Cove gripped the thick leather strip and pulled it fractionally away from his throat. It allowed him to swallow the water without gagging. The sun had risen higher throughout the morning and was now beating down on them mercilessly.

Drift had taken off his wrist cuff a while back so as to allow him to help carry barrels and boxes along with the rest of the crew. Instead, he had fixed Cove's leash to a metal railing by one of their stalls along with a flask of water and a hunk of bread.

"Fresh seafood my ass," Cove huffed, flicking flakes of the stale crust at a nearby scavenging gull.

"Don't encourage the birds," Drift scolded, making Cove jump as he walked up behind him carrying a large box filled with jars of spice. Drift deposited them on the table and began to order them along with price labels. "They end up stealing our produce."

"And I should care?" Cove asked miserably, making sure Drift was watching as he scattered the rest of the bread to the eagerly waiting seagull.

"Because if anything goes missing or we make a loss in profit the lashes will be on your back," Drift shrugged, wiping the dust from his hands on his front.

At some point in the heat of the day, Drift had removed his outer coat and was now wearing a tight black shirt with rolled up sleeves. The muscles of his forearms and biceps were standing out from the manual labour and there was a sheen of sweat across his face.

"Only uneducated savages resort to violence so frequently," Cove sniffed.

"Says the kid who kneed me in the crotch the first time we met," Drift laughed grimly as Cove glared up at him. "We'll be on this stall together so start memorising the prices and don't allow too much haggling. We had to source half of these from an Ukdorian Spice Mine and I've never known a mine not infested with venomous Ixie spiders," Drift shuddered.

Cove gaped up at the older boy. "Wait, you're scared of spiders?"

"I don't think you heard me," Drift narrowed his eyes, "venomous Ixie spiders. One nip from those fuckers and your dick rots off."

"Huh," Cove said, still staring at Drift. "I thought I didn't feel much when I kneed your crotch."

"You little -" Drift growled, towering over Cove.

Cove braced himself, whatever Drift did, the dig had been worth it. To Cove's surprise, however, Drift simply let out a barking laugh before untying the leash and reattaching the cuff to a pole closer to the table.

"Customers are arriving," Drift said by way of explanation when Cove gave him a questioning look. "You need to actually reach the spices in order to serve them."

The spice stall turned out to be a particularly popular one and several times Drift had to run back to the ship to load up with more supplies.

Cove found himself swiftly getting the hang of it and was even slightly enjoying the fast paced banter of haggling with the patrons. He could feel Drift's curious eyes on him as Cove drove each bargain even harder.

"We're running out of cinnamon again," Cove announced, lifting up one of the small jars and shaking it to dislodge the remaining clumps of brown powder.

"Okay," Drift nodded, "anything else?"

"Um," Cove scanned quickly across the contents of the table, noticing one of the far jars was running low he reached over to check what it was. Unfortunately, his leash dropped down and snagged a nearby bottle, causing it to fall over and release a puff of red powder into Cove's face.

"Fuck!" Cove yelped as the searing pain was instantaneous. "What the hell was that?"

He tried to look round at Drift but his eyes were stinging so badly and would barely open.

"Chili powder," Drift replied quickly. Cove could feel the other boy's hands cradling his face and tipping it up, probably to get a better look at him.

"It really bloody hurts!" Cove whined, reaching up to rub frantically at his enflamed nostrils and eyelids. "Ouch!" He cried as the burning sensation only intensified.

"Don't touch!" Drift instructed. "Hold still, I'll rinse it out with water."

Cove waited helplessly as he heard the other boy walk away and then return before a cold trickle fell across his eyes.

"I still can't see!" Cove felt bubbling panic rise up in his throat as he tried to wrench his eyelids open but it felt like there were minute shards of glass between them and his eyeballs.

"Hey, hey calm down, it's only temporary," Drift said quickly, one of his hands coming to rest lightly on Cove's lower back as if to steady him.

Cove could feel the other boy almost pressed right up against him now. Cove reached out his hands and froze as his fingers traced the hard outline of a fabric covered key.

Drift hadn't seemed to have noticed as he was still pouring water across Cove's face and dabbing at it with some kind of cloth.

Cove held his breath. He had never tried to pickpocket someone before, especially with his eyes closed. His fingers slipped nimbly into the tight hem of Drift's pocket. Thankfully the key was right by the top and the cool metal was easy enough to pull out and slide concealed into Cove's palm.

"Cove?"

Cove froze, Drift must have realised what he'd done.

"Cove? I asked you to try blinking."

"Oh," Cove breathed softly, before he began blinking gingerly. Eventually, Drift's face came into fuzzy focus. The older boy was wearing a strange expression of concern that Cove hadn't expected to see.

"You alright?" Drift asked, ducking his head down to draw their faces closer together. He began inspecting Cove's eyes, his rough and calloused fingertips dragging across the skin there.

"Fine," Cove gulped, leaning back instinctively. "They should weaponise that shit."

Drift laughed as he stood back up, "they have actually, you can get it in spray form to ward off bandits."

"I could have done with some back in Rilantru," Cove replied, bringing his fingers up to touch his still smarting lips. They felt hot and swollen.

"I'll go get you some more water," Drift stated, his eyes tracking the movement.

"And cinnamon," Cove called weakly after him, earning an acknowledging wave from Drift's retreating form.

Cove coughed a few times and almost went to wearily sit down and wait for Drift to return before his brain caught up with him.

"Fuck!" he hissed, jumping back up and opening his hand to reveal the silver key he'd fished out of Drift's pocket.

Sure enough, it fit in the latch of the collar with a satisfying click.

Cove wrenched the leather device away from his neck and chucked it on the floor.

He glanced around quickly to check that no one from the Akashi was watching before hurrying off into the crowds.

Cove wasn't sure where Glosko Town was on a map. He hadn't exactly looked at many maps in his time but he was sure he would find transport somewhere soon enough to get him as far away from here as possible. It had been about fifteen minutes since he had made his exit from the market square, so he figured Drift must have returned by now and found the abandoned leash.

Cove wondered if Captain Shin would bother sending many men after him? Surely workers ran away all the time?

Cove looked up at the name of the new street he had just stepped onto and swore loudly. Somehow he had ended up going in a circle and was back where he was five minutes ago.

He turned back round to try the other end of the alley when he smashed into a large body. For a horrifying moment he thought it was Drift but when he looked up the man was a stranger. He had a shaven head and a dark tattoo across one eye. Cove recognised him as being one of the Akarino crew that Fletch and Drift had mentioned earlier.

Cove bowed in apology and side stepped round the man only to find two more of his companions had joined them in the alley.

"Didn't you come off the Akashi?" One of the men asked, drawing closer to Cove who took a step backwards.

"I'm afraid not," Cove shook his head, "you must have me mistaken for somebody else."

"Yeah you did," another man piped up, "I saw him earlier with that rat Drift - the one who jumps ships like the plague."

"Hair like storm clouds," the third man murmured in wonder, reaching out to roughly card his fingers across Cove's scalp.

"Hey!" Cove protested, batting the man's hand away.

"Eyes like the sky," the man added, seemingly undeterred.

"Weren't you wearing a leash earlier?" One of the men asked, squinting at Cove and looking him up and down.

"Of course not," Cove scoffed. His eyes darted to see how much space there was between the men. Perhaps if he was really fast he might be able to make it out to the main street?

"Not on the Akashi by choice it would seem," one of the men laughed.

"Might as well come back with us then," the first man who had touched Cove's hair grinned widely, revealing three gold teeth and the rest empty bleeding gums.

Cove took his chance and lurched forwards but he wasn't fast enough. All three men descended on him at once, pinning him up against the wall roughly, a clammy hand with thick fingers crushing his windpipe.

"Get off me!" Cove screamed as the men laughed nastily. He could feel a large knee rammed up between his thighs, forcing them apart so he was straddling the wall.

Suddenly, there was a furious shout and the weight against Cove disappeared. He turned round, gasping for lungfuls of air as he saw Drift crouched on the chest of one of the Akarino men, punching his face repeatedly, his knuckles already bloodied.

Cove noticed the other two men drawing up behind Drift and was about to yell out a warning when Fletch appeared beside him with two copper pistols drawn and cocked.

"Now, now lads," Fletch smiled tightly. "How about we settle our differences like civilised gentlemen?"

Drift let one final punch slam down against the other man's shattered jaw before dragging himself up and wheeling on Cove.

"You-" Drift shouted, pointing at the younger boy with a wild look in his eyes.

Cove opened his mouth to retort when he noticed wetness sloshing down his cheeks. He looked at Drift, whose expression had morphed instantaneously from white hot fury into something indecipherable, almost pained.

Cove looked up to see if it had started raining only to realise with dawning horror that the water was salty. He was crying, great fat tears rolling down his cheeks and stinging at the abrasions across his skin from the rough stone of the wall.

"Did they hurt you?" Drift asked quickly, coming over to hold Cove up by his shoulders. "Hey, Cove, look at me. Did they touch you?"

Cove shut his eyes tightly and shook his head, willing the traitorous tears to stop humiliating him. The situation was already devastating enough, he had been thrown about, jeered at and now his entire escape plan had been thwarted.

"Ah ah ah,"

Cove opened his eyes as he heard Fletch tutting warningly at one of the shaven headed men who had evidently tried to move.

"We'll be taking our leave now gentlemen," Fletch announced, still gripping his pistols tightly. He flicked his eyes to Drift and Cove.

"We ready to go yeah?"

Cove tried to nod but his joints felt stiff, almost like he was paralysed. He gazed up at Drift helplessly.

"Yeah, let's go," Drift muttered, grabbing Cove's arm and putting it around his shoulders to support him.

"I don't need your help," Cove lied miserably. He had never felt more pathetic or ashamed.

Drift didn't even bother to answer him. Cove absently wondered if he had really pushed the other boy too far this time? He assumed the captain had already been informed of his escape attempt and there was probably a punishment of thirty or more lashes waiting for him on board the Akashi.

Still, anything seemed a better option than the alleyway right about now.