Vin was disappointed that we never got attacked.

  It was almost like the entire forest knew that they shouldn’t mess with us. Even the bugs avoided the three of us, though that didn’t stop our mounts from finding enough to eat. On the second day, Nipper caught a goat and brought it back to Vin while he was sleeping. He screamed like he’d been stabbed when she dropped her prize on him. I think he was more upset about not getting to hunt it with her than he had been about being woken up.

  We could see the smoke from Gedu by the third day, which motivated all of us to move faster. We reached what was left of the city gates just before noon on the fourth day.

  Gedu was nestled in the mountains with access restricted to one road from the west, which we were on, and one road from the east, which was where we wanted to leave. It was going to add at least another day to our journey, but we’d hoped that there would be enough of Gedu standing that we’d be able to procure some actual supplies.

  We were wrong.

  The entire wall around where the front gate should have been was missing. The wall itself was riddled with holes with the siege weapons that caused the destruction scattered in pieces on the widened road. This hadn’t been a mere uprising, there had been something inside the city that the cult had wanted and they had waged war to try to get it. At least I hoped they had only tried. If they had nabbed their prize, they were going to be even more difficult to deal with.

  “STOP!” Three Camadt ran through the wreckage to bar our way. Their metal armor was smudged with blood and dirt. Given what I knew about the proud race, they hadn’t felt safe enough to take off their armor to clean it. If a Camadt didn’t feel safe, none of us were. I started to feel naked in my traveling clothes.

  I hopped off Chompers (Vin named him) and held up my hands. “We are the delegation of Ambassador Starna Shellock of the Malus Kingdom. We’re looking for Ambassador Tu’Rik, Ambassador Krav of the Mebope Kingdom, or one of the Seekers.”

  The tallest Camadt stepped forward and pounded the red star on his chest with his fist. “I am Captain Farzah Lurk. You have papers?”

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  I reached into my vest and pulled them out. The captain kept his eyes on my brother the entire time.

  All three of the Camadt had black fur. I’d heard that there were some that were white and that sometimes they could have red highlights, but I’d never seen anyone from the race that wasn’t pure black.

  Captain Lurk took the papers from me and scanned over them. Once he’d read enough he turned to one of the other guards. “Togert. Go get the shark. Gertin, go check on the squids.” He handed the papers back to me as both of the soldiers ran into the smoking city.

  “Bones left with the Seekers for Hilde, but he left his friend.” The exhaustion on his face gave way to a frown. “Ambassador Tu’rik didn’t survive the invasion.” He took a deep breath. “Until we get reinforcements from the capitol, I’m the ranking officer.”

  Starna got off her mount and gave him a slight bow. “Then on behalf of the Malus Kingdom, I greet you.” She straightened. “This doesn’t seem like a time to sit around and exchange pleasantries though. Is there anything we can do to help?”

  The Captain’s brow knotted. “No disrespect, but you don’t look like soldiers.” He shook his head. “We’ve still got squid lovers holed up in the tunnels under the city. What I need are trained fighters, not…” He swallowed as he searched for the right word. “Protection duty.”

  “Vincent is a pirate hunter.” Starna motioned at the Camadt that was holding the reins of all three of our mounts. “And Sectum is a Sineater. I assure you, both are skilled fighters.”

  The captain took a step away from me as he focused all of his attention in my direction. “A SINEATER!”

  I sighed, the Camadt had either a burning hatred or bottomless fear for a Sineater. This one appeared to be a devotee. “Last I checked we were friends.” I showed him my empty palms. “We’re just here to help.”

  It took a few moments for the captain to compose himself. In that time, Togert came back with a five-foot-ten-inch tan sharkman following behind the almost seven foot tall guard. The Kharm was dressed in dirty brown pants with a shirt that had been white too long ago to ever hope to be that color again. His black boots were scuffed and the harness over his chest held the metal shoulder pads in place. On his back was a bow and a wicker quiver, with a lid.

  Kharm kept Sand Snakes in the quiver. The rapidly reproducing reptiles would eat whatever the landshark fed them, adjusting their venom to what they consumed. When the Kharm needed ammunition, he could just grab one of the snakes and lock its spine in place. They functioned as renewable ammunition and were a very invasive species. Because of that, very few Kharm were allowed to bring them into a city.

  “Ambassador Shellock.” The captain popped the k. “Allow me to introduce you to Ranger Psider.”

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