Oliver and Aton watched the shape of the other bandit leader fly away, the few remaining bandits tearing through the woods after him. Aton remained bound, hand and foot, sitting at Oliver’s feet.

  “Egin… you bastard…” Aton’s voice was soft, and Oli was of the mind that she hadn’t even realized she had spoken out loud.

  “Egin, is it?” Oliver asked. “It appears he’s left you for dead.”

  Aton huffed, the sound mocking. “You know as well as I do that you’re not going to kill me, pup.”

  Oli frowned. Unfortunately, she had a point. Had he been able to kill her in the midst of their fight, he would’ve done so without pause, but doing the same to a helpless prisoner was a different matter. Still, that was no reason to let her relax.

  “Maybe not,” he admitted, “but Jellis has a magistrate in residence. Blessed by the Arbiter and everything. And as things stand, I wouldn’t bet much on you avoiding the hempen price.”

  That got Aton’s attention. She frowned down at the ground, and for once, she didn’t bother to taunt him back.

  “I might be able to put in a good word for you, you know. If you’re willing to help us catch this Egin fellow. He did abandon you, after all.”

  Aton kept frowning thoughtfully, but continued to keep her thoughts to herself.

  Oliver shrugged, turning his attention back to the caravan. He itched to go see how the rest had fared, but he didn’t dare leave Aton unattended. Cadence knew he was back there. The celestial would come back soon enough.

  “How exactly did you end up with these bandits anyways?” OIiver asked Aton, trying to fill the silence. “You’re no outlaw, not fighting the way you do.”

  After another moment of stubborn silence, Oliver began to accept that the woman was ignoring him. She surprised him when she finally answered.

  “I was born in Arsilet. Not rich, but goldblooded.” Oliver nodded. He had only a small idea of what Arsiletian society was like, but he knew those who still carried the pureblood of the original settlers were a class all their own, honored even if they weren’t wealthy. Aton’s skin and hair, both the same color of burnished gold, spoke to her heritage as loudly as her skills did.

  “There are armsmasters in Arsilet that specifically work with goldbloods, giving us the training to keep up the reputation of our people, regardless of wealth. But… suffice it to say I had little interest in those standards.”

  Oliver looked down. For a moment there, he thought he had heard something familiar in Aton’s voice, a hint of wistful longing that echoed his own pain. He remembered his surprise when he first laid eyes on her. Her rough homespun clothing disguising the details of her body. Her hair, crudely cut short. Her masculine name.

  Oliver gasped. “You’re not a woman, are you?”

  Aton looked away stubbornly, and Oliver didn’t push him. It was easy enough to figure out how the eclipsed man had fallen in with bandits now.

  Not long after that, Cadence and Derrik approached the pair, their faces solemn. Derrick still had some cuts and bruises left, but Oliver recognized the fresh pink skin of quickly healed wounds. The man must’ve taken some potions before coming with Cadence.

  That boded ill. It meant Rose was occupied with much worse injuries.

  “How is everyone?” Oliver asked, as soon as the two were within airshot.

  “Bad,” Cadence said simply. “We’ll talk soon. Derrik, can you grab her?”

  “Him,” Oliver corrected gently.

  Cadence gave Oli a look, then inspected Aton more closely before nodding. “Okay. Derrik, can you grab him?”

  #

  “Where are we at?” Cadence asked. Sunset had given way to true night while Rose had done what she could for Beryl and Harriet. Derrik took first watch over Aton so that Cadence and Oliver could review their remaining supplies. Now, Cadence was ready to get moving. Even with the exhaustion of the fight on her shoulders, she itched to start out, to find the bandits, to get help, to do something.

  The five members of the caravan who were still on their feet stood in a circle, trading worried looks around a hastily kindled fire. Rose couldn’t seem to help a look over her shoulder at Beryl’s still form every few seconds.

  “I’ve gotten Harriet moving again, but that’s about all I can do for them,” Rose explained. “It’ll take everything else I have to keep Beryl from losing too much ground. That last one, with the wings–he got her in the shoulder, the lung, the hip, and the stomach.”

  Cadence winced, her pain reflected on the faces around her. “We need to get her back to Jellis then, right?”

  “As soon as we can.”

  “Easier said than done,” Harriet said. Though healed, the older woman still moved gingerly. Rose had closed her own gut wound and ensured she was safe from infection, but too much strenuous activity could open the wound back up and leave her worse off than before. “Only your wagon can still move. Given enough time to work on them, I might be able to get one of the others going, but as it stands…”

  “We can’t risk your health or give Beryl that much time to backslide,” Oliver agreed. “We need to get moving now.”

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  “But seven people in one wagon is going to be a big ask. We can only hook two goats up to the traces. Even if we only take enough food for us to get by, we’ll be overloaded.”

  “And if you go back, you’ll lose Egin,” Aton’s low voice called over. The bandit leader was still bound to one side, where they could keep an eye on him.

  “What do you mean?” Oliver asked. It was the first piece of information the imprisoned exile had volunteered since his capture.

  “You saw him. He’ll already have taken off to the secondary hideout. In Egin’s book, Egin comes first. But he’ll have to leave some of the clan behind to strike camp and carry the supplies and loot off to the backup hideout. If you can make it to our camp by tomorrow or maybe the day after, you might be able to catch them–but if not, they’ll be gone.”

  “Any particular reason you’re suddenly being so helpful?” Oliver asked.

  Aton did the best he could to shrug with his arms tied behind his back. “Like you said. Might be my best chance to get through this. Let me go, and I can guide you to the camp. Get you there before they can run for it.”

  Oliver turned back to the circle, his eyes worried. Rose seemed on the edge of panic, looking between the woodline and Beryl.

  Cadence found herself looking off to the same woodline, suddenly thoughtful. The woods here weren’t nearly as dense as they were along the Lumber Road, or in the area surrounding Felisen. In fact…

  Cadence tilted her head. “Derrik, you mind keeping an eye on Aton while we have a word?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Harriet waved them away, gingerly taking a seat on the ground, and Cadence led Oliver and Rose a small distance away, where Aton wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation.

  “I don’t trust him,” Oliver immediately said.

  “Agreed,” Cadence told him. “Definitely not enough to let him lead us there. But I think he’s right about the timing.”

  Reluctantly, Oliver nodded.

  “It doesn’t matter though,” Rose interjected. “We need to get Beryl back to Jellis, or she could die!”

  “You’re right,” Cadence agreed. “But it doesn’t take all of us to do that. In fact, the less of us the better. The wagon could move faster if Oli and I went after the bandits by ourselves.”

  “If we’re not trusting Aton to guide us, how would we do that?” Oli asked. “Another trick of… whatever it is your gifts are?”

  Cadence smiled at his tone. “No, not a gift this time. My mother was a chief hunter, and I spent my childhood in woods more dense than these. I’m willing to bet I could follow them back to the camp Aton told us about, as long as we leave soon, while the trail’s still hot.”

  “Seriously?”

  Cadence shrugged. “I think so. Worst case scenario, we lose them and we can head back to the wagons. I’m sure once Elway finds out what happened, he’ll have men out here we can hook up with. We’re out nothing trying.”

  “I don’t like it,” Rose said. “Splitting up like that… It's risky.”

  Oliver frowned, looked back at the group. Cadence thought she saw his gaze linger on Beryl, then Aton.

  “You’ve got the deciding vote then, Oli,” Cadence told him gently.

  He looked back, alarm obvious on his face.

  “I want to go, Rose wants us to stay together,” Cadence clarified. “But you’re the other one I’d be putting at risk with this plan. If you’re not up for it, I’ll stick with you. We can give up on the bandits, get Beryl to safety, and make a new plan from there.”

  Oli chewed his bottom lip, obviously conflicted. His gaze turned back to the remains of Hugo’s caravan, to the bodies they were leaving behind.

  #

  “This a stupid idea,” Oli insisted, even as he packed his travel sack, making sure everything was ready to go.

  “You made your choice, Oli,” Cadence reminded him as they did the same. “Do you need me to tell you to man up?”

  Oli bristled, but Cadence said the words carefully, teasing without quite taunting, and he silently turned back to his packing. Reluctantly, he decided it would be best to leave his books behind. They’d only be dead weight on the trail.

  “Ready?” Harriet called out.

  “Ready as they’re gonna get,” Derrik replied, stepping away from the draft goats. The porter hooked the two freshest and healthiest draft goats into the traces, and had released the remainder to forage on their own.

  The big man himself had decided to stay behind with the remaining wagons, to bury the dead and try to ensure the safety of Hugo’s remaining stock until the militia arrived.

  Oliver took a moment to squeeze Beryl’s hand before he crawled out of the wagon after Cadence. The athletic girl’s hand had been limp, but Oliver was sure that, for a moment, he had felt her grip tighten in his.

  “Good luck,” he heard Cadence tell Rose.

  The petite girl nodded. “I still think I should go with you…”

  “Your place is with Beryl,” Oli reassured her. Without thinking, he stepped forward and gave Rose a brief hug–or so he had intended.

  To his surprise, Rose’s slender arms reached up to wrap around his neck, and the hug turned out to not be so brief. Oli looked down at the girl in surprise, and found her face upturned, too close to his own. Their lips met in a brief, lingering kiss.

  Her name was fitting, Oli decided, somewhere in the back of his panicked mind. She tasted sweet and floral–like roses.

  Rose broke the kiss after a too-short moment, and stepped away before Oli could respond. She smiled shyly at him. “Sorry. I just… I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”

  “A while?” Oli found himself echoing stupidly.

  “Oblivious…” Cadence observed dryly, rolling her eyes.

  Oli flashed a glare at the smirking celestial, then looked back at Rose, still wrapped in his arms. “It’s just… now?”

  Rose shrugged. “I might not get the chance again. I don’t know. There’s always gonna be a reason not to go for it.” Her full lips twitched in a tiny smile. “Think of it as a good luck charm.”

  Oli was still trying to figure out how to respond to that as the redhead hopped up into the back of the wagon.

  “Stay safe, okay?”

  “Since you asked nicely,” Oli responded, his too-dry mouth moving on autopilot.

  Rose giggled.

  Next to her, Aton gagged. “I take it back. You can execute me now.”

  Oliver made a rude gesture at the eclipsed bandit. Once he had decided on his best route forward, Aton had proven a surprising source of information on exactly who they were up against. In exchange, Rose agreed to speak on Aton’s behalf before Jellis’s magistrate, to give him a whisper of a chance at avoiding a hanging.

  “Trail’s going cold,” Cadence called out.

  Oli turned back, surprised at the celestial’s enthusiasm. Or rather, surprised at his own lack of surprise.

  After the attack, there was no reason to be in good spirits. Four men lay dead at the hands of the bandits, and given Beryl’s state, that number could very well grow. Sullen rage, solemn grief, or simple shocked fatigue all would’ve been more appropriate reactions to the battle’s aftermath than Cadence’s determined optimism. But it had been the celestial who had kept everyone moving in those critical moments after the fight ended, who had looked towards their next steps when it was far easier to dwell on their past mistakes and present circumstances.

  Without knowing why, Oliver found himself returning Cadence’s smile. His first adventure hadn’t gone the way he wanted it to–but the story wasn’t over yet, was it?

  “Let’s go.”