The hopping rodent squealed as the first arrow cut into its back, then ceased making any sounds when the second went through its neck. Kaye approached to make ensure that it was dead.

  She had seen the little creatures about, but this one was big, as rge as a grown-up rabbit. Not much meat, but it was meat. The retreat to Neru-Aran was unexpected and there had been no chance of resupplying before leaving. Besides, Uruoro had been the one to carry most of their dried food, and now Gima was traveling with them. A small portion of fresh meat would go a long way in healing the morale and bodies of three people forced to ration every meal.

  With a plea both sorry and thankful, Kaye picked the rodent’s body up, then started on her way back. Her pn wasn’t to hunt, but the animal must have been distracted and not noticed her approach as she scouted around their camp.

  Aien and Gima had woken up. Two people, as there should be.

  Kaye was distracted as she promised them a better meal for the night, though it was still early morning. Her thoughts were looking for clues that might not have been there.

  They left Neru-Aran among the crowds, walking confidently but trying to stay unnoticed. Gima was in the center of their trio, and in the few times Kaye looked, she seemed a little too stiff. Aien didn’t seem to be doing well, making his gnces towards anyone who approached too obvious.

  No one called for them, made them stop or tried anything else. Kaye controlled her breathing all the way through to keep from unwillingly holding it in. A part of her expected trouble to appear by the gates, but the guards didn’t even pay them any mind, and so they left the city through its east gate unimpeded.

  As Aien had said, the Headhunters couldn’t try anything in the city, not in any pce where there could be witnesses. All that told Kaye was that they should brace themselves for an ambush or pursuit outside the city.

  That had been several days ago. Traveling days on the harsher side, yes, with the rationing, the heat — which she had learned to at least tolerate — and the wariness they shared about the others, but safe days nonetheless.

  The anxious thoughts were the only thing pursuing her, it seemed. On that morning, they only left her in peace when the group had set upon the road again.

  I’ll give myself a day to do nothing but sleep when next we reach a city, Kaye promised herself.

  The following days bled into one another. They spoke little, both on the road and at camp. If Gima preferred to stay quiet, Kaye would give her that, while Aien had never been particurly talkative, and so they trudged on east, following the road to Tohohon, with no concrete pn but to look for the others.

  Two days ago, both sides of the cliff joined into even ground, and now they approached an intersection of two roads where one caravan waited for another to free up space.

  They stopped by the roadside, watching. The first caravan was on the same road they had been following, coming from Neru-Aran, though it had to have left before them. Thirty people waited for the other group, twice the first’s size, which was coming from the east and taking the turn north. The road that way wrapped around what was likely the st cliff in the region — across from the road in the opposite direction of where Kaye was standing —, for the path continued unimpeded both north and east as far as Kaye could see.

  Kaye felt hope again. Tohohon shouldn’t be far, and all she had to do to bring attention to herself was to walk its streets showing her green hair. If Hogog and the others were in the city, they would hear about her sooner or ter.

  “We should take a look,” Aien suggested.

  Silently, Gima nodded. They spread around.

  Some of the caravan members watched them, probably wondering why the travelers on foot didn’t simply walk around the commotion. Revealing her hair only increased the gnces and pointing fingers. She ignored them, searching.

  On the other side, beyond the two caravans, someone was waving with both of their arms. Without having to see his face, Kaye recognized her uncle immediately.

  It took restraint to not run in his direction. Restraint that Gima didn’t have, as she made her way through the caravans, asking for space, bumping into several people.

  Kaye rounded the caravans from the nearest side, a different kind of anxiety swelling within her with every step. She had only seen Hogog.

  They were there, all three of them, they just happened to have been out of her sight. Loho and Gima were tangled in an embrace, Uruoro looking around.

  Hogog picked her up in a hug, which brought forth a fit of ughter from both of them. Kaye spped at his back in gleeful protest until he let her go.

  “I was so worried,” Hogog said.

  “You’re dirty and covered in scrapes,” said Kaye. He looked exhausted.

  Hogog sighed. “A lot has happened.”

  He pced one hand on her arm, his grip strong, reassuring, but his face was that of exhaustion, with deep bags under his eyes.

  “I feel left out,” Uruoro said.

  They turned to see him gncing towards Aien, an eyebrow raised.

  Aien shook his head.

  Hogog burst into ughter again. Kaye followed him, though her voice wasn’t as powerful as his. A few seconds ter, Hogog winced, one arm reaching for an aching spot in his ribs.

  “Don’t do that,” he compined.

  When Loho and Gima finally released one another from the embrace that left both sweating from the heat, Kaye noticed that his mask was gone. Not removed, not dangling in a neckce or fallen to the ground, but gone.

  Kaye and Loho’s eyes met.

  He seemed different. That shouldn’t have surprised her, not when he had to have feared for his and Gima’s life after the attack, but it did. Kaye had first met him without his mask, but back then he had been poorer of health and ensved, showing nothing but aversion in his eyes.

  The face that stared at her now was expressive, his smile a trembling line of emotion, leaving the dark beady eyes feeling out of pce. She was used to seeing the eyes through the mask, the added material giving a distant, deep-set impression.,

  He managed to steel himself by the time he spoke, “This is not a debt I can ever repay.”

  “You don’t have to,” Kaye said, “If you want to, consider this as me repaying you for saving us.”

  “We’ll be doing that forever, then.”

  “That’s not a bad thing.” Kaye remembered someone else’s words. “It doesn’t have to be for me, for us, as long as it goes on and on.”

  Silence, as they all stared at one another before moving closer to distance themselves from the road. Kaye thought she could almost feel the collective relief spreading between the group.

  What she could definitely see was how tired everyone was. Dingy, filled with scrapes and scratches, Hogog, Loho and Uruoro seemed to have had it much rougher than Kaye, Aien and Gima did. Specially Loho, who had acquired new bandages, all sun-bleached now. He looked like a man coming home after a war.

  “We’re in desperate need for a city,” Uruoro said when he noticed she was looking.

  “After we’re rested,” said Hogog.

  “How long to Tohohon?” Kaye asked, turning to Loho.

  “From here, two days.”

  Kaye nodded. Exhausted as they were, pushing themselves the st stretch would be easier now that they knew everyone was safe.

  That rodent’s meat is barely going to be enough for all six of us.

  They found rocks to sit or lean against, closer to the cliff but at a safe distance from the sudden fall.

  “I found your arrow,” Kaye said. “What happened after that?”

  Hogog let out a long sigh. “We were pursued for days. They surrounded us. Those men were hired to kill Loho, they needed his mask as proof, so we gave it to them.”

  “I for one can tell you everything in detail,” said Uruoro. “There will be enough time on these two days to Tohohon.”

  “And you?” Hogog asked, staring at Kaye.

  “I realized Gima could be targeted, if the men who attacked us failed to kill Loho. We got to her before the Headhunters did. Cozo was waiting inside the house, but he let us go once we were far enough away.”

  “How much are you leaving out? It sounds…”

  “Easy?” Kaye completed her uncle’s words.

  He nodded.

  Aien answered, “We were already out in the streets, so the chances of someone seeing something were high. They have to pretend as if they accepted the duel’s result.”

  “They would get in trouble with the city’s keshin for betraying the tradition,” Uruoro said.

  Hogog turned to Aien, looking up at him, since he was the only one still standing.

  “Thank you. For going with her.”

  A deep nod was all the answer that Aien gave.

  “But enough of that. It’s as Uruoro said, there will be time to talk on the road. How long does everyone need to rest?”

  “A little more,” Loho said. He had an arm wrapped around Gima, both turned the other way, whispering all the while.

  Kaye put her pack to the ground, turning to the caravans. The rgest one was finally through, and the smaller seemed to be organizing to continue east, travelers pacing around.

  Two figures were walking up to meet them. Kaye was tired, if she didn’t talk about suggesting some trade with the caravans before. They still had some coin leftover, and…

  Her eyes trailed on the two men calmly walking their direction. The caravan was making its way down the road at a steady pace, leaving them behind.

  Behind and to her right, Loho and Gima were still whispering. Hogog grunted in what she recognized as a stretch. From the corner of her eye, Kaye saw that Aien was just now looking away from Uruoro after paying attention to something he had to say.

  She took a moment too long to recognize them. Two instead of three. No masks but, Kaye told herself even as she opened her mouth to warn the others, she should have noticed that sooner.