"Grain?" Jexa grunted while lifting a large box. We had all gathered in his little apartment to divide out food bundles from what they got in the forest. The crate in Jexa's hands was going to a family of nine.

"Yes, and likely quite a bit of it," I said.

"How do you know about it?" Dirk asked, his eyes settling on me sharply. He was salting the last of the meat they had caught. Apparently, they had found quite a few rabbits.

I froze, suddenly the excuse of hearing it at the market that I'd planned on using seemed weak in the face of an old rogue like Dirk.

"We heard some of that at the Gilded Swan, right Sly?" Bricker asked.

"Yes." I latched on to Bricker's words quickly. "And I've heard more since then. I want to find some of the grain and get it back into the hands of the people who need it. This morning I saw someone with bags of flour selling it for five times what it normally would go for."

Truth enough, at least about the price of flour. Dirk kept eye contact for another heartbeat, then let it go.

"Alright. Where do you want to start?" Jexa asked.

"Can we check the holdings of a couple families to start with? I have a few names I know have bought a huge excess of flour. I was hoping to . . . relieve them of some." I grinned.

"I like the way you think." Dirk winked. "They were probably going to sell it back at a higher price anyway come midwinter."

"Dirk! That's perfect. We should sell it at the market for what it should be going for. Or less actually, seeing how things are going right now. If anyone else wants to sell flour they'll have to match our prices or get no business." I made a mental note to tell Rorik, maybe he could plant a few more of these grain sellers around Unays.

"Woah now, slow down girl. We can't keep that up for long before we have a bought knife at our throats. Steal from nobles and sell it in an open market?" Jexa shook his head. "That's advertisin' ourselves."

"Davery'd have our skins if he knew we let you do something like this as soon as we lost him," Dirk added.

"We could give a portion of it to the army, have you heard Prince Mason set up a free camp for his soldiers with nowhere to go?" Grahm added. "He's a good one in my eyes."

"As good as a royal can get at least," Jexa scoffed.

I held my tongue.

"The crown should be feeding their own, and from their own coffers," Dirk added.

"The coffers low from war protecting this half of the continent?" Grahm snapped back.

"The coffers we fill with our last copper bits every season," Dirk was starting to raise his voice. "They say war's expensive, you'd think they'd find the budget to feed their own soldiers."

"Shut it," Jexa barked. "Are you really going to start blaming the king right now? The king and not the crack noggins he left us with?" Dirk backed down, but now without a frown, and Grahm just looked away for having argued at all. It was out of character for him. 

Bricker let out a long, loud sigh, drawing our attention.

"Sly, we'll deal with your idea tomorrow. I want to help, I do. I think it would be brilliant to skim the top off a few storehouses. But we have meat, nuts, fruits, whatever we could get our hands on gathered here. Trust me, I'm the one who had to haul our full sacks back each night and not get shanked for the pleasure. We need to deal with all this today." Bricker surprised the room with a moment of seriousness and logic, but it spurred them into action. 

"Right you are," Jexa said, putting his filled crate down and opening another. "Let's get back to work."

Bags were sorted, food was prepared, and instructions were given for the boxes by Dirk who had been scouting homes and procuring bags and boxes all week. I pitched in too. My spirits were high after a day spent giving food to the worst parts of Swamp and Foothills. A last-minute thought by Grahm had us take a good amount of food to temples, mainly Hearth's temple and the Temple of Rain and Harvest who would always feed the hungry if they could. Graham was a great trapper but even with that we didn't have as much meat as we would have liked to go around. Still, it was just barely autumn and several of the flourishing local mushrooms were abundant as well as some fruits several nuts and root vegetables, so we had a decent haul.

"Sly," Jexa was walking with me on our way back from the Temple of Bliss where we left a bag of apples. "What have you been up to these past couple of weeks? I know you've been up to something, we can tell."

Guilt settled in my gut. Jexa was practically family, they all were. But it wasn't time yet, especially not after Dirk made his feelings on the royals so plain earlier. What would they make of my situation?

"Not much, I've been listening around town. Didn't Bricker tell you?" I said innocently.

"Don't take me for a fool girl, why are you doing these things? Something is provoking you." Jexa could be very intimidating when he wanted to be. And when he didn't want to be. And when he was looking at you.

"Jexa I'm just working on the same issues Davery was," I began.

"No, none of that. This isn't Davery's style, this getting into the forest and trying to undercut the grain market. I was too worked up about the passes to the Royal Forest before, but I got to thinking, where did you get those?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," I mumbled after a while.

"DON'T PLAY WITH ME GIRL," Jexa boomed; he pinned her to the wall she was next to. "What mess have you gotten mixed up in?" His eyes were fierce, and no more excuses would do.

"Jexa, I swear I'm not at liberty to say. What I will tell you is I work for someone now. Someone Davery trusted." We stared at each other for a long time until people on the street began staring. "Are you going to let me go?"

Jexa eventually stood back, letting me step away from the wall. He stared at me with a hard mix of anger and worry, but there wasn't anything I could do about it right now. We finally walked on in silence. We were nearly back to his house, but before we entered and joined the others he stopped.

"If this person had Davery's trust, he has mine. But the second I think you are in danger, I will stop you by any means necessary." It was quiet, but I heard every word. Jexa never looked at me as he spoke, just stood there with me at his back. He went inside, leaving me with mixed feelings. I scratched my neck under my left ear where it had been itchy all day, thinking about Jexa's words. What was I mixed up in? Some days I wasn't sure anymore.

~

I handed Bricker another bag. He went back into the storehouse on the country estate it had taken us two hours to get to, and came out a few minutes later with a full bag of flour. His eyes were wide with the danger of it all, he wasn't as used to this as the rest of us. 

I was in the wagon from Panther house just far enough outside the grounds that I wouldn't be spotted but I was settling grain and flour under a pile of blankets where they couldn't be seen unless we were searched. This was our second night doing it, we scouted ahead to a few of the noble's holdings known to have excess stores right now, and found where the grain was. Bricker or Dirk would sneak in, fill their own bag by taking the top third from barrels or sacks in the storehouse, then bring it to the cart. I asked properly before using the cart from Panther, but wouldn't say what it was for. Panther by now was smart enough not to ask. I hadn't told anyone in the house who I was working with at the palace yet, not even Orchid.

Bricker was now running towards the cart again sooner than I would have expected, something was different from the other trips he had made. What? Was he yelling something? I watched for a minute from the bed of the cart, if I stood I could watch Bricker running through the trees.

 Running? 

I paled as I saw the man with a broadsword chasing him. Get-on-the-bench! That's what Bricker had been yelling. I leapt on the bench and took up the reins. Lucky for Bricker he was slightly faster than the man who was chasing him but he had also been working hard all night hauling grain and couldn't keep up this pace for long.

"Get them started! Walk, trot, anything!" Bricker was close now, but so was the large swordsman after him.

I had never driven horses for more than a trot through the city before, but I watched Panther do it a few times. I gently tugged the reins, the chestnut horse on the right snorted and gave me a look as though he knew I was an amateur. Steeling myself, I slapped the reins harder. Off we went horse, cart, and girl in a burst of hoofbeats.

Bricker altered his course to run into the side of the cart. He caught up and grabbed hold of the side of the bench, pulling himself up. The man behind him was now fading into the background as the wild cart sped away. Bricker made it onto the bench and took the reigns from me. Grateful as I was to give them up, when I tried then to scoot over on the bench I only succeeded in falling into the bed of the cart.

"Ouch!"

"Hold on!" Bricker called.

We were nearly back in town before the horses were calmed down to a canter and Bricker glanced down at me. Slowly, he started laughing. I caught the infectious feeling quickly and soon we were both laughing and gasping for breath.

Two nearly caught thieves with our cart of stolen flour.