Half Magic | Book 2

Seven: To Cross a Desert

"Wren," Schula whispered.

"I see it," I said.

The red star on his eye patch. It had to be the star we were following, the coincidence was just too much to be anything else.

The guide, Kai, was already marching through the front doorway into the hot sun.

Schula stood up just a heartbeat before I did, and we both hurried to the door. Kai wasn't far into the street thanks to the sluggish mob doing their morning shopping, and we easily caught up to him.

"Wait!" I shouted. "Kai!"

His shoulders stiffened and he turned his head, a frown creasing his face.

"Do I know you?" he grumbled.

Up close, he was short for a human man. His shaggy brown hair looked like he had cut it himself and the scar on his nose that I had seen before looked like he had gotten it a long time ago.

"No, but my friend and I overheard your situation just now. We want to hire you to take us across the desert. Tonight." I held my breath, waiting for his reply.

He narrowed his eye and looked us up and down. "If you heard what just happened, you'll have heard that I don't work for the guild anymore."

"We don't just want a guide, we want you," Schula said.

"Why me?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. We got several annoyed looks from the crowd having to shuffle around us in the street, but it didn't look like Kai cared.

"From what we heard, you're an experienced guide who knows the desert," I said. "And... we're hoping you'll be lenient of guiding some outsiders. There are three of us, and a bird."

He snorted. "A bird doesn't make that strange of a party, and the guild back there is plenty tolerant of outsiders. So again, why me?"

I bit my lip and looked at Schula. It was now or never, I just knew we had to have him guide us south.

"We want someone who won't be jumpy around someone who is... out of the ordinary around here," I said, and I pulled the hood away from the side of my head enough to show him one of my ears before quickly hiding it again.

His lips parted and his eyebrows shot up in shock. "What the hells?"

"I'm a half breed, just like you," I whispered. "And my friends are different too. But we mean no harm, we just want to cross the sands safely, and we want to find someone who won't be afraid of us the whole time. That will just get all of us killed."

He nodded slowly, eyeing Schula. "You haven't convinced me, but we can go somewhere to talk. I'm open to negotiation."

I beamed. "Wonderful, where would be a good place?"

He jerked his head down the street. "Follow me, we can get a private booth at the bar. You're buying."

I laughed.

"If it will open you up to guiding us? Sure," I answered.

Our destination wasn't far. We followed Kai to a wide building with lots of people inside. It was packed with nothing but locals, a good sign in my opinion.

The moment we entered, Kai flagged down an older man at the bar. "Taking a booth, send three of the usual."

The man nodded to Kai, and our guide lead us to a booth in the back with walls all around it save for the front, which had a curtain that could be drawn closed. There were several such booths in the bar, and I wondered what kind of business was usually conducted in them.