They stepped out of the mine and into the daylight. Elrick squinted as his eyes adjusted, and then he saw the corpses of Theria and her crew.

“We got the jump on them,” Elise said. “Their mage didn’t do any damage, so we only lost one of ours.”

“Great,” Elrick said. “Congratulations.”

“No need for sarcasm,” Elise said, tucking her dagger into a holster on her thigh. She leaned in closer to him, lowering her voice. “You can sulk a little bit longer if you’d like, but you’ll need to come around quickly. My lead here is tenuous, and I vouched for you.”

He didn’t bother arguing with her. He eyed the tent, knowing the chests of ingots were inside. Those ingots meant immediate passage back to Antia, and an end to this detour in Rakote. Elise had slaughtered people who had been his friends, and by immediately forgiving her, he’d be betraying them even worse than he already had. Then again, if he ever ran into Gotha again, would telling him that he had stayed mad at Elise for a few days be any different than just admitting that he’d completely betrayed the guild? Both he and Jocha had the option of running themselves into the wall of spears like Gotha had, and they’d both chosen betrayal.

“So,” Jocha said. “I get a cut too, huh?”

“We’re going to Antia,” Elise said. “I’ve reserved a boat for us. We’ll still have a lot left of ingots leftover when we reach Antia, where the ingots are worth even more. Crafted armor is worth more still.” She looked at Elrick. “And my mother can get the best price for it.”

So she really did have a plan.

It took a few minutes, but they popped the locks off the chests to make sure the ingots were really there. There were eight chests, all but the last loaded full with a full 20 ingots.

“Are these all slippery bronze?” She asked Elrick and Jocha.

The two of them looked the ingots over. Regular bronze ingots were polished to a shine, but slippery copper had a deeper lustre. Depending on the angle you looked at it, it could look green, or even a deep blue.

“Yeah,” Elrick said. “It’s the real thing.”

They slammed the chests closed and carried them out of the tent.

“We get on the raft,” Elise said. “And take it upriver as if we’re the guild.”

Jocha sucked in air through his teeth. “We won’t be fast enough. Gotha will probably get resed first, and he’ll sound the alarm.”

“We got information that the Kalhu were raiding a logging crew south of Rakote this morning. The temple should be full of ghosts. We have time.”

“You’re working with dune rats?” Jocha asked, spitting.

“We paid for the information,” Durka said. “I’m half dune rat. We call ourselves Kalhu. If you say that one more time, you’ll get a cut alright.” Durka gripped the shaft of his spear until his knuckles whitened.

Jocha glared at him, but said nothing.

“We’re wasting time.” Elise said. “Load the raft.”

Elrick had seen most everyone here fight, but he’d been unable to match most of the faces to names. He’d already checked Durka’s fencing skill in the sparring pit, but now that he’d seen Elise fight, he’d discovered that she’d managed to increase her own fencing ability up to 74.3, which was higher than Elrick’s sword skill. Her Alchemy was also up from the last time he’d seen her. When they’d escaped from the tower, she had been in the low 70s, but now she was at 76.9.

They carried the chests onto the raft. They covered the chests with a tarp and fastened the tarp to the raft.

There were ten of them in total. Four spearmen, two archers, and then Elise, Jocha, Yaraka, and Elrick. It was a tight fit.

“We never go upriver with this many,” Elrick said. “It’s going to look suspicious.”

“There were two crews up here. That’s not normal either. Maybe we are fleeing from ambush?” She pushed the raft off and threw the tethering rope into the river. Durka and Jocha paddled, happy to be on opposite ends of the raft as each other.

Going against the current took twice as long, even with the oars.

“The mean girl’s right. We were two crews up at the mine,” Jocha said. “We say we got spooked and brought as many back as we could fit. Ain’t no one gonna ask.”

Jocha frowned until deep wrinkles cut across his face. It was a face few would question.

Once they got moving, Elise removed what looked like a large blanket of chainmail from a leather satchel. She and one of the spearmen worked to wrap it around Yaraka, who was still unconscious.

Elise shot a glare at Elrick. “It’s slippery bronze. It wasn’t cheap.”

Elrick crossed his arms. “I thought you were ‘going to pay her.’ I didn’t know you needed to cage her like an animal.”

“It’s more a mesh than a cage. It’s just so she can’t use magic when she wakes up. Wouldn’t want her sinking the boat, right? It’s really for her own protection as much as anything.”

It almost sounded reasonable, but then Elrick saw the crude bandaging Elise’s men had done to her leg, and he remembered how Elise took her down. What would Elise do if Yaraka refused to be bought out?

He held his tongue. He’d created enough friction with everyone. Durka and Jocha were periodically glaring at each other from across the raft as they rowed, and Elise looked on the edge of exhaustion. Her eyes were drooping closed, and she occasionally jolted her head up as she caught herself falling asleep.

“Sleep,” Dia, one of the archers, told her. “We’ll wake you if something happens.”

Elise reluctantly agreed, but passed out instantly after lying down.

Dia stayed near the front of the raft, a spyglass held up to her eye, her bow in the other hand. Dia had olive skin and long dark hair, but her bangs were cut short above her eyebrows. Her body stayed tight even with the spyglass in hand, as if she were ready to nock and fire an arrow at a moment’s notice.

“How far can you see with that thing?” Elrick asked.

“Far enough,” she said, not sparing him a glance.

Elrick started to doze off, but woke up to Dia hissing at them.

“A raft is coming,” Dia said.

Elise shot awake. Her tight bun had come a bit loose as she slept, and stray strands of hair fell across her face.

“Who is it?” she clutched her dagger, as if the raft—which they couldn’t even see without Dia’s spyglass—were going to hit them at any moment.

“Looks like merchants,” Dia said. “Wearing robes. Two packhorses. Just a few bowmen.”

Bowmen was standard for trips up or down the Strach. You didn’t travel without some protection. Even if two bows wouldn’t do much, or even if your bowmen could barely aim, it meant there would be at least some cost in attacking you.

“Okay,” Elise said, letting go of her dagger. “Just act natural.”

A minute or two later, Elrick could see the raft. As it got closer, it really did look harmless. It was mostly old men and women, and the archers looked like they were probably too weak to even cock their crossbows after firing the first shot.

As they neared, Dia and the other archer pointed their bows skyward, as was customary for friendly rafts passing each other on the Strach.

“Good Evening,” one of the old men said.

Jocha just grunted and scowled.

“Back at you,” Durka said, nodding his head.

The rafts passed, and Elrick let out a sigh of relief.

Dia kept looking back over her shoulder, and when they were out of sight, she pulled her spyglass back out.

“Shit!” she said. “There’s another raft coming.”

“Is it—” Elise started, but Dia cut her off.

“Heavily armed.” Dia said. “Shit, two rafts.”

Elrick’s stomach sank. Everyone had been so paranoid the night before. He’d heard at least two dozen different rumors about what was going on. About dune rats. Shadow guilds. Mercenaries.”

Jocha and him looked at each other, suddenly realizing how badly they’d fucked up. They’d both heard a rumor the guild was sending mercenaries to reinforce the mine, but they’d neglected to mention it to Elise and her crew.

They both started talking at once, then Elrick stopped to let Jocha say it, but Jocha stopped too.

“Out with it!” Durka hissed.

“Mercenaries,” Elrick said. “It was just a rumor, I didn’t know if—”

“We heard the guild sent mercenaries up to reinforce us,” Jocha said.

“Steer us to shore,” Elise said. “Go!”

Jocha moved to the same side as Durka, and they rowed toward the shore. Elise slashed the rope on the tarp, ripping it off and throwing it down.

“How much can we carry?” someone asked.

“All of it!” Elise said. “It’s worth too much to leave anything behind!”

“It will slow us down too much,” someone said.

Elrick hefted a chest and imagined running through the desert with it, maybe for hours. It was heavy. Close to 100 pounds. Not heavy enough that one person couldn’t carry it slowly for a while, or that two people couldn’t carry one chest together over a long distance, but there were seven chests, and it would probably take two people to carry Yaraka as well.

Elrick saw the raft now. The setting sun hit one of the armored men’s breastplates, and it glinted bright like a second sun.

“There’s like twenty of them,” Jocha shouted, voice nearly pure panic. “Fuck! I’m not insured anymore! I’m gonna die for good!’

“That’s why we’re running,” Elise said. “It doesn’t matter how many of them are, we’re not fighting that many. Twenty or fifty makes no difference.”

“Or we could wake the mage,” Durka said. “Twenty mercs isn’t a lot if we have that mage on our side.”

The gears in Elise’s head started turning. He could see her weighing the risks. If they ran, they would never be able to get back to Rakote. The ship she’d reserved would be gone. They’d likely have to leave behind at least half of their haul. But if they woke Yaraka and she helped them, they might be able to stick to the original plan and be back in Antia in a few weeks with chests full of slippery bronze. Or Yaraka could decide to stay loyal to the guilds and kill all of them.

“How likely is she to help us?” Elise asked.

Jocha and Durka paddled hard, they were only twenty feet from shore now.

Jocha and Elrick looked at each other, and Elrick saw in Jocha’s eyes that he didn’t know either. He’d known Yaraka much longer than Elrick, but he knew just about as much of her as Elrick did: She was good at shooting spheres of molten metal at golems.

They shook their heads at Elise.

“Elrick,” she said. “Come on. Give me something. I can pop this vial down her throat and she’ll be wide awake. She could sink both those rafts and save us. Tell me something.”

“I don’t think she’s particularly loyal to the guild,” Elrick said. “But…”

“Don’t risk it,” Jocha said. “We gotta run.”

The raft scraped up against the shore, and the spearmen began leaping off. They all spent what felt like an eternity handing the chests off to those who were already ashore. Jocha and Durka finally took hold of Yaraka, her slippery bronze net jangling as they hauled her off the raft.

“Leave two chests,” Durka said.

“Two full chests!” Elise hissed, eyes bulging. “That’s forty ingots!”

“They’re mercenaries. Forty ingots just sitting there on the shore, all sparkly and shiny, might be enough to make them happy enough to not follow us into the desert at night,” Dia said.

“But…” Elise said, but her shoulders fell as she trailed off.

“Dump them,” she said, sounding almost sick.

They cracked the chests open and dumped the contents out into the grass. The rainbow-hued ingots looked brilliant strewn out along the shore, hopefully the mercenaries would decide the free pay was more attractive than working for whatever the guild had paid them.

They doubled up on the chests, while Durka took Yaraka alone, hoisted over his shoulder.

Jocha and Elrick carried a chest together.

They ran. As much as they could run with the heavy chests. It was more of a hurried walk, like when you are crossing a street and you know a car is waiting on you, so you make a show of hurrying without actually running.

They kept looking back over their shoulders as they shuffled across the grass. The raft full of mercenaries was getting closer to where they’d made landfall, but the river was well behind them now, and the sun was kissing the water—it would be dark soon.

The mercenaries pulled their rafts up to the shore where they’d dumped the ingots. Elrick looked over his shoulder every few seconds, holding his breath as the mercenaries stood on the shore.

“They’re not following,” Jocha said. “They’re just standing there.”

“They’re debating it,” Dia said.

Jocha looked over his shoulder. “They better decide fast.”

Just as Elrick thought they were in the clear, the mercenaries formed into a staggered line, and began marching into the desert after them.

“Shit,” Elise hissed. “Dia, you ready?”

Dia and Elise dropped their chest. Dia pulled out an arrow, and Elise reached into her satchel.

“They’re at least 1,000 paces off! You can’t hit them with arrows from here,” Jocha said. “Let’s just keep one chest and run!”

Elise glared daggers. “Because dumping chests worked so well already.” She pulled a vial out of her satchel, dipped a small rag into it, and ran it across the length of Dia’s arrow shaft.

Dia nocked the arrow and aimed—way too low to ever have a chance of hitting at this range—and let loose.

The arrow flew straight for 100 paces, then 200, then 300. It floated along as if gravity didn’t exist. Elrick squinted, and more than a full ten seconds after Dia had loosed the arrow, he saw one of the mercenaries fall over.

Dia’s archery skill was 93.2, but not even that could explain how she’d shot so far. Elise’s potion had enhanced the range somehow. Either by fighting gravity, or giving it some kind of aerodynamic properties.

Dia had already nocked another shot, which Elise coated in her potion. Dia fired.

The mercenaries had stopped, and now they formed up shoulder to shoulder. They rose mismatched shields as the second arrow soared toward them.

Dia held her spyglass up as the arrow traveled. “It bounced off a shield,” she said, voice flat.

“Fire again,” Elise said, handing her a freshly coated arrow.

“We have to leave the ingots behind,” Jocha said. “I know the guild well enough. They’ll have given the mercs orders to get us if possible, but to get the loot back above all else. If we leave the ingots, they’ll leave us alone.”

“No,” Dia said, still peering through the spyglass. She held the bow and freshly coated arrow Elise had handed her in her other hand, making no movement to nock the arrow. “There’s a mage with them. I’m guessing it’s violet.

“Give me that!” Elise hissed. “Where? How do you know it’s violet?”

“Violet robes,” Dia said. “They want us to know.”

“It could be a bluff,” Elise said, “Where is the mage? I can’t see them?”

“Behind the spears.” Dia said.

“Looks like a he,” Elise said. “You really think it’s a violet mage?”

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Jocha said. “This loot ain’t worth it!”

What was a Violet Mage? Elrick remembered Yulfria’s red and white magic making pink. So a Violet Mage was red and blue?

Every time he’d tried asking around about what different colors of magic did, he’d been given looks like he wasn’t supposed to be asking. From the tutorial, he knew pretty well what Green Magic did. He knew White Magic could heal and otherwise “help people,” whatever that meant. Red Magic could shoot little molten orbs, and also blast fireballs, like he’d seen the Red Mage fighting the Lich do.

There had been a Blue Mage in that battle. The Blue Mage had augmented the fireball—controlled it even and redirected it. Elrick still wasn’t 100% sure what a Blue Mage did, but the Red Mage and Blue Mage working together against the Lich had made a very large explosion, so maybe a Violet Mage could do all that on his own?

“The loot is the only thing keeping us alive,” Elise said. “We have a high density of slippery bronze ingots. They are forming a massive null field around us. The mage won’t be able to hit us. Unless we abandon the ingots that is.”

“Then they’ll pick us off and get the ingots,” Elrick said.

“It’s only one,” Durka said. “Violet Mages are most effective in groups. They rarely can get off more than one shot before they need to meditate. If we spread out—”

“Are you volunteering to be the one who absorbs the one shot?” Jocha snapped.

They’d started moving again to keep distance between themselves and the mercenaries. They needed time to make a plan, but the mercs were slowly gaining on them, and each minute they ran with the chests of ingots made them more exhausted and less fit to fight. Though it was becoming darker by the minute, and the darkness likely favored their smaller group.

“We split into smaller squads,” Elrick said. “Disappear into the night.”

“And wait for them to hunt us down?” Elise asked.

“No,” Elrick said. “Hit and run. Pick one or two off, then run. We’ll wear them down, make them want to just cut their losses and go back to Rakote.”

They split into groups of two. Elrick was paired with Dia, and given a sword—one of the spearmens’ sidearms. Elise gave Dia the potion that extended the range of her arrows.

Elrick and Elise had to carry a chest together. They’d decided that it was too risky to split up without chests in each two-person squad, as one squad was too juicy a target for the violet mage’s artillery blast. If Yaraka had a way to work around a golem’s null field, then the violet mage likely would have some kind of workaround as well.

Splitting into small groups meant the effectiveness of the violet mage was drastically reduced, or so they hoped. If they were right that the violet mage could probably only get one shot off, it also meant that with five groups, each group only stood a one-in-five chance of being shot at.

Durka and Elise were paired together, and rather than a chest, they took Yaraka, hoping the chainmail cover would be enough protection from the violet mage. They planned to abandon one chest where they stood, as a focal point to bait the mercenaries.

“Ready?” Elise asked.

Everyone nodded.

Elise gave the signal, and everyone ran off in their designated direction.