Days blended into each other along the river.

They were wandering their way through the mountains, and the river meandered this way and that. It cut through narrow canyons and widened in yawning valleys. The jungle around them shifted subtly, the types of plants and birds changing along with it. The current was with them, and the weather stayed warm.

They took turns paddling. At night, they made camps and foraged for food. Kuiavadox knew what they could eat, and more than once tossed away something Tanden or Jale had found.

To occupy his mind, Tanden focused on Xalish. The more he learned, the more it sounded like Alvarian. The words weren't similar, but the way the language worked was. Jale picked up bits and pieces, the important words. Slowly, communicating with Kuiavadox became easier.

He couldn't have guessed how many days had passed when they came across a waterfall. The dull roar had been audible most of the afternoon. Kuiavadox was steering, and he turned the boat towards a rocky section of shore.

Tanden, in the front, glanced over his shoulder. They had an easier time talking if they were looking at each other. "Walk?" he said in Xalish.

Kuiavadox nodded. He took a moment to swing his paddle over his head, imitating the way Tanden had seen the men pick up the boats before.

Tanden frowned. "You? Me?"

"Me," Kuiavadox replied, although he didn't look entirely sure. Tanden would have asked more, but the young man's attention was on the shoreline, and Tanden had to turn around to help paddle.

When they reached the rocks, they fell into the familiar routine of climbing out and pulling the boat out of the water. Then came the difficult part. There were far too many packs.

Tanden groaned. "We'll need to make more than one trip," he said in Tallenese.

"Or..." Jale shrugged one shoulder. "Leave some of it behind. That's the least of our concerns, Tanden. Look around. There's no trail here."

She was right. The jungle around them was dense. No maintained path or little hut like there had been on the other river. Clearly, Kuiavadox's people didn't travel this far. "But, that shouldn't be too—"

"The boat is the problem," Jale said. "All right... tell him I'm going to reorganize everything. I might be able to repack."

Tanden turned to Kuiavadox. Useless words flittered through his head until he settled on some that could make sense. "Jale clean..." he waved at the pile of boxes and bags in the middle of the boat. "Good walk."

There was always a delay as they tried to decode what the other had said. After a moment, Kuiavadox nodded. "Me," he said a word and pointed at his eyes, so Tanden assumed it mean something like 'look'. Then he pointed towards the waterfall.

"Yes," Tanden agreed.

Kuiavadox began to head towards the waterfall, carefully walking on the slick rocks. Tanden crouched to help Jale. They picked through everything, doing what they could to condense what actually needed to be carried. When Kuiavadox returned, they had actually made good progress.

Kuiavadox helped Jale and Tanden load up as much of their gear as possible. He slung a single bag over his shoulder before leaning over the boat and swinging it up over his head. Tanden watched, trying to learn the technique as Kuiavadox adjusted the way the boat was balanced on his shoulders. When he seemed ready, Tanden spoke in Tallenese.

"Jale, you go first. I'll stay behind him."

She nodded curtly. With the sword-like weapon in one hand, she began the trek into the jungle. Tanden waved for Kuiavadox to follow her, then look up the rear.

***

It wasn't easy, but cautiously, with many breaks, they made it down the sloping land around the waterfall. At the bottom of the waterfall, they put everything back in the boat and continued paddling a little longer before stopping for the night.

It almost became a daily occurrence. Waterfalls or rapids that needed to be bypassed. But they now had a system in place, which as least made the process faster. Beach the boat, pick everything up, carry it to the next safe section of the river, and carry on. From time to time, Tanden would take a turn with the boat, which was both easier and harder to carry than he had imagined. Every day, their stores of food got lighter, which at least made everything easier to carry.

Tanden guessed it had been somewhere between two and three weeks when they left the mountains and jungle behind and the river cut across flat steppes. What he knew of the Southern countries confirmed his earlier guess that the river would come out in Staedin. All that remained was the follow it until they either found a village, where Tanden could but his childish Staedish to work, or until they reached the coast.

His grasp of Xalish was strong enough that Kuiavadox had stopped speaking in broken sentences and was simply speaking slowly. Tanden could pick out the words he recognized and fit them together with only occasional mistakes.

Without a jungle, their food supply changed. But on the fifth night as they set up camp in the Staedin steppes, Jale managed to catch a pair of hares. They ate well, and as he settled down to sleep that night, for the first time since losing Soren and the Wanderlust, Tanden felt happy.

Until he was abruptly woken up by a jab in his stomach.

Alarm cleared Tanden's mind and he was up in a flash. The Xalish sword was in the boat, much to his dismay. He was facing a pair of burly men, one holding a spear and the other a long knife. Tanden risked looking away from them for a moment, just to take in what was happening around them. Jale and Kuiavadox were also being shaken awake.

Tanden stared at the men in front of him as he spoke in careful Staedish. "We're passing through."

The men exchanged a quick glance. The one with the spear narrowed his eyes and took a step forward. "You came from the mountains."

"We were lost," Tanden said. "We want to go to the ocean."

"Where are you from?"

The question caught Tanden off guard. "Zianna."

The man shook the spear in his direction. "Zianna isn't in the mountains."

"We got lost." Tanden thought quickly. "Alvan Bay. We've been travelling North. Trying to get to... Navire."

"Navire?" the man repeated. "Or the ocean?"

"Both," Tanden said. "From the ocean, we can get transportation to Navire."

The men leaned together and had a quiet discussion. Tanden knew Jale and Kuiavadox were watching him, trying to understand what was going on. He wanted to reassure them, but didn't want to risk it.

"You're lying," the spear-man said suddenly. "We've never seen a boat like that before."

He wasn't entirely sure why he felt the need to dance around Zaxali's existence, but he came up with a lie anyway. "It's Alvarian. An old design."

For a moment the men stared at him. Crickets chirped in the silence. Tanden tightened his grip on his small knife.

"You're coming with us." The spear-man nodded at the other men, who all began to move at once. One stepped forward to grab Jale, and another to get Kuiavadox.

The young man moved. He was the closest to the boat, and he leaned into it to pull out the Xalish sword. Two of the Staedins shouted at him, brandishing their long knives.

"Kuiva, stop," Tanden growled, then in Staedish, "Stop, I'm the only one who can speak with you. Yelling at him is pointless."

Everyone went still. The spear-man gruffly said, "tell him to put down the weapon."

He didn't want to. Tanden didn't want to be captured again. He didn't have the patience for it, not this far into the journey. Not now, that he was finally feeling better. Not when he had Jale to protect and Toliver to kill.

Tanden, still looking at Kuiavadox, spoke in Tallenese. "I'm going to fight them. Ready?"

Jale's answering grunt confirmed that she had heard him, at least.

Then in Xalish. "Throw it to me. Then run."

Kuiavadox was half a step behind the boat. His gaze flickered between Tanden and the Staedin men. He had never seemed younger or more frightened. His braid messy from sleep, his colourful clothing marking him as someone who didn't belong in Staedin.

The men's patience was running thin, but Tanden ignored their grumbling. "Kuiva." He wasn't sure where the friendly name came from. Tallenese names all seemed to have shorter, everyday versions, like Jale and Ara. But Teltish names were shortened to differentiate between siblings, and even then, only by close friends and with permission. It wasn't his habit to shorten people's names unless he was told he could, but somehow, doing it for Kuiavadox felt like the right thing to do.

"Kuiva," Tanden repeated. "Throw it."

Kuiavadox seemed like he wasn't going to do it. But then, one of the men near him lost patience and lashed out. Kuiavadox tossed the sword before splashing deeper into the water.

It wasn't a good throw, but nobody expected it, and that alone meant Tanden had the freedom to step sideways and catch it. He spun, slashing the sword towards the man with the spear. The man shrieked as the razor-sharp shards of stone sliced through his arm.

Tanden only had eyes for the men, so it was a surprise when Jale appeared to pull the spear away from the man. She plunged it backwards, towards one of the men who had chased her and driving it through his stomach. Jale tried to pull the spear out, but it was stuck fast in the collapsing body. A panicked look glazed over her eyes. Tanden grabbed her arm and yanked her back, so he could step up to meet the next attack.

He couldn't quite let instinct and training take over, the sword was slightly too heavy for that. He thought about every movement, every attack and every block, and every person he killed.

In the end, four bodies lay around him on the river's edge. One, pierced through with Jale's spear, the other three with wounds from the sword. The last two men had run off, and Tanden had let them go, although as he stood in the cool night and let himself consider what had just happened, he realized it may have been a mistake.

"We need to go," Jale said. "Tanden."

He didn't feel like himself. Fighting was never his first choice, and yet—

"Tanden," Jale snapped. "Get over here."

He turned. She was shoving the boat into the water. Kuiavadox, who had apparently fled into the middle of the river, was swimming back towards them.

Tanden looked down at himself. Blood splattered across his hands and arms, but he was fairly sure none of it was his own. The sword felt heavy in his hand.

"Tanden."

He looked up. "They should have listened to me."

Jale was scared, he could see it in her face. Hear it in the way she hissed his name. Sense it in her frantic energy.

"You can't do this right now." She said it firmly in Tallenese. Her tone cut through the confused fog that clouded his thoughts. But without that, another thought dug to the surface.

"I shouldn't have to do this." He waved at the bodies without looking at them. "I'm supposed to be diplomatic. I'm supposed to talk things out."

"Sometimes, that doesn't work. That isn't your fault. If you weren't good at fighting, you wouldn't have a head anymore. Get over here." When he didn't move, she briskly walked over to her, muttering under her breath in Tallenese. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the boat. She wasn't gentle with him, just took the sword from his hand and pushed him towards the boat before climbing into the front herself.

Tanden nearly stepped in, but before he could, Kuiavadox caught his attention. Blood streaked down his right arm, from a thin slice near his shoulder. The water on his skin diffused the blood, reminding Tanden of the slug-like thing that had bitten him so many days ago.

He reached for Kuiavadox, catching his wrist and pulling him a step closer so he could inspect the injury. To his relief it looked shallow. Still, the sight of it mixed with the thoughts he had earlier. Kuiavadox was young. Twenty at the oldest, Tanden guessed. As far as Tanden knew, nobody knew anything about Zaxali, which probably meant Kuiavadox knew nothing about the outside world. He didn't deserve being dragged through it, or being killed so far away from home.

"I'm sorry," Tanden said in Teltish. He didn't know the words in Xalish. "I should have left you at the lake."

Kuiavadox's eyes darted between Tanden's face and the bloody hand clamped around his wrist. He swallowed, and in slow Xalish said, "Kuiva is fine."

He could have been referring to the cut and speaking in third-person, which they often did for clarity. Or, he could have been saying that he didn't mind the shortened version of his name. Either way, Tanden nodded before letting go of his wrist and finally climbing into the middle of the boat. He was in no condition to paddle.

Kuiavadox pushed the boat the rest of the way into the water and hopped in.

***

From that moment on, they travelling through Staedin as quickly as possible. They made camp late and started again early, and took turns staying awake so someone was always on the lookout. Tanden wasn't confident enough in his Staedish, or his knowledge of the people, to risk another confrontation.

Tanden was so eager to get them out of Staedin that he when a rainstorm rolled across the steppes, he kept them moving. Paddling in the rain was miserable, but manageable. Jale hunched in the front of the boat, paddling quietly through the grey rain. Tanden was in the back steering. Kuiavadox, who had been up most of the previous night on watch, was huddled in the middle of the boat trying to get some sleep. They moved steadily along.

He missed the signs because of the rain. By the time Tanden heard the rumblings it was already too late. Suddenly he noticed the speed of the water around them.

"Jale! We need to turn!"

Jale moved too slowly and looked over her shoulder. The weather made everyone drowsy. "What?"

"Turn!" Tanden yelled. He was already plunging his paddle into the water, frantically trying to turn the boat.

Realization flashed across Jale's face. She began to paddle as fast as she could.

The shouting roused Kuiavadox. He sat up, instantly saw what was happening and got to his feet. Tanden was too busy fighting the current to wonder why he would stand, risking the balance of the boat.

Kuiavadox climbed over the packs in the middle of the boat. Jale passed off her paddle as soon as he reached her. For a moment it seemed like the switch wasn't doing anything, but Kuiavadox could reach further and pull faster. The boat spun, although they were still being pulled downriver.

Then, with a crunch, they slammed into a rock. Tanden nearly lost hold of his paddle as he grabbed the side of the boat. At the front, Kuiavadox was pulling on Jale so hard he was almost picking her up. Through the hazy rain, Tanden watched Jale jump out of the boat. She landed on something he couldn't see. Another rock.

Kuiavadox shouted, too quickly for Tanden to pick out any of his words, as he jammed his paddle between the rock and boat. He was trying to brace them, Tanden thought, just long enough for him to climb to the front of the boat.

He stood, but misstepped. The boat tilted just far enough that water flowed into it with unstoppable force.

Tanden met Kuiavadox's gaze. They both knew what was about to happen, but only one of them had a rock to jump to. "Go." Tanden said in Teltish.

Kuiavadox understood, there wasn't time for anything else. He jumped.

Tanden saw Jale grab him and pull him onto her rock, just before the boat cracked in half.

He fell into the water and struggled to keep his head above the surface.

Then, suddenly, he was falling through the air.