Chapter Ten: Out of the Frying Pan

Estelle curled up on her couch, reading the book Rita had bought for her. At least, she was trying to read. Rita and Ted sat across from her, arguing. Estelle tried to zone them out, but it was difficult.

"We were doing just fine before you got here," Ted insisted. "Stop acting like you saved the day."

"Oh, please," Rita said. "Stop saying 'we' like you and Estelle contributed equally. You're just tagging along."

"I contributed lots! Tell her, Princess Estellise!"

Estelle glanced up from her book. The escapades of dashing knights were much more interesting than Rita and Ted's petty feud. "You've both helped very much," she said neutrally.

"You don't even call her 'Estelle'!" Rita said. "Stop acting like you and Estelle are so buddy-buddy."

Estelle focused on her book. She didn't want to listen to Rita and Ted bicker about who was a better friend, she wanted to learn how the noble knight Sir Samuel would win the trust of King Havelock.

"Estelle, would you talk to him already?" Rita snapped. "This little brat is getting on my nerves."

"I was here first!" Ted said.

"What are you talking about? I've been friends with Estelle for over a year!"

Estelle withheld a sigh of frustration. "I like both of you," she said. "Please stop fighting."

"He started it!" Rita said.

"Rita, you're four years older than him. Shouldn't you be more mature?"

"Ha!" Ted said, pointing mockingly at Rita. "See, Princess Estellise likes me more!"

"You're delusional, brat," Rita said.

"Ted, you need to behave more maturely, too," Estelle said. She pulled her book closer to her face. Sir Samuel was swearing his allegiance to the king, which was infinitely more interesting than Rita and Ted right now.

"See, Estelle thinks you're an annoying brat, too," Rita said. "She's just too polite to say it."

"No way!" Ted said. "Princess Estellise, tell Rita that you like me!"

"Stop getting Estelle to settle everything for you."

"You're doing the same thing!"

Estelle tightened her grip on the pages. They must get bored soon. She just needed to focus on how Sir Samuel was presenting his sword to the king as a symbol of his allegiance.

"Estelle, tell him to stop being dumb!"

"Princess Estellise, tell her to stop being mean!"

Don't get into it, she told herself. Don't get between them. Just focus on the story. Focus on Sir Samuel… Her eyes went wide, and she gasped. "I got it!"

Rita and Ted stopped fighting long enough to look over at her. "Got what?" Rita asked.

"The knife!"

"What knife?" Ted asked.

"The knife found in Borden's room," Estelle said, closing her book around her finger.

Rita looked confused. "Flynn's knife?"

"No, Peel's knife," Estelle said, a bit annoyed that the others were taking so long to get this. "Look, right here." She sat up and grabbed Borden's file off the coffee table. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. "See, right here, Borden says he's already arranged security and support from the knights. But, Flynn knows nothing about this so obviously he doesn't mean all the knights. It must mean that he got support from a specific knight who will back him and provide him with security."

"You think it was Peel?" Rita said, leaning forward to look down at the paper.

"It's got to be!" Estelle said excitedly. "Just like in this book! Peel must have given his knife to Borden as a show of allegiance. That's why he gave Borden the knife several days before this whole thing started, and that's why he's so determined to catch Flynn!"

Rita nodded in understanding. "If Peel was in league with Borden, he would have gotten a huge payout when Borden made a fortune on this land. He thinks Flynn murdered his million gald ticket."

"No wonder he's so adamant about catching Flynn," Estelle said. She jumped up and ran to her desk. "I need to tell Flynn." She didn't even bother sitting down before typing, Flynn! Yuri! Are you there? I figured something out 8D!

She waited expectantly, but didn't see the familiar rumble of a response. Rita leaned over the back of the couch and said, "They're probably out of range. They've probably nearly reached the desert by now."

"Oh…" Estelle's excitement slumped. There wasn't really anything they could do with this discovery other than tell Flynn, and Flynn wasn't available to be told.

"Don't worry about it," Rita said. "You can tell him once they come back into range."

"Yes, I'll do that." She turned around and returned to the couch. "Oh, Ted, it's getting a bit late, don't you think?"

"It's not that late," Ted protested.

"You're mom is probably getting worried about you," Estelle said, glancing at the clock. It wasn't that late - only around five - but honestly she was so fed up with him and Rita fighting that she wanted to separate them.

"Ok…" Ted said, reluctantly getting to his feet. "I can come back tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"Alright. Goodbye, Princess Estellise!" He didn't say goodbye to Rita, though Rita didn't seem to care.

Once he was gone, Estelle sat down next to Rita. "You should be nicer to Ted, Rita. He's just a kid."

Rita crossed her arms and scowled. "He's annoying. You still haven't talked to him, have you? That little brat still thinks he has a chance with you."

"Rita… you don't have to compete with Ted for my affection."

Rita's face turned redder than her outfit. "W-what? I'm not competing with anyone!"

Estelle wrapped her arms around Rita and pulled her close. With her cheek resting on Rita's head, she said, "You've already won, silly."

Flynn's seasickness cleared up within an hour of arriving in Desier. Unfortunately, this was an hour too late to enact a thrilling escape attempt. During the chaos of docking and unloading the ship, Yuri was sure he could have slipped away from the knights. However, he couldn't do it while dragging a drowsy and ill Flynn with him, and leaving Flynn behind was not an option. So he sat in the sand and waited patiently for the knights to get moving and for Flynn to come to his senses again.

That had been about four hours ago. They were now en route to Mantaic, following the rough dirt road that bordered the line between the mountains and the desert. The knights hadn't been prepared to escort prisoners, so they made do with Yuri handcuffed to the back of the cart and Flynn handcuffed to him. The walk was long, hot, and the wheels of the cart right in front of them stirred dust up in their faces. Yuri felt pulled in two directions with his right hand stretched out to the cart and his left attached to Flynn.

"I'm sorry," Flynn said, breaking the silence. "If I hadn't gotten seasick, we never would have gotten caught."

"It's fine," Yuri said. "Your punishment for getting seasick is that you had to deal with being seasick."

"I feel bad that I got you caught up in all of this," Flynn said. "This was my problem, but I managed to get you in trouble along the way."

"I made my own choices," Yuri said. "You didn't force me to break you out."

"Still… I feel terrible that the first time you share in my glory is when its negative."

"Actually, that sounds pretty expected for me."

"I'm sorry, Yuri. I wish I could share my good fortune with you as well as the bad."

"Don't worry about it," Yuri said. "I'm not interested in your fame and admirers. I think I would die of shame if I ever got an anonymous love letter." It was easy to blow Flynn off, but really, if he shared the spotlight with Flynn that would defeat the purpose of him being the one to do the dirty work. He was under the impression they had their system worked out - Flynn was the white knight with a perfect reputation, while Yuri got his hands dirty cleaning up the pieces Flynn couldn't reach.

"I don't get - well…" Flynn frowned. "I don't get that many love letters."

Yuri laughed. "How does it feel to be the empire's most eligible bachelor? Oh, my heart is all aflutter just being near you!" He had been about to mockingly wave his hand in front of his face, but the handcuffs prevented that.

"Shut up, Yuri," Flynn said.

"Anyway, do you have a plan for getting out of here?"

"Hm…" Flynn looked around the convoy with a thoughtful expression. "You can pick a lock, can't you?"

"I'm a bit offended that you just assume I can, but yeah." He'd had Karol teach him how a few months ago. "I would need a pin of some kind to do it, though."

"Ah. I don't have anything like that."

"It's alright. We'll figure something out."

"We have some time to think about it," Flynn said. "There's no point escaping now, since we still need to follow this road to Mantaic."

They hiked all day, stopping only for a quick lunch. Flynn and Yuri sat in the dirt in the shade provided by the cart, Yuri's right arm dangling in the air since it was attached to the top of the post at the corner of the vehicle. Yuri was given a couple stale biscuits, which he struggled to eat with Flynn's arm still attached to his left hand. He also refused to let Flynn share his delicious-looking turkey sandwich. He didn't want pity food from Flynn, and besides, the poor guy had been sick all day yesterday and he deserved to fill his stomach with something appetizing.

Two days after arriving in Desier, they reached Mantaic just as the sun slipped below the horizon. Yuri would ordinarily be happy about ending the long, hot walk, but he still didn't have a plan for how they were going to escape. At least with the sun going down he might be able to think straight without that damned heat. Some knights gave orders about setting up camp, while Yuri leaned back against the cart, trying to come up with a plan.

"Lieutenant," Flynn said. Yuri glanced over to see a lieutenant passing stop and salute.

"Yes, sir?"

"Make sure you arrange camp with your backs to the city. Monsters from the desert may approach during the night. Have you arranged the schedule for the night watch?"

"Not yet, Commandant," the lieutenant said. "We're so close to the city, we figured it wasn't a priority."

"Now that the barriers are gone, monsters come closer to the cities, especially a remote location like this. The city guards will be on patrol, but since we're on the outskirts of town we need to remain vigilant ourselves. Switch out the shifts every two or three hours to ensure those on watch are always fresh, just in case."

The lieutenant nodded. "Yes, sir! I shall convey your instructions to the captain."

He hurried away, while Yuri snorted. Flynn looked over at him. "What?"

"You sure give a lot of orders for a prisoner."

Flynn just gave him a happy smile. Flynn was always happiest commanding knights. Yuri thought he probably needed a hobby. He also thought that Flynn needed to stop being so buddy-buddy with the knights that were preparing to ship them back to Zaphias, just in time for Flynn's trial. They had no evidence that they really had met an assassin Dahngrest, and Estelle could discover as much as she wanted about Borden's schemes but it wouldn't prove Flynn didn't kill him. If they didn't get away from these knights, Flynn would certainly be found guilty and put to death for a crime he didn't commit. The alarmingly likely possibility of Flynn being executed curdled in his stomach. They had to get out of here.

Once the camp was set up, four knights approached Flynn and Yuri. The knight in the lead saluted and said, "We are going to escort you to the Mantaic Knight Headquarters, sir. From there you will be transported to Zaphias to await your trial."

"Very well," Flynn said.

No, it isn't very well, Yuri thought. Flynn, the damned knights are going to kill you if you let them transport you to Zaphias.

One of the knights uncuffed Yuri's hand from the cart. "Come with us, please," another knight said.

Flynn gave Yuri a look, silently saying that there was no point resisting at this point. Yuri scowled and followed the knights. They walked toward the town, the four knights in a diamond configuration with Yuri and Flynn still handcuffed together between them. As they entered the small town and started walking down the main road, Yuri's eyes went to the knife hanging from the knight's belt to his right. The seeds of a plan sprouted in his brain. He didn't know where the knight headquarters were, so he had no idea how long they had to escape before reaching it. There wasn't time to risk thinking through every stage of his plan - he'd have to go for it and trust that things would work out once he got the ball rolling.

His hand shot out and grabbed the knife from the knight's belt. He didn't have a chance of fighting them all off with one knife, but he could do something. He jerked Flynn to the side, twisting his right arm around his back and pulling him against Yuri's chest. Yuri wrapped his right arm around Flynn, the blade of the knife at his throat.

"Nobody move!" Yuri shouted while the knights reached for their weapons, accompanied by wide eyes and surprised exclamations.

"Yuri!" Flynn said in shock. "What are you-"

"Drop your swords or I'll slit the commandant's throat!" He shoved past the knight he'd taken the knife from and backed away from the knights, who stood frozen with uncertainty.

In Flynn's ear, Yuri whispered, "Trust me on this." Loud enough for the knights to hear he said, "Sorry, Flynn, but I don't plan on going to prison for you."

"C-commandant!" the lead knight said.

"Didn't you hear me?!" Yuri shouted. "I said drop your swords!"

Four swords hit the dirt with a series of thuds.

"Good," Yuri said. "Now, give me our supplies."

The knight holding their confiscated packs looked to his companions nervously.

"Hurry up!" Yuri tightened his grip around Flynn, pressing the knife closer against Flynn's throat. Flynn hissed and a bead of blood trickled down his neck. Yuri quickly eased the pressure, guilt stabbing his chest.

The sight of blood pushed the knights into panic. "Do what he says," Flynn said calmly. He slowly reached out his free hand and said, "Hand the packs to me and don't make any sudden movements."

"Yeah, that's right!" Yuri said. "And make it quick if you want your commandant to keep his pretty head."

The knight stepped forward and cautiously held out the bags. Once they were in Flynn's hand, Yuri started backing toward the road behind them, the knife never leaving Flynn's neck.

"Good," Yuri said. "Don't try to follow me. I'll let the commandant go when I'm satisfied you're far enough away from me, got? If I see you following me, I'll slit his throat right then!"

"Do just as he says!" Flynn said. "This man has a violent record and I have no doubt he'll carry through on his threat."

"Y-yes, sir!" the terrified lead knight said.

Yuri walked backward down the road, carefully pulling Flynn along with him and making extra sure he didn't accidentally cut him again. At the end of the street, he backed around a corner until they were finally out of view of the knights. He dropped his arms and stuck the knife into his belt. "Sorry about that," he said.

Flynn ran his sleeve across his neck to wipe up the drops of blood. "It's fine. You barely nicked the surface. We should get moving before they come after us."

"Yeah." They took off down the street. Running was awkward, because their hands were still cuffed together. It took a few stumbling steps to get into a rhythm without tripping over each other. Yuri wasn't sure if those knights really would hold off on coming after them, but he wouldn't bet Flynn's life on it.

"What's the plan now?" Flynn asked as they ran. "How do we find Emmery?"

"Uh…" They dashed around a corner and Yuri spotted a young man walking down the street. "Hey!" Yuri said, skidding to a halt. Flynn didn't realize he was stopping and kept going a few steps more, yanking Yuri off his feet. Yuri fell to his knees, dragging Flynn down with him.

The man stopped and stared at them. "Um… are you guys ok?"

Yuri looked up from his knees and asked, "Do you know if a noble lady moved into town recently?"

The man frowned. "Uh, yeah, actually. Some noble arrived the other day and started throwing a fuss about the house she was renting being too small."

"Excellent!" Flynn's head popped up behind Yuri. "Could you give us directions to that house, perhaps?"

"It's at the end of Saguaro Avenue. The one right at the end of the street."

"Thanks a lot," Yuri said, getting back to his feet and pulling Flynn up with him. They started running again. There weren't many streets in Mantaic, and Yuri remembered the approximate location of Saguaro Avenue from the last time he was here. He led the way, helpfully saying, "It's this turn up ahead," when they neared it to save Flynn the trouble of overshooting and making them crash again.

The street was lined with a few modestly sized houses, but at the and was a large sandstone bungalow. It had a garden of cacti and an arched doorway, with the sweeping expanses of sand stretching out behind it. They came to a stop outside the house.

"This is it," Yuri said. "It's got to be."

"I suppose we should knock."

"Are you kidding? She ran away from Zaphias to avoid us. I doubt she'll answer the door."

Flynn frowned. "What do you suggest?"

"Let's break in."

Flynn sighed. "Why did I even ask?"

"Have any better ideas, Commandant?"

"No. Let's go in."

They crept across the cactus garden. Falling over would be a bit more painful now, so they tread carefully and worked together to avoid toppling over onto a spiky nest of cacti. Yuri led them to a window peered through, one hand cupped around his eyes. It looked like a sitting room of some sort. "This'll do," he whispered. He dug his fingers into the base of the window and pushed up, with Flynn working in tandem. Dry paint chipped off on their fingers and the window stuck a few times on the way up, but they managed to get it open.

Yuri climbed through the window, and then turned to give Flynn a hand crawling in next to him. Once they were both in the sitting room, Flynn looked around nervously and Yuri asked in a low voice, "This your first time breaking and entering?"

Flynn frowned and slumped his shoulders. "Yes."

Yuri patted him on the back. "Don't worry, you're doing fine so far." He pulled the knife out of his belt just in case. He'd rather use it in his left hand, but his right was better than Flynn's left. Actually, he'd prefer a sword, but his and Flynn's swords had unfortunately been left with the knights. Damn, he'd liked that sword, too. "Come on, the master bedroom is probably the one at the end of the hall."

"Yeah."

They walked as quietly as they could, ears alert for any sign that they'd been detected. As far as they knew, Emmery had left her staff behind in Zaphias, but there was still the chance she had someone else here with her. This was it, though. Once they caught her, they'd force her to admit that she hired an assassin to kill Borden and frame Flynn, and then they could turn her over to the knights. Yuri was perfectly ok with getting shipped back to Zaphias if they took Emmery with them.

Flynn rested his hand on the doorknob for a second. As soon as they burst in, they'd have to be ready for her to try to flee. Yuri tightened his grip on the knife, looked to Flynn, and gave a small nod.

Flynn threw the door open and they burst into the room. The person standing in the middle exclaimed and twisted around to see who it was. Confusingly, the person was not Emmery, but a middle-aged man. The man happened to have a knife in his hand, a very dead Emmery at his feet.

They froze, staring at each other in shock for about three seconds. The man came to his senses first, and ran for the window. Yuri and Flynn wasted no time in chasing after him. Yuri had no idea what was going on, who the man was, or what this was about, but Emmery was dead and this seemed to be the culprit, so they needed to catch him.

"Stop!" Flynn shouted as the man vaulted through the open bedroom window.

When he didn't stop, Yuri yelled, "Did you really expect that to work!?" He leapt through the window right after the man, but had to stop and wait for Flynn to climb out after him.

"Habit!" Flynn replied, and then they took off running again.

The man was already rounding the house, but they weren't going to give up. Sand kicked up behind them as they tore around the corner. They ran perfectly in sync now, arms pumping in unison to keep from tripping the other up. They were gaining on him, buildings flying by in their hot pursuit. Everything was going well, right up until the man took a shortcut past a scrubby bush and they had differing opinions on how to get around it. Yuri attempted to leap right over the plant, while Flynn tried to go around it. Yuri's arm jerked sideways mid-leap, sending him crashing into the fronds with a shout of frustration. His fall made Flynn fall as well, and then he struggled to free himself from both the plant and Flynn's tangle of limbs and get back to his feet. The man was getting away, so in a last-ditch effort Yuri threw the knife at him. He had never been an expert knife thrower, so he wasn't surprised when the knife barely nicked the man's leg before dropping uselessly to the ground. Then the man disappeared around a corner.

"Come on, we can still catch him," Flynn said, giving Yuri a hand and helping him dislodge himself from the fronds.

Yuri nodded and picked up the pace. He grabbed the knife from the ground and then ran to the end of the street and turned the corner, only to find a four-way intersection a block ahead. They stopped in the centre, turning in circles in hope of catching a glimpse of him. The killer was nowhere to be seen. Yuri kicked the ground. "Dammit. What now?"

Flynn was silent for a while, staring at the wall in deep concentration. At long last, he said, "There's nothing else we can do here. Emmery is dead. Chances are she fled Zaphias because she feared for her life from the real culprit… which turned out to be a valid fear. This trip was a waste of time. Going back to her house now would be too risky, because I'm sure the knights are already looking for us. We should head for the coast and attempt to stowaway again."

"Because that worked out so well for us last time," Yuri said.

Flynn looked to him. "Do you have any better options? We're unarmed, so a trip through the Weasand of Cados would be a death sentence, in addition to taking far too long."

"Where to from there?" Yuri asked. "We don't really have any more clues to go on."

"I know," Flynn said with a frown. "I'm betting whoever killed Emmery is the third person in line for the land in Hypionia. With Borden and Emmery dead, this person is the sole heir. The key to solving this case is in Zaphias, and figuring out who this third party is."

"Zaphias, huh? Sounds dangerous."

"What does it matter?" Flynn said. "We don't have time to go anywhere else. Either we catch this person in Zaphias or I'm a dead man."

Yuri's chest clenched again. "Don't remind me. You're right, though. We should avoid the road."

Flynn nodded. "Yeah. We'll keep just out of sight of the road and head north to the coast."

"Let's go, then."

"I think we should take a break," Yuri said as the sun rose behind them. "We've walked all night."

"Yeah," Flynn said. "I'm exhausted."

"Man, now the sun's going to make everything hot again," Yuri said, kicking the sand. His long shadow stretched out in front of him, the only shade as far as the eye could see. "There's not even any shade." All they saw in every direction were sand dunes. Occasionally they came across a more solid patch of ground, and the odd cactus.

"We'll sleep now," Flynn said. "Better to sleep during the day and walk at night when it's cool…" He trailed off and stopped walking.

"What's up?" Yuri asked.

"The sun is at our backs," Flynn said, staring at his shadow.

Yuri looked over his shoulder. "Yeah."

"But if we're walking north… why is it at our backs?"

Realization stabbed through Yuri's mind. "Shit."

"I thought the road was just over that dune," Flynn said, pointing.

"Me too," Yuri said. "Come on, let's check it out." They walked faster than they had in hours, fear filling them with renewed energy. Sand rained down behind them as they scaled the dune. Yuri's heart pounded as he reached the top, terrified of what he was going to see - or not see.

"It's not there," Flynn said when they kneeled in the sand at the peak of the dune. "The road… we were keeping it on our right, weren't we?"

"Yeah," Yuri said, staring at the empty desert where the road should be. "Weren't we walking straight?"

"Damn…" Flynn breathed. "Look at the sunrise! We've been walking west, possibly for hours!"

"Shit," Yuri said again. There were several other words that crossed his mind to explain his feelings on this turn of events, but Flynn tended to disapprove of what he called 'excessive profanity'.

"We're going the wrong way… we've probably walked miles and miles into the heart of the desert."

"Shit."

"Stop saying that."

"Crap."

"That doesn't help either."

Yuri sighed. "Let's put the sun on our right and keep walking for now to set us in the right direction."

"That's really all we can do. "How much water do we have left?"

Yuri pulled his canteen out of his bag and shook it. There was a lot of room for sloshing. "Not much."

"Perfect," Flynn said tiredly. He got back to his feet again, pulling Yuri up since their wrists were still connected. "Come on. With the sun to show us east, we can't get it wrong this time."

And so they walked. And walked. They walked through the hot, sandy desert until they collapsed from exhaustion and got a few hours of sleep, and when they woke up in mid-afternoon, they walked some more. It didn't take long to deplete their minimal water supply, as they were both going through buckets of water in sweat. Yuri untied the sash around his waist and used it to make a messy hat to keep his hair off the back of his neck and the sun off his head. They talked for a while at first, before conversation gradually fizzled out. Talking took too much energy.

The sun started to get low in the sky again when Yuri grabbed Flynn's arm. "Flynn! A cactus!"

"Yes, I see it," Flynn said. "We've seen lots of cacti."

"No, this is a special one," Yuri said, dragging him off to the side to head for the cactus.

"Dare I ask why?"

"Just wait. You're going to love this." He stopped in front of the short, squat cactus and crouched. With the knife in one hand and the canteen in the other, he jammed a hole in its side and held out the canteen to catch the water that spilled out.

"Water!" Flynn said.

"Yeah, these cactuses are full of water."

"The plural of cactus is-"

"Shut up and drink." He shoved it in Flynn's face.

Flynn chose drinking over further complaining about Yuri's vocabulary. He took a sip, and then swallowed with a grimace. "Ugh! That's the most foul water I have ever tasted!"

Yuri laughed a bit. "Yeah, it's not the best tasting, but it is water. Drink up, who knows when we'll find another cactus."

Flynn braced himself and drank again. "Here," he said when he was done, passing it over. "You have some too."

"Thanks." Yuri finished the water off, wrinkling his nose at the foul taste. It was warm and bitter, just like he remembered from the last time he crossed Kogorh. He got up and nudged the deflated cactus with his foot. "That's all we're going to get out of this one, I'm afraid."

"If there was one cactus, there will be more. Let's keep moving and keep our eyes peeled for more."

They picked up the pace again, using the setting sun as a compass. They didn't have any supplies to make camp, so there was no point stopping to rest until they had no energy to keep moving anymore. It was past midnight by the time they dropped to their knees in the sand.

"I propose… we rest for now…" Flynn said.

"Yeah," Yuri panted. He fell forward, resting the side of his face in the warm sand. After trudging through the desert all day, lying still was like heaven. He took a deep breath and rolled over onto his back, and then Flynn lay down next to him. With the sand as a pillow, he stared up at the stars and said, "How much longer do you think it will take to reach the coast?"

"I have no idea," Flynn said. "Hiking through sand is slow."

"Are we at least going the right way now?"

"I'm not sure," Flynn said. "When we last saw the sun we seemed to be heading north, but the ship isn't due north from Mantaic. The road curves around to the north east."

"I'm disappointed in you, Flynn," Yuri said "Aren't you supposed to know everything, oh perfect commandant?"

Flynn scowled. "How am I supposed to know? You're the one who's been through the desert before."

"Last time we ran into more cacti." He hadn't had a drop to drink since the first cactus they'd found this afternoon, and he felt like he could volunteer his tongue to the carpenter's guild as substitute sandpaper. "At least we haven't seen any monsters. I don't know how well we could fight them with a single knife and neither of our hands tied."

"Are you sure you can't do anything about this blasted handcuff?" Flynn asked, shaking his wrist a bit.

"What, is it so terrible being stuck to me?"

"When it's a hundred degrees and I've got metal against my bare wrist, yes."

"Heh." He was too tired to come up with any more sarcastic replies, and besides, he agreed with Flynn. The skin around the cuff was red and irritated, which was almost as annoying as the sunburns on his face. "I'm gonna get some shut-eye. If you roll around and tug my arm and wake me up, I'll kick you."

"You always kick me when we sleep next to each other."

"Then I'll kick you harder than usual."

"Thanks a lot."