Dagger in hand, Kaye assumed a defensive stance, tip pointing forward, knees and shoulders lowered to allow for fast movement.

  Aien lunged. Kaye reacted a moment too te, barely managing to divert the point to the side — a fraction of a second ter, and he would have reached her shoulder.

  Ducking down, she evaded another swing. Caught in the momentum of the swing, his weapon went all the way to the other side, leaving him momentarily exposed. Kaye stepped forward, aiming for his midriff, and was confused when something hit her from the right.

  She stared down. Aien had twisted the sword in his hands, pulling the bde’s single edge in her direction again for a backhand ssh. At least, that’s what he would have done in a real fight, that’s what they were pretending was happening.

  Her dagger was just a stick with a ft end and so was his sword, but the blow still hurt a little.

  “You’re starting to learn how fast you are,” Aien said, “but your instincts aren’t really the best.”

  “Thank you?”

  “Watch.” Aien turned to the side, pointing his stick-sword forward. Kaye took a step back to get a better view of it. She was about to say she understood the difference of reach — in fact, could judge it surprisingly well when staring face-to-face — when Aien reached forward with his leg, lunging from below and up, increasing his reach by almost half.

  “I wasn’t expecting it,” Kaye expined.

  “But you are faster than me. If your instincts can’t keep up, then you need to retreat more, wait for the perfect opportunity. If you watch for long enough and manage to take it, your speed will do the rest. Once you’re past here…” Aien indicated with a finger the halfway point of his practice sword.

  “You can’t leverage a powerful ssh anymore, so you either need to retreat — which I can keep up with —, or push me away. Or throw the sword out and reach for a dagger of your own.”

  Aien nodded, swiped sweat from his cheeks and adjusted his bandana before turning for their waterskins, throwing one in her direction.

  “It’s not that different from hunting,” Kaye said after a mouthful. “Patience to follow the prey, awareness to notice every print, ability to follow every trail, and then wait for the right moment. Striking in the first opportunity only works when you can overpower your enemy. Or when the prey surprises you.”

  “That’s true, maybe you’re just not that confident with the dagger yet.”

  “Hard to be when it’s just a stick.” She still had her skinning knife, but it wasn’t the same thing as wielding a dagger and she’d rather not put any chips in the bde when it was all she had.

  “Your uncle is here,” Aien said.

  Kaye turned. Hogog was coming down the way. He had left to hunt early in the morning, which Kaye didn’t like, but she had been asleep.

  “I caught a goat,” Hogog said, a smirk on his face, “can you help me with it?”

  All in all, things were getting better. A fortnight had passed since they left the road to turn east, and when compared to their days in Riin, the climate was ever so slightly more amicable. They had not stumbled upon any trouble yet, only once did Hogog find the remains of a cooked meal and trails leading south, three, maybe four people. Kaye and her uncle scouted southward for a day before meeting back up with the others, but didn’t catch sight of anyone. When they found an isoted pond in a cave the other day, Hogog had taken the time to shave off his beard. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been deep enough for any of them to take a bath, and although they wiped their faces and wet their clothes, it did little in the way of actually cleaning them. They all agreed that getting rid of their rags would be a priority when they reached a city. Kaye and Hogog still carried their furrowed Nagra clothes in their packs, but they were too thick for this heat and it only served as bedding.

  Uruoro was sitting on a boulder when they reached the camp, a mostly straight stick held between his thighs, hitting the butt-end of it with two rocks, one ft and one sharp. A hammer and a cutting tool.

  “What are you making?” Kaye asked. Hogog continued on ahead to the dead goat he had left in the shadow.

  Uruoro put the stones to the side and raised the stick. “The shortest spear in the world, I’m afraid. This one,” he showed her another stone, a fragment of flint he had knapped two edges into, “is going to fit here, and then I’ll bind it together with string. I can teach you, if you’d like.”

  “I know how to. We use iron for the arrows, but sometimes flint is necessary.”

  “Then I shall turn what is left of it into arrowheads. In the rights hands, these things can fill an empty stomach.”

  Kaye turned to Hogog and the goat.

  “Beautiful creature,” Uruoro said from behind them.

  They resumed the journey an hour ter, fed and rested, with enough packed red meat to st a few days. They had to abandon the hide, since cleaning and curing it was a day’s long process, but kept the horns to turn them into cups.

  Loho always led the group, with Kaye and Hogog a hundred paces to his right and left, watching. They had the better eyes, and the hunting experience was proving valuable despite Saldassa being such a different pce from the one they were used to. Aien and Uruoro followed behind, within earshot, carrying most of their belongings.

  For two days now they were approaching a line of craggy, reddish rock formations. Far from a mountain range, they were closer in height to colpsed hills, if such a thing existed. Kaye wasn’t surprised to find footprints leading away from its south side.

  When the three of them met on the other side, Loho turned his jade regard to the rock.

  “I recognize this pce, which means we are already in Sarak. Southeast of here, following where that rock is pointing, we can reach a city in four, perhaps five days. Neru-Aran, it is called. The name means ‘hollowed out.’”

  Kaye sighed. “Finally.”

  “There is another city, straight east, but that will cost us another two or three days. At least, it’s not in the opposite direction of where we are heading.”

  “We should ask the others,” Hogog said, “but a city will do us good.”

  Kaye agreed. “We’re already on the longer path, better to make it safer. Unless that gets in the way of—

  “It does not,” Loho answered before Kaye could ask her question. “I vowed to repay the debt, you asked to be taken to safety, and that I shall do.”

  Nodding, they turned to wait for Aien and Uruoro to catch up.

  “My mask needs cleaning,” saying that, Loho turned and paced towards the rocks.

  He did that every other day, compining that too much sand gathered between his face and the bone, but wouldn’t let any of them see his face, though he had been unmasked when first they met. Just being caught in the act of removing the mask was shameful, for it revealed what should only be seen in defeat.

  Respect wasn’t the right word to describe what Kaye felt towards Loho, but they were lucky to have him, both as a guide and as a fighter, if there was need of it. Kaye would rather avoid any conflict, keep the man from ruining any more lives, keep all of them safe. It was her responsibility, now more than ever, since the Headhunter’s debt seemed to have turned her into the group’s leader, or something simir to that. Kaye had also made a vow to herself. She would not wield Loho like a weapon.

  Two days ter, they reached a road. Coming from the south and turning east, it was nothing more than grooves worked into the soil by wagon wheels. The following day they met the first people since deciding to leave Saldassa, travelers on the road who bowed to Loho upon seeing his jade mask. They exchanged quick words, only enough to confirm that they were going the correct way. Before the sun settled, Kaye and the others had left the travelers well behind. On the next day, they reached the city.

  Neru-Aran had been built into the ground, dug through rock and soil to form a squarish hole thousands of paces across. Buildings and walls ranged from washed-out yellow, to brown to red, depending on which kind of rock or cy they had been erected with. Not simply old, the city looked ancient, built across generations, if the multitude of different buildings were any sign. Kaye saw dome and square roofs, dry stone walls and bricks, streets with and without pavement; sections of the city were perfect squares, mainly those closer to the center, while others were rounded, and yet others seemed to have simply followed necessity.

  “Kaye?”

  At Hogog’s call Kaye resumed walking. She had found herself drawing the rough outline of the city in her mind’s eye, wondering at the history written into its architecture.

  Long, zig-zagging paths led into the city. The one they walked was too narrow for a wagon, but surely at least one of the others was wider. In the sixth turn, they had to wait for bare-chested men to pass carrying carts filled with soil. Kaye looked in the direction they had come from to see that there was something of a ptform that extended beyond the stairs, where workers were digging.

  “What are they doing?” Kaye asked.

  “Expanding the city,” Loho answered.

  “From the ground up?”

  “At first, yes. Then they move to dig down from above. Once enough soil has been removed from both ends, the middle section breaks and falls with its own weight.”

  “Ah, that is marvelous,” Uruoro said. “I reckon it is well controlled? Or should I start running?”

  Loho swiped Uruoro’s worries away. “If it did not work, we wouldn’t be doing it for two thousand years.”

  Kaye stared up and down, counting. Ten turns in the path were necessary to bring them to the city below. Two thousand years, and still expanding. Neru-Aran couldn’t be farther from what she expected after the nothingness of the wastes. They must have been one of the few travelers to not reach it from north or south.

  To her side, Hogog sighed.

  “Don’t hate me for saying this, but I am not looking forward to a repeat of Riin.”

  She wasn’t either. When joining Shoshin’s caravan, they had been told they would be paid twice; half at leaving Riin and half at arriving in their destination, which never happened. Better than the wastes, at least.

  “We have a lot to discuss,” Aien said. “How long are we going to stay? How much do we need for the road?”

  “It’s not uncommon for travelers to spend months on each city they stumble upon,” Uruoro said.

  “And we need a pce to stay,” Kaye pointed.

  “That will not be an issue,” Loho said from ahead, turning to look at them over his shoulders, “I live here.”

  Half the people they passed by in the streets of Neru-Aran couldn’t help but stare. Kaye was used to it, but Uruoro caught just as much attention. Kids pointed and adults stared, but no one said a word or approached them, probably because a Headhunter was guiding them.

  Neru-Aran was easily the rgest city Kaye had been to, and it was teeming with people. Every street was filled with workers carrying weights, men pulling carts with either baggage or other people on them. The squares they passed through weren’t just filled with shops and artisans, but plenty of attractions as well. Singers, musicians, dancers and even contortionists. Kids raced each other on the back of goats; two men argued in what seemed to be a stage py, with a dozen kids sitting around them, ughing; almost every street had at least one brazier or grill where cooked food was sold, most run by women.

  Things eventually settled as they entered a calmer neighborhood. All houses there were made of pale-yellow bricks. They followed Loho as he approached one of them, just a simple building like all the others around. He knocked on the door twice before pushing it open with haste. A moment passed as Loho stood there, then another, and a woman threw herself on top of him, arms around his neck.

  Kaye looked back. Hogog and Uruoro looked as fbbergasted as she felt. Aien was simply frowning.

  “Come on in,” Loho said, walking inside. “This is the blood of my flesh, Gima.”

  “He means wife,” Uruoro said.

  I figured. Kaye entered the house, looking at the two lovers hugging each other. But it’s hard to believe.

  Gima’s skin was as dark as Loho’s, but she had all the hair he cked, stylized in a long bck braid that reached the back of her knees, dark brown eyes and an easy smile that seemed to push her cheekbones forward.

  “There is so much you have to tell me,” Gima said, looking at her guests. She spoke the same trader’s tongue, but there was a finesse to it, an almost musical tone to her words.

  “I will,” Loho said, only then retreating from the embrace. “She saved my life, and I am repaying that debt.”

  Gima approached Kaye, pced a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t need to know how it happened to thank you. I would, however, prefer to have him back in one piece.”

  Kaye smiled back, but internally she was confused. Loho had made no mention of having family nearby waiting for him, not even when they discussed which city to go to. I didn’t understand how important repaying the debt is to him, not as much as I thought I did.

  When they were all inside, Gima showed them where they could put their belongings down, handed them pairs of slippers — for some reason, she had twenty of those — and jokingly demanded that they hand over whatever clothes they had that needed washing.

  “You are all in desperate need of washing. Loho, take them to the public bath and yes, you are included.”

  The bath was everything Kaye expected and more. There was both cold and hot water, and she hopped in both. Cold to feel alive again, then hot to rex. However, they did not stay long, as there was a line of people waiting outside.

  Loho is married. The thought struck her once again as they entered his home for the second time. This… does this changes things?

  “They will be staying a while,” Loho was talking to Gima in the living room. “To repay my debt, I need to guide them north.”

  “I was worried when I heard about the war. You were supposed to be back months ago.”

  “It was not the war that held me back. A raid gone wrong. I was captured, and I would have been sold into svery if it wasn’t for the girl.”

  “Thank you once again, Kaye. How can I repay you for this?” Gima asked.

  “Loho is already doing a lot for us.”

  “He is repaying his part. I have mine.”

  I feel bad now. “Then repay me by sheltering us while we are in the city. If that isn’t too much.”

  “Hardly,” Gima answered. “How long do you intend to stay in Neru-Aran?”

  “I’m not sure. We need to rest and prepare for the road, that might include saving some coin for a cart. Now that we are far from the war, there is less of a reason to hurry.” Kaye gnced to Hogog, Aien and Uruoro, all of whom were quiet.

  “I don’t think we need a cart,” Hogog said.

  “But we need the supplies, and equipment.” Aien said. “This sword has seen better days, I’m sure Loho’s too. Kaye, you and Hogog at least need a dagger, and Uruoro’s spear… he can get something better.”

  “You are a rather pragmatic young man,” Gima said.

  “Indeed he is, but he is also correct,” Uruoro said. “Two spears are better than one.”

  “About the war, are you sure we don’t have a reason to worry?” Hogog asked.

  “Not here,” Loho answered. “We are the ones invading Saldassa, and if for some reason those positions were to reverse, there are other cities farther south that would be targeted first. We would hear of it in advance.”

  “I advise resting first,” Gima said. “As a sign of gratitude, we can show you around the city for everything you need in the following days. All of you look rather strong, I doubt it will be hard to find someone to kill.”

  “Someone to kill?” Hogog asked.

  “Her sense of humor doesn’t always hit,” Loho said.

  “It seems I have spent too long around him,” Gima retorted, pointing at her husband.

  “Rest would be most appreciated,” Uruoro said. “That bath has given me a few more years to live, and my body is in the mood to swoon.”

  Kaye realized she was smiling.