It took Emma a few minutes to register that this man was not shaking her hand. She lowered her hand after a few moments thinking he was not wanting to shake hands with the woman who had just kidnapped him. A part of her thought it insulting. Someone offers you their hand you shake it. Another small part knew it was understandable, though.

Jay finally realizing that she must have thought him rude for not shaking her hand said, "I'm Jay. I would be glad to shake your hand but—" Jay looked down at his hands, holding them up slowly and letting out a small lopsided smile. "I'm kind of tied up at the moment."

Emma gave Jay a look that distinctly said, 'What in the world are you talking about?' Then she looked in the direction of where Jay was looking. "Oh!" She said blushing for her own folly. She unsheathed her glittering blade with the hand gloved with the red gauntlet and carefully broke his bounds.

Jay smiled his thanks at Emma and then finally outstretched is own hand, red from the rope, which tied was surprisingly tight. Jay had no doubt he could thank Prewt for that later.

After Emma shook his hand, she turned quickly to the men who seemed all too prepared to just leave for camp once more.

"Hey!" She shouted. "Where do you think your going?" They all stopped and looked at her as if saying, 'What now?'

She pointed at the boat that was bobbing up and down with the current of the river; the only thing keeping it from floating away was a flimsy rope. Even Jay who was not a skilled sailor could tell that that was just leaving it open to be taken down stream.

"I expect that to be taken care of properly." She turned and signaled Bubba and Jay to follow her. "And don't just drag it up on shore, either! Cover it up as well."

Jay quickly started to follow as he saw Emma start up a barely visible path towards a much wider trail. He expected maybe it was some kind of abandoned road used by smugglers. Was that what these people were smugglers? Staring down at the ground as he walked though he could tell the road had been taken by a much larger number of horses recently. Too many for smugglers.

"Again, I am so sorry about that. Prewt has kind of a history of knocking innocent people over the head." Bubba snorted from behind them and even Emma couldn't help but smile slightly to herself. "I'm afraid your horse was scared into the woods when the men attacked you. We'll try to find it but if not, we will provide you with another one."

Jay thought for a second of maybe telling her the horse was only a piece of pack meat but just stayed quiet. They had attacked him here and taken him prisoner. The least they could do was give him a horse he decided, rubbing his wrists absent. As they walked on, Bubba disappeared into the woods, most likely to scout, Jay thought.

"Also your effects were left at the spot, but we will send someone to retrieve them."

'Um," Jay said. "Uh, not to be rude but who exactly are 'We'?" The question had been bugging him. Of course she must be referring to Prewt and the other men but who were they even? They seemed to be involved in some kind of group. Thieves maybe? Jay wondered, biting the inside of his cheek.

Emma looked at Jay for a second, not understanding what he meant, then when it finally registered she replied, "We are um—how to describe it? Well…." As Emma bit her lip in concentration, trying to decide the best way to describe exactly who 'we' were, Jay and Emma entered into a large clearing with over fifty rusty red tents.

Jay's jaw dropped. All around the camp children were running here and there, livestock held in make shift paddocks, men and women groomed horses, cleaned weapons, or were cooking over campfires. He might have even thought it was a small village if there had been houses. There was just so many people. How had they all gotten here?

Emma smiled triumphantly and waved her arms at the camp.

"This is the camp of the Mithros' Mercenaries."

"The—what?" Jay asked bewildered.

"We are the Mithros' Mercenaries." Emma said again, a satisfied smile on her face, because she could finally remember what they were. "Just your average group of nomadic mercenaries."

"Mercenaries?" Jay asked, a hint of disgust in his voice. "Your mercenaries?" Jay had been semi acquainted with that word. He had heard of bands of mercenaries, not this one particularly, but others, from his parents. From what he knew, they were bloodthirsty and would fight anyone for a little money. Mercenaries were little better than bandits. He could not see how these people, even Prewt, could be mercenaries. But then again they had attacked a lone traveler on a road.

"Well—" Emma said, frowning slightly. "I guess not your average mercenaries. I mean it's not like we're savages who travel the country looking to shed blood wherever we see it."

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Then what exactly do you do?"

"Well mostly we travel around Tortall, and sometimes into Tusaine and parts of Scanra and well basically…help people." Emma shrugged like she found it so simple. She cast Jay a glance out of the corner of her eye, raising an eyebrow like she may be thinking how could he not get it?

"Help people?" Jay's other eyebrow went up.

Emma gave Jay an irritated look. "Yes, help people. We go to towns that need help; take care of bandits, hill men, help with food shortages."

"Isn't that what the army and King's Own is for?"

"Well that's what they're supposed to be for, but really they can't always get there in time. The Mithros' Mercenaries can travel a quickly and quietly as the Queen's Riders but with the force of the King's Own." Emma added with a hint of bitterness in her voice, "And those nobles don't get what the people are going through either."

"What do you mean?" Jay asked curiously.

"Well, think about it." Emma turned to Jay. "The only time nobles have to deal with famines and droughts is when it happens to the people on their lands. Even then they're not the ones who have to starve and go thirsty. Oh no, of course not."

Jay nodded his head, but decided to let the subject go. He could feel his ears starting to turn slightly red, a bit embarrassed as he must have been guilty of that his entire life. "What do you do with the Mithros' Mercenaries?" Jay asked.

"I'm second in command." Emma said plainly, face blank.

"Whose first in command?" Jay made a pondering face, his mind wondering back to the large man who seemed to be an assistant to Emma. Maybe he'd been wrong. Was he the leader of this group?

Emma laughed and looked at Jay as if he were stupid, which seemed to be happening to him a lot today. He scratched his head as Emma opened her mouth. "Mithros, of course! Who else?" Emma said matter-a-factly, "You don't think we would use Mithros' name if he had no involvement would you?"

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT SPECIAL ENOUGH TO OWN ANY OF TAMORA PIERCE'S BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SETTING, ETC.

YAY! I updated! Sorry for the wait. Busy week dealing with surprise b-day parties (thanks again Robin! I can't believe you actually pulled it off!) and drivers ed—YUCK! But I did update, finally. So you know who the Mithros' Mercenaries are now. And by the way—Jay is not, was not, and will never be heir to the throne and/or King of Tortall (unless many, many, many people die)! Just thought you ought to know.

(UPDATED: May 25, 2006)