[Agatha]

I toyed with the idea of headbutting Lady Anjelica on the nose. In the six months since she had arrived at Manticore Library, I'd have gladly killed her at least twice a day every day, but I had to restrain myself this time too. The Marines could hardly wait to dump me, and I could ill afford to be left on my own in this stinking town if I didn't want to sleep in the open.

All the inns and hostels of Tarasque were packed with out-of-work adventurers, and on top of that a couple of Awakening League Air Force airships on their way to Castle Vostok had landed in the aerodrome earlier that day to refuel, adding crews on leave to the mix. According to the hostel owner the Marines had asked for a room, if you wanted to get settled for the night, it was either paying an arm and a leg for the luxury hotels or getting comfortable on a park bench.

I hadn't heard the rest of the conversation, but later they said they had found a solution for me. It actually meant that they had managed to come up with a face-saving way of getting rid of me as they cuddled the spoiled brat in some fancy hotel, but it surely beat a park bench.

At least I hoped.

Now, looking at that dreamboat, I was beginning to think that overall, it could have been worse.

The dreamboat and the Marines stood up. I noticed there was some charity case with them. He looked like a cheap imitation of the dreamboat: shorter, lighter-skinned, with a mop of messy afros and puppy-dog eyes. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve again and wiped my fingers too on the cloak for good measure. Lady Anjelica saw it in the corner of her eye and shook her head.

The dreamboat nodded cursorily at us and left the table, heading for the door.

Damn.

***

[Tristan]

As a matter of fact, looking harder, I could see another girl beside the warrior princess. Surly-faced, scruffy, unashamedly wolfing down a bowl of stew meant for four with her bare hands. As we made eye contact, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve, but the leather of the Bridge transit suit only spread the grease and food debris wider on her cheeks.

The warrior princess was looking at her in dismay.

My heart sank.

As Gabriel said goodbye and slipped away the adventurers manhandled me bodily to the counter and dropped me in front of the girls, as though they were afraid I was going to cut and run.

I managed not to stumble and made a bow. "Ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you. Tristan Nelson, at your service."

The warrior princess looked down on me and wrinkled her beautiful nose but deigned to return the bow. "Lady Anjelica Ouyang. I guess I'm supposed to say that the pleasure is all mine."

Her voice was the very epitome of grace and nobility.

The hand of the gang leader dropped on my shoulder like a sledgehammer. I staggered. "Very well, um... What's your name again?"

"Tristan."

"Yeah, Tristan. Meet Agatha. She's your heroic deed."

The grumpy girl raised her eyebrows. "Dude, really couldn't you find anyone marginally more convincing?"

The gang leader snorted. "Agatha, the name of the game is staying undercover, and Tristan here is your best option. Stay out of trouble. See you here tomorrow in the late morning." He winked elaborately at me. "Don't blow this, champ. There's the mother of all reference letters waiting for you."

***

Tarasque isn't exactly a fancy town, but it boasts an aerodrome and a railway station that can get you to a lot of interesting places, if you're not too bothered about your life expectancy: two days of travel heading west and you get to Gemini Bridge, and through it to Korova, the big town near Manticore Library; less than half a day of travel heading northeast and you get to Vulcan Bridge, the last surviving Demon Bridge, and through it to Castle Vostok (not that you'd really want to go to a monster-infested place nicknamed Screaming Hell, by the way); and finally, only four days of travel heading south, and you reach Chantico Bridge, beyond which you find Stata Mater, the capital city of the Mariana Republic.

All places where the Awakening League and the United Kingdom of Chimera and Tiangong fight against each other (with the notable exception of Castle Vostok, where they grudgingly fight side by side against the monsters), so a steady stream of adventurers and soldiers of fortune passes through Tarasque, and people like my proud father make a living ripping them off during their stay.

A steam locomotive was whistling angrily in the distance as Agatha and I were walking down Desdinova Avenue. It was the night train from Stata Mater to Orochi via Tarasque, the one my brother was going to board in minutes.

The feast of Karolina the Wise was in full swing. The patroness of Tarasque was a scientist from the end of the Storm Ages who had reportedly freed Tarasque from the plague or the vampires or something. Not that the precise reason why everybody was drinking and dancing mattered a whole lot, by the way.

The streets were crowded with people spilling out of restaurants and into pubs and dancing halls. A lot of them were dressed up to the nines, many others were in black leather and metal studs, a handful in League uniforms, and quite a few in frightfully expensive outfits that betrayed them as offspring of local merchant families. Coaches full of revelers were going up and down the street, swerving to avoid groups of tipsy off-duty tough guys wandering across the road.

Desdinova Boulevard was the heart of the party on the feast of Karolina the Wise, and Agatha, with her ominous scowl, stuck up like a sore thumb.

"First time in Tarasque?" I asked, just to break the ice. We had already walked a few hundred yards from the pub, and all Agatha had said so far had been muttered curses aimed at the people she had knocked into.

"Yeah." Not quite a growl, but close enough.

"It's been a stroke of luck you bumped into my dad and he referred you to the Shamrock Inn."

She shrugged. "The Marines were just looking for a place to dump me while they cuddled the spoiled brat."

"The Marines?" Gabriel was right, then. And they were in Bridge transit suits. I was beginning to get a sense of what was going on.

They had to be from Manticore Library.

She bit her tongue. "Never mind."

We walked on in silence for some more time. The crowd was thinning out. In a few more hundreds of yards, Desdinova Boulevard would come to an end in Apollo Market Square, which would begin to come alive for the Saturday market in a few hours.

I took a deep breath and decided to take the plunge. "You are Manticore Library survivors, aren't you? Straight from the Library through Gemini Bridge, without even stripping your Bridge suits off?"

She glared at me. "And so what if I am?"

"You and your gorgeous friend are Order of Remembrance boarding school students, and the tough guys are actually Royal Marines. Am I right?"

"You're not as dumb as you look in the end."

I opened my mouth to speak, but a series of shots rang out in the distance, followed by screams.

***

[Agatha]

The sound of gunfire was ringing out in the boulevard. I was quite sure it was gunfire. I had been hearing a lot of it in the last hours.

A dozen coaches were speeding down the boulevard, with horses whinnying and yellow petrol lights bouncing as they swerved to avoid bunches of pedestrians too stupid or too plastered to get out of the way. The people around us were exchanging uneasy looks and scattering quickly in the side alleys.

A coach skidded to a halt a few yards from us and two tough guys in black leather and studs jumped down, followed by the loud curses of the driver. Apparently, they had run out of money just short of the coach fare. The coach took off, horses neighing angrily.

"What's going on?" I asked them.

More gunfire. More screams. More coaches flashing past us. "Some psycho started a gunfight at the Shamrock Inn."

"You said the Shamrock Inn?" The charity case, puppy-dog eyes wide in astonishment. I felt the urge to slap him.

"Yes," the other tough guy nodded. "A buddy of ours said that a team of League Army stormtroopers broke in asking for a couple of runaway girls and some swashbucklers. He even heard they're bringing in Abominations."

"Must've heard wrong," the first one snorted. "I mean, what can be so special about two brats and a gang of adventurers?"

"Our buddy said one of the girls was quite a looker, but that's not enough to deploy Abominations." The guy chuckled and shook his head. "I was about to crack this joke, but our buddy turned tail before I could."

"It was a good joke," puppy-dog eyes said, nodding approvingly.

I rolled my eyes.

A crowd of scared partygoers was closing in on us, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the Shamrock Inn.

A sudden, dull roar. This too was even too familiar to me: a hand grenade.

"Man, we better be on our way." And with that the tough guys cut and run.

"They're out to get us," puppy-dog eyes stammered.

"They're out to get me," I pointed out. Now the fastest among the fugitives were already running past us. "But I guess we're pretty safe for now. They're looking for two girls and some adventurers. We don't fit the bill."

I turned around, but he grabbed me by the wrist.

"What the hell, dude," I snorted.

"I swore to keep you safe until tomorrow."

"Wake up, sleeping beauty. The Marines are probably dead now. Nobody will write that reference letter, whatever you need it for."

"To get inducted in the King's Envoy Corps. Like my brother." He hesitated. "I'll keep my word anyway. Besides, you don't have a lot of choices. You're a stranger in a strange land and I'm in my hometown. You're better off staying with me."

He had a point. "So, what's the plan, genius?"

"We can't go to my dad's hostel if the League stormtroopers are canvassing the town. We'll be safer at the aerodrome."

I clapped my hands slowly. "Hell of a plan, dude. The aerodrome is bustling with League troops. Two League airships have just landed, in case you didn't notice."

"Exactly. That's the last place the League will search. We sneak in, we sit tight, and we wait for the League airships to leave and a Kingdom airship to land. That place is a maze, nobody will notice us."

I nodded. "You know what, it might even work. There's just the trivial matter of slipping into a military facility."

He winked. "Leave that to me. I've got inside contacts. Now listen carefully."

***

[Tristan]

I had to insist, but in the end Agatha relented. I was the one supposed to perform heroic deeds, she was my damsel in distress. Besides, bashing heads is a man's work, and I happened to be one, Agatha's sarcastic expression notwithstanding.

I found a dark side alley close to a broken street lamp on Desdinova Boulevard and hid in the darkness right around the corner as Agatha scanned the fleeing crowd for the right subject: preferably alone, preferably drunk, more or less our build. Gunshots were still echoing in the distance, but almost drowned by the screams of people running for cover and the noise of horses and coaches.

The crowd was thinning out fast. If we didn't find our target in a hurry my plan was going to fail before even getting started.

"Just around the corner, sir," I heard Agatha say urgently. I clenched my teeth. "Please help me."

"What's around the corner?" Heavily slurred speech. Drunk enough.

Showtime.

"My friend is hurt! Please, sir! Help me!"

"All right, sweetie."

They turned the corner.

I jumped out of the shadows.

The guy was exactly what we were looking for. As tall as Agatha and me, slim build. His uniform would fit either of us. Utterly drunk, so not much in the way of a response to expect.

"What the..."

I didn't let him finish the sentence.

I grabbed him by the lapels of his Awakening League Air Force uniform and headbutted him on the forehead as hard as I could. A good, precise, strong blow.

My head exploded with pain.

I staggered backwards.

He grabbed me by the jacket and headbutted me.

Lights out.

***

[Agatha]

I slapped puppy-dog eyes until he opened his puppy-dog eyes. There was a huge purple bruise swelling quickly up above his left eye. I was kneeling beside him, holding him by the front of his shirt. The Awakening League airman was lying a few feet away, an egg-sized bump on the back of his head, snoring away.

His breath was forming a small cloud of alcohol-scented fog.

I slapped Tristan some more just to be on the safe side.

"All right, all right!" He sat up. Blinked a couple of times and shook his head. "Sorry. Didn't see that coming."

"Not the hero I need, but the hero I deserve, I guess." I slapped him one last time and grinned at his ashamed expression. "Just count your lucky stars there was a loose cobblestone in this alley." I helped him on his feet, then held him up as he staggered. "Now how about we go ahead with the plan?"

He nodded, touched the bruise above his eye and winced. "I, um..."

I shook my head. "Dude, I know I suck at playing the damsel in distress, but as a manly man I daresay you're even worse."

***

NEXT UP: Tristan begins to understand what's going on with Agatha as they run through the night to get the hell out of Dodge (sorry, Tarasque)