by Jeff Kish
Era hands her one of the fish he’s been cooking. “Careful now. It’s done, but it might be hot. And mind the bones.”
Di is unsettled by the gross-looking thing staring at her with wide eyes. “Ummm… I’m not supposed to eat this, am I?”
Jem smacks her lips loudly. “What, the Canterin princess doesn’t eat meat?” she chides with a full mouth.
“Stop calling me a princess, already,” Di insists while wrinkling her nose and staring at her breakfast.
“And to think that all you did yesterday was complain about stale bread,” Jem continues. “I’ll have you know I got up over an hour ago to catch those, so you’d better not be a snob.”
“I eat fish, just not half-cooked fish-on-a-stick, thanks,” she says with disdain.
Era bites into his food, amused by the conversation. “Well, better get used to it. Canterin’s, what, two weeks away? Unless you want to eat like you did yesterday all the way there, you should learn to enjoy a bit of variety.”
Di looks suspiciously at Era and Jem, who seem to have already forgotten about her as they tear into their meals. Sighing, she plugs her nose and takes a bite out of the middle of her fish. She chews it for a second before spitting it out in disgust.
“I guess she really is a princess,” Jem says as she reaches for seconds.
Not giving up, Di takes another bite, but she doesn’t last any longer before spitting it back out. With a determined look in her eye, she takes a third bite and immediately swallows it.
“Whoa!” Era says with no small surprise. “That’s some willpower, there!”
Di stares at her fish for a few moments in silence, and her face starts to lose its color. She gets up and, with as brave a look as she can muster, walks quickly back into the woods. Jem and Era do their best to stifle their laughing at the sound of her heaving.
“This is going to be the worst two weeks of her life,” Jem says gleefully.
“I guess she should stick with bread,” Era says as he snatches another fish. “Oh well. More for us!”
* * *
With their belongings packed, the travelers resume their hike, and they soon find themselves alone on a thickly wooded trail. Di’s queasy stomach growls, and her legs ache even as she begins the day. She’s envious of her guardians’ energy despite a solid day of hiking yesterday, with no end to it in sight.
Era eventually drops back to check on their lagging companion. “Sorry we haven’t taken many breaks, but now Jem wants to make it past Brentan and out to Werran if we can. We need to move without unnecessary stops.” Di’s heart races in Era’s presence, and she marches briskly to keep up with him.
Jem abruptly stops and throws a curled fist into the air. Era plants his hand on Di’s shoulder, and the girl waits in confusion as Jem and Era focus their senses. Finally, Jem signals to her right, and she leaps into the designated bush. Era grabs the oblivious Di and dashes into the foliage to join Jem. He dumps the girl to the ground and starts whispering with his partner.
Di is about to raise an objection, but Era meets her eyes with a stern gaze, his finger planted firmly against his lips. She eventually hears the trotting of a distant horse, and she’s amazed Jem had picked up on such a faint sound.
Though they’re well-hidden, the brush is too thick to see the road. Dissatisfied with her viewpoint, Jem breaks the silence by pushing into the bush as far as she can. It feels like an eternity to the inexperienced Di as they wait for the carriage to pass. When Jem sticks her hand out of the bush to give the all-clear, Di gasps for air.
Era looks at her in confusion. “Were you holding your breath? You didn’t need to do that.”
“Not on purpose!” she retorts. “How do you two do that? I felt like I was going to die trying to be still and quiet for so long.”
Jem emerges fully from the brush, plucking twigs and leaves from her hair and clothes. “Hey, keep it down. No reason to risk anything.” She gives Era an eager grin. “It looks good! Packing some luggage, too.”
Di is once again left on her own to figure out what they’re discussing as Era’s excitement builds. “It’s been a while since we’ve taken a carriage. How many?”
Jem holds up three fingers. “Driver’s an old man armed with a sword, but he didn’t look fit for a fight. At least two are inside.”
“Whoa, whoa!” Di cries with her hands outward. “You want to raid them? I thought you were thieves, not bandits!”
Jem shoots her a dirty look. “I told you I’m not a thief, Di!”
“And besides, the difference between thieves and bandits isn’t exactly clear-cut,” Era adds.
“Either way, they likely have food and water, which could save us from entering a town during the day,” Jem explains. “We need to remain inconspicuous while we travel.”
“All the more reason not to raid a carriage!” Di objects.
Era plants his hand on the girl’s head. “Sorry, but this is what we do! We’ll just take what we need. It’s not like we’re going to hurt them.” When she continues to pout, he suggests to Jem, “Maybe Di should stay here. We’ll come back for her once we’ve made our raid.”
“No, I’m coming too,” she insists.
Jem grimaces in annoyance. “Look, do whatever you want, but stay back so you don’t get involved.” Di takes a deep breath and nods, nervous about the undertaking despite her insistence to be included.
The two thieves hurry to catch up to the carriage, and Di trails, doing her best to keep up. As they approach their target, Jem puts a hand out to signal Era to stop.
The two communicate back and forth with hand signals while Di catches up, out of breath. However, before they can leap onto the path for a rear flank, shouts break out from up ahead. A strong gust of wind blows through the area, and the horse lets loose a whinny as the carriage tips over, crashing to its side.
The thieves stick their heads into the path, and Jem smacks her forehead in disbelief. Three bandits are swarming the tipped carriage, and, as predicted, the driver is doing a poor job fending them off. A lady from inside the tipped carriage shrieks when one of the bandits squeezes inside. They overwhelm the driver and start celebrating their victory with cheers.
“Unbelievable…” Jem mutters, relying on the ruckus to hide her voice. “What are the odds?”
Era shrugs and turns away. “Well, that’s that I guess. We were too late.” Jem nods in disappointment, and the two step away from the road, intending to go around the commotion.
Di peeks at the scene before turning back to the others. “Hey!” she half-whispers. “We have to help them!”
Jem and Era look at each other and do their best not to laugh. “We were going to raid them! And now you want us to help them?” Jem whispers back. “Let them have their prize, they’ve earned it.”
“Earned it!?” Di yells, far louder than intended.
“Who’s there!?”
Di nearly jumps out of her skin as one of the bandits approaches. “Hey, it’s a girl!” he yells to his companions, having spotted her blond hair easily through the foliage. Visibly shaking, Di freezes in place as she watches him come at her. “You alone, girly?”
Jem and Era spring into action, charging the bandit at full speed in order to frighten him off. As desired, the brigand dashes back to the carriage, yelling for his allies. Era cuts over to Di and hoists her over his shoulder in an effort to make an escape. Jem follows, but a forceful breeze blasts her from behind. She loses her balance and falls as the bandits close in on her.
“Jem!” Era yells, and he dumps Di in order to race back to his partner. The girl lets out a yelp as she hits the hard dirt.
“This is just great…” Jem mutters as the three bandits converge on her with swords drawn. Undeterred, she unsheathes her dagger as Era joins her side.
A gruff man, older than the other two bandits, extends a palm outward. A blast of wind escapes from his hand, taking Era’s legs right out from under him.
The air maker’s allies
charge in. Jem leaps at one with her dagger, clashing blades and pushing to stay on the offensive. The other bandit ignores his partner’s situation and raises his sword above Era’s head, trying to finish him while he’s down. However, the earth shaper digs his hands into the dirt below and pulls out a long blade. He slashes upward in time to intercept the strike, stunning the bandit who thought Era was unarmed.
Taking advantage, Era sweeps his opponent’s legs out from under him and leaps onto him. He punches the bandit in the face, but the air maker blasts him away with another strong gust. Era rolls behind a tree to take cover, and the leader unleashes a strong gale on Era’s hiding place, intending to keep him pinned while his dazed ally slowly fumbles for his sword.
Meanwhile, Jem’s opponent grabs her arm and tries to shake her dagger loose, but the ice elementalist grabs his wrist with her other hand and begins to freeze it. The sting of frostbite startles the bandit, and he releases her with a yelp. Taking advantage, she kicks him into a tree and smashes his forehead with the handle of her blade, knocking him out.
“Oh for the love of…” the older bandit cries out in exasperation, still focusing his wind on keeping Era pinned behind the tree. “Forget him! Go get the gir-RRRUUAAAHHH!” he screams as the earth beneath him abruptly gives way, and he tumbles into a large pitfall.
The thieves don’t waste any time. Jem grapples the remaining bandit, and Era helps her shove him into the hole head-first. Their captives yell and squirm in the compact space.
The partners bump fists as Di runs up and hugs Era tightly. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!”
“Hey, now, it’s okay,” Era says reassuringly as he pats her head. “See, we don’t lose easily!” Di holds him tightly with tears in her eyes, and she smiles in relief.
Jem sheathes her dagger, her attitude far less forgiving. “You’d better not do anything like that again! How stupid do you have to be to-”
“Give her a break, Jem,” Era calmly says. “It was a mistake. She won’t make it again. Right, Di?”
Relieved at Era’s graciousness, Di nods enthusiastically. She releases him and looks back at the pit, where the bandits are scrambling around each other below. “We sure were lucky the ground gave out beneath him. What are the odds of that happening?”
Era and Jem crack up laughing. Di just watches them in confusion until Era holds out his open palm. “Earth shaper, remember?” He beats his chest and gloats, “I can do more than make dirt swords!”
Di’s jaw drops. “Th-Then, when you were behind that tree, you were shaping the ground!?”
“Yup!” Era points along the ground between the tree and the pit. “Don’t step anywhere along there, or you’ll fall in too.”
Jem hops over the invisible line, making her way back toward the path. “That’s not the first time he’s pulled that off in a fight. Don’t feel too bad, Di. I thought it was sheer coincidence the first time, too.”
Di trots after the two and exclaims, “N-No Era, that’s… that’s too strong! You can’t do that without years of practice!”
“Well, it did take me years of practice.”
“No, I mean years and years!”
“More like it took him years and years to bother doing it,” Jem remarks. “Why didn’t you do it at the beginning?”
“Hey, I needed over a minute to do that-”
“So start sooner!”
Era knows there’s little point in arguing further with his partner. He turns to Di and says, “The technique is mostly useless. Minutes don’t just happen in the middle of a fight. I was lucky he opted to pin me instead of push the advantage.”
Di cautiously asks, “So, you don’t… you don’t kill people, right?”
Jem shakes her head. “Stealing doesn’t seem so bad in comparison, right?”
Di laughs and looks up, realizing they’ve come back to the path with the ransacked carriage. Era and Jem pause, and they signal for Di to stay behind them. Creeping up to the carriage door, Era peeks in to find a young woman, the driver, and a guard all tied up.
“Whew!” Era exclaims, wiping his forehead. “I thought they might’ve killed you all. Want some help getting out of there?” he asks as he leans in and starts working at the ropes binding the woman.
“Who are you?” the guard demands. “Are you really here to help us?”
“Seems that way,” Era affirms. “We were passing by, saw the bandits, and took them out for you.” He gets frustrated with the ropes and scoops up some dirt to form a small blade, then makes quick work of the bindings.
Once freed, the woman stands and hugs Era before he can help the others. “Oh, thank you so much! I can’t believe how lucky we are you all came along!”
Era blushes and grins as she continues to hold him. “S-Sure! You’re welcome, Miss…?”
“Andrea!” she exclaims, releasing Era from her hug. “What are your names?”
“I’m Era. That’s Jem and Di.”
She offers the girls long hugs while Era unties the others. He can’t help but notice the guard eyeing Jem with suspicion, but it’s not uncommon for the foreigner to draw attention to herself. Allerians are a rare sight this far into Valvoren.
Andrea, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to balk. After letting go of Di, she says, “My, you’re a small one. How old are you?”
Di proudly stands as tall as she can. “Almost fourteen!”
“Fourteen! Ah, to be young again. Fourteen is dating age, you know!” She offers Di a wink, and the schoolgirl blushes and gives Era an awkward glance. “So what are you all doing in these parts? Isn’t it dangerous to travel alone like this?”
Jem smirks and crosses her arms. “That seems an odd thing to say, given what just happened to you.”
The gruff officer points at Jem and barks, “Careful there, missy. I’d have liked to see you put up a fight being in that carriage when it got blown over.” Looking around, he asks with a suspicious tone, “What’d you do with the awful lot, anyway? How’d you take them out?”
She shrugs. “Era here’s a hired guard for me and Di, and he single-handedly scared them off. They’re probably long gone by now.”
Everyone turns and looks at Era, who seems as surprised as they are. He scratches his head and explains, “Uhh… yeah, I guess I know how to put up a fight!”
The guard looks him over. “With just that tiny blade?”
Era tosses the small earth knife at the man, who cringes before he’s showered with loose sand. “Earth shaper,” Era explains smugly.
The guard growls in response, but Andrea claps her hands ecstatically. “Okay, okay, we have plenty of time to sort it all out. You must be my guests tonight! You won’t get much past Brentan before dark anyway, especially on foot. I’ll feed you and give you a change of clothes, and you can sleep in my guest suite.”
Di gets an excited look on her face before Jem breaks in. “Sorry, we need to keep moving-” Her eyes light up as she processes Andrea’s words. “Wait, a guest suite?”
“Yes! And I’ll have my butler whip up a fine meal. Please stay!”
“A butler!?” Jem repeats as she offers Era a goofy grin. “Sure, why not? We’ll go with you!”
Di claps in excitement, but Era knows full well what Jem has in mind. Rarely is a thief invited into a luxurious home.
* * *
“What an amazing fight!” Andrea exclaims after Jem finishes an embellished version of their conflict with the bandits. “I can’t believe you’d risk your lives like that for strangers!”
Jem sits opposite Andrea in the carriage as the men out front continue to guide them on their way, gleefully telling her story. “Well, we did get lucky, but it all worked out in the end. Era’s a good bodyguard. So strong and manly, after all,” she says, not hiding the sarcasm.
Andrea excitedly gasps. “So, are you two-”
“No!” Era and Jem emphatically state in perfect unison.
Andrea frowns. “O-Oh, you two just seem so perfect for each other.�
�� Looking at the blushing Era, she asks in a disappointed voice, “So you really are just a hired guard?”
Era nods fervently and gives the answer he’d been scripting in his head. “Jem and Di are sisters who were visiting relatives in Yugar. I was hired to escort them back home to Hensi.”
Di panics at Era’s terrible lie, and the maiden glances back and forth between the Allerian and Valvoran in confusion.
Jem quickly adds, “We’re adopted sisters, obviously.”
Her curiosity piqued, Andrea says, “I’d love to hear about it over dinner. Still, that’s quite a journey for sisters so young. Why not travel by train? If you have the money to hire a guard, you could surely afford a few tickets.”
Jem shoots Era a nasty look for having to patch so many holes in his story. “My sister’s stomach is weak and can’t handle train rides,” she explains. Di puffs her cheeks at being used for such an excuse.
“Oh my,” Andrea says, taking everything they say at their word. “Well, you two have a good guard for the journey, at least. And an earth shaper? I don’t think I’ve met one before today!”
Era beats his chest and brags, “Yep! My father was an even better earth shaper, too. One day I hope to be as skilled as him. He’s one of the greatest… ummm… bodyguards who ever lived!”
“Your father sounds wonderful!” Andrea exclaims.
He nods enthusiastically. “He told me once that the world is full of lovely women, and I should always stand up to protect them. But only the most beautiful ones!”
Andrea laughs, taking it as a joke, but Di decides he must be serious. ‘Just what kind of man is his father?’ she wonders.
“O-Oh, my!” Andrea exclaims, grasping at her neck and shoulders. “My necklace! I just noticed… it must have come off in the commotion back there!”
“Oh, Andrea!” Jem moans. “I’m so sorry, but I think I saw one of those nasty bandits making off with a necklace in his hand.”