The streets of Nuidia were crowded. Everywhere Andrew looked, he saw tradesmen and merchants. Every building he saw seemed to be some kind of shop, or offering some sort of service. They passed several inns as they walked along the main road. He had a mental image of the city from their flight, but as the roads spiraled away, he found that he couldn’t place where they were at all. Minutes after entering the city, he turned around, and was no longer sure where the gate really was. Had they taken a turn on one of the side roads? Or was this still the main one?

He was jostled out of his thoughts by a passerby heading to one of the stalls. “Sorry,” Andrew managed. The boy – Andrew realized he was probably even younger than Peter – grunted and kept moving without saying a word.

“Maybe you should check your pockets,” Peter suggested. “He might have been trying to take something.”

“Don’t!” Anna hissed. “At least, don’t be obvious about it. Even if he wasn’t, there probably are pickpockets, and you don’t want to advertise where you keep your valuables.”

“Right,” Andrew said, trying to inconspicuously examine his pockets. Everything was there, but he resolved not to let anyone get close without him noticing again. He sighed. “We need to figure out exactly where we’re going.”

He looked around and found a stall that didn’t seem quite as busy as the others. The man running it perked up when he saw them walking over. “Welcome! Welcome! You lot are Grealish, no? If you’re traveling south to Selasem, I have just what you need! These oils are—”

“Thank you sir, but we’re actually looking for directions,” Andrew said.

“Oh, I see!” The merchant said. “I’m afraid I do not sell directions!” Andrew paused, not sure how to respond. Before he could, though, the merchant started to guffaw. “A joke, my friend, a joke! Where are you trying to get to?”

“We have official business we’d like to discuss with a representative of the city. We were told to seek an audience…”

“Having trouble navigating the city?” the man asked sympathetically. “Yes, yes. Many find the roads difficult to navigate. Not to worry, old Addaya can help you well, very well indeed!”

“Thank you,” Andrew said.

The merchant nodded. “Now then, a representative of the city… It would be best to seek audience with one of the princes. Their mannors are all by the Spring. You will get most of the way there following this road that way!” he pointed down the road to his left. “The most wealthy live there. Tell your business to any of the patrols around there, and I’m sure they can lead you the rest of the way.”

Andrew nodded. “Understood. Thanks for your help.”

“Make no mention of it!” Addaya said. “Though, if you really want to thank me, take a look at this stall! I cater specifically to you northerners, you know. You’ve such delicate skin, and the sun, be it here or in Selasem, can be quite harsh. My oils are a perfect defense against burns!” He squinted his eyes between them and frowned. “Or, if it’s a little late for that, I have others that cure burns as well.”

“We should buy something, since he’s been so helpful,” Anna whispered. The merchant grinned at her.

Andrew frowned, but noticed that his brother really did look a little red. Anna looked even worse, and he shrugged. “Alright. How much?”

“Three gold pieces.”

“Three gold!?” Andrew repeated, his voice rising.

“Small price for the comfort that it brings,” Addaya replied.

“I don’t think I even have that much,” Andrew muttered.

“Ah, well, that truly is a shame,” the merchant replied. “But as you have been such a polite customer, and I know this is not what you were looking for at first, I can give you a discount!”

“Even discounted, I don’t think we could buy the oils and still afford food for the next few days,” Andrew said.

“How much do we have?” Peter asked.

“A little less than a hundred silver, I think,” Andrew said.

“Well, that is perfect!” the merchant said. “For I can sell it as low as eighty silver!”

“We don’t want to cheat you,” Anna said. “Maybe we should just go and stop taking up your time.”

“So considerate!” the merchant said. “But I assure you, fifty silver would be a suitable price!”

Andrew shook his head. “No, I don’t think we can spare it. But thank you for all your help!” He started walking away as he spoke. Even as he turned around, he saw the smile fade from Addaya’s face. Then they were moving again.

As they walked, Andrew kept an eye out for the patrols Addaya had mentioned. He noticed them right away. Or at least, he assumed the guards he saw in groups of two to four at every street corner were the patrols. Each man carried a spear and shield. They wore conical helmets and veils of white cloth. And they didn’t seem interested in speaking to anyone else. Andrew thought it best to wait in approaching them until they really needed directions again.

Not long after, they found the main road split into two. Feeling as though he would much rather just turn around, Andrew lead his companions over to the group of four men standing at the intersection. “Excuse me,” he began.

Four sets of eyes turned to him. “What do you want, boy?” asked one.

“We’re from Grealand, seeking an audience with a representative of the city,” Andrew replied. “We were told a patrol would be able to direct us to someone that could make the appointment for us. Is that you.”

“Aye,” the guard said. “What’s your business?” he asked.

“It’s about the Wisps in the area,” Andrew said.

“Outside the city?”

“Yes.”

“None of our concern.”

“Surely we could at least make our case,” Andrew pleaded.

The guard shrugged. “We don’t deal with outside problems, boy. The gate guards should have told you as much.”

“They did,” Peter said. “We’re just stubborn.”

The eyes over the guard’s veil crinkled. “Well, I can see that. If you insist on making your case, your should go to the house of Prince Khemir. He may, at least, let you finish speaking. He lives down that way,” he added, pointing down one of the forks. Another guard chimed in with more specific directions.

“Poor kids,” one of the guards muttered. “I’d hate to wait for weeks just to be hear the same thing again.”

“Wait, what? Weeks?” Anna squeaked, looking at the guard.

“Aye. That’s normally how long one needs to wait for an audience,” the first guard said.

“Can we wait that long?” Peter said.

“Your Wisp meeting is urgent?” the guard asked.

“No,” Andrew said before Peter could say anything. An instinct told him it would be a bad idea to mention the bandits outright until they were making their case before one of the princes. “We were planning to travel on to Ryukyuu to talk with them about it as well, is all.”

Over the veil, the guards’ eyes all narrowed. But they just nodded. “Very well. So long as you keep the peace, we don’t care. But in that case, you’d better get a move on.”

“Right,” Andrew said. “Thank you.”

“We don’t have the time for that, though, do we?” Peter hissed once they were some ways away from the guards.

“No, we don’t,” Andrew agreed.

“So what should we do?” Anna asked.

“Bet Jarn could get us a meeting sooner,” Peter offered.

“No,” the others said together. Andrew went on, “We don’t want that meeting.”

“So… what?” Peter said.

Andrew shrugged. He turned to Anna. “We’ve got to stop those bandits before they raid anywhere else. I don’t think we can afford getting help from the city.”

Anna nodded. “Yeah. We can’t afford it.”

“Do we just head back to fort Estron, then?” Peter asked.

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“I think so,” Andrew said. He looked around. “We… we just follow this road back, right?”

They did not just follow the road back. There were turns they didn’t remember being there, going off at strange angles from the main road. The more they traveled, the less certain Andrew was that they’d never left the central thoroughfare. His brain felt cooked by the sun as the road seemed to just take turn after turn. Not one thing along the sides of the streets looked familiar.

“Oh, hey,” Peter said, pointing up. “Looks like Jarn found us.”

Andrew followed his brother’s gaze. The dragon was high enough in the sky that he would have looked like an ordinary bird. He circled over the city. Over them. “I’m not sure he should watch us so closely,” Andrew muttered. “If the spy has friends here, we wouldn’t want them to notice us.” He heard Peter drawing in a breath to shout. “Don’t you dare,” he hissed, grabbing his brothers arm.”

“What?”

“I don’t want any of the guards asking why you’re shouting like a madman in the middle of the street!”

“It would not be a good look, no,” came a voice from behind them. They turned to see a tall man standing behind him. He was clothed in armor similar to the guards, though the cloth was all yellow, instead of white, and his veil was not covering his face. He had dark eyes and a curly black beard. A younger, slimmer man stood at his side, eyeing them curiously. “The guards would be particularly unhappy if that beastie were to land here. Might even get them to bring the mages in.”

“That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” Andrew said.

“A wise move. Blondie did say you’d be careful, even with the dragon.”

Andrew paused. “Blondie?” He looked at the man again, paying closer attention. The man’s armor was the same style as the guards’, but it was rougher. But everything else the man had, his belt, a bit of jewelry he hadn’t noticed before, all of that looked brand new. Suddenly the desert didn’t seem so warm anymore.

The man came over, stepping to Andrew’s side. His arm came up, as if to pull him closer, and Andrew saw a flash of light come from something small and sharp in the man’s huge hand.

Time seemed to freeze. If he openly resisted, he knew the guards would come down on him, and they would probably side with locals. Or at least, men who looked more local, as apposed to three obvious foreigners. He doubted the man was about to kill him outright. Not in front of the guards. Probably. He’d have to bet on it.

He stepped to the side as fast as he could, pulling Peter and Anna with him, then throwing his hands up, palms out. “I don’t think we’re interested,” he said in a very loud voice.

“Andrew, what’s—” Anna began.

“Shut up,” he hissed in response. His brain was working on overdrive. The younger of the two men looked a little disappointed, but the larger man looked absolutely livid.

“Guess I got cocky, didn’t I?” he said. “Doesn’t matter, though.”

Andrew grinned in response, though he still felt cold. His brain felt like it was burning again, but not from the sun. He grabbed his brother and Anna’s arms and started turning them away. “You’re right,” he called over his shoulder. “We were naïve to try asking the city for help dealing with the bandits for Grealand. We’d better seek help elsewhere. Maybe we could do what you suggested, Peter, and look for your kind of help out in the desert!”

A look of horror crossed over the larger man’s face for just a second. Then he laughed. A shaky, forced laugh. “Don’t think they’d help you too much!” he said. Several groups of guards had started to watch the exchange. All had readied their spears, or had their hands on their swords. Andrew saw them, but he kept his eyes fixed on the larger man.

That brief look of horror had confirmed everything for Andrew. He squeezed his brother’s arms. “Tell Jarnvaror we’re leaving, and to meet us at the gates.”

“But you said—” Peter began.

“Just do it.”

There was a brief silence. Then Peter shouted the instructions into the sky.

One of the guards started approaching them, when Jarnvaror’s return call echoed down to them. The guards looked up, and saw the dragon diving down in the direction of the city gates.

“Like I said, sirs,” Andrew told them. “We’re on our way out. We could use some help getting back to the gates.”

Even under the veil, Andrew could tell the guards’ faces had gone pale. But they nodded and four of them stepped up to act as their escort out of the city. Andrew looked back to where the tall man and his companion had been. The two had vanished into the crowd.

“What was that?” Anna demanded in a whisper. “What just happened?”

“Those were the bandits,” Andrew hissed. “And I think their attacks down here were bait to draw us out.” He glanced at the guards, then shook his head. “I’ll explain more on the dragon,” he said. He noticed one of the guards visibly stiffen, but the kept moving.

The guards stayed with them, pausing only when they first saw Jarnvaror sitting just outside the main gate. The guards there were not the same who’d let the group into the city, and they were all on the edge of panic. Jarnvaror, for his part, was glaring at them from a safe distance. He made a low rumble whenever any of them moved, but remained still, himself.

They mounted up, and before they could leave, Andrew had Peter tell the dragon to fly to the north east, into the desert. Peter just nodded, and passed the message on to Jarnvaror. “I don’t know why,” Peter replied to the dragon’s rumble. “I’m sure he’ll explain while we’re flying.”

Moments later, they were high in the area, leaving the city of Nuidia behind them.

Anna wove her net of air around them so they could hear each other, then looked back at Andrew. “Alright. No more ears. What happened back there.”

“Those two men had clearly been in touch with the spy,” Andrew began.

“I’d worked that out when he mentioned a ‘blondie’ talking about us. It’s everything else you said that I didn’t understand.”

“He was going to try and capture us. I think the spy just wants us dead, and they were going to try and have the bandits do it.”

“So you just said whatever to get us out of there?” Anna asked.

Andrew shook his head. “No… I… I had an idea. When I realized who they were. That’s why I mentioned finding help in the desert.”

“What lives out here?” Peter asked.

“The ruby dragons, remember?”

“Oh, sweet!” Peter whooped. “So we’re going be using them to raid the bandits, after all?”

Andrew shook his head. “No. What Lord Justin said about them still stands. But I’ve been thinking. And I’ve thought up a bit of a different plan.” Andrew insisted they keep flying into the desert until even Jarnvaror wouldn’t be able to see the city anymore. But, as night began to fall, he conceded that no one in the city would be able to see the dragon against the night sky. Still, they made a wide loop around the city so they could approach Fort Estron from the west.

“We want them to think we’re getting the ruby dragons,” Andrew said. “To think that we’ll be gone for days at a time, searching for them.”

“But we’re going back to Fort Estron,” Peter said.

Andrew nodded. “Right. We’ll be waiting there to ambush them during their next raid.”

“If their raids were meant to draw us out, why would they keep it up?” Anna asked.

Andrew thought for a moment. “I don’t think these are mercenaries. I think this is just like Prohr. Normal bandits did business with the Wisp Stealers, and this time they were asked a favor. I’m guessing they were told to make themselves more obvious, so that we’d definitely show up, and to kill us if we did, or something along those lines.”

“But they failed to catch us in the city. Won’t they be more cautious?” Anna asked.

“Probably. But unless they’ve been ordered not to, they’ll probably still need to do raids.”

“That feels like an assumption,” Peter pointed out.

Andrew shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t think we’ll lose anything but some time if it turns out to be wrong. And we can test it.”

“How?” Anna asked.

“We’re going to set up an easy mark for them while we’re gone. As soon as I can figure out the details,” he added, trailing off.

It was well after dark when Jarnvaror landed at Fort Estron again. The guards on duty had heard about the dragon’s arrival earlier, but they still seemed thoroughly upset at his sudden return. Lord Justin, appeared a little later. “Well, how was your trip into Nuidia?” he asked, stifling a yawn.

“Weird,” Peter said.

“And? Did they seem willing to listen to our request?” the lord asked.

“Not in any reasonable amount of time,” Andrew said. “But we did encounter some of the bandits.”

“We’re pretty sure, anyway,” Anna added.

Lord Justin nodded. “Not surprising to find them in the city. That’s where they sell what they steel, after all.”

“But they knew we were coming,” Andrew said. He explained their interaction with the bandits and described his suspicion about the spy. Then he described the plan he’d told the others about during the flight. Lord Justin listened in silence, nodding every so often. His face broadened into a smile as Andrew went on.

“We’ll need to set up something for them to attack. We’ll need your help with that part,” Andrew finished.

“I see,” Justin said. “Well, I like the idea of catching them in the middle of an attack. And I think… yes, I think there’s something we can use.”

“Really?” Anna asked.

“Oh yes,” he said. “We’ll need a soft, valuable target to bait them. Or something that looks like it is.”

“And you know of something?” Anna asked.

Lord Justin nodded. “We’re coming up on summer. Many merchants who go back and forth between Grealand and Selasem will be coming up to sell their wares soon. Most will be stopping in Nuidia first, but there are a few merchants who pass the city by.”

“Why don’t they stop?” Peter asked.

Lord Justin shrugged. “Principal, for some. They don’t like trading with bandits. Others think that if they can beat the rush to northern markets, they’ll sell better.”

“My father would do things like that. We would trade in all sorts of things, but If we ever had specialty goods, especially perishables, we would go wherever the market was best.”

“What sort of perishables would Selasem be bringing?” Peter asked.

“Probably fruit,” Anna said. “Maybe some spices. Theres a lot of plants that won’t grow this far north, and others that won’t grow any farther south.”

“It doesn’t matter too much why,” Justin went on. “The point is, we at the fort often provide security for some of those that pass the city by. But not always.”

“And these merchants are easy targets for the bandits,” Andrew said. “So we just have to wait, and ambush the bandits when they try going for the merchants.”

“No,” Lord Justin said. “It’s even better than that. We’re getting a shipment of supplies tomorrow. If we commandeer the wagon for this little mission…”

“We’ll have our bait!” Andrew finished.

“How will the bandits know about it?” Anna asked.

Andrew nodded to Anna, conceding the point, and asked his own question. “And why would they just assume it’s unguarded?”

“We pull your little trick again,” the lord said. “Every so often, we ask to higher mercenaries in town to help guarding such caravans when we feel over extended. We can’t always afford it, though. I send some men to town to hire mercenaries but order them to declare any price too expensive. In fact, we probably wouldn’t need to tell them that last bit. We can’t afford anything right now.”

Andrew nodded. “That should work.” He went on to ask how Lord Justin would station his men for the raid. Justin thought for a moment about hiding them all in the cart, but decided that would be a bad idea. A few could be there, but most would have to wait and ambush them. Peter offered Jarnvaror’s service as a scout, but Andrew rejected that immediately. “They’ll see you coming down to report. You should stay in the sky until the fighting star—”

Andrew stopped talking mid sentence. Halcyon’s influence had just seemed to fall over everyone. He looked at Anna. She stood very still, but he could see she was shaking, and holding her the opal of her bracelet close. Blue light shone through her fingers.

“I should go in the carriage,” she said. “Or wagon… whatever it is. I need to be there.”

Lord Justin looked down at her. “You intend to fight?” he asked.

“I’ll have to. Even if you have another mage, the Wisps are with me. I don’t know how I could distribute them to protect everyone. So I’ll need to be in the center, helping the soldiers resist the bandit’s Wisps from the start.”

“I was expecting the three of us would be with Jarnvaror, coming in as reinforcements,” Andrew said.

Anna nodded. “The two of you should do that,” she agreed. “But I need to be there for the initial assault.”

“She’s right,” Lord Justin said. “If the bandits have their Wisps, this would be a suicide mission without her there. Even so, it will be rather difficult.”

Silence fell over the group. Andrew looked at his small friend. He was sure Halcyon’s influence was the only thing keeping her from shaking.