To Felony's great disappointment, travelling by carriage wasn't much more comfortable than travelling by horseback—at least, not when your bottom was already bruised and sore.

"You all right, Fel?" Ren asked, laughing. "Need some help there?"

"I'm fine," Felony lied. She shifted position again. "How much longer till we get there?"

"Another day, at least," said Talise. She looked at Felony, noting her obvious discomfort. "Perhaps you could try lying on your front across the seats?"

"Wouldn't mind seeing that," said Ren.

"I said I'm fine."

"Whatever," Ren muttered, apparently losing interest. He looked out the window. "This place just keeps getting worse. How the hell can anyone live here?"

"Apparently, despite its appearance, the soil is very good for growing potatoes and other root vegetables, as well as cucumbers, which they usually pickle. And Pyrian beef is supposed to be delicious."

Felony and Ren both stared at Talise.

"What?"

"Just didn't sound like you," said Ren. "I don't think I've ever heard you say 'delicious' before."

"I ... happen to like ... food," said Talise. She cleared her throat. "Not that that's relevant. To anything."

"What's the plan once we get to the city?" Felony asked. "Heard it can be a chore getting in."

"That won't be a problem," said Talise. "We'll enter by the eastern gate and leave the carriage in a nearby stable. After that, it's a simple matter of meeting up with our contacts, who will have the item. Then we'll return to the carriage, leave the city, and go back to Aylward."

"Hang on a second, 'Aylward'?" Felony said. "Where the hell is that?"

"It's in Crove."

"CROVE?"

"You don't have to worry. Mr Garnett has considerable influence in that part of the world. The journey home is the least of our worries."

Felony sat back in her seat, wincing. "Nobody ever said anything to me about hells-damned Crove," she muttered.

"It's actually in a little valley in the Peakless Mountains," Talise said. "It could be said that it's only technically in Crove."

"Yeah, but still ... ah, forget it. Gotta focus on the job, right? Still don't get why 'Mr Garnett' needs so many of us on this thing, though. Seems pretty straightforward to me."

"In part, it's a test," Talise said.

"Yeah? Test of what?"

"Of you, stupid," said Ren, looking away from the window at Felony. "You think he's gonna trust you just based on your rep?"

"He can trust me," Felony said, irritated. "I never shorted on a job, not once in my whole life."

"Yeah, whatever," said Ren, already looking out the window again. Felony clicked her tongue, then looked at Talise.

"Just to be clear, I don't trust you either," Talise said.

"Yeah, thanks, I kind of got that."

"However, so far you've performed adequately."

"Doing what? Riding around getting blisters on my bum?"

"Yes, actually. You don't like Ren but you've done well in tolerating him. This despite being forced to ride behind him every day for nearly a week." Talise smiled thinly. "That's almost like a punishment."

"Hey," said Ren, half-heartedly.

"And I'm sure that, were we to encounter problems, you'd be useful."

"So you expecting problems, then?"

"I always expect problems," said Talise. Felony eyed her a moment.

"How old are you, anyway?" she asked.

"I'm eighteen years and five months old."

"You seem WAY older."

"Thank you. How old are you?"

"Fifteen," said Felony. She grinned. "And ten months."

"You seem younger."

"Thanks."

"I'm seventeen," Ren said.

"No one cares, Ren," said Talise.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Felony shifted in her seat and looked out the window.

After a while, she smiled.

----------------------------------------

"Ugh, I hate these hills."

"You've said that at least fifty times already, WE KNOW."

Sophia shot Ada an irritated glance.

"Well, don't you?" she said.

"Yes, but apparently I'm capable of having a thought without saying it out loud OVER and OVER again."

"Humph," Sophia said, and she went back to staring out the window. The hills in question were big and rocky, thrusting up through the grey earth like giant misshapen fists, covered in ugly yellow moss and coarse black grass of a kind that didn't seem to grow anywhere else.

"Why is everything here so utterly horrid?" Sophia said, after a minute.

"Just to annoy you, I'm sure," Ada muttered.

"I think the sunsets are quite nice," Maya said. "Um, how they kind of ... make everything ... look ... pink..."

She trailed off and fell silent. A moment later the hatch opened.

"There's a village up ahead," said Fin, through the hatch. "We're going to stop there."

"Is that safe?" Sophia asked.

"Oh, yes. Despite the landscape and Pyre's reputation, people are as people here as they are anywhere. Especially in these areas nearer to the border."

The village was spread out wide, its farms and their fields extending away from the road. The houses were mostly dark stone with thatched roofs, although the tavern was made of wood. The whole place had rather a quaint, old-fashioned air about it.

"Just passing through, are you?" asked the old tavern owner, as he brought out a plate of pickles and cheese and dense-looking bread.

"Um, yes," said Sophia. "We're going to Sufferance."

"Good luck, then!" said the tavern owner. He chuckled as he walked back inside.

"He was nice," said Maya, already halfway through a pickle. Sophia picked up a piece of bread and chewed on it, frowning slightly. She'd felt off ever since they'd come into the village—ever since they'd come into Pyre, actually, but the feeling was much stronger here. She almost felt as though she was going to be sick, but, no, it was different to that...

What IS this feeling? she thought. It's like ... it's like ... fear? No, more like ... shame? Guilt? Anger? Frustration?

"Huh, guess Fin was right. Look over there, remind you of anything, Maya?"

"Oh, that poor boy ... Ash, go and do something."

"No fear! Ain't my problem! Besides, it's like Fin said, this ain't the kind of place where we should be making ourselves known, yeah? Just keep your head down, act straight, and eat your pickle."

Sophia had closed her eyes. The feeling, whatever it was, was getting stronger, threatening to overwhelm her now. She felt...

...she felt...

Fear. It WAS fear. Definitely. And pain. She'd been hurt; someone had thrown a rock and it had glanced off her calf. Shame; this is my fault, somehow, this is my fault. Frustration; I can't do anything to change this. Loneliness; no one is going to help me.

And ... and now, something else, something ... separate. Something ugly and twisted and cruel, like a horrible little clump of weeds clogging up a drain, slimy and rotten and disgusting. Anger; he's so WEIRD, he's so WEEDY, he stinks of vinegar, he wets his pants. Exhilaration; the joy of the rock as it leaves your hand, the thrill of seeing it find its mark. Pride; the congratulating yells and laughter of my friends, the warmth of—

Sophia gasped as she pulled herself out, normality coming back to meet her in a rush. She looked around at the others, but they were all concentrating on eating. Apparently no one had even noticed her falling into ... whatever it was she'd just fallen into.

No, Sophia thought, I know what that was, I know exactly what that was. This is what Fin was talking about, sensing energy, sensing emotion, sharing emotion—

She looked around and quickly spotted the source of the emotions she'd just felt. There was a group of children on the far side of the village, around a dozen of them clustered around something—no, not 'something', Sophia corrected herself, as she stood and began walking towards them, another child, a boy, the victim of their taunts and cries and thrown rocks.

"What do you children think you're doing?" she demanded, when she'd come near enough for them to hear her. "Leave that boy alone!"

One of the kids, a scruffy boy with dark brown hair, turned and blew a raspberry at her. Other than that, they just continued pushing and pulling at the boy in the middle. Sophia took a breath. She was about to say something else when she felt it once more—emotion and energy all wrapped together, fear and pain and desperation...

Here it all is, Sophia thought. It wasn't visual, though that's how Fin had explained it to her, it was ... it was like when she read. She never saw pictures in her head as she read the words, and she didn't exactly hear them either. She'd never been able to adequately explain how she experienced the written word, but the closest she'd come was 'flickering ideas hanging in endless white'. That was what she felt now, except they weren't ideas, they were emotions, the energy of emotions, and she could see them without seeing, she could touch them, she could...

I can take them, Sophia realised. I just have to ... pull. Yes, pull, that's as good a word for it as anything, a little tug here and ... now I have a handful of fear and pain and desperation and shame, and frustration, and loneliness.

What on earth do I do with this?

Something prickled at Sophia, and she looked over—for want of a better way to think about it—at the ugly clump of emotional weeds that was the energy of the other children, the bullying children.

I wonder...

Sophia stood there, suddenly aware that she was reaching out with her left hand, and aware now also of the sound of confused crying, and she looked around to see that some of the children were running away, others sniffling to themselves, still others openly wailing. One of them was kicking at the ground, a confused look on his face, and one of the girls was just standing there, staring at the boy they'd been picking on.

The boy himself was also standing still, the look on his face one of befuddled relief. He looked up at Sophia, then he turned and ran away, around the corner of one of the houses and out of sight.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Sophia turned to see Ashley standing behind her.

"I ... I did it!" she said. "I can do it! I could feel everything, all of them, I could feel and I could see ... no, that's not quite right ... wait ... yes, it IS right! Ashley! I can see you!"

"Uh-huh. Let's just get you into the shade."

"You're orange!"

"Yeah, that's right, I'm orange."

"And Maya's blue, Maya! I can see you!"

"Um—"

"Ignore her, she's gone a bit weird."

"No, I've gone a bit right! Don't you understand, I can—Ada! Ada, you're yellow! Like a really pale yellow!"

"Uh—"

"And Lina, you're ... you're kind of ... greenish. And Selene! Selene, you're DEFINITELY puce!"

"What is wrong with her?"

"Dunno, let's just sit her down here, out of the sun."

"And me! I'm ... I'm ... white! Or blue? Blue-white? Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it makes perfect sense, just sit down."

"Okay. Did you see I got all those kids to stop picking on that other kid? Do you want to know how I did it?"

"Sure I do."

"I just made them all feel what he was feeling! It was easy, I just..."

Sophia trailed off. For a moment she stared straight ahead, then she frowned.

"I'm ... hungry," she said. "Really hungry. And ... kind of..."

It turned out to be a good thing that Ashley had forced Sophia to sit, because otherwise she might have hurt herself when she fainted.