When they returned to the inn the boys, Llew and Aris set about preparing the horses and hitching up the carriage. Llew’s horse was a solidly built, gold and white-patched hack, far too beautiful for some highwayman to run into the ground. He dozed quietly while Llew attached her bedroll and canteen to the saddle.

‘Here.’ Alvaro offered a wide-brimmed hat. It was rumpled, as though it had been shoved in the bottom of his belongings. ‘It’ll keep the sun out of your eyes. And rain, if we get unlucky.’

‘Thanks.’ Llew took the hat and pushed it down on her head. Her eyes instantly relaxed from their squinting in the bright morning sun. She headed across to help Aris with the final check of the pack animals while the cousins carried on some sort of game between them, throwing punches and feigning injury.

‘Hey!’ Jonas exclaimed as something kicked up the dust at Llew’s feet. She stooped to gather up the small object which, on inspection, proved to be a gryphon carved from a hard, dark, oiled, wood. A shadow fell over her and she looked up. Jonas had an expression similar to the first she had ever seen on his face: this time his attention was focused on the object in her hand, not on her. She held the wooden creature out to him.

‘What is it?’ she asked as he took it.

‘Nothin’,’ he said, returning to his own horse and pushing the object deep inside a saddlebag.

A gryphon, again: same as the design on the handle of his knife.

‘Cut your foolin’, boys,’ Aris admonished. ‘We’re late enough getting on, anyways. Go and help the ladies down.’

Cassidy and Alvaro scooted indoors, still trying to beat each other at whatever game they played, and Jonas steadied Llew’s horse while she figured out getting the correct foot in the stirrup and boosting herself into the saddle. Settling in place she felt pretty proud of her accomplishment. Then she watched him vault effortlessly onto the back of his own bay and white horse. She vowed to teach herself the same trick as she watched Cassidy and Alvaro repeat the feat moments later.

The group nudged their horses forward and soon they were on the road north. Alvaro and Cassidy took the lead again, followed by the carriage and the pack horses, with Jonas and Llew taking up the rear.

Glancing over at him, she could see the scar that extended around his throat. It was as though someone had gripped him with a burning hand, leaving the marks of their fingers. But if they had been burning, how had he not been more injured by the fire? She took a breath to ask him, but thought better of it. Instead, she made idle comments on the weather. After a taste of winter’s chill a few mornings earlier, summer had come knocking once more and the heat was almost stifling. She had no need for her new jacket just yet. Jonas stared straight ahead, outwardly acknowledging little around them, much less Llew’s chatter.

‘How old were you when you . . . lost your folks?’

For a moment longer she thought he was still ignoring her. Then he gave her a glance and started talking, still watching the road ahead.

‘I was seven,’ he said.

She was about to ask what happened when she realized he was already preparing to tell her.

‘We lived in Aldia, in northern Quaver. Turhmos, south of Quaver, had taken to raids targeting families on farms and isolated homesteads instead of facing us on the battlefields.’ He paused. ‘I was outside playin’ with— I was outside playin’, when riders came to our house. This knife was my pa’s. But the Aenuks turned its power on him and my ma. By the time I realized what was goin’ on and ran back to the house, it was too late. They drained them.’

She watched him a while, imagining the little boy seeing his parents like that, drained of life like the man in the Cheer alleyway.

‘How long you been on your own?’ he asked.

‘If I tell you, will you tell me about your gryphon?’

‘No.’

It had been a long-shot anyway.

‘Alright. Five summers, maybe.’ She shrugged. ‘I stopped counting.’

‘What happened?’

She shrugged again. ‘My pa took to regular evenings in the saloon. I woke one morning and he hadn’t come home. And he wasn’t at the saloon, either.’

‘So, you don’t know he’s dead.’

‘I don’t know how I’d feel if he isn’t.’

Jonas nodded.

When she gave herself the time to ponder on it, she knew exactly how she’d feel and, if she was honest with herself, she felt anger more often than she’d care to admit.

‘Phew! It’s hot,’ she said, taking off the hat and fanning her face with it before returning it to her head. The wet band was cool to the touch, at first. She pulled at the front of her shirt, trying to get some air on her skin.

It was hard to walk after her first few hours in the saddle. Muscles she didn’t know she had cried for her attention until she sat in the lush grass to eat her lunch and all her little aches and pains eased.

They took an extended lunch, sheltering from the relentless midday sun in a tree-lined clearing just off the road. Horses and riders were struggling equally in the heat.

‘How was your first ride?’ Cassidy asked with a broad grin.

‘Good.’

He shrugged, evidently disappointed by the response.

No one noticed the two hand-shaped patches of dead grass where Llew had been sitting.

They traveled late into the night, taking advantage of the cooler evening air and making up for time lost in the middle of the day. When they did stop, it was for a quick meal of jerky strips and staling bread. The night air cooled rapidly and Llew slept curled up tight in her bedroll with her jacket on and the collar drawn up.

Jonas woke her a couple of hours later for her turn on watch, and she woke Cassidy a couple of hours after that, glad of the chance to return to sleep.

She felt she had barely slept at all when she was roused by the morning cacophony of a fire being lit, horses nickering for attention, and metal plates hitting the ground. Jonas, Cassidy, and Alvaro each took their turn to shave by the shallow creek a few minutes away through the trees. Alvaro, the first to go, brought back a potful of water to be boiled for breakfast. When Jonas emerged clean-shaven, Llewella’s breath caught in her throat and she forced herself to concentrate on giving her horse a rub down. The animal appreciated it and she hoped it would encourage him to be good to her as they continued their journey together. She just had to think about something other than Jonas. She had heard girls gushing over this boy or that young man and had always been dismissive. What girl needed some boy to like her? What girl gave up her own dreams just to follow some spotty youth around? But Jonas wasn’t a spotty youth, and she didn’t need him to like her, did she? Well, besides the kind of liking that might keep him from putting his knife in her if he ever found out what she was.

They rode together in a companionable silence, and she found that riding came quite easily – her horse had a desire to follow the others, and so long as she relaxed and let her hips swing with the movements of her mount, he relaxed and carried her comfortably along the road.

The sun was not conducive to their comfort, however. Clear skies dominated the next several days, cooking the riders by day and freezing them at night. It wasn’t so bad on the one night they spent in a small inn (Darus: Population 474) but settlements were few and far between and most were too small to have an inn.

By mid-afternoon on the sixth day out of Orn they were all exhausted and sweating profusely, and Llew was relieved when Aris announced that, since it would likely do more harm than good to continue, they would make camp early that afternoon and be up and moving before sun-up the following day.

Much to everyone’s delight, they pulled off the road close by a river with a deep, slow-flowing swimming hole. There were just enough trees between where they would make camp and the river to afford privacy while the women, and later the men, took their swims.

‘We’re in the heart of Zaki territory here, boys,’ said Aris. ‘So I need you all to be vigilant. They’re not known for unprovoked attacks, but who can judge what they count as provoking?’

‘What’s a Zaki?’ asked Llew.

‘Why, they’re your natives.’ Aris sounded surprised. ‘They’re Aghacia’s first folk, before the new settlers discovered gold. They live in tribal communities and don’t bother your folk, so long as your folk don’t bother them.’

Llew felt a little stupid for having to be informed of her country’s history by an outsider. She had never had cause to think on it before. She nodded, embarrassed.

Aris looked at her appraisingly. ‘Your folks weren’t too fond of lessons, huh?’

‘My pa taught me plenty! He taught me metal shaping, he taught me how to handle horses and he taught me bookkeeping. That I haven’t had to use any of that since he left is not his fault.’

Aris raised a hand, chuckling. ‘Alright. Sorry I said anything.’

‘And he told me about the Aghacian Alps. How they’re not all just mountains, some are volcanoes and a lot of the Aghacian rocks came from there.’

‘Well then, he certainly knew his geology. But didn’t he tell you about where you came from?’

‘I came from Quaver.’

Aris paused a moment, taken aback. ‘Huh. Interesting. Then I suppose it’s by the by to tell you that Aghacia was originally settled by folk from way off to the west. You’d think Phyos would’ve got here first, wouldn’t you?’

‘I suppose.’

‘Yes, well, it might not matter much to you, but to someone such as Anya it can matter a great deal. Her ancestors came from the motherlands. Same place a lot of Phyos folk came from, especially Brurun. I can trace my family back out west. And probably Cass and Alvaro can, too. Jonas, well he’s all Quaven. But for the rest of us, it’s good to think about where we came from now and then.’

Llew didn’t know what to say. She knew nothing beyond her parents having moved to Quaver before she was born. Beyond that, she was ignorant. She’d never felt bad about it before, though.

‘Right.’ Aris clapped his hands together. ‘Ladies first. You boys settle the horses while Anya and Emylia take a swim. Jonas, scout the area, make sure we aren’t steppin’ on any toes. Take Llew with you.’

Alvaro’s face fell so fast Llew caught the flicker out the corner of her eye. She ignored him. Jonas was the one who would kill her, Jonas was the one she needed to stay on the right side of. What she really needed from Alvaro was to forget what he’d seen so she could get to Rakun alive, receive her payment from Aris and strike out on her own.

Jonas caught her attention and indicated for her to follow.

‘Guess you’ll be swimmin’ with the boys, then,’ he said as they stepped among the trees surrounding their camp, and then laughed at Llew’s surprised expression.

She followed him, stepping over ferns and ducking under low lichen-covered branches while he checked the area for tracks or signs of Zaki dwelling nearby. Her thoughts of what would happen when they returned to camp for their turn to swim tripped over themselves. It was too hot to sit on the sidelines, but she couldn’t risk swimming with them all.

‘What do I do? Just strip off and say “Surprise, everybody, I’m a girl”?’ she said, looking around keenly but without having any clue what they were looking for. ‘“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner”?’

‘If you like,’ Jonas said over his shoulder, ducking past another tree and peering into the gloom of a forest-choked bank.

‘Well, thanks. A lot of help you are.’ Llew scowled at his back, and kept scowling when he turned to carry on their approximately semi-circular route around the camp.

‘I ain’t seein’ the problem.’ He stopped, turning to face her. ‘Alvaro knows already and he don’t have a problem with it.’ She scowled even more. He was mocking her. He wasn’t taking it seriously at all. ‘So, you swim with Emylia and Anya. Maybe even bunk with ’em when we stay at the next inn.’

‘But they’re girls. And I haven’t been a girl in such a long time. I don’t know if I can handle it. Besides, I don’t even know them.’

‘You don’t know me, Cass or Al, either.’

‘I know you pretty well, don’t I?’

‘There’s a lot you don’t know, Llew.’

‘Then, tell me. You know about me.’

Jonas considered her a moment. ‘That’s not helpin’ you make up your mind ’bout takin’ a swim.’ He returned to the task of scouting.

‘At least tell me about that gryphon. Where did it come from?’

Jonas stepped around another tree, peering into the depths of the forest once more.

‘It was a gift.’

‘From who?’

‘Nobody.’ He pushed between her and a tree to continue his scouting.

‘How can I get to know you better if you won’t answer a simple question?’ she asked, following him.

‘Maybe you should tell them. I’m sure Anya would be glad of the company.’

‘Urgh!’ Llew couldn’t even voice her distaste for the idea. ‘But Anya’s such a . . . a girl.’

‘That is the idea.’

‘So we’d sit in the carriage together discussing dresses and boys, and what stories she’s going to write to her future husband along the route?’ she said. ‘No thanks. I’d rather take my chances sharing with boys, farts and all.’

‘You sure make it sound romantic.’

‘Well, I don’t know much about romance. Sex, on the other hand . . .’

Jonas’s eyes widened, as Llew had expected. It always made her giggle; how bashful boys – and men – could be over that which they seemed to covet so much, and pin their self-respect on.

They turned at the sound of feet scuffing through the undergrowth.

‘There you are,’ said Alvaro, emerging from the trees. ‘I hope you’ve done more scouting than yakkin’. Aris said if it’s clear, we men—’ He looked at Llew. ‘—can cool off in the river before dinner. I said I’d come get you.’

‘Yeah, alright.’ Jonas started off back to camp. Alvaro hung back to walk beside Llew, and she focused firmly on the uncertain footing. Alvaro was dangerously close to being a problem.