Flynn’s brow furrowed as he glared at the man in the doorway. “What are you doing here, Throm?”

  He couldn’t deny that the mercenary—and part-time carpenter—had done a nice job renovating the loft, but Flynn couldn’t help but hold onto a grudge based on the first two times he’d encountered the man. He’d been belligerent, rude, and on the verge of assaulting Nyx before she unleashed a powerful kick to his head. The fact that the blue-haired woman had apparently forgiven the man wasn’t enough for Flynn to just act like everything was fine.

  “I asked him to pick up some supplies for the trip,” Nyx said.

  Throm held up two large burlap sacks. “Each bag has enough to last someone a couple weeks.”

  Flynn frowned as he noticed a third bag on the ground behind the mercenary. “What’s in that bag?”

  Throm plastered a huge smile on his face. “Well, I figured you two could use someone to watch your back and help get things.”

  He waved the two bags of rations to emphasize his point.

  “Thank you for the food, but—” Flynn started to dismiss the man but was interrupted by Nyx.

  “Yes, thank you for that,” she said. “Do you think you can acquire some horses for us while we finish packing?”

  The mercenary nodded enthusiastically. “I will be right back. You won’t regret this.”

  The man turned and disappeared before Flynn could object further.

  He turned toward Nyx. “What are you doing? We can’t take him with us!”

  “I never said he could come with us. I simply sent him to get horses . . . which we need.”

  “Yeah, but you very clearly implied he could come with us.”

  Nyx shrugged. “I can’t help what people think.”

  She returned to her workbench and started picking up her tools and supplies. It only took her a moment to clean the workstation and when she turned back to Flynn, he was standing with his arms crossed, giving her a look of disapproval.

  “What?!” she asked. The expression on her face was that of someone who had gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

  “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Flynn said. “You want to bring him with us, and I don’t understand why.”

  Nyx sighed. “Alright. Yes, I want to bring him with us.”

  “Why?”

  “He wasn’t wrong about having someone else around being helpful.”

  “We already have someone else. Two someones, actually. Thunderbough and Stormfeather are all we need.”

  “That’s fine in a battle, but they still have to spend a lot of time in their home realms,” she pointed out. “And I’m not talking about in battle. What about when we are traveling or make camp? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a third person to stand watch?”

  “So, you would trust him to stand watch while we sleep?”

  Nyx shrugged, a gesture that didn’t exactly express confidence. “I think he’ll be fine. He knows I will kick him in the head again if he gets out of line.”

  The frown on Flynn’s face deepened. He avoided pointing out that if the man killed them in their sleep, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting kicked in the head again.

  “I’m not sure controlling him by fear of a butt whooping is the best way to keep allies in line.”

  She waved away his concern. “Pfff. Guys like him respect girls who can kick them in the head.”

  Flynn frowned. “I’m not sure that’s true.”

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  “How would you know? Have you ever been kicked in the head by a woman?”

  Flynn groaned and ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t fear Throm, per se, but the man was an Advanced level mercenary with a lot of cards and experience. That made him potentially dangerous, and simply remodeling their home wasn’t enough to prove his trustworthiness.

  An urgent knock on the door interrupted the argument.

  He took a few quick steps toward the door and yanked it open. He wasn’t surprised to see the mercenary standing there.

  “There are five people in robes heading this way,” Throm blurted out, panting for breath. “They’ll be here in a few minutes. The man that was here last time is with them.”

  “The Church of Knowledge,” Flynn and Nyx said in unison.

  The mercenary raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything.

  There was a flash of blue light and Nyx’s Shimmerhawk familiar appeared. She waved her hand toward the door and the hawk darted through the opening, forcing Throm to duck to avoid the bird.

  “Get in here and close the door,” Nyx ordered.

  The mercenary scrambled inside and slammed the door behind him.

  Flynn and Throm looked back and forth from each other then to Nyx. No one said anything.

  After a minute or so, Nyx broke the silence. “There’s more like a dozen of those prigs. There’s three groups of them and they’re heading toward the front and the back of the shop.”

  “Can we get away before they get here?”

  “I think so. With Stormfeather’s help.”

  “Okay, let’s go,” Flynn said. He frowned at Throm. He didn’t like the man, but he wasn’t going to leave him behind for the Church of Knowledge to question. No one deserved that. “I guess you’re coming with us, at least for now.”

  He hurried to the back door and opened it just enough to peek his head out. When he didn’t see anyone, he opened it further and looked both directions but didn’t see anyone in the alley.

  “They are almost to the north end of the alley, we need to leave now,” Nyx said, relaying what she could see through her familiar’s eyes.

  Flynn didn’t need any more encouragement. He hurried through the door and turned right down the alley. Throm and Nyx were right behind him, and the blue-haired woman paused for a moment to activate the Unyielding Sentinel enchantment that protected the building.

  They were about halfway to the south end of the alley when Nyx called for a stop. “There’s another group approaching this end of the alley.”

  Flynn looked around then up. He turned to the mercenary. “Can you climb?”

  Throm looked at the wall then the roof two stories above. “That? Not hardly.”

  Nyx put a hand on the man’s arm. “You keep going. They don’t know you’re with us, so they have no reason to stop you. Get those horses and meet us on the other side of the river.”

  The mercenary nodded. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. You can count on me.”

  “Okay,” Nyx said and gave Throm a gentle shove toward the end of the alley then started climbing.

  Flynn watched the mercenary hurry down the alley for a moment. They won’t know you’re with us unless Jerome is in that group, but if he is . . .

  He forced that thought from his mind and started climbing. It only took him a moment to scramble up and onto the roof.

  Once they were both safe on top of the building, Flynn looked over the edge and saw groups of men in robes approaching the back door of the cobbler’s shop from both ends of the alley. Throm was nowhere to be seen.

  “Looks like he got away.”

  Nyx shrugged. “Hopefully he does what he’s supposed to do and gets us some horses.”

  “I hope so, too,” Flynn agreed. He didn’t know exactly why the Church of Knowledge was coming for them, but he knew that he didn’t want to find out. You didn’t send a dozen people just to talk. “None of that matters if we don’t get out of here ourselves.”

  There was a screech from above and he looked up to see Stormfeather flying in a wide circle.

  “They’re approaching the shop from the front now, too,” Nyx said, reporting what she could see through her familiar’s eyes.

  “Then we should get as far away as we can before they realize we’re not there.”

  Flynn led them down the row of buildings that backed up to the alley, hopping from one rooftop to the next until they reached the end where there was a ladder to the ground. They quickly descended then crossed the street and disappeared into another alley.

  It was the second time that Flynn had fled a group of powerful enemies since earning his first card tattoo. The group from the Church of Knowledge might not be as powerful individually as the head tattooed mercenaries that he’d rescued Khalor from, but as an organization they were likely more powerful. He couldn’t help but feel that there were more similarities between the two groups than he knew.

  They followed a similar route to that earlier flight, but in the opposite direction, and soon passed through the warehouse district and emerged near the docks.

  “Come on, let’s find a ship that’s ready to leave.” Nyx grabbed Flynn’s arm and pulled him toward a trio of ships that were bustling with activity.

  “I thought we were going to meet Throm on the other side of the river.”

  “We have to get out of the city before we can do anything,” Nyx said. “As soon as they figure out we’re not home, they’ll send people to every way out of the city. That means the main gates and docks will be swarming with Church of Knowledge people. We need to be gone before that happens.”

  Flynn nodded. He still wasn’t certain they should travel with the mercenary, so he didn’t mind going another way.

  “Once we’re away from the city, we can jump out of the boat and circle back to meet up with Throm.”

  The idea of jumping out of boat in the river was not appealing to Flynn. “Why don’t we just stay on the boat?”

  “If we do that, the church will be waiting for us at the next stop.”

  “Okay, but there’s one problem you need to know about . . .” Flynn started but Nyx had already started bargaining with someone who looked like a ship captain.

  “I don’t know how to swim,” Flynn finished his protest to no one in particular.