At least Sammyl has always been an early riser.

He emerged from the bedroom carrying his boots.

“Good morning,” I said. “Let’s go.”

As we descended the staircase, he said, “Did you get it?”

“Yes. But we are in deep shit.”

“Why? Did you get caught?”

“No.”

“Then why? Because I slept with the girl? I don’t even remember it. All that wine – gods.”

“Shut up,” I said. “We can talk later. We need to fucking move.”

In the common room, we were greeted by four Imperial Guardsmen. One of the serving girls pointed us out to them and they approached us.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

The leader greeted me cheerfully. “Good morning, Outlander. I have a special invitation to you from Her Excellency, the Empress. You are invited to accompany us at once to the palace.

“What? Why?”

He frowned. I realized I wasn’t sounding much like an outlander – more like the scared shitless peasant that I was.

I added, “What the fuck does she want?”

Now his frown deepened but he no longer appeared suspicious.

“All Outlanders in the city have been invited to the palace, by the Empress herself.”

“What if I don’t wanna go? I’ve got shit to do.”

“Her Excellency wishes to make it clear that this is an invitation and not a summons. Your attendance is not mandatory. However, if you wish to decline the invitation, my duty is to escort you out of the city immediately. You will be welcome to return tomorrow, but will respectfully be prohibited re-entry any time today.”

“Why?”

“Sir, I can only convey the message – these orders do not come from me, you must understand.”

“Fine. We’ll leave then. Come on Sammyl.”

“We will escort you, sir.”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“I am afraid we must insist.”

We left the inn and trudged down the snow and slush covered street toward the east gate.

I eyed the guards warily, but they appeared to mean us no harm. I pondered what was going on, and thought I understood. It had nothing to do with us but with what Krista had told me.

Every asshole king and queen in the empire was coming to Meridea today, by imperial summons. Once in the city, they were under the Empress’s protection. She couldn’t have some idiot outlander go off and take a shot at one of them as they made their royal procession down Royal Avenue. It would be embarrassing.

I began to relax. Things had gone about as well as they could. I still had the dagger to sell, and it would make us wealthy men. No way in hell was I going to take it to Leonis, the merchant. I was no fool.

I was beginning to think we would actually make it out of this damn city with our heads intact, never to return. We could go back to River City, find a good fence to sell the dagger, and live in style, drinking and playing poker to our hearts’ content. To hell with Alec Braun.

“Rany,” Sammyl said. “Is that Alec Braun up ahead? I think it is. Alec! Ho! Alec Braun!”

“Sammyl, no!” I said.

It was indeed Alec Braun. He was on horseback, accompanied by a beautiful woman and an imperial escort of his own.

“Rany!” Alec beamed. “About fucking time I found you! Did you finish the job?”

“I’ll explain later,” I said.

Alec turned to my escort. “What are you doing with my men?”

“Your men? Beg pardon sir, we are escorting this outlander and his man to the city gate.”

“What outlander?” Alec looked about in confusion.

The guard also looked confused. “This one right here, sir!”

“Him?” Alec laughed. “He’s no outlander! Rany, what kind of shit are you up to now?”

My head took a sudden rattle and my ears rang. The guard had just clobbered me.

“What is this, you lout?”

“Hey!” Alec said, hand on his sword. “He’s with me. Don’t touch him again.”

“He will have to answer for this,” the guard said, eyeing me with disdain. These assholes don’t take kindly to being made fools of.

“For what?” Alec demanded. “Pretending to be an outlander? Some law against that?”

“Possibly,” said the guard, appearing uncertain. (If there wasn’t such a law, there probably would be one by the end of the day.)

One of Alec’s guards spoke up. “They can go, Corporal. They have broken no law I am aware of. We will take them from here. Go off and find some real outlanders this time.” Alec’s guards all had a good laugh at my guards’ expense. I had to suppress a chuckle myself.

“Very well,” said my guard. “Are you taking them to the palace? I need to know for my report.”

“I’ve already been to the palace,” Alec said. “Just met your Empress in fact. She named me First Sword of Destra. Which means I’m pretty sure I outrank you. I’m done with your bullshit questions. Get the fuck out of here.”

When the sun was directly overhead – the snow beginning to melt – we came to a stop in a small village, maybe a dozen miles north of Meridea. I got off my horse, relieved beyond measure. I hate the damn things. Twice in the last few hours this particular beast had tried to throw me off.

Grooms eager for coin jogged out to take care of the horses. The two outlanders, six knights, Sammyl and I entered the village’s sole inn. The owner and his wife seated us at a long table and scrambled to prepare lunch for all of us.

“Rany!” Alec called to me. “Get your ass over here and sit by me. We got some catching up to do. You too, uh…Sammy.”

The innkeepers served a tasty ale. The meal was not up to the standards of the big cities, but I was famished from the ride and probably could have eaten Sammyl’s boots.

“So, Rany,” Alec began. “What the fuck happened with you guys? You obviously made it to Meridea. Did you get the crazy chick there ok?”

“Things didn’t go so well with the girl,” I admitted. “We had some setbacks.”

“Setbacks?”

“First, the girl didn’t want to go to Meridea. Gave not one shit that we pulled her out of that prison – she acted as if she’d rather be back there than go to the capitol. Now that I’ve been to Meridea myself, I partly understand. So we tied her up-“

“Wait,” Alec said, casting a glance at the female outlander, Jade. “You tied her up?”

“Well, yeah. She was trying to run away.”

“We weren’t kidnapping her Rany. We were rescuing her. If she wanted to leave, you should have just let her go.”

Somehow, I did not think Alec would have expressed this opinion if Jade had not been sitting there.

“Well, she got away anyway,” I said. “In River City. Handice went after her. Haven’t seen either of them since.”

“Handy is alive?” Alec looked shocked.

“Well, yes. He came back shortly after you were…you know.”

“That son of a bitch. Good for him.”

“Alec,” I said. “You didn’t really meet the Empress, did you?”

“Yeah, I met her.” He waved his hand as if it was nothing.

“Good gods, what was she like?”

“She was ok. Not bad looking. Seemed like the kind of person who knows what’s what. I don’t know. I think she liked me.”

Jade shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“And she’s really pissed at you,” Alec told me.

“At me? What?”

Jade said, “Alec!”

“I’m joking, Rany. Jesus Christ.”

Alec procured armor and weapons for Sammyl and me, from the village blacksmith. I had never in my life worn armor – not my style. “Light” armor, they called it. Light, my ass. It felt like my weight had doubled. I wanted to give it back. I like to be able to move quick, and avoid situations where I might need armor.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jade said. “You’ll need it, trust me.”

That’s what I was afraid of. I kept it on, moving to the table where all the blacksmith’s weapons were laid out. Sammyl was playing with a great sword, a delighted grin on his face.

“Are you sure you want to be with us for this?” Jade asked me. “You can still leave, you know. Alec will let you. We’ll give you some gold – you can go on and live a good life.”

“No,” I found myself saying. “Thank you, but no.”

“Is it because of the bond? Alec can release you from it.”

“No. I don’t know why, but no.”

“We’re going to lose people,” she said. “These knights, they can fight. They know what they’re doing and what they’re getting into. Do you?”

“Of course,” I lied. “Beg pardon, my lady, but why are you telling me this? Did I offend you somehow? Is it what happened with the girl? I know that was a mistake-“

“No,” she said, touching my arm. “You’re fine. I just don’t like losing people. I get attached.”

She smiled.

Oh, I thought. The old Rany charm had already gotten to her.

“Not like that,” she hastened to add. “I just care, that’s all.”

I wondered if she had lost a follower and felt guilt over it.

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

That afternoon, we got into our first battle.

We spotted a large force, triple our size, before they spotted us. They were set up for an ambush. An outlander was in command – Alec seemed to know him by name. He was quite excited about it.

With our numbers at such a disadvantage, I thought for certain we would find a way around them. Alec had other thoughts in mind. He told us his plan and gave a little speech to inspire us. The speech was unnecessary. The knights were itching for a fight, as was Sammyl. Jade urged against it, but Alec was “First Sword.”

We ambushed them.

The battle lasted mere minutes.

My contribution was a joke. Every shot from my crossbow missed. I nearly hit one of our knights by mistake – the closest I came to hitting anybody.

I took an arrow to the stomach and a spear to my leg, and found myself in grave trouble. I was on the outer edge of the battle, on my knees, bleeding heavily, trying to get up but unable to. An enemy axman charged me.

“Rany!” Sammyl yelled.

He turned his back from the man he was fighting and came running toward me.

The axman was upon me, grinning savagely, manic zeal in his eyes as he brought the ax down on me. The man’s eyes widened. His ax fell to the ground next to me. Sammyl’s sword cleaved right through the man.

I wanted to warn Sammyl of the man behind him, but I could not speak, and my world turned to black.

I awoke later, groggy and disoriented, but alive.

Jade had healed me. I had survived to fight another day.

Sammyl had not.