"Gyah," Jenna said, giving the enormous statue a sidelong glance as she crept through the shadows. "That thing's creepy."

"I like it!" said Sheba, nimbly picking her way across the stony ground. She'd managed to get close enough to the crowd of people to read some of their minds, and apparently this whole ceremony was about waiting for the statue to eat Piers's orb. It made little sense to Felix, but Sheba insisted that they were all thinking it. With nothing else to go on, there was no choice but to believe.

"Shh! They'll hear you!" Felix was ahead of them, searching for a way inside. After all, if the statue was going to eat the orb, the orb had to end up somewhere. They hadn't found a door on the statue's back, though they'd searched for quite some time, so the entrance had to be elsewhere…

"Over here!" Piers called softly from a nearby clump of trees. "I think I've found something."

He had. A trapdoor led to a ladder which led them to a cramped and musty tunnel, sparsely lit with torches, shadows dancing across the walls. It would have been the perfect spot for an ambush, but there was no one there. Nothing in the darkness, except for an incessant creaking. They looked around carefully for the source and finally realized that it was coming from a system of clockwork mechanisms, all connected to each other and going up into the ceiling and down into the floor.

They spent some time trying to figure out just what its purpose was—"Maybe that's how it eats?" Jenna suggested—but in the end decided to leave well enough alone and tiptoed on through the gloom, peering into corners and staying well away from the giant gears, until a shout from Piers brought everybody running. "Everyone! Come look what I've found!"

He stood near a dusty chest, poised to open the lid. Jenna was the first to see it for what it was and sprinted forward, weapon outstretched. "No, don't! That's a Mi-"

"Raaaarrgghhlll!"

It grabbed him by the arm, tentacles flailing wildly. Piers narrowly avoided its snapping teeth, using his other hand to cast something that covered it in ice, freezing it on the spot. He yanked his other arm free, and staggered backward, fumbling for his sword. "What is that thing?!"

"A Mimic," said Felix, drawing his own weapon, and eyeing Piers's handiwork. The creature was frozen under a lump of ice as tall as a person, and Piers had called it up like it was nothing. He wasn't even breathing hard.

When Felix didn't elaborate, Piers looked to Jenna, who went on, "They always look like they've got something good inside, and then you go for it and snap!"

She would have said more, but a growl from the creature interrupted her. Sheba darted forward, hefting her staff. "And it's waking up! Let's go!"

With the element of surprise gone it was an easy enough victory, and they pressed onward through the tunnels until they reached another suspicious-looking chest. Piers took the initiative this time, jumping forward to freeze it and then circling around with his sword at the ready in anticipation of its next move.

Jenna gave a sidelong glance to Sheba. "You think we should tell him?"

Sheba grinned at her, and shook her head.

At least, he noticed that no one else seemed to share his enthusiasm, and turned around, sheepish. "That's not a Mimic, is it?"

Kraden cleared his throat. "I'm afraid not. But since you've, er, defeated it so gallantly, why don't you do the honors?"

He gave an elaborate bow and opened the chest to reveal something small, not much bigger than his palm. A wide bracelet, carved out of bone.

"Who gets it?" asked Jenna, giving Piers a pointed glance.

Piers shrugged. "Well, it's not going to fit me." He tried anyway, managing to get it over three of his fingers and striking a pose. Jenna and Sheba giggled.

In the end it only fit Sheba, who slid it on and went wide-eyed, muttering something they couldn't hear. When she saw everyone staring she waved a hand. "Never mind, let's go!"

Felix raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing else, and they continued on through the dark.

The Mimic was only the beginning. As the Adepts made their way through the twisted maze of corridors, they found more monsters waiting for them. With Piers to help, however, the ensuing fights were shorter and neater than they otherwise would have been. Whoever Piers was, he knew what he was doing.

And Felix didn't.

He did his best with the next vermin they dispatched, rats that had grown to knee-height and sprouted venomous fangs, and even as he struck the killing blow to the last of them and drew back his sword he felt himself being watched.

Piers, eyeing him quizzically. "Who taught you to fight?"

Felix could feel his face redden, and did his best not to let on. "I did."

Piers started to say something, but Felix was spared any further discussion of it when Jenna called out from behind them. "Little help?"

She sat on the floor of the tunnel, even more red-faced than Felix, one leg stuck out awkwardly in front of her. That strange card she's taken a liking to poked out from the top of her boot. "So, uh, one was coming after us and I was all set to give it a fireball between the eyes and uh—"

"She tripped!" said Sheba. "And then she fell on her face!"

"Shut up! I was jumping! Anyway, I twisted my ankle."

Felix knelt to look at it, frowning, though all things considered it wasn't that bad. A few minutes' work and she'd be fine.

"I can help." Piers crouched next to her, reaching for the injured leg.

"Can you heal?" Felix asked him.

"Well enough."

Which, again, meant he probably actually knew what he was doing. Unlike Felix. With a sigh, Felix drew back and let him get to fixing it.


As it happened, the statue actually was designed to eat Piers's orb—for a certain value of 'eat', anyway. A little more poking around and a lot more fighting led them all to a series of malfunctioning mechanisms which were easy enough to set to rights. With that done, the next time the witch doctor offered up the orb, the orb was "eaten" by the statue and fell right back into Piers's waiting hands. He grinned, and for the first time since they'd met him all the way back in that dusty cell in Madra he didn't look like he was about to kill something.

Maybe, Felix thought. Maybe this could actually work.

The locals were pleasant enough now that the witch-doctor ceremony had finally succeeded, but even so no one felt comfortable spending the night in Kibombo, Piers least of all. He'd been carrying the orb in his hand ever since he'd got it, unwilling to even stow it away in a pack. The Adepts all made their way back into the jungle instead, setting up camp in a clearing.

"We always set a watch," Felix said, squaring his shoulders and wondering why he suddenly felt like he had to justify himself. "I take the first shift. Feel free to go to sleep."

Piers stared at him, inscrutable, for quite some time. "I think I'd rather join you," he finally said, and settled in across from him, leaning against a tree with the orb cradled in his lap.

Felix stared back, silently.

Piers spoke first.

"So, Felix," he said. "You kept your word. Thanks to you I'll have a working ship again. You said you needed the use of it?"

They did. He hoped Piers wouldn't ask why. It would have to come out eventually, he knew, but not just yet. Better not to put an end to their journey before it even began. "We need to get to the continent of Atteka."

He had no idea where that was, but Kraden did. He assumed Piers would, too.

"I'll be traveling there," Piers said, after a bit. "I can take you. You'll have to help with the sailing."

A lucky coincidence, that. Too lucky. "What brings you to Atteka?"

Piers turned the orb over in his hands, looking intently at it. "I'm a—mapmaker. I'm charting Weyard."

"All of it?"

"Eventually."

On whose orders? Felix wanted to ask, but it would have invited questions about his own mission. He said nothing, and Piers looked up at him, also silent. When it became clear he wasn't going to explain, Felix sighed. He'd been trustworthy this far, hadn't he, and he could have betrayed them several times over by now. He could have run, now that he had what he needed. He could even have killed them all. He had the strength to do it.

He was their only chance.

At last, Felix leaned forward, extending a hand. "All right. We help you sail, and you take us to Atteka. Is it a deal?"

Piers took his hand, and shook it, and then it was official.


The next day saw them trekking down the mountain—far easier than the trip up—and down into the village of Naribwe. Piers had avoided it on the way in, but Felix said it was friendly.

It certainly seemed that way when they got to the inn. The innkeeper jumped up from where she'd been peeling vegetables, before any of them even had a chance to speak. "Travelers! Wait right here!"

She ran to fetch someone—her husband, presumably, who appeared from a back doorway with an enthusiastic, "Welcome, travelers!" and then said quite possibly the last thing Piers had ever been expecting to hear. "Is one of you Piers?"

What?

Piers could feel everyone's eyes on him. He frowned. "Who wants to know?"

Gods help him, if anyone tried imprisoning him again

"Only there was this other traveler, right, he came through here about a week ago, and said he was looking for a Piers. He had a group of people with him. They weren't from around here, that's for sure." He seemed to realize who he was speaking to and gave a nervous chuckle. "Anyway, he said if I found this Piers, I should tell him they're looking for him. Paid me pretty handsomely for it, too…"

Piers only stared at him, trying to make sense of it. No one from Madra would be able venture this far, and none of his own people would have dared, either. And the Kibombo wouldn't have known of him a week ago…

Felix caught on first. His voice was low and in it Piers heard the wavering hint of barely restrained anger. "Who was it?" He stepped forward, placing a hand on the counter, even as the other was heading for his sword-hilt. "What was his name?"

The innkeeper's gaze darted back and forth between the two of them, and he took a step back, hastily. "Isaac. He said his name was Isaac."

The word may as well have been a bolt of lightning. Piers heard exclamations of surprise—and one rather inventive curse, though he wasn't sure which of the girls had said it. Felix rounded on him, glaring. "You're working with him?"

"No!" Why was everyone so quick to make everything his fault? He brought his hands up without thinking, fingers glowing blue. "You—"

"Gentlemen!" Kraden stepped between them, arms wide. One baggy homespun sleeve slipped down to his elbow, exposing a tanned and sinewy forearm. "Enough."

Felix glared at him with stony eyes, but stilled.

Piers's hands were getting cold. That would solve nothing, he told himself, and these people had helped him. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Inch by inch, he dropped his hands, and Felix let go of his sword.

Kraden gave the innkeeper a tight smile, and nodded toward the door. "Perhaps we should take this outside."

With mumbled apologies all around, they did just that, filing out into the inn yard and arranging themselves under the shade of a broad-leafed tree. Felix stood across from him, looking just as furious as before, and next to him Sheba watched him through narrowed eyes. She caught him looking, and gave what might have been the start of a smile—but not a friendly one. Jenna lingered behind them both, looking at the ground and bitting her bottom lip so hard he was amazed she hadn't drawn blood.

Piers sighed. He'd had more than enough of having to explain himself to strangers.

At least these ones were listening.

"I have no idea who this Isaac is," Piers said. "Truly."

He didn't miss the way Felix gave a sidelong glance to Sheba once he'd said it, or the way she nodded, barely perceptible, but there were bigger problems at hand. "You do."

"Yes," Felix answered, grimly. "We do. He wants to stop us. Why is he asking after you?"

"I don't know!"

Kraden spoke up. "The ship."

They all turned to him, and he clasped his hands behind his back, pacing across the dusty ground. "Isaac wouldn't have a ship, and as far as he knows we've already sailed away. And it's no secret that Piers has the only ship that's seaworthy around here."

"Good!" said Sheba. "What? He won't be looking for us around here and once we leave with Piers he won't be able to catch us." She elbowed Felix, who kept his gaze fixed on Piers. "C'mon, you know that's good!"

"It is," he finally agreed, "If our arrangement still stands."

You might have told me you were being hunted, Piers thought, and when he looked at Felix's face he couldn't read it. But they'd helped him, hadn't they, even without the guarantee of a reward. "It might," he said. "Why does this Isaac wish to stop you?"

Kraden cleared his throat. "Isaac is suffering from some…misinformation."

"Then why not speak with him and correct it?"

Another pregnant pause.

Eventually, Felix said, "He is…very strong."

He fell silent for a moment, looking off into the distance, and when he spoke again his voice was tense. "And not inclined to listening. We need to get to Atteka."

He'd kept up his end of the bargain. It would have been easy enough for three Adepts to overpower one, and they hadn't—and any one of them could have steered the ship. "All right," Piers said. "All right."

The stiffness visibly left Felix's shoulders, and he nodded. He'd just opened his mouth to speak when Jenna interrupted.

"Can't we—"

Her voice broke, and they all looked over to see her hugging her arms tight around herself, chin trembling. "It's just—he's alive."

She swallowed, blinking furiously. "He's alive. Can't we do something?"

Silence.

The others stared, and after too many moments Sheba wordlessly put an arm around her. Felix looked like he'd been kicked.

"He won't listen," Felix said at last, "And we can't make him listen." His voice softened. "I don't stand a chance against him in a fight."

No one made to correct him.

The tears she'd been fighting spilled over, then, but her voice was steady. "So what are we going to do?"

She was looking to her brother for an answer, but Kraden spoke instead, slowly. "We're going to run."