As the trees winnowed away, she saw ahead of her a broad swath of river. It was hard to see while running with her bouncing gait. It appeared shallow and flat like she might ford it without swimming. She could jump in now, and it would cool her muscles down. She could still go all in, plunge in deep, take the final leap. Maybe if it wasn’t dangerous, she could make it across and save her skin by the obvious way of not having anyone follow her. Maybe another elf would have. A bolder elf of her skillset could have demanded more and actually ridden the horse to death. Instead, she’d charged the high gameness animal into danger. A dangerous road, she’d rode. She knew it had given her its best and her directions failed it.

  “She’s over here!” The orc yelled at his companions.

  She ran a few more steps into the shallows, splashing. Then, she waited, trying to see the depth and current of the river. Without enough head start, the manpower reconverged. The dwarf-gaint, orc, reptilian and human, minus the off-worlder human watching the horses. All of them grew tense and tight, watching everything very closely. Perhaps they assumed after such a flight, she would now try to fight her way out. Whatever it was, they stood there waiting outside the shallows.

  “Leave me alone. I’m no trouble. Let me escape, please!” She pitched her voice high and scared, hoping they might view her as young, na?ve, and none threatening. But she should have known better than to even try.

  “Don’t try that with us! Get back on land right now!” The dwarf-giant shook his head then the tightness in the tone turned more soothing. “We heard you’ve gotten a whole herd worth of horses out of the city and resold somehow. You’re no fainting lily picked up for a mule. And there’s no point in doing anything stupid.” She was surprised by the sheer confidence of the statement. They knew way too much. How did they get so well-informed?

  Smuggled a whole herd yes, but not fifteen. That was the magic number to get her paid. The horse she sat on was only fourteen, but she knew of three easy grabs that she could have grabbed in her sleep with nobody the wiser. This had been her real last haul. Then she could stay away from theft. Her first foray into criminality, an utter failure.

  She reluctantly dragged herself back onto the solid ground with the guards. They let her escape once. There might be a better chance later. The river had been too cold and unknown depth. It had bothered her. She dropped her voice back to its normal flat tone. “You shouldn’t believe every rumor. I surrender.”

  “How about you don’t steal horses? Or just not in general? Steal, I mean!” The dwarf-giant frowned at her. “We’re going to have to check you again for stolen goods and the dead horse also for any weapons. We know New Guy clearly didn’t know what he was doing by not securing you.”

  The man he motioned to moved her away from the river and did a careful, but not rude inspection, finding all the rings in her coats, the various other nicked options. They weren’t on her theft list, but if she was taking the horse, why not the fanciest bridle as well? If you were going to leave expensive trinkets just sitting out in your barns, she had every right to nick it on the way. The horses were the real money, but the other things helped. Some gear she’d been paid small sums to carry by the people buying her horse. Every pinch counted until the pinches didn’t and she got stuck in a cell.

  Despite the fact no weapons were found, the orc still got chewed out by the commander. Mostly because their leader was tired and angry. After the movement and searching, everyone took a breather for the horses and men after such a fast intense ride. The off-worlder brought the remaining animals out of the woods to stand by the river and commented to himself, “Excellent graphics card.”

  She didn’t begrudge them. A few times had made her quite nervous going over sloppy slopes up and down, jumping smaller trees. It was a dicey ride, and they started with more guards than those who captured her. The others would have to limp home failures, but not everyone which was her usual approach. Many of the horses had minor injuries to tend. After the adrenaline-filled ride, most of the men had the shakes as they rested. The off-worlder, orc, and dwarf-giant were the exception. Because her legs got wet to the knees, she appreciated the warm summer weather all the more. Nobody had a towel or change of clothing so no bother to talk about that. In winter, a plunge in water like that could kill you.

  They all sat down resting in the small glade beside the river and keeping a wary eye on the trees. The riverside watched their back for any potential monster attacks. Everyone clustered together in case. Maybe with a cultivator along though, they’d be protected from a roving attack. The world bent to help off-worlders fulfill their storyline. NPCs, not proper chaps, dealt with both regular world and the modifications that any nearby off-worlder brought in with them. This gamer type appeared to be looking for attractive vistas and unique world elements without high level fights. It put her in the perfect position to be pulled in by accident. Attracting his attention would be dangerous so she tried to look dirty and boring, even if she couldn’t be safer by leaving his proximity. The orc and reptilian said nothing, fearing being caught up in Side Character Syndrome.

  The dwarf-giant might be feeling the same way. “New Guy, or whatever your face was. Bodi? Keep your eyes on her or else this time.” He raised his fist threateningly.

  The orc simply narrowed his gaze. The dwarf-giant ambled away, clearly keeping visible fight in a radius from the admitted off-worlder.

  The orc, Bodi, glowered but stomped over. He looked over at the river a few times.

  “Was I a fool?” she asked Bodi. “If I’d swum across it, would I have escaped?”

  “That’s River Silver.”

  She froze, taking a second look at the flat reflective riverbed. “It looks ordinary, except without much river flow. I thought silver was hard silver the whole way through?”

  “No, when it’s full enough, it looks almost like normal water. The edges have actual water from the big rain yesterday. If you’d gone deeper, well, you’d be dead.” He shivered. “None of us wanted to see that either or try to fish you back out for the Magisters in the city to hem and ahh, or awe for the weirder ones, over your body.”

  “Have you done that before? Recovered bodies here?”

  “I haven’t but,” he glanced over at the other men. “Nearly all the rest of them have. They could tell stories that would make you colder than winter solstice.”

  She glared at him. “You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

  “Poverty, bad parenting, and low self-esteem?” The young orcish man spat at her. Noticing his harsh words, his face softened as if to say he didn’t mean it like that.

  “You have a very good idea of what I’ve been through!” She huffed, then crossed her arms. “Are you really going to take me in for this? Maybe get my hand chopped off?”

  Emerging from the woods within earshot, the dwarf-giant rolled his eyes walking by them. “That’s only for the top-level guys. A little fish like yourself just needs to tell us who her fence is and she’ll be fine.”

  Bodi led her back over to the horses, while she tried not to think of what Silver River would have done to her if she had tried to swim through. This was truly an impassible river. She never would have survived. No matter how good she could swim. Then again, most rivers passible by a single rider could be transversed by multiple riders.

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  “If by fine you mean out of a job and the money, and with my friends trying to kill me, sure, I’ll be totally fine. Let me guess, the castle guards can protect me too, huh?”

  “Lady,” the unnamed off-worlder man with a sprinkle of snout hair no married man would have worn finally spoke up, “I don’t think any of us want to protect you. Stealing engagement rings off people’s fingers is pretty low. Those have sentimental value. An old grandma has been crying outside the office for weeks begging me to go on this quest. You’d best hope one of those belongs to her.”

  “They have monetary value,” she answered quickly, to cover that she’d been carrying stolen goods which was a different offence the magisters could charge her with, “and I need the money. Besides, I didn’t steal those. I’m just transporting them legally. My friend assured me they’re all legitimate property from multiple estates.”

  The orcish guard glanced between her and the biggest danger. “Enough talk from you.” He kept staring at her in warning while clearly trying to speak to his commander. “We should go back to the city. We shouldn’t be out here too long. It’s better inside the walls.”

  Criminality did not fit her plans, but she needed to stay away from the city. The sooner she left for good, the better. It made her a bit desperate to afford a place with a caravan or carriage. She already had people after her and getting out had been the only reasonable solution.

  “I’m the get-away rider,” she gave him a half-smile, but he ignored her. “You know what happens to them when they get caught?”

  “Can someone else have a turn with chatterbox?” The orc wanted to know.

  “That’s not my name,” she complained, mirroring his words, but he waved her off.

  As they switched guard, she took better stock of the three closest riders, a human, reptilian, and an orc. Bodi was the tallest of all three. Six and a half feet, which was taller but not crazy tall for an orc. His deep lavender more purply than usual. The more common tint of sand coloring or green resembled most other orcs but was still within normal orcish skin tone. His lower jutted teeth were very prominent. He had more muscle than average too, but she could not say what kind of fighting capabilities he actually had with them. Perhaps a gym orc. She’d only see him trying to ride, which hadn’t been any way to measure. She respected his stubbornness to keep riding while having horrible form, bowed back, toes all wrong, impressive commitment even with the lack of skill.

  The beast he rode was twice the size of the other horse and still plastered with sweat after the rest. It carried a more substantial load than anyone else. It’d also take all sorts of cuts and injuries to its wider body. Bodi began tending his horse with care, going down each leg, applying ointment to the cuts and scrapes before they left.

  At his size, he made an intimidating enough rider, even with no visible weapon with him. She found that odd as most orcs and city guardsmen’s’ wanna-bes alike preferred either halberds or axes depending on how much they preferred killing smaller species or their own kind. Who would join a hunting party without a weapon? Either fairly confident with hand-to-hand or utterly incompetent.

  “Are you writing poetry about Bodi’s back or just prone to weirdly staring?”

  She scowled at the reptilian. “Bet you wish people cared to describe you!”

  “Not at all. Soft skin species think like that. You squishies and pointies, always complain about scales.”

  “My name is Laural, not squishy pointy.”

  “Nice to meet you, Yanny.”

  “It’s Laural”

  “That’s what I said. Yanny.”

  “No, you didn’t. Oh, never mind. What’s going to happen next?”

  He gave her a toothy expression. “We’re going to take you to an old pointy.”

  “Spirits, I didn’t piss off the Vampire Council, did I?”

  He snorted. “Wrong old pointy. Now get on, we have to go all the way back.”

  They put her in front of the mustached human which annoyed both of them. Having been tending his horse and generally ignoring her and the reptilian, he walked his horse over to join her when they’d gotten back on the main trail. His exhausted overloaded horse carrying double brought down the overall pace. They went in silence until they switched horses and guards. Having the orc let his exhausted mount rest by carrying a lighter load while he led the defeated looking animal.

  The orc sighed seeing her again. “Good to capture you for a second time today. I’m afraid I haven’t caught your name yet.”

  “It’s Laural.”

  “Yanny? Interesting name.”

  “Thanks,” she’d grown used to both names. But her name was Laural, not Yanny.

  “Your name is?”

  “I’m called Bodi,” the purpled guard grinned. “I got myself a human name to make it easier for most the people I interacted with.

  “Oh, nice. Do you have like your secret orcish name so no magician can use your true name to bind you?”

  “I think that only works on elves and beings that can be hypnotized. Or maybe those that utilize glamor.”

  “You’d be surprised,” offered the elf.

  “Oh, do you know about that type of magic then?”

  “No. I’m strictly plants and animals. We all get inclinations, you know. Mine is usually animals. Occasionally, a more animalistic plant. Although I’m trying to expand my knowledge.”

  “By stealing horses?”

  “Not that way, no,” she admitted sheepishly. “I needed the money.”

  “For what?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.” She replied.

  “Probably not,” he admitted. “Your city has a lot of weird people in it.”

  “I thought I detected an accent.”

  He frowned at her. The expression very different on an orc’s face due to their tusks not allowing the same droop in a nonmuzzled species. It was more like a u that went from tusk to tusk. His tusks had been squared off, likely with a bone saw. A common dental repair when the tips became inclined to tear into the flesh of an orcish face with a backwards curve. If she knew more orcs, or really any orcs, she might be able to tell all sorts of things about him from his tusks. But she’d never listened much to an orc or their tusks.

  “Just being out here in the wild is enough sign you’re not from around here.”

  He grunted and headed her back towards the horses. She’d just loosened her bonds enough. He reached down and this time using the ropes to tie her up correctly. Just her hands in front of her and his hulking presence to keep an eye on her.

  She sighed at the tightened bonds. “If you and the off-worlder weren’t with them, I could have gotten away.”

  “Maybe you would have gotten dead. Looking back at us kept you from falling directly into the path of your horse’s weight to be crushed into an elf jam. Then the river.”

  “I would have ridden a different away if you weren’t chasing me.”

  “You stole a horse which called out the guard and then we chased to get the stolen animal.”

  “See how that worked for you? You should consider a speed policy to reduce risk to your own mounts and the fleeing mount.”

  “I don’t make any rules here,” he retorted. “I know some places have a no gallop policy in certain stretches of road. Perhaps you should consult a local politician to give them your suggestion.

  “Where are you taking me?” She wanted to know.

  “Back to whom you stole the horse from.”

  She frowned. This didn’t narrow things down exactly. This had been the last of the fourteen. Of those horses, she’d not paid close attention to who she stole from. Where had this one been from? A Fae that rounded them up for an overland trek? Anyone with half a point in intelligence wouldn’t be putting those horses where the Fae had. It also felt just a bit better seeing how Fae and elves got along like a house without a fire in deep winter. The other eleven had been more work planning and more than a few unsavory characters. Now that she’d not be outside the city safely, all of that lot would be interested in seeing her dead. They’d be much less likely to bring her to any Guards or other less effective means of killing her.

  Who among those lot would have reported it to and set her up? She lapsed into silence. As she rode, easily, and the Orc rode, terribly, but still without falling off onto the road, she wondered if anything she said might sway her captor. But then, when she saw the other guards, she realized such a discussion would need to be held in private and she’d not get such chance before reaching the city. Maybe she’d get lucky and a monster would attack them all on the ride back. She could only hope, but it didn’t happen. Stupid peaceful off-worlder.

  All other attempts to converse were shut down summarily. Her fate would be found in the city. They could send her to a prison or give her to those who already wanted to kill her. Or they might throw her into one of the various forms of legal systems which depend on both who’s horse she stole, what species laws claimed, if the King happened to be around, and the appropriate phases of the moon. A few judicial systems heavily relied upon horoscopes, and she desperately tried to recall if she’d been born year of the Aye-Aye or the dragon.

  A pit of fear threatened to swallow her whole. She’d never been in any system before. Never gone to jail, never been forced to stay inside a cell. Without her, all of her horses would starve to death, and she could imagine no greater punishment than to lose them in such an inhumane way. The horses she rightfully gained and cared for, all because she’d been an idiot and picked the wrong rich person’s horses. If only she’d never been forced into it. Her head hung low, accepting her inevitable consequences.