Elspeth and Marla were at the prep tables, carefully removing the contents of Kaddie’s knapsack. Occasionally, one of the women gasped as she read the containers’ labels.

  Torrell was regarding the growing collection with bemusement. “I don’t even know what half of this is, let alone what it’s used for.”

  “Probably just as well.” Marla winked at Kaddie who was attempting to feign disinterest, lest the others start asking questions she wasn’t prepared to give answers to.

  Her head was still spinning, wondering how on earth she could get back to a normal life after this. As for Robles, he’d disappeared as soon as they’d returned, and she was part way through wondering where he’d gotten to when he burst through the door that led to the dispensary.

  “You two. This way,” he announced, beckoning vigorously.

  Kaddie and Torrell shared a glance before following their employer. Mr. Feesh was behind the dispensary counter. His arms were folded and he bore a grin on his face. Meanwhile, Coglan and Pick were waiting by the front door with expressions of confusion.

  Robles marched outside. “Quickly,” he said.

  All four followed, out into the dry afternoon, across the street, and toward the open door on the first house standing at the topmost corner of Toch Avenue.

  To her delight, Kaddie realized immediately where they were going and gave Torrell a nudge. He replied with a look that suggested he’d much rather be somewhere else.

  “We need this,” she said.

  “Really?” He shook his head, exasperated. “I knew you’d gotten into trouble on that trip.”

  About to reply, she saw Pick was listening in, and so resumed silence as they entered the house.

  The interior was dark. The front room appeared to have been a store at some point. Kaddie saw a counter, not unlike the one in the dispensary, but it was half-buried among carriage wheels, lengths of wood, and large, stuffed sacks, their contents unknown.

  “Mr. Kanter,” she heard Robles boom, somewhere ahead.

  Her fingers tingled with excitement. Torrell was hesitating so she gave him a push.

  The room at the rear was lit by a hearty fire and small candle sconces along an interior wall. Kaddie recognized the slender, older man standing at the far side of a huge table, who was currently shaking her grandfather’s hand.

  This close, she could see how sinewy he was. A wrinkled face atop a neck bearing tendons like ropes. Bulging forearms and slender wrists connected to large hands, one of which was gripping Robles, employing a handshake that was making her grandfather wince. Alongside her, Pick blew out a breath and looked ready to retreat.

  “Everyone,” Robles said. “This is Mr. Kanter, who will be your evening tutor for the foreseeable future.”

  “Tutor?” Coglan said.

  Kanter moved fast. Kaddie barely had time to react as an apple left the fruit bowl in the center of the table and headed with great velocity toward Coglan, who caught it deftly in his left hand.

  For a moment, no one said anything.

  “Except him,” Kanter said eventually. “He doesn’t need it.”

  Kaddie and Torrell stood open-mouthed. Coglan grinned.

  “You’re excused,” Robles announced. “Wonderful. Now I only have to pay for three.”

  “Did you see that?” Torrell whispered. “It was heading straight for his head.”

  Kaddie nodded, and despite being impressed by Coglan’s reflexes, she hoped Mr. Kanter wasn’t about to toss any fruit in her direction.

  “What do you think?” Robles said.

  “Difficult. Like some of my other students, they’re older than they should be.” Kaddie opened her mouth, but slammed it shut when she saw Robles glaring at her, his eyebrows rising dramatically toward his hairline. “But I suppose we’ll have to manage,” the other man continued. “I’ll expect them right after the main gate bell. No sooner, no later.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “What did we just agree to?” Pick asked, as Robles herded them outside once more.

  “Fighting lessons,” Kaddie told him eagerly. “Then we can protect ourselves.”

  “Oh, no. Not me. I mean—”

  “No choice, Pick, I’m afraid,” Robles said. “Now, get back to work, all of you.”

  Back at the dispensary, Torrell drew Kaddie aside. “Exactly what happened on the trip that would warrant this?”

  “Nothing. I was going to ask him, remember?”

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  “He just agreed, that’s all. I must have caught him in a good mood.”

  He gave her a sour look.

  “Come,” she said, “let’s see what Elspeth and Marla think about all the stuff we brought back.”

  ##

  Two days of Torrell’s sulking and she’d had enough. “I’ll tell you later,” she said, “but you say nothing to anyone, you hear?”

  Her companion’s mood brightened considerably as they crossed the street to Kanter’s house for their third evening of instruction. Thus far, they had been kept apart from the others in order to study footwork. Kaddie remembered some of her grandmother’s advice, but Kanter’s tutelage was much more detailed, bordering on pedantic.

  Pick hurried up behind them as they approached the front door. His initial fears had been replaced by a look of raw determination. She knew Coglan had been taunting him over his reluctance, and yesterday she had seen them going through footwork drills in a rare moment while the dispensary was empty, while a bemused Mr. Feesh looked on.

  Up four flights of stairs and out onto the roof, they joined others gathering from all over the city. Kaddie counted nineteen, excluding her own party. More sections of the roof had been cleared of plant pots, tables and chairs. Kanter’s class had now extended to his next door neighbor’s roof and a little beyond that.

  Kaddie fought her usual impatience as they paired off once again for footwork drills. Their master had informed them it would be many days before they got it right, and while her desire for speed fed her impatience, it was easily put aside by an ingrained need for perfection.

  Twilight deepened into night. The lanterns were lit. Neither Kaddie nor Torrell were able to keep their front foot pointing forward for any length of time.

  “This is impossible,” he grumbled as they moved back and forth across the stone paving. “It keeps wanting to turn sideways.”

  Pick was paired up with a girl who worked at a flower merchant two streets away. Both seemed to be doing better and having more fun, while everyone else appeared more accomplished, wielding their sticks, running through various feints, lunges and guards.

  It was late evening by the time everyone descended the steps and drifted off to their homes. After bidding them goodnight, Pick set off for his home on the far side of the avenue, while Kaddie and Torrell headed toward the alley that would take them to the rear door of the dispensary.

  “Well?” Torrell said as they reached the corner.

  Kaddie stopped walking and kept her voice low. “First of all, I never got the chance to ask him about lessons. Secondly, I promised not to say anything about what happened.” Her expression became a frown. “But the way Elspeth and Marla have been looking at me lately, I’m pretty sure he told them everything.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “We were attacked on the road by six men. Melaris killed most of them. Well, except for the archer. Arcantha killed him.”

  Torrell gasped. “An archer? I knew it was bad. Was it bandits?”

  “I don’t know.” Holding back the meeting with Rathburn Brayde for the moment, she added, “When you were at the gate, did you see anything suspicious?”

  “No. Just the usual, early lines. Kaddie, you could have been killed.”

  “Probably would have been, if it wasn’t for the Shale.”

  “Who gave you all that medicine.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “That maybe we’re being manipulated by people who don’t really care about us.”

  “Robles said we’re now their spies.”

  “And what does that mean? Spy on whom?”

  The clash of a metal gate and the shadow of a man moving along the center of the avenue put an end to their hushed conversation. The second city hatches were being closed for the night and the streets were about to become much darker, and emptier.

  They dashed along the alley and climbed the steps to the dispensary kitchen. Bodworth was waiting and howled impatiently to be let in.

  Inside, the fire in the hearth was at a low ebb. Marla was sitting at one of the prep tables. She had poured out the contents of one of the Shale canisters and was combing through its contents.

  “About time you two got in. You never know who’s out there, lurking.”

  “What’s that smell?” Torrell pulled off his coat.

  Marla beckoned. “I’d say it was black acathum. Very rare. I’ve split some of the pods, hence the smell.”

  Kaddie removed her coat and hung it on the usual hook. She felt sweaty and her thigh muscles were beginning to ache after Kanter’s tuition.

  Torrell was already at the table. “The smell is from the pods, not the seed?”

  “Yes,” Marla said. “Smells like a drunken sailor’s armpit.”

  Kaddie leaned forward. The scent was indeed pungent. As for the small black fruit within, she considered their potency, until she realized her mind wasn’t on this herbal treasure trove and on Marla’s worried expression. “He told you what happened, didn’t he?”

  The other woman’s lips became a thin line. “Elspeth forced it out of him. And I don’t know what else to say, other than he was reckless and shouldn’t have allowed you to go with him.”

  “It was my idea,” Kaddie said. She gestured toward Torrell. “And now he knows, too.”

  “I should have come with you,” he began.

  “No. Jim was hurt. It could have been really, really bad.”

  “Hurt?” Marla began rapping her fingers on the table, a sure sign she was annoyed or distressed. “I think,” she said, with slow deliberation, “we all need to sit down and talk this through. Because it seems to me, this isn’t over and we’re still under threat.”