Really? Do they not smell this?

Man’s as good as dead.