The old man perked up at that and returned her smile with a snaggletoothed grin.

  ‘Sorry t’tell yer, the Manticore’s full tonight,’ he said. ‘There’s more’n enough folk on the road these days. Trouble’s a’ brewin’ yonder. Few want to be caught in it.’

  Jai cursed under his breath. The dream of a hot bath and actual food in his belly was fading fast.

  ‘They’ll not let you in like that, anyways,’ the man said, before hawking and spitting off to the side. ‘Now . . . ’ave you money?’

  Jai considered this.

  ‘Some,’ he ventured.

  ‘I’ll give ye a shirt,’ the man said. ‘One denarius.’

  Jai hesitated, and the man spat again and began to wander off.

  ‘You’ve a deal,’ Jai said.

  The old man turned, a grin upon his face.

  ‘’Av it then,’ he said.

  He yanked the mail over his head, then his own shirt. It was a rough, homespun thing, made of sackcloth. But Jai took it gratefully, if only to curb the pitying glances of every person that walked by. He’d rather none look at them at all.

  The guardsman replaced his mail and began to wander away the moment Jai fished into his purse and allowed him to snatch the silver coin.

  ‘Sir,’ Jai called out. ‘If the Manticore is full, is there another tavern or inn that might have room?’

  The man turned reluctantly, as if eager to be away. Jai was beginning to suspect he’d overpaid for it, and the man was worried Jai was going to realise that fact.

  ‘There’s another place a half-day’s walk down the road, but it’ll be morn afore you reach it. But if you leave the road, there’s a couple places. Same owner o’ this one.’

  ‘Can you . . .’

  But the old man had hurried off. The pair stood there for a moment and then Jai pulled the shirt over his head. Despite his bare feet, he was beginning to feel human again.

  ‘You reckon I paid too much for this?’ Jai asked.

  Frida shrugged.

  ‘You’re asking me? I’ve never even touched a Sabine coin. Do you think you did?’

  Jai winced and admitted something that until that very moment, he hadn’t realised was strange.

  ‘That was the first purchase I’ve ever made,’ he said.

  Frida stared at him, horrified.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The palace treasurer deals with it all. If Leonid needed something, he just called for it and it would come. If I needed something . . . well, he’d do the same. But he didn’t think I needed much.’

  Frida prodded his purse, still clutched tightly in his fist.

  ‘So where did this come from?’

  Jai sighed.

  ‘They’re coins I found over the years. Mostly when I scrubbed the floors of the mess hall, or went on an errand. I don’t even know how much I’ve got.’

  He pawed through the bag’s contents, counting them. Frida looked on, curious. Somehow, this was supposed to last them all the way to the edge of the empire. And he’d just traded away his most valuable coin for a shirt on his back.

  ‘I’ve got ten semis, three copper as and one sesterius,’ Jai said. ‘That was my only denarius.’

  Frida looked at him blankly.

  ‘A semi is the smallest coin. Then two semis to an as, four as to a sesterius. A silver denarius is worth four sesterii, or sixteen as.’

  She chewed her lip.

  ‘You got ripped off,’ she said. ‘But there’s an advantage to being an outlaw. You can steal, too.’

  She grinned and flashed him the silver coin in her palm, before dropping it back into his purse surreptitiously.

  Jai felt a flash of fear that they’d be caught and found out.

  ‘We’d better move on before he notices,’ Frida said, a bit more casually than Jai would like. Jai took a step toward the road, but a soft hand upon his shoulder stopped him.

  She nodded at a nearby market stall, where the owner was transferring its contents of fruit, vegetables and dried meats to a handcart.

  ‘But let’s buy some food first.’

  She plucked the purse from his hand.

  ‘Let me do the negotiating this time.’

  Chapter 50

  There’s nowt around ’ere,’ the barmaid said, raising her voice to be heard above the inn’s racket.

  They were in the Manticore, checking to see if the guard had been telling them the truth. Even stepping inside, the answer had been obvious. The place was heaving, filled wall to wall with travellers of all kinds. Many would likely be sleeping on the streets tonight.

  ‘The guard said there were other taverns,’ Jai said. ‘Same owner?’

  The barmaid rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at the other punters waiting for a drink. She began to move down the bar when Frida flashed her a coin. The maid turned back with a sly grin.

  ‘Like I said, nowt,’ she said, holding her hand out for the coin. ‘But buy me a drink an’ I’ll think on it. A pint’ll cost more’n that though.’

  Frida darted out her hand and pulled the maid close.

  ‘Listen, wench. I can offer a hot slap or this cold coin. What’s it to be?’

  The barmaid seemed unabashed, for she was twice Frida’s size, with hands large as bootsoles, and rougher too. But when she’d plucked ineffectuality at the white knuckled fingers clutching her pinafore, she sighed and pointed in a southerly direction, beyond the doors.

  ‘There’s two inns down there, my love,’ she said. ‘Down the goat trail. Closest’s the Chimera on the left fork, t’other’s the Jackalope on the right.’

  Frida released her and handed her the same coin she’d flashed. The barmaid looked surprised, perhaps at the fact Frida had honoured their bargain. As they began to make their way out, the maid called after them.

  ‘If’n those’r full, you ought to try the Phoenix. ’Tis a ways further down the Kashmere Road, then turn north, just afore the turnpike.’

  Jai turned to thank her, but Frida shoved him on. They were out the doors, walking into the cold night once more.

  He could sense Winter, munching on something that tasted far more delicious to her than Jai reckoned it should. He could almost feel the crunch of cartilage and bone in his own mouth.

  ‘Winter’s close,’ Jai said. ‘She’ll follow us off the path. She’s better at sensing where I am than I her, I can tell.’

  Frida nodded.

  ‘That’s always the way, for any beast. They understand our intent better than we theirs. Perhaps because they have no words of their own. But you’ll get better, I promise. Just takes time and practice.’

  Jai gestured vaguely at their surroundings.

  ‘Plenty of opportunity for that while you’re on the run, eh?’

  Frida grimaced, but nodded.

  ‘We’d better find somewhere to rest soon. I’ve so little mana, I can hardly summon a spark to light a fire. I need to soulbreathe.’

  Jai couldn’t have agreed more, keen to cultivate mana of his own.

  ‘Well, seeing the packed-out tavern there, I wonder if the detour is worth it,’ he said. ‘If we’re slow, the legion will overtake us. And I don’t think we want to attempt to walk by them, dyed hair or no.’

  Frida frowned.

  ‘Surely they’re no more likely to recognise us for what we are than any other traveller?’ she asked.

  ‘Most imperial citizens just want to live their lives, stay out of trouble,’ Jai mused aloud, his mind turning back to the many beatings he’d endured from the guards at the palace. ‘But the legionaries . . . they’ve a long-held hatred for the Dansk and Steppefolk, not to mention anyone else outside the empire. And not just the veterans. The young lads’ll have been trained up on a diet of war stories and loathing, at least if they’re from the cities. It just takes one to have a suspicion.’

  Frida chewed on her lip, swaying slightly. Exhaustion was beginning to take hold. And with both their mana reserves nearing their end, they’d have a hard night ahead.

  He looked beyond the still-open gates, where the sun’s last meagre light allowed sight of the rugged goat path across the road’s cobbles.

  ‘Come on,’ Jai said. ‘We’d better get going. Sundown’s early in winter here, but we’ll need to wake well before sunup if we’re to beat the legion. A Sabine legion can march more than five leagues in a day. They’ll be up at the crack of dawn too.’

  Frida sniffed at that.

  ‘With a bit of mana, I could do that before luncheon,’ she said.

  ‘Well I can’t,’ Jai snapped. ‘Unless you’re volunteering to carry me. So let’s move for the Chimera. Every second we waste here is another not sleeping or soulbreathing.’

  Frida looked affronted at his tone for a moment, but relented, it seemed, when Jai sagged against the tavern wall with exhaustion.

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘We’ll risk it. Let us hope there are still rooms. Look, there’s others headed that way.’

  She was right too. A smattering of travellers had turned onto the trail, some not even glancing in the small village’s direction. A few might be headed home, but most had the look of experienced travellers about them, clutching walking staffs and broad-brimmed hats.

  ‘What do you think?’ she said. ‘That’s a dozen rooms taken in that group alone. Maybe this Phoenix place she mentioned is more likely to have space for us.’

  The word jarred something in Jai’s memory. He’d hardly heard the barmaid before, but now he remembered Leonid’s dying words. What he had thought was gibberish. Leonid had mentioned a phoenix. Or was it the Phoenix?

  ‘The . . . winesop,’ Jai murmured, scrunching his eyes as he tried to recollect the exact phrasing.

  Frida frowned at him.

  ‘We head for the Phoenix,’ Jai said. ‘I’ve a good feeling about it.’

  The Dansk handmaiden gave him a hard look.

  ‘No carousing,’ she said. ‘You may have been locked in a dusty room most of your life but it’s sleep or soulbreathing, you hear?’

  Jai nodded absently, still trying to remember what the old man had said.

  Either way, they were going. Leonid had saved him once. Perhaps he would again.

  Chapter 51

  It was getting late, and there was still no sign of any turnpike. The only thing that gave them some hope was that there were few travellers about now. While the Kashmere Road was patrolled by contubernia, squads of ten legionaries that kept the peace and sought out bandits, even they stopped to camp at sundown.

  Bandits preyed on the tardy and the foolish in the dark of night. Whoever was staying at the Phoenix that night would have arrived there by now. Since Jai and Frida’s plan was to travel by night anyway, that die was already cast.

  ‘If that barmaid lied to us, I’ll run back there and give her the beat down of her life,’ Frida growled.

  Jai didn’t reply. He was of good mind to do the same. At this point, Winter was rustling along the ridge. Her full belly was finally not the complete antithesis of Jai’s own, as he munched on the paltry supplies they’d been able to afford with their small collection of coins.

  Half had been saved for their board that night, but the rest had been used to purchase a sackful of vegetables. He crunched on a carrot now, still wishing he could have something warm in his belly.

  ‘Is that the turnpike?’ Jai asked.

  He could see the flickering lights of what might have been a row of flaming torches. They walked further, peering into the darkness ahead.

  Finally, it came into view. A large gatehouse had been built across the road, with imperial guards stationed at its top. Walkers would simply skirt around its edges, but anything larger than a handcart would struggle to manage the rough terrain on either side and would be forced to pay the toll to pass through its gates.

  Luckily, they didn’t need to do so, for the path north was also just visible in the moonlight – a narrow trail flanked by brambles. Jai might not have even considered it, were it not for a splintered sign nailed to a sapling with the faded word ‘Phoenix’ scratched onto its surface.

  It was an ill-lit path, with branches and dead wood encroaching at every step. Little of the moonlight filtered through the thick vegetation, though the eyes of his newly cleansed body saw better than they once had.

  Jai didn’t think this was going to be a high-class establishment. That suited him well, though. He needed a bed and a bath, not fine furnishings. And they certainly couldn’t afford them.

  ‘Winter,’ Jai called out.

  He was feeling uneasy, stepping off the path. Best to keep her close.

  The little dragon whipped through the underbrush swiftly at his summons, chirring excitedly as she leaped into his arms.

  He held her close, feeling the warmth of her porcelain scales against his skin. Somehow, he’d already begun to miss her in the short time they’d been apart. Even if he could sense her the whole time.

  ‘Did she eat?’ Frida asked, as they turned onto the trail.

  ‘Yes,’ Jai said, scratching the little beast beneath her chin. ‘And then some.’

  Frida sniffed.

  ‘Good,’ she said, ‘Winter’s small. Smaller than any other dragon I’ve seen. Born too early, I’m sure.’

  Jai felt a guilty twinge at that. But it wasn’t his fault. And runt or no, she was still the best thing that had ever happened to him. He cared not a jot if she was smaller than other dragons.

  ‘Let’s hurry,’ Frida said.

  Jai was grateful now for his enhanced senses, though they were waning with the collapse of his mana reserves. By now, he had barely a few droplets pooling at the bottom of his fledgeling core.

  He was even more grateful due to the treacherous path, strewn as it was with sharp rocks and divots that would break a pack animal’s leg easily enough, if not his own. Jai wondered at that – this ruled out the Phoenix being in a frequented village, or even a venue set up for the majority of the Kashmere Road’s travellers. So what was this place?

  In fact, it was unusual that the guard had not mentioned it either. Only the sign and the path’s existence gave him faith they were headed for anything at all.

  Half an hour passed by before Frida said she saw the lights of torches and heard the raucous sound of revelry that told them they were heading in the right direction. Jai had to concentrate hard to even get a hint of it. His mana was well and truly gone now.

  Jai felt Winter’s anxiety tick up a notch. Enough to give him pause. But he could not read the little beast’s senses as he wished. He only knew something that troubled the dragon was ahead.

  ‘There’s—’

  ‘I smell them too,’ Frida said. ‘More than one, I reckon. They’re not moving, and there’s no fire. Suspicious.’

  Jai sniffed at the air and listened intently. But his mana was so depleted even the cold was getting to him. He might as well have been his old self. This didn’t bode well for a fight.

  ‘I hear them. They know we’re coming.’

  But then, neither did the fact that they had only one weapon between them. That, and an infant dragon.

  ‘Winter, follow at a distance,’ he hissed. ‘Don’t come unless I call you, you hear?’

  The little dragon wasted no time, scampering into the darkness so quickly that even Jai swiftly lost her. He didn’t like the twinge of emotion he’d felt from her at his words. But beside the hurt, there was . . . a stubborn quality to it.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Jai asked.

  Frida was walking faster now, the dagger clasped behind her back. Her confidence did little to assuage Jai’s anxiety. They were heading into an ambush.

  ‘Follow my lead,’ Frida said. ‘If we run, they’ll give chase, and we cannot afford to fight this. We must make them think we are not worth it.’

  Jai saw them before he smelled them. They were not trying to hide, it seemed, instead standing in plain sight across the path’s centre. Four of them. Three men and a woman, and all holding a weapon of some kind.

  Luckily, only the woman held a sword – the others brandished staves made from rough-hewn branches. And they stank, each and every one of them. They were dressed more like vagrants than organised bandits. Even in the gloom, he could see there was hunger in their eyes. A sick, desperate hunger that surpassed all else.

  ‘So kind of the Phoenix to send a greeting party,’ Frida called out.

  She approached them with a nonchalant air, even waving at the men as they slapped their staves into their palms.

  ‘Oh yes,’ the woman called out, raising the sword and jabbing it in their direction. ‘We’re here to escort you through the dark. Never know what unsavoury characters you might run into in the dead of night.’

  She was better spoken than Jai had expected from the state of her companions. In fact, she even wore a leather chest-plate, compared to the ragged sack-cloth of the others. Their leader, then.

  Frida smiled at the bandit’s words, and Jai was amazed at how at ease she seemed. His own palms were sweating profusely, and he was already looking around his feet for anything he might use as a weapon.

  ‘Best wait for the next lot then,’ Frida said. ‘We’ve no need of protection.’

  The woman chuckled drily.

  ‘Oh, we insist. My sister sent you for the Phoenix, or do I tell a lie? She only sends folk that . . . need our services.’

  Jai’s heart fell, realising what had happened. Apparently the barmaid hadn’t meant to help them at all. Crossing her palm with brass rather than silver might have been a mistake.

  ‘Is there even such a place?’ Jai asked.

  His voice sounded shrill, and he cleared his throat.

  ‘Oh yes,’ the woman said, looking over her shoulder. ‘But you’ll be headed back the way you came. The Phoenix isn’t for the likes of you.’

  Frida lifted a hand. Pointed it at them.

  ‘They say the soulbound can kill a dozen men with a single gesture,’ she said. ‘But I’ve never managed more than three.’

  ‘Ooooo,’ the leader said, lifting a hand in mock fear. The other men sniggered.

  And then, Frida’s finger began to glow. A spark emerged, warping and twisting in the air. It cast her face in an ethereal golden light.